Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter

Therefore, it is written:
“Day was breaking.”

+INJ+

After that tempest, that
cataclysm, of the Lord’s Passion, the murder of Jesus, which filled the heavens
with dread; at which the mouth of hell gaped to consume the Son of Man, even as
it had devoured every soul born of Adam, whole and utterly; at which the
fundaments of the world trembled, for the sustainer of the world had died; how,
then, should the world not tremble, even collapse?

Jesus is crucified, and ‘he
descended into hell.’ And St. John writes: ‘Now, it was night.’ Indeed, ‘it
was night’, for He who is the light of the world, had consumed all
human darkness in His own flesh, and having born our darkness, descended into
the abyss, there to become one with the outer darkness. Heaven has not
glory; for who now remains in heaven who is worthy to open the scroll and
break its seals? Heaven is emptied of its God; the angels of the throne and
seraphs of the heavenly altar weep loudly, for no one was found worthy to
open the scroll.

Creation shakes, the
curtain of the temple is torn, the sun and all light are blotted out as the
darkness which devoured Jesus, the darkness which pervaded all things before
the light of God’s Word spoke into it in the beginning, this darkness falls
upon the creation; for if the creator has been killed, so shall the creation
collapse and fade away. A darkness that could be felt entered the world,
and there was no light to overcome it.

The entire world looks upon
the murder of the son of God, and was rent, accusing mankind for our final
iniquity; and being so disordered, the earth invites the primordial blackness
and ancient chaos to once again fall upon it. The world chooses to no longer be
a home to the children of such sin, nor to sustain them. So it is written: ‘that
night, they caught nothing.’

The Father recedes into His
infinite holiness, away from all that He Has made, in heaven, on earth, and
under the earth, for none is worthy. The Son falls deeper and deeper
into the pit of separation, Himself separated from the Father, Himself
separated from His source. The heavenly host lament; the works of nature
grieve; Death and Satan gloat; and all say the same thing: ‘There is no
God.’

But one of the elders said,
‘Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered.’

For what darkness shall
consume Him who scatters darkness? What jaw of hell shall devour Him who
satisfies the desire of every living thing? What devil shall make war on the
Son, and live? For by the imperishable fire of His divine love, He has purged
away our darkness from His flesh. By infinity of His being, He breaks the teeth
and bursts the walls of the infernal pit. By the dread might of His word, He
rebukes the devil, and all of his works, and all of his ways, and damns Him to
eternal fire.

The One who as a lamb
went to the slaughter, yet without opening his mouth now rises to judge the
nations, to reckon the heavens, and bring ruination upon hell. For now He opens
His mouth, and His words are Spirit; the Spirit which fills the world, by which
the world is forged, through which the world is sustained.

See then, ‘the day is
breaking’ for ‘Jesus stood on the shore.’ Between land and sea, between
life and death, between heaven and hell, for by His Passion, He has joined all
things in Himself, that He alone might be all in all, who is, and who
was, and who is to come. ‘The day is breaking’ The Light of the World’ is
dawning. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness shall not
overcome it.

And Jesus said to them
‘Children, do you have any fish?’ They answered him ‘No.’ He said to them,
‘Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they
cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of
fish.

And when they got out on
land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread.
And Jesus said to them  ‘Bring some of the fish that you have just caught
to the fire.’ ‘Come, and have breakfast.’

They must cast their nets
with their right, not their left, for they shall plumb the depths of the sea
with the arm of war, not of weakness. For Christ has already caught a fish, and
laid it upon the fire. This was to symbolize what He had spoken before that He
shall cast all that is evil into ‘everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
all his angels.’ 

This may seem strange to
us. A fish? How is a fish to be an image of the devil? Yet remember, the sea
was always imagined to be the realm of the lost, of Jonah in the gut of Sheol,
where mankind had no place, where monsters dwelt, where creation ended, and
chaos began.

For again, our Lord
promised of old ‘I will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the
twisting serpent, and I will slay the dragon that is in the sea.’ So He
promised to Adam, so He promised to Job, so He promised Israel.

The fish is over the coals,
for the Leviathan is over the fires; and our everlasting enemy is chained to
the furnaces of hell.

What is left to the
Apostles? The sea of this world is great, filled with devils, filled with
countless serpents, countless Leviathans. A commission is given to the
Apostle’s: clear the seas. Cast out the demons. Exorcise the souls of all
humanity by water no longer teaming with unclean spirits, but water sanctified
by the Holy Spirit.

And as by baptism the
fallen angels are put to flight, so should you, as one standing on the shore,
between time and eternity, between the sacred and the secular, recline, and
eat, for he prepares for thee a table in the presence of thy enemies.

He has established His
Kingdom in His blood. Our Lord is enthroned in the fortress of His Church, and
by the double edged sword of His mouth He goes forth to slaughter sin,
the devil, and death ‘for the last enemy is death.’ The world has
been made his footstool. And he has died and risen to answer the ancient
prayer of His people: ‘Destroy thou them, O God; for they have rebelled
against thee; but to those whom you have defended, let them rejoice
forevermore.’

‘Behold, the kingdom of God
is at hand.’

‘Day is breaking.’

+INJ+ 

Preached by Pastor Fields

Sermon Texts: Acts 9:1-22; Revelation 5:1-14; John 21:1-14.