Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Ambon Prayer 69

The Holy Apostle James Alphaeus; Our Venerable Father Andronicus and His Wife Athanasia; Our Righteous Forefather Abraham and his Nephew Lot; The Holy Martyr Denis, Bishop of Paris

Title

He Who Sows Will Reap

Outline

We all know the logic of sowing and reaping

You have to sow a crop and care for it to reap - and in an agrarian society that can be the difference of life and death

You have to find and work at a job or craft in order to benefit

You have to study in order to qualify for a degree or profession

But God throws new dimensions into the equation

First, he allows us to reap spiritual blessings from material “sowing” that is intended for his purposes

Second, he is always loving and so always thinking about our good and the collective good, so sometimes what we reap is on another plane or in another time frame altogether.

Our first reading is part of two chapters that Paul devotes to this topic

Paul never took up collections for his benefit nor for the local church per se. But in 2 Corinthians he is taking up a collection for the church in Jerusalem/Judea that had been impoverished due to climatic, demographic, and political causes. For him this collection is both assistance to the poor and unifying the church by bridging the Jew-Gentile divide.

He reminds the Corinthians that there is a principle, “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” But Paul never says what is sparingly and what is bountifully - the amount should be freely chosen, not reluctant, and even cheerfully given - it is done before God not before Paul.

And yet there is a promise involved in their calculations: “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work.” God gives to them with the goal that they not only have enough, but have “abundance for every good work.”

The ultimate harvest God is concerned with is “the harvest of your righteousness.”

The result he intends is the unified liturgy, for the goal of God is a person fully alive and that life is most full when we engage with the saints and angels in the liturgy of heaven and earth.

Do you see how God has raised the matter to a higher plane: it is no longer the matter of meeting the needs of the poor and certainly not being generous so that God will make us rich, but rather facilitating the divine liturgy and bringing us into the harmony of the universal worship of God.

Jesus brings this down to earth in the village of Nain.

He - with a large retinue - enters the village as the body of a young man, his widowed mother’s only child, is carried out.

Now an impoverished widow was one of the four classes of poor repeated mentioned in the OT. These are especially watched over by God.

But Jesus does not exhort the people to treat the woman as their mother so that the village provides for her, and he does not provide miraculous provision as happens with Elijah and Elisha. What he does is demonstrate the presence of God, first by touching the bier (which should have made him taboo but will end in reversing the taboo of the dead body), then by raising the young man, and then restoring him to his mother. That is what God’s compassion looks like; that is why Jesus can say, “Do not weep.”

The result of this open demonstration of the presence of God is worship: “they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!”” Both are true statements, the second more accurate than the first.

So what does this mean for us?

It goes without saying that we start with the Old Testament and realize that we are to care for the widow, the orphan, the levite, and the immigrant - all of which were bereft of resources and often landless. Jesus says something similar in Matt 25, where he indicates that such care is caring for him. Paul indicates that care for those in need starts with the family and moves outward.

But Paul and Jesus point out that our first move should be to ask God how we should respond. “How can I be your hands and feet?” He will often indicate personal involvement, not giving at a distance, and will usually ask us to do something that makes us trust him more deeply. He wants us, not just our money.

He may call on us to do a work that points to him: feed 5000, multiply the resources of the poor, bring physical or emotional healing, or raise the dead.

Whatever the means he chooses, he wants to raise this to another plane: he wants to make his concern and care visible, he wants us to accrue transcendent “wealth”, and he wants to order the creation - especially humans - into right praise because they have experienced him.

So whenever you encounter a situation of need, first pray and listen to God, letting him flow through you, and then do what he tells you and do so cheerfully, for it will be good, it will be very good.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 10-8-2023: Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council

EPISTLE

2 Corinthians 9:6–11

6 The point is this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7  Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8  And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. 9  As it is written,

“He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor;

his righteousness endures for ever.”

10  He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way for great generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God;

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 10-8-2023: Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council

GOSPEL

(20th Sunday)

Luke 7:11–16

11  Soon afterward he went to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. 12 As he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a large crowd from the city was with her. 13  And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 And he came and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 And the dead man sat up, and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother. 16  Fear seized them all; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and “God has visited his people!”

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) (10-9-2022)

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 10-8-2023: Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council

Epistle 2 Corinthians 9:6–11

Gospel Luke 7:11–16 (20th Sunday)