Dear Friends
In Matins on Sundays we have now started to sing a most beautiful group of hymns, just after the Resurrection Gospel.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Open to me the doors of repentance, O Life-giver; for my soul goeth early to the temple of Thy holiness, coming in the temple of my body, wholly polluted. But because Thou art compassionate, purify me by the compassion of Thy mercies.Both now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Prepare for me the way of salvation, O Theotokos; for I have profaned myself with coarse sins, and consumed my whole life with procrastination. But by thine intercessions purify thou me from all abomination.Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
If I think upon the multitude of my evil deeds, wretch that I am, I tremble for the terrible Day of Judgement. But, trusting the compassion of Thy mercy, I shout to Thee like David, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy Great Mercy.
We are preparing, we are anticipating, the Great Fast, our blessed Lent. And if we treat this solely as a period of abstinence—we don’t eat certain foods—then it will only have the effect of being a diet: we will be grumpy at our afflictions, short-tempered at our family and neighbours, angry at the Church for imposing such privations upon us. But if we take the above hymns to heart, if we focus on the Lord, we start to realise the focus is truly on sin and repentance.
I have sinned, I have fallen short of the glory of God, but for the most part I remain oblivious to it. My sin affects me, affects my family, affects each of you, affects the whole world, and affects my relationship with God, but I think to myself, “I’m basically okay: I’ve not committed the really bad sins.” And the Church is calling on me to open my eyes, to see my sin, and so is inviting me to pray, “Open to me the doors of repentance.” Because I hide my sin, I hold onto my sin, but I need to open the doors of repentance that I might learn to let them go: not for the sake of others but for my own, because while I hold them they hold onto me, I have poison in my hands and I think it brings me power and prestige but it is killing me.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Pascha is coming, the Resurrection is coming, the renewal of our race is coming, and the Church is encouraging us, guiding us, leading us to receive it in its fullness and joy—and to do that we must let go of our sin. We were deceived and sin holds us unjustly, but through Christ we can discard it and be free. And the services of the Church show us the route through this, they are both our map and our navigator, that we too may be able to shout to God alongside David, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy Great Mercy.”
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
I stand before others and before God and pray with myself, thanking Him for all my own righteousness. I thank Him that I am a member of the Church, the true Church, and not in one of those other communities. I remind Him that I fast, I pray, I give—but only the minimal amount—and, therefore, He is obliged to hear my prayer. And on the Last Day, when the Lord comes in His glory, I see myself judged first so that I may step forward and nod knowingly while judgement is exacted on others, standing beside Christ and ordering the punishments on His behalf. “God,” I pray,
“I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.”
Even so, God continues His generosity towards me. He tells me, here and now, that mine is not the path to Him. My worldly life is as the tax collector—unusually cruel towards my fellow human beings—but my spiritual life is as the pharisee. And I want to make an easy teaching, that we should reverse this and live as the pharisee but pray as the tax collector. For indeed, what the pharisees did in their lives was good, the problem was their hypocrisy and insisting that everyone else do as they command to purify the nation. I want to say that we should just reverse the positions of the pharisee and the tax collector but that misses the point.
The tax collector was not justified so that he may return to extorting his neighbour, a sort of get out of gaol free card, but that He should turn his life around. Our problem is not that we have a “worldly life” and a “spiritual life” which need to be brought into harmony, it is that we try to maintain two separate lives. I live at a distance from God during the week—rationalising my sloth, giving excuses for my disconnection—and then run back to Him on Sunday. And as He justifies the tax collector so He justifies me. But I am called to live the Resurrection life, not merely to participate in it once a week: my whole being needs God, not merely one seventh of it.
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Read this Sermon, Glory to God.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 6th February
Discussion on Job, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 8th February
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm
At 3rd URC Scout Hall, Chandlers Ford
Sunday 8th February
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