This first Sunday in Lent is known as The Triumph of Orthodoxy. Today we celebrate the endurance of the Orthodox Faith for nearly 2,000 years in the face of persecution and heresy—in the face of hostility and suffering, in the face of many wrong understandings of what Jesus Christ taught. Happily, in our own lives we have become part of His Church, the One True Church, and tried to live our lives in such a way that His Church has become our Church in which we are guided and supported by the Father and by the Son and by the Holy Spirit.

The Triumph of Orthodoxy has three important dimensions—the past, the present and the future. First, there was the historical event—the restoration of icons to the Orthodox Church on the 11th of March 843 and the procession to the Church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. We will celebrate the return of icons to the Church with our own procession with icons around our church after the Divine Liturgy. In addition to the historical event, the Triumph of Orthodoxy celebrates that the Orthodox faith has endured into the present for nearly 2,000 years even though that faith has often been challenged, both by secular leaders and by religious confusions. Finally, into the future, the Triumph of Orthodoxy celebrates that the Orthodox faith will endure until the end of time, until the Day of Judgment. It is that third aspect of the Triumph of Orthodoxy that I would like to consider today—the future of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. Why and how is the Orthodox faith going to endure?

The readings today from the Gospel of St John and the Book of Hebrews explain why and how the Orthodox faith is going to endure. We are each called to and we are each witnesses for this Orthodox faith. In the reading from the opening chapter of the Gospel of St John several of the apostles—Philip and Nathaniel were called by Jesus Christ to follow Him, which they both did for the whole of His life on earth. That great preacher and teacher, St John Chrysostom had a surprising reaction to this calling of these apostles. St John Chrysostom was tempted to become depressed, because he did not think he was a saint! He preached, and I quote:

At all times, indeed, but specially … when I reflect upon the achievement of the saints, it comes over me to feel despondency [to feel sadness] concerning my own condition, because [I] have not even in dreams experienced the things among which those men spent their whole lives … always doing rightly yet always afflicted…. And having spoken of what befell the apostles, Elijah suffered the same thing with them and with [Jesus Christ]. For [as explained in Hebrews 11:39] God ‘has provided some better thing for us.’ In order they might not seem to have the advantage [over] us [by] being crowned before us, [Christ] appointed one time for crowning for all…. Do you not see His tender carefulness?

In other words, four very different groups of people—those serving God as Old Testament prophets, apostles in first century Palestine, those like St John Chrysostom in the early Church and us today—will all be crowned together at the Last Judgment. St John Chrysostom is encouraging himself as well as us, explaining that God treats all of us—Israelite prophets, apostles, leaders in the early Church and each of us with tender, loving care.

The 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews has set out a long list of persons who have found and served God—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses and many others including King David, Samuel and the prophets. These are the people who helped St John Chrysostom and can help us not to become discouraged. As the Book of Hebrews sets out in the opening verses of chapter 12 that was just read today:

Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us…., fixing our eyes on Jesus [Christ], the author and perfecter of our faith.

That is why Orthodoxy has triumphed in the past, is triumphing now and will triumph in the future. Because so many people from ancient prophets to modern saints have found and served God, we are surrounded now by a great “cloud of witnesses” who help and support us in our search for the Presence of God in our own lives.

An encouraging explanation of today’s reading from the Book of Hebrews has been given by a fifth century Antiochian bishop, Blessed Theodoret of Cyr. He wrote, and I quote:

The models of godliness are set before us on all sides … in such vast numbers as to resemble a cloud in density and testify to the power of faith. Accordingly, let us keep our eyes on them, be light on our feet and rid ourselves of the burden of unnecessary worries, in this way being able to avoid sin … Before everything else we need perseverance to succeed in the course ahead of us….

So Bishop Theodoret is encouraging us to stay close to this earlier “cloud of witnesses”—to persevere in “the course” of our lives “ahead of us.”

This reading from the Book of Hebrews that we have just heard, urges us to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus [Christ], the author and perfecter of our faith.” We each have different races “set before us.” We each face different challenges in our lives, but Bishop Theodoret is immensely helpful to me, and I hope to each of you, when he urges us to “keep our eyes on” these earlier witnesses to faith, and “to rid ourselves of the burden of unnecessary worries.”

We have no reason to worry because as St John wrote to each of us in his gospel, chapter 16, verse 15:

You did not choose me, but I [the Lord] chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit would abide.

That is the Triumph of Orthodoxy in the future—that God has chosen and called each of us, just as He called the apostles and the earlier “cloud of witnesses” and together we are all united in Christ “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.”

And so we ascribe as is justly due all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, always now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen