The Lost Sheep

Leaving the ninety-nine for the one

The work of the Church is to seek out the lost sheep, and bring them into the fold. The modern mission of the Church is to go out into the community and find those who are lost. Many who were previously Orthodox, but never made a personal commitment that assured they would remain in the Church, and grow strong in their faith, are out there, waiting to be found. They who’ve been lost to the Church demonstrate the clear reality that it is not enough to practice the externals, or to know how things should be done, but to know the deeper meaning as to why we do what we do, and why we believe what we believe.

It is not enough that we fill our churches with people if they are not believers. Our people must be made strong in the faith if they are to withstand the secular assaults that are gaining influence in our modern world. The traditions and ceremonies of the Church are meaningless until people have taken on Christ, for themselves. The Lord said, “Marvel not that I said unto you, You must be born again (John 3:7)”. Belonging to the Church without understanding the teachings of the Church, and making them our own, is simply not enough.

The clergy fail in their service to Christ’s Church if they do not instruct the faithful. “This is the work of the Church: to help man to become aware of his eternal vocation, to draw near to a higher power, to Christ our Savior (Metropolitan Meletios of Preveza and Nikopolis).” Too many clergy fail to look for opportunities to interact with people, being missionaries in our own homeland. The people of the Western World have abandoned Christianity in droves, making it imperative that the Church reach out with a renewed missionary zeal.

Even those who are members of the Church are in danger of becoming lost sheep, being ill prepared for a secular and atheistic society that is increasingly Christianophobic. As priests, we dare not let even one parishioner leave the Church without doing everything we can to bring them back into the fold. Priests must do everything in their power to seek out those who’ve stopped coming to church and love them back into the life of the Church. Christ Himself demonstrated, as the Good Shepard, the need to leave the ninety-nine sheep, and go out and find the one who has left the fold.

Young people, especially, are turned off to the inauthentic. They can see when their parents, or even their priests, are simply going through the motions of religiosity. They will not commit to a life that demands sacrifice if they do not see it demonstrated, even lived out, in the lives of their elders. Priests must reach out to young people, even going to college and university campuses, with Orthodoxy. We must not cheat today’s youth of the knowledge of Christ.

I, like so very many of my brother priests, weep with sadness when I see our youth turn their backs on the Church. I recall an encounter with an Orthodox man who’s commitment to the Church had lapsed. He approached me with the request for a blessing, while his grown son stood by with a smile, and pleasant small talk, not asking for a blessing himself. This fine young man, gifted with a wonderful heart and a good mind, is estranged from the Church, and I found myself wanting to grab them both by the scruff of their necks, and usher them before the royal gates of the temple.

I am fully aware of how I’ve failed in my priestly duties. There are times I’ve probably given too harsh a sermon, or been parental when I should have been more pastoral and accommodating. All I can do, in the aftermath, is to pray for those lost sheep, and keep my heart opened wide with the love of Christ. Just like fathers in the flesh, I must leave the door open and be more loving. Surely no easy task when you worry about those who were placed in your pastoral care by God.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Wednesday January 25, 2017 / January 12, 2017
32nd Week after Pentecost. Tone six.
Fast. Fish Allowed
Afterfeast of the Theophany.
Martyr Tatiana of Rome (226-235).
St. Sava I, first archbishop of Serbia (1235).
Venerable Martinian of White Lake, abbot (1483), and Galacteon, his disciple (1506).
Martyr Mertius of Mauretania (284-305).
Martyr Peter Apselamus of Eleutheropolis in Palestine (309).
Venerable Eupraxia of Tabenna in Egypt (393).
Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos “Akathist” and “The Milk-giver”.
Icons of the Most Holy Theotokos “Popskaya”.
Virgin Martyr Euthasia.
Venerable Benedict Biscop, abbot of Wearmouth (689-690) (Celtic & British).
Eight Martyrs of Nicaea (Greek).
St. Elias the Wonderworker, of the Paradise (Greek).
St. Theodora of Alexandria, instructress of nuns (5th c.).
Martyr Philotheus of Antioch (ca. 305).

The Scripture Readings

James 3:11-4:6

11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

Heavenly Versus Demonic Wisdom

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Pride Promotes Strife

4 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:

“God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”

Mark 11:23-26

23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. 24 Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

Forgiveness and Prayer

25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. 26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”