Christ calls the two sons of Zebedee, Peter and Andrew, and immediately, they leave their nets and follow Christ. You can almost see their willing heart to sacrifice everything in order to follow Christ, to serve Him, and become the “fishers of men” that Christ has called them to be. Their response is astonishing, childlike in its innocence, manly in its ready and courageous response. They left the security of their father, their homes and families, their livelihood, everything, to follow Christ. Often, they didn’t even know where their next meal would come from or where they would sleep. After Christ’s resurrection, most were imprisoned, persecuted, tortured, and, eventually martyred or exiled for sharing the Gospel, the Good News that Christ the long-awaited Messiah, had come to offer new life—eternal life—to all, a new identity to all.
In other words, in calling them to be “fishers of men,” evangelists, Christ God wasn’t calling them to a life of ease or even physical safety, and certainly not to comfort, but rather, of self-denial, of service, of dying to self—even at the cost of their earthly lives, so that they could enable others to attain to eternal life as well. He called them to put Christ and His Church above all things. He was preparing them to take up the cross to spread the Gospel, the Good News of a return to Eden, to a transformed life with Christ God.
We often think of missions, missionaries, and evangelists as something that only a select few are called to do—something that’s the job of the bishops and priests. The reality is that ALL of us by virtue of our baptism are called to be missionaries, to spread and minister the Gospel—always with Christ before us and to the glory of God.
St. Tikhon the Confessor and Enlightener of North America, whose memory we keep today, together with the other North American Saints, has this to say to us on this topic of evangelism: “The spread of Christ’s Faith ought to be near and precious to the heart of every Orthodox Christian.” Christ, in His own words, says, “you are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world” (Mt. 5:13-14). His commandment to “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,“ (Matt. 28:19) and teaching them to observe all things He commanded us is the calling of every baptized Orthodox Christian.
This calling means that we need to be willing to give up some of the “creature comforts” our society tells us we need in order to do more to participate in and support our local churches in a sacrificial way, to support its ministries, and to support beyond and above our tithing the greater missionary work of the Church, giving alms, and doing good with the resources God’s entrusted to us. This too is a tremendous expression of faith and empowering of missionary work.
Beyond this, however, is the part that most people find particularly challenging, which is the need to witness to the truth of Christ, to the new life in Christ, in a world that tells us to keep our faith private and that constantly presents a way of life, often contrary to the Gospel and the Orthodox Faith. We cannot live for ourselves and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
In last Sunday’s Gospel Christ proclaims, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me… and he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matt. 10: 37, 38). Are we ready to make some sacrifices to take a step further in faith and growth in Christ, to witness to such an extent to His truth?
Through their communion with and love for God, the disciples grew in love for their fellow man. This is the natural fruit born from a growing relationship and communion with God. At great cost to themselves, they brought the world to the knowledge and love of Christ and His salvation through their authentic and true witness, and their love of the truth—Jesus Christ.
We see this same example of selfless and Christ-centered love in the Saints of North America. They risked their physical lives on this continent to bring the life-saving Gospel and Orthodox Faith, the very presence of Christ, to this spiritually barren and hostile land (St. Juvenaly was martyred). They all suffered, just as the Apostles did, to preach and witness the timeless truth of Christ for love of a people they didn’t even know. Why? Because they loved Christ to such an extent that they were willing to sacrifice.
Later, as the number of Orthodox increased through conversion and immigration, they reassured their scattered, uncertain flock that it is in their grounding, their identity in Christ in His Church, that they (and we) find our true home—beyond any ethnic or national identities, beyond what it means to be an American or, at first, in the case of Alaska, good Russians. Instead, they came to make men and women true Christians, to introduce them to the knowledge and love of God. Two of them went from being missionaries in America to being two of the greatest hierarchs of modern Russia. St. John Kochurov became the first clergyman martyred by the Bolsheviks when he returned to Russia after serving many years in America.
We celebrate their legacy of love, courage, and zeal for the Gospel today as their spiritual progeny in this land and ask for their prayers in our own efforts to carry on their work—with all its challenges wrought by aggressive humanism and secularism—to grow in courage to share the Gospel and the Orthodox Faith in this spiritually dry and thirsty land in great need of Christ.
The Lord calls on us in today’s Gospel to be “fishers of men” too in our homes, businesses, at the grocery store, at school, to serve and evangelize in His name (this is what it means to witness and share the Gospel). Where you and I go, we need to be conscious of bringing Christ with us.
Christ commands us: Keep the Faith and share it because it is life for those who receive it!
We witness (martyr) to the truth and living faith we share as Orthodox in our daily struggle to pray and repent, to live differently, humbly, and in accordance with the Gospel, in what we support and what we reject as Orthodox living in an increasingly neo-pagan and secular land in need of being evangelized anew.
Authenticity speaks, our witness speaks, but it costs us something: it costs us our time, coming to worship even when we don’t feel like it, serving, singing, coming to Vespers more often as an opportunity to grow, greeting our visitors as our most-honored guests, loving each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, seeking for ways to help grow and provide for our church, so we can provide more opportunities for people to growth and heal with us in Christ and to His glory.
If we want to see our church grow and see Annapolis and the Chesapeake changed into a God-loving, God-fearing place, if we want to see others experience the healing and growth in Christ we are, if we want to see strong families and our children growing confidently in their identity firmly grounded in Him, then we come to see ourselves as “fishers of men,” missionaries, Christ’s evangelists, living this life for God’s glory above all else. May each of us pray for such love to be true witnesses, true fishers of men. Holy Saints of North America pray for us that we may be missionaries, glorifying God with our lives through our witness and our deeds!
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, June 14, 2015
All Saints of North America
Epistle: Hebrews 11:33-12:2 (Saints); Romans 2:10-16
Gospel: Matthew 4:25-5:12 (Saints); 4:18-23
