Sunday of the Forefathers 2023

Ambon Prayer 49

The Holy Prophet Daniel and the Three Holy Children: Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael

Title

Ready to Appear with Christ in Glory

Outline

In the parable of the great banquet everyone has an excuse

Each of the excuses have to do with their business, such as the purchase of a field or oxen or a marriage, business that could have been put off, since they had already received an invitation to the banquet, which was privileged to the exclusion of the honor or the host and their interest in him and his business. In Luke we are not told the occasion of the banquet.

The response of the host is to exclude the invited from his banquet and instead to invite, first “the poor and maimed and blind and lame” of the city and then those who had no place in the city, those in the “highways and byways.” You can see a clear reference to the outcasts of Israel, those who had nothing to offer to anyone, and then the gentiles, those who had no place in the social structure of the city, not even a low place. These would gladly accept the invitation, dropping whatever they were doing, while there would be no chance for those originally invited to change their minds.

What does this have to do with Colossians?

In Colossians we have an invitation to “appear with [Christ] in glory.”

But to accept the heavenly we have to “put to death” or drop or reject “earthly” practices, those in which gentiles “once walked, when you lived in them.” At least some of these would have been rejected by Torah conforming Jews, for they are “fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” They excluded one from the people of God, obviously break the Ten Commandments, and are picked up in this interpretation by Jesus. If you still live this way and are justifying this behavior, you are not serving Jesus as Lord and are not in the community (this does not include those who struggle with such behaviors, calling them evil, but have yet to overcome them).

Then Paul mentions other behavior that were not obviously in the 10 Commandments and were more easily justified by those, perhaps Jews, who claimed to follow Jesus: “now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another.” My goodness these are getting personal. Do I really need to take the removal of such seriously?

Yes, because while in baptism one “put to death” those more obvious passions, one must also realize that one also took on a new nature, that is, “seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” One is becoming like God, like Christ, like human beings were supposed to be and therefore all that is not like them needs to go. No wonder we call out for mercy or grace in the Divine Liturgy.

And this is also the death of all ethnic distinctions and prejudices for, “Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.” We all have the same nature, that of Christ, for we are in Christ, being divinized.

It would be nice if God zapped us and we were suddenly like Christ, but, for our good, he usually makes us struggle with or fight against some of these vices.

So, are we ready for the banquet, brothers and sisters?

Christ, who is our life, will appear, the “come” invitation will go out. And we desire that “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

For this to happen it must be that “Christ is all, and in all.”

It is not that we must be perfect, but that we must be affirming the perfect, not justifying our vices, and straining towards perfection. That is the purpose of the fasting and mortifications of the Philip Fast. Then Christ will be in us cleaning us up within and able to break out fully on the surface when he appears. But only if we have stopped affirming our vices and are in truth affirming him as Lord and are calling for him to create his new nature within us.

Then, however far out in the highways and byways we were, we will be ready to give a glad “yes” to the invitation and hasten in to enjoy the banquet.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 12-17-2023: Sunday of the Forefathers or Twenty-Eight Sunday after Pentecost

EPISTLE

Colossians 3:4–11

4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you once walked, when you lived in them. 8 But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices 10 and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 12-17-2023: Sunday of the Forefathers or Twenty-Eight Sunday after Pentecost

GOSPEL

Luke 14:16–24

16 But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; 17 and at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come; for all is now ready.’ 18 But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.’ 20 And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ 23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 12-17-2023: Sunday of the Forefathers or Twenty-Eight Sunday after Pentecost

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2023 | NATIVITY OF OUR LORD

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 12-17-2023: Sunday of the Forefathers or Twenty-Eight Sunday after Pentecost

SUNDAY OF THE FOREFATHERS OR TWENTY-EIGHT SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dark Vestments

Matins Gospel Luke 24:36–53 (28th Sunday)

Epistle Colossians 3:4–11

Gospel Luke 14:16–24