Happy Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (and a blessed end to a month of fasting) to you all.

Today Saint Paul teaches us the most important thing we can ever hope to learn; “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10: 9-10).

If we confess the Lord Jesus Christ, then we defeat sin and death with Him and participate in His resurrection.  Through this confession we are saved; and through this manner of life, we are sanctified.  Our Divine Liturgy is a celebration and participation in this basic truth (salvation through Christ); it is the most powerful way we can take advantage of its power.

There are some who might confess with their lips something they did not believe.  You probably know people who will tell lies or misrepresent the truth in order to gain something:  for instance, a job-hunter might exaggerate past accomplishments in order to get a better job.  There are cases where people have gotten away with this for a little while (Catch Me if You Can with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks described the life of one such man), and I am sure there are plenty of people who are never caught.  But the Christian confession is not like this:  exaggerating your relationship with Jesus Christ may help you fit in better here in Church, but it won’t help your resume pass muster with God.  People who lie about their relationship with Christ are really just wasting everyone’s time.  It’s not like trying to impress a potential employer so you can get a job you aren’t really qualified for; it’s more like lying to the doctor, telling him that you are already eating well and exercising, that there is no history of health problems in your family, and that you really feel great (when in reality none of this is true).  I say it is like this, because your lies would be hurting no one but yourself; and you really could “feel great” if you only told the truth, listened to the doctor’s diagnoses, and followed his prescription. 

I want to develop this analogy of comparing our confession about Christ with visiting the doctor a little bit more.  I don’t think anyone here is a liar.  I think that when we say the Creed here each week and when we proclaim the great mystery of salvation throughout the Liturgy, that we believe it to be true.  That is, we know that Jesus Christ is both God and man, that He died for our salvation, and that we can participate in the glory of His resurrection through Him.  I am not saying that we understand all the details, only that none of us doubts the accuracy of the general proclamation.  We really believe all this stuff.  But have we ordered our lives according to this belief?  Do we have the courage of our convictions?  The last time I went to the doctor, she told me that if I wanted to be healthy, [that] I needed to lose weight, exercise more, and eat better.  She described all the terrible things that my current way of living was doing to my body, and how changing these things would improve my quality of life...  Let me tell you right now that I believe her (develop?).

Now you have heard my confession of belief about my health. What would you say if you saw me celebrating the end to a month of fasting by enjoying deep fried onion rings, doughboys, and clamcakes; a bacon-lover’s cheeseburger with extra mayo; and a double-fudge Sunday?  

Whatever your reaction, we all know that I would not enjoy the benefits of my confession until I ordered my life accordingly.  Until then, my trips to the doctor are useful only to the extent that she reminds me of my current problem (as if I did not know!) and describes to me a better way.

Brothers and sisters, in every way that matters,  Christ is that better way.  We know this to be true.  But that isn’t enough.  We believe everything the saints believed; we know the same things they knew.  The difference between us and them is that they followed through and we have not.  The result of their efforts is even better than lower cholesterol and physical fitness: it is the kind of joy that circumstances – no matter how grim – cannot dim.  It is nothing short of being remade in complete perfection.  It isn’t enough for us to know and confess Orthodoxy to be true: let us submit ourselves to it and join the saints who have gone on before us. 

May the Lord grant us the courage and strength of our convictions.