Children of the Unoriginate Father - Sermon on the Sunday of the First Ecumenical Council (2026)

Today we commemorate the 318 Holy Fathers gathered in Nicaea in 325 AD, the 1st Ecumenical Council. They gathered to snuff out the destructive heresy of Arius who declared there was a time the Son of God did not exist and that He is not equal to the Father. The essence of the 1st Ecumenical Council is the essence of every other succeeding Council: the Person and work of Christ. Christ is the God-Man Who came to deify men.

The Fathers died for this Orthodox Faith. We chant their Creed at every liturgy and in our private prayers. But do we cherish this Symbol of Faith? Are we willing to die for this Faith? We must die daily for this Faith. We must constantly sacrifice ourselves for God and others. No matter how small a good deed may be, if it is accompanied by even a little pain or sorrow, this is a death to the old man, to sin, to the devil.

God became man that we might become God. The Son, God by nature, truly became man by nature, so we men can become partakers of the divine nature, not in essence but by grace. God made humanity His holy temple.

If we constantly meditated on this glorious fact—that we Orthodox Christians are sanctified temples of the Holy Trinity—we would constantly live as if we were attending the liturgy of the Church with all our heart. When temptations, passions, and sins afflict you, remember this divine truth: you are a temple of the Holy Spirit, a member of the Body of Christ, a child of the Unoriginate Father.

It is grotesque to think of someone ravenously eating and drinking common food and drink during the time Holy Communion is served. So also are ravenous gluttony and drunkeness which defile the temple of body, soul, and mind with darkness, negligence, carnality, and ill health.

It is blasphemous even to imagine someone setting up—like the pagans do—idols of human body parts in the church temple. So also is lustful carnality which divides the bodies of others and ourselves from our souls, and then dissects our bodies into parts which it mindlessly worships.

It is inexcusable for someone to sell common merchandise or gamble in the church temple. So also are insatiable avarice, greed, and envy.

It is unthinkable to draw blood from someone during the serving of the Divine Body and Blood of Christ in the church temple. So also are murderous anger, hatred, and resentment.

It is destructive for someone to substitute their own laments of hopelessness and doubt in God’s all-accomplishing power in place of the hymns sung in the church temple of repentance and hope in God’s mercy. So also are thoughts and feelings of deadly sorrow and despair.

It is offensive for someone to lie down on the church floor during the liturgy, especially during the consecration. So also are spiritual laziness, negligence, and despondency.

It is madness for someone to place a picture of oneself on an analoy, demanding veneration. So also is vainglory which demands human honor.

It is the height of unspeakable blasphemy for someone to set oneself on the divine altar of the church temple and demand worship from all in place of God. So also is deluded God-hating and man-hating pride.

It would be completely absurd for someone to yell out condemnation of others instead of the reading of the Gospel of salvation; to spread gossip of others instead of the reading of the Epistle; or to eulogize oneself in place of the sermon. So also are merciless judgment, slander, and boasting.

We shiver and tremble at such thoughts of blasphemous impiety performed in this temple of stone before God and others, but we do not dread to commit their equivalents in the temples of our bodies and souls often solely before God.

Let us not deceive ourselves. Let us not hide the truth from ourselves. Let us realize what we have been made into: the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Body of Christ, the adopted children of the Father. Let us realize that our growth in these honors is endless. Let us strive to live in accordance with our nature’s dignity imparted to it by the deifying grace of Christ. Yet maybe we feel ourselves too weak. Maybe we are constantly in despair over our wretched spiritual condition. Maybe we often see ourselves abandoned by God. We must take heart in our Orthodox Faith.

Christ, Who is all-powerful, took on our weakness that He might fight side-by-side with us against passion, sin, and the demons. Christ, Who is Eternal Life, took on our corruptibility and mortality that we might understand Him to be our Most-Merciful Savior and Judge. Christ, Who never left the Father, took upon Himself our affliction, agony, and forsakenness, that He might fill all things with Himself, attach us to Himself, and take us to the divine throne of the Holy Trinity.

Let those of us who are stricken with insensibility remember the great suffering and sacrifice of the God-Man. Let us who are hardened in pride remember the extreme condescension of God even unto suffering, pain, mockery, a shameful death, and the descent into dark Hades. Let us who are in despair remember the Light Who appeared in dark Hades, preached hope, extended His hand of mercy, and His resurrection and ascension in which all men have been given a way, not just back into Paradise, but into the bosom of the Father through the humanity of the Only-Begotten Son.

The Creed of the 1st Ecumenical Council, before ending by anathematizing heresies against Christ’s uncreated divinity, simply states, “And [we believe] in the Holy Spirit.” The 2nd Ecumenical Council amended this Creed, expanded upon the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and added further clauses. Today, we commemorate the Faith upheld at Nicaea in anticipation of the coming Feast of Holy Pentecost, when Christ sent down the Holy Spirit from the Father upon the Mother of God, the Apostles, and other disciples, founding the Church on earth through His Holy Mysteries.

Let us await with great eagerness this glorious commemoration, begging God to renew in us an upright spirit through the renewed grace of His Holy Spirit. In this life, before the grave, there is cause neither for pride nor despair. There is no cause for pride, for many mighty have fallen away before the end of their struggle. There is no cause for despair, for many wounded have arisen again into God’s grace through repentance and finished their course with a blessed death. May we all constantly beg God to strengthen us in our daily struggle of life and to grant us a blessed repose, to the glory of God the Father, His Only-Begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Comforter Spirit, unto the ages of ages. Amen.