The Orthodox Parish of St Aidan & St Chad, Nottingham (EP)

Sunday of Myrrh-Bearing Women 2018
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and Of the Holy Spirit - Amen
“ready to face and endure danger or pain; showing courage”.
This is a typical definition of bravery. These past few days, I have asked a few people who they considered to be brave and I have been surprised how difficult people found it to answer that question! If I were to ask you who you consider to be brave I wonder what you would say? I did a quick check online to see which individuals are considered to be the bravest in History. I wonder if you would agree with this list?

Galileo Galilei             Dietrich Bonhoeffer    Witold Pilecki             Helen Keller                Moses              Jesus Christ               Giuseppe Garibaldi                 Martin Luther King     Nelson Mandela          Winston Churchill         Rosa Parks                  Socrates          Muhammad Ali           Maximilian Kolbe        Mahatma Gandhi                           Desmond Tutu    Dalai Lama                              Amelia Earhart           Harriet Tubman
Emmeline Pankhurst

There’s church in Ruddington that has two graves containing the remains of two soldiers who fought at the battle of Rorkes Drift.  It was January 1829, at Rorkes Drift that just over 150 British and colonial troops successfully defended the garrison against an intense assault by 3,000 to 4,000 Zulu warriors. Now although I have no interest at all in military history, since a child I have been fascinated by the movie ‘ZULU’ and have always considered the soldiers at Rorkes Drift to have shown tremendous courage.

Today - the second Sunday after Pascha – we remember and celebrate the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women. But not only them! We also remember Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. Why? Who are these people? The Gospels hardly seem to mention them! What did they do that was so special?
Well they all have something in common – They all exemplify perfect love, bravery and faithfulness.

Let us consider their actions! At great personal risk to themselves, and at a time when all seemed lost,  when most all had abandoned Christ, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for our Lord’s body and took him down from the cross.

Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees, had visited Jesus, under cover of darkness, spent a huge sum of money on myrrh and aloes, was then cast out of the synagogue, and suffered for disclosing the Jewish plot to hide and deny the truth of Jesus Crucifixion and Resurrection. It was Nicodemus who helped Joseph of Arimathea to bury our Lord.

Then, after the body of our Lord had been sealed in the tomb, and whilst others hid in fear, the brave Myrrh-Bearing women, risked everything, out of love for Christ, to anoint him with myrrh and sweet spices.

For all of them this was a moment of great personal crisis. But they did not think of themselves**.** Instead they ministered to the body of Christ with selfless love! None of them had gotten what they wanted, not Joseph of Arimathea, not Nicodemus, not the Myrrh-Bearing women. All were grieving, and I am sure they were all experiencing intense feelings of fear and disappointment. Nothing had turned out as expected. Yet despite thisthey resisted the temptation to think only of themselves! And because they were able to keep their focus on serving Jesus they reacted very differently to the other disciples.

In their own way, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the Myrrh-Bearing women, all showed immense courage, showed selfless sacrifice, showed their love and respect for Jesus and his body! Now this should be of considerable concern to each of us, because we, each and every one of us, is called to be a Myrrh-Bearer!

 
Like Joseph of Arimathea, like Nicodemus, like the Myrrh-bearing women, we too Know the truth of the Crucifixion.
We too know the truth of the resurrection and so, to become myrrh-bearers we need only to care for the Body of Christ.
Now the Apostle Paul teaches us that the church is the body of Christ (1 Cor12 v27 “Now you are the body of Christ”)
But of course, that is not as easy as it sounds! Like the Myrrh-Bearing women we too need to overcome our fears.
We need to show love and compassion, we need to give of ourselves and all we have, we need to make sacrifices.

To do anything for the Church, the Body of Christ, is not easy in todays’ world. The world tries to condemn the Church because our values are contrary to those of the world. The world tries to create scandal and controversy around the Church to dishearten us and to turn people away from the church. To do anything for the Church requires FAITH! And those with little faith will find they have little time or patience for the Church.

Today we remember Joseph of Arimathea, we remember Nicodemus, we remember Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Joses, Mary, the wife of Cleopas, Martha of Bethany, Sister of Lazarus, Mary of Bethany, Sister of Lazarus, Joanna, the wife of Chuza the steward of Herod Antipas, Salome, the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and Susanna. – The Myrrh-Bearing women. And as we remember them let us also remember and celebrate the Myrrh-Bearers amongst us!

Those Myrrh-bearers who sing in the choir,
Those Myrrh-bearers who bake the prosphora
Those Myrrh-bearers who clean, set up and dismantle the church
Those Myrrh-bearers who sew vestments, falls and alter covers
Those Myrrh-bearers who, make the tea, donate food, or washup
Those Myrrh-bearers who donate icons, make offerings of money
And Those Myrrh-bearers who simply and faithfully come along each week to worship and pray!

We are all called to be Myrrh-Bearers, we are all called to care for the body of Christ, The Church!

From last week’s canon …
“let us bring our hymns of praise to the Master instead of ointments, and we shall see Christ the Sun of Righteousness causing life to dawn for all.”   

Through the prayers of all our Holy Fathers, O’ Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.        Amen

Homily: St John Climacus – The Ladder (Mark 9:17-31)
In the Name of the Father, …
As a child, Sunday was one of the few times that my parents, my brother and I all spent ‘quality time’ together. We didn’t watch as much TV in those days instead we would play board games. We always had great fun – just so long as my Dad won!!!
One of the first games I remember was this… (VISUAL AID) SNAKES & LADDERS. I’m sure most, if not all of us, have played Snakes & Ladders and I’m sure you remember how it goes; You roll the dice and move your counter along the board. Land on a square containing the foot of a Ladder and up you travel moving closer to the last square. But, land on the head of a snake and down you go! Descending back down closer to where you started.
It was a quiet a few years later when I began to think that life, was a little like Snakes and Ladders. Life has its ups and downs, it’s snakes and its ladders and I’m sure that we have all encountered those we considered to be ‘Snakes in the grass’ , those we felt to be treacherous and have knocked us back. And those who, like ladders, have raised us up!

But it was many years later that I began to see that the spiritual life is also like ‘Snakes and Ladders’ -  although the spiritual life is NO GAME!

We can journey through the spiritual life making steady progress. Then suddenly, there are those rare and precious moments when seem to surge upwards – much like moving up a ladder in the game!

However, more often we find ourselves being brought down to earth! Usually through our own doing; because we have been flirting with snakes! And it is when we are at the tip of the snake’s tail that we become aware of our sinful nature.

Of course, it’s all there in the Holy Scriptures; The enemy is portrayed as a serpent, the tower of Babel, a Ladder to reach Heaven; Then there is the ladder in Jacob’s dream, with angels ascending and descending. It seems that there has always been a desire for a ladder. A way up and out; A link from earth to heaven.

Today, the fourth Sunday of Great Lent, we remember St John Climacus. St John was born 579 AD, and died 649 AD. Whilst living the hermitic life in the Sinai Desert St John provided us with a Ladder; ‘The Ladder of Divine Ascent`

This is a book, which is traditionally read during Lent and has become one of the most influential and important works used by the church to guide the faithful to a God centred life. The aim of St Johns ‘Ladder’ is to guide us to a life completely and wholly devoted to God.

Please take some time, to take a good look, at the icon on the central analoy today.
We see St John beautifully presented writing his treatise and being guided and instructed by angelic beings. And we see a Ladder on which the faithful are ascending to our Lord. Look carefully to the right of the Ladder, Again, we see angelic beings helping the faithful to climb the ladder.

However, look to the left of the ladder and we see the forces of the enemy trying, and in some cases, succeeding to pull the faithful off the ladder. And look what happens to those who fall from the ladder; We can see them being devoured by a serpent, a snake, the enemy himself.

Notice where the greatest concentration of angelic and demonic beings is to be found!

At the bottom of the ladder__. Think for a moment why that might be

Now, what about our Gospel reading today? Does this have anything to do with Snakes and Ladders? Well, I think it does.

In Mark 9:17-31 we read how the father of an ill son, who had a dumb spirit, came and beseeched Jesus to help him. Jesus, who has just joined His disciples, responds to the father’s plea and heals the demon possessed boy.

“Come out of him and enter no more into him” Jesus commands and the spirit cries out, convulses the boy and leaves him”. An exorcism – We are dealing here with snakes!

But if we look at the verses preceding our reading we see that Jesus has joined his disciples having descended a mountain. Not just a mountain, but the mountain of the Holy Transfiguration. Where the eternal and the temporal meet – The top of the Ladder!

The whole purpose of our life is to find union with God. On Monday evenings, at our ‘Enrichment of faith’ meetings we have been looking at our ‘10 Principles for Orthodox living’; 10 rungs, of yet another ladder, that will help us to move closer to God. As Christians we have made the decision to put ourselves on a spiritual ladder. Once on the ladder we have a further decision to make;
Which direction do we want to travel? Do we want to climb and ascend the ladder; and in doing so move closer to God? Or, do we want to descend the ladder; and move away from God? It is a choice that we must make, we cannot stand still on the ladder! If we try to stand still we will block the way for others and become easy targets for the enemy!

So, as we journey together toward Pascha let us support and help one-another; and ascend together toward our union with God!
Holy Father John, prayer to God for us.  Amen

Journeying Together To Pascha

Sunday January 28th
Theme: Publican & Pharisee
Epistle: 2 Timothy 3: 10-15
Gospel: Luke 18: 10-14

How to Participate?
Trust in God, not yourself!
Ask for his help before beginning any Task.

Fr David’s sermon for The Sunday of the Ancestors of Christ, 17th December, 2017

Today’s Gospel surely reveals insensitivity, or perhaps insensibility, when three men make excuses to avoid an important and life changing invitation to the rich man’s feast. And there were more than three, because so many places were unfilled. Of the three, one had bought a piece of of land, another a yoke of oxen and the third, perhaps with a more reasonable excuse than the others, had married a wife. All three and others missed out because of their lack of sensibility ( lack of capacity to feel, understand and be sensitive to the situation).

Our Philip Gorski has written a paper entitled, ‘Comfortably Numb’, with the sub-title, The Demon of Insensibility, as understood by various important Fathers of the Church. Alongside this I suggest, complacency, which the Abba Dorotheus describes as the mother of all failings. With complacency, we take things for granted and may even become indifferent. The Fathers tell us that we should often remember death in our thoughts. This may sound morbid to the modern era but it is part of the reality of life; there comes a time when each one of us passes from earthly life to the life beyond. We must not be complacent, believing that the God of Love who has done so much to reveal Himself to us and help us should therefore be taken for granted. St Paul says, ‘Work out your salvation with fear and trembling’. When we pass into the next life, it will be awesome and fearful. We shall come into the presence of God, how will we react? Will we be able to recognize and respond to the Glory of God, presented to us, or will it seem, as Metropolitan Kallstos points out, like a burning fire. Will we be sufficiently prepared to see Glory and enter into the promised life of Heaven, or will we only see a consuming fire. The Gospel story, inviting us to the banquet, is most apt at this time of year as we prepare of the Feast of the Nativity. So many around are indifferent as they revel in self indulgence, they are not sharing with us the Feast of the Nativity. Whether they know it or not, they are celebrating again the pagan festival of Saturnalia, the Roman midwinter feast of misrule. In Roman times this lasted for several days, now, for some, this misrule last the year round; self indulgence prevails, complacency abounds, God is not recognized and if He is not recognized in earthly life, how will He ever be recognized in the life beyond?

For us the path is clear, we honour the child in the manger in Bethlehem. We honour him not only as the Messiah foretold by the Ancestors of Christ, but we have the additional blessing of knowing that he is no other than God Himself, come to be with us, to restore us, to enable us to become what we were always designed to be. He is Our Savior. We cannot afford to be ‘Comfortably Numb’ in the face of such a great blessing. We cannot be complacent, and in any way fall into the life trap of the world around. Rather we kneel with devotion at the crib of the newborn King, even Christ our King and our God.