Christ is risen. In the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. You heard,
you heard the epistle, the healing of the paralyzed
Aeneas, the raising of Tabitha. You heard the
gospel. This account describes an isolation of
38 years. brought on by paralysis this man begging
probably begging all those decades the only life
he knows begging to survive alone as he says
i have no man no one to help jesus says do you
want to be made whole do you want to want to
be made well saved the same word I suppose when
the only life you know has been 38 years, three
decades plus of begging, I suppose it's obvious
why Jesus would say that. Because Jesus always
says the thing that goes straight to the heart
of the matter. The man heard his voice. The man's
paralysis, his atrophy. Of his muscles. No muscles
up to 38 years. Was healed. And he got up. And
not only did he get up. But he took his bed.
Which for the Jewish authorities. And their interpretation.
Well constituted work. So rather than. Giving
glory. And to God. For this miracle. The authorities.
found reason to persecute Jesus. 38 years of
isolation is also going to atrophy the soul.
Last year on this Sunday, this is the fourth
Sunday of Pascha. Still Pascha time. And we always
read this gospel about the paralyzed man, the
sheep. and we have an incredibly beautiful fresco
on the south side of the arch at the back of
this event. On this Sunday last year, Father
John Shattuck preached a sermon. And he began
with a wonderful quote by St. Cyprian of Carthage.
St. Cyprian was martyred September 14th in the
year 258. St. Cyprian said this, and this is
what Father John began his sermon with last year.
Each person falls in isolation, but we are saved
in the community of the church. Each person falls
in isolation. You can't be a Christian by yourself,
but we are saved in the community of the church.
Of course, maybe he was prophesying, but he couldn't
have known that a year later, how relevant those
words would be for us. Here we are, waiting weeks,
months, okay, not 38 years like the paralytic,
but nevertheless, unprecedented times, difficult,
many people dying, all kinds of people trying
to figure out who's to blame, because that's
what we do, right, when we're powerless. We want
to know who's to blame. Unprecedented times.
The Lord knows the economic struggles that many
are having. Isolation. No. Not for us in the
church. No. Separated. Maybe. Yes. But not isolated.
We should not be isolated. Even hermits are not
isolated. There at the cave on the hillside of
Corulia there in the mountain Athos. They're
not isolated. Because not only are they praying
for the world and for the people that ask them
to pray, but we pray too. We overcome every obstacle
in space and time through prayer. By the power
of the Spirit. The unity of the Spirit, says
St. Paul, in the bond of peace. Christ is that
peace. Christ is that unity. He is our bond.
Think, brothers and sisters, of the incredible
miracle you have been given in being a Christian
and knowing Christ. Before Christ, you were powerless
like this man. You are isolated spiritually from
God. You are in the grip of death and sin and
powerless against those things. All the world
now is in turmoil about its powerlessness to
do something about our situation. And that's
all I'm going to say about our situation because
you hear about it every single day. But we, as
Christians, have gone through a miraculous transformation.
How? In this gospel, by the way, and all the
gospels, the next three, next week Samaritan
woman, next week the blind man, are dedicated
and specifically targeted to the newly baptized,
which we would have now if we had a normal year.
But fine. We were baptized too. And it's good
for them to hear this ahead of time because next
year they're going to know what they're in for.
These Gospels have to do with baptism, have to
do with change, have to do with transformation,
have to do with rising up from their bed by the
power of Christ and then picking up that bed,
doing something, no longer paralyzed by fear
of death or sin, no longer isolated because they
are spiritually united to God, to the angels
and the most holy. theotokos, to their patron
saint, and to each of us. The miracle, think
of the great change of life, the miracle of repentance,
which is something that God initiates in a person.
We don't come to it naturally. What we come to
naturally since the fall in the Garden of Eden
is to turn away from God in shame and in fear.
Repentance is the gift of the Holy Spirit beginning
of ember in the heart. Then there's the forgiveness
of sins when we become accountable to God, to
the church, to one another. Grievous sins, wounds,
shameful things washed away in the prayer of
absolution and in the... Water and the fire of
baptism. St. John baptized with water. Forgiveness.
Jesus Christ said, I come to baptize with fire.
That is the Holy Spirit. That is God's love.
That is God's mercy. His absolution. His divine
energy and grace. Get up and walk. Come out of
the font. And then there's the anointing of the
Holy Spirit. To make you and me, son, a daughter
of the Father. Christ becomes, dare we say, but
the saints say, Christ becomes our brother. And
the gift of nourishment, the body and blood of
Christ. So we can share in the resurrection now.
This is all what's given to us. Let none of us
bewail, bemoan, and wail our situation. Yes,
I'm not going to stand in judgment or criticize
those who are suffering. God knows their situation.
It's not for me to categorize it in any way.
But if we have been given all these things that
I said, and this gospel today points to this
great miracle of change, The resistance that
will come against us as Jesus experiences and
that man experienced right away, expect it. But
if we've been given this miraculous life, let
us not forget that we are then like the apostles.
We're the apostles. We're the disciples. We've
had this miracle. We are no longer paralyzed
and fearful of death. My beloved dean of the
Pacific Central Deanery, the mighty Archpriest
Basil, said this in a sermon about these miracles.
Belief in miracles is fundamental to our Christian
faith. What miracles, you might ask? Well, the
miracle of creation, the parting of the Red Sea,
the bush that burned that was not consumed. How
about the miracle of God taking flesh and dwelling
among us? The miracle of all miracles. The raising
of Lazarus. The resurrection of Christ from the
dead. The ascension into heaven. Don't we believe
all these things? We do. Natural laws do not
have the claim to be the only laws. Nor are they
threatened with being overturned. by the appearance
of other laws, says St. Nectarius. And St. Augustine
says miracles are not contrary to nature, but
only contrary to what we know about nature. And
don't what we know change? Doesn't it change
every day? The paralytic waited for God's miracle.
Patiently? Maybe. Maybe he was used to being
there. But he had faith at the end, and he had
hope, and that should inspire us. God loves us
more than we love ourselves. He wants to heal
us beginning here, which is why Christ asked
that question. He could have just said, get up
and walk, but he needed that man to know that
a change is coming on the inside first. God's
timing for each one of us is always perfect.
Wait on God. He wants what's best for us, you
and me, for our lives, for our eternal life.
I guess, and this is Father Basil's final word,
the miracle of the raising of the paralytic today
was not the most important miracle described
in the gospel today. It was the encounter with
Christ. Praise ye God and his saints. Praise
him in the firmament of his power. Praise him
for his mighty acts. Praise him according to
the multitude of his greatness. Christ is risen.