WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.919 important and put here on purpose, put here because 00:00:02.919 --> 00:00:06.599 it matters and because we need to hear the legacy 00:00:06.599 --> 00:00:09.859 and the meaning and the words of the Holy Fathers 00:00:09.859 --> 00:00:12.460 of that council. And there's a lot we can say 00:00:12.460 --> 00:00:15.119 about Nicaea I, which is the first ecumenical 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:19.260 council held at Nicaea in the year 325. It was 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:21.260 the first worldwide gathering of bishops in the 00:00:21.260 --> 00:00:24.160 history of the church, at least since the apostolic 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:27.239 age. All the bishops, as far as could be possible 00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:30.589 to gather together, were invited. to Nicaea on 00:00:30.589 --> 00:00:34.950 the shores of the Mediterranean by Emperor Constantine 00:00:34.950 --> 00:00:38.909 to gather from the Roman Empire, from the Persian 00:00:38.909 --> 00:00:42.130 lands, from the lands of Mesopotamia, from Armenia 00:00:42.130 --> 00:00:44.810 and Georgia, from all over, from the west and 00:00:44.810 --> 00:00:47.869 east they came. And they gathered there, and 00:00:47.869 --> 00:00:50.070 he kind of paid the bill, the hotel bills and 00:00:50.070 --> 00:00:52.689 the food bills and the travel expenses. It was 00:00:52.689 --> 00:00:55.770 a big deal. Many fathers gathered together for 00:00:55.770 --> 00:00:58.380 this council. It was the first. And it also was 00:00:58.380 --> 00:01:00.340 the end of the great persecution. You remember, 00:01:00.520 --> 00:01:03.060 not only did we have 300 years of intermittent 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:05.299 persecution as Christians from the time of our 00:01:05.299 --> 00:01:09.579 Lord until the Roman Empire legalized our Christian 00:01:09.579 --> 00:01:13.799 faith, but also the 30 years before Emperor Constantine 00:01:13.799 --> 00:01:17.200 legalized our faith, it was the great persecution. 00:01:17.260 --> 00:01:21.219 And if you can imagine this, one in three clergy 00:01:21.219 --> 00:01:24.439 were murdered, martyred in that time period. 00:01:24.459 --> 00:01:27.540 One in three. I think we have four or five here, 00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:29.859 and at least one or two of us would have been 00:01:29.859 --> 00:01:33.099 killed. And one in ten of the lay people were 00:01:33.099 --> 00:01:35.620 killed in that time period. What an experience 00:01:35.620 --> 00:01:39.480 for the church. And the fruits of that were gathered 00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:41.719 together in Nicaea. You had these bishops, many 00:01:41.719 --> 00:01:44.620 of whom had physical wounds. St. Paphnutius had 00:01:44.620 --> 00:01:47.959 an eye god gouged out. And as he came into the 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:49.980 hall where the bishops were gathered, the emperor 00:01:49.980 --> 00:01:52.939 processed, and he saw Paphnutius, and he bent 00:01:52.939 --> 00:01:56.000 down and kissed his eye. And there was another 00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:00.519 bishop, I think James of Persia, had been persecuted 00:02:00.519 --> 00:02:04.000 by the Persian kings and had his fingers sliced 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:08.419 off and his hands, he had two nubs where his 00:02:08.419 --> 00:02:10.860 hands had been. And the bishop bent down, the 00:02:10.860 --> 00:02:13.259 emperor bent down and kissed those hands, what 00:02:13.259 --> 00:02:15.840 was left of him. We had St. Nicholas gathered 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:18.259 there. Of course, you know that story, Nicholas 00:02:18.259 --> 00:02:21.719 and Arius. We had St. Athanasius the Young, a 00:02:21.719 --> 00:02:24.139 deacon at the time with his aged bishop, St. 00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:27.379 Alexander from Alexandria. We had St. Spyridon 00:02:27.379 --> 00:02:30.379 of Trimethus, the shepherd bishop there. We had 00:02:30.379 --> 00:02:32.500 St. Macarius of Jerusalem, who would find the 00:02:32.500 --> 00:02:36.080 true cross with St. Helen. We had Bishop Ossius 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:39.039 of Cordoba, the advisor to Emperor Constantine. 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:43.139 St. Cecil of Carthage. Eusebius of Caesarea. 00:02:43.300 --> 00:02:45.139 It was an incredible gathering of people who'd 00:02:45.139 --> 00:02:48.419 suffered. These were men who knew what it was 00:02:48.419 --> 00:02:50.659 to be Christian, who had seen their faithful 00:02:50.659 --> 00:02:54.219 suffer, and had given all they had to our Lord 00:02:54.219 --> 00:02:56.060 Jesus Christ. Everything was on the line for 00:02:56.060 --> 00:02:58.800 them. And it was called, of course, to resolve 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:01.819 a number of disputes. The lesser disputes would 00:03:01.819 --> 00:03:04.379 be, for example, the calendar question, how to 00:03:04.379 --> 00:03:08.080 celebrate Pascha, what does discipline for the 00:03:08.080 --> 00:03:10.580 clergy look like, so that we're not a scandal 00:03:10.580 --> 00:03:14.280 to the laity. regulations about synod meetings 00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:16.939 and how to deal with schismatics, how to receive 00:03:16.939 --> 00:03:21.020 schismatics back, how to receive and penance 00:03:21.020 --> 00:03:23.300 those who had apostatized from the faith. These 00:03:23.300 --> 00:03:25.800 are all really interesting questions. I recommend 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:28.300 reading about it. It's fascinating. But the most 00:03:28.300 --> 00:03:31.900 important question of all was the question raised 00:03:31.900 --> 00:03:35.500 by the heretic Arius who dared to preach that 00:03:35.500 --> 00:03:38.860 Jesus Christ was not divine. He had all these 00:03:39.480 --> 00:03:41.719 songs and ditties about what that meant, but 00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:46.300 he said there was a time when Jesus was not, 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:49.060 which meant that he was a creature. He was not, 00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:51.819 as the other fathers proclaimed, co -worshipped 00:03:51.819 --> 00:03:54.599 with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And so this 00:03:54.599 --> 00:03:57.699 teaching ate away at the Christian faith all 00:03:57.699 --> 00:04:00.300 around the edges of the Christian world, and 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:02.800 many fell into this heresy. And the question 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:04.740 that dominated that council, which is important 00:04:04.740 --> 00:04:09.250 for us today, not just then, but today, is, Who 00:04:09.250 --> 00:04:14.930 is Jesus? Who is he really? And who do I say 00:04:14.930 --> 00:04:18.269 that he is? And this question is important because 00:04:18.269 --> 00:04:21.290 our church, the Orthodox Church, makes some really 00:04:21.290 --> 00:04:24.550 bold statements and claims about who Jesus Christ 00:04:24.550 --> 00:04:28.470 is. In fact, St. Paul himself, kind of reflecting 00:04:28.470 --> 00:04:32.649 in this key, says if we do not really believe 00:04:32.649 --> 00:04:34.889 that Jesus is risen from the dead and we try 00:04:34.889 --> 00:04:37.089 to be Christians, we are of all people most miserable. 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:40.439 And we might say in the key of the fathers, if 00:04:40.439 --> 00:04:43.540 we don't wrestle with who Jesus is in terms of 00:04:43.540 --> 00:04:46.819 what the church teaches, then we too are miserable 00:04:46.819 --> 00:04:49.379 because our faith is incomplete and our faith 00:04:49.379 --> 00:04:53.720 is in vain. Just as Arius attacked a key tenant 00:04:53.720 --> 00:04:56.300 of the ancient Christian faith, which is our 00:04:56.300 --> 00:04:59.560 faith too, so too in our time, our culture eats 00:04:59.560 --> 00:05:03.160 away at the full teaching of who Jesus Christ 00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:07.149 is. And we find, I think, lots of little... Fake 00:05:07.149 --> 00:05:09.829 icons of Jesus. There are a lot of people that 00:05:09.829 --> 00:05:12.889 say, and he says this, Lord, Lord. But he says, 00:05:12.930 --> 00:05:15.970 they don't know me. And part of why many of us 00:05:15.970 --> 00:05:20.269 are Orthodox is that we sought this, who is really 00:05:20.269 --> 00:05:23.029 Jesus? Who is he really? And some of the portraits 00:05:23.029 --> 00:05:26.949 we find out there are silly. For example, I read 00:05:26.949 --> 00:05:28.829 somewhere recently that people were teaching 00:05:28.829 --> 00:05:30.910 at a college that Jesus was a fiction. There 00:05:30.910 --> 00:05:33.600 was no Jesus. So there is no Jesus. That's really 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:36.579 ludicrous that no one who's serious thinks that. 00:05:36.839 --> 00:05:39.500 But there's examples of Jesus' image. Like he 00:05:39.500 --> 00:05:42.600 exists, but he's just a really nice dude. You 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:45.680 find that sometimes. Or he exists, but he's a 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:47.899 good teacher. And then his teachings were co 00:05:47.899 --> 00:05:50.860 -opted by this kind of scheming. Paul of Tarsus, 00:05:50.879 --> 00:05:52.920 who changed the faith and made it different. 00:05:53.500 --> 00:05:55.959 You find examples. He's kind of like the Buddha. 00:05:56.079 --> 00:05:59.120 He's a wise guy with wonderful teachings that 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:02.000 you might incorporate into your life. He's a 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:05.319 super nice guy, but he doesn't demand anything 00:06:05.319 --> 00:06:09.550 of me, and he can have this wonderful preaching 00:06:09.550 --> 00:06:12.550 of of christianity but i can pick and choose 00:06:12.550 --> 00:06:15.329 what i want and maybe this is really common this 00:06:15.329 --> 00:06:18.790 idea of relativism where you know um i have my 00:06:18.790 --> 00:06:21.589 truth you have your truth uh down the street 00:06:21.589 --> 00:06:23.990 they have different gods different different 00:06:23.990 --> 00:06:27.709 christs even and we can we can all do that together 00:06:27.709 --> 00:06:31.009 by contrast though on this day the fathers don't 00:06:31.009 --> 00:06:33.430 make room for that the fathers are pretty pretty 00:06:33.430 --> 00:06:38.449 firm the fathers and i see a teach that um They 00:06:38.449 --> 00:06:40.389 make very bold claims about who Jesus Christ 00:06:40.389 --> 00:06:45.709 is. For example, they quote John chapter 1. In 00:06:45.709 --> 00:06:47.829 the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 00:06:47.829 --> 00:06:51.569 with God, and the Word was God. This Jesus was 00:06:51.569 --> 00:06:54.490 with God, and he is God. Jesus Christ is the 00:06:54.490 --> 00:06:57.589 very image of the Father. They quote, if you 00:06:57.589 --> 00:07:01.970 behold him, Jesus, you behold the Father. This 00:07:01.970 --> 00:07:04.470 is the words of Jesus Christ. He is revealed. 00:07:05.069 --> 00:07:07.790 himself in the Old Testament. We see that actually 00:07:07.790 --> 00:07:09.970 all over this church. Images of Christ in the 00:07:09.970 --> 00:07:12.829 Old Covenant popping out. And we also believe 00:07:12.829 --> 00:07:16.810 in the fullness of time. God himself broke through 00:07:16.810 --> 00:07:19.970 all of this and entered our world and became 00:07:19.970 --> 00:07:23.189 man. Last night I was at vigil with Father Kirill 00:07:23.189 --> 00:07:26.589 Sokolov in San Francisco and he made a wonderful 00:07:26.589 --> 00:07:29.110 short point which is worth considering. He said, 00:07:29.209 --> 00:07:33.699 so many religions Teach that there is a divinity 00:07:33.699 --> 00:07:36.079 or a God who comes into the world for a period 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:38.500 of time, who does something. He might look as 00:07:38.500 --> 00:07:41.040 a man or act as a man or be a hero and do something 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:44.639 wonderful. But that's not our faith at all. In 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:48.300 our faith, the God that we worship, the God we're 00:07:48.300 --> 00:07:51.100 proclaiming, that we're singing about here, that 00:07:51.100 --> 00:07:53.160 we're celebrating his ascension of on this day, 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:56.740 this God is not like those gods. This God is 00:07:56.740 --> 00:07:59.889 one who is eternal. one with the Holy Father 00:07:59.889 --> 00:08:03.389 and the Spirit, who enters the world and truly 00:08:03.389 --> 00:08:07.430 is born in the womb of the Virgin Mary and experiences 00:08:07.430 --> 00:08:11.870 childbirth, who experiences childhood, who experiences 00:08:11.870 --> 00:08:14.649 love for his mother, who had love for his foster 00:08:14.649 --> 00:08:18.189 father, who had siblings, who had all these cousins 00:08:18.189 --> 00:08:20.389 and relatives, and he knew the love of his nation. 00:08:20.709 --> 00:08:24.029 He knew the frustrations of his nation. He knew 00:08:24.029 --> 00:08:27.089 what it was like to live with Pharisees and Sadducees 00:08:27.089 --> 00:08:29.750 and zealots and crazy people and wonderful people 00:08:29.750 --> 00:08:32.190 and everything in between. He understood all 00:08:32.190 --> 00:08:36.470 of this. He experienced it all, including betrayal, 00:08:36.870 --> 00:08:42.730 misunderstanding, denial, spitting, scourging, 00:08:42.789 --> 00:08:50.029 the very cross itself, the tomb into Hades, and 00:08:50.029 --> 00:08:51.769 on the third day, the glorious resurrection. 00:08:52.970 --> 00:08:56.970 All these things are part of our celebration 00:08:56.970 --> 00:08:59.250 of who Jesus Christ is. And my brothers and sisters, 00:08:59.409 --> 00:09:02.750 for us, it is not enough just to say, I go to 00:09:02.750 --> 00:09:06.990 church and I believe in Jesus. This feast today 00:09:06.990 --> 00:09:11.129 is inviting us to say, I confess Jesus in the 00:09:11.129 --> 00:09:14.629 key of the Holy Fathers. I confess Jesus in the 00:09:14.629 --> 00:09:18.509 Orthodox way. And it's, I need to do this. I 00:09:18.509 --> 00:09:22.059 need to do this for myself. And for my family 00:09:22.059 --> 00:09:25.340 and for my brothers and sisters in Christ to 00:09:25.340 --> 00:09:28.679 hold to that. And not just as an ideology. This 00:09:28.679 --> 00:09:31.659 is not ideology. This is about truth. This is 00:09:31.659 --> 00:09:35.519 about God. This is about being able to live and 00:09:35.519 --> 00:09:38.519 move in Him. Father Lawrence said to the catechumens 00:09:38.519 --> 00:09:40.460 who were enrolled this morning, he reminded them 00:09:40.460 --> 00:09:42.779 of the prayer. Not just that the light of Jesus 00:09:42.779 --> 00:09:45.299 would shine on them, but the gospel would shine 00:09:45.299 --> 00:09:49.120 brightly within them. This is the promise. Of 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:51.299 this present feast. And it's even more perfect. 00:09:51.340 --> 00:09:53.720 Because it's rounded out in ascension. In the 00:09:53.720 --> 00:09:55.759 feast of ascension. Jesus does all of these things. 00:09:55.860 --> 00:09:58.320 And then at the end. Having spent 40 days on 00:09:58.320 --> 00:10:03.200 the earth. He ascends. He's taken up into the 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:07.000 heavens. And what is taken up is not just a nice 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:11.100 guy. Or a good teacher. Or even God. But it's 00:10:11.100 --> 00:10:15.309 God with the fullness of our human nature. which 00:10:15.309 --> 00:10:18.049 he takes up into the life of God. And he invites 00:10:18.049 --> 00:10:21.929 us all into that very life of God. We're called 00:10:21.929 --> 00:10:26.230 to live in that reality of God made man who then 00:10:26.230 --> 00:10:29.169 makes man like God, who makes man full of the 00:10:29.169 --> 00:10:32.750 divine life. What a glorious thing. May the Lord 00:10:32.750 --> 00:10:36.090 Jesus Christ who ascended, who gave us the teachings 00:10:36.090 --> 00:10:38.730 of the Holy Fathers, may he take us up with himself. 00:10:38.850 --> 00:10:42.110 May we say to him, amen, amen, amen, all the 00:10:42.110 --> 00:10:45.899 days of our life. And may we know him. And may 00:10:45.899 --> 00:10:48.539 that gospel shine brightly in us. Always now 00:10:48.539 --> 00:10:52.399 and ever to ages of ages. Amen. Spraznikum.