Sermon of the Week
July 31, 2011
Next Sunday is the 7th Sunday after Pentecost. Gospel reading is from Mark 3:20-30.
Theme: “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.” (Mark 3:29)
Gospel Reading:
“20 Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21 When his family[a] heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
22 And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons.”
23 So Jesus called them over to him and began to speak to them in parables: “How can Satan drive out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan opposes himself and is divided, he cannot stand; his end has come. 27 In fact, no one can enter a strong man’s house without first tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man’s house. 28 Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”
30 He said this because they were saying, “He has an impure spirit.” (Mark 3:20-30)
Message:
From the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the tone was set correctly for what is and what is not an accepted behavior. Jesus had done so many wonderul things during his life time, such as, healing the sick, forgiving the sinners, casting out demons and so forth.
In today’s gospel we read that Jesus had an encounter with a group of Jewish scholars who came down from Jerusalem. They came to dispute Jesus’ authority. Instead of avoiding them and the issue, Jesus meets with them head-on. In this confrontation, Jesus states something that is a clear warning to everyone who would think of him differently. It is a warning for those who dared to diminish and neutralize his work. Jesus calls their accusation, “SIN”. Jesus defines what that sin is.
CONFRONTATION #1: The scholars had seen and witnessed the miracles Jesus had performed. They could not deny what Jesus had been doing because the evidence was there for anyone to ignore. The Jewish scholars did not bother to compliment Jesus for the good deeds. Instead they decided to attack him for who he claimed to be. They charged Jesus as an agent of Satan and that Jesus was driving out demons by using the power of Satan. To add to the insult, they held him in contempt and were not afraid to show it.
CONFRONTATION #2. Jesus was never afraid to meet with his attackers. Jesus forced a confrontation with them. They were busy spreading their malicious claim in order to cause doubts on Jesus.
Jesus asked, “How can we be together?” Jesus would further say, “We are mortal enemies, To say we are in union is a sin against God.” Jesus had told in no uncertain terms that they were WRONG, and that he had met Satan in the Temptations and that Jesus – not Satan – won.
CONFRONTATION #3 Jesus warned them that when they accused him by calling God and Satan as being together, that they were on a dangerous territory.
Jesus warned them about their thinking process. Sin starts in the mind. If we allow it to enter, it could stay and grow. It will then be hardened. Sin then will be so easy to act on. It will ultimately lead them to commit sins for which there would never be any cleansing possible. Jesus told them that no one should compare the mercies of God to Satan, but that was what the Jewish scholars have been trying to do. They saw the evidence of the mercies of God, but continued to think differently. Their inner mind was getting darkened and Jesus told them to stop the sin before it took control of them.
CONFRONTATION #4. Jesus warned them of holding on to that thought. It is one thing to have a thought enter the mind and it is another thing to allow it to remain and feed it. Not only were they nurturing the sin of wrongful thinking, they were also practicing it. They allowed it to grow. They allowed that thought to overtake them and act on it.
Too many people today are willing to accommodate the world around us by throwing away God’s Commandmends and allow them into thinking until they cannot differentiate between God and Satan. The world has mixed the truth of God with its modernity. This type of thinking will be an insult to the Holy Spirit. Blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. They are guilty of eternal sin. Jesus sets the truth for all times.
(Prepared by: Rev. Dr. V Kurian Thomas Valiyaparambil)
kurianvthomas@yahoo.com
Sermon of the Week
July 24, 2011
Next Sunday is the sixth Sunday after Pentecost. Gospel reading for Sunday is from Mathew 15:32-39.
Topic: “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”
Scripture: (Mathew 15:32-39)
32 Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”
33 His disciples answered, “Where could we get enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”
34 “How many loaves do you have?” Jesus asked. “Seven,” they replied, “and a few small fish.”
35 He told the crowd to sit down on the ground.
36 Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them to the disciples, and they in turn to the people.
37 They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketful of broken pieces that were left over.
38 The number of those who ate was four thousand, besides women and children. 39After Jesus had sent the crowd away, he got into the boat and went to the vicinity of Magadan.”
Message:
Last week we discussed the disciples’ dilemma, “How to feed all those people?”
Today’s question is again from the disciples and is found in Mathew 15:33 of our scripture text. “Where could we get enough food in this remote place to feed such a crowd?”
In this story, Jesus and his disciples had gone to an area known as Decapolis which is on the southeast of the Sea of Galilee. (Mark 7:31) The region was called Decapolis as ten cities of the area had formed an alliance to guard their frontier that was exposed to open and unprotected desert area. The region was part of the territory ruled by Herod Antipas although most of the people who lived there were the Gentiles.
While Jesus was in Decapolis, the multitudes brought many lame, blind, mute, and others to him to heal. Jesus had compassion on the multitudes, for he feared if he sent them away with nothing to eat, they would faint along the way.
The miracle recorded in this chapter is not to be confused with the feeding of the 5000.
5000 – 5 loaves of bread, and 2 fish.
4000 – 7 loaves of bread, and a few small fish.
5000 – 12 baskets left over.
4000 – 7 baskets left over.
5000 – The crowd with Jesus for 1 day.
4000 – The crowd with Jesus for 3 days.
5000 – the spring of the year
4000 – Summer.
5000 – The crowd tried to make Jesus king (John 6:15)
4000 – didn’t
5000 – primarily a Jewish congregation.
4000 – primarily a Gentile congregation.
5000 – Place was Bethsaida, north of the Sea of Galilee. (Luke 9:10)
4000 – Place was Decapolis, a region comprising of ten cities on the south-east of the Sea of Galilee. This was mostly a Gentile area. (Mark 7:31)
Jesus duplicated the miracle of feeding the vast multitude to demonstrate that he is the ‘Bread of Life’ to the entire world, not just to one group of people.
Now the question for the disciples was, “Do we have enough?.” It is evident that Jesus loved these people and that’s why he wouldn’t send them home on empty stomach. Jesus called his disciples and said to them, “I have compassion for these people for they have been with me for three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away hungry.” Jesus could have sent them home without any food. But Jesus’ compassion motivated him to feed them. Afterward, the disciples began feeding the crowd with what they had with them, seven loaves of bread and few small fish. They ended up with seven large size baskets of left over.
The lesson we learn here is that God can help us by taking over our crippled life and straighten it out for us. If God can feed several thousands with seven loaves and few small fish, feed thousands with manna in the desert, whip a giant with a committed shepherd boy, make water come out of rocks, make the sun stand still, transform a terrorist named Saul into a preacher named Paul, surely he can enter into our lives also, and help us to straighten it up. For that, we must yield to him. When Jesus asks us, “How many loaves do you have?”, whatever little we have, we must place our total trust in God’s hands for us to yield enough blessings from him. If we do that, we will have more than enough of what we need in life.
(Prepared by: Rev. Dr. V KurianThomas Valiyaparambil)
kurianvthomas@yahoo.com
Sermon of the Week
July 17, 2011
Next Sunday is the 5th Sunday after Pentecost. The gospel reading is from Luke 9:10-17.
Topic: “Feeding the Five Thousand: A Dilemma for the Disciples”
Scripture: (Luke 9:10-17)
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
“10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethesda, 11but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”
13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.”
They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14(About five thousand men were there.)
But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. 16Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. 17They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketful’s of broken pieces that were left over.”
Message:
Jesus had made it clear that following him would involve a radical change in one’s perspective. The life of a disciple is different from that of the world or what the world would expect for a Christian.
Last week we read that the disciples were sent out to preach in their public ministry alone. They reported back that they had successfully preached, conducted healing, and even cast out demons. (Luke 9:1)
Today we will examine the same chapter for the disciple’s new experience in the process of learning what it means to be a follower of Jesus. The text reveals a new situation the disciples had to deal with.
A large crowd followed Jesus. As the day ended, the disciples asked Jesus to send the crowds home for there was no food to feed them all and getting food was a problem for the followers. Bust Jesus instructed them to feed the crowd. The disciples answered, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish.” Jesus had the disciples seat the crowd, blessed the five loaves and two fish until all the assembled were fed. They all ate and were filled. Twelve baskets of left over were taken up by the disciples.
This incident teaches a new perspective of the power of Jesus that the disciples probably didn’t recognize at the time. For them, it was a deserted place and no food was available to feed them all. It seemed to be a reasonable request based on their compassion for the crowd. It also seemed a reasonable resolution for them.
Jesus’ response probably shocked the disciples when he said, “Give them something to eat”, meaning it was their responsibility to give them food. The disciples through their association with Jesus knew that they can accomplish things they could never dream of. The disciples had witnessed Jesus perform many miracles, but had no expectation that he would meet their current need. It probably is like us who remain dull to the power of Jesus, no matter how many times he may have met out needs along the way. When Jesus said, “You give them something to eat,” it was an impossible task for the disciples. They had neither the food nor the money to buy food. The message is clear. We will never be adequate to meet all our needs. When we think we are great, that we can do our deeds without our Lord’s input, it’s then that we set ourselves for failure. In the hands of Jesus, if the five loaves and two fish can be a banquet for the multitude of people, his resources will help us more than adequately to meet our needs as well.
The incident teaches us that God does not demand from us what we cannot supply, but only wants us to be his disciples through whom he can work miracles. As Christians, we should seek to get help from our Lord to help others.
(Prepared by: Rev. Dr. V KurianThomas Valiyaparambil)
kurianvthomas@yahoo.com
2010-Feast of St. Baseliose celebrated in St. Basil’s Syriac Orthodox Church
Feast of St. Baselios Yeldho Bava celebrated at St. Basil’s Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Church, Boston, Massachusetts, on October 1 and 2nd ,2010 His Eminence Mor Titus Yeldho, Archbishop & Patriarchal Vicar, Malankara Archdiocese of Syriac Orthodox Church in North America was the chief celebrant on both the days. Vicar Rev. Fr. Geevarghese Jacob Chalissery, Rev. Fr. Punnoose Abraham Kallamparampil (St. Stephen’s Knanaya Jacobite Church, Boston), Rev. Fr. Anton Sabha (St. Mathew’s Syriac Orthodox Church, W. Roxbury), Rev.Fr.Geevarghese Thomas Chattathil (Newyork), Dn. Moncy Jacob , Dn. Anup Kuruvilla (St. Stephen’s Knanaya Jacobite Church), and Dn. Akash Paul (St. James Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, Livingston) assisted the chief celebrant. Faithful from other parishes in New England area and different parts of the United States, including, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire attended the feast of Saint Baselios Yeldho and also purchased perunnal shares. The Holy Qurbono was followed by ‘nercha’, a well participated Public auction and lunch for all the faithful present.
Also visit http://www.emalayalee.com/USKeralaNewsDetails.aspx?ID=11291 for more perunnal news
Feast of St. Baseliose celebrated in St. Basil’s Syriac Orthodox Church
Feast of Saint, Mor Baseliose Eldho was celebrated at St. Basil’s Syriac Orthodox Church, Boston, Massachusetts, on October 2 and 3rd. Very Rev. Fr. Abraham Thomas Vazhayil corepiscopa (St. Stephen’s Knanaya church, Maynard), was the chief celebrant on both days. Rev. Fr. Punnoose Abraham (St. Stephen’s Knanaya church), Rev. Fr. Binoy Thomas (St. (Stephen’s Knanaya church), Rev. Fr. Saji P. Thomas (Archdiocese of Syriac Orthodox Church of Eastern US), Rev. Fr. Anton Sabha (St. Mathew’s Syriac Orthodox Church, W. Roxbury), vicar Rev. Fr. Geevarghese Jacob, Dn. Moncy Jacob and Dn. Anup Kuruvilla (St. Stephen’s Knanaya church) assisted the chief celebrant. Rev. Fr. Saji P. Thomas gave message on both days from the life of Mor Baseliose Eldho.
Faithful from different parts of the United States, including, Texas, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Main, attended the feast of Saint Baseliose Eldho. The official website of the St. Basil’s church was inaugurated after the H. Qurbono, by Rev. Fr. Anton Sabha of St. Mathew’s Syriac Orthodox Church, W. Roxbury. The Church received several prayer requests through the website and those prayers, along with other requests received in the church, were remembered in a special intercessory prayer conducted in the church during the feast of St. Baseliose Eldho. The H. Qurbono was followed by ‘nercha’ and lunch for all the faithful attended.
The perunnal news can be viewed by the following links:
http://emalayalee.com/USKeralaNewsDetails.aspx?ID=5930
Feast of St. Eldho Mor Baseliose – The Kanni 20 Perunnal
St. Basil’s Boston, the only church in North America named after St. Eldho Mor Baseliose, is celebrating the Feast of St. Eldho Mor Baseliose on Oct 2nd and Oct 3rd of 2009. There will be Evening Prayer on Friday (Oct 2nd) and Holy Mass on Saturday morning (Oct 3rd). This reflects “Dhukrono” of St. Baselios Yeldho Bava celebrated in the Mor Thoma Cheriapally, Kothamangalam with spiritual grandeur every year on Oct 2nd and Oct 3rd and this feast is popularly known as “Kanni 20 Perunnal”.
The saintly father, Maphryono Mor Baselios Yeldho, left his mortal self for his heavenly home on Saturday afternoon on “Kanni 19” (Malayalam calendar), 1685 and was entombed on the very next day in the sanctuary of Mor Thoma Cheriapally, Kothamangalam. Though the Holy Father had lived in Malankara for only a few days, his name has spread far and wide leaving a lasting mark in the history of Malankara Syrian Church.
The people of Kothamangalam celebrate the Cheriyapally festival on October 2nd and 3rd with piety and festivity. The colourful ‘Rasa’ (Ceremonial procession) of the festival days is led by a Nair youth from the Chakkala family carrying a traditional lamp recalling how his ancestor escorted Bawa to the Church. The Kanni 20 Perunnal is an auspicious time to pay homage to Bawa. This brings devotees from near and far for a great religious and cultural meet.
MarThoman church (Cheria Palli) The final resting place of Maphriyono Mor Baselius Yeldho
St. Basil’s starts Sunday School
Members of St Basil’s believe that one of the biggest gift they could give to their children is brining them up in faith of our lord Jesus Christ. We believe Sunday School is one of the vehicles to achieve this and pass on our traditions, culture and goodwill. So St. Basil’s starts it Sunday School program. We have selected Dr. Joby Eldo as our Head Master and Mrs. Pretha Sebeyon and Mrs. Jewel Eldo as teachers.
In coordination with our Archdiocese we believe mission of our Sunday School program is to
We plan to achieve this by
The church Inauguration is being discussed in the media
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Church Consecration
30 August 2009: Boston, USA
St. Basil’s Syriac 
Orthodox Church of Boston was consecrated by the archdiocese metropolitan Eldho Mor Titus on August 30, 2009. This is the first church for the Syriac Orthodox Church in North America in Boston area. This church is named after the saint of the Syriac Orthodox Church, St. Eldho Mor Baseliose, who is entombed at Kothamangalam Cheriyapalli. The first Holy Qurbono was led by Archbishop Eldho Mor Titus and assisted by Fr. Punnoose Abraham and Dn. Moncy Jacob of St. Stephen’s Knanaya church, Boston and Mr. Roy Varghese, Alex, Sanal, Anil, and Mr. John Jacob. This is the first church in named after St. Eldho Mor Baseliose.
A public meeting was conducted after the Holy Qurbono with representatives from different Malayalee churches in Boston area delivering their greetings to the new church. Messages from vicars of all Malayalee churches in Boston area were read in the meeting. Archbishop Eldho Mor Titus greeted the church members and described the life history of St. Basil. Diocesan treasurer Mr. Abraham Mathew represented the diocese council and greeted the church. Vice president of St. Basil’s Syriac Orthodox Church (the new church), Dr. Abraham Varghese welcomed the gathering and secretary, Dr. Sinu P. John thanked every one who participated.
St. Basil’s Syriac Orthodox Church of Boston will be conducting a feast of the saint Mor Baseliose on October 2 and 3rd this year.
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