Master, Bless.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

This theme of our regional conferences comes from the 10th chapter of St. Mark's Gospel. The danger in having this verse on letterheads and all sorts of publicity material is that it can too easily become merely a slogan.

These words are not just a clever phrase to be used on bumper stickers or tee-shirts. True, this phrase easily rolls off the tongue, but it is such a concentrated burst of wisdom and insight from the Lord that it cannot be grasped in slogan-fashion.

One might say that this short sentence is a "verbal Icon" -- a window opening onto the vast expanse of the Kingdom of God. Our Lord spoke these words as a way of drawing a clear distinction for the Apostles between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of God, which He was about to bring upon the world.

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

To keep this from being a mere slogan for the 2003 Can-Am Conference, we must be challenged by the words. We must struggle with their meaning. We must focus on the truth of these words and use it as the guiding principle of our time together here this weekend. We should ask ourselves: Why are we here? What difference will this conference make in our lives? Will the Kingdom of Heaven shine more brightly for the world around us after our time together?

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

As a way of grappling with this passage, we would do well to consider it in context. Specifically, this passage comes at the end of a most distressing, shocking, and scandalous interchange between the Apostles and Our Lord…

It all began after the rich young ruler turned from Jesus and went away. Peter said to Jesus: "Lo, we have left everything and followed you."

Jesus answered him: "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many that are first will be last, and the last first."

In this 10th Chapter of Mark's Gospel, we see Jesus traveling all around the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, teaching and witnessing to the Kingdom of God.

This is the chapter where we see Blind Bartimaeus sitting in the dust beside the road, crying out to Jesus for mercy, and receiving his sight from the Son of Man. Jesus shows the Apostles and the multitudes that the Kingdom of God is merciful.

This is the chapter where we see the disciples rebuking people who had brought their children to Jesus. And of Jesus' response: "Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." Jesus wanted his Apostles to understand that God's Kingdom is for those who are guileless, simple, honest, vulnerable and powerless.

This is also the chapter were we see the rich young ruler come to Jesus to ask him what he needs to do to inherit eternal life -- and then we see him leave, filled with inner turmoil because his riches were actually ruling him. Jesus shows us that it is not enough to follow the letter of the Law (for the rich young ruler had kept all the Law from his youth), but that one must give one's whole heart to the Kingdom.

One must desire the Kingdom of God above everything, and be willing to sacrifice everything in this world (status, success, family, wealth, comfort -- everything) to be part of a kingdom where self-sacrifice and self-denying love is the measure of success. St. Mark says that after Jesus taught these things about the Kingdom of God that the Apostles "were amazed, and those who followed were afraid."

To be Amazed and Afraid -- that is the real attitude of the world toward God's Kingdom. If you and I don't have a measure of amazement and fear when we consider what we have been called to, then we aren't paying attention to the Gospel.

This whole chapter in St. Mark's Gospel is challenging us to understand what it really means to be a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven -- not the kingdom that the Pharisees and the disciples were expecting, but the true Messianic Kingdom that only blind beggars and little children could see.

As we will see, it takes nothing less than the re-creation of these Apostles by the power of the Holy Spirit to move them from self-absorption to sainthood.

Our conference theme comes from the passage toward the end of chapter 10. We see the brothers James and John, the "sons of thunder," (two of the original four Apostles) trying to ingratiate themselves to Jesus ("We want you to do for us whatever we ask") -- and then they audaciously requested to sit in the most exalted seats, once He finally took charge of things ("Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, when you come into your glory").

As one would expect, a heated reaction came from the other Apostles when they got wind of James' and John's coup -- they were "indignant" as St. Mark puts it -- but as we all know, family fights can be the worst; so it's not hard to imagine how their indignation quickly turned to resentment and raw anger.

Now just before this interchange, Jesus had told Peter and all the disciples that in the Kingdom of Heaven: "many that are first will be last, and the last first." Jesus had also just finished His most explicit foretelling of the events which lay before them:

"And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise.' "

These words were still echoing in the ears of the Apostles when James and John approached Jesus to ask for seats of power. What infinite patience our Lord has for us! Jesus had just showed them the Kingdom by His actions, and His words describing His own sacrifice were still hanging in the air, when James and John started jostling for position and the other Apostles reacted with jealousy and anger.

A lesser god would have immediately reproached these bickering brats for their impudence -- or maybe struck them down out of exasperation-- but we see Jesus pitying them in their ignorance: "will you drink the cup I am to drink?" he asks them. "Will you be baptized with the baptism in which I will be baptized?"

We can imagine the chagrin on the faces of the twelve … their embarrassment and shame.

This is an uncomfortable passage to read. It is a powerful account, embarrassing and shocking. Usually we think of the saints, of the Apostles, with a sort of misty-eyed reverence. It is shocking to think of the raw emotions revealed here: Pride and audacity, jealousy and resentment, lust for power and acclaim.

Once He had their attention, Jesus tried one more time to get through to them. He called them to Himself, sat them down, and taught them one more time: If they wanted to be rulers in God's Kingdom then they needed to understand one thing:

… Jesus said to them, You know that those who rule the nations lord it over them, and their [tyrants dominate them] great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to become first, he shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:42-45)

For all of their desire to be faithful to Jesus, the Apostles were truly ignorant of what the Kingdom of God was all about. They were "invincibly ignorant." They were "worldly minded" -- though Jesus had told them clearly what lay before them, they had yet to experience the unfolding of the Kingdom: the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Their ignorance came from lack of capacity. They didn't even have the facility to comprehend the nature of God's Kingdom until they were "born again" at Pentecost. It was not until then, when their minds were recreated, and opened to see the depth of their own ignorance and self-delusion, that they were enabled to live up the their role as Apostles.

Jesus knew that neither they nor the crowds could understand what a radically different kind of "kingdom" He was preparing to bring upon the world. The Kingdom of God was so far removed from the expectations they had firmly rooted in their minds. The model they had for "Kingdom" was all twisted around. The Kingdom of Israel was all twisted around. The Chief Priests of the Temple, and the Pharisees and Saducees, the Roman authorities, the Zealots, Caiaphas and Annas, Barsabbas, King Herod, Pontius Pilate, and Caesar -- these were the models of kingship and the Kingdoms that the Apostles knew. Who and what was the Messiah and what was the Messianic Kingdom? They really didn't know.

God's Kingdom is the complete and absolute inverse of the kingdoms of this fallen and corrupt world -- a truth hidden from "common sense" and "prudent politics." Even the angelic powers were aghast when they saw the depths of condescension which God was willing to undergo in order to bring about the Kingdom of Righteousness to the world.

The kingdoms of this world are made in the image and likeness of the "ruler" of this world, the Evil One, who gained authority over our forbearers by deceitful means, and who "lords it over" every man and woman born into this world.

His is the Machiavellian order of things; His is the image and likeness of kings and rulers. His is the image of Caesar on the coin, the image that had bewitched the rich young ruler and blocked his entrance into God's Kingdom.

Well, my brothers and sisters, we are gathered here together this weekend as the company of those who have sought to be free from the kingdom of this fallen world. In our baptisms we rose from the waters of death with a new name; we were re-made in the image of the One who burst out the doors of Hades and poured Light into the dark, cruel corners of the Kingdom of Death. In Christ's Resurrection, the Kingdom of God burst forth to pour out in abundance freedom and the fresh, pure, beauty of God, Himself, into this tawdry, cheap, crass, self-indulgent world.

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

As we go forward together this weekend, let us keep these words in mind, not as a slogan, but as the revelation that the tyranny of the kingdom of the Evil One is broken, that for us the Kingdom of Heaven is here -- right here, right now, as we walk in the hotel hallways, sit in committee meetings, gather for dinner, and especially as we assemble for prayers and for the Liturgy with our Bishop -- the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of love, is a reality. But we must be conscious of its reality, and we must work to make it a reality to those suffering from the tyranny of the Evil One.

As the Colonial Patriots proclaimed a "Call to Arms" on the 4th of July, let this date, this time together, be for us an opportunity to be reinvigorated and strengthened in our spiritual warfare -- a reminder that we Christian Patriots don't seek peace with the world, but rather to bring peace, God's Peace, into the world.

We, the Orthodox faithful, join in the declaration of our independence when we recite the Nicene Creed. We know the war for our independence is won, but there are still skirmishes to fight -- these are the battles we wage with the demons who seek to hide in the recesses of our hearts, and of our own desires and self-satisfied ambitions. The war is won, but the skirmishes continue throughout our sojourn in this world.

We wage these battles, confident of the final outcome, and looking with joy for the return of Christ our King and our God; but we need strength in the battle. We find strength in our struggle by being with each other, and praying for each other, and sharing the Spirit, which God has so generously bestowed upon us.

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many."

Let us not remember this phrase as a slogan, but as a way of life -- as a way of our life together as servants of the King in this God-protected Archdiocese. May we never be complacent, but always regard the Kingdom of God with amazement and fear.

May almighty God, the Holy and ever-Blessed Trinity, sanctify our time together this weekend, and empower us to make manifest His Kingdom both here and in our parishes and communities upon our return home.

Amen. v

Fr. Gregory Murphy