Sunday Sermon – 7th September 2014 By His Eminence Archbishop Seraphim Of The Greek Orthodox Archbishopric of Zimbabwe and Angola This Sunday’s Gospel extract reminds us of an amazing event, which occurred 1500 years before Christ’s crucifixion. In point of fact, the book of Holy Scripture, Numbers, the 21, refers to the event where after the Israelites were released by the Egyptians and though they had returned to their native country, in the desert where they found themselves, they began to complain strongly against Moses despite the fact that God in a miraculous way had fed them with “manna”. Their ingratitude and faithlessness however is punished immediately. Poisonous snakes scattered death everywhere. The desert where the ungrateful ones found themselves – the thankless and faithless Israelite – was transformed into a place of pain, anguish and death. The Jews then run to Moses in repentance and ask for help. They plead with him and entreat him to mediate on their behalf that God will take pity on them. Then God, as the Holy Scriptures tells us, orders Moses to make a copper snake and to raise it onto a tall stick in the midst of the people. In continuation, the Israelites received the instruction that when a poisonous snake bit them, they should fix their sight on the copper snake and they would be saved. And thus, it happened. The Israelites sight towards the copper snake neutralized the power of the poisonous snakes. Thus the Israelites were saved. Christ reminds us of this story, making it parallel to his ascent on the cross, so that whoever believes in Him will be saved. After this event from the Old Testament, the course of the redemptive work it outlined and stressed, which God’s offers to man through his only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the reason besides that this event is referred to by Christ and especially the Sunday before the elevation of the Holy Cross on the 14th of the month, next Sunday. From within this event, the Jews above all are distinguished who represent man, the snakes are identical to sin and the copper snake foreshadows the Cross of Christ. It is well known from the first book of the Old Testament, the book of Genesis, that God has established man as the King and Lord of the whole of creation. He adorned him with logical intellect to think, to speak and to progress. However, instead of man declaring his boundless gratitude to his wise creator, he distanced himself. He infringed God’s commandment with the direct consequence of beginning to taste the bitter harvest of his demise. The original sin of the first created people, due to the unity of human nature, had abolishing consequences for the entire human race in the sense that now, every descendant of Adam and Eve, was born with the propensity and inclination to be attracted by evil, to take pleasure in wrongdoing and to live in sin. In front of the exiled Paradise, there spreads a boundless and stormy sea which creates uncertainty, anguish, struggles, illnesses, misfortunes, troubles, sweat, pains and calamities without the possibility of deliverance existing – everywhere there is pain and death. From man’s life, orientation was missing, which would lead them to the harbour of salvation. The few enlightened however were certainly not missing from God’s chosen people who constituted the means of communication between God and man. But even they were not listened to by the masses because every type of snake, the different transgressions had become the content of their life. Just as the poison of the snakes brought about death to the Jews, so too sin brought about death to the human soul, it darkened and distorted man’s mind, it lightened his will, it dissolves the institution of the family, it waters people with glasses full of grief and bitterness, it dissolves every hope man has, thus becoming the captive of some passion. This was the wretched situation the people found themselves to be in my beloved before the coming of Christ to the world. But in this situation before Christ, continue to be those who live far from Christ – that is, all those who continue to be enslaved and bound to their passions, those who are without the intention of repentance and insist on living in the state of their sin. God’s boundless love dragged man away from the fall of death, from the anxiety of life, from sin, pain and misfortune. God offered deliverance to all the people. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, so that whoever believes in him does not perish but has eternal life”. Thus today’s Gospel tells us that Christ came to the world and was crucified so that “whoever believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life.” This event as we have seen was first modeled in the Old Testament when Moses raised the copper snake and the Jews were saved from the poisonous snakes, when they looked upon it with faith. Thus, whoever believes and is united with Christ who was raised on the cross, is saved from death. He has eternal life Christ conquered death. Contemporary society avoids speaking about death. It is afraid that it might perhaps create fearful emotions and oppressiveness in man. This stance however constitutes an error because under no circumstance does flight constitute a real solution. In opposition, Christian upbringing takes a stance where death is concerned. It speaks about it and it leads to victory in opposition to it. Death connects man with Christ-and it makes him through God’s grace, Immortal. Finally, the drama of death is clearly a human drama, which is only solved when man is united to the incarnate Christ. Then there is no death, because death for man who lives in Christ constitutes a crossing, which leads him to immortality: “Christ has risen from the dead, by death trampling upon Death, and has bestowed life to those in the tombs. Christ’s death made eternal life a gift for us. Man’s salvation was realized upon the cross at Golgotha. Christ’s sacrifice delivered humanity. It offered an authentic situation, all the values that uplift man to the sphere of God’s Kingdom, truth, love, freedom, peace and furthermore he gave to every man the power to reach Godliness and to become equal to God through grace. Two thousand years have passed my beloved, from the time when the cross was raised at Golgotha. Man however has not utilized the possibilities, which God offered him. He scorned this Godly love. He refused to implement the truth, which Christ brought to the world. He drove himself to a new distance. Instead of reaching godliness, traveling the road of grace, he reached the godliness of material things, following the road of perfecting himself. Man of our age set himself up as an idol and he became enslaved to his passions. On the matter of material progress and economic prosperity he has the inclination to sacrifice everything, even his soul. Thus contemporary man, despite his technological achievements and his material conquests feels restless and tired. His stomach is full but his soul is empty. He sees that destruction is advancing and he makes no effort to stop it. Disillusioned by everyone and everything, he has allowed every possibility of resistance to become paralyzed within himself and he had believed that everything for him now has become lost. This is the tragic mistake of contemporary man - his despair and his indifference. We must never forget that then when Christ lived as a man on the earth, similarly now too He is always close to us in order to lead us victoriously to the glory of the Resurrection, of the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and Holy Spirit. God gave us everything. He gave and he gives everything abundantly to the good and the evil. He sends His goods to the just and unjust He raises His sun on the sly and on the good. He loves friends and enemies. In the same manner, God wants us also to give. He wants us to give to our fellow human beings kindness, love, justice and humility. He wants us to give to others consolation, hope and joy. He wants us to give the good example of a Christian life. We must give way to rage, light to darkness, truth to lies, freedom to tyranny. He wants us to give like Him without calculations, without self-interest without violence. Each giving of this nature is also an ascent, a transformation, an orientation that leads to the Christian orientation of mankind. This is why the commandment of love towards every person is placed precisely after the commandment of our love towards God. By omitting to give our love to our neighbours, we omit to declare our love to Christ. However, under no circumstance should we upset the content of our love with the acceptance and supporting of erroneous and catastrophic views, but oppositely, with our resistance of these. The whip, which Christ used in the temple to drive away those who did not respect God, was an act of love.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 08:39:55 +0000
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