In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! [Glory be forever!]

As we enter upon this third week of the Great Fast, the Church is preparing us for next week, where we will bring out the cross in the middle of the Church, and we’ll bow down before it as a sign of the pathway which we are on. But in order for the cross to mean anything to us, in order for that cross to have significance in our life and take root in our heart, today the Church reminds us of that most essential quality of faith, faith which can transform a person, faith which is the foundation of our Christian life, faith without which we can do nothing of significance in our Christian life. To have faith is to believe that God exists and to live in a way in which that is true.

So I want to talk to you about two points this morning, and the first is simply this, that God looks for faith; God honors faith. We see in the gospel reading this morning this really amazing scene, where first we have not only the demonstration of the faith of these friends, but we have the demonstration of the faith of all of those who desire to be close to God in Christ. It says, “Immediately, many were gathered together so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door, and he preached the word to them.”

In this particular example, we see people that are hungry for the word of God. We see people that are hungry for a message which transforms their lives. So often we, as Orthodox Christians I would say especially, miss this important point. Now that we’re in this lenten season of the year, it’s a time for spiritual renewal; it’s a time for spiritual nourishment. So we have to ask ourselves: Are we doing daily into the Scriptures, mining the Scriptures for this precious nourishment that we receive for our souls? There are so many ways to do that besides just kind of picking up a Bible and reading the daily readings or reading any passage that God places on our heart. We have to do this; we have to be able to sustain our faith by this encouragement that comes from the Scriptures, and then all the books that are written, spiritually uplifting books… I don’t consider myself that old, but I remember when I was young there were maybe 20 or 30 books in English on the Orthodox faith. I’m not kidding, maybe 20 or 30, and I know some of you maybe remember when you were in Sunday school here, there was like one book that you learned from, and it was in Russian: Zakon Bozhij, right? The Law of God. That’s what everybody learned their catechism from.

Today there are literally thousands of books in English on the Orthodox faith, so many that no one person could ever own them all. Besides all of the theology and the writings of the Fathers and so forth, the point being no longer can we say, “Well, I didn’t know. There’s nothing for me to read.” All of this starts with this desire for us to actually grow, to learn something, to be nourished in the faith, and all of it is there for us to partake of. So I encourage you to do that.

But then we also see this action, this faith not just as a contemplative aspect of our life, but also faith as action, and we see these four friends, these men who take this paralytic—and we don’t know necessarily his faith—but these friends want to see this paralyzed man healed. And they do an amazing thing. Because they can’t get near Jesus, they take the roof off, which of course would’ve been not a major operation, but it’s still startling: for all of these people to be inside this building and then all of a sudden, there goes the roof and here comes down, being lowered by ropes, this paralytic in front of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For us, what is the lesson there? I would say: How much do we want to be with God? How much do we fight the things of the world and do whatever is necessary—raise the roof—in order to be with God? Do we pray? Do we pray every day, or is the TV a distraction or the radio or music a distraction from us wanting to actually commune with God, to be with God? And what about worship in the divine services? I can’t help but to go back to this example. In our lifetime—and this is, I would say, really one of the first times in my lifetime as an adult that I have seen people literally being killed because they are Christian. In the previous generation, it was our ancestors, those of us that are Russian, in the Soviet Union, that were being killed. But I’m a little bit young to actually remember that horrible time. Today it’s people in the Middle East—men, women, children—that are being killed for their faith in Christ.

And in the West, here, we have it so easy! All we have to do is get up and go. There’s no one waiting outside to murder us to come in here. Ultimately, we are what is keeping us from being with God So the idea is: What are we willing to do? Are we willing to both feed our souls and take action to demonstrate our faith? God honors faith. God looks for our faith, to see if we truly love him.

And the second is, I think, related to it, the final point. We have the protest. You know, this is early in the Gospel of Mark. We have the introduction of the scribes and the Pharisees, who immediately are objecting, because Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven.” And what’s amazing about this action is they hadn’t even actually said anything yet. It said that Jesus knew their hearts. He knew the hatred that was in their hearts, the envy, the anger. And he said, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts?”

And he says this, a little bit of an odd saying, and we want to talk a little bit about it, “Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed, and walk’?” What does that mean, “Which is easier?” This word, “easier,” is not necessarily the clearest thing. “Which is easier?” Because it depends on your perspective.

Let’s say we’re watching this happen in front of us. We’re watching this happen, Jesus is healing this person, and he says to us, “Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’?” Well, we might say, “Well, it’s easier to just say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ ” right? Because it’s just words. What would be amazing is if you actually healed this guy. That’s hard; that’s difficult, right? That’s what we think. But Jesus doesn’t just look at the outward appearance. What he says is, “Why do you reason thus in your hearts?” In other words, what’s in your heart is what is most important, and healing someone of paralysis isn’t going to heal the heart, isn’t going to change the heart. What’s going to change the heart is forgiveness.

So now let’s look at it from the perspective of God himself. Which is easier, to heal this person or to forgive sins? For God, who it says can raise children of Abraham from stones, to heal someone is nothing. It’s simple. He created the world with a word. But to heal the human heart takes your cooperation, and that’s hard, because it’s not just up to God; it’s up to God and me. And that’s the hardest thing in the world. “I could heal anybody of any disease,” God says, “but I can only give you the grace, and you have to take it, and you have to cooperate with it, and you have to be forgiving, to accept my forgiveness.” That’s the hard thing. Do you see?

This saying, when we read it, it’s a paradox. What’s hard for us is being healed. I’ve had sickness all winter. I’m good for two days, and then I get sick again. But when I look at my life, what’s really hard for me is to cooperate with God, and what’s even harder for him is to get me to cooperate with him. That’s what forgiveness is about. That’s what the Christian life is about. That’s what faith is about. That’s why we come here, and that’s why it’s difficult for us to do that consistently, every week, again and again and again, and our faith goes up and our faith goes down. It’s because… Not because I cough—it’s because of the hardness of my heart. It’s because I don’t want to cooperate with the grace of God. That’s what’s really, truly difficult.

So he says, “But,” he concedes to them, because he knows what they want, “But that you may know,” because you’re looking for the outward stuff, “that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins,” he said to the paralytic, “I say to you: Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” There. “Now do you know that I have power on earth to forgive sins because I healed the guy?” The question is: Do we know that God has power on earth if he doesn’t get healed, if we don’t get healed, if we don’t get what we want? That’s the most difficult thing for us to accept. Where is God? Why did this happen? Do I still believe in him because this didn’t happen or that didn’t happen or I didn’t get this or I didn’t get that or somebody got sick or somebody died? That’s faith. Faith is being faithful when we don’t get what we want, when we can say, “Glory to God for all things,” the good and the bad.

Just to close, it says, at the end of the epistle reading today: “Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.” Every time in the Divine Liturgy—how many times? listen—we say, “Let us attend!” Right? Sometimes I change it up: “Let us be attentive!” It means: “Pay attention! This is important! This is wisdom!” We say it before the Scripture readings. We say it before something important. We say it before some high point. And then the question is: Is my heart open to that? Is my mind open to that? Am I allowing God’s grace to come into me? Am I cooperating with God’s grace to change me, to make me the person that God wants me to be?

I’ve said it before: it’s easy to come forward and march up here and open my mouth and take Communion. The question is: What happens after that? Am I allowing that Communion to enter me, to burn my sins up, to change me, to transform me? so that I can demonstrate faith like those friends, who did anything to be in front of God, so that I can be like those people who crowded the house and couldn’t wait to hear the words of Jesus. That’s what we are called to do. That’s what Lent is all about, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Never be discouraged. Don’t be discouraged. Be encouraged by these words that build up our faith, that show us the way to a full Christian life, to the fullness of life that God wants us to have, both now and in the world to come.

May he grant it to us, may we cooperate with him, joyfully, freely, so that we can all partake, both in this life and in the world to come, the kingdom of heaven. To him who is our life, with the Father and the Spirit, be glory, honor, and majesty, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ! [Glory to him forever!]