I am often amazed at how fast news travels, good new or bad, news travels very quickly.  It is said that there exists the “Orthodox Grape Vine” and if you want news to get out you use that as your means of fast communication.  The Orthodox world is so small and someone is sure to know someone in another church or in another state that will keep the story going.

I think the same was true in Jesus day as well.  Think about it, Jesus walked the earth in first century Palestine.  There was no internet, no Facebook or Twitter, no newspapers not even the post office existed but word of his fame spread far and wide and no matter where he might be walking someone would approach him and ask him a favor.  I sometimes wonder if Jesus ever wanted to sneak off, incognito, and go shopping or something.

Recently, I had to run down to the store to pick up a few items.  I was not, obviously, dressed as I am standing here before you today; in fact, I believe I was in shorts and T shirt.  I ran in the store, picked up what I needed, and was standing in line when I heard someone call my name.  I turned and it was someone who frequents our Thursday night Community Meals.  So we stood there, I got out of line, and chatted about what was going on in his life, for a few moments and then we both went our way.  As clergy, we are never off duty and we see the same thing in Gospel today.

Jesus was in Capernaum walking with His disciples when a centurion approached Him to ask Him a question.  Now this is remarkable in and of itself because a centurion, a Roman soldier, would approach Jesus, a Jew, and ask anything.  But the most astonishing thing happens when the conversations begins, the centurion calls Jesus Lord and in the humblest of ways.

“Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.  But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed.”

The centurion humbled himself in front of Jesus, and those gathered around him, to ask for a favor.  He was not asking for the healing of one of his soldiers or even on of his own children, but for his servant who was at his home and sick.  The centurion humbled himself twice, once in calling Jesus Lord and the other in asking for the healing of his servant.

What we are seeing here is a break down in the strict ethnic lines that had been drawn to this point.  The Jews were subjected to the Romans and they were not always treated very well.

The centurion tells Jesus that he is man under authority, centurions in the Roman Army would have commanded units for more than 100 men, and that his men obey his orders no matter what that order might be.  But here he is, asking for help, this could not have been easy for this man to do.

None of us like to admit when we need help.  We like to think we can do it all, we are the rock, and nothing will break us.  Sometimes we need to be that rock for the family when tragedy strikes or because of our place in the birth order.  Because of this, we have a hard time asking God for help when we need it the most.  Sure, it is easy to follow the will and promptings of Jesus when things are going well, but what of when things turn bad?  It is difficult to ask for help but we have the example of the centurion to guide us.

Scripture tells us that when Jesus heard what the centurion said, he marveled.  This only happens twice in Scripture, this is one time and the other is at the lack of faith in His own hometown.  Imagine, Jesus, who knows everything, was so surprised at the faith of this unbeliever, that Scripture remarks that he marveled.  Jesus says that he has not found so great a faith, even in Israel!  This is sort of a slap in the face to those around Him, Jesus has found their faith wanting.  They are the chosen people and their faith is lukewarm, I would hope that could not be said about us.

He continues on to say, what some commentators hold is the expansion of the ministry of Jesus outside of the Jews, to say that many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Jesus is breaking down the ethnic barriers that have existed up to this point and shown that racial superiority in the Kingdom will not happen, in the Kingdom, all will be one there will be no Jew or Greek, male or female.  Then the warning comes, but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

With these words Jesus says that not only the Jews who deny Christ will be cast out but those of the faith, who do not live their faith, will be cast into outer darkness.  You see it is not enough to just say you believe you have to act like you believe to your very core.  I have said this in the past but Orthodoxy is not a religion or a denomination but a lifestyle and it is not easy to live the Orthodox life in 21^st century America, but it is what we have to do.  Orthodoxy should influence everything we do and every action we take.  If it does not, then we are not living the faith.

In the end, the centurion’s request was granted.  Jesus tells him to go his way, and as you have believed, it has been done for you.  This man had so much faith, faith in a man he had never met and faith in a man that he was sent to keep in captivity, that he came to him and asked him to heal his servant and because of the humble way he asked, and the fact that he truly believed, his request was granted.

In a few moments we will be invited to approach in the fear of God with faith and with live.  We will come forward and meet Jesus in reality here in the chalice.  When we step out of our seat and walk down the aisle, we need to approach with all humility as we are actually approaching the living Christ.  As the Vespers prayer reminds us, we do not bow to flesh and blood but before you the awesome God.  Let us pray as the centurion did, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof. But only speak a word and your servant shall be healed.

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.” Matthew 5:14

The Gospel passage that we heard this morning is part of a much larger parable of Jesus called the Salt of the Earth.  Jesus calls the Apostles the Salt of the Earth and says that if the salt loses its flavor it cannot season.

Salt has a lot of biblical significance.  If you eat salt with someone it means that you are bound together in loyalty.  When the bishop arrives at the door of the church, he is met by a child carrying a tray with bread and salt.  Bread is the bread of life and the salt binds the bishop to the community and the community to the bishop.

Jesus used the image of salt, one that his hearers would have been familiar with, to illustrate the role of not only the Apostles but the Church and how that role would influence society.  Because of the preservation power of salt, it is necessary for life.  The Apostles, and now us, have the responsibility to preserve the life of the Church, as handed down to us from the Apostles, so that it will be available to future generations.  We are not to keep it for ourselves alone, but for all generations. We take the choice cuts, and preserve it in our hearts and minds, and pass it along.  We are the salt that preserves the church and her teaching.

In 1630, John Winthrop was aboard the ship Arbella anchored in the harbor overlooking the new world.  He had come to the new world to found the Massachusetts Bay Colony and was sitting in, what we would now call Boston Harbor, overlooking the land that would become the colony.  He had a hard task ahead of him and he knew it.  He knew of the struggles that the colony of Plymouth had gone through but he was willing to sacrifice it all, including his life, to try and tame the new world.

John Winthrop was a Puritan.  Puritans were exiles if you will, from the clergy after the purges of Elizabeth the 1^st of England.  The wanted to reform the established church, the Church of England, from the inside but were blocked from doing so and therefore persecuted not only by the Church but by the government of the day.  They were opposed to all forms of clericalism, the power of the clergy, and wanted to return to a purer form of the faith.  They were the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Plymouth Colony.  They came to the New World to escape the persecution they were encountering at home.  They were seeking a place where they could practice their faith outside of the dictate of the government, this had never been accomplished before, but they were going to try it.

As Winthrop sat on board the ship he wrote a sermon that was called, A Model of Christian Charity.  Winthrop believed that the world would watch what they were doing keeping in mind this had never been done before.  The world would be watching each and every step they made and holding it up against the ideals of the New World and how they wished to govern themselves.  This was a tall order.

The city would be built on a hill, and a city that is built on a hill cannot be hidden from view.  Standing on the hill one can see for miles and one can see you for miles.  Building a city on a hill was done for safety and for other reasons.

Winthrop used the passage of Scripture that we heard this very morning in drafting his sermon;

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

For Winthrop he took these words and used them to describe the City that he was about to build.  I wonder if he knew that some 100 years later the Revolution that would change the world forever would start in the very city that he was about to build.  His city was to be an example to the world on Christian charity and love towards all.  I think history will show that they fell short of that mark.

But what of us, what does this passage mean for us as we sit here today?  Is God calling us to set out and found a new world that we can build a city on top of a hill?  Are we required to leave all that we have and hold dear and found a new utopian society?  I don’t think so.

Remember the Kingdom of God is not an earthly kingdom it abides within each one of us, we are in essence representatives of the Kingdom of God and the light needs to shine from each of us.

We believe that God is the True and Uncreated light.  We see in the Hebrew Scriptures that light is often symbolic of God, His divine law, and Israel itself in contrast with other nations.  In the Gospels and letters of the Apostles, Jesus, the Son of God, is called the light, and we are to become sons and daughters of the light.  We are to turn from the darkness of sin and face the light.  During the Baptism service in the Orthodox Church, the child and parents turn and face the West and renounce Satan and all of his evil was, then they turn towards the East, the direction where the Sun rises from, and make promises to follow that light in season and out of season.

We not only preserve the faith with the salt of our lives but we radiate that faith like the rays of the Sun, we then become the city on the hill the shining example for all the world to see, the city that cannot be hidden and so our works and seen by all but most especially our Father who is in Heaven.

This is not an easy take.  The city on the hill is also the city that is attacked the most.  It is easily defended, if the wall, the wall of Scripture and truth is built around it, and the guardians of the city are watchful, but if there is a weakness in the defenses of the city it can be easily breached.  This requires diligence on our part to ensure that our defenses are strong for the day of trial that will come for all of us in our own way.  We need the strength of Holy Scripture, Tradition, the teaching of the Church, and the Sacramental life of the Church.  The Church exists as the place where we come for that much need shoring up of our defenses to keep the enemy at bay.

We are that city on the hill, we are the new Israel and the new Jerusalem, we are the preserves of the faith and must preserve it will all the vigor that we can muster, if we lose our saltiness then we are not able to flavor the world that sop desperately needs us.