The Reading from the Acts of the Apostles. (2:1-11) and from the Holy Gospel according to St. John. (7:37-52; 8:12)
Today we have the privilege to celebrate a joyous and glorious feast. This is the culmination of Pascha, the conclusion of these holy fifty days with a generous gift from the Lord. We began these days with the celebration of life through Our Lord Jesus Christ’s holy resurrection, through his conquering of sin and death itself. And now we complete this festal season with something new and quite extraordinary. With the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Some will wonder, why is this so important? Wasn’t the Holy Spirit moving and working and inspiring people throughout the scriptures? Absolutely. That is true. Yet our God willed that we should come into a new relationship with Him through the Lord Holy Spirit. That somehow the Holy Spirit would be given to us in a new and wondrous way. That it should become a part of us. That we should not only be created in the image and likeness of God but that we should also become temples of the living God. In fact we might even say that there will never again be another temple, at least not as we properly understand that word “temple.” We know for instance that the temple in Jerusalem will be built again before the end times, but that is neither here nor there for us as Christians. The temple built of stone is nothing. It is an empty and hollow shell. It will be less than worthless to the people of God. It will not be the place where God dwells or where the people meet God. Rather, those who belong to Christ are themselves holy temples and dwelling places for the Lord almighty.
Many of you know that on Saturday evenings we celebrate Great Vespers. What some of you may not know is that Great Vespers is actually the start of the liturgical day in the Orthodox Church. As we see in the pages of Holy Scripture, the day begins on the previous evening and concludes in the morning. On the day of a great feast this vespers is accompanied by Old Testament readings to help us prepare for the feast. Last night one of the readings we heard was this one from the Prophecy of Ezekiel (36:24-28).
“Thus saith the Lord: I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land; and I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols, and I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new Spirit will I give you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them. And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be My people, and I will be your God.”
“You shall be my people, and I will be your God.” Wow. What a powerful statement, but more than this it is a new reality for us. We are not just people, we are God’s people. And He is not just some god, He is in fact our God. He is the one with whom we have a personal, familial and intimate relationship. He who once dwelt in the temple in Jerusalem, has chosen, by His grace, to dwell within those who are baptized and chrismated, in those who love His Son and His commandments. But with God all gifts are given with an expectation. The gift is meant to be used properly. The gift requires something of us. “To whom much has been given, much is expected.”
St. Gregory the great of Rome writes, “‘And my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him’ [John 14.23]. My friends, consider the greatness of this solemn feast that commemorates God’s coming as a guest into our hearts! If some rich and influential friend were to come to your home, you would promptly put it all in order for fear something there might offend your friend’s eyes when he came in. Let all of us then who are preparing our inner homes for God cleanse them of anything our wrongdoing has brought into them.” + St. Gregory Dialogos, on Pentecost
St. Gregory speaks of welcoming the Holy Spirit of God into your hearts as you would welcome your beloved friend or an esteemed guest into your own home. He tells us to work to tidy up that space we call our home. It should be spotless and neat. It should be a place where God would like to lay His head. One day I flew somewhere and landed late. I went straight to my hotel which I had booked on one of the discount sites. After I grabbed my key I went to my room and one thing after another was not right or was out of order. The lamp shade was partially warped and melted. The dresser was broken. Everything looked unkempt. Although I was exhausted I could not, my body would not let me relax and lay my head down. I kept thinking to myself. If everything here is in such bad shape, imagine how little care was taken to clean this place. I couldn’t rest. But my beloved, the Lord the comforter, the Holy Spirit is the same with us. He does not rest when He sees that our soul is disordered and filthy with sins. He wants to rest there within us, but what kind of a space have we made for Him? Have we prepared ourselves for Him at all?
How do we prepare a place for the Lord? Through our heartfelt repentance and confession. Through our desire to run away from sin and towards the good. Through our struggle to love God and our neighbor. Through our life of obedience to the commandments and teachings of Christ.
Let’s hear these words from St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, “The grace of the Holy Spirit which is given mystically to every Christian when he is baptized acts and is manifested in proportion to our obedience to the commandments of the Lord. That is, if a Christian obeys the commandments of the Lord more, grace acts with him more, while if he obeys them less, grace acts within him less. Just as a spark, when covered in the ashes of fire becomes increasingly manifest as one removes the ashes, and the more fire wood you put the more the fire burns, so the grace that has been given to every Christian through Holy Baptism is hidden in the heart and covered up by the passions and sins, and the more a man acts in accordance with the commandments of Christ, the more he is cleansed of the passions and the more the fire of Divine grace lights in his heart, illumines and deifies him.” + St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, Christian Morality
This is our calling, our purpose and our potential through the Holy Spirit. Glory be to God forever AMEN.
Source: Sermons