Sacrifice

Tags

Abraham, Adam, Faith, Psalm 1, Sin, St. Hilary

St. Hilary continues to play with and illustrate the verb to know:

Now God shews clearly in the cases of Adam and Abraham that He does not know sinners, but does know believers. For it was said to Adam when he had sinned: ‘Adam, where art thou?’ (Gen 3:9). Not because God knew not that the man whom He still had in the garden was there still, but to shew, by his being asked where he was, that he was unworthy of God’s knowledge by the fact of having sinned. But Abraham, after being for a long time unknown—the word of God came to him when he was seventy years of age—was, upon his proving himself faithful to the Lord, admitted to intimacy with God by the following act of high condescension: ‘Now I know that thou fearest the Lord thy God, and for My sake thou hast not spared thy dearly loved son’ (Gen 22:12).

To reiterate, the verb to know that St. Hilary is quoting from 1 Corinthians 14:37-38 is ἐπιγινωσκέτω which is more accurately translated as let him recognize. Thus, when He asks Adam where He is, it is not due to the fact that He does not know where He is, but rather that He no longer recognizes Him as a righteous man. Adam, having sinned, moved away from God — thus, God frames the question in terms of location.

In contrast, God knows (recognizes) in Abraham a truly deep faith because (like Himself) He is willing to sacrifice his only-begotten son by Sarah. It would be good also to examine here the verb to fear. At its root in Hebrew is the verb to tremble with a connotation of to feel reverence or to hold in respect.

In Greek, the root of the word terror is τέρας, which means monster; however, like the Hebrew, there is a connotation of wonder. The presence of the τέρας is always accompanied by an act of power, to which one has a sense of wonder and awe.

Thus, the fear that Abraham displays by being willing to sacrifice his son is born of a deep respect and honor of God, by whom Abraham is awed and is filled with wonder. Also implied is a great deal of trust. What God asks of him makes little sense, because Isaac has been promised to be the seed through which Abraham will father the nations and yet God asks for Isaac’s life.

Abraham so trusts, so honors and so respects God that he does not stay his hand until the intervention of an angel. What God does not allow Abraham do to — sacrifice his only-begotten for the sake of the nations — God Himself does in and through His Only-Begotten Son — our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. Thus, God recognizes in Abraham righteousness — a willingness to sacrifice for the salvation of the world.

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The Ambiguous

Tags

death, Psalm 1, Sin, St. Hilary

St. Hilary continues his examination of John 3:18-19:

He that believes, says Christ, is not judged. And is there any need to judge a believer? Judgment arises out of ambiguity, and where ambiguity ceases, there is no call for trial and judgment. Hence not even unbelievers need be judged, because there is no doubt about their being unbelievers; but after exempting believers and unbelievers alike from judgment, the Lord added a case for judgment and human agents upon whom it must be exercised. For some there are who stand midway between the godly and the ungodly, having affinities to both, but strictly belonging to neither class, because they have come to be what they are by a combination of the two. They may not be assigned to the ranks of belief, because there is in them a certain infusion of unbelief; they may not be ranged with unbelief, because they are not without a certain portion of belief. For many are kept within the pale of the church by the fear of God; yet they are tempted all the while to worldly faults by the allurements of the world. They pray, because they are afraid; they sin, because it is their will. The fair hope of future life makes them call themselves Christians; the allurements of present pleasure make them act like heathen. They do not abide in ungodliness, because they hold the name of God in honour; they are not godly because they follow after things contrary to godliness. And they cannot help loving those things best which can never enable them to be what they call themselves, because their desire to do such works is stronger than their desire to be true to their name. And this is why the Lord, after saying that believers would not be judged and that unbelievers had been judged already, added that This is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.

So, judgement is appropriate for cases of ambiguity — for those who do not find themselves firmly in the camp of the righteous or in the camp of the ungodly. Unfortunately, the ambiguity that St. Hilary describes applies to the vast majority of us.

We give honor to God and try to place Him at the center of our lives, but are in love with the allurements of the world that draw us away from God. This why gathering as the Church as often as possible was the norm in the ancient world — drawing near to God helps us overcome our failings, encourages us to allow God to give us strength to overcome and to rely on our fellow Christians to pick us up when we fall. Most importantly, it allows us to see the overwhelming love of God and His Church as a hospital where we go to be healed.

Note St. Hilary describes the ambiguous: they are afraid. It is akin to those of us who are ill with something serious, but we don’t know what it is. The symptoms are not quite what we should expect from normal colds or flus. Something tells us that this time it is serious. Yet, we are afraid to tell our doctor for fear of hearing how bad it really is. We will go for regular check-ups, for the routine illnesses, but we don’t tell our doctor about the symptom that really matters.

The irony is that knowing is so much better than not knowing — even when the news is really bad. I’ve seen this in cancer patients all the time — especially with things like aggressive brain cancer. Yes, the news is bad. Yes, the disease is likely going to kill you (sometimes in months or weeks). However, the knowledge of what it is allows the cancer patient to decide what to do next. Instead of being reactive — worrying about what this strange symptom is — the cancer patient can be pro-active. They get to focus on what is next and they get to choose on how to proceed: chemo? hospice? travel while there is still strength? take care of all the little things left undone? repair relationships left fallow for years? The knowledge of having cancer is actually empowering.

So, too, is it with a relationship with God. When we come to understand the affliction that we are under — sin and death — and come to terms with it, it empowers us to be proactive. God offers us the tools with which to fight the affliction, to give us the strength to power through and (ultimately) to overcome.

Cancer patients (even those who refuse treatment) learn to live in hope. They hope for one more day to see and do all the things that they need to do. So, too, can we the ambiguous. What is wonderful is that our hope is Christ.

Impossible

Tags

Marriage, Psalm 1, Sin, St. Hilary

St. Hilary moves on to a discussion of the way of sinners:

The next condition is, that the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly shall not stand in the way of sinners. For there are many whose confession concerning God, while it acquits them of ungodliness, yet does not set them free from sin; those, for example, who abide in the Church but do not observe her laws; such are the greedy, the drunken, the brawlers, the wanton, the proud, hypocrites, liars, plunderers. No doubt we are urged towards these sins by the promptings of our natural instincts; but it is good for us to withdraw from the path into which we are being hurried and not to stand therein, seeing that we are offered so easy a way of escape. It is for this reason that the man who has not stood in the way of sinners is happy, for while nature carries him into that way, religious belief draws him back.

In other words, we live in a world brimming with temptation. Unfortunately, it is too easy to fall into habits that take us down a road to sin: greed, drink, anger, spite, pride, hypocrisy, lies, envy and more. The irony is that, though taking such a path is all too easy, it makes life much harder.

Anyone who has been in any kind of long term relationship — husband and wife, parent and child, life-long friendship — knows that sin in its various and sundry forms breaks the bonds which brings people together. Greed for a renewal of that “passion” and “excitement” of a new relationship has destroyed countless marriages as people fall into adultery. Alcoholism and other addictions are destructive on so many levels — it doesn’t just hurt the addict, but everyone around them. Fights drive relationships of all kinds apart, sometime separating people for years. Pride can prevent people from seeing the ways that they themselves are the cause of so much that has gone wrong within their own lives and the relationships that have with others.

Despite the fact that the life of faith, religion and humility seem so difficult is actually an illusion. The reason the blessed and happy man can avoid these dangers and complications in life and in relationships is because of the tools Christianity offers to the faithful. When one is humble enough to see one’s own faults in why relationships have gone off the rails, it becomes easy to forgive, to change course and to draw closer to the people that we love. When we believe, it becomes possible to see others as God sees them, and so we learn to love as God loves — unconditionally.

The strength of this love can overcome the sin, and make it easier to draw us all back from the teeming world of sin that we find ourselves in. Such a life is actually easier because rather than constantly having life spin out of control due to the consequences of sin, we live a life of simplicity, where we are constantly living a life with the consequences of God’s love.

One of the most important consequences of that love is described to us by Christ Himself:

What is impossible with men is possible with God (Luke 18:27)

Change

Tags

Holy Spirit, Image and Likeness, Secularism, Sin, St. Ambrose

To the modern (especially American) mind, change is a good thing. Given that our own origin comes out of rebellion and revolution, it should come as no surprise that our heroes tend in the direction of the rebel and the outsider rather than the authority figure (Star Wars and the Twilight series immediately come to mind). Even when they are an authority figure (say, like Dirty Harry or Michael Weston of Burn Notice) they tend to work outside the system in order to do good.

In contrast, change, especially when it comes to the Orthodox Christian understanding of God, has a negative connotation. Though we can change into a state of grace through our relationship with God, this is not the normal change we see in fallen creation. Note how St. Ambrose, in the fifth chapter of On the Holy Spirit, characterizes change in fallen creation:

Every creature, then, is subject to change, not only such as has been changed by some sin or condition of the outward elements, but also such as can be liable to corruption by a fault of nature

Through sin, creation has moved from being declared very good by God into being fallen. Humanity has moved from being made in the image and likeness of God into being fallen. Our condition as sinful and fallen creatures has the direct consequence of disease, decay and death. Change in the fallen world, therefore, is associated with these kinds of movements:

• youth into old age
• health into disease
• life into death

It is particularly vital that we understand that God does not and cannot change in contrast to change in fallen world. Note how St. Ambrose insists:

Every creature, therefore, is capable of change, but the Holy Spirit is good and not capable of change, nor can He be changed by any fault, Who does away the faults of all and pardons their sins. How, then, is He capable of change, Who by sanctifying works in others a change to grace, but is not changed Himself.

If God were capable of change, it would be possible for Him to go from being good to being evil; from being eternal to being finite; from being immortal to being mortal. If God were capable of change, then Christians everywhere would be wasting their time. What good does it do to seek to unite ourselves to something that might change from immortality into mortality? Our salvation would be worthless.

The irony is that positive change is possible, but in a way that the modern world (which desires so much to change) has largely rejected. We are made in the image and likeness of God. We are created to be able to become like God. This positive change, however, requires that we have an intimate relationship with God so that we know what it means to be like Him. Amen.

A Little Less than the Angels

Tags

Christmas, humility, Pride, Psalms, Sin, St. Gregory Palamas, Truth

Let me get back to the fourth paragraph of St. Gregory Palamas’ Homily Fifty-Eight on the Saving Nativity According to the Flesh of Our Lord and God and Savior. One sentence that really grabs my attention is this:

Because the author of evil did not want to be lower than any of the angels, but to be equal in excellence to the Creator Himself, he was the first to suffer the terrible fall before anyone else.

I’ve said it several times before, but it bears repeating: the Fathers of the Church have an intimate relationship with Scripture. This relationship ought to challenge us, because (especially in my case) we are lacking this intimacy. Not only should we spend more time with the Scriptures, but the Fathers are a tool the Church gives us to help us along the way.

I say this, because when St. Gregory says the author of evil did not want to be lower than the angels, he is referring to Hebrews, which is quoting Psalm 8. In other words, he is helping us interpret these passages.

It was not under angels that he put the world to come, about which we are speaking. Someone witnesses to this somewhere with the words: What are human beings that you spare a thought for them, a child of Adam that you care for him? For a short while you have made him less than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honour, put all things under his feet. Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. — Hebrews 2:5-9

Palamas is contrasting Christ’s humility with the pride of the evil one. Whereas God has no need for anything and yet was willing to humiliate Himself by taking on flesh as a babe in a manger and by going to one of the basest forms of death the Roman world could come up with, the evil one thought he could be equal to God. Note how pride destroys — it separates us from God — and humility lifts up — it unites us to God because we become like Him.

There is another layer to this passage, however. Note how Psalm 8, as quoted by Hebrews, illustrates the source of the evil one’s pride. If the world was made to be subject to humanity and not angels, why did God make them “less than the angels?” Remember, the evil one and his minions are angels, though now fallen.

There is yet one more interesting flavor to these passages. Hebrews quotes the Greek translation of Psalm 8. If we look at the original Hebrew, the Psalm 8:5 looks like this:

Yet you have made them a little lower than God [or a god], and crowned them with glory and honor.

This speaks to the reality that we have been made in the Image and Likeness of God, but because we are created and finite, we can never be God on our own. It demonstrates that Christ’s incarnation is a restoration as well as an elevation of human nature. We were meant to be like God. We were created to participate in God.

Now, the Greek translation of the Hebrew appears to be in error, because “angel” and “God [or a god]” are two very different things. Note, however, that both the original and the translation speak the Truth. Christ did humble Himself by being a little less than the angels AND God created man a little less than Himself by granting us His Image and Likeness.

In other words, the Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of working through translations. We can never have a definitive version or translation of Scripture. Psalm 8:5 is a prime example of why this is so. God cannot be contained by words. As a matter of fact, every language on earth has something to reveal to us about Him. For example, a title given to Christ is the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2). In Greek and Hebrew, this is simply a metaphor — the righteousness of God shines like the sun. In English, however, “Sun” sounds like “Son.” It demonstrates that this title is proper to Christ and that God is, indeed, one in essence and three in persons.

This means that in our quest to be intimate with Scripture, we not only have the Fathers of the Church as guides, but we have all the languages of the world and all the translations of Scripture as tools. Amen.

Choices

Tags

Atheists, Christmas, Communism, Creation from Nothing, Secularism, Sin, St. Gregory Palamas

4· For He who produced all earthly and heavenly things out of non-being, when He saw that His rational creatures were brought to nothing because of their desire for something greater (cf Gen. 3:5) bestowed upon them Himself, than whom nothing is greater, and to whom nothing is equal or comes near to being equal, and offered Himself to be partaken of by those who so wished, in order that from that time forward we might exercise our desire for something better without risk, although in the beginning we fell into the ultimate danger on that account (cf I Cor. 15:26), and in order that each of us, in desiring to become God, might not only be blameless, but also attain to our longing. In a mysterious way, He abolished the pretext for the original fall, which was the superiority and inferiority observable in beings and the resulting envy and treachery, as also the disputes, both open and concealed, which this caused. Because the author of evil did not want to be lower than any of the angels, but to be equal in excellence to the Creator Himself, he was the first to suffer the terrible fall before anyone else. Smitten by envy, he deceitfully attacked Adam and dragged him down to the abyss of Hades by means of the same desire. By so doing, he made Adam’s fall difficult to reverse, and it required God’s extraordinary presence, which has now been accomplished, to restore him. His own fall, however, he rendered incurable once and for all, because he did not acquire his arrogance from anyone else, but became himself the principle of evil and the fullness of evil, and made himself available to anyone wishing to participate in evil. — St. Gregory Palamas, Homily Fifty-Eight on the Saving Nativity According to the Flesh of Our Lord and God and Savior

Here we see St. Gregory highlighting what I believe to be an underappreciated dogma of the Church — the fact that God created everything from nothing. This dogma is implied by the opening verses of Genesis:

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. — Gen 1:1-2

and explicitly stated in 2 Macabees:

I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and consider that God made them of things that were not; and so was mankind made likewise — 7:28

There are two very critical implications of this dogma. Firstly, without God, we are nothing by our very nature. Secondly, evil is the absence of God. Indeed, the reason sin, death and decay afflict fallen creation is precisely because Adam and Eve chose to know a world in which God is absent — a knowledge of evil. The fallen creation is hurtling toward its very nature — nothing. By God’s will alone do we exist at all.

It may sound harsh, but the logical conclusion of this world-view must see atheism, secularism and even agnosticism as evil. All of them willingly choose a world where God is absent. The great tragedy of this choice is that ultimately it amounts to nothing — literally.

We see this pattern play itself out throughout history when people choose to try to become greater than God or replace God with themselves. For a recent example, Communism left a gigantic scar upon the earth — both literally and figuratively. The human cost of that experiment will probably never be truly known, but can be estimated in the tens or even hundreds of millions. For another example that is playing itself out right before our eyes, today secularist Europe is on the brink of collapse.

This is why God chose to become a babe in a manger. So that we might have access to Him — the very font of our existence. Today, we have a very real and vital choice to make: Christ or (literally) nothing.

Taking on Flesh

Tags

Christmas, Sin, St. Gregory Palamas

For me, the most challenging statement from the first paragraph of St. Gregory’s Homily Fifty-Eight on the Saving Nativity According to the Flesh of Our Lord and God and Savior is this:

For nothing done by God from the beginning of time was more beneficial to all or more divine than Christ’s nativity, which we celebrate today.

Palamas appears to be elevating Christmas above the Feast of Feasts — Pascha — the celebration of the Resurrection; however, just as the Resurrection is inexorably linked to the Crucifixion, so too are both linked to the Nativity. Christmas celebrates God taking on flesh — the Second Person of the Trinity uniting Himself to our nature. In order to understand the magnitude of this reality, one must understand sin.

When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they knew a world without God because evil is the absence of God. We took creation away from the very source of its being. Sin was introduced into the world — that which separates us from God — along with our inevitable decay and death. We are doomed to return to the nothing from which God created us.

In the words of St.Paul, there was a dividing wall between humanity and God — a wall that we cannot scale or pass through on our own. No matter what we do or how much we try, we are thoroughly incapable of saving ourselves. And here we come to the veracity of St. Gregory’s claim: by being born in a manger, Christ has permanently abolished the dividing wall by coming to us. He has shattered the enemies sin and death because in Him there is no separation between God and our very nature, for He is perfect God and perfect man.

All that now remains is for us to accept this reality and choose Him who chose to be born for our salvation. Amen.

Anne Rice & Secular Myths about Christianity: Homosexuality

Tags

Anne Rice, homosexuality, Secularism, Sex, Sin

In my last post, I started writing a series in reaction to something Anne Rice, author of The Vampire Chronicles, including Interview with a Vampire, announced on her Facebook account:

I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

Today I am going to tackle the first of Rice’s complaints — that Christianity is somehow anti-gay. It is at this point that we must pull out Romans 1:26-27 because any discussion of homosexuality and Christianity must wrestle with this passage:

For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

There is a great temptation to read this verse in terms of seeing the act of homosexual sex as equivalent to the homosexual person. This can be seen in an element of the gay community which demands that homosexual sex is what makes a homosexual fully human. For example, Michael Callen writes in his book Surviving AIDS:

One strain of seventies gay liberationist rhetoric proclaimed that sex was inherently liberating . . . In other words, I should consider myself more liberated if I’d had a thousand sex partners than if I’d only had five hundred.

However, it is very important to understand who St. Paul refers to when he uses the word “them.” St. Paul is speaking about Greeks (Rom 1:16). He is not talking about homosexuals, but rather a society that

aiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles. — Romans 1:22-23

In other words, they turned away from God. The “degrading passions” Paul speaks of in Romans 1:26-27 are a consequence of this separation from God and the “due penalty for their error” is the wages we all earn for sin — death.

To put it another way, there is a difference between the human person and the action. If we make the mistake of confusing the two, we end up with, on one hand, the belief that homosexuals cannot be fully human without homosexual sex, and, on the other hand, that homosexuals are irrevocably evil because the act is sinful. This view of humanity cannot be supported with Scripture. Take, for example, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11:

Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers– none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. [emphasis mine]

Note how sodomy is not especially highlighted as specifically evil when compared to other sins, but, rather, is on par. Also note how these classifications are only applicable to those who are actively committing these sins — these human persons are not equated with these sinful acts. Rather, we become fully human when we unite ourselves to Christ. In other words, one can be homosexual, a full member of the Church and a fully realized human being without homosexual sex.

God, according to Christian dogmatic formula, is one in essence (nature) and three in hypostases (persons). Since we are made in the image and likeness, we share in this trinitarian reality. We are one in our human nature and a multitude in persons. It is this one nature God took to Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Thus, we are called to acknowledge this reality in every person regardless of who they are or what they have done because their nature sits at the right hand of God in glory in the person of Jesus Christ.

In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all! — Col. 3:11

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. — Galatians 3:28

This is the likeness of the image and likeness we are all called to strive for.

In contrast, a vision of humanity that merely strives for identification as a homosexual (or whatever) actually limits what it means to be human. Thus, Callen’s gay liberationist quest to find fulfillment in having sex with a thousand men as opposed to five hundred thoroughly falls short. Rather, it is an egregiously selfish act that radically de-humanizes not only himself, but those he uses for his sexual gratification. These faceless thousand are reduced to nothing more than a momentary sexual thrill. This is particularly loathsome when Christianity demands that they be fully and holistically acknowledged as human beings capable of embracing the searing energies of God.

For a more complete reflection on homosexuality from an Orthodox point of view please see Christian Faith And Same Sex Attraction: Eastern Orthodox Reflections by Fr. Thomas Hopko.

Bringing a little St. Gregory Palamas into my Life

Tags

Cain, Sin, St. Gregory Palamas

Recently, St. Gregory Palamas has let me know through various means that he wants to me to get to know him. I decided to begin this endeavor by reading his homilies and already he is becoming a real inspiration. I wanted to share a passage from his second homily because it puts into words far better than I can an explanation of Genesis 4:7 in context of Christ. Cain is contemplating the murder of his brother Abel when God confronts him:

If you are doing right, surely you ought to hold your head high! But if you are not doing right, Sin is crouching at the door hungry to get you. You can still master him.’

I take great strength from this passage. Even when all seems dark and hopeless, we have the power to overcome sin! How much more so now that we have our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ:

The unseen patron of evil is full of evil ingenuity. Right at the beginning he can drag away, by means of hopelessness and lack of faith, the foundations of virtue already laid in the soul. Again, by means of indifference and laziness, he can make an attempt on the walls of virtue’s house just when they are being built up. Or he can bring down the roof of good works after its construction, by means of pride and madness. But stand firm, do not be alarmed, for a diligent man is even more ingenious in good things, and virtue has superior forces to deploy against evil. It has at its disposal supplies and support in battle from Him who is all-powerful, who in His goodness strengthens all lovers of virtue. So not only can virtue remain unshaken by various wicked devices prepared by the enemy, but it can also lift up and restore those fallen into the depths of evil, and easily lead them to God by repentance and humility. — St.Gregory Palamas, Homily II

Amen!

Sunday of the Paralytic

Tags

Gospel, Holy Spirit, Pascha, Pentecost, Resurrection, Sin, Worship

John 5:1-15

This morning there was a little bit of confusion by the choir because they were expecting the Doxalogical hymn of Pascha, which ends with ‘Christ is Risen.’ This is a very reasonable expectation because we are still celebrating Pascha and will be until Ascension. This is the reason why we see all the bay leaves and all the flowers. They are out because we are still celebrating. The tomb has been opened.

We throw the flowers and the bay leaves all over the place because St. John tells us that Christ was buried in a garden tomb (John 19:41). We imagine the power of God and the energies present when Christ is risen from the dead bursting forth with power, glory, fragrance and wonder from the tomb. This is why we see the priest throwing the bay leaves and flowers on Holy Saturday crying out Arise O Lord! And we still have the kouvouklion out. It represents the tomb and note that we place in it the icon of the Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Empty Tomb. So, this stays out for 40 days.

Yet, today is the first Gospel Reading we hear on a Sunday after Pascha that isn’t directly related to the Resurrection. On Thomas Sunday, right after Pascha, we see Thomas encounter the Risen Christ and place his hands in the mark of the nails and in His side. Last week we read about the Myrrh-Bearing Women discovering the empty tomb. In contrast, today we read about the Paralytic next to the Sheep Pool. This is before Christ went to Golgotha and was crucified — before we know Him as the Risen Christ.

The reason for this is that in the life of the Church we are in periods of expectation and periods of celebration. Great Lent is an example of one long act of anticipation. We anticipate Pascha and saying to the world, “Christ is Risen!” Then, after Pascha, for 40 days we continue to say it: “Christ is risen from the dead, by death he has trampled death and to those in the tomb He has granted life!” We sing this over and over and over again. At the same time, however, we begin to anticipate Pentecost.

In today’s Gospel reading, we see hints that the Church is beginning to turn its attention towards Pentecost. The Sheep Pool, Bethesda, had a liturgical significance to the life of the Jews. The Gospel according to John speaks of the festival of tents, which the Church equates with Pentecost. There was a liturgical act that the Jews used to do during this festival. The priests would take a big, golden pitcher to the Sheep Pool to take water from the pool to use as a liquid sacrifice at the altar. Thus, the Church is using the story of the Paralytic, which happens next to the Sheep Pool, to pique our interest and get us to start anticipating Pentecost.

On top of this we hear about the descent of the Angel of the Lord upon the waters, which reminds us of both the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the waters at our own baptism. We are reminded of the glorious miracles through the presence of the Holy Spirit that made it possible for the Holy Apostles to go forth and accomplish, against all odds, the great commission to baptize all the nations in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Given this context, I’d like to read you today’s Kontakion, read during Orthros this morning:

I have sinned in every way, I have improperly acted; therefore with paralysis my soul is woefully stricken. Raise it up, O Lord, through Your own divine attention, even as of old You raised up the paralytic, so that saved I may cry, Glory to Your dominion, O my compassionate Christ.

The Church is making the story of the Paralytic into a metaphor. It reminds us of the reality of the fallen world. Though each and every one of us may be a faithful Orthodox Christian, though we make time in our lives to come to church on a Sunday morning, though we make time for Him in our daily lives, each of us — including and especially myself — sins. This reality of sin is like a paralysis and if left untended, it will paralyze our whole life. The cure for this paralysis, according to this morning’s Gospel reading, is coming into the presence of Jesus Christ. By a word, He heals the paralytic, “Pick up your pallet and walk” (John 5:8).

Our cure is the same. Come into the presence of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ and the paralysis of our sin is healed. It is washed away. The most obvious way that we come into the presence of Christ is what we do every Sunday. Christ is on the Table. His Body and Blood are right there. We are given the great blessing to partake of them. He is with us.

The challenge for all of us is to take this moment, this liturgy — this work of the people — and apply it out in the world. We must make choices on a daily basis to be in the presence of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. This is made possible out in the world by the descent of the Holy Spirit.

We are the Temples of God. The Holy Spirit is with us always. As we say at the beginning of many of our services:

O heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who are everywhere and fill all things, the treasury of blessings and giver of life, come and dwell within us and cleanse us from every blemish and save our souls, O Good One.

We participate in the Holy Spirit with the life of the Church. We do this when we choose prayer over turning on the TV or the computer to catch up on the morning news — something I struggle with. We do this when we choose to be at church during the week — whether to do work around the church (such as maintenance) or to attend Bible Study, Chant Class or a service — instead of playing golf, catching up on work, watching a movie, etc. These are choices we are given on a daily basis. So we need to make the choice to make the time to be with our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. Make the choice to pray. Make the choice to spend time with Scripture — to learn about our Savior.

During Orthros this morning, we read about Cleopas and Luke on the Road to Emmaus. Our Risen Lord opens up the Scripture for them, about how all of them speak about Him. He wasn’t taking about the Four Gospel accounts or the Epistles (they didn’t exist yet!), He was speaking about the Old Testament. As Christ tells us, the OT is replete with information about who Jesus Christ is. We need to make the choice to look for Him there. Make the choice to be with Him, to get to know Him and understand who He is.

When we make the choice to be with someone who needs our help, who needs our presence — “For two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matt 18:20). Thus we make the choice to visit people in the hospital and those in need in order to bring Christ with us where ever we go. We make the choice to be with Christ through other people — the people we see on a daily basis.

Make the choice to live that life where we get out of the way — we must decrease so that Christ can increase within us, as St. John the Baptist says (see John 3:30). When we make these choices to live and walk with with Christ all the time, when we allow the Holy Spirit to flow through us unabated by our own fallenness we will see miracles happen.

This past week, I was talking to a friend of mine, who happens to be a pastor. He was struggling with the idea of miracles. He says to me, I read the Scripture and about all these miracles — where have they all gone? I told him about what they tell you on Mt. Athos. You will see miracles on Mt. Athos every day, but don’t make a bid deal out of it, because it’s normal. When you are with God, when you walk with Christ every where you go the miraculous is normal. The miraculous is the way the world should be. A world without miracles is abnormal — it is not what God intended for His creation. When we make the choice to walk with God, our hearts are softened, our eyes are opened, our ears will open and we will see and hear miracles every where we go.

So, let us cry out to our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, heal me of the paralysis of my own sin. Be with me. Walk with me. Allow me to see and hear Your work in Your world through me.

Christ is risen from the dead, by death He has trampled death and to those in the tombs, He has granted life.

Amen.