Pentecost 2025

My love on this feast day, not an ordinary feast

day, but what none of them are. You heard these

words from the Lord in the Gospel from John,

which we had from our deacon. If anyone thirsts,

let him come to me and drink. That's why we're

here. He that believes on me out of his belly

shall flow rivers of living water. The thirsty,

the thirsty come to drink to Christ. We have

to make sure that we're not drinking soda pop

spiritually and temporarily not thirsty. St.

Basil the Great, who died in the year 379, he

wrote this about the Holy Spirit. Through the

Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise,

our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our

return to the adoption as children, our liberty

to call Christ Lord, our being called ourselves

children of light, our sharing in eternal glory,

and in a word, our being brought into a state

of every blessing, both in this world and the

world to come. If someone asks you what it means

to be saved, I'll write this down in the next

bulletin. So you can have this for yourself.

Because that's what it means. That encompasses

everything. And it's the Holy Spirit that has

done that for us on Pentecost. Pentecost. The

festival, of course, of the giving of the Holy

Spirit. Not the law. That was in the old covenant.

But the Holy Spirit to each one of us. A great

miracle. A great mystery. Perhaps the greatest

of all the church feasts. But that's what I think.

when we celebrate any of them, that they're all

the greatest. Because they're all one. They're

all about Christ and about what he has done for

us. About that, what St. Basil said, what he

has done for us. Let's just briefly remember

and rejoice. Our Lord was conceived by the Holy

Spirit and the Virgin Mary on the Annunciation.

We celebrate that March 25th. And she says, let

it be. to me according to thy word. And the word

took flesh, and the Holy Mary became the new

temple, the new ark, the Theotokos, showing us

what it means to be human. But that wasn't enough

for our salvation, that event. God had more.

At Christmas, after we'd prepared for 40 days,

we celebrate that God is with us. born as a human,

as a child, born in a humble and a meek way,

giving us hope, a vision, an understanding for

our rebirth from this broken life, this sorrowful

life, to the kingdom of God, to life immortal,

God on earth. Literally incredible. And yet...

That was not yet enough for our salvation. God

had more for us. At Theophany, Jesus was baptized

into Jordan, again showing his great humility,

but also identifying himself with us sinners

and going into the water to sanctify it and everything

and to pull us up, to show us that we too can

be children of the Father when we hear that verse.

This is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter

in whom I am well pleased that we become anointed.

But that feast day was not enough. God had more

planned for us. It seems strange to say that's

not enough for our salvation, but it wasn't.

Just over 50 days ago, well, exactly 50 days

ago, we celebrated Pascha. But a little before

that, a few days before that, we commemorated

the Lord's Passion. You saw the cross in the

middle of the church. You saw the icon, the shroud.

We remembered his glory, which the Lord says

is the cross. That's his glory. That's where

our sins were killed. That's where they were

abolished. That's where they were buried. And

his death and his invasion into the realm of

death, into the grave, filling even that up.

And you're going to hear that in the kneeling

prayers in a little bit. God still needed to

do more for us. You'd think that would be enough,

but it wasn't. And he ascended into heaven and

sat at the right hand of the Father. And our

human nature is enthroned there. And we have

confidence when we pray that Christ... is ruling

all things. But that's not enough. God needed

to do more. All those things fill us with wonder.

They are all mysteries. But it's the gift of

the Spirit that changes everything from a past

event to become real for us. to unite us to the

Father through the Son in the grace of the Holy

Spirit so that we can actually authentically

participate and be spiritually enlivened and

connected to the Annunciation, to the birth,

to the baptism, to the cross in which we die

and rise with Christ in our own baptism, and

to the ascension in which we are united to the

Lord. The Feast of Pentecost is not some celebration

of an event which took place centuries ago. It

is the celebration of what must happen and does

happen to us in the church today and now, on

this very day. Because we've all died and risen

with the Messiah King. We've received his Holy

Spirit. We were reminded of that last Sunday

when these people here were baptized. We had

such joy at that. We're at temples of the Spirit

now, like the Theotokos, but in a new and different

way. God's Spirit dwells in us. Can we not? How

would we possibly miss coming together to worship

and to praise God, knowing that, whenever there's

a Sunday liturgy? We are called together and

assembled by the Holy Spirit. We've received

the seal of the gift of the Spirit. Pentecost

has happened to us. And having been given this

gift, in which all those feast days now become

real for us, we can finally live the life of

the resurrection. We can actually say, Jesus

is Lord. Because without the Spirit, we can't

say, oh, we can say it in a hypocritical way,

but to say it and stake our lives on it with

no plan B, we have to have the Holy Spirit. We

are to bear fruit. We can't bear any fruit without

that Spirit. There's no liturgy. There's no priesthood.

There's no baptism. There's no ordination. There's

no love of our neighbor, much less love of our

enemy. We cannot do it without the Holy Spirit.

There's no true comfort for us in our sorrow

and in our fear. There's no healing for us in

our brokenness without the Spirit. There's no

peace. And if it's truly the Spirit, then there's

truth. There's truth, too. And the fruit of all

that... In each one of us, individually and collectively

as a parish. It's what St. Paul enumerates in

Galatians. Notice, he says, the fruit. Singular.

Like a basket of fruit. There may be different

kinds in there, but it's singular. Because we

should have them all. Love. Joy. Peace, patience,

kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

and self -control. These are fruit of the Holy

Spirit. You might be a loving person, but you

have no truth. Then that love is compromised.

You might be a loving person, but you have no

self -control. You're impatient. then it's not

love from God. It's just something natural to

you which won't get you to heaven. Fruit, as

St. Paul calls this, needs tending. The plant

needs tending if it's going to bear fruit. That's

what we do when we leave here. We have our prayers.

We can't be Orthodox Christians without praying

in the morning and the evening. We can't. We're

just sort of skating through. We're not going

to bear fruit without consistent nurturing of

the plant, the heart, the soul. I'll end with

this quote from St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mount.

Lest you think I'm a serious reader of patristics.

No, I got this quote from Father Basil Rhodes.

The grace of the Holy Spirit, which is given

mystically to every Christian when he is baptized,

acts and manifested in proportion to our obedience

to the commandments of God. God's commandments,

not our own, God's commandments. That is, if

a Christian obeys the commandments of the Lord

more, grace acts in that person more. While if

he obeys them less, grace acts within him less,

and there is no fruit. Just as a spark, when

covered in the ashes of the fire, becomes increasingly

manifest as one removes the ashes. And the more

fire would you put, the more the fire burns.

So the grace that has been given to every Christian

through baptism is hidden in the heart. and yet

often covered by passions and sins, and we may

not even know it. However, the more a Christian

acts in obedience with the commandments of Christ,

the more that person is cleansed, and the more

the fire of divine grace flames in the heart,

illumines and deifies the Christian. This is

the greatest of feasts. To our Lord be honor

and glory now and ever to ages of ages.