Arriving in my email each day is an email from the Massachusetts Historical Society with a little story about something that happened on that particular day in history.  Very often I pass over these as they title does not always catch my eye but yesterday it was very interesting.  Yesterday’s email was about the filling of the Quabbin Reservoir and the completion of the project that has begun years before.

Construction of the Reservoir took 20 years to complete and it involved the removal of four towns, Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott, all of their homes, stores, churches, and more than 7,600 graves.  The amount of work that was needed is mind boggling today let alone in the 1940’s but the project was complete and the citizens of Boston and 46 other towns have water.

While reading this story I was reminded of an essay I had recently read on the spiritual life.  In the essay, the author quotes the 12 century Theologian Bernard of Clairvaux from his seminal work on the Song of Song;

The man who is wise, therefore, will see his life as more like a reservoir than a canal. The canal simultaneously pours out what it receives; the reservoir retains the water till it is filled, then discharges the overflow without loss to itself.

Our Spiritual life is like the bodies of water that Bernard is talking about.  Far too many people in the Church will read one book and think they are experts on the faith.  They go around quoting this or that saint but have no real understanding of what the quotes actually means, in other words it flows out as fast as it flows in.

St. Benedict, who the Orthodox Church considers the father of Western Monasticism, taught his monks a way of reading that he called Lectio Divina, divine reading.  St. Benedict taught that by slowly reading Scripture, and letting it wash over us, we would come to a better understanding of what the Scripture was trying to tell us.  The slow, methodical study would lead to understanding.

Sticking with the water theme here for a minute, a canal is not as deep as a reservoir.  Orthodoxy Spirituality has depth to it and that depth requires work.  It took 20 years to complete the construction of the Quabbin, and to this day it has not ceased to provide water to millions of people, if a canal was used, the water would have run out years ago.  The deeper we go the longer it will last.

We have talked a lot, these last few weeks, about our mission in the world.  Christ compels each of us to love our neighbor and part of that love is to share the Good News of the Resurrection with them.  In the Gospel passage selected for yesterday’s Liturgy for Saturday of the Souls, was a dialogue between Peter and Jesus.  Jesus was asking Peter if he loved Him.  When Peter responded yes, Jesus responded by saying feed my lambs.  The conversation continues and Jesus asks Peter again, “Do you love Me?”  Again Peter responds yes, and Jesus asks Him to care for His Sheep.  If we love Jesus, then we have to care for the lambs, our neighbor, we have no other choice.  If we do not desire to care for them, then we truly do not love Jesus to the depths of our soul, and that is the love that is necessary.

A few weeks back we celebrated the Great Feast of the Ascension.  This feast signifies the end, if you will, of the earthly ministry of Jesus.  Prior to this time, Jesus spent three years with His Apostles, teaching them about the life that is to come.  He talked with them, prayed with them, ate with them, and witnessed to them by His life, the kind of life that He requires of all of us.

Today we celebrate the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, this is not the end of the story but really only the beginning of the story.  Up to this point, Jesus was filling the vessels with water, the water of truth, knowledge, love, ministry, etc.  He filled them right up to the brim and today He drops a stone in the vessel and the water overflows and runs down the side of that vessel and out to nourish others.  It was not until this point that the Apostles were ready to engage the world in the ministry that Jesus had called them too years before.  It was not until they were literally overflowing their banks, that they could go out and witness to others, and we hear that story today.

If they had gone out before they were ready, they would have failed.  They had not stored up enough, enough of what they would need for the journey, enough of the Spirit, and they would burn out before they even began.

Last week I mentioned that Church has to be about more than making us feel good.  It would be easy for me to stand here each week and tell you what you want to hear, that we are okay and our lives are perfect just the way they are.  We could sing a few clap happy songs and feel good and go from here with a warm fuzzy and say that was great!  The Church is not about entertainment, the Church is about change.  We are not just a river that flows quickly by a spot, no, we need to dam up one end of that river so that it flows and grows and makes us strong, so strong that we overflow our banks and share that with others, that’s what we are about.  We are about a spirituality that is so deep we can spend an entire lifetime studying it and still not be ready.  Even after the Apostles received the Holy Spirit, they still had work to do.

Some years back, I lead a college team to Guatemala City to the Hogar Raphael Orphanage in Guatemala City.  I had seen poverty before, but nothing like what I witnessed on the streets of Guatemala City, it was devastating to see, hear, smell, and experience.  In the middle of all of this poverty and despair, is the Orphanage that is simply known as the “Hogar” an oasis in the middle of chaos.

Each day we would work with the children there who ranged in age from infants to 18 years of age, all orphans, many of them had been there since their own infancy.  Each evening we would gather as a tam to talk about the day, pray, and read Scripture together.  You see after we spent the day emptying ourselves, we needed to put a little more back.  We see this in Scripture as well.  We hear of Jesus retreating to a quiet place to pray, sometimes he takes His Apostles off and teaches them alone, away from the crowd, he dams up the river and allows the water to gather again, so it will be available to everyone.

If we do not have this deep abiding faith, a faith that is at the core of our very being, then our faith is just superficial and superficial faith is false.  Sure we can play the game and maybe even do some good, but we are required to do more than just “some good” we are called to a radical change, not just on the surface, but all the way to the center of our being.  We need to be converted, and have our heart of stone replaced with a heart of flesh, before we can ever hope to really love our neighbor and to help them.

The time has come for us to begin the work of damming up one end of river.  The time has come for us to remove all of those structures that will pollute the water and prevent the fullness that we need to have.  The time has come for us to open the graves of our past and remove from them the things that keep us from truly loving God and truly loving our neighbor.  The time has come to let go of all of this and allow the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and penetrate the surface and go all the way, all the way to the core of our being.  Will it be easy, no if fact it will be extremely hard and painful, but in the end there will be enough clean, clear water flowing from each of us to bring that love to millions.

We talk a lot about Communion; after all, communion is central to what we do as Orthodox.  At each Divine Liturgy we come into communion with the living God when we approach the chalice and receive communion.  This is not some mere symbol or reenactment of an event that happened thousands of years ago, we Orthodox believe that when we come forward we are approaching the “real presence” of Jesus Christ.  We believe that Christ is truly present in the chalice not just a memory of Him, but him, actually present.

We have spoken of this before.  Our entire Christian journey is one of communion with God.  We move in and out of this symbiotic relationship each and every day.  In his great book, “On the Incarnation” St. Athanasius says that “God became man so that man might become God.” He is speaking of the process of divinization, or theosis as it has become known is the slow, deliberate process where each and every day we move closer to God.  This is an awesome thought, God took on our flesh, our frailty, our humanity, to show us the way for us to take on and share in His divinity.  That is why we are here.

This process is deeper and much more intimate than simply “taking Jesus in your heart” this is actually becoming Jesus.  Just as the bread and wine are transformed into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ, we are called to transform our lives, not just on the outside, but all the way through to our very core.

But aside from that how do we come into communion with God?

In today’s Gospel from St. John we hear Jesus praying.  This is not just any prayer, for the first time we hear Jesus praying for Himself.  In this prayer He says, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ who You have sent.”  This is eternal life knowledge of the only true God and His Son Jesus Christ.  We get to know God by knowing the Son and all that He has said and done.

The Orthodox Church teaches that there are three ways we come into, and maintain, our communion with God; prayer, Liturgy, and our neighbor.

It has been said that communication is the key to any relationship.  If people are not communicating with each other than knowledge of the other breaks down.  We cannot know someone better if we do not understand them and that is hard to do if we are not communicating with them.  Sure we can learn some things about them from others and perhaps what they have written, but if we truly want to know people, really know them, we have to have a discussion with them.  This is prayer.  Pray, put simply, is communication, conversation, talking and listening.  It is through this process, an intimate process if you will, where God reveals Himself.  God knows us, the psalms tell us that He knew us before we were born when He knit us together in our mother’s womb.  God knows us better than we know ourselves, but do we know Him, His will and His desire for our lives, not our version of His will, but His will.

Knowing the will of God is not easy.  Sometimes, and I put myself in this category as well, we think we are doing God’s will when in essence we are doing our will.  Discerning the will of God is not easy.  Our Church teaches that before we undertake any, life changing event, we need to seek the advice of our spiritual father.  We believe that everything we do needs to be in the will of God, from marriage to buying a house or a car, to choosing the college that we attend, changing jobs etc. each life altering event needs to be taken to God in prayer.

Liturgy is another way we come into communion with God.  The Liturgical services of the Church, and by this I am not simply talking of the Divine Liturgy, but the entire public Liturgical cycle of the Church brings us closer to God.  This building is not just some building, this building, the walls, the floor, the windows, the physical structure, has all been consecrated by the bishop to God.  This is a Holy Place, not just a place that is set aside to be holy, but an actual holy place.  This building has been anointed with oil, just as were at our baptism and our Chrismation.

The Church teaches that each time we gather, be it formal Liturgy or a less formal time like a meeting of the parish council or a general assembly that we are meeting as Church and in a way this is a liturgical function.  We being with prayer and we ask that the Holy Spirit is present with us to guide us in the work that God has called each of too.  We sit here in the very presence of God.  Sure God exists in all of creation, but this is where He dwells, we believe that God is physically present in this place and it is here that we physically and spiritually come into communion is a very real way, with God.  This is a special place.

Finally, and I think is one of the hardest, we come into communion with God through each other.  We have talked about this before but it bears repeating, we must love our neighbor.  During the priestly prayer in the Liturgy of St. Basil, the priest prays for “those who love us and those who hate us” that is who our neighbor is.

Let us not forget that each and every human being is created in the image and likeness of God.  No human is born evil, evil is a learned trait, no human is evil, their actions are evil, but not the person.  If we ever forget that all of humanity is given as a gift from God, then we simply reduce that humanity to a thing, and when we do that we dishonor the image that is in each and every person.  People, no matter where they are or what their background, deserve to be treated with dignity.  No matter what the person has done to you the fact remains, they are human.

We disrespect people when we reduce them to things, liberal, conservative, rich, poor, black, white etc. we need to move past the outside and toward the inside.  We need to move from the intellectual knowledge of people to a more intimate knowledge of them.  Some of us show more respect for the icons in the Church then we do for the living icons that walk among us each day.  We come into communion with God when we come into communion with His creation, all of it.

Jesus challenges us today to come into a deeper communion with Him and His Father.  He is asking each of to take that step of faith and move closer to Him.  This relationship will cost us, it might even cost us our lives, but it is the reason we have been created.

One characteristic of our Byzantine Spirituality is that of light.  Light is all around us.  We have candles on the altar, candles that illumine the faces on the icons in the Church.  We light candles for those who have died and for the living.  Light is all around us.  I told you on Easter night, that the light that we hold in our hands, that was lit from the light that never goes out, is the light that we have to take into the darkened world, the light of the Resurrection of Christ, and that we have to let that light shine, especially in the world around us today that tries very hard to darken that light.

There is a direct link between the light of the Resurrection of Christ and the light that shines into our consciousness.  But this light is of little value to our souls if it does not translate itself in an increase of that inner light which must direct and transform our lives.  If we are not first transformed by the light of the Resurrection then we have little or no hope of trying to transform the world with that same light.

We hear, in today’s Gospel passage from St. John, of the healing of the man born blind.  The important part of the passage to keep in mind is that the man was born blind, he did not become blind at some point in time in his life, he was born this way.  In the hymns of the Vespers service last night we hear the Man Born Blind saying this: “I am not content to continue asking whether it is night or day. My feet can no longer endure tripping on the stones. I have seen nothing: neither the sun shining, nor the image of my Maker.”  He has never seen anything!

But he meets Jesus, and with some spittle and dust from the earth, Jesus tells the man to go and wash in the pool in Siloam.  After he does this he receives his sight.  But, as we read, he becomes an object of hostile curiosity and insidious questions from the Pharisees.  At this point the Pharisees are trying to find a way to catch Jesus, and they are using whatever means they can to do just that.  Eventually the man is expelled from the Temple by the Pharisees and is found by Jesus.  Jesus reveals to the man that He is indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Scripture tells us that the man believed and worshipped.

But there is an interesting part of the story here that deserves some attention from us today.  Notice that after the man was expelled from the temple he did not go in search of Jesus.  Jesus found him, Jesus sought him out and when he was found he preached the good news to him.  Jesus was not sitting somewhere waiting for the man to come to Him, no, Jesus brought the light, the light of the truth and the light of the Gospel to the man.  This is what we have to do, and we do that by letting the light of the Resurrection shine from within each of us.

But, as always, there is more to the story.  We see the man, blind from birth, but is this story just about the physical blindness of the man?  No, I do not think so, what the story is about is spiritual blindness.  Sure Jesus healed the man of his physical blindness, but most importantly, and this came after he had been thrown out of the Temple, Jesus healed the man of his spiritual blindness.  However, we cannot separate the two events, the man not only had to be willing to be healed of his physical blindness but also had to be willing to be healed of his spiritual blindness the two are not always the same.

It has become fashionable in 21^st century American religious life, for the church to be about entertainment, good music that makes you want to clap your hands, and for sermons to be preached that make us feel good, touchy feely as I like to call them.  I do not recall any point in Scripture where Jesus tells everyone that what they are doing is okay.  I do not recall any sermons by Jesus, or in the hundreds of thousands of sermons from Church fathers, where we are told that everything is fine and we are great people and what we are doing is okay.  It is my belief that this type of preaching and these types of sermons only aid in our spiritual blindness.  In order for us to seek out any sort of healing we need to first come to the understanding that we are sick.  The role of the Church is not to  make you feel good about yourself, the role of the Church is to assist you to come to realization that you are sick, in a spiritual sense, and that you need healing.  It is the role of the Church, just as Jesus did today with them an born blind, to give you the tools that will enable you to be whole and well.  We cannot transform the lives of others if we ourselves are not first transformed!

The hymns of the Matins service speak of this truth:

“I come to You, O Christ, the eyes of my soul blind as the eyes of the man born blind, and in repentance, I cry to You, You are the light of supreme brightness for all those who are in darkness.”

The staying power of Orthodoxy is that we strip away the “I’m okay You’re okay” spirituality of the 21^st century American Religious experience, we get our hands dirty with spittle and the dust of the earth, and we bring the healing and transforming power of Jesus Christ to people, not through drums and hand clapping, but through the ancient rites and rituals of the Church of Jesus Christ.  We bring the truth of the Gospel message, not some poll tested popular Gospel, but the actual hard nose, we are all sinners and need the help of Jesus, His Church, and one another, for salvation.  We preach the Gospel, revealed to the Church, that we are not saved, but we are in the process of being saved and that it is a daily struggle that we must, absolutely must, work on each and every day.  We are not okay, in fact we are far from it!

We stand here today bathed in the light of candles, bathed in the light of the son and we must take this light inside of us and let it transform us in ways that we have never experienced before.  We have to let Jesus use His spittle and the dust from the earth to heal us and transform us.  One does not seek out medical help if one is well, no, one seeks out medical help when one is sick.  We do not go to the doctor so the doctor can tell us that we are okay and that our lives are fine just the way they are, no we go to the doctor when we need their expert healing to make us well.  The Church is just the same.  We do not come here just so we can feel good about ourselves what would the point of that be?  Jesus did not condescend to become human just so we could feel good about ourselves.  Jesus, the God Man, become man so that we might become god!  And the only way we can do that is to allow the healing power and the healing presence of Jesus Christ transform our lives.

Let the light of the Resurrection into our lives and into our hearts and let is transform us.  If we are able to do that, if we allow that to happen, that light that will then come from each of us will set the world on fire!