Homily

A few weeks ago when the mask rule came back, I prayed about what to do. As a result I did not do anything and decided to watch what you yourselves would do. Most of you came to church without masks, and, after a year and a half of Covid experience you seemed to feel that was safe for you. I thought of all the safety measures we already have in place, which you know about. My decision was not set in stone and I tried to keep an open mind. I prayed every day about this, asking the Lord to give me guidance. Later on, I learned that some people did not feel safe in church with so many people not wearing masks, and they did not feel they could attend as long as this situation lasted.

So then it was clear to me that I needed to ask you all to go back to wearing masks. It is a hard situation and a bad thing when people come to worship God but they do not feel safe in church. That is why I have asked all of you to make this sacrifice for your fellow parishioners, so that we can all come together in peace as one parish at the Divine Liturgy. I am very aware that you all have different ideas about this pandemic and how to live with it. I am not trying to address you as a politician, scientist or internet expert on Covid. I just want to address you as your pastor. If some members of this local Body of Christ are in need, or hurting, or in trouble, then the whole body is affected, as Scripture tells us, and as I see it myself. We, here, in this parish are called to truly try and love one another, support one another, and pray for each other that we may be strengthened in our faith in Christ and in our shared lives of faith with one another. This bond should be more important than any political, cultural or social differences we may have, and it should, I hope, prompt us to sacrifice a little, or even a lot, for one another. And, in fact, so many times in the history of our parish these past 40 years, that bond of faith has been honored and upheld by the members of this church because of their own faith. That’s a major reason why we are still here today and it has always been a powerful witness to me.

In large parishes people tend to go to church, and often don’t know many of the people they are praying with. But in small parishes it’s much more personal, of course. You know what’s wrong with Francis sitting over there in the third row. But even if you are right about Francis, will you pray for him? Will you be willing to help him, support him? This is a large part of the reason why we come together to worship. Not only to praise God as a group of believers, but also to share a life in faith with each other, because each of us contributes to the Body of Christ, this parish, in their own unique way. God Himself takes those contributions and fashions them into a blessing that is great for all of us, even if we do not see how that happens.

We have been hampered in our life together by last year’s lockdown, and then by having two Liturgies where we didn’t see the whole parish, and also by some of constrictions the epidemic has caused, and it has made it more difficult to spend time with one another. And yet…here we are today, and thanks be to God!

This reality of our relationships with one another, as members of this parish, has had me thinking these past few weeks. We can be a great support to one another not only today but the days that lie ahead. As a society we continue to sink deeper not only into a swamp of immorality, but even into the chaos of fighting against truth and reality. If a person can decide on any given day, what their gender is, despite the plain physical reality, and other people must agree with their decision, under the threat of legal action by law, we are in trouble. And then when these same decide-your-own-gender people tell us they reject faith because they only believe in science, how illogical can you be? And yet I fear things will continue to become even more crazy as time goes on. If we reject physical reality in favor of emotional desires, how can we live well together as a people? How can society function with such a lack of reason and truth?

I do believe it will be harder and harder to live as faithful Christians in the near future. I am not trying to be a prophet of doom, but we have already gone so far down the road to materialistic paganism that, unless some big disaster happens that shocks people back to reality, I see it only continuing to get worse. As I have said before, so many of the Christian people of this nation have accepted one bad thing after another as just another part of life in modern America, they don’t seem to even realize how far down we have fallen in such a very short time, and what the consequences of that will be for us and for our children. How great it would be for you to know that your fellow parishioners will support you in faith and in prayer. How great it would be to know that your fellow parishioners would help you in time of physical or financial or spiritual need. How great it would be to know that we are here for the sake of God and for one another as well. As I pray several times in the Liturgy “let us commend ourselves, AND one another and whole life to Christ our God.” We already do these things to some degree, thanks be to you and thanks be to God. But I believe we could still do better. I ask you to think about this.

I have not always been keen on the idea of sacrifice for the simple reason that comfort feels so much better and sacrifice is hard. And yet, I acknowledge how important sacrifice can be in life, and the importance of embracing sacrifice sometimes even when it is not required. Let us consider our small sacrifice of wearing a mask to be a part of our willingness to do for one another, in Christ. Let it be a small symbol of our willingness to sacrifice as we look upon the image of our Lord here, Who sacrificed Himself on the Cross.

At the same time, if there are any of you who have good reason for not wearing a mask, please let me know so that we can make arrangements for you, so that you also may come to church in peace and not in a spirit of anxiety.

And one last thought. We cannot have too many reminders of the Lord’s presence in our daily lives. When putting on our masks it would be great if we could remember to link that action with a short prayer, such as the Jesus Prayer, or some other prayer, such as “Lord please help those in our parish who are ill or in pain.” Let the mask that covers our mouth open our mind to a moment of prayer. Then we will go into Costco or any other place, even here, with a reminder of God, which is a good thing to do (maybe especially at Costco). I struggle trying to form this habit for myself, but I’m not giving up. May the Lord guide our thoughts and prayers this week and may we have the wisdom to hear Him.