Christ is baptized! In the Jordan!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Are you fighting against the passions? [Then] fight, … fight! And be good soldiers of Christ! Do not give in to evil, and do not be carried away by the weakness of the flesh” (St. Anatoly of Optina, in Spiritual Counsels).

And another good word from our father, St. Theophan:

“You must never be afraid… [if] the attacks of the enemy are unending. Know that our enemies, with all their wiles, are in the hands of our divine Commander, our Lord Jesus Christ, for whose honor and glory you are waging war. Since he himself leads you into battle, he will certainly not suffer your enemies to use violence against you and to overcome you… . He will himself fight for you and deliver your enemies into your hands, … as it is written, ‘The Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee’ (Deut 22:14)” (St. Theophan the Recluse, in Unseen Warfare).

Lastly, from St. Paul, in today’s Epistle Reading:

            “My brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might” (Eph 6:10, italics mine).

“In the power,” brethren, “of his might,” that is, the might of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has conquered sin, death, and the devil, who has resurrected from the dead and has taken up into the heavenly places the nature of man—our nature—to be glorified forever, united hypostatically to the divine Son, and seated at the right hand of God the Father.

            If you were not aware, brethren: we are at war. Consider this your paid service announcement, your public broadcast; can you hear it over the radio, cinematically and gravely: “We are at war”? It sounds like a dramatic pronouncement. War. “We are at war?” you will say. “I do not know about that. I just had a peaceable meal with my family last evening. I just went to sleep in a warm bed. I’m going to a sporting event this weekend. Doesn’t sound much like war, now does it?”

“But we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).

We look around, brethren, and no, it does not look like war. Bombs are not falling from the sky. We do hear artillery rounds crashing in the distance. We do not don gas-masks when we go for groceries. But this is “flesh and blood,” if you will. We look around and ask, “Where is war? There is no war. If ever there was a ‘peace-time,’ then yes, this is it,” which of course… is exactly what the Enemy would want us to think.

“Then I will say to myself, ‘Self! You have plenty laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God [will say] to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded of you!’” (Luke 12:18-20).

There is nothing, brethren, that our wartime Enemy wants us to think more than this: we are not at war. There is no enemy. Christ has done all the heavy lifting—and indeed, he has!—and now, I can relax. I can rest and wait for the Kingdom of God to come in its fullness. “If God is for [me], who can be against me?” (Rom 8:31): a good biblical quotation for the soldier of Christ well-fortified, but a ground for hubris for the Christian ill-prepared. Indeed, we are like privates goofing around, horsing around, in the barracks, while the Enemy watches us under the guise of night; watching, waiting for a moment to strike us unawares.

            The Apostle does say these words: “If God is for us, who can be against us,” but it is the same Apostle who says, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Every day, brethren, we must put on the full armor of God, for every day, the demons do opportune our damnation. Every day, brethren, we must put on the full armor of God, for every day and every moment of the day is an occasion to forget Christ, to be tempted, to fall into sin, to fall into doubt and despair, to forsake our Creator, to curse our God, and to alienate ourselves from the saving grace of God and his angelic hosts, which is our only bulwark against the demonic hoards.

            We must put on the full armor of God, for we are at war. But how, brethren; how do we do just this? Our prayer books tell us, “As soon as you rise from bed, and making the sign of the cross, say thus, ‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.’ And doing three prostrations before the icons of Christ and his saints, pray thus, “O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.” Does this feel like warfare, brethren? I have never been in war. But surely, it does not look or feel like the movies. It does not feel like “Saving Private Ryan” or “Pearl Harbor.” But when we make the sign of the cross, brethren, we are engaging in warfare.

“Let God arise! Let his enemies be scattered! Let them that hate him flee from before his face. As smoke vanishes, so let them vanish; as wax melteth before the fire, so let the demons perish from the presence of them that love God and who sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross and say with gladness: rejoice! Most venerable and life-giving Cross of the Lord, for Thou drivest away the demons by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Evening Prayer to the Holy Cross).

When we make the sign of the Cross, when we do our prostrations before our home altars, when we kiss the holy icons, and sing the Troparia for the day, then do the demons shriek; they writhe in agony. It is like a gunshot to their chests. They are powerful, yes, monstrous and wicked creatures, but before the sign of Christ’s (and man’s) triumph over death, they are powerless. They are downright cowardly and fearful, as St. James says,

“Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you” (Jas 4:7-8).

            We are at war, brethren, and though we need to be aware—nēpsis, “mindfulness, vigilance” in the writings of our monastic fathers—(though we need to be aware) we do not need to be afraid. Wartime is scary if the outcome is unsure, if the war is not yet won. Yes, the Apostle tells us today to gird our loins, to “put on the full armor of God,” and we must. We must ready ourselves for the fight of our life! But notice this and be encouraged: he prefaces his own admonition, saying, “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might” (Eph 6:10). Alone, in our might, we do not stand a chance, brethren. We are weak and hollow men; frail, foolish, lightweights, push-overs. But in the power of the might of King of Glory… we cannot lose.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. … The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; he burns the chariot in the fire. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge” (Ps 46:1-2, 7-9, 11).

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord, Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Christ is baptized! In the Jordan!