St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Church: sermons

Sermons

HOLY PENTECOST

We are today celebrating the Feast of the Holy Trinity and tomorrow according to the Orthodox tradition is the day of the Holy Spirit. In the life of the Church we are in an interesting period since our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has fulfilled his work on earth and has ascended to the Father. We, his followers, have been instructed to look patiently for his reappearing in glory on the clouds of heaven. During this period of waiting he has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit communally and individually to perform a number of tasks or services for the Church. Perhaps the most important of these is to bind us together in the words of the prayer:

O Christ, who didst bind thine Apostles in a union of love,
Unite us likewise, thy sinful but trusting servants and bind us firmly to thee.
Give us strength to fulfil thy commandments and to love one another without pretence
Through the prayers of thy most pure Mother and of all the Saints. Amen.

This unity of the Church, which Christ so ardently prays for in St John's Gospel with the words "that they may be perfectly one even as we (i.e. the Father and the Son) are one" is a unity not a uniformity. The latter concept does not seem to be a divine attribute but rather a misguided attempt by man (in our generation signified by the Brussels bureaucrats) to simplify and regularise the world. On the day of Pentecost there is a clear balance between unity and diversity as the multitude of widely differing ethnic groups, a fact which is emphasised by St Luke's list of nationalities, hears the word of God speaking to each one of them by transcending the barriers of language and thus reversing the curse of Babel. This has much to say to us about the acceptance of other traditions and other religions and we will need to stretch our minds and open our hearts to break out of the straightjacket ways of thinking that some branches of the Orthodox Church would like to impose on us. We are very different in our cultures, traditions, personalities and ways of thinking but God speaks clearly and unmistakably to all. Recently, I have been reading William Dalrymple's book 'From the Holy Mountain'. In Syria he reaches the convent of Seidnaya, where the first icon painted by St Luke of the Mother of God is kept. Many infertile women come to the monastery to pray to become pregnant and in fact this gift is freely bestowed according to all accounts. But it is not this miracle that astonishes the author but rather the fact that more than half of the congregation in the Church are Muslims who pray regularly before the icon, bring gifts and receive healing. "Truly God shows no partiality", to quote the words of St Peter in the Acts of the Apostles.

Bound up inextricably with this unity of which Christ speaks is the notion of truth. We are told that the Spirit is given to the Church to lead us into all truth and unity and truth are inseparable. This truth, as Christ says, sets us free because it is all-inclusive. It accepts the experience of others as equally valid and beautiful in its own individuality. This reminds me of the experience of the late Nicholas Zernov in Oxford, who on his arrival in Britain refused to accept the other churches because they had dogmatically erred. But when he saw how they prayed he was won over to them and spent the rest of his life making friends amongst them everywhere he travelled. In a real sense the truth set him free. Unfortunately, we in the Church, being human, have been frequently guilty of adopting an attitude of self-righteousness and complacency in religious affairs, which only serves to reduce our faith to partisan rivalry, to factionalism and division. Putting God in a kind of box is the exact opposite of encountering him in a new and personal way.

And that brings me to the third point about the Holy Spirit. In all the texts appointed for this Feast from both the Old and New Testaments there is an emphasis on the Holy Spirit satisfying Israel's and the Church's thirst. St John writes in today's Gospel, "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water'. Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive." This scripture being referred to is from the prophet Isaiah and speaks about God watering us like parched ground with his spirit. And this process goes on continually in each of us and as a community. As we receive we empty ourselves for the benefit of the Church and those yet to come in order to draw others to God and to establish a unity amongst us.

Today we are celebrating the gift to us which lies at the very centre of our being, which causes us to cry out to God, "Abba, Father". Elsewhere it is described as the seal of God's promise. That promise is to bring to completion the work which was started in baptism, and to guide and direct us until the return of our Lord. Let us give thanks for this gift, "the treasury of blessings and giver of life" and pray that He may enter more deeply into us the Church, sinful but trusting servants. Amen.