Orthodox Sermons & Articles

Today, my dear brothers and sisters, we heard a beautiful story about Jesus’ conversation with a woman from Samaria, which had occurred while He was resting by the well of Jacob, on His way to Jerusalem. Why is this Gospel reading interesting? First and foremost, it’s interesting because it gives us a view or even a revelation about our inner co-workings with God. If we want to be alive not bodily only, but spiritually as well, we have to make ourselves ready for the Holy Spirit to do His precious works within ourselves.

Today’s Gospel is about this particular aspect of the Holy Spirit. When we are possessed by earthly desires we think accordingly, about how to satisfy our earthly needs. Look at the Samaritan Woman; she was thirsty and came to take some water from the well. Her coming to the well was motivated by the desire or need of the flesh but Jesus instead spoke with her about the living water of the Holy Spirit. Because of her "earthliness" she was unable to understand Jesus when He spoke of spiritual matters. Only after He had revealed to her His knowledge about her unlawful husband did she realize that Jesus was much more than a simple traveler. At the very least she considered that he might be a prophet. This story proves that once we start to realize that earthly things are just temporal and spiritual are immortal and never ending, we create for ourselves the possibility to receive within ourselves "the fountain of the living water" to which Jesus was referring. Isn’t it incredible that our God loves us so much that He is willing to guide us to this stage of living with Him and also become our source of life! The only thing that is needed to achieve this is our cooperation with Him or our WILLINGNOUS to fill our hearts with His love! Those who have achieved this level of cooperation with God during their lifetime can attest that when God and His people are bound tightly together with love, TRUE HAPPINESS is realized. We will never find happiness outside of God or without God because He is fullness of everything and a Perfect Being.

Today’s Epistle reading proves that the "living water" of the grace of the Holy Spirit is working miraculously within the followers of Christ who possess it. Today’s passage from the Acts of the Apostles takes us back to the time when Christ’s Church was in her early stages. The word of Jesus regarding salvation to all was spreading further and further. The work of the Apostles and their followers was successfully accomplished only because they had "the fountain of the living water" within themselves. Today’s epistle reading tells us that even in the days of persecution, the word of God had been preached to people. The Disciples of Christ had to leave Jerusalem because of this persecution but they continued to preach. At first, they preached only to the Jews but when they reached Antioch they began to preach to the Greeks as well and as a result, their seed of the word produced a good crop as "a great number believed and turned to the Lord".

When it became known in Jerusalem that people in Antioch had accepted the Gospel, one of the disciples, Barnabas, was sent there to encourage them to stay firm with their faith. The book of the Acts of the Apostles witnesses that Barnabas was "full of the Holy Spirit". This is why people listened to him and his helpers – because they saw in him and them "the fountain of the living water". Barnabas went even further; he went to Tarsus and brought with him Saul (Paul). Together they both stayed in Antioch for a whole year teaching people about the way of salvation. It was in Antioch that the followers of Jesus were first called "Christians". All of us, dear brothers and sisters, are Christians because we have opened our hearts to the word of God through a preacher and have believed in it so much that we will never regret our bondage with Jesus Christ our Savior which was established when we were baptized.

.Today’s epistle reading has touched yet another aspect of the life in early church. We heard that "in those days some prophets from Jerusalem came down to Antioch, and one of them named Agabus got up and revealed through the spirit that a dire famine was threatening the whole world." The epistle witnesses, this famine happened during the reign of Emperor Claudius. This information has historical value and can be checked by anyone should they doubt the truth of this epistle. This famine opened another side of true faith – the active side – because all Christians in Antioch understood that they had an obligation to help their brethren in Judea overcome the famine. They collected some goods and money and sent it all to the presbyters of the church in Jerusalem. We do the same, dear brothers and sisters, when we collect money and goods to help other Christians to overcome their hardships. We did it when I was on holidays in the Ukraine, and as well we did it last year. With the help of our contribution to the Church in the Ukraine, believers there have accomplished some urgent tasks and have prevailed over at least some of the problems facing them. Therefore, you can see that this practice of helping each other is two thousand years old and was established by the first Christians who wanted to express their love to another sister church by helping them to survive their difficult times. If we want to fulfill the Law of Christ, then we have to carry each other’s burdens.