Dear Friends
Our world is trying to atomise us—to separate us from one another. And this is done so that we can find what truly makes us “us.” “Find yourself,” we are told, “Discover your true self.” There is something within, something internal, which gives us identity and meaning. To be myself, in modern society’s understanding, I only need myself.
But such a mode of thinking is tearing each of us apart. It is folly to try to be myself in a way independent from others because what makes me “me” is you. My identity comes from my interactions with others and my relationships with others. If I try to be “me” in a closed room, isolated from those with whom I relate, the isolation would drive me crazy: I would become anything but “me.”
Moreso, we need to grow the number of our relationships—just a small handful could lead us open to immense pain and sadness should that relationship break down. Yes, we may have only one spouse, we may have a limited number of relatives by blood, but we can grow our friends. Family and friendship is bound together through ritual—something which may happen at every Christmas gathering, or whenever you meet with old friends, songs sung, stories retold, repeated actions. The rituals by themselves are not the totality of the family, or of the friendship, but are an important part in reaffirming the bond.
As friends, as a Christian family, you and I are offered a ritual together—something which confirms and strengthens our bond and gives us each identity. You and I may gather together and take bread and wine and offer them to the Lord; he, in turn, gives them back to us that we may be united together more strongly than any mere human ritual could: and in this moment the Liturgy gives us identity and meaning: we become our true selves.
And in our world where so many are seeking identity and meaning we offer the Liturgy, and when you or I are struggling we offer the Liturgy, and when we want to find our true selves we offer the Liturgy. Because in the Liturgy I am able to truly live the mystery of my self.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us gather together and offer our Christian ritual, the Liturgy, that we be united to one another and, thereby, discover our true selves: not seeking in vain a self from within but by relating to others. Let us share this mystery that all the more may come to the Lord and find meaning in this broken world which leads only to death, let us bring as many as would believe to Life.
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Regularly I stand before the Lord and I ask him, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” I know the answer but I want to justify my inaction. It is as if I am saying to him, “What’s the minimum I have to do? I have done enough already.” Because I lie to myself: I convince myself I am a virtuous person, an upstanding person, a person already expert in the ways of God and his Law: surely I have done enough.
And the Lord looks upon me with compassion. He knows my half-heartedness, my lukewarmness (see Revelation 3:16), yet calls me to answer my own question and I know I must reply, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.” So that loving God is not something I do, it should be something I am; every action should be an expression of my love for God. But this is expressed in my love for my neighbour, who should be to me as my brother. “If someone says,” the Beloved Disciple tells us,
“‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (First John 4:20)
But to make my point I tell the Lord, “And who is my neighbour?” “Who is as virtuous as I am,” I tell Christ, “who knows the Law of God as much as I do?” So the Lord describes to me my fall. “A man,” the Lord is describing me, “was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.” I, like the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32), have left the glory of God, left the Father’s House, left the heavenly Jerusalem, and am going down, becoming more sinful as I descend. And having reached a certain place where I ignore calls to turn around and return to Life, my sin catches up with me and I am stripped of much of what makes me a human being. Yet, even in this state the Lord does not abandon me yet acts in a way I do not expect.
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Read last Sunday’s Sermon, At the threshold of the inn.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 17th November
Discussion on the Divine Liturgy, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 18th November
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Sunday 19th November
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 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]