4th Sunday of Pascha
Keeping the Lord's Day

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

Today the Lord heals the paralytic by the Sheep Pool. When He heals the paralytic by the Sheep Pool, He tells the man who is healed: “Take up your pallet, and walk”. We would underline that this man had been paralysed for thirty-eight years, not just a couple of days. For most of his life, he had been lying beside the Sheep Pool waiting for someone to put him into the water when the waters would be troubled, so that he could be healed. However, no-one ever did, until the Saviour came.

The people knew very well who this man was. Nevertheless, they saw him on the Sabbath day, walking, carrying his bed. That is against the Law, according to Jewish law. They didn’t pay any attention to the fact that this paralysed man was walking normally. They didn’t, as they ought to have done, give glory to God straight away. Immediately they noticed what was obvious to them, that he was breaking the Law. Of course, when they found out everything, they were angry with the Saviour, Himself, too, because He healed on the Sabbath. Healing on the Sabbath was considered by them to be work.

Nowadays, we are in a very crippled condition ourselves. Even though the Sabbath was not done away with Christ, we don’t keep it any more. We don’t even keep the Lord’s Day properly any more – except for going to church. The Lord’s Day is no different from any other day. Even if people do go to church, very often the rest of the day is filled with all sorts of work, and all sorts of other busy activities, instead of doing what the Lord designed the Sabbath Day to be – which is a day of rest. The Lord, however, always underlines that the Sabbath Day is made for human beings, not human beings for the Sabbath (cf. Mark 2:27). That is another thing that was exactly forgotten by the critics of the Saviour.

What better day, the Saviour says in another place in the Gospel, what better day on which to heal, to restore people who are created in the image of God? What better day indeed! “This is the day that the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 117:24). What better day indeed! And today we have all of this underlined for us – because not only do we have the healing of the paralytic; we have also the healing by the Apostle Peter of another paralysed man. However, this was not accomplished by the Apostle Peter, himself, because he always said: In the Name of Jesus Christ, arise. He, and all of the Apostles always did that. They never took credit for themselves for anything that they did—they always gave glory to God. They always recognised that it was Jesus Christ, Himself, who was doing whatever was being done through the Apostles.

The Apostles’ greatness is found in their transparency. It was because the Apostle Peter had become transparent in Christ that when Dorcas (or Tabitha) had died, and he was called to come, the Apostle came, and he prayed, and he discerned what was the will of God for Tabitha. It was not that he was praying, girding himself up or revving himself up for a big miracle. Not at all. The Apostle, or any Apostle, never could or did rev himself up to do a miracle. What he was doing was discerning what was the will of God for Tabitha. When he knew in his heart that the Lord was going to raise her, the Apostle Peter spoke for the Lord. He told her to get up, and she did. However, it was because the Apostle was transparent in Christ that he was able to understand what the Lord directed him to do. Then he did it.

So, why shouldn’t we be quiet on the Lord’s Day, spending time with our families? In the first place, we will have just been in the temple of the Lord, and we will have received the Body, and Blood of Christ. In every monastery I have been in in the past, normally after the Divine Liturgy, those who have been in the Liturgy (and especially those who have received Communion) take a “PLN” (which is a post-liturgy-nap). We take a rest after we have done the work of praising the Lord, and after we have received the Grace of God. When we take this rest, we allow ourselves to rest in Christ, focussed on Christ, and allow His Grace to renew us inside. Then, getting up, we spend time as quietly as we can. This is the ideal, but the devil comes, and tempts us, and stirs us up. If we can, we should spend quiet time afterwards, just being with the Lord, and being with each other in the joy of the Lord. That’s what it’s all about.

In my grandmother’s day, however, on the Lord’s Day you went to church, and then you did nothing. Everything had to be cooked the day before because you didn’t do anything. You drew the blinds; you sat in relative darkness in the house, and if you read anything, you read the Bible, and that was it. It was very strict. That’s why my grandmother, and grandfather didn’t go to church for a long time in their lives, because it was too rigid. On my grandmother’s side it was very strict Presbyterian, and on my grandfather’s side it was very strict Baptist, although there was a similar mentality. Their families were all concentrated on the rules, the rules, and the rules, because they read too much Old Testament, and forgot about the New Testament. They were God-loving people, but rules, rules, rules! It kept their children away from the Church for a while. In Scotland, or in southern Ontario in those days it might have worked, but in western Canada it didn’t work any more. People would not accept those rules.

What they would have accepted was the truth of love. They would have done those things willingly – they would have been quiet on the Sabbath Day willingly – if it had been done with joy, and if it was understood by them that the parents did it with joy. But the parents didn’t manage to transmit that joy to the children. If the children had understood that being at peace, and quiet with the Lord, just being with each other in the Lord was a joyful thing, and a good thing, and that you could read something other than just the Bible, that you could read something uplifting, I’m quite sure it would have been all right. Those children, however, never stopped being believers, but they were rebellious for a time.

Nevertheless, the whole point of everything is, not so much exactly how we are going to observe the Lord’s Day or the Sabbath Day. The point is, what sort of a person am I? I, as a Christian, am loved by God. I’m raised in an atmosphere (at least most us have been raised in an atmosphere) in which God is loved in return. The atmosphere of loving God is how we grow up. It’s a life-giving atmosphere. It’s a life-creating atmosphere. It’s a nurturing atmosphere. This is what we want to provide for each other, even if we are not strictly observing rules about no work. At least on the Lord’s Day in particular, we try to slow down, and try to keep the Lord in our hearts, and in the front of our hearts, and our memory during that day especially. By doing that, we have hope that when we go to work the next day, the memory of the Lord is going to be with us.

Every day of our lives as Orthodox Christians, we are tested. Do I love Jesus Christ more than anything? I know He loves me, but do I love Him? Is He in the front priority of my everyday life? Does His love carry me through all the difficulties, and the trials of everyday life? When people are testing me by snarky remarks or other sorts of teasing remarks, or even by lying, or whatever else people do, when I am confronted with all of these difficulties with other human beings, am I listening to my heart to see what the Saviour is guiding me to do, and to say in any of these particular situations? On the other hand, do I forget, and let my emotions go? Do I analyse, and calculate with my mind, and forget the Saviour? When I run away with my emotions, and when I am calculating in my mind what is the best thing to do, and to say, every time it’s out of kilter. Every time it’s away from the right way. There might be some good in it, but it’s not at all the best. If I am going to calculate, and try to assess something mentally, it has to be with Jesus Christ. If I am going to have my emotions involved in something, those emotions still have to be in, and subject to, Jesus Christ. I have to involve Jesus Christ in everything. If I do, I will be helped. If I do, I will be mostly peaceful. If I do, I will be well directed. If I do, I will, even without thinking, be able to speak for the Lord, and the Lord will say, through me, what the other person needs to hear. I don’t have to think up what someone needs to hear; the Lord will give it.

However, our hearts have to be open. You notice, by the way, that when the Apostles are doing everything that they are doing, and going everywhere that they are going, and enduring everything that they are enduring, they are doing all of this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who, when He washed their feet, said that they should be like Him, and do as He does. So, wherever those Apostles went, whatever they did (even if they were speaking about Jesus Christ), they always behaved with whomever they were as servants. They were always putting themselves at the disposal of people they were with, and they were helping them in one way or another. The Apostle Peter was definitely helping the paralysed man, and he was helping Tabitha. He was helping not only Tabitha, but all the people around her who depended on her, because she was such a believer.

Today, we are going to be ordaining, God willing, N to the Holy Diaconate. By how he serves, by how he exercises the particular gifts that God has been giving to him among the people, he will be trying to show how Jesus Christ is serving us. He will be trying to show how a Christian is supposed to live. He will also be trying to show how we must serve each other, because serving is the essence of being a Christian. The word “deacon” means servant (actually it means “slave”). We understand in our democratic environment that the word “servant” is nicer. But still, for a people who have their noses in the air, being a servant is not at all a pleasant thing. No matter who we are, all of us who are Christians must be like Christ, a servant. Deacon N will be exercising this in front of us, and amongst us. It’s important for us to pray for him so that we can support him in his serving, so that he will be the best example possible for us of what Christian service is about.

Let us, brothers, and sisters, do our best to keep the Saviour in the front of our hearts. Let us ask Him to remind us daily (because we do need those reminders) that He is with us, that He loves us, that He is supporting us, that He is educating our hearts, and minds, and that He will not abandon us, as He promised. He is always with us, but we need those reminders. Let us ask Him to keep reminding us, so that we will be able to serve Him faithfully, and well, with the whole heart, and with love, and glorify Him, together with His Father, who is from everlasting, and His all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

† Archdiocese of Canada - Orthodox Church in America