Sunday of the Paralytic – May 3, 2015



Sunday of the Paralytic – May 3, 2015Acts of the Apostles 9:32-42Prokeimenon. Mode 3.Psalm 46.6,1Sing praises to our God, sing praises.Verse: Clap your hands, all you nations. IN THOSE DAYS, as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints that lived at Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years and was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed." And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. Now there was at Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. In those days she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him entreating him, "Please come to us without delay." So Peter rose and went with them. And when he had come, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping, and showing tunics and other garments which Dorcas made while she was with them. But Peter put them all outside and knelt down and prayed; then turning to the body he said, "Tabitha, rise." And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. And he gave her his hand and lifted her up. Then calling the saints and widows he presented her alive. And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.The Gospel of John 5:1-15At that time, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda which has five porticoes. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water; for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool, and troubled the water; whoever stepped in first after the troubling of the water was healed of whatever disease he had. One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down before me." Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk." And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked.Now that day was the sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who was cured, "It is the sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet." But he answered them, "The man who healed me said to me, 'Take up your pallet, and walk.' "They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your pallet, and walk'?" Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you." The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.SERMONIn the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.- Christ Is Risen! (Indeed, he Is Risen)!Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, and Sisters! In this joyous season of the resurrection, of the Passover of Our Lord Jesus Christ from death to new and full life (and, with him, our renewal and the promise of our own rebirth to new and eternal life), the Church continually places before us stories from the scriptures which teach us about this new life. We hear, again and again, scriptures from the Acts of the Holy Apostles, and from the Gospel of Saint John; parts of the Bible which tell of the life of the followers of Christ in the early days after the Resurrection (in the case of the Book of Acts), and which tell of the memory of the life and teachings of Jesus by one of His closest disciples: Saint John, often known as “The Beloved Disciple,” presenting the message of Christ for the new believers, in the years after the Passover of Christ from death to life (in that Apostle’s Gospel). As we celebrate Pascha, renewal, and new life, let's note how today's readings instruct us on how we are to act in our lives as we work out our own salvation.Today, the Sunday of the Paralytic, there are two powerful stories, which have a great deal in common, placed before our ears and hearts. The Gospel account which gives the name to this Sunday tells of a man who had been unable to walk, cut off from the usual range of human activity, for probably most or all of his life. Thirty-eight years. Thirty-eight years was about 10 years short of the average life-span, in that day and time, for someone fortunate enough to have survived childhood.Jesus comes to a site known as a place of miraculous healings, where this man has been waiting and waiting on the off chance, the “long-shot,” that, somehow, he might be healed, raised up, restored to the fullness of life and health - even though his very disability has always made this impossible. When he meets Christ, he is still immobilized, yet, we may note, he was, nonetheless, still hoping, still coming to that spot, after thirty-eight years. He sat there, in the company of all those others waiting for healing, making the effort to come and await his raising up; his redemption; his renewal into a new life.The story of Saint Peter raising from death the well-regarded and loved disciple, Tabitha, is, in a way, a very different kind of encounter. Here, we see that the promise and the fulfillment of God acting in human lives and in history is showing forth, powerfully, to the extent that even death itself is overcome - something which, before, had only been heard of in a few instances, in all the history of God’s relationship with His people*. In fact, this story of Saint Peter and Tabitha echoes - quite literally - the stories of Christ’s raising the dead, before His passion and resurrection; Saint Mark’s Gospel tells that Jesus was sent for to heal the daughter of a ruler of the synagogue, and, even though news had come that the young woman had died before Jesus had time to arrive at her house, nonetheless, Jesus,“Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, ‘Little girl, I say to you, arise’ And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement.” (Mark 5:41-42 ESV)The phrase “Tabitha / Talitha koum” is something of a pun, a play-on-words in which the name of the woman disciple, Tabitha, and the phrase in the Aramaic language, “woman, arise (or, “get up!”) are practically identical sounding. The story of Saint Peter raising Saint Tabitha is tied in the minds of the hearers of each story - from the days of the Apostles to our times - to the power of Jesus to raise the fallen, even to raise to life those who had fallen asleep - fallen asleep, even, seemingly forever, in the embrace of death, itself.What a powerful presentation of the very thing which we celebrate throughout the season of Holy Pascha - the Pass-Over of (and, for us, with, and through...) Christ from His incarnate life on earth, through suffering and death, to the triumphant, new, eternal life!Perhaps, though, even beyond this Great Mystery and Hope, we may also see something else profound revealed in these passages of scripture. These raisings from beds of infirmity, immobility, and even death by God’s power may help us to see something about the process known in the Church as theosis - the process by which we, sinful and fallen and broken as we are, may, little-by-little, through God’s infinite power, if we are willing and open to His operation in our lives, be transformed into the divine life which God created us for, in His own image and likeness, eternally partaking in the love of the Holy Trinity. In the case of Tabitha (and, before her, during the lifetime of Jesus, the synagogue ruler’s daughter), those needing to be raised were (of course), being dead, completely passive, waiting in the grave for their restoration, resurrection, and being raised to new life. This is the state which we all, in a way, find ourselves, when we are first born into the world: even at birth, we face the inevitable reality of our earthly death, the physical consequences of the Fall of Adam and Eve. Our life is in “the shadow of death,” and, until the coming of Christ, all creation groaned in expectation, as Saint Paul wrote, awaiting theredemption of our fallen nature, subject to death and decay. God had to act, to become our fallen and mortal state, in order to raise us from death. In a way,truthfully, our only salvation is to wait on God.In the story of the Paralytic, though, we see another crucial and key part of theosis: although we can do nothing on our own, we must act. God does not wish to force anything upon us, even the good things of salvation, whether in this life and for all eternity. Like the Paralytic, we must, even when we are infirm, feeble, broken, beset by sin and sickness and death, all around us, keep on coming to the healing pool, keep on waiting for the Angel to move the water, keep on expecting the healing which comes in Christ. In Holy Baptism, we do, in a sense, dip in the healing pool of Bethesda, dying to earthly life and being raised, by and in and through Christ, to a new life. Our earthly days and years, if we live them in following Christ, hold the promise of being a rising from our bed of infirmity, and, gradually, growing ever closer to God, in theosis. We live in Him through righteous living, partaking of the grace of the mysteries [Sacraments], growing in love and in faith, and always turning to God in faithful love and repentance. In the book Partakers of Divine Nature by Archimandrite Christoforos Stavropoulos, Father Christoforos writes that,“The road towards our Theosis, our union with God, can be formulated in the following short statement: divine grace and human freedom; theory and action; enthusiastic zeal and decision; abandonment of the ‘world’ and return to God; good works as a means towards Theosis; a warm heart a vigilant eye.”Elsewhere in the book, he emphasizes that Orthodox theology does not face the dilemma of “Faith versus Works”; rather, Orthodox theology believes in, and embraces, both, simultaneously. On the one hand, like Tabitha in today’s epistle, we wait in faith, God being our only hope of salvation. On the other hand, we see in Saint Peter’s pulling her back from beyond the pale of death that, God, also, works through human beings. It is in this Truth that we may, like the Paralytic, be active participants in our salvation: ever watching, ever hoping, and ever praying. This is where theosis begins. It is a long process. In fact, it is eternal, if we keep on turning to God, trusting totally in Him, turning away from the sins which so easily capture us, repenting again and again, and growing in His love throughout our life, and into eternal life with Him.It may seem, at times, like we are not making very much progress in our journey of theosis. The evil one wants nothing more than our discouragement at our failings, our bedridden infirmity. Our lives appear so limited and, seemingly, hemmed in by bodily death, and by “the sin which so easily besets us” [Hebrews 12:1]. But, in this season, we are given, again, the joy-filled hope and the hopeful joy of Pascha, of Christ’s resurrection. Our readings today teach us how to follow the risen Christ on the ever-unfolding path of theosis: by believing in and on Him, by following the path of His life-giving death and resurrection, by spending our lives in holy and good works like Tabitha, and in always waiting, like the Paralytic, by the Pool, in faith, trust, and hope. Let us do so, not only during this radiant season, but, someone, in whatever small way, each day of our lives, every small step being towards God, seeking Him, doing good, on the journey towards Him.- Christ Is Risen! [Indeed, he is Risen!------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1 “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” (Romans 8:22 ESV)2 The title of the book is taken from the verse at the beginning of St.Peter’s second letter, “He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature” Most notably, when Elisha raised the son of the Widow of Nain to life; when Jesus raised the dead; and in Christ’s own resurrection.Accounts of People Raised from the Dead1. Elijah raised the son of the Zarephath widow from the dead (1 Kings 17:17-22).2. Elisha raised the son of the Shunammite woman from the dead (2 Kings 4:32-35).3. A man was raised from the dead when his body touched Elisha’s bones (2 Kings 13:20, 21).4. Many saints rose from the dead at the resurrection of Jesus (Matt. 27:50-53).5. Jesus rose from the dead (Matt. 28:5-8; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:5, 6).6. Jesus raised the son of the widow of Nain from the dead (Luke 7:11-15).7. Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead (Luke 8:41, 42, 49-55).8. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:1-44).9. Peter raised Dorcas from the dead (Acts 9:36-41).10. Eutychus was raised from the dead by Paul (Acts 20:9, 10).- J. L. Meredith, Meredith’s Big Book of Bible Lists, (Inspirational Press, NY; 1980), p. 115 Outline & Notes for Sermon I. Both of today’s readings speak of God’s power to raise up those cast down (importance in the light of Christ’s rising from the dead, “trampling down death by death”) II. The saints of the day reveal that not even death can keep the Christian “down,” if living the Life in Christ III. Saint Cyril of Alexandria tells us that Jesus had left Jerusalem to go to Samaria (and the Gentiles) at the time of the Passover [slaying of the Paschal Lamb], then returned from there back to Jerusalem about the time of Pentecost, the “feast of weeks,” which is when this story occurs – tradition records that the healing “stirring of the waters” occurred at Pentecost-time. IV. The raising of Dorcas/Tabitha from death itself parallels both the healing of the Paralytic and goes beyond it – echoing, though, Christ’s raising of a child from death (“Tabitha, arise” & “talitha, koum”) V. The two scriptural stories as teaching us about theosis: how we become, even if little-by-little, “like God,” by participating in the life of the Holy Trinity. The paralytic made effort to come to where God could heal him, make him whole... although he did not have the power, on his own, to heal himself. VI. The story of Saint Peter and Tabitha in Acts reveals that God does work through human beings (although it is God who does the healing and raising from the dead)What does “Talitha cumi” mean? Little girl, I say to you, arise (Mark 5:41)The raising of Jairus’ daughter is chronicled in all three Synoptic gospels (Matthew 9:18-25; Mark 5:22-43; Luke 8:41-56). Jairus, a synagogue official, implores Jesus to come to his dying twelve-year old child (Matthew 9:18; Mark 5:22-23, 42; Luke 8:41-42). After Jesus is delayed by a hemorrhaging woman, the child is reported as dead (Matthew 9:20-22; Mark 5:25-35; Luke 8:43-49). [] (St. Cyril of Alexandria) ................
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