May 4, 2024
Great and Holy Saturday

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things… so that no one may boast before him.
(I Corinthians 1:26-29)

Brothers and sisters, I have no way to account for how the hick from the midwest who is writing to you could come to experience the great riches of the Resurrection that the Church will celebrate this evening. I keep having a recurring nightmare that someone more important will find me out, tap me on the shoulder and forcefully inform me, “We don’t serve your kind around here.” My imposter syndrome lingers even after I have been an Orthodox Christian for over three decades. But St. Paul’s epistle reminds me that the apostles themselves were imposters: unschooled, ordinary people whom the Lord called out of their feelings of inferiority and unworthiness.

So if these rag-tag fishermen from Galilee, former Roman IRS agents, and harlots from the red light district in Jerusalem could call Jesus their Lord and Master, then there is hope even for this transplanted reprobate. As we near this solemn night, sacred and supremely festal, I remember so many that have led me to the threshold of the Orthodox Church, and I hear echoes of their example in the divine services. For my old Sunday School teacher who never grew tired of narrating the biblical stories to us kids in the church basement: he was a veritable Christian Homer in his gesticulations and epic retellings. For the many pastors in my life who sought every Sunday to “rightly divide the Word of truth” and introduce their congregations to Jesus. For the many missionaries, the closest thing we Protestants had to monastics, who modeled a life of complete surrender to the cross and sacrifice for the sake of the downtrodden and disenfranchised.

For all of these and more I am grateful to be included in this Feast of all Feasts, Holy Day of holy days. May He who rose from the dead and called the weak and despised ones to life in Him give us strength to behold His third day Resurrection!

Christ is risen! Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Христос Воскресе!
Truly, Truly, He is risen!