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Cloud of Witnesses Radio
Cultivating an Orthodox Life of Faith and Purpose | Fr John Reimann Homily | TIO008 CWP081
What kind of soil are you in your spiritual journey? Join us as we reflect on this profound question through the lens of the Feast of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Councils and the resilience of St. Jacob of Hamatura. Drawing from his childhood in Idaho, Father John Reimann of Saint Anthony the Great Orthodox Church, shares a story of his father’s unwavering commitment to transforming rocky terrain into a lush garden. It's a tale that speaks to the heart of our spiritual lives, urging us to cultivate hearts open to divine guidance and cooperation with Christ Jesus, much like tending to a garden.
Our discussion continues with the vibrant community at St. Anthony's, where various ministries—from choir to pro-life initiatives—act as spiritual nourishment for us all. These ministries invite us to engage deeply, removing obstacles and nurturing our spiritual soil to bear fruit for God's glory. As we Orthodox Christians embody living icons in the world, we strive to enrich our lives and inspire others to witness our good works for the Kingdom of God. Concluding with a blessing, Fr John invites us all to reflect, renew, and rejoice in the message of the Gospel.
Thank you for listening - we pray this is an edifying experience for you.
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In the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our God is one. My dear Father, nathan Deacon, halvard, deacon, anthony, brothers and sisters in Christ, children of God, christ is in our midst. Blessed Feast. We come to an important feast of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Councils, where the icons were restored. We also have the special feast of St Jacob of Hamatura, and once again we ask you to please make sure your phones and that are on silent. The only message we want to get is from God. Today, hopefully, god willing, and this is really important because our patriarchy, recently coming across the information, the martyrdom and the relics of this illustrious saint of Lebanon, has given to us a greater feast to be able to celebrate in his memory. And so we want to understand how does the gospel and even the epistle from today match up with these feasts of the fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council or Saint Jacob of Hamatura? And I think the question I would ask for all of us is what kind of dirt are you? What kind of dirt are we? Are we the kind of fruitful soil that brings forth much fruit, or are we hard as rock or a stone, or filled with rocks or with tears or weeds. Now I have to have a confession again to you. When I heard this as a child growing up in my hometown of Mackey, idaho, in the little Mackey Methodist Community Church, and I'd hear this parable, I kind of and even as when I became an evangelical Christian I kind of was terrified by this parable Because I took it a little bit too literally to make it seem like what kind of soil was I? Was I kind of this hardened heart soil in which the gospel message couldn't penetrate? Was I kind of the soil that was full of rocks and weeds? Because it almost sounds on just a reading in and of itself that we're either one of those four and God help us if we're the other three and not the last one, the fruitful one it sounded like there was no hope for me. But that's not the Orthodox message of this.
Fr John Reimann:That's also not coming from a farming background. All right, I know I'm so sorry. I come from Idaho and you hear about it nearly every sermon. But you know, our Lord lived in agricultural times and even though he came from a carpenter's background, by the way, not just building tables and chairs, actually building homes, that's what he learned from his stepfather. Joseph was a house builder. Yes, he could do work with the type of wood things that are built, but he was very much a laborer in that sense. But coming from a farming background, I knew some things about soil. I lived on a farm up until I was about eight years old. I remember going into the garden of my family there on the farm, as well as the gardens we had in Mackey, idaho, when we relocated up there, and how hard my father worked to get that soil turned into something fruitful.
Fr John Reimann:And the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ that Jesus says, if we have ears to hear, is that all of us are created by God to be fruitful soil. That's in our nature to bear forth fruit. It's given to all of us, but we have to cooperate with the work of God and join our work to make that soil fruitful. There are all sorts of things that can happen in our life, brothers and sisters, that can compact the soil of our heart To. Carl says to have a hardened heart, and we see this in the Old Testament. We even see some of this in the New Testament the Pharaoh, who was the example of the hardened heart in the Old and some of the Pharisees and the Sadducees against Jesus in the New Testament, and each one of us, at any time, can turn to harden our heart because of the things that happen to us in our life. We have that freedom and ability, but rather God would have us to be open and allow for the word of God to be able to penetrate and set its roots within us. Brothers and sisters, that is the challenge, and so, as we look at this, I just have to share a few practical examples and then give the spiritual application. I know it's not supposed to be show and tell, but I can't resist to do this Right here.
Fr John Reimann:This guy sitting on this, one of the earliest forms of machinery that helped to gather grain to gather the winter wheat as they used to call it is the real John Ryman. I am a fake. Okay. I was born Kent Edward Ryman. My brother was Timothy John. He got my grandfather's name, but when I converted I took the name John because of St John the theologian, who I dearly loved, and so you know me as Father John. But when I go to my family, everyone says Kent. Okay, or my mom used to say Kent because she came from the south.
Fr John Reimann:But my grandfather, john Ryman, was of German heritage Family, coming from Bavaria, then went into what is now modern day Moldova, which was then Bessarabia, under one of the czars and did farming there until their families got so big and the plots of land got smaller that they had to end up emigrating and they went to various places and ended up of all places in this. If you were to go to see it it would almost seem God-forsaken land and soil of southern Idaho, close to American Falls, a little town called Roy it doesn't exist anymore. But there my grandfather, john Ryman, when he married my grandmother, faye Sager, she was 16, by the way, when he married her that was common back then. I'm not giving any ideas to you right now, I'm just saying that was common back then. You're born in 1899. If you're born in 1899, then you can marry somebody who's 16, okay, although I don't know how that worked were born in 1899, then you can marry somebody who's 16, okay, although I don't know how that worked, but anyway.
Fr John Reimann:So when they did homesteading out in the sagebrush rolling hills in Idaho there's another photo of them and spent the first whole year in a tent in the winter. If you could imagine out there. I can't imagine what they did. When I look at what our parents and grandparents did, I'm so cushy, soft I don't think I'd survive. But then during the summer months, the spring and the fall, they would get the oxen out and start digging out the sagebrush. And if you've ever had to dig out a sagebrush in southern Idaho, that stuff is tenacious, it doesn't want to let go. But that's the only way you can begin to farm.
Fr John Reimann:That place had to pull out each one of those sagebrush, either by digging it by hand or with the oxen, and imagine all the sagebrush that used to be there covering these hills and now it's all winter wheat. And the way that they would do that. After they pulled out those big, massive weeds of the sagebrush, then they would till the soil, they'd throw in the grain and pray to God for rain. There was no irrigation. That's not what they did at the time. They did something which is called dirt farming. Sounds like they're growing dirt. No, that's not it. That's not what they did at the time. They did something which is called dirt farming. Sounds like they're growing dirt. No, that's not it. There's just no irrigation. And yet they ended up having the best winter wheat, as they called it, in that whole region, and they would come together as farmers. They couldn't afford that equipment themselves, so they would put their work together, their funds together, to buy one piece of equipment and then it would go around from farm to farm to farm to farm, harvesting all day.
Fr John Reimann:Quite a cooperation, brothers and sisters. For that we have to remember when we're doing this work, in this process of salvation. We do not do it alone. We do this work with one another, and I can see that by the fruit of all of you that are here, working together for one another's salvation as well as your own. And what we're reminded by this important gospel, this parable that Jesus tells us, is that we have to make sure we don't allow the devil, through the circumstances in our life, to crush and compact us in our heart, to harden our heart, because it can happen. That's the way we respond to any tragedy, temptation, trial that we have in our life. Or we can turn to God and allow the word of God to permeate and break up that hardness. Allow the services. Thank you. So many of you coming to Vespers, so many of you coming to Vespers, so many of you coming to Matins, of course, to liturgy, to allow the words of those hymns to break up our heart, for the Word of God to come in and set and give its root. Very powerful. Thank you for reading the scriptures. Those things are helpful to hear the word of God and allow it to take its necessary development within us. Brothers and sisters, and yet there's also times when we have, besides the trials and temptations that can compact our hearts.
Fr John Reimann:And, by the way, the soil here around us in San Diego is really, really tough, solid soil, it's almost like concrete. When I first bought my home up in San Marcos and had no landscaping and here I thought I'm going to rent the whole property with all these fruit trees, like Dr Al Maloof did in his place up there in La Canyada, I thought this is great, I'll have fruit and I'll have trees all the way around me. Well, I went in and bought probably about 24 fruit trees and I went and got an auger and it took me one whole day just to get one whole. The ground was that tough. I tried a second day after renting an auger from Home Depot. Only one other hole. Two days, two trees. It's like I can't do this. It's not going to work. And so, thank God, some of the workers next door who were taking care of a lawn. I went over and said, look, are you guys able to plant these trees? How much would you charge? They gave me a good price. They came with jackhammers.
Fr John Reimann:That's, by the way, what they did here when we put in ours here. You should see the big trench, the massive trench that they have been having to bulldoze and open up 10 feet wide, 6 feet deep, 100 feet long, for the water treatment facility that we have to put in there. It's required now by law to treat the water before it runs off, and this is a good thing. It costs us a lot of money to do so, but they ended up wearing down some of the backhoe, some of the teeth of the backhoe. You should see when they started and when they finished how much was worn down because of how backhoe, some of the teeth of the backhoe. You should see when they started and when they finished how much was worn down because of how tough the soil is.
Fr John Reimann:So, once again, we are allowing God to break up that and not allow for the things we experience in life to compact our hearts. Brothers and sisters. But then what do we do to that soil? To build it up, brothers and sisters? We have to water it. We have to fertilize it. Okay, we have to get rid of the rocks and the weeds that are there, and that's why our God gives us, within the church, the ability to minister to our whole person body, soul and spirit. God gives us, through the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist, the ability to water our bodies as well as our souls. He gives to us, through the Holy Sacrament of Confession, the ability to weed out and throw out the rocks that we find of the tears that prop up into our life.
Fr John Reimann:Now, where I come from in Idaho, it's in the middle of what they call the Rocky Mountains, and if you try to make a garden there, you'll soon discover why they call it the Rocky Mountains, because when you dig it up, there's more rock than there is dirt. Okay, it was just the problem. And yet my dad's garden, before he fell asleep in the Lord, my dad's garden was so good soil. I loved going out there and pulling weeds. Because I was coming up from Page, arizona, I'm going to go out and pull weeds. It was so sandy that I feel like I had just taken sandpaper to my hands when I was pulling weeds, but his was so luscious, so rich, I almost wanted to eat it, which sounds disgusting, but it was so good, right. And he had the most beautiful big cabbage that would grow out of there. Not much can grow up there in a mile-high valley A lot of good cabbage. That's why you guys get the sauerkraut, okay. So what happened is Dad. In order to get that, though, he had to take all the rocks. There was as many rocks there as he had at the other place we had at the motel at his house that he had only two blocks away, we had all these other rocks, and every time he'd go through and dig up that soil, he was pitching rocks into the alley. The alleyway was just paved with stones, and then also, when it come time when things would pop up other than what he's growing, he had to go out there, get on his hands and knees and pull out the weeds.
Fr John Reimann:Brothers and sisters, when we do confession, when we read the scriptures, when we read this spiritual books, thank God for the bookstore, and I see so many of you are utilizing that ministry. You know this helps to feed us and nourish us dad would go twice a year to fertilize the garden. He'd go to one of the local farmers and we would go shovel, steer manure, cow manure, into the back of the pickup in the spring, in the fall, and then he'd till up the soil, and that's how we got to be such. This rocky, dry soil could be so fruitful. Brothers and sisters, that's true for each and every one of us by God's creation of us, and that's the goal he wants us to do.
Fr John Reimann:And when, brothers and sisters, we help to feed our soul, not only by the sacraments and the services of the church, but by the ministries that we do. Not only by the sacraments and the services of the church, but by the ministries that we do. When we're involved in the ministries here at St Anthony's and we're ministering to other people, do you know? That actually nurtures us as well too. It enables us to bring forth the fruit that we need to have in our life, and there's been so much good fruit that we've had from people serving the altar, for those who serve in the choir, for those thank god, for the people who are helping to volunteer as greeters and ushers, but all the other ministries that we have here at saint anthony's, from focused to the pro-life ministry which is doing vigils down there, as well as all the other ministries we have, meeting our various age groups that we have and our various groups of people in this community, and the new ministries that we're seeking to do with the military and even with the prisoners.
Fr John Reimann:There are so many ways, brothers and sisters, when we do these ministries, this is a way of helping to fertilize, to build up the soil of our being. It's not just that we take and take and take. We are given so much by God, but then God expects for us to give back, brothers and sisters, a hundredfold and we say, how in the world is that possible? Well, we can do all things through Christ Jesus, who strengthens us. It's not possible on our own effort because we'll run short, but when we cooperate with God, it's God doing this work with us. We still need to do the work to build up that soil, but he has brought forth the fruit. We see it right here, right now. We see it in the fruit of this community being here at a consecrated building, almost finishing our educational building, with no mortgage, okay and being able to support two full-time priests, which we need to continue doing that and the fruit of that for this next year. We've had it covered. This year we need to continue.
Fr John Reimann:And all this that we do, brothers and sisters, brings forth the fruit of what God is asking us to do, as it says in the epistle of St Paul to the tithes. It says so that they should not be unfruitful. Brothers and sisters, I thank God for this community of St Anthony's. I believe it has become very fruitful because they've tended to the soil of our hearts and our minds and our bodies and our spirits. May we continue to do that. May we not allow the evil one to compact us. May we pull out any weeds through confession and our repentance, throw out any old habits of sin, like cast them out like stones. And I know it's hard because sometimes you dig and more pop up, boy, that's always used to the case. But we still continue to do that, not giving up, because God will bring forth the fruit in us, brothers and sisters. And for what purpose ultimately? Well, ultimately, of course, for his glory, for his kingdom. But, brothers and sisters, the reason why our Lord is asking us to be fruitful is because he knows this is not just for his glory and not just for our salvation, but that we help to save the others around us.
Fr John Reimann:In this Feast of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, we have an understanding that those holy icons are put in the church in a reminder that we are to be the living icon of God to the world. As I've said before, not everyone's going to come here to this church of St Anthony. It's kind of sad that they don't. I invite them to come anyway. All right, we want them to come, come and see. But when we go out into the world and are fruitful, they will see our good works and give glory to God in the highest, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. Blessed feast.