Homily

Monday night, two weeks ago, some of us were standing outside of church after Vespers for our parish feastday. The wind was blowing and it carried smoke from the East. The next day we learned more news about the tremendous fire that had started up the McKenzie and was rapidly heading west. The emergency evacuation and threat levels were popping up on my phone. When the fire kept advancing and then much of the Thurston area was put under Level One warning, I started to get a bit worried. First of all, for our parishioners who live in those areas, and secondly for those who live not so far away from there. Like me. The fire seemed to be moving like a high-speed train with no stops in sight. So I prayed for the people and especially our parishioners who were closer to danger. And then I thought, “Maybe you should start thinking about what you need to pack up if you need to evacuate.” You know how your thoughts push ahead in times of trouble.

I started on that project. What should I take? The Holy Eucharist, chalices, handcross, the service books a priest needs, some vestments, the relics, a few rushnyky and some other items. From the house: my passport and birth certificate, credit cards, checkbook (church and personal), laptop, phone, sacrament registry book, some more church related books, some clerical clothes and regular clothes, a few jackets, what else, what else, what else? Oh, yeah…don’t forget toilet paper. In every disaster, you’ll need toilet paper. I started to make a few little piles of things…not a lot, but just as a starter, just in case. Where would I go? And how long would I be gone? What would happen later if the fire burned down the house and the church? What would we do for services and where would we hold them, and how many parishioners might be out of their homes, and what could we do to help them? So many unknowns!

And then I thought of all the stuff that would be lost in a fire. So many personal items but also so many things used in church, so many books, so many memories attached to so many things. Some things are irreplaceable, and other items would take a lot of work and time and money to replace. How long would we be without a church building to pray in? And the barns and sheds and all that equipment? How long without a house to live in? Once you start down that road of thinking it’s easy just to keep going down it.

And then it happened. I realized all that could really be done, and all that should be done, apart from some practical steps, was to trust in the Lord, and somehow, by His grace and help, what needed to get done would be done. It would be done in time. My life should not be fixed on things like buildings and material goods. My life should not be fixed on things like what has gone on in the past, and how things have been done up until now. Even if all that should change my life does not depend on that. Instead I should, as St. Paul tells us today, “live by faith in the Son of God Who has loved me and given Himself up for me.” That’s how I should be living. And that is the greatest way to plan for today and tomorrow. The fire was a potential present danger, but Christ is an eternal and absolute Savior.

The fire danger has passed now, and I am experiencing the Gumby effect. If you know about Gumby, you know he’s made of clay and he can stretch, and be stretched and pulled, but he always ends up snapping back to the same shape he was before he was pulled. In the same way it’s so easy, once the possible danger passes, to go right back to where we were, and how we were, before that danger came into our lives. We need to fight against that every time no matter what the danger or trouble may be, because we still need to trust in the Lord and walk according to His word, even when there is no threat of fire, or disease, or flood, or rioting, or sickness, or any problem that may threaten our life or our peace. Because, guaranteed, apart from death (the ultimate threat), another threat is coming, it’s on its way, we don’t know when it will come or how severe it will be or if it will touch our lives. We can only prepare by continuing to live by faith in Christ. Like the martyrs Prince Michael and Theodore who we remember today, we too ought to live by faith in Christ. He will always stand with us, and for us. He alone can help us to truly live. And He alone is willing to share with us His own divine life. Let’s not be Gumbys, but grateful sons and daughters who praise the Lord.