8th Sunday after Pentecost
July 20 1988
The Feeding of the 5000
St Elijah the Tishbite
The Epistle read for St Elijah:
Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the
Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. {11}
Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience
of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very
pitiful, and of tender mercy. {12} But above all things, my brethren,
swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other
oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into
condemnation. {13} Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any
merry? let him sing psalms. {14} Is any sick among you? let him call
for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him
with oil in the name of the Lord: {15} And the prayer of faith shall
save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed
sins, they shall be forgiven him. {16} Confess your faults one to
another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. {17} Elias was a man
subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it
might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three
years and six months. {18} And he prayed again, and the heaven gave
rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. {19} Brethren, if any of
you do err from the truth, and one convert him; {20} Let him know, that
he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a
soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. (James 5:10-20)
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen
Today is the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost, when we read about the
feeding of the 5000. Today is also the day that we commemorate the Holy
Prophet Elijah (or Elias). We hear of a great miracle in the feeding of
the 5000. It's full of great inner meaning, because it really points to
the Church very, very clearly. I would like to talk about that, and we
will, later, after trapeza,, but I would like to talk about even more
about something else right now, a GREATER miracle. Christ has said to
His disciples, "Greater things than these shall ye see.", and indeed it
is true. The great miracle I'm speaking of is one that is hidden in the
Epistle for the Prophet Elias. It mentions him a little bit in the
epistle - not very much, only a sentence or two, but a great miracle is
hidden in the words, and it is not that rain came or didn't come for
three and a half years.
It says, "Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he
prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth
by the space of three years and six months." This is the great miracle.
It was not the drought, nor the rain after the drought, but a man with
passions prayed fervently to God, and God heard him. Something that
seemingly is impossible was asked for, to keep rain from falling. It
might seem rather possible nowadays in Texas that this could happen. To
keep rain from falling from the sky? We have no ability to do that.
That's not within our province. Can we heal the sick as is mentioned
also in this Epistle of St. James? We don't have the ability to cure
incurable diseases, to cleanse lepers. All these things are
impossibilities to us. We don't have the ability.
The greatest miracle - the greatest miracle - that God works is when He
changes a heart. And if you see your heart start to change, if you see
yourself turning to God, even if it's only happening slowly, you can be
assured that this is a greater miracle than raising the dead. God can
raise the dead anytime He wants, but for a man to truly change, this
involves great effort as well as God's grace. It is the greatest news,
the best news there has ever been, that a heart CAN turn to God.
We celebrate Elias so extravagantly because he was a man of like
passions as us. You read his story. He was not perfect, no not al all.
In fact, he showed great weakness even after he had performed perhaps
the greatest of his signs, what most would call the greatest of his
miracles. This was when he went and rebuked Achab, and had them set up
two sacrifices, one for the priests of Baal (or Baalim) and one for the
True God, he gave them a little wager: We will pray. You pray to your
god and I will pray to mine, and no fire will be put underneath, and
whichever holocaust is burned, He is God. The people said, 'that's a
good proposition'. The priests of Baal prayed the entire day through
the afternoon, and Elias mocked them with great fervor and with great
bravery, because these were people who wanted to kill him, and there
were many of them and he was few. Then we all know what happened. He
prayed to God with faith. We are told that he was a man with passions
now, a weak man. And the entire sacrifice, and the twelve stones, and
the water and everything, the dust, the stones and dirt was all consumed
by the fire of the Lord. And then the rain came and during this time of
the rain coming, Jezebel, that name which will live in infamy, sent him
a message saying my 'gods will do this to me and more besides if I don't
have you dead by this time tomorrow.' And what happened to Elias? He
was afraid. It says right in the Scriptures, he was afraid. So - yes,
he has passions just like us, weaknesses just like us.
It doesn't matter how weak a man is, not if he has faith in God. This
was just a slight misstep for the prophet, because a scant 40 days
later, God appeared to him in the cave - not in the wind, not in the
earthquake, not in the fire -but in the still, small voice. Elias was
very worthy of receiving this; it didn't matter that he had weaknesses.
Emulate Elias. Not his fear. We don't emulate the saints when they are
weak. We emulate their strengths, and this is a man with many
strengths, great fervor, great love for God, and because of that, he
could pray and that which is impossible would happen.
Now each one of us, from my experience as a confessor, I tell you, each
one of us has something we consider to be impossible in our life. If
you pray with fervor it will no longer be impossible. You've got to
believe this. Despite the fact that there is so much evidence in the
life of the Church, we find it difficult to really believe this. This
is why we celebrate the saints, that so magnificently show what faith
can do. Whether it is stopping the heavens and starting them again, or
whether it is consuming a burnt offering that is soaked in water, or
whether it is giving up one's life even in the bloom of youth, such as
St. Marina did, who was celebrated just a few days ago, this is from
God changing a heart.
God can change your heart. It will take an effort from you, though. If
you're lazy, your heart won't change. You'll never believe. You'll
never really believe. What a tragedy.
We read in the Scriptures of these exploits of the saints, and is it
going to be for us like watching a movie? Watching a movie about, let's
say, the Everglades, but never being there? Never experiencing it?
Never understanding what it's like to be there? The exploits of the
saints are not a movie or a book for us. They are a way of life and
they lead us, if we follow the path, to the greatest of miracles - our
heart changing. Truly it excites me to think of the saints. They are
our destiny, you know. God has shown in them what we will be like if we
follow, if we live according to faith. Even the ones that sin
grievously sometimes, eh? Even like David who combined two sins in one,
adultery and murder. And so many of the other saints that had
difficulty in their lives. But they also had great faith.
We must exercise that faith, brothers and sisters. You must believe
that you can be changed. If you believe this, then God will change you.
It's going to take some effort on your part. It's going to take some
pain as well, because there are things that we like that we don't want
to let go of. We hold onto them. We get dragged along the ground with
the wild horses that are our passions, but we don't let go of the rope.
But the first and foremost thing you must do if you are to conquer your
passions - you must believe that they can be conquered. This is just
another way of saying that you must believe in the resurrection.
May God help you to truly have this belief, to truly know that the
purpose of your life is an intimate knowledge with God. That is your
destiny. It is the purpose of your being, and it is possible. Through
the prayers of the Holy Prophet Elias may we have firm, real, living
faith in our Savior. Amen.
Bibliography:
Questions and Answers about St Elijah: HYPERLINK
http://www.orthodox.net/questoins/elias_1.htm
http://www.orthodox.net/questoins/elias_1.htm
The end of Third Kings, and part of Fourth Kings
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This homily was transcribed from one given On July 20th, 1998 according
to the church calendar, being the eighth Sunday after Pentecost, and the
day appointed for the commemoration the Holy Prophet Elijah. It is
hoped that something in these words will help and edify the reader, but
a sermon read from a page cannot enlighten a soul as much as attendance
and reverent worship at the Vigil service, which prepares the soul for
the Holy Liturgy, and the hearing of the scriptures and the preaching of
them in the context of the Holy Divine Liturgy. In such circumstances
the soul is enlightened much more than when words are read on a page.
See Questions and Answers about the Feeding of the 5000, at HYPERLINK
http://www.orthodox.net/questions/ http://www.orthodox.net/questions/
five_thousand.htm
Cf. John 1:50
James 5:17
There was a drought at the time.
For much information about St Elias, see
http://www.orthodox.net/questions/elias_1.htm
The 25th Sunday after Pentecost
The Feeding of the 5000, St Elijah
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The 8th Sunday after Pentecost, July 20 1988
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