Sermon
Easter 2007
In
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void and
darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was moving over
the waters. And God said, “Let there be
light.” I imagine that before the
creation of the world, the darkness spoken of in the first chapter of Genesis
was a lot like the darkness in the church right now. In the altar, one single light burns, unseen
at the moment by the members of our church.
It is the light of the uncreated Godhead, the uncreated Light. In a moment, that light will enter the
church, and all the creation will see it.
I imagine that when God created light, and separated the light from the
darkness, it looked something like the light from my candle that will shortly
cut through the darkness of the church.
When God created Light, it started a chain of events that culminated in
a beautiful world, full of oceans and seas, heavens and earth, plants and trees,
fish and animals, and finally the crowning glory of the Creation, the human
being, created in the image and likeness of God. The first human beings beheld the uncreated
Light of God and delighted in it. There
was a perfect union between the Light and the world.
When
sin entered the world, the relationship became compromised. No longer did the world delight in the
uncreated Light. And no longer was the
world perfect. This new relationship
saddened God as much as it saddened humanity.
And so God made the uncreated Light into a human being, our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. We will read during
the Liturgy in a little while from the Gospel of John, that Christ is the light
that shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overtake it. That Christ is the true Light which give
light to every person coming into the world.
And to as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become
children of God, to those who believe in His name.
Jesus
Christ died on the cross, the uncreated Light was put to death, but not
extinguished. For in the grave, He went
down the Hades and broke down its doors and bars, and trampled upon the power
of the devil. And on the third day, He
rose from the tomb in which He was buried, the uncreated Light, the Lord Jesus Christ,
conquered death and the power of the devil, and opened a path for all back to
the first relationship mankind enjoyed with God.
This
relationship will not be enjoyed while on earth, for the earth is a fallen
world. But for those who receive the
Light in this life, who delight in beholding the things of God, there is a
reward—the ability to gaze upon the Uncreated Light.
Orthodox
theologians have called Christ the second Adam, and say that through His
Resurrection, He re-created the world.
Every year at Easter, Orthodox tradition calls for us to re-enact the
story of the Creation of the World, as we re-enact the story of the Recreation
of the world, the Resurrection. And so
the church takes us back to the beginning of the world—darkness and void in the
church, with the Spirit of God moving over the face of the darkness, with the
Uncreated Light coming out again into the world, and affording each of us a
chance to start over again, for each of us to be Re-Created by recommitting
ourselves to our faith, to fighting a good fight, to finishing the race, to
keeping the faith. We will hear in the
hymns of this evening, let everything begin anew in the Resurrection. The
church in her wisdom, you see, does not mark tonight’s festivities as an
ending, but rather as a new beginning—hence the re-enacting of the creation of
the world, and during the Liturgy the reading of the beginning of the Gospel of
John, rather than the end of it. In a
few moments, you will again receive the Light of Christ with the candle which
you are holding. And you will have two
choices as you receive it. You can
receive it as part of a ritual we Orthodox do each Easter, you can sing Christ
is Risen a few times and life can be the same tomorrow and the next day. The Light will not bring you joy. Or you can take the light of the candle, and
with it light the candle of your heart and soul and you can truly make this
evening a new beginning. You can use
tonight as an opportunity to start your spiritual journey with renewed joy,
with renewed purpose, with renewed resolve.
If you haven’t been in the habit of praying to God daily, tonight is the
perfect opportunity to start anew. If
you don’t go to church often, you can begin by going tonight and coming back
again next week. If you don’t receive
Communion often, you can receive tonight and plan to receive again next
Sunday. If you’ve got some bad habits
that keep you from God, tonight is a good starting point in changing them. And if you’ve got something that weighs down
your soul, tonight is a good opportunity to make a promise to God that you’ll
bring those things to Him in the sacrament of confession, so that you can go
through life without the weight of past failures slowing you down.
I
would like to close this season of the Great and Holy Lent by praying the
prayer of the first hour: Christ, the
true Light who enlightens and sanctifies every person coming into the world,
let the light of Your countenance shine also upon us that we may behold your
ineffable glory. Direct our steps in the
way of Your commandments, through the intercessions of the Holy Theotokos and
all of Your saints.
Come
receive the Light, from the Uncreated Light, and glorify Christ who is risen
from the dead.
Easter
2007
Dear
Tina, Daniela and Stephanie,
I
want to thank each of you for being part of my life and my ministry in
Christos
Anesti! Christ is Risen!
With
profound gratitude and love,
+Fr.
Stavros N. Akrotirianakis