Consecration: A Journey of Faith and Community

Jun 29, 2025

Devotional

Sermon Summary

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

“And uniting us, who are alive, with those who are more alive, if you will. Those who have gone on before us and are with the Lord face to face, whose souls, as the Revelation of John says in the book of Revelation, the souls of the martyrs cry out to God in the altar in heaven, and their bodies then, this isn't in Revelation, but this is what we do, their bodies then rest in the altar here in the church, connecting us to the heavenly world and the heavenly kingdom.”
“And his tomb, the tomb of Christ, the life -giving place where the body of our Savior lay, from the tomb, immortality flowed. And this becomes for us the center of our life, the tomb of Christ, the resurrection of Christ. This is what the original churches are modeled after. And to this day, we look at the altar as the throne of God, as the tomb of Christ.”
“We chrismate the walls of the church, and then the bishop will stand right here in the middle, and Donna will be approximately right there, and all of her crew will be here. Because the bishop, I have it back there, but he will have a fancy apron over him, because there will be a lot of water and oil and all kinds of things. So he'll take...off the apron at the end of the service, and he'll give it to Donna and her crew of philoptochus ladies and young people that will take the vestment that the bishop has been wearing, that has probably on it, you know, prism and whatever is used during the service, he will give it to the crew that will take it, and they will actually cut up the garment, and they'll take little pieces of them and put them as souvenirs for people to take home as a little blessing.”
“And the last tradition that we have is that everybody will be invited to come. The bishop will go first and place some oil into the lamp. And then the priest will come one at a time, putting some oil into the lamp, and the deacons, and the altar boys, the altar servers. And then all of you will be invited to come and place some oil in the lamp. For practical purposes, we have five of these little bottles.And we'll have to be efficient with our time. So each person, just a couple little drops in the candle as you go. We'll have a few of them. So each person can participate in this, of keeping the lamps of the church trimmed and burning, with the lamps filled with oil. This is a very beautiful symbology for us.”
“You know, it takes a little bit of effort to keep.our lamps burning here in the church, right? Someone has to get the olive oil, right? Someone has to trim the wick. Someone has to fill up the olive oil. Someone has to light them. Every once in a while we have to filter out the oil, keeping it clean and bright and beautiful. It takes some work. So in a way, what we're doing by filling the olive oil is we're reminding ourselves that in all of this consecration of the church, we are being dedicated as the members of the church that the Lord has entrusted with the care and the upkeep and the preservation of this great gift of a consecrated church.”
“Reminding us that...this is a working vessel. This isn't just the priest does all the work. This is all of the people that are entrusted with this great gift of this newly consecrated church. So we put the oil in the lamp to remind us that we are participating in the upkeep of the church. We are responsible for the church. At the judgment day, the Lord will say, what did you do for the upkeep of the church that I gave you in Boulder, Colorado? What did you do to make it as beautiful as you could, as nice, as inviting, as clean, as excellent as you could? What did you do?”
“And then even more than that, the oil in our own personal lamps, right? As we care for the lamps in the church, we remind ourselves of caring for the own lamp in our soul, the light of Christ that has been sealed in our own chrismation, right? At our each chrismation of each person, the light of Christ is sealed in us and entrusted to us to keep it burning. And the oil, just like a lamp, the oil for our soul that keeps the lamp burning is the works of mercy and kindness and love, philanthropy, the love of people, the love of strangers.”
“Because again, on the judgment day, the Lord will look at us and say, is your lamp trimmed and burning?Are you full of acts of love and kindness? And in that, in those acts of love and kindness, is my light shining in the world, right? Is my light shining with your, through your acts of love and kindness in the world? Do I see my light in you? And have you kept the light in the church going as well? You see, the symbology of all these things is twofold in the church and in our souls as well. We are entrusted.with a soul and with a church that we are here to care for.”
“It's kind of like the takeaway message. We've seen all these beautiful things and at the end of the day the question is, what are we doing to preserve our church? What are we doing to protect and build up the church that we have been given by God and more than that, the temple of God in our hearts. How are we preserving and caring for the temple of our hearts?”
“And above everything, we remind ourselves, and in all of this, we're here to pray for our community and to dedicate our life in a new way to our church community and to our Lord Jesus Christ above everything else.”
“The lighting of the lamp is recommitting ourselves to the light of Christ, the light of the resurrection that shines in the world. And when a church is consecrated, that church becomes a beacon of that light. That's what, I can't remember the full vision statement that we have in the church, but it's a beacon we have. That's what we want to be, a beacon of Christ's light in the world of darkness, right? You look around the world, you don't have to look far into the news to see something. It is of darkness.darkness, right? This church is meant to be an antidote. The Lord is the antidote to this because he points to the kingdom of light and his churches are meant to be beacons of that light, embassies of that kingdom.”
“The apostles went out with...grace of the Holy Spirit, and built churches throughout the world. They established holy altars, and they instituted canons and laws. So, connecting what we're doing with the bishop, who represents the successor of the apostles, who is the successor of the apostles, the same Holy Spirit that descended upon the apostles to establish churches, is with us and with our bishop as we gather together to establish this church and this holy altar.”
“So now, we sinners, now in possession of this tradition, we have connected ourselves with this tradition from the time of the apostles.We pray to you, as this sanctuary was erected for the purpose of singing hymns of praise to you, fill it with your divine glory. As we remember from the Old Testament, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. It's not just the bishop and his presence, it's the people praying together. The bishop is praying on behalf of all the people, us all together, praying to the Lord to fill this holy temple with his divine glory, with his presence.”
“So this is what we're doing in all of these things with the consecration, did this church become a house of the Lord? It is already, and it has been for 25 years, but we've never gotten together to ask together as a community with all the priests, however many of them are here, with the bishop, everyone together, to ask the Lord to send the Holy Spirit to permanently be with us in our community, in our church, so that whenever anyone comes to this, they may experience the light of Christ that shined into the world for the salvation of all of us.”
“Please pray during this week as we get close to consecration because all the details aside, we're here to pray to God for us to offer ourselves to God, to offer our church, and to pray that he be with us and renew his spirit within us.”
“May God bless us. Please pray during this week as we get close to consecration because all the details aside, we're here to pray to God for us to offer ourselves to God, to offer our church, and to pray that he be with us and renew his spirit within us. May God bless you all today.”
“And uniting us, who are alive, with those who are more alive, if you will. Those who have gone on before us and are with the Lord face to face, whose souls, as the Revelation of John says in the book of Revelation, the souls of the martyrs cry out to God in the altar in heaven, and their bodies then, this isn't in Revelation, but this is what we do, their bodies then rest in the altar here in the church, connecting us to the heavenly world and the heavenly kingdom.”
“And his tomb, the tomb of Christ, the life -giving place where the body of our Savior lay, from the tomb, immortality flowed. And this becomes for us the center of our life, the tomb of Christ, the resurrection of Christ. This is what the original churches are modeled after. And to this day, we look at the altar as the throne of God, as the tomb of Christ.”
“The consecration service is based on scripturally. We read the readings that point us back and connect us with the Old Testament, with the people of God and the Israelite people, both in the desert and then later in the city of Jerusalem, when Solomon built the Temple of God, and God dwelt with the people, and specifically, the people would go to worship God in tabernacles, in tents, tents, and then they would travel with the tent, and everywhere they go, they would set it up and purify and dedicate it, and God would come to be with them, and then finally, when Jerusalem was established by the King David, then his son Solomon built the Temple, and the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and this became the resting place of God.”
“We chrismate the walls of the church, and then the bishop will stand right here in the middle, and Donna will be approximately right there, and all of her crew will be here. Because the bishop, I have it back there, but he will have a fancy apron over him, because there will be a lot of water and oil and all kinds of things. So he'll take...off the apron at the end of the service, and he'll give it to Donna and her crew of philoptochus ladies and young people that will take the vestment that the bishop has been wearing, that has probably on it, you know, prism and whatever is used during the service, he will give it to the crew that will take it, and they will actually cut up the garment, and they'll take little pieces of them and put them as souvenirs for people to take home as a little blessing.”
“The last tradition that we have is that everybody will be invited to come. The bishop will go first and place some oil into the lamp. And then the priest will come one at a time, putting some oil into the lamp, and the deacons, and the altar boys, the altar servers. And then all of you will be invited to come and place some oil in the lamp. For practical purposes, we have five of these little bottles.And we'll have to be efficient with our time. So each person, just a couple little drops in the candle as you go. We'll have a few of them. So each person can participate in this, of keeping the lamps of the church trimmed and burning, with the lamps filled with oil. This is a very beautiful symbology for us.”
“You know, it takes a little bit of effort to keep.our lamps burning here in the church, right? Someone has to get the olive oil, right? Someone has to trim the wick. Someone has to fill up the olive oil. Someone has to light them. Every once in a while we have to filter out the oil, keeping it clean and bright and beautiful. It takes some work. So in a way, what we're doing by filling the olive oil is we're reminding ourselves that in all of this consecration of the church, we are being dedicated as the members of the church that the Lord has entrusted with the care and the upkeep and the preservation of this great gift of a consecrated church.”
“Reminding us that...this is a working vessel. This isn't just the priest does all the work. This is all of the people that are entrusted with this great gift of this newly consecrated church. So we put the oil in the lamp to remind us that we are participating in the upkeep of the church. We are responsible for the church. At the judgment day, the Lord will say, what did you do for the upkeep of the church that I gave you in Boulder, Colorado? What did you do to make it as beautiful as you could, as nice, as inviting, as clean, as excellent as you could? What did you do?”
“And then even more than that, the oil in our own personal lamps, right? As we care for the lamps in the church, we remind ourselves of caring for the own lamp in our soul, the light of Christ that has been sealed in our own chrismation, right? At our each chrismation of each person, the light of Christ is sealed in us and entrusted to us to keep it burning. And the oil, just like a lamp, the oil for our soul that keeps the lamp burning is the works of mercy and kindness and love, philanthropy, the love of people, the love of strangers.”
“Because again, on the judgment day, the Lord will look at us and say, is your lamp trimmed and burning?Are you full of acts of love and kindness? And in that, in those acts of love and kindness, is my light shining in the world, right? Is my light shining with your, through your acts of love and kindness in the world? Do I see my light in you? And have you kept the light in the church going as well? You see, the symbology of all these things is twofold in the church and in our souls as well. We are entrusted.with a soul and with a church that we are here to care for.”
“It's kind of like the takeaway message. We've seen all these beautiful things and at the end of the day the question is, what are we doing to preserve our church? What are we doing to protect and build up the church that we have been given by God and more than that, the temple of God in our hearts. How are we preserving and caring for the temple of our hearts?”
“And above everything, we remind ourselves, and in all of this, we're here to pray for our community and to dedicate our life in a new way to our church community and to our Lord Jesus Christ above everything else.”
“The lighting of the lamp is recommitting ourselves to the light of Christ, the light of the resurrection that shines in the world. And when a church is consecrated, that church becomes a beacon of that light. That's what, I can't remember the full vision statement that we have in the church, but it's a beacon we have. That's what we want to be, a beacon of Christ's light in the world of darkness, right? You look around the world, you don't have to look far into the news to see something. It is of darkness.darkness, right? This church is meant to be an antidote. The Lord is the antidote to this because he points to the kingdom of light and his churches are meant to be beacons of that light, embassies of that kingdom.”
“He offered himself as a sacrifice to us and became a propitiation for the whole world. He made us partakers of the resurrection. And remember the altar is representing the tomb of Christ from which he comes giving us life and resurrection. He ascended into heaven and he sent down the Holy Spirit. So in that we just summarize all the feasts that we celebrated recently from the resurrection to the ascension to the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles at Pentecost.”
“The apostles went out with...grace of the Holy Spirit, and built churches throughout the world. They established holy altars, and they instituted canons and laws. So, connecting what we're doing with the bishop, who represents the successor of the apostles, who is the successor of the apostles, the same Holy Spirit that descended upon the apostles to establish churches, is with us and with our bishop as we gather together to establish this church and this holy altar.”
“So now, we sinners, now in possession of this tradition, we have connected ourselves with this tradition from the time of the apostles.We pray to you, as this sanctuary was erected for the purpose of singing hymns of praise to you, fill it with your divine glory. As we remember from the Old Testament, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. It's not just the bishop and his presence, it's the people praying together. The bishop is praying on behalf of all the people, us all together, praying to the Lord to fill this holy temple with his divine glory, with his presence.”
“Make the holy altar set up herein to be a holy of holies, so that when we stand before it, as we are about to do even today in the liturgy, but then with a consecrated altar even more so. As we stand before it, as before the dread throne of your kingdom, we may serve you without condemnation. We may send up our petitions for ourselves and for all.all of the people, to offer the bloodless sacrifice for your goodness for the forgiveness of sins, right? It's very specific, right? The Holy Spirit coming and descending to sanctify this temple so that when we gather together, we may receive from the Lord, we may communicate with him, we may meet him for the forgiveness of our sins, the governing of our life, to lead a good life and to fulfill all righteousness.”
“So this is what we're doing in all of these things with the consecration, did this church become a house of the Lord? It is already, and it has been for 25 years, but we've never gotten together to ask together as a community with all the priests, however many of them are here, with the bishop, everyone together, to ask the Lord to send the Holy Spirit to permanently be with us in our community, in our church, so that whenever anyone comes to this, they may experience the light of Christ that shined into the world for the salvation of all of us.”
“Please pray during this week as we get close to consecration because all the details aside, we're here to pray to God for us to offer ourselves to God, to offer our church, and to pray that he be with us and renew his spirit within us. May God bless you all today.”
“And the last tradition that we have is that everybody will be invited to come. The bishop will go first and place some oil into the lamp. And then the priest will come one at a time, putting some oil into the lamp, and the deacons, and the altar boys, the altar servers. And then all of you will be invited to come and place some oil in the lamp. For practical purposes, we have five of these little bottles. And we'll have to be efficient with our time. So each person, just a couple little drops in the candle as you go. We'll have a few of them. So each person can participate in this, of keeping the lamps of the church trimmed and burning, with the lamps filled with oil. This is a very beautiful symbology for us.”
“It takes a little bit of effort to keep our lamps burning here in the church, right? Someone has to get the olive oil, right? Someone has to trim the wick. Someone has to fill up the olive oil. Someone has to light them. Every once in a while we have to filter out the oil, keeping it clean and bright and beautiful. It takes some work. So in a way, what we're doing by filling the olive oil is we're reminding ourselves that in all of this consecration of the church, we are being dedicated as the members of the church that the Lord has entrusted with the care and the upkeep and the preservation of this great gift of a consecrated church. There is work required.”
“Reminding us that this is a working vessel. This isn't just the priest does all the work. This is all of the people that are entrusted with this great gift of this newly consecrated church. So we put the oil in the lamp to remind us that we are participating in the upkeep of the church. We are responsible for the church. At the judgment day, the Lord will say, what did you do for the upkeep of the church that I gave you in Boulder, Colorado? What did you do to make it as beautiful as you could, as nice, as inviting, as clean, as excellent as you could? What did you do? And that's what we're doing as we put even just a few drops of olive oil in there.”
“The fathers of the church tell us that the oil that they have in their lamps, because five of them don't have the oil, right? And they say that the oil in the lamps is the acts of mercy and kindness. It's action. Maybe that is with the church, right? First with the church keeping the church. For the church to the church well and excellent and offering ourself to the church. And then even more than that, the oil in our own personal lamps, right? As we care for the lamps in the church, we remind ourselves of caring for the own lamp in our soul, the light of Christ that has been sealed in our own chrismation, right?”
“The oil for our soul that keeps the lamp burning is the works of mercy and kindness and love, philanthropy, the love of people, the love of strangers. So we remind ourselves of both things, that we're responsible for the church and even more so for our souls. Because again, on the judgment day, the Lord will look at us and say, is your lamp trimmed and burning? Are you full of acts of love and kindness? And in that, in those acts of love and kindness, is my light shining in the world, right? Is my light shining with your, through your acts of love and kindness in the world? Do I see my light in you? And have you kept the light in the church going as well?”
“You see, the symbology of all these things is twofold in the church and in our souls as well. We are entrusted with a soul and with a church that we are here to care for. So this is what we'll be doing at one of the last things of the church. It's kind of like the takeaway message. We've seen all these beautiful things and at the end of the day the question is, what are we doing to preserve our church? What are we doing to protect and build up the church that we have been given by God and more than that, the temple of God in our hearts. How are we preserving and caring for the temple of our hearts?”
“Above everything, we remind ourselves, and in all of this, we're here to pray for our community and to dedicate our life in a new way to our church community and to our Lord Jesus Christ above everything else.”
“The lighting of the lamp is recommitting ourselves to the light of Christ, the light of the resurrection that shines in the world. And when a church is consecrated, that church becomes a beacon of that light. That's what, I can't remember the full vision statement that we have in the church, but it's a beacon we have. That's what we want to be, a beacon of Christ's light in the world of darkness, right? You look around the world, you don't have to look far into the news to see something. It is of darkness. This church is meant to be an antidote. The Lord is the antidote to this because he points to the kingdom of light and his churches are meant to be beacons of that light, embassies of that kingdom.”
“The apostles went out with grace of the Holy Spirit, and built churches throughout the world. They established holy altars, and they instituted canons and laws. So, connecting what we're doing with the bishop, who represents the successor of the apostles, who is the successor of the apostles, the same Holy Spirit that descended upon the apostles to establish churches, is with us and with our bishop as we gather together to establish this church and this holy altar.”
“So now, we sinners, now in possession of this tradition, we have connected ourselves with this tradition from the time of the apostles. We pray to you, as this sanctuary was erected for the purpose of singing hymns of praise to you, fill it with your divine glory. As we remember from the Old Testament, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. It's not just the bishop and his presence, it's the people praying together. The bishop is praying on behalf of all the people, us all together, praying to the Lord to fill this holy temple with his divine glory, with his presence.”
“Make the holy altar set up herein to be a holy of holies, so that when we stand before it, as we are about to do even today in the liturgy, but then with a consecrated altar even more so. As we stand before it, as before the dread throne of your kingdom, we may serve you without condemnation. We may send up our petitions for ourselves and for all of the people, to offer the bloodless sacrifice for your goodness for the forgiveness of sins, right?”
“The Holy Spirit coming and descending to sanctify this temple so that when we gather together, we may receive from the Lord, we may communicate with him, we may meet him for the forgiveness of our sins, the governing of our life, to lead a good life and to fulfill all righteousness.”
“So this is what we're doing in all of these things with the consecration, did this church become a house of the Lord? It is already, and it has been for 25 years, but we've never gotten together to ask together as a community with all the priests, however many of them are here, with the bishop, everyone together, to ask the Lord to send the Holy Spirit to permanently be with us in our community, in our church, so that whenever anyone comes to this, they may experience the light of Christ that shined into the world for the salvation of all of us.”
“Please pray during this week as we get close to consecration because all the details aside, we're here to pray to God for us to offer ourselves to God, to offer our church, and to pray that he be with us and renew his spirit within us.”
“The glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord, and this became the resting place of God, and as we mentioned, the Temple was destroyed. And the glory of the Lord, and after a certain number of years in the Babylonian captivity and rebuilt by the King Herod right before the time of Christ. But there was not an event that said the glory of the Lord filled the house. They were still waiting for this when the Lord came and died on the cross and rose from the dead. And his tomb, the tomb of Christ, the life -giving place where the body of our Savior lay, from the tomb, immortality flowed. And this becomes for us the center of our life, the tomb of Christ, the resurrection of Christ.”
“To this day, we look at the altar as the throne of God, as the tomb of Christ. So this is what we're going to be doing in the services. It's very unique, the consecration service, because you only do it once in the lifetime of a church.”
“We are being dedicated as the members of the church that the Lord has entrusted with the care and the upkeep and the preservation of this great gift of a consecrated church. There is work required. It's a small thing to put olive oil in, but you can think of all the other work that is required to keep the church going, to tune up the air conditioner even, right? Whatever it is, to paint a room in the side. One of our families in the church has offered, is painting the rooms in the side, right? To get new carpets, like you see in the back. We got new mats in the back because the old ones were pretty bad. I don't know if you noticed that as you go. Little things things and big things, there's always things that are needed.”
“We remind ourselves that in all of this consecration of the church, we are being dedicated as the members of the church that the Lord has entrusted with the care and the upkeep and the preservation of this great gift of a consecrated church.”
“The oil in our own personal lamps, right? As we care for the lamps in the church, we remind ourselves of caring for the own lamp in our soul, the light of Christ that has been sealed in our own chrismation, right? At our each chrismation of each person, the light of Christ is sealed in us and entrusted to us to keep it burning.”
“Because again, on the judgment day, the Lord will look at us and say, is your lamp trimmed and burning? Are you full of acts of love and kindness? And in that, in those acts of love and kindness, is my light shining in the world, right? Is my light shining with your, through your acts of love and kindness in the world? Do I see my light in you? And have you kept the light in the church going as well?”
“We are entrusted with a soul and with a church that we are here to care for. So this is what we'll be doing at one of the last things of the church. It's kind of like the takeaway message. We've seen all these beautiful things and at the end of the day the question is, what are we doing to preserve our church? What are we doing to protect and build up the church that we have been given by God and more than that, the temple of God in our hearts. How are we preserving and caring for the temple of our hearts?”
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