Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Title

Light Shining from Weak Hearts

Outline

Honesty is generally the best policy

We have recently been listening to a series of podcasts on The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, an evangelical megachurch in Seattle

One of the big problems was that the pastor was made so central that his persona could not be criticized

When he did apologize for imperfections, he did so in a way that put the other person in the wrong

He failed to get the tension of Paul and Jesus

Jesus makes it clear that all cannot reach his level

When he quotes Psalm 110 “‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put your enemies under your feet’” he is pointing to himself as more than human, more than David. He does this indirectly, but we can understand it in retrospect:

Jesus is both God and son of David, fully God and fully human. Therefore he is to be worshipped. And while we understand that as a human he can understand our situation, he did not participate in our sin, that which traps us.

When Jesus quotes Deut 6 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39  And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” He is declaring the way of right living, but because of our sin, he find both difficult: total love of God and love of neighbor equal to love of self, with neighbor including our enemy.

Perhaps that is why the Fathers understood it in the form of the cross, for only as we embrace Jesus and his cross and only as Jesus lives in us through the Spirit are we able to do this. We in the Byzantine church cross ourselves a lot - we know we need it not just in doctrine but in practice.

In both statements Jesus is simply being honest about himself and our requirement

Paul puts it in the form of a paradox

God has taken the initiative with us: “God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

But we also recognize our limits: “we have this treasure in earthen vessels” and why? “to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us”

Then he goes on to describe how weak he was . . . He is honest

But there is a divine purpose in this: “always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” - when I embrace the death of Jesus rather than my own competency, then Jesus’s life can flow through me to others.

He lives from his trust in God: ““I believed, and so I spoke,” we too believe, and so we speak,” knowing that eventually he would be raised from the dead, free from weakness and fully like Jesus

Why does Jesus not do this immediately? Because now is the time of paradox, when Jesus is working through human weakness to produce his good results in others

So, brothers and sisters, we can live in honesty

We do not broadcast or display our weaknesses, but we admit them - there is no power in us sufficient for the demand

But we do broadcast and announce the sufficiency of Jesus - he is doing in us far more than we could, he will raise us up to be with him, and he does want to work through us for the good others - even our enemies.

We live the sign of the cross: we can love God with all of our heart and we can love our neighbor as ourselves, but only when we identify with the cruciform Jesus. We do fail from weakness and, well, just sin, but we continually make the sign of the cross for it is Jesus who will make his way and his will known in us. He is the Lord, the greater than David, and we are simply those giving ourselves to him so that he can work through us.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

EPISTLE

2 Corinthians 4:6–15

6  For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

13  Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we too believe, and so we speak, 14  knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

GOSPEL

Matthew 22:35–46

35  And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39  And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

41  Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

44 ‘The Lord said to my Lord,

Sit at my right hand,

till I put your enemies under your feet’?

45 If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46  And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did any one dare to ask him any more questions.

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) (9-5-2021: Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2021 | OCTOECHOS FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Matins Gospel Luke 24:1–12

Epistle 2 Corinthians 4:6–15

Gospel Matthew 22:35–46