Dear Friends
Israel had forsaken their God. The northern Kingdom had been destroyed and its people taken away into captivity by the Assyrians around 722 BC.
So the king of Assyria carried the people of Samaria away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and in Habor, by the River of Gozan, and in the mountains of the Medes.
Fourth Kingdoms 18:11–12
For the did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant, even in all the things the servant of the Lord Moses commanded. They did not listen to them nor do them.
And the ten northern tribes were lost to history. For more than 130 years, Judah, the southern Kingdom, continued until the new Babylonian Empire, led by Nebuchadnezzar, conquered in 587 BC, razed the Temple and plundered its treasure, and took the remnant of Israel, mostly of the tribe of Judah, into captivity.
By the rivers of Babylon,
Psalm 136:1–4 ʟxx
There we sat down and wept
When we remembered Zion.
Upon the willows in her midst,
We hung up our musical instruments;
For there our captors asked us for words from our songs,
And those who carried us off said to us,
‘Sing us the songs of Zion.’
How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a foreign land?
The Temple of Solomon was lost, the meeting place of heaven and earth, the place where God dwelt on earth among His people was no more. And although a second Temple was built in 516 BC, (Ezra 6:16) none of the signs of the presence of God from the dedication of the first Temple were present. Under King Solomon we are told,
When the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the house,
Third Kingdoms 8:19–11
so the priests could not stand there ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of God filled the house.
Whereas for the second Temple no such statements are made. For indeed, the second Temple was not the place in which the Lord would live among His people, but it was able to receive her.
Today the Virgin is the foreshadowing of the pleasure of God, and the beginning of the preaching of the salvation of mankind. Thou hast appeared in the Temple of God openly and hast gone before, preaching Christ to all. Let us shout with one thrilling voice, saying, Rejoice, O thou who art the fulfilment of the Creator’s dispensation.
Apolytikion, The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple, Fourth mode
And we too rejoice, the one who will bear God-incarnate fulfils that to which the Temple points, that God is to come and dwell with His people not in a temple of wood and stone but in a living Temple, a living Ark, a living person.
And in our baptism, and in our receiving the Eucharist, we too are called to this highest of potentials of all humanity. “You are the Temple,” says the Apostle to all those who have put on Christ,
of the living God. As God has said:
Second Corinthians 6:16
‘I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.’
And so, as we celebrate the Entrance into the Temple of the living Temple this Friday, let us rejoice that we, too, are called to be living Temples of God.
Let us, the assembly of believers, celebrate today spiritually in our gathering, and laud with true worship the virgin Maiden of God, the Theotokos, presented in the Temple of the Lord, forechosen from all generations for the abode of Christ, King of All. Wherefore, ye virgins, come forth, holding your lamps and honouring the solemn procession of the ever-Virgin. And ye mothers, cast off all sorrow, and follow them, praising her who hath become the Theotokos, and a cause of joy to the world. Let us all, therefore, raise our voices with the angel, hailing the one who is full of grace, who ever intercedeth for our souls.
Doxasticon of the Aposticha, Vespers of the Entrance of the Theotokos, Plagal Second
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
We expect, dear brothers and sisters, those with power, with authority, even those with celebrity, to be good people, to be moral people, to be people whom we would wish to emulate. We expect a criminal to be excluded from becoming a police officer, a liar excluded from the judiciary, a thief excluded from holding political office. We do this so that we, the public, may have confidence that those with authority and power are acting for the public good, that they can be trusted and that we all benefit from the work they do on behalf of us all.
And when even an accusation is made against them we expect them to be suspended, when a credible case is built against them they should resign, when it is proven they should be ostracised from the community: all that our sensibilities may be maintained, our desire for vengeance appeased even only temporarily until we can pull down the next public figure from his pedestal in our ultimately insatiable impulse for blood. “They should have known what to expect,” we the public convince ourselves, “now we deliver whenever it seems desirable, whenever it’s been too long since the last case, whenever we need distraction.”
Yet King Solomon tells us,
“For there is not a just man on earth who does good
And does not sin.
Also do not take to heart everything people say,
Lest you hear your servant cursing you.
For many times, also, your own heart has known
That even you have cursed others.”
— Ecclesiastes 7:20–22
For we are all sinners. “But now the righteousness of God apart from the Law is revealed,” we are told by the Apostle, “being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.” (Romans 3:21) Because in Christ, and through Christ, and by Christ, is the righteousness of God fully revealed and what the Law and the Prophets point towards has been made manifest. The Apostle continues,
…
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Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 21st November
Discussion on the Prophecy of Isaiah, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 22nd November
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm
At 3rd URC Scout Hall, Chandlers Ford
Sunday 23rd November
Matins & Divine Liturgy, 9 am
At 3rd URC Scout Hall, Chandlers Ford
Online session is via Google Meet: please get indd contact for the details.
Please join us: all are welcome, come and see.
Attending Church
We meet at 3rd URC Scout HQ, Kings Rd, Chandlers Ford SO53 2EY. The Scout hall is behind and to the left of the URC Church. 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
webenquiry@orthodoxeastleigh.uk