Why does the Church ignore it's responsibilities??
I'm not sure how the Holy Liturgy is in other cities and countries, but in Chicago the sermon is never after the Gospel reading.
Mathews Mar Barnabas Metropolitan wrote about this in his book "A Devotional Study of the Holy Qurbana", i.e., "The sermon is to be given following the Gospel reading, explaining the Old Testament and New Testament readings and preparing the people for the main part of the Holy Qurbana"
Barnabas Thirumeni speculates in a footnote that the delayed sermon (usually after the Thubdens and the prayers to St Mary) is because people come late to Church. To be honest, I'm not sure about this point as I've been to many services where there is no sermon at all ... and sometimes no Old Testament reading either!
When I bring this up to many, they dismiss this as a minor issue. However, I can't help but feel this is one of many examples of how significant the gap is for change to occur in order to bring our living Church back to the centrality of the Gospel.
The lowered priority on teaching and bringing people closer to God, and worse lack of any urgency to correct these issues reflects how deeply we're stuck in routines, rituals and traditions and fail in the most basic aspects of Christianity. Even the Metropolitan of the American Diocese is powerless to influence change!
This is heavy on my mind as this past weekend got into a debate with someone I greatly admire, who's response to many of my questions was that it's not the Church's responsibility but rather the parent's to teach the Faith.
With such a drastic difference of opinion on the role of the Church, how will things ever change in an established Church?
The personal dilemma is that after discovering the genuine truth of the Faith and the completeness of the Apostolic teaching in understanding Christ, the only thing that comes to mind when faced with these frustrations is the words of St Peter in John 6:68, i.e., "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life".
And, so ... go to yet another Indian Orthodox Qurbana where I don't feel what C.S. Lewis describes as the perfect Liturgy, i.e.,
"The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God."
Mathews Mar Barnabas Metropolitan wrote about this in his book "A Devotional Study of the Holy Qurbana", i.e., "The sermon is to be given following the Gospel reading, explaining the Old Testament and New Testament readings and preparing the people for the main part of the Holy Qurbana"
Barnabas Thirumeni speculates in a footnote that the delayed sermon (usually after the Thubdens and the prayers to St Mary) is because people come late to Church. To be honest, I'm not sure about this point as I've been to many services where there is no sermon at all ... and sometimes no Old Testament reading either!
When I bring this up to many, they dismiss this as a minor issue. However, I can't help but feel this is one of many examples of how significant the gap is for change to occur in order to bring our living Church back to the centrality of the Gospel.
The lowered priority on teaching and bringing people closer to God, and worse lack of any urgency to correct these issues reflects how deeply we're stuck in routines, rituals and traditions and fail in the most basic aspects of Christianity. Even the Metropolitan of the American Diocese is powerless to influence change!
This is heavy on my mind as this past weekend got into a debate with someone I greatly admire, who's response to many of my questions was that it's not the Church's responsibility but rather the parent's to teach the Faith.
With such a drastic difference of opinion on the role of the Church, how will things ever change in an established Church?
The personal dilemma is that after discovering the genuine truth of the Faith and the completeness of the Apostolic teaching in understanding Christ, the only thing that comes to mind when faced with these frustrations is the words of St Peter in John 6:68, i.e., "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life".
And, so ... go to yet another Indian Orthodox Qurbana where I don't feel what C.S. Lewis describes as the perfect Liturgy, i.e.,
"The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God."
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