In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

It’s good for us to remember what N had to say last night regarding the way the Lord has provided for human beings in the course of all of history to know Him, if they will to do so. It is a question of: will the heart listen to the Lord? Will the heart recognise the one God as the Creator of all, and try to listen to Him, and be obedient to Him? As N was outlining last night, in early China, this was apparently the case, because the nature of the prayers of the Emperor, themselves, recognised God as a loving God. However, the Chinese nation, as well as everyone else, got lost. We got lost in our own passions, lost in doing our own will, not God’s will. That is where the problems always have arisen for us: doing our own will, and not God’s will.

The Apostle Paul today is talking about how the Lord in His creation shows Himself, how He reveals Himself to us. Are we, ourselves, prepared to accept the revelation? The fullness of this revelation came in the Incarnation of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. In the context of our self-deforming, it is very difficult for us to accept the love of God as it presents itself. As human beings always do, we think of a better way, somehow, using our own intellect, not bothering to pay any attention to the Lord, and to His will, not really accepting Him as Who He presents Himself to be. We reinvent Him. That is, for instance, what Arius did; what Nestorius did, and others have done, and especially these days, what many people are doing. They are remaking Christ so that He will fit their idea of what is easier to take, somehow. However, when we do this, our troubles multiply – they don’t get less. It is our responsibility, especially as North Americans trying to witness for Christ here in North America, to put Christ first always, at all times, and everywhere. We must let our hearts be open to Him, to His direction, and try to be ready to follow His will, and not what we think might be a better idea.

God having His will with me, sometimes, sends me from place to place, it seems. Two weeks ago, I was in Ukraine, serving in a series of little villages outside of Lviv in western Ukraine. This is an area where the Orthodox Church, and especially the canonical Orthodox Church, is under a great deal of pressure. Fifteen years ago, all of the canonical Orthodox churches (except one) in the whole diocese were taken away from the parishioners, and given to someone else. That is because of the way the government operates. At that time, all churches belonged to the government, and the government could do whatever it liked. It still does. All those buildings were taken away, and then the canonical Orthodox faithful had to start over from zero.

Within a few years, some arrangements were made with Ukrainian Catholics, and in a few of the parishes in these little villages, Orthodox, and Greek Catholics alternate, taking turns on Sundays. One Sunday the Orthodox go first, followed by the Greek Catholics; the next Sunday the Greek Catholics go first, followed by the Orthodox. However, in most of the places, they had to find a piece of land, and that was not easy. Then they had to get permission to build, and, finally, they had to build. A week ago, I was serving in a little church on the edge of a town called Chervonograd close to the Polish border. In Chervonograd, there are already two parishes that have been re-established. The one in which I was serving was right on the edge of the town. They were very creative. It is a very strange-looking building. It looks as though it were part of a ship, a sailing ship without the masts. It is amazing. When you go inside the church, you feel like you are in the hold of a ship. It is a very literal way of taking the architecture of the Church as being a ship. Usually, the church is supposed to be looking like an upside-down ship, in fact: representing the ark of salvation. Sometimes it can be cruciform, but the basic idea is that the Church is a ship, and the nave, the middle part of the church, is “ship” in Latin.

This newly-built church in the shape of a ship is quite amazing, and not what you would expect for an Orthodox church, although it is certainly 100 per cent Orthodox. In some other places, much bigger churches had been built because they had found sponsors who had money. They had been able to build much bigger churches, more in line with what we would expect, with domes, and cruciform shape. Hwever, the way the architecture was done was very interesting. Each is unique in its own way with a combination of the traditional shape of the church with domes, but the exterior decoration makes it look somehow more modern. You’ll have to go to Ukraine, yourself, and see this, although I think you don’t only have to go to Ukraine. I’m quite sure that in other countries where building is going on, similar combinations of traditional architecture, and modern taste, and ideas go together very well. It is the inspiration by the Grace of the Holy Spirit that makes these things possible, because people in these places obviously love Jesus Christ above all. They were willing to listen to the Lord say to them as it were: Buy here – talk with this person – do this – do that, and they did. They were able to rebuild. They were willing to listen to the Lord, and listen to Him say to them: It must be done – it can be done – it will be done – just do it. Don’t be afraid – just do it.

In this building, it is much better than before, because you don’t have to take down, and set up every Sunday. It is not yet your permanent home, but nevertheless, you have come a long way. You have a visible presence in a good place, a sign that you can see from the street. You can find this church now, and you don’t have to depend on anyone else. You have made a big step forward. The Lord will give you the next step. However, I say to you as the Lord says to the Apostles today: “Follow Me”. Immediately they followed Him. Let your hearts listen to the Lord, also, so that when He speaks to you, and says: This has to be done – it must be done – it will be done, because I am with you – just do it. Don’t be afraid. Whatever the Lord is leading you to do next is always scary, and often doesn’t make sense. But if you do what the Lord says to do, it works. It happens, because He is blessing, and opens the doors.

May God give you the strength, and the ability to hear the Lord through the prayers of all the saints of North America, and all the saints of China also, that you may continue growing, and building, and increasing the Body of Christ here in N, to the glory of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, together with His Father, who is from everlasting, and His all-holy, good, and life-creating Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

† Archdiocese of Canada - Orthodox Church in America