WEBVTT 00:00:19.000 --> 00:00:22.679 Dear brothers and sisters, we say those words. 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:31.460 We affirm our belief. in something, not a religious 00:00:31.460 --> 00:00:37.399 principle, not a philosophical idea, not a social 00:00:37.399 --> 00:00:43.640 movement, but about a person that we confess 00:00:43.640 --> 00:00:51.920 based on the eyewitnesses that rose from the 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:59.770 dead. I can remember reading stories from Soviet 00:00:59.770 --> 00:01:05.049 times when government officials would come to 00:01:05.049 --> 00:01:10.409 a small town to re -educate the population about 00:01:10.409 --> 00:01:16.829 Marxist philosophy and the workers and the glorious 00:01:16.829 --> 00:01:21.549 future ahead if everybody just gives up enough 00:01:21.549 --> 00:01:27.040 now. And they would go on and on and on about 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:32.700 the foolishness of belief in God. The foolishness 00:01:32.700 --> 00:01:37.260 of a belief in a Savior who was crucified with 00:01:37.260 --> 00:01:40.060 criminals. Who say, and it's just a myth, we 00:01:40.060 --> 00:01:43.599 all know this. They would say, that rose from 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:47.840 the dead. And they'd go on and on. And then some 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:52.909 old lady would stand up and say, Christos vizcrese, 00:01:52.950 --> 00:01:56.849 and the entire crowd would answer back, Vizcrese! 00:01:57.870 --> 00:02:01.390 And the government officials would bow their 00:02:01.390 --> 00:02:07.609 heads like these people are just fools. But the 00:02:07.609 --> 00:02:13.650 foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of 00:02:13.650 --> 00:02:18.490 man. So if it means we're fools, then let's say 00:02:18.490 --> 00:02:23.620 we're fools for Christ's sake. But it's an incredible 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:32.500 message. And if the heart has hardened, if there 00:02:32.500 --> 00:02:36.479 is fear about what it could mean to believe in 00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:39.939 Christ, and I'll say once again, as I did a few 00:02:39.939 --> 00:02:42.900 weeks ago in a sermon, Christ is a troublemaker 00:02:42.900 --> 00:02:47.900 in your life. If there's a hesitation, if you 00:02:47.900 --> 00:02:50.240 are holding something back, you don't want to 00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:52.819 confess Christ is risen. You want to have hope 00:02:52.819 --> 00:02:57.919 in this world. Isn't it interesting that the 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:01.919 gospel today ends with these words? Not, indeed 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:05.000 he is risen, and Jesus is king and Lord over 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:07.580 all. No, that's later in the book of Revelation. 00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:12.729 The Alpha. and the omega, and that the light 00:03:12.729 --> 00:03:15.330 of the sun won't be needed, nor will the light 00:03:15.330 --> 00:03:17.590 of the moon, because God will be their light. 00:03:17.810 --> 00:03:21.710 No, the reading today ends with this sentence. 00:03:22.949 --> 00:03:28.310 I will not believe. And that's important. We 00:03:28.310 --> 00:03:33.909 hear that today on Pascha. Not to talk ourselves 00:03:33.909 --> 00:03:37.710 into some kind of faith, but so we make sense 00:03:37.710 --> 00:03:43.590 of... this incredible historical event that has 00:03:43.590 --> 00:03:47.310 changed the course of history. Now you may say, 00:03:47.389 --> 00:03:49.069 well, lots of things changed the course of history. 00:03:50.490 --> 00:03:56.330 But not one heart at a time. Not for peace in 00:03:56.330 --> 00:04:00.990 the heart that surpasses all understanding. And 00:04:00.990 --> 00:04:03.569 it makes no sense otherwise. We hear these words, 00:04:03.650 --> 00:04:08.919 you hear this phrase last night. Let no one fear 00:04:08.919 --> 00:04:14.199 death, for the Savior's death has set us free. 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:19.779 He that was taken by death annihilated it. He 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:22.600 descended into Hades, and he took Hades, the 00:04:22.600 --> 00:04:27.160 grave, death, captive. We hear those words, and 00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:31.560 maybe they go right by us. They sound pious and 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:35.360 religious, but we have to remember death is more 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:38.670 than the death of the body. Yes, Christ rose 00:04:38.670 --> 00:04:42.170 bodily from the grave, but our salvation begins 00:04:42.170 --> 00:04:47.810 here, now, with life of the soul, with renewal, 00:04:48.029 --> 00:04:51.509 with restoration, with glorification, and with 00:04:51.509 --> 00:04:55.310 deification in our baptism, in the gift of the 00:04:55.310 --> 00:05:02.589 Holy Spirit, and the soul comes alive. The spiritual 00:05:02.589 --> 00:05:05.949 meaning and content of death, writes Father Alexander. 00:05:07.050 --> 00:05:11.589 Of death as above all a spiritual and not only 00:05:11.589 --> 00:05:16.290 a biological reality. This is what the overwhelming 00:05:16.290 --> 00:05:20.509 number of Christians, death means exclusively 00:05:20.509 --> 00:05:23.110 physical death, the end of this life. And that 00:05:23.110 --> 00:05:25.370 Christ rose from the dead has changed nothing. 00:05:25.470 --> 00:05:29.810 We still die. St. John Chrysostom says, yes, 00:05:29.889 --> 00:05:34.870 but since Christ's resurrection, to die is not 00:05:34.870 --> 00:05:39.620 to be cut off. from God. Because the body is 00:05:39.620 --> 00:05:45.279 laid to rest and it will rise again. The destruction 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:48.899 of death by Christ, we say trampling down death 00:05:48.899 --> 00:05:54.319 by death, is a unique, incredible Christian joy 00:05:54.319 --> 00:05:58.720 in the midst of suffering, in the midst of death 00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:02.240 even. Because we know that our own death means 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:06.529 that we will come to Christ and that we will 00:06:06.529 --> 00:06:11.129 rise again. Otherwise, what's it mean there's 00:06:11.129 --> 00:06:15.689 no dead in the tombs? They're with Christ. Christ 00:06:15.689 --> 00:06:19.670 said, yes, come to me. Come to me, all ye that 00:06:19.670 --> 00:06:23.790 are heavy laden. He didn't say, come to me, all 00:06:23.790 --> 00:06:26.430 ye that are heavy laden, and I'll take care of 00:06:26.430 --> 00:06:31.050 all your problems and all the suffering. No, 00:06:31.149 --> 00:06:33.389 he said, come to me, you that are heavy laden, 00:06:33.430 --> 00:06:37.120 and I will give you a rest. Rest for your souls. 00:06:37.439 --> 00:06:40.459 Let us rest in God, brothers and sisters. If 00:06:40.459 --> 00:06:43.300 Christ is truly risen, then there are no dead 00:06:43.300 --> 00:06:47.879 in the grave, but they are with God. Father Alexander 00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:53.019 goes on to say this. A modern man, even a Christian, 00:06:53.180 --> 00:06:56.839 whose understanding of death is entirely biological, 00:06:57.319 --> 00:07:00.879 does not hear the Christian gospel about the 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:04.589 destruction and abolition of death. Because on 00:07:04.589 --> 00:07:09.629 the biological level, nothing has happened. Indeed, 00:07:09.810 --> 00:07:12.870 nothing has happened after Christ's death. Death 00:07:12.870 --> 00:07:15.449 has neither been destroyed nor abolished. It 00:07:15.449 --> 00:07:18.769 remains the same inescapable and natural law 00:07:18.769 --> 00:07:22.829 for saints and sinners, for believers and unbelievers 00:07:22.829 --> 00:07:27.389 alike. The same principle of the world's very 00:07:27.389 --> 00:07:32.069 existence. But the Christian gospel... doesn't 00:07:32.069 --> 00:07:35.430 just mean the mortality of the body and the immortality 00:07:35.430 --> 00:07:41.569 of the soul. You can be dead and spiritually 00:07:41.569 --> 00:07:45.410 alive. You can be physically alive and spiritually 00:07:45.410 --> 00:07:53.629 dead, cut off from God. So we have to live the 00:07:53.629 --> 00:07:58.189 life of the age to come. Thomas could not see 00:07:58.189 --> 00:08:01.470 yet in the other apostles the reality of Christ's 00:08:01.470 --> 00:08:05.790 resurrection. Bishop Anthony Bloom says because 00:08:05.790 --> 00:08:08.910 they were still like statues. They were not animated 00:08:08.910 --> 00:08:11.670 by the life of the age to come. They were not 00:08:11.670 --> 00:08:14.389 yet imbued with the grace of the Holy Spirit. 00:08:14.509 --> 00:08:18.829 They could not yet rejoice fully in what it meant 00:08:18.829 --> 00:08:21.490 that their Lord had just walked through those 00:08:21.490 --> 00:08:26.449 locked doors. And they were fearful. But when 00:08:26.449 --> 00:08:30.769 Christ says, peace be unto you, the first words 00:08:30.769 --> 00:08:33.970 he says to the apostles, he says it unto you 00:08:33.970 --> 00:08:38.350 and to me. And so we live the life of the resurrection 00:08:38.350 --> 00:08:42.470 now, which means the Beatitudes. And this wonderful 00:08:42.470 --> 00:08:45.590 verse, now have I made a beginning. This change 00:08:45.590 --> 00:08:48.250 has been wrought by the hand of the Most High. 00:08:49.250 --> 00:08:55.200 We are to live as peacemakers, as those... Blessed 00:08:55.200 --> 00:09:03.879 who mourn for those around us. As humble, as 00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:09.220 persecuted, but not struck down. Always hoping 00:09:09.220 --> 00:09:14.440 our hope is based on Christ, not on something 00:09:14.440 --> 00:09:17.980 else. Not on something else. Not even our own 00:09:17.980 --> 00:09:21.460 application and understanding, which can never... 00:09:22.029 --> 00:09:25.230 pierce through the holy and incredible reality 00:09:25.230 --> 00:09:30.450 of the mystery of the resurrection of God become 00:09:30.450 --> 00:09:33.929 man, his death and resurrection. This is a day 00:09:33.929 --> 00:09:38.529 of joy. I greet you with the joy of the resurrection. 00:09:39.110 --> 00:09:43.450 I pray that the Lord pierces each of our hearts 00:09:43.450 --> 00:09:46.350 with his peace and his love and his brightness 00:09:46.350 --> 00:09:52.220 so that you will feel The joy that Thomas felt 00:09:52.220 --> 00:09:56.720 when you hear this gospel on Sunday. After eight 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:00.700 days, again the disciples were within. And Thomas 00:10:00.700 --> 00:10:03.779 this time was with them. The doors being shut, 00:10:03.940 --> 00:10:09.220 Christ stood in the midst and said, Peace be 00:10:09.220 --> 00:10:12.519 to you. Then he said to Thomas, Reach hither 00:10:12.519 --> 00:10:16.360 thy finger and behold my hands. Jesus was not 00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:19.340 a ghost. Reach hither thy hand, thrust it into 00:10:19.340 --> 00:10:22.620 my side. Be not faithless, but believing. And 00:10:22.620 --> 00:10:25.639 Thomas answered and said unto him, The words 00:10:25.639 --> 00:10:28.980 that we were dying to hear the entire gospel 00:10:28.980 --> 00:10:32.340 of John. From the time we heard, the word became 00:10:32.340 --> 00:10:37.899 flesh. My Lord and my God. Amen. Christ is risen.