Sunday of the Paralytic 2020 Fr. Lawrence Margitich

Christ is risen. In the name of the Father, and

of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. You heard,

you heard the epistle, the healing of the paralyzed

Aeneas, the raising of Tabitha. You heard the

gospel. This account describes an isolation of

38 years. brought on by paralysis this man begging

probably begging all those decades the only life

he knows begging to survive alone as he says

i have no man no one to help jesus says do you

want to be made whole do you want to want to

be made well saved the same word I suppose when

the only life you know has been 38 years, three

decades plus of begging, I suppose it's obvious

why Jesus would say that. Because Jesus always

says the thing that goes straight to the heart

of the matter. The man heard his voice. The man's

paralysis, his atrophy. Of his muscles. No muscles

up to 38 years. Was healed. And he got up. And

not only did he get up. But he took his bed.

Which for the Jewish authorities. And their interpretation.

Well constituted work. So rather than. Giving

glory. And to God. For this miracle. The authorities.

found reason to persecute Jesus. 38 years of

isolation is also going to atrophy the soul.

Last year on this Sunday, this is the fourth

Sunday of Pascha. Still Pascha time. And we always

read this gospel about the paralyzed man, the

sheep. and we have an incredibly beautiful fresco

on the south side of the arch at the back of

this event. On this Sunday last year, Father

John Shattuck preached a sermon. And he began

with a wonderful quote by St. Cyprian of Carthage.

St. Cyprian was martyred September 14th in the

year 258. St. Cyprian said this, and this is

what Father John began his sermon with last year.

Each person falls in isolation, but we are saved

in the community of the church. Each person falls

in isolation. You can't be a Christian by yourself,

but we are saved in the community of the church.

Of course, maybe he was prophesying, but he couldn't

have known that a year later, how relevant those

words would be for us. Here we are, waiting weeks,

months, okay, not 38 years like the paralytic,

but nevertheless, unprecedented times, difficult,

many people dying, all kinds of people trying

to figure out who's to blame, because that's

what we do, right, when we're powerless. We want

to know who's to blame. Unprecedented times.

The Lord knows the economic struggles that many

are having. Isolation. No. Not for us in the

church. No. Separated. Maybe. Yes. But not isolated.

We should not be isolated. Even hermits are not

isolated. There at the cave on the hillside of

Corulia there in the mountain Athos. They're

not isolated. Because not only are they praying

for the world and for the people that ask them

to pray, but we pray too. We overcome every obstacle

in space and time through prayer. By the power

of the Spirit. The unity of the Spirit, says

St. Paul, in the bond of peace. Christ is that

peace. Christ is that unity. He is our bond.

Think, brothers and sisters, of the incredible

miracle you have been given in being a Christian

and knowing Christ. Before Christ, you were powerless

like this man. You are isolated spiritually from

God. You are in the grip of death and sin and

powerless against those things. All the world

now is in turmoil about its powerlessness to

do something about our situation. And that's

all I'm going to say about our situation because

you hear about it every single day. But we, as

Christians, have gone through a miraculous transformation.

How? In this gospel, by the way, and all the

gospels, the next three, next week Samaritan

woman, next week the blind man, are dedicated

and specifically targeted to the newly baptized,

which we would have now if we had a normal year.

But fine. We were baptized too. And it's good

for them to hear this ahead of time because next

year they're going to know what they're in for.

These Gospels have to do with baptism, have to

do with change, have to do with transformation,

have to do with rising up from their bed by the

power of Christ and then picking up that bed,

doing something, no longer paralyzed by fear

of death or sin, no longer isolated because they

are spiritually united to God, to the angels

and the most holy. theotokos, to their patron

saint, and to each of us. The miracle, think

of the great change of life, the miracle of repentance,

which is something that God initiates in a person.

We don't come to it naturally. What we come to

naturally since the fall in the Garden of Eden

is to turn away from God in shame and in fear.

Repentance is the gift of the Holy Spirit beginning

of ember in the heart. Then there's the forgiveness

of sins when we become accountable to God, to

the church, to one another. Grievous sins, wounds,

shameful things washed away in the prayer of

absolution and in the... Water and the fire of

baptism. St. John baptized with water. Forgiveness.

Jesus Christ said, I come to baptize with fire.

That is the Holy Spirit. That is God's love.

That is God's mercy. His absolution. His divine

energy and grace. Get up and walk. Come out of

the font. And then there's the anointing of the

Holy Spirit. To make you and me, son, a daughter

of the Father. Christ becomes, dare we say, but

the saints say, Christ becomes our brother. And

the gift of nourishment, the body and blood of

Christ. So we can share in the resurrection now.

This is all what's given to us. Let none of us

bewail, bemoan, and wail our situation. Yes,

I'm not going to stand in judgment or criticize

those who are suffering. God knows their situation.

It's not for me to categorize it in any way.

But if we have been given all these things that

I said, and this gospel today points to this

great miracle of change, The resistance that

will come against us as Jesus experiences and

that man experienced right away, expect it. But

if we've been given this miraculous life, let

us not forget that we are then like the apostles.

We're the apostles. We're the disciples. We've

had this miracle. We are no longer paralyzed

and fearful of death. My beloved dean of the

Pacific Central Deanery, the mighty Archpriest

Basil, said this in a sermon about these miracles.

Belief in miracles is fundamental to our Christian

faith. What miracles, you might ask? Well, the

miracle of creation, the parting of the Red Sea,

the bush that burned that was not consumed. How

about the miracle of God taking flesh and dwelling

among us? The miracle of all miracles. The raising

of Lazarus. The resurrection of Christ from the

dead. The ascension into heaven. Don't we believe

all these things? We do. Natural laws do not

have the claim to be the only laws. Nor are they

threatened with being overturned. by the appearance

of other laws, says St. Nectarius. And St. Augustine

says miracles are not contrary to nature, but

only contrary to what we know about nature. And

don't what we know change? Doesn't it change

every day? The paralytic waited for God's miracle.

Patiently? Maybe. Maybe he was used to being

there. But he had faith at the end, and he had

hope, and that should inspire us. God loves us

more than we love ourselves. He wants to heal

us beginning here, which is why Christ asked

that question. He could have just said, get up

and walk, but he needed that man to know that

a change is coming on the inside first. God's

timing for each one of us is always perfect.

Wait on God. He wants what's best for us, you

and me, for our lives, for our eternal life.

I guess, and this is Father Basil's final word,

the miracle of the raising of the paralytic today

was not the most important miracle described

in the gospel today. It was the encounter with

Christ. Praise ye God and his saints. Praise

him in the firmament of his power. Praise him

for his mighty acts. Praise him according to

the multitude of his greatness. Christ is risen.