Pascha and Bright Week 2013

Keeping the Agape Feast Posted on May 4, 2013 by Fr. Ted

Pascha! The Pascha of the Lord! For all who will

celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, a

blessed Feast! And a reminder from St. Athanasius

the Great (d. 373AD) to keep the Feast spiritually!

“But let us not be like the heathen, for the heathen

thinks the accomplishment of the feast is in the

abundance of food. […] Let us eat the Passover of

the Lord, Who, by ordaining His holy laws, guided us

towards virtue, and counseled the abstinence of this

feast. For the Passover is

indeed abstinence from evil for exercise of virtue,

and a departure from death unto life. We fast

meditating on death, that we may be able to live; and we watch, not as mourners, but as they that wait

for the Lord, so that we may contend with each other in the triumph, hastening to announce the sign of

victory over death.” (Selected Easter Letters , OLOGOS PUBLICATION, pg. 11)

Pascha 2013 Posted on May 5, 2013 by Fr. Ted

My Dear Fellow Orthodox,

Every year we Orthodox undertake the sojourn we call Great Lent. For some of us that Lenten journey is

long and puts us to the test, spiritually and physically. We forgive, ask forgiveness, we repent, we fast,

we pray, we give charitably to those in need, we aim to gain control of our passions, to resist our

temptations, and to overcome the power of sin in our lives. It is how we obey Christ’s command to deny

ourselves and to take up our cross to follow Him (Mark 8:34).

If we haven’t treated the past 7 weeks of Lent

as a scenic bus ride on which we are tourists

riding in the comfort of a luxury coach in which

we can just lay back and let others do the work

while we enjoy the carefree life – we arrive at

Pascha tired, hungry, a bit frazzled, having

been spiritually, physically and mindfully

challenged by the demands of the fast and

self-denial. We will have been changed by the

arduous sojourn.

Our view of things will have changed. We

won’t be looking back to the time before Lent began – to that time when we could eat anything, could

pursue our self-satisfying interests, could live, think and act like any fellow American who is secular

minded or agnostic. Rather Lent will have made our lives, our hearts and minds oriented in a new

direction: toward the Kingdom of God. As our parish Patron Saint Paul says:

“… forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the

goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

And so we arrive at Pascha: The Resurrection of Christ, a new beginning for creation and for ourselves.

We hear the Good News of Pascha from John’s Gospel, in many languages, but the same words and

message:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word

was with God, and the Word was God. He was in

the beginning with God; all things were made

through him, and without him was not anything

made that was made. In him was life, and the

life was the light of men.”

The long, Lenten journey takes us to the beginning, to

God. We now can begin anew.

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is risen!

Fr. Ted

I recommend to all to view the beautiful Serbian Orthodox Paschal music video. You don’t have to

understand Serbian to appreciate the total Christian joy and beauty of the video.

Christ Destroys Death by Death Posted on May 6, 2013 by Fr. Ted

Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!

As we continue throughout Bright Week to continue our praise of the Holy Trinity for our salvation

through Jesus Christ’s triumph over death, we continue to think about the human condition and God’s

effort to save us. St. Theodoret of Cyrus (d. 457AD) wrote that even if we haven’t committed the same

kind of sin that Adam did, we nevertheless have sinned in our ways against our loving Creator. Thus we

all fell under the power of death. Christ came destroying the power of death by His own death and

resurrection:

“Death reigned, however, even over those who

did not sin in a manner similar to the

transgression of Adam. After all, even if they

did not break the commandment, they still

committed other lawlessness. Now, he referred

to Adam as a type of Christ, whom he call the

one to come on this reasoning, that just as

that first human being by sinning fell under the

norm of death, and the whole race followed

the firstparent, so Christ the Lord by fulfilling

the utmost righteousness destroyed the power of death, and being the first to rise from the dead

he led the whole human race back to life.” (Theodoret of Cyrus: Commentary on the Letters of

St. Paul: Volume 1, pg. 73)

Father Alexander Men, a Russian Orthodox priest, wrote before his death, that Christ’s own death

ended the corruption that death brings to the physical body as well as bringing eternal life to us all:

“Paul’s expression ‘spiritual body’ is clearly critical to an understanding

of the Passover mystery. It means that in Joseph of Arimathea’s garden a

singular victory of the Spirit took place, which, rather than destroying the

flesh, gave it a new, higher form of existence. The stone was only pushed

aside so that the disciples could see that the tomb was empty, that the

Resurrected no longer knew boundaries. Passing through agony and

death, He obtained, in a manner incomprehensible to us, a new, spiritual

corporality. The Apostle spoke of it as a stage in existence, one which

awaits all people, but at that moment God-Man was the first to

anticipate this general transformation.” (Son of Man, pg. 207)

Sermon Notes 5 May 5, 2013 Vespers of Pascha Posted on May 6, 2013 by Fr. Ted

Throughout Great Lent we read the narrative of God’s people in Genesis and Exodus, and through the

Prophet Isaiah. Holy Saturday’s 15 Old Testament readings give us more of the sense of the spiritual life

as a sojourn. Israel’s journey is a type of the spiritual journey of each believer and also of the believers

collectively – both of ancient Israel and of the Church in its history. All of these stories find their

fulfillment in Christ, and all of them

help us make sense of our own

spiritual experiences.

At Pascha, we celebrate the

Resurrection of Christ and

experience the sojourn from death

to life and from earth to heaven on

which Christ our God has led us.

Great Lent from beginning to end is

designed to be a spiritual journey:

we are the sojourners not just

through Great Lent but in life

itself. Repentance can only occur if

there is movement and change.

And our Christian experience of Holy Week and Pascha is based in and prefigured by the Passover and

Exodus story – God calling Moses to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt through 40 years of

wandering in the desert until they finally reach the Promised Land. And it is today that I want us to

remember Moses and think about the sojourn which he undertook at God’s bequest.

Remember Moses was not happy when God called him to lead the

Israelites. Most of us think we would want God to speak directly to us

and call us to do something for Him. But Moses, who the scriptures say

was the meekest man alive (Numbers 12:3), did not want to be such a

leader and he begged God to send someone else. But God had not

made a mistake in His choice of the man to lead His people, and God

persisted and Moses acquiesced.

And the man who did not want to be the leader of the Israelites found

the Israelites were not very interested in having him be their leader and

they resisted Moses and rebelled against him and made his life

miserable. Moses the humble man remained faithful to God and carried

out his mission, but the people exasperated him and provoked him to anger. Yet, when God wanted to

destroy the miserable Israelites for their endless complaining and rebellion, it was “meek” Moses who

stepped forward to intercede for them and stopped God from destroying them. (see my other blogs

about Moses: Why Do You Cry to Me? And Reflections from the Holy Saturday Scripture Readings)

But because of his experiences with these rebellious people, Moses ultimately disobeys God and God

tells Moses he will pay a price for his lack of faithfulness.

So we read in Deuteronomy 31:22-30 :

When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, to the very end, Moses

commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, “Take this book of the

law, and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there

for a witness against you. For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are; behold, while I am yet

alive with you, today you have been rebellious against the LORD; how much more after my

death! Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these

words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them. For I know that after my

death you will surely act corruptly, and turn aside from the way which I

have commanded you; and in the days to come evil will befall you, because

you will do what is evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger

through the work of your hands.”

Moses had worked with and the led these people for 40 years and knew them

well, and he saw them as rebellious and stubborn, and could foresee that if the

people wouldn’t listen to him when he was alive, then surely they wouldn’t obey

what he taught after he died. Moses the meek man, offers no wonderful ‘eulogy’

of this people as he comes close to his own death. The people knew God spoke to

Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. Still they rebelled against Moses

and God. And Moses sadly realizes that despite their being the chosen people of

God, their salvation and their ability to attain the Promised Land was deeply at risk

because of their sinful stubbornness.

The Deuteronomy narrative continues (Deuteronomy 32:45-52) :

And when Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Lay to

heart all the words which I enjoin upon you this day, that you may command them to your

children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no trifle for you, but it is

your life, and thereby you shall live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to

possess.” And the LORD said to Moses that very day, “Ascend this mountain of the Abarim,

Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, opposite Jericho; and view the land of Canaan, which

I give to the people of Israel for a possession; and die on the mountain which you ascend, and be

gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died in Mount Hor and was gathered to his

people; because you broke faith with me in the midst of the people of Israel at the waters of

Meribathkadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because you did not revere me as holy in the midst of

the people of Israel. For you shall see the land before you; but you shall not go there, into the

land which I give to the people of Israel.”

Moses hears the bad news: he is not going to be permitted to enter into the promised land. The very

thing he had been called to do some 40 years earlier and despite incredible perseverance in the face of

unimaginable opposition and rebellion, he would not attain the goal. Moses was not going to be the

one to lead Israel into the promised land. God would allow Moses to see the chosen land, from a

distance, but Moses would die short of his goal and never set foot there.

As it says in Hebrews 11:39-40:

“And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God

had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they

should not be made perfect.”

That spiritual sojourn which Israel was on figuratively, spiritually

and really was not completed or fulfilled by the greatest heroes of

the Old Testament. And in fact in the narrative of Moses’ sojourn

one realizes it really is because of these stubborn people whom

Moses was leading that Moses lost both his temper and his chance

to enter into the Promised Land. This people Moses had served for

40 years were to become the very reason he was not allowed to

enter the Promised Land.

The Moses narrative continues (Deuteronomy 34:1-6) :

And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is

opposite Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the

land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, the Negeb, and

the Plain, that is, the valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. And the LORD said to

him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, ‘I will give it to your

descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.” So Moses the

servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD, and he

buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Bethpeor; but no man knows the place of

his burial to this day.

Moses dies never having reached the promised land. He perhaps was comforted in being allowed to see

the land at a distance. For at least he knew it was real, attainable, even if still some distance off. Many

of us would be comforted if God would allow us to catch such a glimpse of the future Kingdom of

heaven, so we might know it is real.

But the spiritual and physical sojourn of ancient Israel, like that of Moses, fell short of the goal.

But my long commentary now also has this caveat – that though Moses’ life ends short of the goal, short

of the promised land, even that is not the end of the story. It is during the life, death and resurrection of

Jesus Christ that the Moses story and sojourn continues. It is now during our own sojourn through Holy

Week and Pascha that we join Christ and Moses in this continued spiritual journey. For Christ comes

into the world and descends into Sheol, into that place of the dead, and calls Moses with all those dead

residing in Hades to come forth with himself to new life.

Deuteronomy tells us that Moses was buried in some foreign land, a stranger on

earth, and worse nobody knows where he was buried. Completely forgotten, or so

it is according to Deuteronomy. God had not forgotten Moses among the dead,

nor was Moses left a stranger to God. For Jesus finds Moses in Sheol and takes

Moses and all the rest on the journey from death to life and earth to Heaven. And

that is what we celebrate at Pascha. We have joined that spiritual odyssey and

that holy procession from earth to heaven. We have joined the great Moses, the

friend of God, in the continued migration toward’s God’s resting place.

But Moses’ story doesn’t end there. His earthly sojourn ended, but his life

continued. His story is taken up again in the death and resurrection of Christ our Lord. Moses is alive in

Sheol. God is the Lord of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He is the God of the living (Matthew 22:32), and

Moses is numbered among them.

And in the end Christ’s saving of all the dead in Hades shows that for Moses God’s love is victorious. For

Moses may have been denied access to the Promised Land, Moses may have been buried in some spot

that nobody even remembers anymore, but God’s anger against Him was not permanent, as we hear in

the Psalms (Psalms 103:7-14):

The Lord made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The LORD is merciful

and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will

he keep his anger for ever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor requite us

according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast

love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our

transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear him. For

he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

God forgives Moses who disappointed the Lord, and now at

Pascha allows Moses to finish that sojourn, and takes Moses not

just to a promised land on earth where sickness, sorrow and

sighing continue, but to the Kingdom of Heaven where sickness,

suffering and sorrow have fled away.

In our great icon of the resurrection Christ is raising not just Adam

and Eve but Moses and all those folk as well. Pascha is the

celebration of the victory of God over every human error and sin,

over evil and death itself. God forgives sinners and complete

failures and Himself lifts us from hell and leads us to His eternal

kingdom. God’s anger does not last forever – He forgives and

leads His children to the Kingdom and allows them to enter,

forgiven of their failures and misdeeds.

Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!

The Resurrection of the Body Posted on May 7, 2013 by Fr. Ted

Christ is risen!

Indeed He is risen!

As we continue on our Paschal journey, joyously keeping the festival of

Christ’s resurrection, we are reminded of the very fundamentals of the

Christian faith. Fr. Alexander Schmemann was wonderfully gifted in

finding the right words to express the deeply profound truths of

Christianity in the basic things we do as Christians to worship the Holy

Trinity. The resurrection of Christ – the cornerstone of the New Testament

writings – is sometimes overlooked by those who have other philosophies

and ideologies overriding their understanding of the Gospel.

“The resurrection of Christ constitutes the very heart of the Christian faith, of the Christian ‘glad

tidings’. And yet, in the real life of the contemporary

Christianity and Christians, faith in the resurrection has very

little place, however strange this may sound. This faith has

become clouded, so that today’s Christian, unaware that this is

happening and without denying the resurrection, manages

somehow to avoid it; he has ceased to live by the resurrection

as the early Christians did. Yes, if he goes to church he of course

hears the triumphantly joyful affirmations ringing out in

Christian worship: ‘trampling down death by death’, ‘ death is

swallowed up in victory’, ‘life reigns’, and ‘not one dead

remains in the grave.’ But ask him what he really thinks about

death, and often—alas, all too often– you will hear some pre-

Christian idea about the immortality of the soul and its life in

some sort of world beyond the grave. And that is at best…At worst there is simply confusion and

ignorance: ‘You know, I somehow never really thought about it.’ Yet to think about ‘it’ is

absolutely essential, since all of Christianity hinges upon belief or unbelief not merely in the

‘immortality of the soul,’ but precisely in resurrection, the resurrection of Christ and our own

‘universal resurrection’ at the end of time. If Christ is not risen, then the Gospel is a deception,

the most terrible of all deceptions; but if indeed Christ is risen, then all of our pre-Christian

explanations and beliefs about ‘the immortality of the soul’ must be radically revised, or rather,

they must simply be dropped. The whole question of death is then placed in a radically different

light. For resurrection, first of all, presupposes an awareness of death, an understanding of death

which is profoundly different from the common religious views, and in some sense is the very

antithesis of these views.” (Alexander Schmemann, Celebrations of Faith: Sermons—Volume 1, I

Believe, pgs. 90-91)

We can find this basic Christian message which Orthodox

Christianity has proclaimed for two millennium and celebrated

at Pascha every year also in recent times being embraced by

modern Christian writers. Anglican biblical scholar and retired

Bishop N.T. Wright says:

“Despite what many people think, within the Christian family

and outside it, the point of Christianity isn’t ‘to go to heaven

when you die.’

The New Testament picks up from the Old the theme that God

intends, in the end, to put the whole creation to rights. Earth

and heaven were made to overlap with one another, not fitfully,

mysteriously, and partially as they do at the moment, but

completely, gloriously, and utterly. “The earth shall be filled with

the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.’ That is the

promise which resonates throughout the bible story, from Isaiah

(and behind him, by implication from Genesis itself) all the way

through to Paul’s greatest visionary moments and the final

chapters of the book of Revelation. The great drama will end,

not with ‘saved souls’ being snatched up into heaven, away from

the wicked earth and the mortal bodies which have dragged

them down into sin, but with the New Jerusalem coming down

from heaven to earth, so that ‘the dwelling of God is with

humans’ (Revelation 21:3). … But one day the veil will be lifted;

earth and heaven will be one; Jesus will be personally present,

and every knee shall bow at his name; creation will be renewed; the dead will be raised; and God’s new

world will at last be in place, full of new prospects and possibilities. This is what the Christ vision of

salvation … is all about.” (SIMPLY CHRISTIAN , pp 217, 219)

Finding Yourself in Christ’s Resurrection Narrative Posted on May 9, 2013 by Fr. Ted

One means many Patristic writers use to read and interpret Scripture narratives is to see

each of the characters in the biblical stories as either someone to emulate or as someone

whose behavior one should avoid. St. Andrew of Crete (d. ca 712AD) in his famous

Lenten Canon of Repentance is a very good example of reading the scripture narratives

in this manner. Each person of the bible models either good or bad behavior in each

situation they are in - by reading them situation by situation we see the reality of life

that people, including saints, engage in both good and bad behavior in a lifetime. One

can read the Gospels in this same way. St. Gregory Nazianzus (d. 391AD) also applies this

method in his Paschal sermons, an

example of which is below.

“If you are a Simon of Cyrene, take up the Cross and

follow. If you arecrucified with Him as a robber,

acknowledge God as a penitent robber. If even He was

numbered among the transgressors for you and your

sin, do you become law abiding for His sake. Worship

Him Who was hanged for you, even if you yourself are

hanging; make some gain even from your wickedness;

purchase salvation by your death; enter with Jesus into

Paradise, so that you may learn from what you have fallen. Contemplate the glories that are

there. If you be a Joseph of Arimathea, beg the Body from him that crucified Him, make your own

that which cleanses the world. If you be aNicodemus, the worshiper of God by night, bury Him

with spices. If you be aMary, or another Mary, or a Salome, or a Joanna, weep in the early

morning. Be first to see the stone taken away, and perhaps you will see the Angels and Jesus

Himself.

Keep the feast of the Resurrection; come to the aid

of Eve who was first to fall of Her who first

embraced the Christ, and made Him known to the

disciples. Be a Peter or a John; hasten to the

Sepulchre, running together. And if, like aThomas,

you were left out when the disciples were

assembled to whom Christ showed Himself, when

you do see Him be not faithless; and if you do not

believe, then believe those who tell you; and if you

cannot believe them either, then have confidence in

the prints of the nails.” (Easter Orations, OLOGOS Publication, pgs. 10-11)