Speaker 1: Welcome to Hill Country Homilies. Weekly homilies from Holy Anunciation
Speaker 1: Orthodox Church in Liberty Hill, Texas. Holy Annunciation is an
Speaker 1: old calendar Orthodox church sharing the faith of the Apostles
Speaker 1: and the love of Christ with all who seek His truth. Now,
Speaker 1: let's listen to this week's homily, the.
Speaker 2: Name of the Father and Son the Holy Spirit. Glory
Speaker 2: to Jesus Christ. Please be seated if you wish, my
Speaker 2: dear brothers and sisters in Christ. If there's one thing
Speaker 2: that I am terribly and continually guilty of each and
Speaker 2: every year, it's that claiming that any of about a
Speaker 2: dozen of the Gospel readings that we hear happen to
Speaker 2: be my favorite reading that particular week. I do it
Speaker 2: over and over. I'll claim it twelve times this year.
Speaker 2: This is my favorite Gospel reading. And indeed, it amazes
Speaker 2: me that there are people who attack the lectionary of
Speaker 2: the church because we read the same Gospel messages over
Speaker 2: and over every single year. We read the same Gospel
Speaker 2: passages on the same Sunday of Pentecost. We see, we
Speaker 2: have a little variation for the feasts and the Lenten season,
Speaker 2: but those are the same readings as well, year after year.
Speaker 2: And as you settle into life in the church, you
Speaker 2: come to realize that the Church appoints these same readings
Speaker 2: for the same Sundays because they're really, really important. They're
Speaker 2: the key to our spiritual progress. And most of all,
Speaker 2: they're timeless. They're not relics of the past which are
Speaker 2: dug up for display as a history lesson or some
Speaker 2: sort of pie into a lost time. Rather, they are
Speaker 2: spiritual wisdom that means as much to us today as
Speaker 2: when it happened two thousand years ago. And for me
Speaker 2: that creates a special kind of comfort, because as I've
Speaker 2: gotten older, I've discovered that my attention span is not
Speaker 2: quite what it used to be. The other day, I
Speaker 2: sat down to work on my homeway, and half an
Speaker 2: hour later I realized that I was looking up sites
Speaker 2: to visit in cities that I had no intention to
Speaker 2: travel to whatsoever. In the meantime, it also researched a
Speaker 2: tool that I don't need, but it looked really cool.
Speaker 2: And I'd seen the highlights of a Pan Pacific Surfing championship,
Speaker 2: which I'd never heard of before and which was being
Speaker 2: contested by athletes whose name I have no idea who
Speaker 2: they were, and I had no idea thirty minutes later
Speaker 2: how I got there. I think they call it the algorithm,
Speaker 2: but you know the internet as that's normal. But today's
Speaker 2: Gospel sort of says, well, that's Peter, because in today's
Speaker 2: gospel reading, Peter starts with his eyes fixed on Christ,
Speaker 2: and then he notices the wind and the waves and
Speaker 2: the danger, and then as his attention leaves the Savior down,
Speaker 2: he goes. And maybe maybe more in this age than
Speaker 2: ever before, Today's Gospel is vital for us to hear
Speaker 2: because what happened to Peter on the Sea of Galileean
Speaker 2: in this storm happens to us every single day. The
Speaker 2: world is extremely good at getting our attention on the
Speaker 2: things that wants us to put attention on. We're an
Speaker 2: income stream to people around us. We're being monetized by
Speaker 2: others or drawn into some quest for attention for ourselves,
Speaker 2: and thus we end up completely lost because the algorithm
Speaker 2: is not going to take us back to where we
Speaker 2: need to go. Our challenge is exactly the same challenge
Speaker 2: Peter faced keeping our attention on Christ. And let's be clear,
Speaker 2: Peter's failure was not that he lacked courage. Most of
Speaker 2: us would never have stepped out of that boat in
Speaker 2: the first place, but Peter did. And nor was his
Speaker 2: failure that he lacked love for Christ, because Saint John
Speaker 2: Christian notes that Peter was not excited merely to walk
Speaker 2: on the water. He was eager to come to Christ.
Speaker 2: It wasn't the water that interested him. It was being
Speaker 2: coming unto Christ. Bid me that I come unto you.
Speaker 2: That was his goal, and for a time he achieved it.
Speaker 2: He was doing the impossible because his eyes were fixed
Speaker 2: upon the Lord. But then came the distraction. Then came
Speaker 2: the fear, Then came the sinking. And Chris Astin makes
Speaker 2: a fascinating observation. The sea was the greater danger, the
Speaker 2: wind was the lesser danger. And Peter had already conquered
Speaker 2: the sea through Christ's power. But yet what frightened him
Speaker 2: the wind? And how often is that exactly what happens
Speaker 2: to us. Christ has conquered sin and death and hell itself.
Speaker 2: The greatest battle that we'll ever face has been won,
Speaker 2: But we find ourselves constantly overwhelmed by things that are
Speaker 2: infinitely smaller. We may begin our day dutifully focused on Christ.
Speaker 2: We've said our morning prayers, maybe we've read the scripture
Speaker 2: for the day or the life of the Saint, Glory
Speaker 2: to God. I mean, each day we can make a
Speaker 2: new start, But then what happens. We lose our peace
Speaker 2: over a news headline, become anxious about the stock market
Speaker 2: or the price of gas. We have to correct somebody's
Speaker 2: misguided political views. We worry about our jobs, our reputation,
Speaker 2: our children's future, the next election, the next bill that's
Speaker 2: going to come to the door of the next doctor visit.
Speaker 2: We have to make none of those things are by
Speaker 2: themselves unimportant. The wind was real, the waves were real,
Speaker 2: but none of them were greater than Christ standing directly
Speaker 2: before Peter, And the same is true for us. The
Speaker 2: greatest danger facing Christians today may not be outright unbelief,
Speaker 2: but rather the distraction our attention has become the most
Speaker 2: valuable commodity in the world. Billion dollar industries compete every
Speaker 2: moment for our eyes, our ears, our thoughts, and not
Speaker 2: even the fullness of it, but a second of it.
Speaker 2: You know, watch this video for eight seconds. You know,
Speaker 2: spread this three other people. Every notification, every advertisement, every
Speaker 2: social media platform, every streaming service, every political movement is
Speaker 2: saying the same thing. Look here, look here, don't look there,
Speaker 2: look here, Give me your attention, and the tragic reality
Speaker 2: is that whatever has our attention eventually captures our heart.
Speaker 2: People can mouth faith in Christ, but in front of
Speaker 2: their faces, they're gazing at posters of celebrities or reels
Speaker 2: from internet influencers, mindless entertainment that plays in the background
Speaker 2: soundtrack of our lives. And this is why so many
Speaker 2: people theay are informed about everything, but at peace about nothing.
Speaker 2: We know every controversy, every scandal, every rumor, every outrage,
Speaker 2: every prediction of doom that awaits us, but many struggle
Speaker 2: to spend even ten uninterrupted minutes in prayer. We can
Speaker 2: scroll endlessly through bad news from across the globe, but
Speaker 2: we find it difficult to focus on the Gospel for
Speaker 2: a single chapter. Peter didn't sink because Christ abandoned him.
Speaker 2: Peter sank because he became more interested in the storm
Speaker 2: than he did in his savior, And if we are honest,
Speaker 2: we often do the same. We can begin our day
Speaker 2: intending to prayer, but we get consumed by something else.
Speaker 2: We come to church determined to worship, but our minds
Speaker 2: become occupied by the thing we have to do after
Speaker 2: even good things it can become distractions if they push
Speaker 2: Christ out of our minds into the margins of our lives.
Speaker 2: The lesson of today's Gospel is not that the storms
Speaker 2: will disappear. Christ never promised us a storm free life. Ever,
Speaker 2: the lesson is that faith means keeping our eyes on
Speaker 2: Christ even in the middle of the storm. The seed
Speaker 2: didn't become calm until after Peter was rescued. Keep that
Speaker 2: in mind. He was rescued in the midst of the storm,
Speaker 2: not after Christ calmed it. He uttered one single prayer,
Speaker 2: Lord Save me. And this is why Peter remains, even
Speaker 2: in his distraction, a source of such great hope for us,
Speaker 2: because when he began to sink, he didn't formulate some
Speaker 2: theological treatise about his salvation. He didn't rely on his
Speaker 2: own strength. All he did was cry out, Lord save me,
Speaker 2: and immediately Christ stretched forth his hand. And that same
Speaker 2: hand stretches out to us every single day whenever we
Speaker 2: find ourselves distracted, anxious, consumed by the cares of life.
Speaker 2: The answer is the same as it was for Peter.
Speaker 2: You can even say those same words. We should probably
Speaker 2: be saying them every day, many times a day, Lord
Speaker 2: save me. We can't overcome the sea, the wind, or
Speaker 2: the waves on our own. But we can call upon Christ.
Speaker 2: We can reach out our hands so that He can
Speaker 2: pull us out of that storm, and we can turn
Speaker 2: our eyes back to Christ. We can return to prayer,
Speaker 2: to the scriptures, and to the services, and we can
Speaker 2: return through those to the one who has always already
Speaker 2: conquered every storm that we will ever face. For when
Speaker 2: our attention is fixed on Christ, the winds may still blow,
Speaker 2: the waves may still rise, but they no longer have
Speaker 2: the power to sink us. Each and every day, each
Speaker 2: and every one of us is that same Peter, And
Speaker 2: never forget this. Don't lose this as we reflect on
Speaker 2: the distractions of our day. Don't lose this as the
Speaker 2: winds try to sink us to get Today's gospel is
Speaker 2: not ultimately about Peter. It's about Christ saving us. The
Speaker 2: moment that Peter cries out, Lord, save me, Christ is
Speaker 2: already reaching for him. The Lord doesn't wait for Peter
Speaker 2: to swim back to the boat. He doesn't demand that
Speaker 2: Peter fixed the problem himself. Be responsible for yourself. He
Speaker 2: stretches out his hand and he pulls him out. And
Speaker 2: this should be a great consolation for us, because we
Speaker 2: will get distracted, we will lose focus. We will sometimes
Speaker 2: find ourselves overwhelmed by those waves of life threatening to
Speaker 2: drown us, the noise of the world threatening to drown us.
Speaker 2: But every time we turn back to Christ, every time
Speaker 2: we cry out to Him and faith, we discover that
Speaker 2: His hand is already there for us. So don't allow
Speaker 2: the winds of this age to carry us away our attention.
Speaker 2: Don't allow the noise of the world to drown out
Speaker 2: the voice of God. But return to prayer, return to scripture,
Speaker 2: return to the divine services, and call out, Lord, save me.
Speaker 2: The algorithm wants our attention, The advertisers want our attention,
Speaker 2: the politicians want our attention, and the entertainers certainly want
Speaker 2: our attention. But Christ wants our heart. And if we
Speaker 2: keep our eyes fixed on Him, no wind and no wave,
Speaker 2: no storm in this life will ever be able to
Speaker 2: separate us from Him. To He who condescends to save
Speaker 2: us from our own inattention and inconstancy, be all glory
Speaker 2: on and worship together with this all Holy Father and Life,
Speaker 2: great Spirit, now and ever to the ages of ages.
Speaker 3: But at the family you will have notten not to
Speaker 3: you before fort converting the time person continue to find
Speaker 3: and don't not no con and you don't not do no.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Hill Country homilies. For more information,
Speaker 1: visit Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church at w w W dot
Speaker 1: Denunciation t X dot com and please join us again
Speaker 1: next week