Please note: there will be no services 22nd–23rd July and 29th–30th July.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
Dear Friends
I want the Church to be there for me. I want to be able to go to services when I want, to receive the Mysteries at a time convenient to me. And when I want my house blessed, or weddings and baptisms, or house visits, I know where to call so that I receive my fill, my wants, my satisfaction. I want the Church to be there for me.
Such a view as this can be easy to have. “We have seen the True Light,” we sing at the Divine Liturgy,
we have received the heavenly Spirit; we have found the True Faith; worshipping the undivided Trinity; for the Trinity has saved us.
We are excited and we want more. Yet we can become as an addict looking for his next hit, his next fix, and we will be, ultimately, disappointed. It can’t continue, we cannot keep getting the same high as before so we start to blame—blame God, blame our priest, blame other people at Church—for not giving us the feelings we once felt. We blame everyone and anyone except ourselves.
This happens because we have become consumers in our modern age. We make choices on where to shop, where to eat, where to live, where to work, where to seek entertainment and those service providers had better continue to earn our custom. I am the one with money, I am the centre, I am the boss, and I will choose where I spend my wealth, and I try to treat God with the same attitude: “Entertain me, God, and I will deign to go to your Church.” Because I am not seeking to change myself, rather I seek amusement, leisure and distraction from my stressful life—I want a “spiritual” experience to complement other aspects of my way of living.
And God is saying to me, “You have received much, what are you going to do about it?” Because it is not enough to merely receive, I must be changed by what I receive else it will lead to my condemnation. I must learn to repent, I must learn to live a life of gratitude, I must serve others, I must make the services my own that the content of the Liturgy may continue throughout my life and not only on Sundays. And if I do these things, if I fulfil my calling as a Christian, if I see that the Church is not here to serve me but I am here to serve the Church, then I may become a vessel of the Holy Spirit.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us place ourselves at the service of God’s Church—serving God and serving each other in love—that we may be transformed and changed into the human persons we were called to be.
Come and see!
We serve a meal following the Liturgy on Sundays. All are welcome.
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
The Lord says, elsewhere from today’s Gospel reading, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign,” (Matthew 12:39; also Matthew 16:4, Mark 8:12, Luke 11:29) and I must judge myself according to these words: am I part of the evil and adulterous generation? “Show me a manifestation of your power, O Lord,” I pray with myself, “and then I will believe. … Let me see the Heavens opened, the lame walk, the blind see and then I will be a Christian. … Let me hear your voice and then I will repent truly, demonstrate your power to me and I will pray unceasingly.” Truly, it is as the Lord tells us, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.”
The demons possessing the two in today’s reading had done great evil yet they were not willing to do anything, to change, nor did they want to face judgement. “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?” they ask their Creator, “Have you come here to torment us before the time?” They wanted to delay their judgement, face the consequences of their actions another day. And I must face the reality of my situation: my prevarication and my dithering—seeking a sign as a prerequisite of repentance—place me as a son of the devil (see John 8:44) rather than a son of God. I act according to the example of these demons, delaying and excusing, rather than the example of Christ.
And I start to realise I have placed the cart before the horse, I seek miracles before I seek to change myself. Yet if I start, here and now, my life of repentance, if I start, here and now, my life of Faithfulness then I will start to recognise signs and miracles around me. If I order my life according to the witness of the saints then I will be as the sons of God.
…
Read last Sunday’s Sermon, Seeking a Sign.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 14th July
Discussion on the Divine Liturgy, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 15th July
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Sunday 16th July
Matins & Divine Liturgy, 9 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]