Fr. Sean’s Trinity III Sermon

May the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

+

Normally, I would have started this sermon by saying that we are settling into the long season of Trinitytide, and that this season affords us the opportunity for growth, marked by the liturgical color of green. But this year is different. In a month's time we will be packing up this church, having services at the Greencroft, and meeting during the week at St. David's while we renovate this building. As a parish, we are going on a journey, and every journey brings challenges along with unexpected wonders. This period of time will be our wilderness excursion until we enter again into this proper house of God. And so Trinitytide this year appears different--instead of viewing this season as matching the long, hot, and slower summer days here in Virginia, this year Trinitytide appears to me as one of preparation and support. There is more urgency and necessity in these liturgies unlike previous years. And it has opened my own eyes to see that that urgency is always there, an urgency that we see in St. Peter’s Epistle. “Be Sober, be vigilant.”

As Christians, our urgency does not come from doubting God's promises or work in us. We know that God has provided salvation for us, and he did so by uniting himself to human nature at the Incarnation, breaking the bonds of sin and death by his own death on the cross, and then bringing humanity into eternal life by his Resurrection and Ascension. At Pentecost he continued to give salvation by sending his own Holy Spirit into the very hearts of his Apostles and that Spirit now enters into our hearts through the work of the Church in the sacraments. 

God is ever merciful and seeks after us with ardent love. Jesus' own description of God from the Gospel is that of a shepherd who seeks after every lost sheep! Even if 99 of the flock is safe and sound and only one lost, the shepherd will go out to find that sheep. And, I love this image, he does not just call the sheep or pull him by a rope, but “when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.” Our God seeks us out and brings us through our dangers and adversities by carrying us! 

This morning a new member, Moza will receive that life of God and be united to the merciful life of God through her baptism. But in the liturgy of baptism, we do not get a sense of complacency but urgency. An urgency to live in the life that God has provided for his people. 

Because of the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, it is easy to be led away from the salvation that God provides for us. St. Peter writes in his epistle for this morning that “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” When we turn away from God because of dangers or adversities, God seeks us out so that we may return to Him. And the result is not shame or guilt (being devoured by a roaring lion), but rejoicing! One of the key differences between demonic activity and divine activity is joy. There is no joy in hell. But Jesus says, “Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” I love how this balances the Epistle--on the one hand, the devil, that roaring lion, seeks to devour us, but on the other hand, there is a mighty of host of angels assisting us and rejoicing in our repentance. 

We have, as a great reminder of this fact, a new icon of St. Michael the Archangel. As you can see in the icon, Michael has been depicted with brilliant colors--it is hard to behold the entire icon in one glance! There is a brilliance, a gold shimmering in his garments which represent the glory of God which he shares and gives to us because he is a messenger, as symbolized in his wings. His garment is blue, the color associated with the sky, the heavens--the infinite, everlasting, and mysterious realm in which Michael exists with God. He wears a cloak of red around his shoulders, being the color of blood and fire, and it symbolizes the vitality and love of God Almighty. Michael holds a sphaira, a globe that symbolizes the authority granted to him like in Revelation 12 where he is given the authority by God to lead the heavenly armies against Satan. 

The icon helps us remember that creation is much stranger and fuller than we suppose. We are surrounded by the mercy of God in his angelic creatures. All of creation brims full of beings we cannot see. This is helpful to remember that we are not alone in life, especially when dangers and adversities befall us or when we fall into sin and need the assistance to repent. 

St. Peter knew these common problems, temptations, and adversaries. But he does not despair, nor does he lower his expectations or offer us some trite platitude: Eh, we are all human. Instead he prays: “May the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” St. Peter calls us to seek after our shepherd who calls us by name. We have been granted eternal glory by Christ Jesus, and God does everything to complete that work in us, and that process starts now, during this life of suffering. In fact, St. Peter hints that it is through this life of suffering (and I mean that in a general sense) that God works in us as we cast ourselves on his grace and strength. 

That might seem overwhelming, perhaps impossible, but this is why it is so important to meditate upon the life of the saints--to see how others have allowed God to work in their lives. And that brings us to the icon of St. Elizabeth the New Martyr. St. Elizabeth, known by Ella by all her relations, was born on November 1, 1864. Parents were Princess Alice of the U.K. and Ludwig IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and Rhine. She had six siblings (Elizabeth second oldest). She was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria, with whom she had a very close relationship. Elizabeth is a unique figure because she grew up Anglican (her mother’s side) with a heavy Lutheran influence from her father, and later she converted to the Russian Orthodoxy. We know that she loved the Te Deum and growing up she would play favorite hymns on the piano such as “O God our help in ages past” and “I heard the voice of Jesus say.”

At the age of 19, she married the Russian Grand Duke, Serge. Ten years later, Serge's brother, Nicholas, became the last Tsar of Russia in 1894. Ella was considered to be the most beautiful princess in all Europe, and even in her teenage years had a presence about her that took people by surprise. Queen Marie of Romania commented after a royal gathering: “Her purity was absolute; one could never take one’s eyes off her, and when parting from her in the evening one longed for the hour when one would behold her again the next day. . . . Eyes that have never beheld her will never be able to conceive what she was then. Here she comes! With that divine smile curving her perfect lips, with a blush on her cheeks only comparable to almond blossom and an almost bashful look in her long-shaped, sky pure eyes.“ Her outward beauty was matched by an inner beauty that burned with love for her husband, her family, and the poor. She had witnessed at a young age the hardships of the world, and continually sought out ways to serve those around her who were impoverished. 

After 19 years of marriage, her husband Serge was assassinated by a Bolshovick revolutionary. St. Elizabeth then entered into a religious order and founded a convent in Moscow called Saints Mary and Martha Convent. On the morning of her final vows, she wrote one of her sisters: “I am about to leave the brilliant world in which it fell to me to occupy a brilliant position, but together with you all I am about to enter a much greater world -- that of the poor and the afflicted.” 

She sold all her possessions including her jewels and wedding ring to fund the convent and went about serving the destitute citizens of Moscow. The revolutionaries hated her and her devotion to the poor. In April of 1918 she was arrested and held in prison. On July 18, 1918 the remaining group of seven prisoners were driven two hours on a dirt road on carts, walked by gunpoint to an abandoned mine shaft, and were thrown in. St. Elizabeth went first, asked to pray, and said: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” 

Here is a woman who gave herself wholly to her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even though she had the temptation of the world by her position and the temptations of the flesh by all her wealth, and the constant temptations of the devil, St. Elizabeth instead gave herself over to the grace of God. And through her sufferings and hardships and failures, God worked in her and brought her to completion: a life of martyrdom. May we learn from her humility and life and live a life dedicated to the Blessed Trinity in communion with one another and all the angelic host. May this Trinitytide be one of serious growth as we enter into a new phase of our parish life.