St. Michael Russian Orthodox Church

August 23, 2009

Our Religion just as it is.

There used to be a Chinese restaurant on the other side of the Ben Franklin Bridge. There are lots of Chinese restaurants in New Jersey. This, though, was different. The food was pretty good, but what made it really different was that it was located in a building that once was a church. It gave you an odd sort of feeling when you looked around. You continually thought about what had been where inside that structure. It was an odd feeling. You knew that for some years Christians had come here regularly. Weddings were celebrated, children were Baptized and funerals were held. Then it became a Chinese restaurant. Instead of pews there were tables and chairs. I think that the former congregation had grown and moved on to larger facilities. But there are now lots of former churches, which were left when their former congregations simply shrank and disappeared because their people imagined that they really didn't need God after all.

Christians are called, as they have been for two thousand years, to share their faith in the One Who took on our flesh, was crucified and somehow, after three days rose to life again. Our world thinks that there is no need to believe in Christianity any more. Human beings, for them, have become the center of everything. Man's reason is enough.

From the leaders of some churches we hear the call to modernize belief. We hear that today people are looking for a religious feeling, but that they don't want the rules and guidelines of organized religion. There are church leaders telling us that Christians need to get past the teaching of the church so that we can unite without any doctrine or system of beliefs so that we can show the world our strength. This is all very interesting. This is all very stupid.

Let us take a quick look at our beginnings. Our church started out in a most inauspicious way. There were, you see, twelve frightened, cowardly men who were so afraid for their very lives that they were hiding in a small closed up house. Then something happened and they were never the same again. That something that happened was the arrival among them of the Holy Spirit. Those men, we call them the Twelve Apostles went out of that stuffy house and immediately began the conversion of the world. They were on fire. They were not concerned about the fact that they really should be very careful how they spoke so as not to offend anybody. No! They were filled with faith and with the truth of Christ. If somebody didn't like their words that was just too bad. They were not there to be loved. They were there because Jesus Christ had sent them.

Brothers and sisters! There is no way to modernize the Gospel of Christ. Remember, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, He is the same today and He will be the same tomorrow. Anybody who says otherwise is a fool and an apostate.

When we were Baptized people sang a hymn about "Everyone who has been Baptized into Christ has put on Christ." This means that we are here to show Christ to the world, not through our words, but through the living witness of our lives.