Being a Pastor

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The last few days I have been giving much thought to what is means to be a pastor.  Being a pastor is like being a Shepherd as Jesus was the good Shepherd.  Now I have some limited experience with sheep.  IN the monastery we had some sheep and a goat and I was part of the team that took care of them.  That’s just it, take care of them.

As a pastor I have been entrusted with the care of my community just as the shepherd is given care of his flock.  The shepherd would never place his sheep in harms way, as a matter of fact the shepherds entire job is to protect the flock, from the strongest to the weakest, from all harm.  We do this by placing ourselves between them and the danger.  We set up a hedge around them to protect them.  At the Judgement I will be held responsible for any of my flock that have left or been harmed by my actions or my inaction.  I will be held accountable for all of them.

This so called “pastor” and I say so called because of his actions, is putting his flock in harms way.  Yes people should not over react to his actions but we are fallen human beings and we have given over to our passions.  His actions could lead to his own community being placed in harms way let alone all Americans traveling or in the service of our country.

I have been praying for him and for his congregation since I first learned of this and I will continue to pray for him.  He says that God has told him to do this.  I am praying that he listens to God, because the God I know would never ask someone to do this and would never ask one of his shepherds to place his flock in harms way.

What Does the Orthodox Church Believe?

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father before all ages: light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father, through whom all things were made;

Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and become man.

And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried.

And on the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures; and he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

And he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

In, one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

I confess one baptism for the remission of sins.

I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.  Amen.

First They Came…

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Yesterday I posted a reaction to the proposed Quran burning that will take place on September 11th in Florida.  Some have reacted that by commenting it raises this to a level that it does not need to be raised too.  Some have said, once again, that this is simply the media taking a wack at Christians again.  Well first off these folks in Florida are not Christians as far as I am concerned.

Any way silence can be the same as approval and it is times like these that the “right beliving Christians” need to stand up to these folks and tell them that their actions are not appropriate in a Christian context.

Why should we speak out, well shortly after the rise of the Nazis to power Pastor Martin Niemöller wrote a poem called “First They Came…”  Now it might not exactly fit this situation but it should be motivation enough for us “Right Beliving Christians” to start to speak out when we see our brethren go off the reservation.  Think about the words as we approach Saturday’s events.

They came first for the Communists,

and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

8 September ~ Nativity of the Theotokos

Posted on by Fr. Peter
According to the ancient tradition of the Church, the Theotokos was born of barren and aged parents, Joachim and Anna, about the year 16 or 17 before the birth of Christ. Joachim was descended from the royal line of David, of the tribe of Judah. Anna was of the priestly tribe of Levi, a daughter of the priest Matthan and Mary, his wife.

Troparion
Your birth, O Theotokos, brought joy to the whole world, for from you dawned the sun of righteousness, Christ our God. Freeing us from the curse, He gave us His blessings. Abolishing death, He granted us eternal life.

Sermon ~ 15th Sunday After Pentecost

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Matthew 22:35-46 ~ Love of Neighbor
The Bible is the owners manual for life. In it we find everything we need to live the Christian life. Most of the time the words of Jesus are very complex and hidden within riddles that we need to unpack in order for us to have a full grasp of what he is saying. Today is not one of those days.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

This passage is pretty self explanitory, or is it? The love of God part people have no problem with. We know God, there is only one, and we love God with our entire being. We are Orthodox this is not a problem with us. We have a very good understanding of who and what God is.
But what about our neighbor? This is the question that we tend to have trouble with. Notice if you will, that there are no qualifications to who our neighbor is. It does not say, love your neighbor if you know them, or love your neighbor if they speak the same language you do, or love your neighbor if they are the same color as you. No there are no qualificaitons with love of neighbor. Also notice that this is not a suggestion, “on these two commandments” Commandment, and order, something that we are required to do.
“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” James 2:14-17
Without works our faith is dead! If we do not show our faith, and faith = love, then our faith is a dead faith. Christianity is not a dead faith. Christianity is a faith that is alive because our God, that loves us, is alive. We must love our faith each and everyday and we do this by love of neighbor.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me. Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Matthew 25:31-46

So then who is our neighbor?
The Hungry
The Thirsty
The Stranger
The Naked
The Ill
Those in Prison
That is our neighbor, those are the people that we need to care for. We need to care for these folks not if we have the time, or the talent, or the treasure, no we need to care for them at all times because as St. James told us faith without works it dead. Being a Christian is more than Church festivals and coming here on Sunday. Being a Christian means rolling up your sleeves and getting dirty. Being a Christian means sitting with someone and just listening to their story, or serving them a meal, or just loving them because they, like you, have been created in the image and likeness of God!
Notice in the passage from Matthew that it says “I” was hungry and “you” gave me food. No where in that sentence does it say When I was hungry the government gave me food! Jesus is not telling us that we need to make sure the government does these things, in fact Jesus would say this is not their job at all but ours.
Christian talk show host and financial guru Dave Ramsey said one time that the Church needs to give the government out of business. When did it become the responsibility for the government to love our neighbor? When did it become the job of the government to do the job of the church? Do we want the government to distribute communion? I do not think so, so why then do we ask the government to feed, cloth, provide drink to our neighbor? This is our job and we need to get back to it!
The entirety of the Gospel message can be boiled down into one word, LOVE. This is an attribute that makes us different from the rest of the word. When we help someone its because we love them because they are a child of God as we are. When we help someone it is not out of some sense of duty because we collected tax money, no it is out of love, the love that God has for us that we are required to show others.
So there it is. How do we prove to the world that we are Christians? We prove it to them by our love of neighbor. Who is our neighbor, everyone! We cannot fix the world, but we can try and fix our little corner of it right here. Plant the seed, water it, and it will grow and bear fruit. We have to start, by starting to love those of us who are in this room right now. All of us are neighbors, and we have to love all. God’s love, like the love of a father, does not discriminate. Jesus did not tell the man in Gospel that he only had to love those that agree with Him, no he said love your neighbor as yourself. That is the only qualification.
In the end it all boils down to love. Love God and love of neighbor. Nothing else matters.

Burning the Quran

Posted on by Fr. Peter
This past Sunday, while I was preaching on the love of Christ as found in the Gospel of St. Matthew, another Christian preacher was preaching hate at his Church in Florida.
Pastor Terry Jones feels that one way to mark the anniversary of September 11th is to burn the Quran. He feels that this will send a message to radical Islam that we are not interested in you. Well I for one would like to send a message to the radical Christians that we are not interested in you! You are what is wrong in this world and your kind are giving the rest of us right believing Christians a bad name. Maybe you should go your local Army Recruiting station and enlist in the military and go and fight for this nation rather than put her military in jeopardy.
Jesus Christ, well at least the Jesus Christ that I preach, preached love of neighbor as yourself. What this “pastor” is doing is preaching hate and as I said on Sunday, “hate has no place in the life of a Christian.” If God is love then He cannot be hate. So hate cannot only come from one other place and that is from the Devil. This “pastor” is no better then the radicals that flew their planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the field in Pennsylvania. If he wishes to commemorate the day then he should be praying for peace and understanding and not causing a riot and fueling anti-Muslim hate.
Today, General David Petraeus has said this action could lead to violence against our troops serving in Afghanistan. I thought as Christians we were supposed to pray for the protection of our troops that are bravely serving our country. I wonder what this “pastor” would say if they decided in Afghanistan to burn the bible in a protest against what he is doing?
The Muslims consider the Quran to be a holy book, much the same way that we Christians think of the bible or the Jews think of the Torah. Why would he think this is a good idea? The only reason that this “pastor” would be doing this is to fuel hate, and I say again hate is of the Devil and has no place in the life of a Christian.
I call on all Christians, and faith leaders from other churches to join me in the condemnation of what is going to happen on September 11th. Our silence is nothing more than approval of this extremist is going to do. The world has no room for extremists, Muslim, Christian, Jewish or anything. What we should be praying for on this day is peace and understand, that’s what the Jesus that I pray to would do!
Disagree with Islam, sure. Try to convert Muslims to Christianity, sure. But this will not do that. We are already seeing a backlash in Afghanistan. Today they were burning the US flag and an effigy of this “pastor” in the streets.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”
This is from the Bible that I read each and everyday. Our neighbor is the person living next to us but also the person who hates us and wants to see our destruction. We need to love them as commanded by Jesus in this Gospel passage. Perhaps this “pastor” has a very different view of what his neighbor is, I do not know the man so I cannot say for sure. But based on the hate filled website that his so called Church has set up, I would say he does not take this verse of the Bible very serious.
Love is the summation of the entire Christian Gospel. Jesus entire life was spent loving people even those that disagreed with Him. With His very last breath He asked God to forgive those who had crucified Him. He prayed for and asked forgiveness for the very people who killed Him. Sounds like love to me.
I am not a theologian or a Scripture scholar, but I am pretty confident that Jesus would condemn this action in a very loud voice. I am asking all of you to do the same thing.

Spelling Counts

Posted on by Fr. Peter
In Massachusetts we have several Constitutional Officers elected every four years.  Auditor is one of those positions although I cannot for the life of me think of why we elect this position.  Anyway, there is quite a fight going on.  Auditor is the guy that is responsible to check, very carefully, what others are doing with the States money so I would say being a detail oriented person is important.  As Labor Day approaches the campaigns are in full swing as we make our way to the primary.  One of those candidates, Worcester County Sheriff Guy Glodis, sent out the flier below.  Notice anything wrong?

Earl Updates

Posted on by Fr. Peter
You may have noticed by now I am sort of a hurricane geek.  Mostly this comes due to my role as the Deputy Director of Emergency Management for the Town of Dudley, Massachusetts.  I will try and post updates here as I get them from various  sources.  Stay alert as storms have a way of changing quickly.  Be prepared.  Nothing wrong with a little extra caution.  Better to be prepared then to be caught off guard.  Check back as I will try and keep things updated for the next few days.

Report as of 9:00am 3 September 2010

Earl has weakened overnight to a Category 2 storm, with sustained winds of 105 mph. Its current location is near 35.3N, 74.0W, moving NNE at 18 mph. Earl’s projected path has shifted to the east, but still brings it within 100 miles of Nantucket Friday evening as a Category 1 or weak Category 2 hurricane. Tropical storm force winds are expected to arrive in southeastern MA this afternoon and persist through early Saturday morning. Hurricane force wind gusts are possible on the outer Cape and Nantucket. 2 to 4 inches of rain are possible on the Cape and Islands, with 1 to 3 inches of rain forecast in the rest of southeastern MA, with isolated amounts of 6 inches possible on the Cape and Islands. Flash flooding is possible in urban and poor drainage areas, but main stem rivers are not anticipated to flood. Storm surge is not expected to be a major issue as the storm will be passing Massachusetts after high tide, but high surf and rip currents will persist along the Massachusetts coast through Saturday and possibly into Sunday.

Over the past 48 hours, local, state, Federal, voluntary, and private-sector organizations have engaged in extensive pre-planning for this event. Personnel, commodities, and resources have been located and pre-positioned to assist in mass sheltering, debris clearance, search and rescue, and damage assessment. The State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) in Framingham was activated at 7:00 am today and will remain activated 24/7 until further notice.

Report as of 9:00am 2 September 2010
NWS reports that Hurricane Earl is now a Category 4 hurricane. Earl currently has maximum sustained winds of 145mph. Its current location is near 30.1N, 74.8W, moving NNW at 18mph. Earl’s projected path now brings it approximately 22 miles SE of Nantucket late Friday into early Saturday morning potentially as a Category 3 storm. On this track (note: the margin for error can be 200 miles), the impacts remain high surf and rip currents, with expected issues for swimmers and boaters, starting today and going through Saturday. 10-20’ seas are expected left of the eye, with 30-40’+ seas right of the eye as it passes our area. Expect rainfall throughout the day on Friday (heaviest between noon & midnight) of 2-4” are expected throughout the eastern 1/3 of MA. There will also be a yet-to-be-determined axis of 4-8” that could fall in that region. Urban street, poor drainage area and small stream flooding is possible. This is an issue for campgrounds and low-lying areas. There may also be the potential of minor/moderate flooding in a number of rivers on Saturday/Sunday. Presently, Earl expects to pack hurricane force winds on the Cape and Islands. Tropical storm force winds may reach interior SE MA. Tree damage and power losses may be an issue. Storm surge could be an issue with the Friday 7-8:00 p.m. high tide on Nantucket & Martha Vineyard. A more westerly track will obviously have greater impacts statewide.

MEMA Offers Tips as Hurricane Earl Approaches

Posted on by Fr. Peter
FRAMINGHAM, MA – As Hurricane Earl approaches, The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) recommends a number of steps people can take to help minimize potential damage during hurricane or tropical storm conditions.
“Early planning and preparation can be the key to your safety,” states MEMA Acting Director Kurt Schwartz. “It is important to use your time wisely and not wait until the last minute.”
Here are some examples of steps you should be taking:
· Trim back trees and shrubbery around your home. Remove diseased or damaged tree limbs that could be blown down, causing damage, during a storm.
· Clear clogged rain gutters. Hurricanes/tropical storms often bring torrential rain. Providing clear drainage will help prevent misdirected flooding.
· Bring in outdoor items to bring inside such as lawn furniture, trash barrels, hanging plants, toys and awnings that can be broken or picked up by strong winds and used as a missile.
· Make sure storage sheds, children’s playhouses or other outbuildings are securely anchored, either to a permanent foundation or with straps and ground anchors.
· Elevate articles in your basement that could be damaged from even minor flooding.
· Make temporary plywood covers to protect windows and sliding doors. Drill holes for screws or lag bolts in each cover and around each window. Note: Taping of windows does not prevent them from breaking.
· Keep you vehicles fully fuelled.
· Have a certain amount of cash available. If power is lost, ATMs may not be working.
· Make a record of your personal property. Keep an itemized list of your furniture, clothing and valuables to assist adjusters in case of a claim. Back it up with photographs or video.
· Protect your insurance policies and other important documents in a secure place like a safe deposit box or a watertight box. Many people back up important documents online.
· Learn where gas pilots and water mains are located and how to safely shut off all utilities.
· Lock doors and windows to ensure that they are closed tight to help protect against strong winds and rain.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) is the state agency responsible for coordinating federal, state, local, voluntary and private resources during emergencies and disasters in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. MEMA provides leadership to: develop plans for effective response to all hazards, disasters or threats; train emergency personnel to protect the public; provide information to the citizenry; and assist individuals, families, businesses and communities to mitigate against, prepare for, and respond to and recover from emergencies, both natural and man made. For additional information about MEMA and Hurricane Preparedness, go to www.mass.gov/mema. Follow MEMA updates on Facebook and Twitter.

September is National Preparedness Month

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Taking Action to Be Ready

By Darryl J. Madden, Director, Ready Campaign

Do you have emergency supplies set aside in case there’s a disaster? Does your family have an emergency plan? For many people, planning for an emergency or disaster isn’t a priority.
According to the 2009 Citizen Corps National Survey, only 36 percent of individuals believed there was a high likelihood of a natural disaster to EVER happen in their community. Many people think they have everything they need in the event of an emergency at hand, and can simply “grab and go.”
You are your family’s first responder, and in many ways you are your neighbor’s first responder. All of us as participants in our communities and members of our families need to take concrete steps to proactively prepare for emergencies and disasters. Local, state, and national authorities are going to help, but they may not be able to get to you right away. We all need to be prepared for those first 72 hours before help can reach us.
September is National Preparedness Month (NPM)—the perfect time to take action and get your family Ready. Readiness comes in many forms and preparedness is everyone’s responsibility. We have to work together, as a team, to ensure that our families, neighborhoods, and communities are Ready. Get an emergency supply kit. Make a family emergency plan. Be informed about the risks in your area. Work with your neighbor and know who might need just a little extra help.
To help get your family started, Ready Kids is a family-friendly, children-oriented tool to help parents and teachers educate children, ages 8-12, about emergencies and how they can help families better prepare. The Ready Kids Web site at ready.gov features fun activities such as a Scavenger Hunt, Pack It Up Matching game, crossword puzzles and coloring pages, as well as age-appropriate, step-by-step instructions on what families can do to better prepare for emergencies and the role kids can play in that effort.
It’s important to explain to your children that families can prepare for emergencies before they take place and that they can help, too. By doing so, you can alleviate anxiety if an emergency does occur and help to nurture a more prepared society for generations to come. Visit ready.gov/kids today and get Ready!
error: Content is protected !!