https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/2576

by Metropolitan Saba of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America

​Much is said these days about "truth." All people cling to their own truth, seeing it from their own perspective, whether for personal benefit or the interests of their group. Yet the Absolute Truth, God Himself, is often the most forgotten. Strangely, people still appeal to Him to justify their cause, and to strengthen their battle to obtain what they call their rights.

But in our faith, truth is not simply a law or custom—it is God Himself. The Lord said in the Holy Gospel: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" (John 14:6). He is both the Truth and the Way to the Truth. To follow Him, to walk according to His commandments, to love Him and to humble ourselves before Him – these allow His presence to fill us, protecting us and those around us from error and falsehood.

The Lord also says: "If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32).

If you are a follower of Christ, you belong fully to the Truth – not partially, but wholly. The presence of Christ within you purifies you from every stain and falsehood. You cannot belong to Him and to someone else at the same time. Either you open yourself entirely to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17 and 15:26), or you remain divided and unstable.

How, then, can you remain faithful to Him while sin still finds a place in you? Faithfulness lies in your sincere striving toward Him, in following His footsteps wherever they lead, and in remaining conscious always to live in loyalty to Him. Yes, you will face obstacles and temptations either from within yourself or from the outside. Do not be afraid, although the devil never sleeps. "Like a roaring lion, he prowls around looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Do not despair if you fall once or many times. What matters most is that you rise quickly after each fall. Faithfulness to the Lord does not mean you will never sin. Rather, it means that when you do sin, you are ready to repent, to be corrected, and to continue walking toward Him in truth.

The Lord has not left you alone in this struggle. He promised: "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you" (John 14:16–17). To stray from the truth, then, is to turn away from the Spirit of God dwelling within you.

People may disagree endlessly about what they call "truth." But too often they forget that truth cannot be separated from love. If in your pursuit of truth you lose love, you are no longer on the right path. At such moments, you must pause, examine yourself carefully in the light of the Gospel, and repent.

In your search for truth, you may sometimes confuse what is actually the truth with what only appears to be so. Your passions and lack of purity — whether as an individual, a group, a worldly institution, or even a church in this fallen world — play large roles in clouding your vision. Imagine, for example, the magnitude of the deception when you are under pressure from your friends or those around you! Reflect also on how dangerous it becomes when the truth to which you cling and defend is shaped by competing interests, politics, and the struggles for influence and power that dominate this world. To remain faithful, you must be willing to die to yourself in order to live in truth, integrity, and loyalty to God.

Your spiritual confusion will provide you with many justifications, sometimes disguised as logic, self-interest, craftiness, or wisdom. All of this pushes you to walk by the standards of this world, protecting yourself and your reputation, and supporting them with the spirit of the world — a spirit that is not yours if you are a disciple of Christ. For the world does not place its priority on bearing witness to the truth, but rather on cunning and compromise, which stand against the Gospel. The lure of power and influence, and the love of possession can lead you to build a seemingly logical structure for your ambitions, filling it with noble goals that justify your actions — while in reality you are only covering up the evil within and the harm of your behavior.

Do not forget the Gospel's warning about wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15). You could be that wolf when you let evil lead you to seek your own desires disguised as virtue, or poison in honey. Be watchful, lest you become a tool of the evil one even while believing you are resisting him. Your distortion of truth is most painful when you direct it against those closest to you. Remember what Christ said: "Because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me" (John 8:45).

The Lord said: "A man's enemies will be those of his own household" (Matthew 10:36). And the Arab poet reminds us: "The injustice of kin is the hardest to bear." Your suffering is also made heavier when people label you as belonging to one camp or another, simply because the truth you spoke happened to align with their position. This, too, is part of your cross, if you remain faithful to the Gospel and the teachings of the Church. Expect your reward from the Lord alone. Many before you stood against the entire world and paid a heavy price, yet it was the truth they proclaimed that triumphed in the end.

What grieves the Lord is that some entrusted with His Church busy themselves with things He never asked for, while His children hunger for the word of life and thirst for the living water that could relieve their suffering. While God's creation longs for salvation, attention is instead directed to pursuits that have nothing to do with salvation, and efforts are poured into superficial concerns that feed and heal no one. Even more painful is that those who clearly understand their evangelical mission and pastoral responsibility are forced to spend their energy correcting distortions, rather than dedicating themselves fully to nurturing true righteousness in the hearts of Christ's beloved.

And so, you are called to remain steadfast in both truth and love. Speak the truth as you see it, but always with love (Eph. 4:15). The moment you sense within yourself the presence of anger, pride, or malice, remain silent and turn to the Lord in humble prayer. Ask Him to place His word on your lips, so that you may become a real witness to the Truth. As for false witnesses, leave them to the Lord and to the judgment of history.

​Glory to Jesus Christ!

Our Lord taught, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” A novel and complicated thought, not just then but throughout time and even into our own. Mercy, perhaps the most misunderstood and certainly underutilized of virtues – it is for most of us something we understand in those off moments when we can see our own mistakes plainly, say when we accidently bumped into the car in front of us, and in other societally objective moments of judgement. Save for those select situations, we often live in a reality turned on its head. One where we are mostly nice people doing justifiable things, and any error on our part can be chalked up to a small personal foible; or its root is cosmically connected to some other set of circumstances, say my exhaustion from a long week of work, or perhaps some global affair; or perhaps the result of my irritability as a result of my fasting. Whatever the reason, we do not care to offer mercy to others, because ultimately, we have numbed into complete sedation any sense of our own need for mercy. After all, we are overall pretty good and reasonable people.

Spiritually speaking, this inability to offer mercy to others might very well be the trojan horse of the evil one, a subtle yet destructive passion that hides within the walls of the camp of our heart and yet will surely jeopardize our salvation. How many good people do each of us know who have said to us, I can forgive anyone, but this one, I will never forgive. How many of us know people who hold this position even as they are breathing their last breaths in this life. Though we pray that God’s mercy endures forever, we are prepared that ours is non-existent. We look forward to sitting down with our comrades and regaling them about our justifiable reasons that we will not extend mercy to those who have stolen from us. 

In today’s Gospel, Christ lays before us a simplistic vision of the human story. Before our master, we accumulate a litany of faults, so numerous we stand no chance being able to even recognize many of them. We might see our so called, “big sins”, but to digress very quickly, we know that every sin is a “big sin”. Even that which begins benignly if left unattended will eventually become the cause of our despair unto complete existential dread. So no need to say in your heart, well at least I am not a murderer, I’m probably mostly good. No need to reach for that to be your metric of bad - because even if a person were to commit no other fault than say the compulsion for overeating, gluttony, this benign passion might very well become unruly, growing so large that existential dread set off by one’s health or rather lack of will surely set in – and before they know it, they find themselves living it what feels like hell on earth. Even the path toward becoming a murderer might itself begin with the further upstream so-called small sins – perhaps even gluttony. So, all of us are found wanting and in need before our master who has gifted us with life. But in our ingratitude, with pleasure, we continually heap deadening actions on ourselves. Taking this blessing of life and trading it for death. And this gift of life was given to us at the creation of the world, and then once again emphatically under-written by our beloved Lord Jesus’ incarnation and violent death. Truly God so loves us, thus any rejection of this truth ought to loom large before our eyes when we stand before God. 

Yes, everything we know about God, revealed in His incarnation convinces us that He, in His benevolence has no desire to nickel and dime us on account of our short comings. On the contrary, like the king in today’s Gospel account, at the hour that He will wish to settle His accounts with his people, He is willing to operate at a loss. Though we will surely find ourselves coming up short by the standard of His goodness to us, He will not hold this against us – no, He has shown us already that before His judgement seat He will deal in mercy towards us. Ah but just a minute, return to your seats those of us that might think well then that settles it – let us do as we please regardless of how high a debt we run, the Lord is merciful and quick to forgive our debts. 

Dear brethren, woe to us for missing the most crucial part. As the pardoned debtor leaves from before His Lord’s judgement seat, he immediately forgets that he is in any way a debtor himself. He begins to see himself as a righteous lord himself, as one who has no debts. Put in other words, forgetting or completely not recognizing he is a sinner, he begins to see himself as a god. And with the authority of a god, he grabs those who have sinned against him by the throat, scripture tells us and demands to be made whole for all the losses incurred against him. We see this everywhere around us – the TV, YouTube, memes, online chat sites both right leaning and left leaning behave like this ungrateful servant. Not seeing our own sinfulness, we grab each other by the throat without even a single thought, and we begin demanding satisfaction for the debts of others, be they perceived or real. We have become a world lacking mercy. The larger fallout is not simply the vitriol that has become so commonplace for us to see slung from one to the other that it barely causes us to stop when we see it, but worse still, our participation by behaving like gods demanding satisfaction, will cause our soul’s capacity to ask for mercy to atrophy. 

And if we no longer ask for mercy, but demand satisfaction, when we find ourselves standing before the throne of God on that dread day of Judgement, we will be full of excuses and complaints, wanting to justify ourselves, and perhaps we will offer a few halfhearted observations of our own fallenness, but all the while being more concerned about those others who deserve to have their up and comings delivered swiftly to them. Such a person cannot and will not enter into the joy of the Lord. 

When I cannot forgive others, and worse still, am a habitual demander of being made whole, I will find that the tears of my heart will dry up – and my heart will become like an empty well in the middle of a desert. Spiritually speaking, though I might attend church, I find myself focusing on the externals of the Faith, the community, the politics, the activities, everything but God Himself, because my lack of mercy towards others has, in a roundabout way turned off my sense of need for God’s mercy, and over time has made God less relevant to me, perhaps to the point of becoming functionally atheistic. 

Find me any saint, find one for me, and see how much he or she struggles to continually forgive those who wrong them – in turn they recognize all the more their own weaknesses before God. When they pray, Lord have mercy, they mean it. To those who practice mercy, God is very much alive. You say to me, father, I no longer find God relevant, I have even begun to doubt His existence, have you ever truly lived as though He exists, and His word is truth? Have you ever practiced gratuitous holy mercy, or is your understanding of mercy consistent with the advice your atheist therapist might offer to one of his clients? 

What would the world look like if we practiced radical mercy towards each other. What dysfunctionality could once and for all be left behind if we could forgive the debts of others. Oh, how sweet and pleasant it would be for brethren to dwell together in that vision of unity. Rather than each grieving in their hearts over the violence committed against them, their hearts would be heaven bound, concerned only how I have fallen short of God’s high calling for me. If only we surrender the need to have the wrongs against us righted, oh how whole we would become. In many ways, the reason we don’t do this, is because if we were to be honest with ourselves, we are not convinced that God exists. We think this is all there is, and so if I am not satisfied here and now, then when will I ever feel whole again? For the saints, those who truly believe in God, they see the pursuits of worldly completeness as a shallow waste of time, hardly worth fussing over. And so, what if I manage to twist a sorry out from this person who spoke to me rudely, or cut me off, or who took everything away from me. The saints, like their master, practiced radical mercy, the kind of mercy that could accept the insult of the spitting, the buffeting, the crown of thorns, and even the Cross and still say as one of His last words, Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do.

My brothers and sisters, let us learn to love God, and abandon our delusions and self-idolatry. Let us be attentive to the Lord’s teaching, let us forgive all, so that we can been forgiven all. Let us concern ourselves with our own sins, and like Christ, provide others and not ourselves with excuses for sinning. Let us take seriously that high calling Christ has called us the faithful to and let us practice the asceticism of radical mercy.    

The following is an unofficial transcription of the audio of Archbishop Alexei's Homily during the during the Divine Liturgy for the Glorification of St Olga of Alaska in Kwethluk, Friday, June 20, 2025 ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0IJxQxOqyY ) (Some of the Yupik terms and parts of the homily that were difficult to hear in the recording may have been missed. Attempt was prayerfully made to capture as closely as possible the words of the homily. If there are any errors the transcribers ask for your forgiveness and prayers) : 


“S’Praznikom!

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today the Holy Church and Alaska joins the choirs of heaven glorifying our beloved Matushka. Yes today heaven rejoices! Today the earth listens! The land does not shout but it listens with a stillness deeper than words it listens. The tundra listens, the rivers pause, even the summer sky grows still for a Saint has appeared. The Holy Spirit put Tanqilria Arrsamquq, not from a distant land, not from another time, but right here and right now in Kwethluk, from the heart of our land, the soul of our people, Saint Olga stands revealed.

The world praises with loud greatness but heaven treasures quiet soft holiness. St Olga claimed no titles, sought no fame, yet her compassion became her crown. Her humble prayer her strength. And now the Church proclaims what many already knew in their hearts,  Arrsamquq from Kwethluk is a saint. Our Saint Olga, Tanqilria Arrsamquq. She lived a quietly but her life still speaks and what does it say? It says that holiness is possible. That God is near and that even in sorrow, even in silence, you too can become a light to this world. 

Her life was not separate from ours. She bore children, she sewed their clothes, she cooked for them, she prayed for them, she hurt with them and she hoped for them. But she lived with a different heart, a heart that listened, a heart that gave, a heart that never gave up, a heart that was full of Christ and this is what made her holy. Not the visions, not the miracles, but mercy, patience and prayer. And then the miracles came and then the visions of mercy came. They came to others because of that patient loving heart. 

She was the one who stayed up late, sewing for children for their clothes but no one saw. The one who wiped tears with the edge of her sleeve, the one who said that it was ok, even when her own heart was breaking. She made others feel safe not because she had no pain, but because she held on to Christ in her pain and to her others felt her strength as well. She did not know the Scriptures as a scholar but she knew them deep in her heart.  She listened in Church in prayer, in humility, and by listening and by doing, she became a living Gospel. The hymns of the church shaped her thoughts. The feast days offered her joys, the fast offered a struggle, the icons offered reverence. The Jesus Prayer became her bread. She drank from the same well offer to each of us, the Divine Liturgy, the Holy Mysteries, the life of the Church she drank deeply, she drank often, she drank faithfully making her home into an altar, her prayer into a quiet [...] before the Holy icons. 

Beloved in Christ, This is where we must begin as we want to follow her. We need not change everything all at once but we must begin today. We must say our prayers, we must fast, not only from food, but from anger, from judgment, from laziness, we must make our homes a little bit more like hers, places of warmth, of prayer and of quiet mercy. St Olga fulfilled the words of St Innocent  who said, “to deny oneself means to give up ones bad habits to root out of the heart all that ties us to the world.”

So we ask ourselves what has tied us down? What complaints have become normal in your hearts? Today right now for her sake lay them down. Your angers, let it go.  Your bitterness, release it.  Whisper softly [...] and feel that Christ is here.

Saint Olga lived the words of Saint Herman “from this day, from this hour, from this minute, let us love God above all and do his holy will.” Not tomorrow. Tomorrow is too late. Not when life becomes easy, it barely does. Today is all we have. Live Christ now as Saint Olga did, everyday in pain she loved, in need she gave, in silence she prayed, in hiddenness she remained faithful.

This is the path forward, not tomorrow, but today, not sometime but now. Let’s say yes to the path she walked, let’s say it as she would say it. Yes to the Holy Liturgy, yes to the prayer of the heart, yes to the quiet acts of mercy, yes to the repent, yes to the Orthodox life of humility, of forgiveness  and of active love, just as she did from this day, from this hour, from this very moment.

Saint Olga was fully Russian Orthodox and fully Yupik. She prayed with her people’s breath, she walked with their steps, she wept with their pain. She deeply respected her elders, listening humbly and then becoming an elder herself in quiet faith and gentle strength. 

Saint Olga embodied the Yupik truth that a real person is one who stands firm even in silence, and who’s quiet actions speak louder than words. In her nothing was lost, everything was offered, and in Christ, everything was made holy. 

In her, Orthodox Christianity did not silence Human Traditions, it sang through them,  transfigured and holy. 

She lived in the church's life with a Yupik soul praying with the rhythm of the seasons, showing mercy with the strength of the Tundra, clothing the suffering with the tenderness of a mother. This is the legacy she offers us, not that we must leave behind what we are, but that who we are can become holy. The Orthodox faith, we live deeply, does not ask us to become someone else, it calls us to become who we truly are in Christ. 

Tanqilria Arrsamquq, she knew sorrows. She buried children. She witnessed suffering she could not mend. She waited for help that never came, but through it all she did not grow bitter. She became a flame that gave warmth to others, even as her own soul felt the chill of sorrow. She shows that the Orthodox priest is not only for priests, not only for Bishops, but it is also for mothers and for grandmothers, for hunters, for fishermen, for you and for me. 

Her life tells us, you do not need to be famous to be holy. You need to be faithful. You need to be kind. You need to pray and keep praying even when your heart is tired. Saint Olga's fire was not bright and blazing that the world loves to see, it was quiet, it was hidden but it never went out. It warmed those who were cold. It soothed those who were hurting, and now that light has become a beacon for all of Alaska and beyond. 

Today, she stands before the throne of Christ her hands lifted in prayer not for herself but rather for her people, for mothers and children, for those burdened by hidden pain, for all who feel forgotten, she remembers us and she calls us to remember her, not only with words, but with our deeds. 

If she could speak to us now she would not use many words. Maybe she'd whisper gently, “Mothers hold your children tighter. Fathers, guard your families with more courage. Elders speak the truth more clearly, remind your people who have forgotten about what is right? Young ones listen carefully, avoid what brings ruin, alcohol will deceive you, faithlessness will empty you, and carelessness can endanger you. Trust in Christ and you will find peace.” With that holy whisper we would all fell warm and safe like a child in a mother's arms.  

Faithful from Kwethluk, from Yukon, pilgrims from far lands I have one final word, “Do not let today fade like a sunset behind the river. Let it burn within you quietly, like a lamp that never goes out. Let it be the beginning of something truly miraculous in your life because you were here when the Church declared what Heaven already knew that Matukshka Olga is among the Saints. 

Go home and pray as she prayed. Hold your child like she held hers. Forgive as she forgave. Whisper “Lord have mercy” continually, softly, deeply in your hearts. Let your life shine like a vigil lamp, steady in ferver, humble in love and unwavering in prayer. That Saint Olga’s glorification ignite a quiet revolution within you, transforming your hearts, renewing your families, sanctifying your home. 

Let's pray, “O Saint Olga our dear mother, healer of sorrows, protectoress of the land, jewel of the humble of heart, remember thy children. Stand before Christ unashamed and plead for us and may thy hidden flame now burn brightly in us, a light in our path, a warmth in our struggle, a quiet strength in our weakness, leading us to Christ by joy and ours.  Dear mother we’re still learning, still trying, we fall yet we rise, we forget yet we long for Christ, we are weak yet through thy prayers strength is given. Teach us to love, like thee with quiet mercy. Teach us to live as thou did live with faithfulness in all things. Teach us to pray like thee, not loudly but from the heart. Help us to walk like thee with courage and sorrow and hope in Christ. For with thy prayers, all things are possible, and so with grateful hearts we cry...
Through the prayers of our newly glorified mother, the righteous Olga, Matushka of all Alaska, may Christ our God have mercy on us and save us for He is good and loves mankind. Amen”.

+ Archbishop Alexei of Sitka and Alaska, Homily during the Divine Liturgy for the Glorification of St Olga of Alaska in Kwethluk, Friday, June 20, 2025

Jerusalem.
“Foundation of peace,” as it might be rendered. Or, if you will: “Cornerstone of peace.”
Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was already a very ancient city on the day of the triumphal entry of God’s Anointed, the Shepherd of Israel: David the King.

Jerusalem was already a very ancient city when King David - psalmist, musician, and warrior David - danced in its streets with all his vigor before the Ark of the Covenant which he brought to rest there.

Jerusalem was already a very ancient city when the prophet King David fled across the brook Kidron and up the Mount of Olives to escape his own son, the fratricide and usurper Absalom who repaid clemency with treason.

Jerusalem was already a very ancient city when David son of Jesse son of Judah passed the crown to his son Solomon, the chosen heir.

Jerusalem was an ancient city. A walled city. A hilltop fortress. A city founded not by God’s elect. A city founded, rather, by the sons of Cain in the tradition of Cain. A city founded on bloodshed and aggression and oppression and exploitation… Founded on pride, on self-will, on the will to power. Founded on fear. Founded on delusion, on mendacity and fraud, on corruption and lust…

Jerusalem was, over the centuries, a city ever obstinate and unrestrained in its evil ways, impervious to God’s commandments and obdurately deaf to His countless entreaties and exhortations and warnings. A city of perdition.

Can you imagine such a city?

Jerusalem was a city not founded by God’s elect, but reclaimed by God’s elect on the day of the triumphal entry of God’s Anointed, the Shepherd of Israel: David the King. A city recovered from the powers of darkness. A city reoriented. Repurposed. A city redeemed.

Jerusalem was now the epicenter of the inauguration of God’s Kingdom here on Earth. The capital of that Kingdom. The seat of government of God’s Holy Wisdom. The hub of the administration of righteousness and peace and justice and equity.

Jerusalem was now a city of unwavering faithfulness. A city of wholehearted devotion to the Glory of God. The consecrated city. The city of right worship, of true glorification of the one true God.

Jerusalem was the city where Solomon would build the Temple where God would establish His name forever. To Jerusalem, David gathered the riches of the region. To Jerusalem, the twelve tribes of Israel brought freewill offerings: gold and silver and bronze and iron, cedar and cypress, onyx and marble and precious stones all in abundance, to which David added his own great treasure. And for these gifts, David prayed before the congregation in these words:

Blessed art Thou, O LORD, God of our father Israel!
Everything in heaven and on earth is Thine!
Wealth and honor come from Thee!
Everything comes from Thee, and we have given Thee only what comes from Thy hand!
Thine own of Thine own, we offer unto Thee!
We give Thee thanks and praise Thy glorious name!

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory and the splendor… now and ever and unto ages of ages.
1 Chron 29

David himself prayed in these words at the commencement of the building of the Temple.

Jerusalem would now and forever be the city of that Temple.
And in the Temple, the Holy of Holies.
And in the Holy of Holies, the Ark.
And in the Ark, the Law.
And on the Ark, the Seat of Mercy.
God’s dwelling place among Men.
The very centre of the universe: Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was now a city of splendor. A city of fabulous prosperity and wealth streaming in from every corner of the earth. A city lavishly blessed.

Jerusalem was a luminous city, its streets and its edifices all built of that famous pale limestone, almost white, as though to suggest “almost pure,” and opulently adorned in silver and gold and gemstones… A city that glistened like a jewel under the fierce Levantine sun. Yes, a shining city on a hill.

Can you imagine such a city?

Was there ever another city of such promise of righteousness and peace and justice and equity?
Was there ever another city of such promise, such hope, such possibility…
Unrealized?

Jerusalem was a city that found its way… and then soon lost it.

Jerusalem was a vacillating city. An on-again-off-again city. A city lurching to-and-fro. A city of endless internecine struggle. A riven city. A city on two hilltops, really, and a city of two alternating faces: a face of faithfulness and a face of apostasy.

Jerusalem was a city that turned its back on the LORD of Hosts and strayed after strange gods and descended into all lawlessness and corruption and depravity and delusion, pride and vainglory and lust, murder and theft and bribery and fraud. A city that perverted justice, that condemned the righteous and acquitted the wicked, that renounced hospitality, that neglected the widow and the orphan, that exploited the sojourner. A city of monstrosities, worse than those sons of Cain who had gone before. A city that even sacrificed its children to Moloch.

Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
How many times did you tear down those abominable shrines of the idols, the Baalim and the Asherim… only to rebuild them yet again?
How many times did you cleanse and restore the Temple… only to defile and desecrate it yet again?
How many times did you rediscover the commandments of the LORD your God… only to cast them aside yet again?
How many times, in distress, did you cry to the LORD your God, and how many times did you put your trust in princes in whom there is no salvation?
How many times, O Jerusalem, did the LORD your God call to you, send His Word to you? And how many times did you imprison the prophets? How many times did you kill the prophets?
How many times, O Jerusalem, were you besieged?
How many times did the LORD your God deliver you from your enemies, and how many other times did He deliver you into their hand?
How many times, O Jerusalem, were you breached and pillaged and ravaged and afflicted?
How many times did the LORD your God beckon you and warn you and chasten you and save you… and beckon and warn and chasten…?

Can you imagine such a city?

Can you imagine a city that has lost its religion? That has despised and discarded its heritage?
Can you imagine a city that worships power apart from goodness? That severs peace from justice and justice from truth and truth from love?
Can you imagine a city that strives for prosperity without equity? For consumption without contentment? For security without purpose?
Can you imagine a city that would silence the Word of God and amplify a cacophony of false prophets: prophets of complacency, apologists for power and privilege, prophets of self-empowerment and self-improvement, prophets of the techno-saviour, prophets for hire, prophets for views and clicks and “likes”… ?
Can you imagine a city that would sacrifice its own children? To the Moloch of war, of national glory, of political or mercantile imperative? To the Moloch of hedonism? To the Moloch of so-called compassion, inverted compassion, eradication of pain instead of communion in suffering… following the mantras of “patient autonomy” or “the right to die” or “reproductive freedom” or so-called “affirmative care”?

Can you imagine such a city?

And so, Jerusalem convulsed and careened across the centuries in its struggle with God.
Jerusalem was a city whose song was a song of anguish and penitence and plea and praise, a song of deliverance and relief and exultation and thanksgiving, and a song of distress and desperation and desolation and devastation and lamentation and weariness and woe… The song of Jerusalem was a song of God’s longing and His longsuffering and His jealousy and His wrath and His loyalty and His tenderness, a song of God’s judgment and God’s mercy, His condemnation and His salvation… The song of Jerusalem was the song of a remnant of a still-flickering hope…

Jerusalem was a city that never quite lost its faith in a promise. Jerusalem, ancient city, as it logged yet another millennium, was a city waiting. A city suspended in expectation. When everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong…

Expectation of what, exactly? Expectation of whom? A hero. A saviour of some kind. Someone who would somehow, at long last, set things right. A son of David. An heir of David. Another Anointed One. Another shepherd king…

A millennium on from the day of David’s triumphal entry, Jerusalem was a haunted city. A city haunted by all of the glory and all of the shame of the memory of its past and the memory of its future. A city caught fast in the jaws of fate: “How can history possibly go on like this? How can history possibly change?”

Today, O Jerusalem, today He comes to you.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
Righteous and having salvation is he,
Humble and mounted on an ass,
On a colt, the foal of an ass.
Zech 9:9

Today, the children of the light waive the palms of victory.
We who were blind and have received our sight,
we who were leprous and are now cleansed,
we who were lame and maimed and paralyzed and now walk,
we who have just witnessed the raising of Lazarus from the grave!
Today, we march in the triumphal procession.
Today, we sing: Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

Today, we cast off our cloaks, the garments of the shame of Father Adam and Mother Eve: we strew them in the roadway and trample them underfoot because today we have no more cause for shame. Today, we are robed in His light.

Today, He who sits enthroned upon the cherumim, He who makes the clouds his chariot, He who rides on the wings of the wind… Today He comes mounted on the colt of an ass. And what a model of faithful witness in the world is that small, humble colt of an ass who serves quietly and simply as asked, as required, obediently, hardly comprehending the full import of what he is about on this day. Yet, he bears the Word in the world.
The colt of an ass bears the Word who bears the heart of God into the heart of the city which is the heart of the cosmos.

And in the heart of the city which is the heart of the cosmos, the heart of God is an aching heart crying out:

Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
How many times? Over centuries and millennia!
How many times would I have gathered your children to myself?
Your sons. Your daughters.
Even as a mother hen gathers her brood under her wings.
But you would not!

Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
You who kill the prophets!
Receive today one final prophet, and more than a prophet!
Matt 23:27

Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
You with your unquenchable thirst for blood.
Drink this blood, if you dare!
For the life is in the blood, and it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.
Lev 17:11

Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
Your king is coming to you.
Your king, the Anointed, which is to say, the Messiah, which is to say, the Christ.
And His coming is at once God’s judgment and God’s mercy, condemnation and salvation, in a single stroke.

God’s judgment, because He knew that this is what you would do - “Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!” He knew that this is just what you would do. He knew the darkness of your heart. And yet He comes to you anyway.

And God’s mercy, because He knew that this is what you would do - “His blood be on us and on our children!” He knew that this is just what you would do. He knew the darkness of your heart. And He comes to you precisely for that reason.

Condemnation, because if you were not a city of crucifiers, then how is it that your Messiah is crucified?
And salvation, because in that crucifixion is the eternal life of the world.

Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
Your king is coming to you today.
And His name is Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God.
He is one with the Everlasting Father: He is in the Father and the Father is in Him.
He is the Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government of righteousness and peace and justice and equity, there will be no end from this time forth and forevermore.
Isa 9:6-7
John 10:30, 14:10-11

Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
Your king is coming to you today.
He is that rock.
That rock of salvation.
That rock gushing forth the spring of living water when His side is pierced.
That rock of offense, the stumbling block.
That stone which the builders rejected.
The true cornerstone of peace.

This hour, brothers and sisters, children of the light, we will process in the street, waiving the palms of victory, singing: “Hosannah in the highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Our faithful witness in the heart of this city is at once God’s judgment and God’s mercy, condemnation and salvation in a single stroke. By our faithful witness on these streets, we reclaim and redeem this city from the powers of darkness. By the faithful witness of our life in this city, His kingdom extends to this city in this age from the throne of David in Jerusalem, as His government of righteousness and peace and justice and equity increases without end.

O Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Son of David, Almighty God!
Establish your throne forever in Jerusalem, my heart.
Restore and cleanse your holy Temple, my heart.
Rebuke the hypocrisy which lurks in this Temple, my heart.
Overturn the tables and drive out the avarice and greed and deceit from this Temple, my heart.
Establish your name and your dwelling place, and forever increase your government of righteousness and peace and justice and equity in my heart.

For, in the words of your ancestor according to the flesh and your servant according to the Spirit, Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory and the splendor now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.