Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord
Beautiful news — our Father in Christ, Metropolitan Silouan, will visit our community Saturday 2nd to Sunday 3rd December. There will be our usual weekend services.
Saturday, Vespers, 6.30 pm.
Sunday, Matins and Liturgy, 9 am.
It would be a great joy to him to have as many people present to welcome him and talk with him.
Dear Friends
Why go to Church? To gain favour, to earn “grace points,” to get God to do what I want him to do? “I go to Church,” I proclaim to God, “now get me that job, that grade, that spouse: I have earned them all.” And I have learned nothing of the Gospel and remain a stranger to the Lord.
Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it.
Exodus 30:7–8
And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the Lᴏʀᴅ throughout your generations.
And this incense is now offered, not at the Altar of Incense before the Ark of the Covenant, but at the place where we gather and Christ himself is the High Priest, the one one who offers, and is himself the offering. What is more, the priest takes this incense offering and brings it out to purify the space of our Church and to purify us. The priest offers the incense at the Throne of God and then brings that offering to all of us. We are, in a very literal sense, being fumigated, where the sin within us is being put to death.
And every Vespers, and every Matins, we do this. Incense is brought out to purify us and to cleanse us. So the services themselves are not merely nice extras to have alongside the Liturgy, they are offered to us for our salvation.
So I must learn a different point of view, I must change, I must repent. I must see the services offered not as me trying to conform God to my will: rather, they cleanse me and purify me, of which I am in constant need, so that I may,
Let my prayer be se forth before [God] as incense,
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.
Because my prayer, which is so weak, when it is joined together with the prayers of the Church becomes strong. And as a sign of this, as my fidelity to God increases, so the Lord will offer my true faith and will,
Incline not my heart to evil words,
— Psalm 140:2, 4 Lxx
To make excuses in sins
With men who work lawlessness;
And I will not join with their choice ones.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the services of the Church are not to change God, they are to change us. To cleanse us, to wash us, to purify us, to bring us more into the likeness of God through the ritual participation in his death and Resurrection that we may be brought to Life. Let us live this reality, let us participate in this reality, let us be joined to this reality. For here we find true Life, true Love, true meaning, true joy.
Come and see!
We serve a meal following the Liturgy on Sundays. All are welcome.
Do you, or someone you know, want to join our mailing list and receive our weekly email? Then let me know.
Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
How much of our lives, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is spent in worry over our future? “I need more,” seems to be our constant cry: more money, more time, more rest, more relaxation, more purpose, more direction. We are regularly seeking more from our lives, from our jobs, from our families. And it is never enough: we get that raise at work, or a labour-saving device, but it does not satisfy us, we want to consume more.
The Lord tells us, in today’s reading, that there was a man who not only wanted more but he had it. “What shall I do,” he asks himself rhetorically, “for I have nowhere to store my crops?” And he answers his own question,
“I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’”
And I consider myself in comparison with him. Whereas he has a plan of action, something to do with his wealth, I merely store up with no idea what I shall do. And the wealth I am receiving is great: I am receiving neither crops, nor money, nor jewels, nor belongings, rather I am receiving Life. I come before the Lord with our meagre offerings, bread and wine, and he offers back something which is beyond the means of even the rich and the powerful in our world: eternal Life, the Kingdom of Heaven, union with God. Yet now judgement is at hand and the Lord says to me, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” The Foolish Rich Man must answer merely for the crops he has held back from the poor, the needy, the hungry—I must answer for the blessings which I have held onto, the Kingdom of God which I try to reserve only for myself, eternal Life which I keep as a secret for only me and those whom I consider worthy. My barns are full and I stand content, my treasury is rich and I think it is due to my own magnificence, I partake of Life and think nothing of those apart from God.
…
Read last Sunday’s Sermon, Rich in blessings.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 24th November
Discussion on the Divine Liturgy, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 25th November
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Sunday 26th 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]