In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Today is our parish Altar Feast. We call it an Altar Feast-day because it is indeed the name-day of the Holy Table of this Temple. This Holy Table is sanctified in honour of the Holy Trinity. Thus, we gather today as a family to celebrate at this family Table. Brothers and sisters, we know that this is our place, our home. This is where we belong. Gathered around this Holy Table, we are where we are supposed to be. This is where we know ourselves, we who are His family. We are the Body of Christ. This is where God reveals Himself to us. This where God gives Himself to us. This is where He feeds us. This is where we are truly ourselves more than any other time. We are truly ourselves when we are here together, gathered in the Lord’s house, in our Father’s house, gathered around our Father’s Table. In our Father’s Kingdom on His Day, we are offering ourselves to Him. We, offering ourselves to Him, are asking Him that we may be seen to be truly be His sons and daughters.
On this day, we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. When we look at the festal icon, at the top we can see the Heaven bending down, where there are all sorts of flames of fire heading for the disciples and apostles and the Mother of God. It was not only the twelve apostles who received the gift of the Holy Spirit. The room was full of 120 people. They all, even the Mother of God, are called apostles. In the same way, you and I are called apostles. “Apostle” means one who is sent. You and I are sent into the world to bring the Kingdom with us into the world. As the apostles and the Mother of God all together received the Holy Spirit with fire and were given power, so you and I are given power by the Holy Spirit.
You and I are given the power to go out and live the Christian life in the midst of the darkness of this world. You and I are given the power to bring Jesus Christ to people whose lives are broken, whose hearts are broken with sorrow, whose lives are all burdened with darkness and care, sorrow, selfishness and sin of every sort. You and I are given the power and the authority to bring Jesus Christ to their sorrow, to their brokenness, to their need. You and I, who have been given the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit when we were baptised, are given the power and the authority to bring Jesus Christ to such people, to scatter the darkness with the light and the life of Jesus Christ. We are to bring His life, His light, His love to the lives of those who are wandering, looking, hungering, thirsting for this love, this light and this life that we have.
You and I, just like the apostles, have been given power. Maybe we did not see fire come down, but fire did come down. Maybe we do not realise it, but every time we come and stand here, the Lord comes from the Throne of Glory and gives Himself to us. Every single solitary time He comes to us in this way, this fire comes to us. This fire of His life, this fire of His light, this fire of His love comes to us and it burns away sin. It burns away darkness. It burns away all sorts of sins and hatred and selfishness and pride and envy. The fire burns it all away. It purifies us, this fire which comes to us when we come to Holy Communion. This fire enters us and renews us ; it nourishes us and fills us.
On this fiftieth day after the Passover of the Lord, the Holy Spirit came down in power not just on selected, chosen individuals. If you were here last night, you heard in the readings how the Holy Spirit came down on the prophets, on certain kings, judges and law-givers in the Old Testament days. Some of the Old Testament persons demonstrated His power only once in their whole lives. In those days, the Holy Spirit was only given to a few. In our days (the Day of the Kingdom, the Last Days in which we are always living), and particularly every Sunday (the eighth Day, the Last Day of the Kingdom), on this day and every day the Holy Spirit comes to us as to all the prophets. He comes to every believer, and not only selected believers. Every believer who is baptised and chrismated receives the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fills us with this power and this life, just as He did for Elias, Elisha, Eli, Samuel, Zadok, Ruth, Rebecca, and Sarah. The Holy Spirit comes and gives us power to be in the Kingdom, to live in the Kingdom, and to bring this Kingdom with us wherever we are in the world in order to bring the whole world back to the Lord. Our responsibility as Orthodox Christians is not merely to pass through this world, but to be in this world and transform this world. Our responsibility is to bless the world by bringing it back and offering it to Jesus Christ, who made it all.
This morning, as we come once again, gathered as a family and as the Body of Christ at the Lord’s Table, let us give ourselves to Him. Let us receive Him with open arms because every single day of our lives, the Lord is standing here with His arms open, waiting for us to come to Him. He is waiting to enfold us in His loving arms to protect us and strengthen us and build us up. With our arms open, let us come to Him and let Him enfold us. Let us receive Him as He wishes to receive us. After we have blessed this water and this whole building, and after we have sat at dinner, let us go to our homes and approach the whole world with open arms. Let us receive those who would come to the Lord and who are looking for Him. With our arms open, may we let the Lord come from our hearts and bring love to His sons and daughters who are lost and bring them back into the family where they belong. We know where we belong. We belong here, together in the Lord’s House, in the Lord’s Kingdom, at the Lord’s Table. All the people out there belong here, too. Let us with our arms open bring them, and offer them with us in the Kingdom so that all together we may truly be the sons and daughters of the King gathered rightfully at His eternal banquet Table where hunger and thirst are no more. Here we are always fed with the water that never ends, from the well that never runs dry, and with the food which never allows us to be hungry again. On the Day of the Holy Trinity, let us glorify the Holy Trinity : Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.