Freedom to Preach

The necessity of a pastor’s freedom to preach the truth

The fear of being labeled “political” has sidelined many a priest from injecting the Church’s biblical teachings into the life of the American scene. Sermons that were one day seen as simply preaching Gospel morality, are now seen as the injection of the Church into politics. A sermon preached on the issues of abortion or same-sex marriage, are now seen as an infringement into the realm of politics, and the unfair entrance of the Church into the affairs of the State. Pastors are now expected to remain on the sideline, keeping silent about basic moral issues that were, in the past, seen as their duty to address as religious leaders of this nation.

The free exercise of religion requires freedom for the clergy to preach on moral issues that confront our modern society. The priest must be free to address the care of the poor, national health, abortion, the position of the institution of marriage in our society, and issues that touch on the education of our youth.

The free exercise of religion, guaranteed by the First Amendment, prohibits the government from dictating what can, or can not, be preached, and is one of the core activities of the free exercise of religion. Freedom of religion based only on the freedom to worship is not freedom of religion. The free exercise of religion can not be allowed to be reduced to freedom of worship, for our Christian faith is not about worship only, but entails the whole of biblical living. Priests must preach the whole message of the scriptures, even if they affront the sensitivities of some. The Church can not be silenced in her prophetic duty to preach the Gospel, for a forced silence will turn Orthodox Christianity into nothing more than an homogenized State religion.

All this said, a priest should never push a political party, or a particular candidate. The Church expects her priests and clergy to preach on moral and spiritual issues, but emphatically insists they refrain from backing any candidate.  Every Orthodox Christian should vote according to a conscience formed by the moral and spiritual teachings of the Church.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Wednesday July 27, 2016 / July 14, 2016
6th Week after Pentecost. Tone four.
Fast. Food with Oil

Apostle Aquila of the Seventy, and St. Priscilla (1st c.).
New Hieromartyr Constantine priest (1918).
New Hieromartyr Nicholas priest (1933).
Venerable Stephen, abbot of Makhrishche (Vologda) (1406).
Martyr Justus at Rome (1st c.).
Venerable Ellius (Hellius) of Egypt (4th c.).
Venerable Onesimus, of Magnesia (4th c.).
Martyr John of Merv (Turkmenistan).
Venerable Nicodemus of Mt. Athos, spiritual writer (1809).
Sts. Vladimir and Agrippina wonderworkers of Rzhev
St. Marcellinus of Utrecht, priest (8th c.) (Neth.).
St. Joseph the Confessor, archbishop of Thessalonica (Greek).
St. Heraclius, patriarch of Alexandria (246).

Scripture Readings

1 Corinthians 2:9-3:8

9 But as it is written:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Sectarianism Is Carnal

3 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? 4 For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?

Watering, Working, Warning

5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

Matthew 13:31-36

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

31 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32 which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

The Parable of the Leaven

33 Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”

Prophecy and the Parables

34 All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them, 35 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying:

“I will open My mouth in parables;
I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.”

The Parable of the Tares Explained

36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”