Mathew Ethan Gust. This community congratulates and rejoices for you. Why? Because you are now a member of the Holy Orthodox Church. A Church on Earth that Christ Himself established. Never forget that, Christ is in His Church, and the Church in Christ. Infact, when Saul was persecuting the Church, the Lord Jesus blinded him and said, “Saul, Saul, Why are you persecuting me?” Saul persecuted the church and Jesus says why are you persecuting me. You have received a blessing from God to be able to partake of its mysteries and increase in growth as a follower of Christ, through the fullness of His Church. Remember that you have been transformed into something special, you are now a temple of God. Isn’t that a strange thing. Not the temple of God part, that part is easy for God, but that of humanbeings being transformed. That is the strangest and hardest by far. But, How does this happen? What is a temple? It is sort of like a container. The Church is a container. What does it contain? It contains the Holy Spirit. God’s promised helper to help and guide humanity back to God. We humans are also containers and we are filled with the Spirit of God. But sometimes, we do not live according to Christ teaching and the Spirit withdraws from us. This is a really bad feeling for any follower of Christ. It leaves a painful void in our hearts. Without this helper from God, all we are left with, is our own needs and wants, our own selfish desires to fulfill. We are left with ourselves to contend with and we always lose and remain slaves to ourselves. That is why we make the effort to come to Church. So that we could replenish us the container, with the Holy Spirit. Through its Sacraments, Holy Communion, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Through humility, repentance and confession. Through the prayers of the priesthood. We touch God, and God replenishes us with the Holy Spirit. Then we are transformed. St Paul explains exactly what a Christian becomes through this process, “you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.” At Chrismation we anointed all five senses. Your ears for hearing, eyes for sight, nose for smell, mouth for taste, hands for touch and the last thing we anointed, was your heart. Not with ink on tablets of stone. But with Holy Chrism on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. That right there, is the process of transformation and it is accomplished only by the Spirit of God, which now your temple, your body, contains. That is how we are transformed. This passage is exactly what is happening to you.
A Christian is a warrior. In ancient times, the Christians took the Cross into war and they never lost. Until one war was waged for selfish and unrighteous reasons. Not for the glory of God, but for their own glory. And just like the bronze serpent was taken away, The Cross was taken away from them and we only have pieces of it now. A lesson to humans who do not seek the glory of God, but their own. The same will happen to you also and to every human soul who do not seek Gods glory, but their own. Do not tell yourself that you are different and that this will not happen to you. But seek God’s wisdom in everything and always learn from the past. This Cross was given to you to wear around your shoulders and to bear. May you bear and carry it into battle courageously. May the Cross guard and protect you. You have been given a belt to gird you up. And strengthen you as you walk according to Christs teachings and to help you rise up above all evil, in other words, to lead you not into temptation and deliver you from the evil one. There will be more you will learn by living in and through the Church.