Tuesday, April 17, 2007 Christ is Risen!
Uncovering of the Relics of Alexander of Svir
6th Vigil of Pascha ~ I: Exodus 13:20-14:30 Apostle: Acts 4:1-10
Gospel: St. John 3:16-21
God Delivers: Exodus 13:20-14:30, especially vs. 30: "So the Lord
delivered Israel in that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel
saw the Egyptians dead by the shore of the sea." These verses of Exodus
are the well-known account of the deliverance of God's ancient People
from the forces of Egypt by miraculous escape through the Red Sea and
the accompanying destruction of Pharaoh and his army. This famous
passing out of slavery into freedom, from chattel bondage to ethnic
identity, marks the emergence of the People of God onto the stage of
history. At the same time, it enables us who now are the same People of
God - today called the Church - to look again at the events of the
Passion and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and to discover in
them facets of the redemption which brought us into being as a people.
The principal message in this portion of Exodus may be summed up in two
words, God delivers. The children of Israel passed through an
impassable geographical obstacle - the Red Sea at the edge of Egypt.
Thus they entered the Sinai wilderness, there to begin the long,
forty-year struggle to realize the freedom God bestowed upon them. It
did not escape the notice of the Holy Fathers of the Church that the
liberation at the Red Sea is a parallel and type of our own release into
the Life in Christ; for in the presence of true faith in the Lord Jesus,
God delivers.
As St. Gregory of Nyssa says it: "the people itself, by passing through
the Red Sea, proclaimed the good tidings of salvation by water. The
people passed over, and the Egyptian king with his host was engulfed,
and by these actions this sacrament [the Baptismal Mystery] was
foretold. For even now, whensoever the people is in the water of
regeneration, fleeing from Egypt, from the burden of sin, it is set free
and saved." The Champion on behalf of His People is God Himself. He
delivers; and we who pass through the waters to the New Life beyond do
well to look deeply into this Exodus and discover what is packed into
those two words: God delivers.
Reading attentively, one readily notices the actions of Moses, of the
People of Israel, of Pharaoh, of the Egyptian forces, but above all, let
us never miss the actions of God that repeatedly shape the saga to yield
deliverance for a horde of runaway slaves. "God led them" (vs. 13:21).
Also, God directed them to "encamp before the village, between Migdol
and the sea, opposite Baal-zephon" (vs. 14:2). In addition, God
disclosed beforehand that He would "harden the heart of Pharaoh, and he
shall pursue after them; and I will be glorified in Pharaoh, and in all
his host" (vs. 14:4). Above all, at the critical moment in the
unfolding events, God intervened and "shook off the Egyptians in the
midst of the sea" (vs. 14:27).
It is the Lord our God Who leads us to the waters of Baptism, for He
called to us, "Wash ye, be ye clean; and put away evil things from your
souls" and He "bestowed upon us from on high a new birth through water
and the Spirit." Likewise, God directs us "to walk in all [His]
commandments, and to fulfill those things which are well pleasing unto
[Him]; for if a man do those things, he shall find life in them" as did
Israel of old. And God discloses to us all "the eternal good things"
that shall be ours if we endeavor to prove ourselves children of the Light.
The greatest blessings of the life in Christ come to those who, having
passed through the Baptismal waters, trust God and undertake the
wilderness trials and triumphs that characterize the days and years that
follow upon dying and rising with Christ, upon passing through the laver
of regeneration to sonship and the fountain of life. Truly, Christ our
God, as ever, graciously intervenes to "make us all victors, even unto
the end, through [His] crown incorruptible.
" It is up to us to fear the
Lord and believe in God as did the ancient Israel of God (Ex. 14:31).
As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Alleluia! (Gal. 3:27)
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