Dear Friends
What Christians believe is truly beyond human logic. We claim a man died and was completely dead—well beyond the possibility of resuscitation. He was tortured to death in one of the most vile and barbaric ways our race has ever developed and yet arose. And his rising was not a mere restoration to a worldly life but a transformation to a resurrected life, a living life, a life without end. He appeared as himself but could travel vast distances in no time, could pass through locked doors, could vanish from before them.
And our world is rightly skeptical: “How can this be?” they ask us, “You speak as mad men.” Because if this is true, if Christ is risen, then everything is different, everything changes, everything is renewed.
God, in his love for you and his love for me, has once again brought us to the precipice of the Great Fast and he challenges us to make this journey together with him—to the Holy City, to Golgotha, to the Cross, to the tomb, to Hades and to the Resurrection. He calls us, each one of us, “Journey with me, take up your own cross and follow me.” And it is hard, and it is challenging. And the world around us cannot understand the Resurrection so does not see the Resurrection: the world sees only the Cross, only death, only the tomb. But as many as follow anyway, despite the misunderstanding of the world, to them comes the abundance of life.
We have the possibility, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, to be the living witnesses of the Resurrection. And the world would not be able to hide the contradiction, hide the truth—the Resurrection of our Lord is not argued but proclaimed. Come and live this truth and make the Lord’s journey to the Cross your own journey, the Lord’s descent into Hades your descent and, therefore, the Lord’s Resurrection your own so that even death cannot hold you because you are alive in Christ.
Live the Resurrection! Come and See!
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
When, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, did the younger son sin? Was it when he asked for his inheritance? No. Nor was it when he left his Father’s house. It was when he was in a “far country,” away from his Father and away from his home, that “he squandered his property in loose living.” In staying close to the Father, close to his home, close to his rightful place the son had complete freedom and remains righteous.
The elder son, in contrast, is in a much worse spiritual state. Being near the Father, being near his home, being near his rightful place, he refused to accept the repentance of his brother. His brother returned, as if from the dead, and he did not want to receive him nor rejoice he is again alive.
And I look, and I consider my life. And I want to say I stay as close to the Father as I can, and whenever I wander I come back to myself and return to the Father’s house and I rejoice when others do the same. But this is a lie. For at least the prodigal went to a far country to sin; I, on the other hand, have brought sin into the Father’s house. And when sinners return to him, when they have remembered his house and repented, I am scandalised because their honest, deep and heartfelt repentance stands in contrast with my lacklustre attempts. I may be physically beside the Father’s house—refusing to enter with my fellow sinners—but my heart is with the swine in a foreign land.
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Read last Sunday’s Sermon, With swine in a foreign land.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 17th February
Discussion on the Book of Numbers, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 18th February
Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Sunday 19th February
Divine Liturgy, 9.30 am
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Online session is via Google Meet: please get in contact for the details.
Please join us: all are welcome, come and see.
Attending Church
We meet at St Francis’ Hall, Nightingale Avenue, Eastleigh, SO50 9JA. Come and See.
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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.
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With love in Christ
Fr Alexander
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