St. Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church
872 N. 29th St. Boise, ID
an American parish of the Russian Orthodox Church


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2/2 - Far Away or Face to Face


Luke 19:1-10

In the life of St Euthymius the Great, whose memory we celebrate today, we note that although he lived an ascetic life from his youth in his native Armenia, the greater part of his struggles and spiritual labors took place in the Holy Land.  While yet a young man, St Euthymius embarked on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to see the places where our Lord lived and labored on this earth.  Having come to the Holy Land, the saint was inspired not to return home, but to go instead into the wilderness and to increase his ascetic labor there.  This is not an unusual phenomenon and can be found in the lives of many of the ascetics of Palestine.  Laboring in the wilderness around Jerusalem (mostly in what is today the West Bank), St Euthymius grew strong in the spiritual life and brought up many other great monastic saints who learned from him and who were encouraged by him.

Today also we have read the Gospel account of the tax-collector Zacchaeus, who hearing that Jesus was in the area, ran out to see this great teacher.  Zacchaeus being short of stature decided to climb a tree at the edge of the crowd in order to see better as Jesus passed by.  Had this been the end of his experience – just to see Jesus pass by – he likely would have climbed down from his tree, went home and continued with his life.  But this wasn’t the end of his experience.  Just as Jesus was passing by, He saw Zacchaeus – not the man sitting in the tree,  but rather the man with a heart which was ripe for repentance. St Gregory Palamas writes that repentance was indeed already in the heart of Zacchaeus and it was this which prompted him to have the interest to see Jesus pass by in the first place.  And Jesus stopped and called out to Zacchaeus indicating that he would dine with him that day.  With that word, the repentance smoldering unseen in Zacchaeus’ heart flared up into a bright flame.

Moved now by this new flame of desire for repentance, Zacchaeus quickly left his perch in the tree and made his way home to prepare to receive the Lord.  When Jesus arrived, Zacchaeus warmly received Him, welcoming Him into his house and listening to Jesus’ lifegiving wisdom and instruction.  Having heard the words of our Lord, Zacchaeus proclaimed his own repentance and declared that he would give half of all he owned to the poor and that he would make fourfold restitution to those whom he had defrauded. Note here that we see in one moment two separate good works – first repentance, expressed in his change of life and the restitution of that which he had taken illegally and second righteousness in the giving of alms. Both of these are a necessary part of the spiritual life – to repent not only in word but in deed as well and to adopt a life of good works as well.  We see the same in the life of St Vladimir the Equal to the Apostles when after his baptism, he righted whatever wrongs he was able to and then also became a great giver of alms for the remainder of his life.  Seeing this twofold evidence of a new life, repentance and good works, Jesus responded saying, “This day, salvation has come into this house.”

In the life of St Euthymius as well as in the life of Zacchaeus, we see the effect of when an encounter goes from “long distance” to “up close and personal.”  St Euthymius lived an ascetic life, but when he came to Jerusalem and there encountered our Lord in the places where He lived and walked and worked and taught, that encounter inspired in him an even greater pursuit of holiness which took him not home again, but out into the trans-Jordan wilderness and ascetic labor.  Zacchaeus, was curious about Jesus, enough to go see the parade as it passed by – but then that sight-seeing tour became personal when Jesus reached out to him directly.  This personal encounter inspired Zacchaeus into a moment of change and brought about his repentance and life of righteousness.  In our own lives, there must always be at least one moment where our experience of Jesus Christ goes from general to personal, from seeing Him from afar to encountering Him face to face. 

There are times when we just see Jesus “from afar” in our lives – He’s out there and we notice His presence, but it doesn’t seem to affect us much for some reason. Maybe we come to Church and hear the singing, smell the incense, see the icons and it’s all very nice and comforting; and then we go home without being really affected.  Or maybe we have the Orthodox podcast or music stream going, but nothing really sinks in. Or maybe we read our prayers, but our mind is off on some other tangent, just marking time until we’re done.  This is an example of how we see Jesus from afar.  But if we come to the Church services and put our whole attention, our whole mind and heart into the music, the prayers, the incense, the icons and allow it all to bring us into the Kingdom of God, or we have that podcast or music stream on and we give it our attention and begin applying what we hear to what we do. Or we pray not just with our lips but with our mind and with our hearts as well attending to each word of the prayer allowing it to sink in and impact our feelings and desires.  These are the ways in which we take that “seeing from afar” and make it into a “personal encounter” that can be lifechanging.  This shift is needed in our lives not just once – but over and over again as we drift away from the reality of Christ’s presence in our lives. St Euthymius would often leave the monastery, when his spiritual life was disturbed and retreat into the wilderness again.  We constantly need to come back to that personal face to face encounter with our Lord to refresh our spiritual life.

When Zacchaeus discovered that the Lord would be coming to his house to dine, Zacchaeus hurried home to prepare.  He wanted to ready for Jesus when He arrived.  Certainly there must have been a flurry of activity to prepare the house for the arrival of Jesus Christ. How much more should we prepare to receive our Lord when He comes to us.  We must set aside those things in our lives which are out of place – the impure, the negligent, the sinful – and bring out those beautiful adornments to the house of the soul; self denial, almsgiving, prayer, love of neighbor and so on.  We want everything to be as beautiful as possible for His arrival.

When Jesus comes to us then we must receive Him, make Him welcome, give Him the place of honor in our souls.  When He speaks, we give Him our attention.  We are vigilant to turn away any sinful thought or inclination and to nurture within the heart only those good and pure things which are contained in Him. And having heard the word of the Lord, we then take it and apply it to our own lives.  Where sin is revealed – we repent in word and deed; where we see the opportunity, we give alms as generously as possible, giving assistance to those in need. We deny ourselves, turning away from the lures and snares of the world. We fill our lives with the Gospel and the rest of the scripture along with other spiritual readings, songs and hymns. 

All this is not limited to just the moment when we encounter Christ, but out of love for Him we then struggle to maintain it throughout the rest of our lives.  Like St Euthymius and Zacchaeus, we leave behind our former life and instead from that moment onward lead the life of Christ.

Today we finish the last of the labors of the old Paschal cycle and we begin to look ahead to the new Lent and new Pascha.  Today we can look ahead and see the next encounter with Christ approaching.  For us, the question is whether or not we hold it off and observe “from afar”, just letting Lent and Pascha drift past, or whether we will rush to meet Christ face to face in an ever-deepening personal encounter.

1/26 - Gifts of Grace


Eph 4:7-13

“But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ … for the perfecting of the saints … and the building up of the Body of Christ.”

Our Lord showers His grace upon us in a variety of gifts. We do not all receive the same gifts because we are not all the same. In our worldly way of looking at things it is easy to consider some gifts “better” or “greater” than others, however, in the end they are simply different. God gives us each the gifts that are suited to our condition, our status and capacity. If you were to receive the gifts that God had given to me, you might find many of them useless – and the same would be true if I were to receive your gifts. If one were to give a talented plumber a violin, it would be useless to him, however, if he were given a wrench or some other tool; he would find that it enabled him to do his work much more efficiently and with greater ease. By the same measure, if one were to give a gifted musician a wrench, it would be useless for making music; however, if he were given a violin, he would be able to use it to make beautiful music. We all have various gifts which we have received from God and He is certain to give us the gifts that are right for us. Those gifts are given to us for the purpose of “the perfecting of the saints”, that is, for working out our salvation and for “the building up of the Body of Christ”, that is, for joining with others in caring for the welfare of the Church.

This is how God provides for us; He gives to us each the gifts that we need, that apply to our own condition and ability. Now the Apostle lists a variety of gifts that are given in the Church: Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. Those who are given these gifts receive them because God knows that they will best be able to use them – or He knows that these gifts will bring out the true spiritual virtues of that person. These are not the only gifts, however. In other places he mentions many other gifts of grace that are given to us in the Church. Perhaps nowhere is there a complete list of God’s gifts for they are as varied as the people to whom they are given. Each person is given that which he needs first for his salvation and secondly to fulfill his place within the Church. To one, perhaps, is given the gift of material possessions in order that he might give generous alms to those in need. To another, perhaps is given the gift of poverty that he might be the recipient of those alms. The giver without a recipient is incomplete just as one who is in need without a benefactor is also incomplete. The two together create a wholeness that neither one has by himself. These gifts have their spiritual reasons, for example: To the giver might be given these material goods so that he will have an arena in his soul to contend against and defeat the kernel of greed and selfishness that lies hidden within himself. The poor man might have his poverty to enable him to learn complete dependence upon the providence of God. This is only a small and very simplistic example of how these gifts might function in two different people.

We cannot look within the soul of another person to see how the gifts of God’s grace affect them, however, you can look within your own soul to see how God’s gifts to you affect you. Therefore it is important to take every opportunity and situation that comes to you as a gift from God and search within yourself for a means by which that event can be used as a benefit for working out of your salvation. For all of us here we know that God has given us the gift of our families. Your family is a gift that God has given to you for the working out of your salvation. This is spelled out for us clearly in the sacrament of Holy Matrimony when it is made clear that the husband and the wife are joined together that they might work together for their mutual salvation. Children are given to a family again as a gift from God for the working out of your salvation – and for guiding them as they begin to work out theirs. In the parishes, we are all called to a life in the world, working together, not only in the community of the family, but in the larger community in which we live and most importantly in the community of the parish. We are all given gifts by God to work together for our corporate salvation. The Body of Christ requires that we all fulfill our different tasks – there must be hands and feet and voices and eyes and ears and every other part. We share our gifts with one another that together we will come before the throne of God not as a mob of disparate individuals, but as a Body, many different parts working together in harmony for the salvation of the whole.

Each one of us is a unique person and God knows our characteristics, our needs, our strengths and weaknesses. He desires that not one of us will perish, but that each and every one of us will be saved. He has a place and purpose for each person within the Body of Christ, that is, the Church. In order to help us work out our salvation and fit into the place that He has prepared for us, He showers His grace upon us in a variety of gifts. He gives to each of us the gifts that we need to fulfill His purpose for us and to enter into His Kingdom. Our only task is to use the gifts that He has given us and allow Him to shape us through them into His image. Consider your life, see the gifts that God has bestowed upon you and use them. Don’t worry about the gifts of others – look at what God has given to you because your gifts have been selected and designed especially for your own characteristics, situation and person. These are your gifts, chosen especially for you by God; all you need to do is to use them for His glory.

1/19 - Theophany - Fr. Matthew Garrett


In the service for the Blessing of Water, that we served yesterday and which we will serve after liturgy today, we hear, “Thou art our God, Who through water drowned sin in the time of Noah. Thou art our God, Who by the sea, through Moses, freed the Hebrew people from the bondage of Pharaoh. For thou art our God, Who smote the rock in the wilderness, so that waters gushed forth, and torrents welled forth, and Who satisfied Thy thirsty people. For Thou art our God, Who by water and fire, through Elijah, turned Israel from the delusion of Baal.” These are just a few examples of God’s great wonders worked through water.

In the time of Noah when wickedness abounded everywhere, the Lord sent a great flood to wipe out sin from this world. He preserved Noah from death with his wife, his sons, and their wives because Noah alone was righteousness in his time. Noah the righteous was saved, and unrighteousness and sin were drowned in the waters of the flood. We experience this kind of salvation and deliverance from sin by entering the waters of baptism. Water drowns our sin, while we are kept safe in the ark of the Church, even if our sins must be continually drowned by our tears of repentance.

As the children of Israel fled from the land of Egypt, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he set out with six hundred choice chariots and all the chariots of Egypt, all his horses and horsemen and his whole army to keep them from escaping. Seeing such a multitude pursuing them, the people cried out to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?” They would have preferred to stay as slaves than to face certain destruction either at the hands of Pharaoh’s armies, or by starvation in the wilderness.

Moses responded, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” Compare these words to the words of the Psalmist, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth! The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.”

The people of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, had every reason to believe that God could deliver them, protect them, and fight for them. They had just seen the Nile turned to blood; plagues of frogs, gnats, flies, and locusts, They had seen the death of Egypt’s livestock, boils breaking out on all the people and animals of Egypt, hail like they had never seen before, and then total darkness and death. These things came to the Egyptians to render judgment on Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt, and to deliver the people of Israel. He distinguished between those who were faithful to Him, and those who opposed Him.

Nevertheless, the people of Israel could not see that victory was at hand. They had no army, no weapons, and no mighty warriors. They only had the promises of God through Moses, and the sea which was beside them. But when Moses raised his staff and made the sign of the cross over the waters, the water itself became the means of their salvation.

In the very first verses of Genesis, we read, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Just a few verses later, on the Second Day of Creation, God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.”

God Who in the beginning created the waters themselves, and who divided the waters above from the waters below now divides the waters on the right from the waters on the left. God Himself, from the beginning makes the sign of the Cross that His people might be delivered through the midst of the waters. The mighty works of God are so often accomplished by the simplest of things. Even in the Church today, the grace of God is communicated to us by means of water, oil, bread, and wine. What is a little water compared to earthly armies? It is everything when God fights for you.

Once the children of Israel reached the other side of the Red Sea, they were again disappointed by their situation. They had been delivered from Pharaoh and his armies. They saw the Egyptians washed up dead on the shore, but they still faced the difficulties of the wilderness. God provided bread from heaven, and flocks of quail on which they could feed, but they needed water. So Moses was instructed to strike a rock with his rod and water flowed out of that rock to quench their thirst. Interestingly, in the epistle reading from 1 Corinthians that is read at the blessing of water, Saint Paul says that this rock followed them, and that the Rock was Christ. In my experience, rocks don’t generally follow people around, and they also don’t generally pour out torrents of water; but Christ, the Word of God, was once again with the children of Israel. Once again, God is found with his people, providing everything necessary for them through seemingly ordinary things.

Elijah, contesting with the prophets of Baal, told them to call upon their god to consume the bull which they had prepared on an altar for a sacrifice. When they were unable call down fire from heaven, Elijah commanded that water be poured all over the wood of his  altar before he would call upon the one True God to send down fire to consume his sacrifice. By means of the water which soaked the wood to such an abundance that it overflowed into trenches, Elijah made clear that our God alone works mighty wonders.

Water drowns sin, frees from slavery, satisfies our spiritual thirst, and makes clear the truth. So it should not be surprising that on this day, our Lord comes to the waters of the Jordan River. He needed none of the things that water offers to us, but He is the means by which water is made able to accomplish all these things. God was with Noah and seven other people in the ark while the unrighteous perished, He was with Moses and the children of Israel as they passed through the sea on dry ground, He was following them through the desert giving them drink, and He was washing away the lies and falsehoods of idolatry by Elijah’s works. So now He is with us, because He enters into His creation and comes to the Jordan River to sanctify it. And we mystically enter into that Jordan River even here in Boise when we bless the water, or when we prepare the waters of baptism.

And we will use these waters to wash away sins, deliver us from slavery to the evil one, satisfy our thirst, and drive away demonic delusion. We take this water and make our homes holy again, washing away the residue of our sins that have accumulated over the past year. We also bless a multitude of places, objects, even land and animals by the sprinkling of holy water. God enters His creation; He enters the water, and we use that water to transform our world by spreading this blessing to all areas of our lives.

In this feast of Theophany, the Trinity is made manifest. Christ our Lord is baptized, the Father bears witness to Him by a voice from the heavens, and the Holy Spirit descends in the likeness of a dove to confirm the truth of the Most Holy Trinity. God enters His creation. He sanctifies it, and by means of this water, He sanctifies us. Let us therefore heed the words of the Apostle Paul this morning “according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” Let us therefore deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and  live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. Let us show forth the Most Holy Trinity in our lives that all may come to know Him and receive in its fullness the sanctification wrought today in the waters.

1/12 - David the King, Joseph the Betrothed and James the Brother of the Lord


Today, we celebrate the memory of the three Righteous Ones; David the King, Joseph the Betrothed and James the Brother of the Lord.  What is it that binds these three so closely together?  It is, of course, that they are the ones whose lives are marked by “righteousness”.  Righteousness is the quality of acting in accord with divine law and the one who is righteous is one who is without guilt or sin.  This definition applies to all three of these righteous ones who are each so closely linked to the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

David the King was the pinnacle of the Hebrew monarchy.  He was the one who brought together the nation of Israel as a political entity.  By his military action he united all the tribes of Israel and pushed the alien tribes out of the promised land. But he was not revered solely for his political or military accomplishments.  King David was also referred to as “a man after God’s own heart.” and he truly strove to live his life in accordance with the will of God.  We see his deep spiritual qualities made manifest to us in the Psalms, many of which were his own compositions.  We see the heights of his praise for God as well as the depth of his repentance.  All of this reflects his unwavering and deeply ingrained love for God.  But King David was not without sin, he was not perfect – and his “lapses”, that is his sins, were quite major as we see in  his adultery with the wife of Uriah and the subsequent plot to murder Uriah to cover that sin.  However, we also see the whole context of his sins and the resulting repentance (the fervor and depth of which most of us rarely, if ever, attain).  King David was a man after God’s own heart because of his love for God and his efforts and desire to live in accordance with the law of God.  His heart was attuned to that of God.  And when he deviated from that divine will to follow his own passions and desires, he was struck by such deep regret and sorrow that his repentance was complete and the guilt of his sin is cleansed.  King David was without guilt not because he was perfect or because he never sinned, but rather because of the depth and completeness of his repentance.

The Righteous Joseph is known as “the Betrothed” because he was chosen by God above all men alive to be the guardian of the Virgin Mary and of her Son the God/man Jesus Christ.  While the Virgin Mary was the pinnacle of humanity, the most perfect person (both physically and spiritually) who ever lived, her guardian was also chosen by God and set aside as the most perfect man alive.  Both were the product of generations of cultural and spiritual development that made them into the perfect servants of God.  The Holy Gospel praises his purity and calls him a “just man” (Matt. 1:19).  The Righteous Joseph was a man of royal lineage, being the descendent of the Prophet and King David, however, he was also a poor man who lived by the work of his hands (being a carpenter)  He was married in his youth to a woman Salome, who bore him 4 sons (James, Simon, Jude, and Joses) and two or three daughters (Esther and Thamar also called Martha, and Salome also called Mary – some contend that there were only two daughters and that Thamar was called at times both Martha and Mary).  After the death of his wife, Salome, the Righteous Joseph remained chaste and did not remarry.  At the age of 80 years old, Joseph was chosen by God, in a miracle similar to that of the choosing of Aaron as the High Priest in the time of Moses, to be the guardian of the Virgin Mary.  He was betrothed to her not that they might enjoy the pleasures of married life, but rather that he might protect her in her Virginity and protect her Son until He was able to take his own place in the society of the Hebrew people.  Even Joseph, as we see in the Gospels, was not immune to temptation to lose trust in God and to deviate from His will.  When the Virgin was found to be with child, rather than trust that this was the will of God, Joseph sought to divorce her privately until he was corrected and brought back into the path of the divine will by the visit of the Archangel Gabriel. (Matt 1:18-24).

Saint James, the brother of the Lord was the son of the Righteous Joseph and Salome.  Even from his childhood, he exhibited a love for God and a desire for the spiritual life.  “From his youth, he loved the ascetic life: he never partook of butter or oil and ate nothing but bread; neither did he drink wine nor any other sort of strong drink but only water.  He did not frequent baths-houses, and he disdained every comfort of the flesh.  He wore a rough hair shirt upon his body and passed each night in prayer, sleeping very little.  The skin on his knees became as tough as a camel’s because of the numerous prostrations which he made, and he preserved his virginity undefiled until the day of his death.” (Great Collection of the Lives of the Saints)

St James is known by the name “the brother of the Lord” because of his love and care for his young “step-brother”, Jesus Christ.  When our Lord was yet an infant, St Joseph, the father of St James, divided his property among the children of his first wife.  St Joseph had desired to give a share to the infant Jesus, however, the sons of Joseph objected.  Seeing this dilemma and being moved by love for the Child Jesus, St James agreed to give a portion of his own inheritance to the Lord, thereby including Him in the inheritance of St Joseph.  Because of this act of brotherly love, St James was known as “the brother of the Lord.”  St James also accompanied his father Joseph and the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus when they fled into Egypt to avoid the slaughter of the innocents by Herod.  When Jesus came of age and was revealed to the world as the Messiah (at His Baptism), St James believed in Him right away and was inflamed even more with the love of God.  After the resurrection our Lord appeared to St James apart from the other apostles (1Cor 15:7).  St James was counted among the seventy apostles, made a bishop and was instructed in the performance of the Sacred rites by the Lord Himself (Stichera of Vespers for the Feast of St James, Oct 23) who then entrusted to him the Church of Jerusalem.  The life of St James is filled with accounts of his virtuous life and his bold proclamation of Jesus Christ as the Messiah which led in the end to his martyrdom at the hands of the high priests of the Jews.

Each of these men, David the King, Joseph the Betrothed and James the Brother of the Lord, we acclaim as the “Righteous Ones”.  In their lives, they do indeed fulfill the definition of “righteous” for they lived their lives in accordance with divine law, that is in accordance with the will of God.  They were each chosen by God as the protectors of His people, David as King of the Hebrew nation, Joseph as the protector of the Virgin and her Son the God/man Jesus Christ, and James as the first bishop of the Church of Jerusalem and the leader of the first apostolic council of Jerusalem.  Each of these men were righteous not because they were perfect and without sin, but rather because they strove to follow without deviation the will of God and when they did sin, when they did stray from that path, they repented wholeheartedly and quickly set foot again upon the path of the will of God without hesitation.  Today, they are our examples.  Today, they are our fathers in the faith.  Today, they lead us into that same fervent love of God that leads to righteousness.  These three Righteous Ones show us what it is to live in the love of God and to order our lives according to His will – let us then follow them as they lead us into the Kingdom of Heaven.

NOTICE:  Due to the changes in yahoogroups, I have moved my sermons onto a blog on wordpress called "Pastoral Thoughts: Musings of a Village Priest" https://homilies2020.wordpress.com/  If you would like to get the sermons via email (and other random thoughts I might have), please subscribe to my blog. - Fr. David