Homily from St. John Russian Orthodox Mission Church, Lewisburg PA, on Jan. 8, 7532 (Jan. 21, 2024 on the civil calendar).

After Theophany Homily

The Gospel passage for today (copied at the end below) tells us that when our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ had heard that the Forerunner John, his cousin after the flesh, was cast into prison, He departed into Gallilee. There He dwelled at Capernaum on the coast of the Sea of Galilee. Now Capernaum became a headquarters of sorts for Jesus in his three-year public ministry, a base for much of his work. (To give an idea of its location, the Sea of Galilee was located about the same distance from Jerusalem as our mission’s building site in Winfield, PA, is located from the Orthodox monastery in White Haven, PA.)

Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee is described in the Gospel, in a quote from the Holy Prophet Isaiah, as on the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim. Those were two ancient names for areas that had been part of the lands of the so-called lost tribes of Israel, those taken into captivity by Assyria shortly after Isaiah’s time. In Jesus’ time, in Galilee of the Gentiles, those were old terms rarely used. The Gospel text seems to emphasize the relation of this area to both the Gentiles and the lost tribes of Israel, that is to peoples outside of Judaea and outside those communities commonly known as Jews in that day. In other words, it was helping to set the stage for the renewal and continuity of Israel as the Church, the Body of Christ. As the old American Gospel song puts it, “put your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee.”

The Gospel itself notes: “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus’ call to repentance picks up and fulfills that which the Forerunner had proclaimed. Indeed, the Forerunner is called sometimes the last of the Old Testament prophets although he appears in the New. He would take the message of repentance all the way to Hades where again Jesus would fulfill it in His Harrowing of Hell, preaching to those who had died before His Incarnation, on Holy Saturday. In relation to what is said further in the Gospel about Capernaum, where Jesus often lived and worked, it is well to remember that John was imprisoned for calling King Herod and his royal family to repentance due to their marital immorality, their disregard of God’s law and its boundaries set for human flourishing. It was news of John’s imprisonment that immediately preceded Jesus’ departure to Galilee of the Gentiles, we are told, to Capernaum.

The Church Fathers commented significantly on the Gospel today, although it is a relatively short passage. St. John Chrysostom wrote of the moral meaning: That Jesus here gave us the example of not going to meet temptations, “but to give place and withdraw ourself. For it is no reproach, the not casting one’s self into danger, but the failing to stand manfully when fallen into it. To teach us this accordingly, and to soothe the envy of the Jews, He retires to Capernaum; at once fulfilling the prophecy, and making haste to catch the teachers of the world: for they, as you know, were abiding there, following their craft.”

St. Jerome wrote, “Mystically interpreted, Christ begins to preach as soon as John was delivered to prison, because when the Law ceased, the Gospel commenced.”

Later in the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus remarks (Matt 11:23):

“And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.”

St. John Chrysostom wrote very sharply of the ancient sin of Sodom. Yet worse than it, according to the Gospel, is spiritual apathy and inattention to the Gospel, as at Capernaum, a place central to Jesus Christ’s ministry.

How much this is like our own day and age here in America.

Certainly the types of carnal sins of worldliness and violation of God’s law for marriage, which the Forerunner encountered and that Sodom exemplified, are rightly condemned. They go against the harmony of the divine Word embodied in the Church, which redeems and transfigures us sinful humans in the path of theosis, by God’s grace in synergy with our ascetic struggle. Yet the worse sin, Jesus offers, is complacency and apathy toward the Gospel. How do we in our own lives reflect such complacency and apathy, even as Orthodox Christians, in relation to our prayer life, our true love in dealing with others or the lack thereof, in terms of participating attentively in worship services, and engaging in mission work to save others lovingly? Capernaum is condemned, because, even though it witnessed so much of the work and teachings of Jesus, it lapsed into such lukewarm apathy, condemned also among the Laodicean Christians in the Book of Revelation.

In America, recent survey data indicates a desperate situation for two mainline Protestant denominations in the US that for generations helped anchor the Protestant civil religion of the U.S. Of 45 American Presidents, the two highest numbers of religious affiliations were 11 Episcopalians and 8 Presbyterians, which historically had mainly WASP and Scots-Irish ethnic backgrounds respectively. Recent survey data indicates that today for every Episcopalian in America in junior high or high school, there are ten who are at least 65 years old. In the largest Presbyterian denomination, PCUSA, for every child according to survey information there are eight people in the 70s or above. Being old is not bad—in Orthodoxy we honor elders! — but such figures reflect demographically the apathy and complacency of the heterodox establishment of faith in the U.S., which is reflected in severe moral struggles of American culture.

We know that the Orthodoxy in North America faces demographic challenges, too. But the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, survey data indicates, has been in recent years the fastest growing Orthodox jurisdiction in the U.S., thanks to small missions like ours, Glory to God! But we must not follow Capernaum and Laodicea and let pride and complacency cloud our hearts. Our urgent mission is to evangelize America and save our neighbors, starting with our region.

When Bishop Luke ordained me to the priesthood, right there at the altar as I was kneeling before him, he whispered two priceless words of instruction for all of us Orthodox Christians: Do not lose your zeal in the Holy Spirit, and, do not let yourself succumb to pride. Brothers and sisters, we are all called to be priests and kings unto God, as the Evangelist John has relayed to us in his book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Let us not lose our zeal in the Holy Spirit, let us not succumb to pride, for together those two spiritual losses are related, and complacency is the result, the type of lukewarmness that plagued the Church at Laodicea.

Instead, let us rise renewed by Theophany. May the baptism of the Lord be again our re-baptism and further dedication. Let us invite friends, neighbors, relatives, co-workers, and inquirers, to our services and Bible study. Let us sweat in our prayers to do so, as our Lord is said to have sweat like blood in the Garden of Gethsemane for us. We were bought for a price, let us be good servants in helping to save others lovingly, too, with God’s grace.

Christ is Baptized! In the Jordan!

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Today’s Gospel reading according to Matthew, Chapter 4.

¹² Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;

¹³ And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:

¹⁴ That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,

¹⁵ The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;

¹⁶ The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.