Dear Friends
Central to our lives as Christians is the Resurrection of Christ. This is not part of the Gospel, this is the Gospel. Christ is risen and has defeated his enemies, Christ is risen and we are released from our unjust slavery to sin, Christ is risen and we are all invited to new life.
Yet for me in my life I remain unmoved. I have warped the Gospel into moralism—from the power of “Christ is risen and you are released from slavery” the gospel by which I live is “be nice to other people because God is nice.” And in this distorted gospel I have set the bar so low that even I can get over easily—”I don’t steal,” I convince myself, “I don’t murder, I don’t harm others: I’m a good person, a moral person, a person who must be accepted by Christ on the Last Day.”
And the Last Day will come, and I will stand before the Lord and say to him,
Lord, Lord, have I not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?
And he will look at me in complete love and reply,
I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!
see Matthew 7:22–23
Because, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, without the Resurrection our Faith does not make sense, without the Resurrection we will still ultimately die, without the Resurrection we are still held captive by sin. And my moralism—whatever the good I might do in my life—does not stand up in comparison.
And so, if I want to be more than a Christian in name and become a Christian in deed, if I want to be accepted by the Lord, I must change, I must repent. I must live the Resurrection as a reality in my life. I must live not as someone afraid to break my “moral code” but as someone set free from captivity, newly alive so that even death cannot hold me, that my grave will only be temporary. And this life which I have been called to live—being truly alive!—can change me into the likeness of God.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, our world, our society, our town, our region, is tired of moralism—of being told what to do, what to think, what to say. And if our faith is moralism it will rightly be rejected. But if our Faith is Freedom, if our Faith is Joy, if our Faith is the proclamation of the Resurrection of Christ that we may have Life then this is the Faith which can change me, change you and change our world. If you and I, together, live the Resurrection as a reality we have the Word of Life which will change the world.
Let us live the Resurrection!
Let us be true Christians!
Let us be joined to Christ through his Church!
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
I want to think of myself as having found Christ and his Church. I have searched for Christ, I have found him, I have worked hard to deepen my understanding of him, to have a relationship with him. I get myself out of bed and get myself to Church; and I may rejoice at my accomplishments.
But I am deluding myself. We see in today’s Gospel the truth. Simon, who was to be given the name Peter, had nothing to do with Christ stepping into his boat: it was not Simon who found Christ but Christ who found Simon. It was Christ who initiated going out into the deep and by Christ was a great catch found.
And then, when in my life I receive a blessing from the Lord, I think to myself, “it’s what I deserve, it’s the result of my work.” But this was not true for the Apostle. His blessing was to catch a great shoal of fish; he had toiled all the night but responded with obedience to the Word of God, yet his response to the blessing was to fall down at Jesus’ knees and say, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Simon could recognise in himself not one deserving the blessings of God but a sinner. And in this self-recognition, the Lord was able to receive him as a disciple, “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men.”
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Read last Sunday’s Sermon, Christ has found me.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 29th September
Discussion on the Divine Liturgy, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 30th September
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Sunday 1st October
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.
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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 parish?
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
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