Pentecost 2023

Joyous Feast Day. My greetings to all of you

brothers and sisters on this important day. How

is it important? Imagine you have a beautiful

Rolls Royce. There's no oil, there's no gas,

and the battery's dead. Not much good, is it?

Remember, when Jesus rose from the dead, the

apostles hid themselves in that upper room because

they were still afraid. But on the day of Pentecost,

this is a feast they named after a number, 50

days after that Paschal event, after the resurrection,

the disciples became fearless, brave, and full

of faithfulness. They were sanctified. They spoke

in other languages. They weren't just babbling

on the ground, flailing away. They spoke in languages

people could understand. So Pentecost is the

day in which the resurrected life, we begin to

be equipped to live it, to proclaim it, and to

be transformed by it. There's gas, there's oil,

and the battery works. And now you have an amazing

vehicle. We heard this hymn last night. It's

one of my favorite hymns. It's important to me.

And it's important that we don't hear it just

as some kind of religious sounding language.

But we don't know what it means. We sang this.

We celebrate Pentecost. And the coming of the

Spirit. And the time. appointed for the promise

and the fulfillment of hope. What is this appointed

of the promise, this time appointed? What is

this fulfillment of hope? Do you feel that? Do

you sense there's something profound there? Of

course, the time appointed for the promise and

the fulfillment of hope has to do with those

words of Jesus being made real in us. He who

believes in me, out of his belly, his very essence,

the depths of his heart and soul, shall flow

rivers of living water that is the Holy Spirit.

Let me take you back to the celebration of Pentecost

in Jerusalem and what it was about. It was important

for the Jews. They gathered in massive numbers

for this festival. If you think back to the book

of Exodus, Moses goes to the mountain, and there

on the mountain, in the cloud of the Holy Spirit,

he receives, he is given by God, the law. Banish

from your mind this idea of Charlton Heston coming

down the mountain. I mean, for us old -timers,

we probably saw the movie. Some of you probably

haven't. Coming down from the mountain with these

tablets, you know, like on one side, like there's

five commandments. On the other side, there's

five more commandments. And you've got the Ten

Commandments, and you're good to go. But then,

of course, he has to break one because he's so

angry. There were two, and they were copies,

by the way, but that's another story. It wasn't

just ten. It was the whole covenant. It was God

saying, I took you out of the slavery of Egypt.

I made you free. I brought you here and fed you

with manna. You drank water from a rock. You

are a people now that were before not a people.

You were nobody. And I established a covenant

with you. And the terms of the covenant are this.

Yes, the Ten Commandments are part of that, but

it's the whole teaching of the Torah, the five

books. But this covenant tells the people, if

I'm your God, says the God Most High, then you

keep these terms. Keep away from sexual immorality.

Do not practice child sacrifice. Do not practice

cannibalism. Take care of the land and community

life and so on. There's so many of these rules.

But think. All these rules are somehow external

to the people. They're outside of them. They're

not a way to connect to God. They're a way to

follow commandments. which is good and was necessary

for the purification of those people. The fulfillment

of the hope, the time anticipated as that hymn

says that we sang last night, is that it's not

just Moses receiving a law, but all of the people

in the upper room calling upon God now receive.

in their hearts, in the form of tongues of fire.

The Holy Spirit himself and the heart becomes

the temple of God. God is no longer distant.

God is no longer separate. The people are sanctified.

They're united. They're deified. What does the

Holy Spirit do? Who is he? Not some kind of,

I don't know, impersonal power, but he's a person.

Listen to what St. Gregory the theologian says.

He is invisible. He is eternal, incomprehensible,

unchangeable, without quality, without quantity,

without form, impalpable, self -moving, eternally

moving, with free will, self -powerful, all -powerful.

Life and life giver, light and light giver, absolute

good, the spring of goodness, the right, the

princely spirit, the governing spirit, the Lord,

the sender, the separator, builder of his own

temple. That's you and me. Leading, working as

he wills, distributing his own gifts, the spirit

of adoption, which we become children of God.

The spirit of truth, of wisdom, the spirit of

understanding, the spirit of knowledge, of godliness,

of counsel, and of fear. By whom the Father is

known and by whom the Son is glorified, by whom

alone he is known, one class, one service, worship,

power, perfection, sanctification. And then St.

Gregory says, well, why make a long sermon of

it? All that the Father has? The Son has, except

being unbegotten. All that the Son has, the Spirit

has, except proceeding from the Father. And so,

today, we begin a new path, a renewal for ourselves

by God. This month is a month of sanctification.

It's a month of holiness. It's a month of glory

of the Church. We begin with Pentecost. And then

next week, All Saints. And the week after that,

All Saints of America and whatever land. And

then after that, St. John of Shanghai and San

Francisco. St. Columba of Iona. St. John the

Baptist. St. Peter and Paul. It's a torrent of

holiness poured out for our inspiration because

you and I, brothers and sisters, If we receive

the gift of the Spirit in the same way that the

people of Israel received the gift of the law

of God. In other words, to abide and live by

the Spirit and the freedom of the Spirit and

the holiness and the joy of the Spirit. Look

in your handouts today. There's a little article

about joy, Christian joy. Christians need to

be joyful because of what they have received,

the resurrection and the Holy Spirit. Saint Philaret

of Moscow, a 19th century saint, the Metropolitan,

said, what should we experience when we have

the Holy Spirit? He says, the Holy Spirit is

immaterial fire that acts in two ways, light

and warmth. The light of faith and faithfulness,

the warmth of love. Our task this month, if this

is truly sanctification month, holiness month,

if these words aren't just religious sounding

and empty, then our task this month is to acquire

the gifts of the Spirit since we have the gift

of the Spirit within us. And what are those things?

Who can quote Galatians chapter 5 for me? Love,

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

joy, peace. These are gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Long -suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, and self -control. Spend time. asking

the Holy Spirit, O Heavenly King, come and abide

in us, to grant you the path of those gifts.

Spend one week on one of those gifts. You've

got nine weeks ahead, and then start over. Even

Benjamin Franklin knew to do that, and he was

no Orthodox Christian. Brothers and sisters,

without this feast day and our celebration of

this feast day and our acquisition of the meaning

of this feast day, then Pascha remains just a

celebration in the middle of the night and we

have some great food and we're exhausted. And

the hymns are wonderful, but what's it all mean?

Today is what it all means. Acquire love, joy,

peace, long -suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness. Self -control. Be awakened. And let

the Spirit take up residence in your heart so

that you are indeed the temple of the living

God. Amen.