Sunday after the Ascension 2023

and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. This is

the Sunday after Ascension, the Sunday before

Pentecost. It's a Sunday called the Sunday dedicated

to the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council.

convened by Emperor St. Constantine, depicted

back there on the wall, in the year 325. And

you may say, 325, that's a long time ago. What

does that have to do with me at all? But if you

recite the creed, and it's in our prayer book

for morning prayers every day, then you have

something to do with that council. I'm going

to let you read the little article that's in

the weekly bulletin, or something about that.

this feast day is explained, rather than go into

it today. Instead, I want to speak about the

words of the gospel, particular words about knowing.

This is John chapter 17. The last time you heard

John 17 · chapter mention

this in church was on the matins of Holy Friday

on Thursday night of Holy Week. It may seem odd.

We're reading a gospel. Before Pentecost, after

Ascension, but the gospel comes from before Jesus

was crucified. The night he was arrested, the

day before he was crucified. And did you hear

those intimate words he spoke to his father in

that prayer? And all his consideration, all his

care is for his beloved disciples, not for himself.

Christ prayed. He said these words, and this

is what I'd like to focus on, just this sentence.

And this is eternal life, that they may know

thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom

thou hast sent, that they may know thee. These

are important words, words of our Savior himself.

We know a lot of things. We know about a lot

of things. But there's a difference, isn't there?

Between knowing and knowing about. There's quite

a few of you I probably don't know much about.

But you come to confession and I know you. And

you know me. You see, there's a difference there.

When Jesus used the word know, he didn't mean

know about God. and this is eternal life, that

they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus

Christ, whom thou hast sent. He didn't mean know

about. It's not about facts. It means about being

intimate with and the experience of someone else.

Knowing God is different than knowing about him.

I've read, for example, a number of books about

World War II, this being Memorial Day weekend.

And I know a lot, I think, about some of the

important people involved in conducting the war.

But I don't know them, and I can't possibly know

them. But with God, the story is very, very different.

He has revealed himself in Christ, the perfect

revelation of the Father. In him, God became

man and dwelt among us. And John says, This young

man writing as an old man, he says, and we beheld

his glory. And that by believing, he says somewhere

else, he says, all that was written, even the

entire world couldn't hold all the books that

would be written. That Jesus is the Christ, the

Son of God. and he says that ye may have, you

believe so that ye may have life in his name.

John's not revealing facts about Jesus' everyday

life, is he? The apostles tell us their experience.

The saints have the same experience. The fathers

of the first ecumenical council, which is why

today we celebrate them, have the same experience

because the church is affirming today Crucial

for us. Who is it that rose from the dead? Who

is it that descended into heaven? Who is it that

we call Lord? Now, we can recite the creed. I

believe in God the Father. And we'll sing it,

and it's a glorious thing. And we might know

a lot about it. Can you speak from experience

in that creed about Jesus? How do we get experience

of Christ in the greatest possible way? It's

essential that we do. One saint says this. He

says, true communication with God, communication

means communion, is not simply thinking about

God. Neither is it a loving disposition toward

God. Instead, it is perfect knowledge of him.

He says these incredible words, surprising. He

says, it's a grasping of God in the sense of

taking possession of him, making him your own.

Having experience of God as living. He says,

if I am unable to love God truly with a love

that is true, then God for me is not a living

God. He is a dead God. What's the first prerequisite?

Here's a checklist that I borrowed from His Eminence

Archbishop Michael of New York. Here's a checklist

on how we make progress in our Christian life

to know Christ. First prerequisite. There's only

four things. This is not going to take all day.

But what I will tell you will take the rest of

your life. And it will bring you joy. And it

will bring you sorrow. And it will bring you

difficulty. There will be opposition to it. But

God is the Lord over all. Isn't that what we

sing? The disciples were glad when they received

the blessing that thou art the Son of God and

the Redeemer of the world, the entire world.

So here's the first prerequisite. To strive to

attain purity of heart. Sincerely strive to desire

purity of heart, pure to know Jesus and his entire

life, to desire Jesus. The heart has to desire

us. The mind is one thing, but to know Christ

with the heart and desire, because what's it

say? What does Jesus himself say? Blessed are

the pure in heart, for they shall see, which

means to know God. And we say in Psalm 50, O

Lord, Cleanse my heart. Make it white as snow.

And we say in the prayer we're going to sing

next week, The O Heavenly King, the Comforter,

the Spirit of Truth, have presence everywhere

and fill us to all things. Cleanse us from every

impurity. What kind of impurity? The impurity

of the heart. Secondly, that prayer to the Holy

Spirit. we must pray to the Holy Spirit to guide

us to know Christ. Since no one comes to the

Lord Jesus Christ except by the Spirit of God,

we have to be careful where we get our guidance.

We're guided not by ourself or the world. We're

not guided in just our mind. Remember, It's an

axiom, I think, of this life. That we are shaped

in our thoughts, in our actions, in our mind,

in our soul, where our treasure is or isn't.

We are shaped by what we allow to shape us and

form us. What choices, what priorities we have.

We're shaped by what we allow. to influence us

and set for us what is the most important thing

and what is not important. Where your treasure

is, there is your heart. St. Paul says this very

concisely in Romans chapter 12. You hear it all

Romans 12 · chapter mention

the time. It's not just religious mumbo -jumbo.

He says, be not conformed to the world. Let the

hearer understand. But be ye transformed by the

renewing of your mind. that ye may prove what

is that is good and acceptable and the perfect

will of God. The life of the Spirit in the church.

This is what we're talking about, the tradition

of the church, which is not a dead thing, no,

but something that challenges us to renew us,

to cleanse us from all impurity. After desiring

purity of heart, After praying to the Holy Spirit,

and we do these things continually, the third

thing I would suggest from Archbishop Michael

is this. Read the scriptures. Read the scriptures.

Saint Tikhon of Zodonsk says that the scriptures

are a love letter from God to us. Yes, some of

the scriptures is story. Some of it is history.

Some of it is... A letter from a lover who is

terribly disappointed in us. But it's a love

letter. It's a revelation of God's plan. His

actions, his mercy, his goodness, his wisdom,

light, his joy, his sorrow. His constant search

for us. Read the scriptures daily. Read the words.

But more important than reading the words, receive

the word. Accept the word. Live by the word.

And by living by them, you heard, we enter in

the words of St. John, into eternal life. Again,

our priorities, what we allow ourselves to be

shaped by, to influence us, has a great impact.

And number four, in receiving this love letter

daily from God. We make the commitment to what?

To love him back. That's all. To love him back.

How do we love somebody? I think we all know

how we love somebody. We can love terrible things,

by the way. We can love horrible and harmful

things. But let love of God, who created us,

be the most important thing. Make a commitment

to love him. Jesus says this. in his final words

to his apostles before he is arrested. He who

has my commandments has them. Who has his commandments.

It's not something external, some rule book that

you have to examine to make sure you're not on

the wrong page or doing the wrong thing. No,

it's the natural universal law. Of morality and

ethics from God. The spiritual life. He who has

my commandments and keeps them. It is he who

loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by

my father. And I will love him. And show myself

to him. Prayer then. Is the response. As we try

to love God. And the way we know him. To speak

with him every day. We have our prayer book to

teach us how to pray. We have our own words.

We have the prayer of the church in which we

pray with one another. Where two or three are

gathered together, Christ says, I am there in

the midst of them. We don't need a password to

log on to that network. He is always listening.

But we're not always listening or tuned to the

right channel. Our attention is fixed elsewhere.

Now that the Lord has ascended into glory at

the right hand of his Father as the risen and

glorified God -man, he is not confined to Jerusalem

or Palestine, but he is everywhere by the Holy

Spirit, present to us. I could add three more

things, but this would take three more pages.

But let me just mention, coming to confession,

we experience... His giving of purity of heart

and the unburdening of our sin. Coming to Holy

Communion, we experience his healing presence

within us. Coming to worship as much as possible.

You know what I tell catechumens? Good catechumens

come to lots of church services. Bad catechumens

don't come to many. Don't be a bad catechumen.

Come to as much as possible. That's enough for

now. May the Lord enlighten our hearts to know

him. Maybe I could say this and leave you with

this thought. You know, there's a saying, it's

not what you know, it's who you know. That's

very true with Jesus Christ. To our Lord be glory

now and ever, to ages of ages. Amen.