Garrett Van Swearingen set sail from Holland on Christmas Day 1656, landing at Long Island on March 8, 1657 (thirty-seven years after the Mayflower Pilgrims had established the first permanent European settlement in New England).  He is the progenitor of the Swearingen family in the New World.  Garrett went to New Amsterdam (now New York) and to Delaware before finally settling and raising a family in St. Mary’s City, Maryland.  His last name was originally spelled ‘‘Van Sweringen’’ (with no ‘a’), but his son Thomas anglicized the family name by dropping the ‘‘Van’’ and adding an ‘a,’ thus changing it to its present spelling.

Our forefathers who settled the American continent left behind their homes in the Old World, often fleeing religious persecution, in search of a land of freedom.  Generations later, they wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constituion of the United States in order to ‘‘secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.’’  Indeed, America holds a unique place in history for its contribution to freedom and human rights.

Sadly, however, Americans today have lost sight of this history and have betrayed their noble heritage.  Like the Israelites of old, they have cried out, ‘‘We want a king over us.  Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.’’  (I Samuel 8:19-20)

The day after our baby Garrett was born, the United States government announced that it will soon begin funding research on stem cells taken from human embryos, which are then destroyed -- yet one more confirmation that the character of the American people has descended to the depths that the prophet Jeremiah preached against the Israelites about:  ‘‘They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing...’’  (Jeremiah 32:35)

And so the time has come for those who love righteousness and liberty to look elsewhere for a new home, where freedom can be respected and where a man is not subjected to servitude to support his earthly masters.

As Garrett Van Swearingen was the first in our family to come to America nearly three and a half centuries ago, so now our baby Garrett is the first to be born outside America.  Like his namesake, may he find the blessings of peace and liberty in his new home.

It is a common practice in the Orthodox Church for a person being baptized to take the name of a ‘‘patron saint,’’ one whose life of Christian faith and devotion to God is an example worthy of emulation.

Garrett’s patron is Saint Lazar, Prince of Serbia, who, together with his entire army, perished at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, defending the Orthodox Christians of Serbia against invasion and conquest by the Muslim Turkish army of Sultan Murat.  The nation of Serbia was thereafter plunged into five hundred and thirty years of servitude and domination, from which it emerged only after World War I ended in 1919.

The night before the fateful battle, an angel of heaven was sent to St. Lazar to offer him a choice:

On March 24, 1999 -- on the eve of the feast of the Annunciation by the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary of the conception of Christ -- the United States began a military campaign against Serbia that was to last two and a half months, bombing power plants, bridges, office buildings, villages, roads, a hopital, television station and the embassy of the Chinese government, which, as a permanent member of the United Nations security council, had voiced its objection to this bombing campaign.  The attacks killed hundreds of civilians -- men, women and children.  This action against Serbia was supported by over 60% of the American people, even though Serbia had never attacked another country, posed no threat to the United States, and had even saved many American soldiers when Serbia fought on the side of the Allies against Nazi Germany in World War II.

Two and a half months after the bombing began, I (Mark) publicly announced my intention to move out of the U.S. by the end of that year.  Amy & I got married on November 14 and left the country two weeks later on November 28, not sure where we would eventually settle, but trusting in God to lead us according to his will.

Since my decision to leave the U.S. was confirmed in large part by the unprovoked attack on Serbia, it is fitting that we should choose as our child’s heavenly patron one of the greatest saints in Serbian history -- one who chose the kingdom of God rather than the kingdoms of men, and who died defending his homeland and his faith against an army which in earthly terms appeared victorious but which in heaven’s eyes was defeated that day by St. Lazar’s courage and virtue.

After the end of the First World War, the Serbian Orthodox bishop Nikolai Velimirovich (1880-1956) delivered a homily about St. Lazar and the Battle of Kosovo, in which he applied its meaning to us today:

The mysterious book from Jerusalem [which the angel delivered to St. Lazar] is delivered to every one of us, dear brothers and sisters, for our signature every day throughout all earthly time.  Along with this book there are always presented to us two sheets of paper to choose from.  On one sheet is written: ‘‘The Heavenly Kingdom of Christ.’’  On the other is written: ‘‘The Earthly Kingdom of Herod, Pilate, and others whose name is Legion.’’

Everyone has to decide freely and consciously.  He must decide whether he will set out through a long and suffocating tunnel that leads to a flowering meadow where the sun never sets, or whether he will instead journey through a small park into a gloomy tunnel, where the rays of the sun never greet one in the morning.  Short-sighted and fainthearted people greedily sign this second sheet, choosing the kingdom of this world.  They are afraid of the kingdom of heaven, because they cannot see where it begins; but they cling to the earthly kingdom, because they cannot see where it ends...

Momentous historical events are not required for a man to find an opportunity to make a decision in favor of one kingdom or the other.  Every glimmering day is another great date in the struggle of these two kingdoms.  If violence is being committed against your neighbor today, the book is lying open on your knee and the holy book-bearer is awaiting your answer.  If you turn your eyes in the other direction and permit the violence to be committed and carried out, you have by this already given your answer -- you have chosen the kingdom of this world.  Your neighbor will be killed by his attackers, and his home burned, and you will inherit his property.  Your soul, however, will not share in this pleasure with your body: it will feel the confinement and torment of a dungeon.  Your victory will be the victory of Murat the Sultan and not that of St. Lazar the martyr.

If it so happens, however, that your soul is inclined toward the defense of the justice that has been abandoned, despised and ridiculed by all -- by this you have chosen the heavenly kingdom.  Nevertheless by doing so you have consciously set out on a path of danger, sacrifice and torment.  You too will be abandoned, despised and ridiculed.  You will lose both your wealth and your health for the sake of righteousness.  You will lose not only honors and friendships, but quite possibly even your life.  Then the persecutors of justice will seize your home and your property and will laugh, as they feast at your dinner table and say: ‘‘Where now is he who loves the heavenly kingdom more than the kingdom of this world?’’

But in the middle of their feast your justice will suddenly flash, like lightning out of a patch of fog; and a thunderbolt will crash down at the feet of the persecutors of justice.  In that instant the plates will be switched and be set right.  Those who thought they had gained everything will lose everything; and you will gain everything, for in the eyes of the world you had lost everything.  Your victory will be similar to the victory of Lazar...

Let us venerate, therefore, the sacrifice of Saint Lazar.  His choosing of the heavenly kingdom signifies an entire spiritual tradition.

This spiritual tradition of Lazar is as necessary for people today as ever.  For truly, it means that with Christ there also comes victory.

O Lord Jesus Christ our God, bless this new child which you have given to us, and grant that he may always choose Your heavenly kingdom rather than man’s earthly kingdom, by the prayers of the holy Prince Lazar of Serbia, and of all your saints.  Amen.