CONTACTS:
To message Archimandrite Kyril or to arrange a baptism or wedding please email the Parish Priest@bristol-orthodox-church.co.uk (Tel. 01179706302 or 07944 860 955).
For more see: CONTACTS
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Every Saturday: 5.30 p.m. Vespers Every Sunday: 10.30 a.m. Divine Liturgy
WEEKLY SERVICES & INFORMATION (Note: our Parish follows the “New” (Revised Julian) Calendar. For dates on the “Old” Julian Calendar, refer to an online calendar.)
Tuesday, 1st October. Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos and Ever-virgin Mary. (No service)
Saturday 5th October 5.30 p.m. Vespers
Sunday 6th October. 15th Sunday after Pentecost. Tone 6. Holy Apostle Thomas. Readings: 2Cor. 4:6-15 Luke 7: 11-16 10.30 a.m. Divine Liturgy Parish Meal
Saturday 12th October 5.30 p.m. Vespers
Sunday 13th October. 16th Sunday after Pentecost. Tone 7. Commemoration of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Readings: 2Cor. 6:1-10 Luke 8: 5-8a, 9-15, 8b 10.30 a.m. Divine Liturgy
FOOD BANK: Amidst our God-given sufficiency, DON’T FORGET THE NEEDS OF OTHERS. Bring contributions please.
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PARISH NEWS **Building update**: The painting of the walls has been completed. We need to clean the windows. Then the scaffolding will come down, a huge clean-up will ensue, and then we move back to our normal arrangement. THANK YOU for your generous donations. Without this, we would not have a space to worship in. We are extremely blessed to have our own space that does not need to be shared with other users. If we look after it, the building will be sure to last a few more hundred years and serve our community for many generations to come. Thank you especially for all the building fund sponsorship of Robert and Lauren’s walk last weekend.
GIFT AID |
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Some selected saints (AND FEASTS) of the coming days)..
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For those who wish to donate to our Parish online, our Facebook fundraiser can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/donate/453504039824339/?fundraiser_source=external_url
Sermon for the Second Sunday of Luke
Archimandrite Kyril Jenner
Luke 6:31-36
As with other Gospel passages that we read in church, looking at the context can enhance our understanding of the text. Today’s reading from Saint Luke’s Gospel forms part of what is referred to as “the sermon on the plain.” This has many parallels with the better known equivalent in Saint Matthew’s Gospel of “the sermon on the mount.” The text consists mainly of short and easily memorised sayings. This seems to have been a style used by many rabbis in the time of our Lord.
The “sermon on the plain” begins, like the “sermon on the mount,” with statements concerning how people should act in ways that are pleasing to God and so be blessed by him. In the text given by Saint Luke this is the balanced by statements concerning ways that are not pleasing to God: “But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:24-26) This ends with the instructions: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” (Luke 6:27-28)
After a couple more verses we have the start of today’s reading, which is a more detailed explanation of what it means to love our enemies. We have to take the initiative. We have to show love from the beginning. We have to look to a higher standard than normal human reactions to events. We must not be like the small boy, who, when asked why he hit another boy, replies “he hit me first, so I hit him back.” We have to start with love before such a situation can arise.
Our Lord starts by giving a very simple guiding principle. If we want others to behave well towards us, then we must start by behaving well towards them. But we must do this not merely in the normal human way. We must not restrict our love to those who respond with love. God shows us the way that goes beyond such restrictions. He showed his love in dying on the Cross. Despite our Lord’s work in showing love during his life on earth, through his teaching and his healing of the sick, people turned against him and put him to death. But even on the Cross he showed his love when he said: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
We should follow this example of love. In particular, we should not be looking for any reward in this life. That is the merely human way. We should follow the way of God, the way shown by our Lord. Our reward from God will be in the age to come. Saint Gregory Palamas expands on this:
“the Lord … commands us to love and do good even to our enemies, and to lend to those who cannot repay, without giving up hope. For, he says, “Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High: for he is kind to the ungrateful and to the selfish” (Luke 6:35). “Do not imagine”, he says, “that if you do good to evildoers and give to borrowers who will not pay you back, that what is yours will be lost. For now is the time for sowing good works, but the season for harvesting them is the age to come.” So do not despair during the appointed period between seedtime and harvest, but know that you will gather in what is yours many times over, just as those who do wrong now will reap their own evils. Whatever anybody sows here, they will harvest there, but with a great increase.
“If here you make yourself like the Son of God through your actions and show yourself kind towards all, as he is kind to everyone, there you will receive likeness to him, and more besides. The light of the glory of the Most High will shine around you, and you will be eternally with those, in whose company Christ our God [is] distributing the honours of eternal blessedness. He revealed this by adding, “And you shall be children of the Most High: for He is kind to the ungrateful and to the selfish” (Luke 6:35). For this purpose the Son of God bowed the heavens and came down to earth, became the Son of man, spoke and acted as he did, finally suffered and died for us, rose again and went up to heaven once more, to make us heavenly, immortal and children of God. So the things he now asks of us, that we should love our enemies, do good, and lend to those unable to repay, are not only fitting and beneficial for us, as has already been demonstrated, but are also small in comparison with what he gave. He gave himself for us, who not only had nothing to give in return, but who had previously shown ourselves in many ways to be ungrateful and evil. By contrast, he urges us to lend what we have in excess and to do good with what we possess. What do we have, and how much? And for the sake of these trifles he gives us in exchange likeness to himself, sublime adoption as children, and heavenly rewards, saying, “Be merciful, even as your Father who is in heaven is merciful” (Luke 6:36, cf. Matt. 5:48).” (Homily 45)
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