Pentecost 2020 Fr. Lawrence Margitich

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to God. I welcome

all those who have come today for the baptism,

who are in the church, some are outside the church.

Nevertheless, God's grace is not held back by

walls. God, he said, does not dwell in houses

built by the hand of man. We have asked God to

come. And we have come to this place, and we

presented ourselves to Christ today in order

to be strengthened, to be nourished spiritually,

to gain insight and understanding and discernment

for our life, to gain forgiveness, to receive

his mercy. And we pray over and over again, Lord,

have mercy. Lord, have mercy. And we come for

his love. because he is the light, as he himself

says. Let me say a few words about this feast,

a feast day which is one of hope, and we see

in the fresco the apostles. It doesn't show the

rest of the people there, but a feast of unity

and reconciliation and of understanding and of

good news for those who need it. Before I do,

I want to just make a comment. I think it's true

for all times, maybe more now than ever. We all

need a spiritual father, a guide. Maybe a spiritual

mother. You have Mother Melania. You have Mother

Markela near Fresno. You have Mother Susanna.

We all need that mystical connection with someone

that can guide us. Through the very turbulent

times of our life. Otherwise we're kind of floating

out there. And we get depleted. We run out of

gas very fast. And we don't know how to fill

up again. So find a spiritual guide. I'm not

talking about me. Because I don't know anything.

But find someone who does. And they will help

you. For this feast. I'm going to let you study

for yourself. Why we emulate. the practice in

the Jewish temple of old, which was destroyed,

as you know, in 70 AD by the Romans. All that's

left there is part of the wailing bowl now. On

the Feast of Pentecost, remember, pente means

50, so 50 days after Passover, 50 days after

Pentecost, after Pascha, the temple was decorated,

just more so, but like this. I've been told...

and it may be right or wrong, but this is what

I've been told and seen, that when Moses received

the commandments, the law on Sinai, the desert

itself flowered and fruit sprang forth when that

law was given. So I want to thank those who decorated.

Bless those, bless, O Lord, those who love the

beauty of thy house. We believe. We confess as

Orthodox Christians and hopefully we experience

in some degree the coming of the Holy Spirit

to us. In a relationship with the Holy Spirit,

at least as Psalm 50 says, create in me, to create

is new life. That's why all this greenery. Create

in me a new and clean heart, O God, and renew

a right spirit within me. New creation. That's

what we saw at baptism. And so our life, our

new life, our human life, is itself supposed

to be God's harvest. The fruits of the Spirit

are what? Love, mercy, long -suffering, peace,

kindness, and so forth. Galatians will tell you

all about that. That's God's harvest. We are

God's harvest today. Is this our experience?

Or is this something we read about? It's extremely

significant that on the day of Pentecost, the

Holy Spirit should take the form of fiery tongues,

because the tongue is the organ of speech. And

what was given in that fiery gift on Pentecost

to the disciples and the apostles and those people

gathered there was the gift to speak in the language

of those around them. Not for passing on information.

Not for arguing people into the faith, but to

give something from God. That's what our Savior

did. And all he did, all he did is so that we

can become living temples too, to have that spirit

within us. And Saint Peter spoke, if you continue

to read Acts 2, he spoke with such boldness and

eloquence and conviction. We heard the gospel.

Jesus is speaking and they're saying, he's from

Galilee. He's a peasant. Uneducated. What? He's

a rube. He's a peasant. He's a know -nothing.

Is there a prophet from Galilee? They didn't

even give him a chance. And they said the same

thing about the apostles. These men are speaking

and they're speaking in different languages.

Aren't they from Galilee? What could they possibly

know? They're just hillbillies. The truth can

come from anywhere. Be prepared for that. Do

you recall when Peter spoke, how the people responded?

They were said, they said, cut to the heart.

They said, what shall we do? What did Peter's

boldness, what did it consist of? So we understand,

maybe. Why people receive that message, those

fiery words. What was it that he said was so

much conviction and assurance to give hope and

understanding, to give new life? It wasn't so

much the fact of the teaching, but that what

he said was itself a word of grace. Think of

how we speak. From where do the words and feelings

arise in us? with St. Peter and the apostles

on that day, and the saints and the martyrs and

the confessors, the men and women, our forebears

in the faith, those who we know and those who

we have known and we loved and admired in our

church. Their words were projections of Jesus

Christ, the Word himself, an extension of the

action of the Word of God in the Holy Spirit,

is what Elder Emilio Noce says. This is why their

message, their word, that was the word of God,

had so much power. Because it was God himself,

God the word, the one who loves mankind, speaking

in and through them. For this reason, the apostles

were conscious of being witnesses to the word,

as they were told to be. They sensed that they

themselves were the mouth of the word of God

and of his grace. And this grace, this power,

which was the word himself, is the energy of

God, the energy of the Holy Spirit, says Elder

Emilianos. And signs and wonders followed, of

course. And the people saw it. They felt it.

They heard these signs and wonders. It was an

authentic experience of God. And there were in

Jerusalem that day. Parthians, Medes, Elamites,

Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, Pontius,

Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Romans,

Jews and non -Jews, Cretans and Arabs. And they

were all touched. They were gathered together,

all peoples from all nations, all colors. They

were gathered together in the unity of the Holy

Spirit. And they heard the word because it came

from God himself through those men. They were

purified and they spoke with God's own words.

But we Christians now, more often than not, defile

our mouths and defile the ears of others. And

people look upon us and listen. And they're confused

about... the connection we say we have with Christ

and the Father and the Spirit. Because our words

are like noisy gongs and clanging cymbals and

gnashing of teeth. And we know where there's

the gnashing of teeth, Christ is not there. Elder

Emiliano says, our deadness must be leavened,

made alive. with the divine life of the Spirit.

I'm taking a moment to say this because this

is how a Christian is to speak. And the speaking

was the first gift of Pentecost. But there are

two gifts. And much less attention is given to

the second gift of Pentecost. Mostly we remember

the first gift, the gift of tongues. Others may

hear the teaching, the gospel in their language.

But the second gift is maybe now more crucial

than ever. The first gift is meaningless without

the second gift. I speak of the gift of hearing.

We listen, said Father George Bennington in a

sermon on this day, but we don't hear. Let us

do everything we can to allow the word, the wisdom,

of God to speak to us. When we pray, slow down.

Let the words settle in your heart. Maybe God

is trying to tell us something at that moment,

but we are in a monologue and we don't slow down

enough to actually hear him. When we hear the

gospel, let's not read it as some kind of religious

literature. It sounds pious. Let us be surprised

and convicted. God's speaking to us. Let us hear

it. When we read the prophets, when we read the

Psalms, when we speak to our spiritual father,

when we come before, especially, before the icon

of Christ on the cross, dead, most eloquent,

that's when we can hear from God everything he

has to say. There it is. Absolute love. May we

allow the word by the power of the Spirit to

burn in our hearts, to purge our conscience,

to transfigure our life, our words, to nourish

our faith, to weave us into the body of Christ.

Let me leave you with the reading from last night,

which has been on my mind all night. The short

selection from the prophet Ezekiel. Chapter 30.

Ezekiel 30 · chapter mention

Six, is it? A word of hope, a word of challenge,

and a word of comfort from God. The Lord said

to the prophet Ezekiel, and the prophet Ezekiel

said, thus speaks the Lord, I will take you from

among the nations. I will gather you out of all

countries and bring you into your own land. Then

I will sprinkle clean water on you. and you shall

be clean. We rejoice today seeing that. I will

cleanse you from all your filthiness, from your

idols. I will give you a new heart and put a

new spirit within you. I will take the heart

of stone out of your flesh, give you a heart

of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and

cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will

keep my judgments and do them. Then you shall

dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers.

That's the church. You shall be my people and

I shall be your God. These words come true today

and came true in Pentecost. May they be true

for us and our neighbor and the stranger. The

icon of the hospitality of Abraham is set out

against the icon of Pentecost. You see Abraham

and Sarah. with the three angels. This is philoxenia.

You've heard of Philadelphia, love of the brother.

This is love of the stranger. That's today.