Pastor: Fr John Vazquez | (518) 462-0579 |
fatherjohnvazquez@gmail.com
Wednesday, October 9th—8am—Divine Liturgy
Wednesday, October 9th—6pm—Paraklesis of St George
Friday, October 11th—8am—Orthros
Saturday, October 12th—5pm—NO VESPERS OR BIBLE STUDY
Sunday, October 13th—9am—Orthros and Divine Liturgy—join us for apple picking after Liturgy (Philip Orchards 270 Rt 9H Hudson, NY 12534)
Monday, October 14th—8:15am—Coffee with the Fathers at Alias Coffee on North Pearl St in Albany.
Wednesday, October 16th—8am—Divine Liturgy
Wednesday, October 16th—6pm—Paraklesis of St George PARISH COUNCIL MEETING TO FOLLOW AT 7PM
Friday, October 18th—8am—Orthros
Saturday, October 19th—PREP FOOD FOR FESTIVAL OF NATIONS
Saturday, October 19th—Great Vespers with Bible Study to follow
Sunday, October 20th—9am—Orthros and Divine Liturgy—JOIN US FOR A PARISH BREAKFAST AFTER LITURGY
Sermon—Sunday 15th Sunday After Pentecost
Lk 7.11-17
DO NOT WEEP AND ARISE!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—one God, Amen.
Do not weep and I say to you arise!
Sometimes obeying a single words can mean life or death for us...
About 10 years ago I was living on my in-laws farm and my brother-in-law asked me to take care of his operation while he was gone. He had chickens, geese, cattle, a bull.
And he told me, "when it comes to the bull, never turn your back on a bull." You have to show them who is boss.
Ok, that's fine, everything will be fine.
So a day or two later my mother-in-law tells me that Milo —the bull—is out and messing around with someone's truck who was hunting on the property, can I go get him...
So I go out there and I walk up and say, "Milo come on!"
And Milo turns and looks at me and begins to stamp the ground with his right hoof...I can still see it in my minds eye perfectly today as I am telling you this.
And I think—Oh my gosh, the cartoons are true!
Milo then lowers his head and he charges at me...
I summoned every once of my strength and gave my best battle cry at the top of my voice and Milo stopped about 2 feet in front me...
Listening to a word can save our lives...it can be the difference between life and death
If this is the case with a word when it comes to earthly advice how much more when it comes to the words of our Lord.
If our Lord tells us to do something it can be our life...or death.
Do not weep and I say to you arise.
What is it then that keeps us from listening to our Lord's words?
Well, one of the main things that keeps us from listening to our Lord's words is we want to follow our own comforts our own desires our own reasoning.
At the moment I was charged by the bull, it seemed like the best thing to do was to run, but running could have meant my death.
So what we think is best is not always the best thing, in fact it could actually mean our death
Do not weep
Does this mean there are not things to weep about?
No it doesn't mean that.
St Paul says today—We are pressed on every way, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; smitten down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus
So there are reasons to weep...there are reasons to weep
Things happen in the world that bring us great sorrow and pain and YET our Lord tells us Do not weep
The widow who had her son being carried out of the town today in the gospel HAD a reason to weep but our Lord tells her not to
So what do we do and how do we follow these commandments from the Lord
Well our Lord says to us do not weep because there is reason for hope...this life is not the end of the story
If it was the end the story we might all just crumble in fear and pain because of all the suffering and injustice in the world
but this is not the end of the story—so Do not weep
And this is not only not the end of the story but the end of the story involves our rising—with our Lord
The resurrection of all those we love, the resurrection of the whole universe and renewal of all things
And it is with this understanding that our Lord asks us to arise
How do we rise up?
We are told in the gospel.
We rise up through the power of the Lord—He has the power to raise us
After the man rises up the Lord gives him to his mother
It is the same for us—we come to the Chruch who is our mother and we receive comfort and nourishment and love after we arise...
Sometimes in my house, I will be in a room and one of my kids will run into the room and they will say—Mama!
And I say—Mama's not here but can I help you with something—and they just look at me and run out and say—Mama!
They don't want me they want Mama. They want comfort, they want nourishment, they want answers and their Mama is who has that
There is this close relationship that a mother has with her children and so we come to the Church—we rise up in response to the Lord's voice and come to the Church and come to our mother and she gives us what we need.
And our Mother has the ear of her Son
She will go to her son and ask Him to do something and He will do it and that is that special relationship she has with Him as her mother.
So we come to the Church and this is how we can stay risen you could say—how we can stay lifted up
So today we hear do not weep and I say to you arise and these (and not just these but all of our Lord's commandments) can be the difference between life and death for us
Think about that and meditate on that...when our Lord asks us to do something it could be our Life or Death
These commands are all through all the gospels—when our Lord says things He is saying them to us
Even though sometimes these commands can seem counter intuitive—like standing in place when you really feel like running—we have to do them and hand over our own limited and juvenile understanding of things
And this is so that we can find and have life.
Through the prayers of our most holy Lady the Theotokos—our Mother—may our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
