Third Sunday after Pentecost 2023

The Holy Martyr Leontius

Title

Out of the Nest into Maturity

Outline

There is a swallows nest in our carport

At least one clutch of eggs has hatched, grown, and is now swooping through the skies.

But to get from nest to sky there was the sacrificial brooding of the female and then later both parents shoving the fledglings out of the nest.

That is the story of our readings

Romans speaks of the virtues produced by suffering

It is clear in the first place that we start in a place of security: peace with God due to our trust or commitment to Jesus.

It is also clear that we rejoice in suffering, not because we are masochists, but because suffering rightly endured produces a series of virtues ending with “hope of sharing the glory of God” and the experience of “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

In other words, we may start in the nest, but the difficulties of life that push us out into a less comfortable or peaceful situation bring us a deeper identification with and trust in Jesus that leads to deeper hope and the quiet joy of the Holy Spirit. That is maturity.

Jesus in Matthew is very down to earth

Splitting one’s loyalty does not work - it will pull one from the security of the nest of God into the trauma of the insecurity of Mammon, which seems attractive until you try to trust in that nest.

Then Jesus points out that anxiety about food and clothing, the basics of life, ignores the reality of creation, i.e. that God provides for all creation even though most in it cannot “worry” (for that takes at least a mammalian brain and hormone system, although Jesus would not have thought in those terms). It certainly ignores God’s love for us. And it distracts us from focusing on what God has called us to do: “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” The “these things” that “shall be yours as well” does not mean we will have all we want, but that we will have all that is good for us. Pushing a bird off the edge of the nest is not their idea of what is needed, but it does lead to it catching its own food and being what it was made for.

Brothers and Sisters, we have heard these things, but we need to live them

That means catching our divided minds and motivations, speaking the truth to them, and focusing on the kingdom: one help is the Jesus Prayer or else “Jesus, King of Love, I put my trust in your merciful goodness.”

The fledgling fluttered to the ground the first time it tried to fly, but practice eventually got it in the air close to the ground and more practice got it swooping through the sky into and out of our carport. Don’t expect to get rid of the divided mind or anxiety without practice.

That also means accepting suffering with joy as a means of developing virtue and growing closer to Jesus. That is not easy, but it brings about the mature Christian character that is being divinized.

Stay in the nest and you will eventually die. Accept that challenge and the pain of leaving the nest, in our case trusting in Christ, and you will become God’s mature ideal for you.

Then you will realize why Mammon, while an attraction is no longer one, for it is the insecurity of being on earth while you are swooping through the heavens following Jesus.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 6-25-2023: Third Sunday after Pentecost

EPISTLE

Romans 5:1–10

5  Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2  Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5  and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

6 While we were yet helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Why, one will hardly die for a righteous man—though perhaps for a good man one will dare even to die. 8  But God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. 9  Since, therefore, we are now justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 6-25-2023: Third Sunday after Pentecost

GOSPEL

Matthew 6:22–33

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27  And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; 29  yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) (6-18-2023: Third Sunday after Pentecost)

SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 2023 | OCTOECHOS

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 6-25-2023: Third Sunday after Pentecost

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Bright Vestments

Matins Gospel Mark 16:9–20

Epistle Romans 5:1–10

Gospel Matthew 6:22–33