Dear Friends
War has descended. The enemy is before us and we must fight. But are we fighting for truth or lies, for right or wrong, for good or evil? And who is the enemy we are fighting?
The enemy has tricked us: all too easily we believe it is a fellow human being whom we fight against. And he has been tricking us from the beginning when the Lord called out to Cain,
Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.
— Genesis 4:6–7
Sin here is personified: it is not, in this text, something which we commit—which we have control over—rather it is something which takes hold of us, catches us out and leads us away from God: it is sin who has control over us if we allow it. It is sin who is the greatest enemy to each of us and against whom we must battle.
This Sunday we give up eating meat until Pascha, not that eating meat is sinful but by learning to control what goes into the body we learn to control what comes out. Yet more important than giving up eating meat, we give up eating the flesh of our neighbour through gossip, backbiting and slander, we give up judging others and looking down on them, we give up sin’s control over us.
Let this Lent be the time when we identify our true enemy and make war: stand against it and say, “I will not allow it to take hold of me.”
And we pray. We pray particularly for our friends, our brothers and sisters, in Ukraine. We pray for all without exception and without differentiation—for those who hate us and those who love us—and ask God’s mercy to descend on them all. And we pray for peace: no mere cease-fire and a halting of hostilities but the peace of God to permeate the land and to seep into the hearts of all.
May the Lord have mercy.
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
A key phrase in today’s Gospel, my brothers and sisters, is when the Lord says of the prodigal, “But when he came to himself.” He was living in the lowest state manageable, with pigs, unclean according to the Law of Moses; and he was not himself. He had left the abundance of the Father’s house and, like Adam before him, thought he could act alone: Adam did this by eating the fruit, the one action which was not a glorification of God but an act of rebellion, and the younger son by departing the Father’s house.
I, on the other hand, do my best to make a comfortable life in the pigsty. I set to work to create a home in the sty, perform work in the sty, have family and friends in the sty. I do all I can to make the best of the situation in which I find myself. And I surround myself with so many distractions I have even forgotten the Father’s house: I see myself as a citizen of the sty rather than a son and heir of our Father’s house, the Kingdom of God. I am not myself, I have a feeling that something is not right, yet the cares of this life hold me back.
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Read last Sunday’s sermon, Come to yourself!
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 25th February
Discussion on the book of Exodus, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 26th February
Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Sunday 27th February
Divine Liturgy, 9.30 am
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Online session is via Google Meet: please get in contact for the details.
As part of our measures against Covid-19, we strongly request all who attend our services to take a lateral flow test prior to attending.
Please join us: all are welcome, come and see.
Attending Church
We will be meeting at St Francis’ Hall, Nightingale Avenue, Eastleigh, SO50 9JA. We request you wear a mask unless exempt. Come and See.
Can I help you?
I am here for you, you need only ask. Is there a way I can support your life of faith? Get in touch.
Can you help the mission?
Yes, absolutely. Offer yourselves to the Lord: pray! Make available to him all your talents and ask him how he would like you to use them — listen for his reply.
Your prayers!
With love in Christ
Fr Alexander
[email protected]