The Church: An Essential Institution

We are both Individually and Collectively part of Christ’s Body

Over the years I have met people who have chosen not to join a church, choosing, rather, to “worship” at home. Some have convinced themselves church is a waste of time, and feel they can be close to God while staying home on a Sunday morning. Others believe none of the churches teach the bible according to their own interpretation, and choosing to worship in the privacy of their own home, assure themselves they won’t have to hear any false teachings.

Some people have chosen to stay away from church because of past conflict with a clergyman, or perhaps got tired of hearing pleas for money, and have convinced themselves that giving to a charity is money better spent (in reality, church goers tend to outspend non-church goers in charitable giving).

In truth, God has given us the Church as the very place wherein we can grow spiritually, while enjoying the protection, and the blessings, of being in weekly contact with other believers. Just like an earthly family, we don’t always enjoy the presence of other members, but it is often those difficult and uncomfortable moments that help us grow the most. As well, there are blessings that would never be experienced, should we remain apart from fellow Christians.

In these trying times we have witnessed civil authorities telling us the Church is not an “essential institution”. Many Church leaders have chosen to allow the dictates of governments to order parishes to remain in lockdown, while liquor stores, pot shops, and even, as in the case of San Francisco, museums to be seen as essential.

In Luke 4:16, we read that Our Lord Jesus Christ was regularly in the temple, for “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom.” It was Christ’s regular practice to go to attend and take part in corporate worship – as He always did on the Sabbath, He went to the meeting place. If Our Lord Jesus made it a priority to meet together with other believers, how can we excuse ourselves from doing the same?

Finally, the most important reason for weekly church attendance lies in the fact that it is only in the church where we can receive Holy Communion, for Our Lord went so far as to say that unless we eat of His flesh, and drink of His blood, we will have no life in us (John 6:53). It is in the reception of Holy Communion where we receive the grace needed to grow spiritually, and where we are empowered to live in all holiness and truth.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Tuesday September 22, 2020 / September 9, 2020
16th Week after Pentecost. Tone six.
Holy and Righteous Ancestors of God Joachim and Anna.
Martyr Severian of Sebaste (320).
Venerable Joseph, abbot of Volokolamsk (or Volotsk) (1515).
Uncovering of the relics (1896) of St. Theodosius, archbishop of Chernigov (1696).
Elders of the Glinsk Hermitage: Venerables Basil Kishkin (1831); Philaret Danilevsky (1841); Theodotus Levchenko (1859); Macarius Sharov (1864); Martyrius Kirichenko (1865); Euthymius Liubimchenko (1866); Dositheus Kolchenkov (1874); Heliodorus Golovanitsky (1879); Innocent Stepanov (1888); Luke Shvets (1894); Archippus Shestakov (1896); Ioannicius Gromolko (1912); Seraphim Amelin (1958); Andronicus Lukash (1974); Seraphim Romantsov (1976); Zenobius Mazhuga (Seraphim) (1985).
New Hieromartyrs Gregory priest and Aleksander deacon (1918).
New Hieromartyrs Zaharias archbishop of Voronezh, Sergius, Joseph, Alexis, Demetrius priests and Martyr Basil (1937).
New Hieromartyr Andronicus (1938).
New Hieromartyr Alexander, priest (1942).
Venerable Theophanes the Confessor and Faster of Mt. Diabenos (299).
Martyrs Chariton and Straton.
Blessed Nicetas the Hidden of Constantinople (12th c.).
Commemoration of the Third Ecumenical Council (431).
Venerable Onuphrius of Voronsk (1789) (Romania).
Venerable Joachim, abbot of Opochka Monastery (Pskov) (1550).
St. Kieran (Ciaran) of Clonmacnois (Ireland) (ca. 545) (Celtic & British).
St. Omer, bishop of Therouanne (670).
St. Wulfhilda, abbess of Barking.
St. Bettelin, Hermit of Crowland.

The Scripture Readings

Galatians 5:11-21

11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased. 12 I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!

13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

Walking in the Spirit

16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: [b]adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Mark 7:5-16

5 Then the Pharisees and scribes asked Him, “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?”

6 He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:

‘This people honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.
7 And in vain they worship Me,
Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

8 For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

9 He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ 11 But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”—’ (that is, a gift to God), 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, 13 making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

14 When He had called all the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear Me, everyone, and understand: 15 There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. 16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”