ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

Exarchate of Parishes of Russian
Tradition in Western Europe

Continuing God's work

Sermon preached by  Bishop Basil of Amphipolis: 18 May 2008, Parish of the Dormition, London

Acts 9:32-42
John 5:1-15

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

Today we have reached the Sunday of the Paralysed Man, and like all of the healing stories of the Gospel of St John, this story invites reflection on many different levels. That process is begun for us in the hymns that are sung in the Vigil service. These hymns pick up phrases from the Gospels and incorporate them into a larger context. Sometimes they repeat these phrases, and sometimes they expand them and add different thoughts to them. Because this is the Paschal season they link this Gospel, understandably, with Christ’s Resurrection. In doing that, they speak of this paralysed man, lying there, as like a dead man who is yet unburied. In this way they draw an immediate connection between this sick man, and the dead. At the same time, they relate this incident, this story, to ourselves – to the soul.

‘My soul,’ the author of the hymn says, ‘is palsied, is paralysed by my transgressions. I too lie there as a dead man, as yet unburied.’ This story, then, is related both to the inner and outer person, to both the  soul and the body. But if it is linked with the Resurrection, it is also linked with Christ’s Incarnation, in what I think is a most marvellous way. In the hymn which is sung during ‘Lord I have cried…’, Christ addresses the man lying there and says ‘How can you say that I have no man to put me into the pool ? It is for thee that I clothe myself in flesh. How can you say I have no man ? Here I am.’

Of course, in continuing to relate this incident to ourselves in the Canon,  each one of us can actually read that this healing was done for me. It does not say that it was done for this paralysed man: it was done for me. And at the same time we are invited to identify ourselves with that person. We are put into the same position as he is, and in the hymns we cry. ‘Heal thou my soul, O Lord, which ails grievously’.

Again, looking at the scene as a whole, the authors of the hymn point out that healing in the past – that  is, before the coming of Christ – has been granted to those who draw near to him in faith. In other words, it has been granted to those who draw near to the unknown Word of God – Christ – who is active in the Old Testament, in the Theophanies and in the miracles; but now Christ himself appears. He appears and asks the man,’ Wilt thou be made whole? He does not wait for the individual to draw near to him in faith, but he actually goes to the individual and asks personally, ‘ Do you want to be healed ?’

This is a radical change. God comes to us. He comes to us as a human being, and therefore in the structure of this story, we can see the whole history of mankind - the whole history of mankind after the Fall. Our purpose in all cultures and in all mankind is to draw near to God – crowned by that moment when God draws near to us.

The Epistle for today is clearly chosen with special reference to the Gospel. Peter is travelling about, visiting the Churches. He comes to Lydia, and he finds there a man called Aeneas, who had ‘kept his bed eight years’. We do not know why, but he is said to have been sick of the palsy. In other words, he is just like that man by the pool called Bethesda, and Peter says to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ  makes thee whole, arise and make thy bed’.

Aeneas does just that. He gets up and makes his bed. The point that is being made in this passage from Acts is that what Christ has done, continues to be done by the Apostles, by his disciples, by us –  the Church.

Finally, to complete a circle and to return to Christ’s Resurrection, in the next scene in this story from Acts, where Peter says to Tabitha,’ Arise’, and she opens her eyes, it is said that he gave her his hand and lifted her up. In other words, he does what we see Christ do in the icon of the Resurrection. He reaches down and offers his hand to Adam and lifts him up. Again, Peter does what Christ does. He bends down and raises Tabitha from the dead. The story of the Resurrection is not intended to end with Christ’s Resurrection. We are called upon, in the Church, to continue this process:  to continue it until Christ comes again and carries out that process in a definitive manner.

The healing in today’s Gospel is done on the Sabbath day. The Pharisees complain that Christ heals on the Sabbath day, and yet he does this again and again. This cannot be without significance. Its significance is that the Sabbath day is the last day before the eighth day, the day of Resurrection. So on the Sabbath day, Christ carries on the work of Creation. He carries on the work of Creation in re-creating mankind. Human beings were created on the sixth day, after which God rested, and in a sense handed the world over to us, to continue the work of Creation. We fall – and are unable to continue this process, by ourselves. God becomes incarnate in order to help us.

So we see here, in these stories, the story of mankind: the story of Christ’s Incarnation; his Resurrection; the way in which he hands on to us the work of God which is creation – and, where we are fallen, re-creation in the image of our Creator. Amen

Christ is risen !