How long?

Dear Friends

It is easy to look around us and see the world crumbling—war, fear, panic are in news broadcasts. And we cry out with the psalmist,

How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?

— Psalm 12 (13)

How long? How long must we endure such pain? How long must our fellow human beings suffer?

The Church has a message for you and she has a message for me: that the infinite God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, identifies not with the rich the powerful, the privileged but with the poor, the powerless and the least. And he comes into the world and proves it by suffering alongside them. He takes on the most hideous and barbaric torture our perverted world could create, from where we get the word excruciating, and ascends the Cross in complete freedom while forgiving those—that is, forgiving us!—who are doing it to him: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” (Luke 23:24)

And the psalm turns back on myself. No longer can I place this on God: he has acted, he has shown me the way; I must place this on myself.

How long? How long will I forget my neighbour?
How long will I hide my face from those in need?

And as Christ has taught me, not only through words but by his very death, so I should act. And for those who suffer I suffer alongside them, and for those who are naked, or hungry, or imprisoned I meet their needs. For those who face injustice I stand alongside them while forgiving those who serve injustice on me.

The Christian life is a hard one, a challenging one, from a worldly perspective even an impossible one. But we have come to believe what the world does not believe, that beyond the Cross—beyond suffering, death and the grave—there is life. Abundant life. An overflowing of life. Christ’s Resurrection means for you, means for me, means for everyone, that life and love reign.

My dear brothers and sisters, we may not be able to help everyone but we can make a start, we can serve someone and take on their sufferings even on a small level. And as we grow in Faith we may be able to take on more. What can you do this week—today!—to make a change for the good in your life and the lives of those around you? And then we can place the emphasis on God acting through me.

How long? How long will I forget my neighbour?
How long will I hide my face from those in need?


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Sermon

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.

We have, my brothers and sisters in Christ, completed the first week of the Great Fast. These sacred forty days which the Church sets before us is for our benefit and growing in faith. We give up eating meat, give up eating flesh. What is more significant here is not the meat we buy in the butcher’s or supermarket but the flesh of our neighbour. Each time we look down on him as he stumbles we break the Fast, each time we gossip about another we dishonour ourselves and descend into further sin, each time our actions cause another to sin we will answer for that sin, whether in confession or on the dread Last Day.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, have you, have I, even after a week, started the Fast? Have we brought ourselves before the Lord in prayer? Have we been charitable? Or have we become irritable and angry because we have no milk in our tea and coffee? Would our neighbours, our friends, our colleagues, our fellow students, notice a change in us for the better? Are we becoming more prayerful, more peaceful, more loving? Have we, even after a week, started the Fast?

Read the Sermon on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, Have we started the Fast?
Archive of Past Sermons.


Services this week

Friday 18th March
Prayers of the Salutations followed by a discussion on the book of Exodus, 8 pm
Online only

Saturday 19th March
Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh

Sunday 20th March
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]