Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Our Father in Christ, Metropolitan Silouan, will be joining us on Sunday 29th March. Please join us to greet him and worship together with him.
9 am Matins & Divine Liturgy
Dear Friends
I have tasted of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil yet, partaking of its delights, I feel no shame. I have killed my brother, I have built a tower from earth to the heavens, but I have no remorse, no guilt, no repentance. And I heard Christ preaching, I have seen Him transfigured, I have looked upon the incarnate God crucified in the flesh, I have beheld the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, I have seen the witness of the martyrs and I am unmoved. I have been baptised into Christ, I have been offered the Bread of Life: there is nothing held back from me. But in my pitiable state I enter into despondency and despair: “there is no hope for me, why should I bother?”
Blessed is God Who creates the great and wondrous, the glorious and marvellous without end. Blessed is God Who has shown me how He rewards those who fear Him. Truly, O Lord, Thou dost not forsake those who seek Thee!
So speaks St Zosimas, one of the greatest ascetical saints, when he hears from her own lips the life of St Mary of Egypt: I encourage you all to read it and to reread it. In her youth in Alexandria there was no sin to which she would not descend—not out of necessity, even though she was poor, but out of a desire for debauchery, vice and hedonism. For seventeen years she lived unchecked by goodness. And seeing pilgrims headed towards Jerusalem, for the feast of the Holy Cross, she joined them. Perhaps in her heart seeking a good time, she journeyed there led in reality by the grace of God.
And she tried to enter Church of the Resurrection but was prevented by an invisible force. Realising what held her back was her sin she prayed before an icon of the Mother of God,
O Lady, Mother of God, who gave birth in the flesh to God the Word, I know, oh how well I know, that it is no honour or praise to thee when one so impure and depraved as I look up to thy icon, O Ever-Virgin, who didst keep thy body and soul in purity. Rightly do I inspire hatred and disgust before thy virginal purity. But I have heard that God Who was born of thee became man on purpose to call sinners to repentance.
Then help me, for I have no other help. Order the entrance of the Church to be opened to me. Allow me to see the venerable Tree on which He Who was born of thee suffered in the flesh and on which He shed His holy Blood for the redemption of sinners and for me, unworthy as I am. Be my faithful witness before thy son that I will never again defile my body by the impurity of fornication, but as soon as I have seen the Tree of the Cross I will renounce the world and its temptations and will go wherever thou wilt lead me.
And God, Who desires all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth, through the intercessions of His Blessed Mother, allowed St Mary to enter the Church. Returning to the icon to fulfil her vow, she heard the voice of the Ever-Virgin say to her, “If you cross the Jordan you will find glorious rest.”
And there, in the desert beyond the Jordan, she repented of her former life through prayer and asceticism. For forty-seven years she contended against the powers of this age and emerged victorious. A year before her death she met St Zosimas to whom she told her story, she instructed him to bring to her Communion the following year and she died shortly afterwards.
And I could hear this life and continue in my despondency: “I can’t possibly go into the desert for forty-seven years: there’s no hope.” But that is not the point of this story. The Church, in her love for you and her love for me, sets before us, on the last Sunday before Palm Sunday, the Life of St Mary of Egypt to remind us that all can come to God in repentance—no matter our sins, no matter our condition. God is calling us to grow in faithfulness. And we have to do something radical, something extraordinary, we have to abandon our sins. For St Mary, her entire life was of sin so her abandoning of sins meant a flight into the desert. For us, there is still good in our former lives which should not be abandoned, but where there is sin we need to repent. And we repent through forgiving others, both those who deserve our forgiveness and those who do not, and we repent through serving others, through caring for others, through being generous towards others. And we repent through glorifying God, through making Him accessible to all the more, through living a life which is close to the Church and therefore close to God.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” yet,
in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
Romans 3:23, 25–26
to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
And as we come together with our Father in Christ, Metropolitan Silouan, this Sunday to celebrate and participate in the Victory of Christ over sin, death and idolatry, let us be transformed by Christ, let us leave behind us any despondency as we celebrate that by leaving behind our sins and following Christ all, no matter their past, can step forward and taste immortality.
Come and see!
Confessions are available following any service or by appointment.
We serve a meal following the Liturgy on Sundays. All are welcome.
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Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
In the passages leading up to today’s Gospel reading, we have Peter’s response to the question, “Who do men say that I am?” (Mark 8:27–30) Christ telling His disciples that He must be executed and will rise in three days, (8:31–33) the call to take up our crosses (8:34–9:1) and the Transfiguration. (9:2–13) These four consecutive events form a critical moment in the Synoptic Gospels—which is to say Matthew, Mark and Luke—the early portion of the narrative has Christ centred in Galilee as a wandering preacher, healer and prophet, now eyes are set towards Jerusalem further south and the defeat of the Satan and his powers at the new Pascha, the new Passover, from death to Life.
And at this transitional moment, at this shift in tone, direction and purpose, a man steps forward wanting to continue the ministry in Galilee. Christ had shown His power already as the Son of God by healing, by casting out demons, by performing miracles. Yet this father—in a very human way, in a way full of love and compassion for his son—yearns for one more.
And I do the same. Christ has performed many mighty works, many miracles, so that we may know the Truth of Who He is. I have had so many blessings in my life yet I still try to bargain with Him, to coerce Him into following my requests and demands. “Perform this miracle for me, O Lord,” I cry out to Him in prayer, “and I will be a good Christian, a true Christian, I will give to the Church, I will help the poor, I will forgive my neighbour.” Because my Christian life is conditional: so long as I get what I want I will deign to make a semblance of Christianity, as soon as the blessings and miracles stop then so will I.
…
Read this Sermon, Help my unbelief!
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 27th March
Discussion on the Book of Job, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 28th March
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm
At 3rd URC Scout Hall, Chandlers Ford
Sunday 29th March
Matins & Divine Liturgy, 9 am
At 3rd URC Scout Hall, Chandlers Ford
Online session is via Google Meet: please get in touch 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