Sermon
Pascha 2008
by Fr.
Stavros Akrotirianakis
I
will love You Lord, my strength. The
Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer.
These words from Psalm 18 would serve as a great answer to the question,
what place does God hold in your life, especially if
they were true. If this answer were true
for each and every single member of the human race, there wouldn’t be much
despair in the world, or violence, or hunger, or pettiness. Perhaps this statement seems irrelevant, or
outdated to be important in contemporary times.
I prayed a couple of hours ago for an inspiring verse of scripture to
center my Paschal sermon around, and this is what God brought into my mind and
heart.
At
this moment we stand in darkness. There
are no conversations at this moment, no electronic gadgets in use, no awards on
display, no fancy cars in church tonight. The church takes us back to the basic
humanity—the Light of Christ. The human
being is conceived in a miraculous moment when God unites human matter to
create new life. And when the human
being dies, he goes back to His creator, and stands in His presence, and is
told that He will either spend eternity around the Light of Christ, or will be
doomed to spend eternity in darkness.
Imagine
the candle you hold in your hands represents your soul. At conception, it is lit aflame with the
light of Christ. And at the end of your
life, you present it to God for evaluation—is it burning brightly? Is it flickering? Did it go out a long time ago? Throughout life, most of us will change jobs,
will live in different homes in different cities, will make new friends and
have new adventures, will leave our parents to start families of our own, and
we’ll watch them grow and leave us, we’ll fight through pain, sickness, grief,
loss and sorrow; we’ll have triumphs and joys—but the common thread throughout
each life is supposed to be the light of Christ burning in one’s soul—as one’s
strength, rock, fortress and deliverer—from the moment he is born until the moment
he dies, so that he can enjoy the Light of Christ, in the fullness of His glory
unto the ages of ages.
As
we stand here in the darkness, there isn’t much else to do for a couple of
moments but think about the role of God in your life and the state of the Light
of Christ in your own soul. Some have
flames which burn brightly—they come to God in joy—He their strength, rock,
fortress and deliverer, each and every day.
Some come to God only in times of crisis—He is their crutch, their path
of last resort. Some come to God out of
a sense of Tradition—the seed of Christ is there but there is no real root, and
the flame is flickering. Some spent this
Lent and Holy Week searching and perhaps are on the verge of spiritual
breakthrough. Some have seen their
relationship with Christ become estranged because this year was not a good
one. Some are lost and need some
motivation to start the journey back.
And some have lights that have been extinguished—some do not love God
the way they should; and even more sad, are those who
think God does not love them.
Tonight
ends our Holy Week journey—however, it is not a night
of endings, but rather new beginnings.
Each of us has the opportunity to receive God’s grace in two special
ways this evening—first in the light of the Resurrected Christ which you will
receive in a moment. This is an
opportunity for you to rekindle the flame of your soul. God gives each of us, those who came from the
first hour and those who came only at the 11th hour, the same
chance, the same blessing, the same grace.
Whether you are on your knees praying every day, or haven’t bent your
knee to God in a long time, each of us has the same chance tonight to start
over again, anew. The question becomes,
will we be able to keep the new start going for a day, a week, a year, or make
it into a lifestyle change?
And
each of us has the opportunity for a second gift, and that is the gift of
spiritual sustenance, available to us through Holy Communion. God’s grace comes to us in abundance when we
partake of Holy Communion frequently with proper preparation and spiritual
disposition. The difference between
preparing to receive, including regular prayer and confession, and partaking
frequently, versus partaking only occasionally or not at all is the difference
between making a journey with a flashlight or in the sunlight. The problem with the flashlight is that the
battery eventually dies—that’s because man created the battery. The thing about the sun is that you are
either in it, or only a few hours away from being in it. And the sun is never extinguished—that’s
because God made it. The door of
paradise is open to those who make God their strength, their rock, their
fortress and their deliverer by walking in the light of the Son of God on a
daily basis.
As
we mark another Pascha together, those who come
frequently and those who don’t; those who had a good year and those who didn’t;
those whose lights are ablaze and those whose lights have gone out—rejoice
together in a new beginning, and end this journey with a commitment to focus on
making God your strength, your rock, your fortress and your deliverer in this
coming year. Think how your life will
change for the better, how the lives of those around you will be made better,
how our