Dear Friends
Verily, Adam sat opposite paradise bewailing his nakedness and crying,
Vespers, Sunday of the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise
“Woe is me, the robbed one,
who hearkened to the evil deception,
and was driven away from glory.
Woe is me, who through simplicity of heart became naked,
and am now perplexed.
Wherefore, O paradise, I shall no more attain thy bliss,
nor behold my Lord, my God, and my Creator;
for I shall return to the earth from which I was taken,
and I shall cry to Thee,
O compassionate One, have mercy upon me who am fallen.”
I sit outside Paradise and bewail my loss, for I too have fallen from her courts, I too, am no longer able to live in her protection, I am grieved and I lament. For every sin I commit casts me out again from the Garden of delight into the fallen world.
Yet the Lord does not leave me in my fallen state. He invites me to rise from my wailing and journey with him to the Holy City. And once there to witness the defeat evil, the defeat of the world, the defeat of death. To witness these and be part of these—not only that Christ arose two thousand years ago but that Christ is risen here and now.
But to make this my own, to be a part of this, to live the Resurrection not as a distant memory but a living reality, the Church invites me to ask forgiveness. Not only to forgive but to ask for forgiveness. Because to make the Resurrection my own I must start to accept that my sin affects you, my evil adds to the evil in the world and it multiplies on at exponential rates, my failings have a negative impact on us.
On Sunday, immediately after the Liturgy, we will serve the first service of the Great Fast, Vespers. And at its end, as we start out on our journey to Pascha, we will each be invited to forgive and to ask for forgiveness. To accept the wrongs we have committed as a stumbling block to our neighbours and our sins as coming between each one of us.
And in naming them, in accepting them, we are empowered to let them go and be free, no longer enslaved to sin and death but free in the Lord.
For all my wrongs, offenses, sins, evils, committed against God and against you, whether by thought, word or deed, by my actions or by my inactions, I ask forgiveness: forgive me a sinner.
I wish you a good contest as we enter more fully our preparations to meet the Lord’s Pascha: Christ is risen!
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Note, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Lord does not command us to be successful: he does not say, “feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty so they are full, make the stranger as one who is at home, clothe the naked so they may never be exposed, heal the sick and free the prisoners.” The Lord is not interested in our results, rather he desires that we remain faithful.
And so easily I turn this around. Despite the clear words of the Lord, I want results, I want efficiency, I want progress. I give money to a charity and expect good outcomes, I look down on all the needs before me and I choose whom I deign to help and I rile against God that he does not intervene as I see fit. The one dying can be expended for the sake of one who can live, the young prioritised over the elderly, the able over the disabled—all for the sake of progress, efficiency, results. “Lord, Lord,” I pray with myself, “have I not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?” And finally, on the Last Day, he would reply to me, “I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:22–23)
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Read last Sunday’s Sermon, Faithfulness, not results.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 24th February
Discussion on the Book of Numbers, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 25th February
Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Sunday 26th 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.
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 community?
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]