For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function,
so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching;
he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Romans 12:4–8

The Church of God is a living body and we, each of us, you and me, have our place in it.

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

For by one Spirit we were all baptised into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
For in fact the body is not one member but many.
If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?
But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.
And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body.

First Corinthians 12:12–20

For we are—all together, united—a body. Each of us has talents, each of us has a role, each of us has a purpose. And as a finger cannot detach itself from the body for a period of time and expect to stay alive, so too I cannot detach myself from you: I need to accept that I am not independent—I need you so that I can be me.

And so I must change, I must repent. I must see the Church of God as what brings me to life and so I must be joined to it as deeply as I can: in this way, I may be truly alive. And by being truly alive I may become truly as the human being I was created to be, in the image and after the likeness of God—united to him in his death through baptism that I may rise with him in his Resurrection and ever eat the living Bread he promises.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the Church invites us to life—and every time we unite ourselves to the Church we catch a breath, a taste, of life. Will we receive this as merely enough for us—as a bit of fuel to keep us going through this worldly life—or will we challenge ourselves to seek this life more fully, so that we may become partakers of immortality even here and now? Will we be a true community, members of one another, family, sharing in one another’s joys and pains? Or will we be strangers to one another, fingers detached from the body?

Will we be the Church of the living God?

Come! Let us deepen our love for God through our love for one another, let us love one another that with one accord we may confess Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity, one in essence and undivided.

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.

“Ours is an esoteric faith,” I lie to myself, “a mystical faith, a faith of my mind and intellect.” And what matters to me is the actions of my mind. I give time to pray, to exercise my mental faculties, and to thoughts on spiritual topics. I see a man suffering and I send “positive thoughts,” I see a people suffering and I “say a prayer.” “What more can I do?” I ask myself as I get on with my safe life away from the trauma of the world.

And the words of the Apostle James convict me.

“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?
If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:14–17)

But this is not only the words of one apostle, this is the teaching of the New Testament. Today, in part of his Sermon on the Plain in Luke’s Gospel (6:20–49) the Lord tells us, “As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.” And this Golden Rule is found in many religions and philosophical systems, so the Lord goes on to describe exactly how his disciples—how you and me!—are to apply it. Christianity does not mean, “Love those who love you, do good to those who do good to you, lend to those who will repay,” which would be the Golden Rule for life according to the standards in this world—Christ’s disciples are called to, “love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.”
…

Read last Sunday’s Sermon, Life for death.
Archive of Past Sermons.

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Services this week

Friday 6th October
Discussion on the Divine Liturgy, 8 pm
Online only

Saturday 7th October
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh

Sunday 8th 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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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 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
[email protected]