Sunday after Ascension, Preparing for Pentecost

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.