important and put here on purpose, put here because
it matters and because we need to hear the legacy
and the meaning and the words of the Holy Fathers
of that council. And there's a lot we can say
about Nicaea I, which is the first ecumenical
council held at Nicaea in the year 325. It was
the first worldwide gathering of bishops in the
history of the church, at least since the apostolic
age. All the bishops, as far as could be possible
to gather together, were invited. to Nicaea on
the shores of the Mediterranean by Emperor Constantine
to gather from the Roman Empire, from the Persian
lands, from the lands of Mesopotamia, from Armenia
and Georgia, from all over, from the west and
east they came. And they gathered there, and
he kind of paid the bill, the hotel bills and
the food bills and the travel expenses. It was
a big deal. Many fathers gathered together for
this council. It was the first. And it also was
the end of the great persecution. You remember,
not only did we have 300 years of intermittent
persecution as Christians from the time of our
Lord until the Roman Empire legalized our Christian
faith, but also the 30 years before Emperor Constantine
legalized our faith, it was the great persecution.
And if you can imagine this, one in three clergy
were murdered, martyred in that time period.
One in three. I think we have four or five here,
and at least one or two of us would have been
killed. And one in ten of the lay people were
killed in that time period. What an experience
for the church. And the fruits of that were gathered
together in Nicaea. You had these bishops, many
of whom had physical wounds. St. Paphnutius had
an eye god gouged out. And as he came into the
hall where the bishops were gathered, the emperor
processed, and he saw Paphnutius, and he bent
down and kissed his eye. And there was another
bishop, I think James of Persia, had been persecuted
by the Persian kings and had his fingers sliced
off and his hands, he had two nubs where his
hands had been. And the bishop bent down, the
emperor bent down and kissed those hands, what
was left of him. We had St. Nicholas gathered
there. Of course, you know that story, Nicholas
and Arius. We had St. Athanasius the Young, a
deacon at the time with his aged bishop, St.
Alexander from Alexandria. We had St. Spyridon
of Trimethus, the shepherd bishop there. We had
St. Macarius of Jerusalem, who would find the
true cross with St. Helen. We had Bishop Ossius
of Cordoba, the advisor to Emperor Constantine.
St. Cecil of Carthage. Eusebius of Caesarea.
It was an incredible gathering of people who'd
suffered. These were men who knew what it was
to be Christian, who had seen their faithful
suffer, and had given all they had to our Lord
Jesus Christ. Everything was on the line for
them. And it was called, of course, to resolve
a number of disputes. The lesser disputes would
be, for example, the calendar question, how to
celebrate Pascha, what does discipline for the
clergy look like, so that we're not a scandal
to the laity. regulations about synod meetings
and how to deal with schismatics, how to receive
schismatics back, how to receive and penance
those who had apostatized from the faith. These
are all really interesting questions. I recommend
reading about it. It's fascinating. But the most
important question of all was the question raised
by the heretic Arius who dared to preach that
Jesus Christ was not divine. He had all these
songs and ditties about what that meant, but
he said there was a time when Jesus was not,
which meant that he was a creature. He was not,
as the other fathers proclaimed, co -worshipped
with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And so this
teaching ate away at the Christian faith all
around the edges of the Christian world, and
many fell into this heresy. And the question
that dominated that council, which is important
for us today, not just then, but today, is, Who
is Jesus? Who is he really? And who do I say
that he is? And this question is important because
our church, the Orthodox Church, makes some really
bold statements and claims about who Jesus Christ
is. In fact, St. Paul himself, kind of reflecting
in this key, says if we do not really believe
that Jesus is risen from the dead and we try
to be Christians, we are of all people most miserable.
And we might say in the key of the fathers, if
we don't wrestle with who Jesus is in terms of
what the church teaches, then we too are miserable
because our faith is incomplete and our faith
is in vain. Just as Arius attacked a key tenant
of the ancient Christian faith, which is our
faith too, so too in our time, our culture eats
away at the full teaching of who Jesus Christ
is. And we find, I think, lots of little... Fake
icons of Jesus. There are a lot of people that
say, and he says this, Lord, Lord. But he says,
they don't know me. And part of why many of us
are Orthodox is that we sought this, who is really
Jesus? Who is he really? And some of the portraits
we find out there are silly. For example, I read
somewhere recently that people were teaching
at a college that Jesus was a fiction. There
was no Jesus. So there is no Jesus. That's really
ludicrous that no one who's serious thinks that.
But there's examples of Jesus' image. Like he
exists, but he's just a really nice dude. You
find that sometimes. Or he exists, but he's a
good teacher. And then his teachings were co
-opted by this kind of scheming. Paul of Tarsus,
who changed the faith and made it different.
You find examples. He's kind of like the Buddha.
He's a wise guy with wonderful teachings that
you might incorporate into your life. He's a
super nice guy, but he doesn't demand anything
of me, and he can have this wonderful preaching
of of christianity but i can pick and choose
what i want and maybe this is really common this
idea of relativism where you know um i have my
truth you have your truth uh down the street
they have different gods different different
christs even and we can we can all do that together
by contrast though on this day the fathers don't
make room for that the fathers are pretty pretty
firm the fathers and i see a teach that um They
make very bold claims about who Jesus Christ
is. For example, they quote John chapter 1. In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. This Jesus was
with God, and he is God. Jesus Christ is the
very image of the Father. They quote, if you
behold him, Jesus, you behold the Father. This
is the words of Jesus Christ. He is revealed.
himself in the Old Testament. We see that actually
all over this church. Images of Christ in the
Old Covenant popping out. And we also believe
in the fullness of time. God himself broke through
all of this and entered our world and became
man. Last night I was at vigil with Father Kirill
Sokolov in San Francisco and he made a wonderful
short point which is worth considering. He said,
so many religions Teach that there is a divinity
or a God who comes into the world for a period
of time, who does something. He might look as
a man or act as a man or be a hero and do something
wonderful. But that's not our faith at all. In
our faith, the God that we worship, the God we're
proclaiming, that we're singing about here, that
we're celebrating his ascension of on this day,
this God is not like those gods. This God is
one who is eternal. one with the Holy Father
and the Spirit, who enters the world and truly
is born in the womb of the Virgin Mary and experiences
childbirth, who experiences childhood, who experiences
love for his mother, who had love for his foster
father, who had siblings, who had all these cousins
and relatives, and he knew the love of his nation.
He knew the frustrations of his nation. He knew
what it was like to live with Pharisees and Sadducees
and zealots and crazy people and wonderful people
and everything in between. He understood all
of this. He experienced it all, including betrayal,
misunderstanding, denial, spitting, scourging,
the very cross itself, the tomb into Hades, and
on the third day, the glorious resurrection.
All these things are part of our celebration
of who Jesus Christ is. And my brothers and sisters,
for us, it is not enough just to say, I go to
church and I believe in Jesus. This feast today
is inviting us to say, I confess Jesus in the
key of the Holy Fathers. I confess Jesus in the
Orthodox way. And it's, I need to do this. I
need to do this for myself. And for my family
and for my brothers and sisters in Christ to
hold to that. And not just as an ideology. This
is not ideology. This is about truth. This is
about God. This is about being able to live and
move in Him. Father Lawrence said to the catechumens
who were enrolled this morning, he reminded them
of the prayer. Not just that the light of Jesus
would shine on them, but the gospel would shine
brightly within them. This is the promise. Of
this present feast. And it's even more perfect.
Because it's rounded out in ascension. In the
feast of ascension. Jesus does all of these things.
And then at the end. Having spent 40 days on
the earth. He ascends. He's taken up into the
heavens. And what is taken up is not just a nice
guy. Or a good teacher. Or even God. But it's
God with the fullness of our human nature. which
he takes up into the life of God. And he invites
us all into that very life of God. We're called
to live in that reality of God made man who then
makes man like God, who makes man full of the
divine life. What a glorious thing. May the Lord
Jesus Christ who ascended, who gave us the teachings
of the Holy Fathers, may he take us up with himself.
May we say to him, amen, amen, amen, all the
days of our life. And may we know him. And may
that gospel shine brightly in us. Always now
and ever to ages of ages. Amen. Spraznikum.