In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, Amen. We've come to the Sunday
after Ascension. Thursday was the Feast of the
Ascension of our Lord, and today is also the
Sunday before Pentecost. You can see, appear
to get a sort of a picture of what's going to
happen, and what happened. Today is called the
Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical
Council. Seems like a wonderful coincidence,
this also being Father's Day. I wish all the
fathers and the godfathers many, many years,
especially to Skylar Silouan, whose three children
were baptized today, a special day for a father.
And to Peter and Martin. and Daniel, and the
Godmother, Natasha, of course, and Moshka Esther.
May God bless you on this glorious day. This
being the feast of the Holy Fathers of the First
Ecumenical Council, well, there are 14 sermons
on this feast day on our parish website given
by Father Michael, Father John, Father James.
So you can listen to those. So instead of me
preaching on that, many of you have heard this
14 times. So I'd like to say something about
Pentecost. One aspect of the feast, not so much
a homily as maybe just some information. Of course,
Pascha. Think back now, almost 50 days. Pascha,
the Feast of Feasts. What did we sing? This is
the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice
and be glad in it. And we sang and we sang and
we sang and in the middle of the night we're
doing processions and then later liturgy and
then eating in the hall at 3 a .m. This is not
normal behavior. This is festal behavior. This
is because it's the feast of feasts. Yet, without
Pentecost, 50 days after Passover, Pascha, Passover,
Pascha, same word, different language. Without
Pentecost, that feast, what we celebrate, the
resurrection of Christ, is something outside
of us. It's external to us. We can't access it.
We can celebrate it to some degree. We can make
all kinds of food. We can have barbecues. We
can sing. But without Pentecost, there's no gift
of it within us. We cannot become members of
the church. We have no Holy Spirit. We have no
living soul. Without Pentecost. Pascha is the
Lord's feast. Pentecost is our feast. Now let's
look back a bit. During the 40 days of Lent,
we tried, we gave ourselves to worship, prayer,
fasting, works of mercy, and we all, catechumens
and the rest of us, look forward to Pascha. And
when we reached Holy Saturday, We heard that
long and incredible and beautiful reading from
Exodus, during which we sing that refrain, for
gloriously has he been glorified. Do you remember?
And the readers in the middle, Alex is chanting,
the chariots of Pharaoh and his host, he hurled
into the sea, the chosen mounted captains, he
plunged into the Red Sea. To the Lord let us
sing, and we sing, for gloriously is he glorified.
With open sea he covered them. They sank, Pharaoh,
into the deep like a stone. To the Lord let us
sing, for gloriously is he glorified. This is
a story about Moses and the people of the Hebrews
of Israel escaping the slavery of Egypt. Chasing
them is the mighty army of Pharaoh. The most
powerful in the ancient world. The most powerful.
But he sunk. He is sunk. And the people of the
Hebrews, having celebrated the Passover, the
angel passing over their houses, eating the roasted
lamb, having the unleavened bread, getting ready
to go. This is Passover. This is Pascha. They
passed over the Red Sea, and the Egyptians were
destroyed. Israel was free. They were led by
God. But then what? That's what they said. You
brought us out here to die? There's no graves
in Egypt? You have to bring us to the desert?
What then? What then? The Lord led his people
by a pillar of fire and by a cloud of glory to
Sinai. And there, 50 days after the Pascha, after
the Passover, Moses, that's why it's called Pentecost,
right? Pente, 50. Moses was on Sinai, standing
in the glory of God, speaking to the Lord as
a man speaks to his friend face to face. And
the mountain was covered with smoke, and the
people were terrified. What was going on. But
Moses was in the divine council. And he was being
illumined. And he received the tablets of the
law. That is all of God's teaching. Everything.
50. Now here's a little math for you. The number
50. Doesn't mean much to us. But if you're reading
the Bible. If you're reading the scriptures.
50. means absolute perfection, beyond perfection.
Seven is what? The Sabbath day. Yes, we say Sunday
is the eighth day, the day of the Lord, the day
without evening, a taste of Pascha every single
Sunday. But seven times seven is 49, right? Seven
weeks. Of Sabbath joy. Of Sabbath rest. Of Sabbath
God's dominion and reign and rule. Plus one.
Fifty. Beyond all of that. That's what Moses
was experiencing on the mountain. And he comes
down with the tablets of the law. and his face
is shining with the uncreated light, and the
people can't even look at him. This receiving
of the law, this 50 days after Passover, that's
the Feast of Pentecost. That's why in Acts, Luke
says St. Paul was hurrying, he was eager, he
was anxious to be in Jerusalem for the Day of
Pentecost, when thousands of pious Jewish believers
would gather for that feast day. To recommit
and to celebrate that receiving of the law on
Sinai. All that is to say, and to remind us of
the truth, that those who are baptized today,
those who are baptized on Lazarus Saturday, and
those who were baptized long ago, also experience
the same victory on Passover, Pascha. Not the
crossing of the sea, but dying and rising in
the waters. Free, not from Pharaoh and his harm
and slavery, but free from sin and death. Believe
it, free from sin and death. This is why we should
be joyful. Our merciful and mighty God offers
us the gift of overcoming death. The early Christians
were not afraid of death. Dying in any way. Our
merciful God offers us not only the gift of overcoming
death and the forgiveness of sin, which kills
the soul, sin, and healing. Yet Pascha and the
40 days of Pascha, they have prepared us for
something that is coming next Sunday. Just like
Lent prepared us for Pascha, so we are prepared
for Pentecost. The Lord said, we heard it on
Thursday night of Holy Week. It is to your advantage,
he said to the apostles, that I go away. That
is, ascend to the throne of the Father. For if
I do not go away, the Comforter, the Helper,
will not come to you. And Jesus told the apostles
before his ascension that they would be clothed
with power from on high at the coming of the
Spirit. Clothed. Imagine that. You that are newly
baptized have put on Christ. But Christ also
says you will be clothed, we will be clothed
with the Spirit, the profound nature of that
act. When we place ourselves, within the power
of the grace of the Holy Spirit, if we place
ourselves within the power of apathy and sin
and forgetfulness, breaking the commandments,
that clothing doesn't happen. We are covered
by the Spirit as with a garment. And like a garment,
we put him on. And we enter him, and he enters
us. This is what all the saints tell us. This
is what the scripture tells us. He who believes
in me, says Christ, as scripture says, out of
his heart shall flow rivers of living water.
He meant the Holy Spirit, it says. And a new
heart, says Ezekiel, also will I give you, and
a new spirit will I put within you. This is not
a metaphor. We gloss over it. Perhaps we're embarrassed
by the profound nature that we are called by
God to become and to receive so that we may become.
We hear those words and they sound religious,
but they have lost their salt, their fervor,
because we just let them go. We don't embrace
them and say, Lord, here am I. I hear your words
about rivers of living water coming out of my
heart and a heart not of stone, the law of God
written in my heart, not in tablets, but in my
heart, in the ink of the Spirit. I hear those
words and yet do nothing. I go back to what I
call normal. Dear friends, next Sunday we will
gather. Not as individuals, yes, we have personal
relationship with our Lord, but as a parish,
as members of the body of Christ. To do what?
To celebrate that gift of the giving of the Holy
Spirit, which means for us, like the Jews in
Jerusalem on Pentecost, a recommitment to the
Lord and to the vision of what I'm talking about.
The life of the Spirit, the new covenant. We
call on the Spirit of God, by whom we say Jesus
is Lord, by whom we are made members of his body,
by whom we are cleansed, from whom we receive
his fruits, love, joy, peace, mercy, kindness,
gentleness, self -control. And we're confronted
in our struggle against sin, we are comforted.
And we little by little acquire the likeness
of Christ, his virtues, his holiness and goodness.
Pentecost is the feast that makes Pascha real.
And we don't celebrate it with any less splendor,
with any less joy and exuberance. May the Lord
enlighten all of us by his mercy. Through the
grace and love toward mankind of his only begotten
Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, now and ever, to
ages of ages. Amen.