Orthodox Christian Sermons

Sermon #11 - Pentecost

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 2 we read that on the Day of Pentecost they were all in one accord in one place. They were in one accord: they were "perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" which is that faith once for all delivered unto the saints. And they were in one place: in Jerusalem on mount Sion in the Upper Room.

In Psalm 133 we read: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore."

Thus it was when the disciples dwelt in unity, each of the members in perfect harmony with the Head, that the Lord commanded the blessing. And when the Day had fully come, Jesus opened the floodgates and rivers of Living Waters gushed forth.

And here we are today, gathered together in one accord, in the same mind as the apostles, which is our Orthodox faith handed down from them, and in one and the same spiritual place—on mount Sion, the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the Church. May the Lord pour out his Spirit upon us anew and grant each of us a fuller measure of his unspeakable gift!

From the Gospel Reading for the Feast:

"Jesus stood and cried..."

The word is krazo—to shout loudly with deep emotion. Obviously, this is something that Jesus deems extremely important! He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

"If any man thirst, let him come unto ME, and drink."

Come unto ME...There are many voices vying for our attention, all promising salvation from life's problems. So you run to this teacher or that expert--only to discover after much frustration that they do not deliver the Living Water. Only Jesus can do that! So he shouts to us above all these other voices: "If any man thirst, let him come unto ME and drink!"

"He that believeth on me..." What does it mean to "believe on" Christ?

It means to wholly depend upon him and him alone, to unite yourself to him, to align your heart and mind to him, to become one with him, to give up your own will and your own way and your own opinions and become of one mind with him, to let Christ be your all in all.

"out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters..."

Every river has its source, and the source of these rivers of living water-- according to Jesus-- is our belly. The Hesychast monks on Mount Athos were mocked as "navel gazers" by the Latins in the days of St. Gregory Palamas, because they would sit for hours, gazing within at the Uncreated Light shining into their hearts. Truly, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them (neither can he enjoy them!) for they are spiritually discerned.
The belly, according to Scripture, is the locus of our spirit. It is there at the very center of our being that we must focus our mind--our "nous"-- the eye of our soul (or, better yet, the organ of spiritual perception, as it comprehends all the spiritual senses)--so that we may perceive Divine things. Just as the pupil of our eye is a very small aperture which takes in the whole visible world, so the tiny opening of this inner eye takes in the whole heavenly realm. The Apostle prayed for the Ephesians that "the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened" --in Greek that means literally that the eyes of your heart may be"flooded with Light". Jesus said, "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be filled with darkness. And if the light that in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness" (because we THINK it is light--this is the delusion that deludes the majority of mankind). A single eye is when our inner and outer eyes are integrated so that symbol and reality are united. It is then that the entire cosmos becomes to us an icon of the face of God.