Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

Peter H. Davids

Byzantine Catholic Homilies • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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Life in union with Christ is a giving up on making our true self and a bowing in helpless committed worship to Jesus. Then Jesus frees us, makes us his disciple, and sends us out as his representative, as a "little Christ." He is living in us.

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The Holy Martyr Zenobius and His Sister Zenobia; the Passing of the Martyr and Priest Oleksiy Zarytski

Title

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me

Outline

One of our human weaknesses is seeking to find our true selves

We imagine that if we can find our true selves, if we can develop our true selves, we will find joy

We often go on programs that will develop this true self, whether it is a diet for our thinner self, body building for our stronger self, discipline for our focused self, meditation for our spiritual self, or some other such self

What Paul tells us and Jesus illustrates is that it is not about what we can do, but about what Jesus can do.

Paul counters those who say that finding a Jewish self is the way to peace and joy - to being declared right by God

“The works of the law” are the boundary markers of Judaism, that which set Jews off from other races and peoples and cultures: circumcision of males, first of all, then keeping festivals, especially the Sabbath, then the dietary laws. While Gentiles could becomes proselytes, i.e. Jewish converts, that was not a solution for Paul, but a dead end.

The solution was simply commitment to Jesus Christ, dying to ourselves, our own ideas of our selves, rising in his resurrection to share in his new life. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” To use the language of the Christian East, it is divinization, becoming one with Christ.

This is illustrated in the demonized man

He cannot help himself; he lives among the dead; he is controlled by other forces. Luke notes that others could not control him, not even with chains. How many people live among the walking dead.

He comes to Jesus and all he can do is fall down in worship. It is the demons who shout, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” They know Jesus, they fear Jesus, and they find his very presence torment. They many be “legion” but they fear he will send them into the abyss, the place of disembodiment.

Since they are helpless before the being of Jesus, since they are non-being, they bargain for the animal being of the pigs - taboo being, in Jewish eyes, pagan being, but nonetheless a living thing. Jesus out of love for the man allows them. And the pigs, irrational as they are, panic, stampede off the precipice or down the steep bank, and drown. They demons lose their grip on being and go into the abyss.

Now the people of that country were faced with a choice. They saw “the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.” What they man could not do, what their chaining him could not do, Jesus had done - the man was among the disciples, becoming like Jesus. This did not create joy in that country, but fear. They did not want this power they could not control. They did not want to become disciples of Jesus. One man was not worth more than a herd of pigs. They asked Jesus to leave.

The now-healed man wants to follow Jesus, but Jesus does not want just a follower, but a representative, a type of apostle: ““Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.” Now he is not a passive follower, but someone bringing Jesus as God to his people.

So what do we learn?

We learn that we are helpless without the life of Jesus in us. We can decide to shape our lives into what we think is the good life, but we end up in one way or another in the tombs.

We learn that the way of release is commitment to Jesus, even if falling down before Jesus in worship or obeisance is all we can do.

We learn that Jesus will free us in his, often exposing the values of this world for what they are, pigs over humans, and often letting the powers of evil destroy themselves.

And we learn that in dying to our past and its images of what the good life is and instead becoming a committed disciple of Jesus we are elevated into being his representatives and therefore send forth as he was. He gave himself for me so I go forth and give myself for others in his name. I become one with him.

Let us thing on these things and ask ourselves where we are in this story and then do what it takes to end up with Christ living in me - this is what will draw the others who are open to Jesus.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 11-6-2022: Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

EPISTLE

Galatians 2:16–20

16 yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no flesh be justified. 17 But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not! 18 But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor. 19 For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 10-30-2022: Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

(23rd Sunday, Slavic)

Luke 8:26–39

26 Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 And as he stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons; for a long time he had worn no clothes, and he lived not in a house but among the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” 29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him; he was kept under guard, and bound with chains and shackles, but he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the desert.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion”; for many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. 32 Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them leave. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

34 When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. 36 And those who had seen it told them how he who had been possessed with demons was healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them; for they were seized with great fear; so he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but he sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

Notes

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) (10-30-2022: Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost)

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2022 | OCTOECHOS

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 11-6-2022: Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Matins Gospel John 21:1–14

Epistle Galatians 2:16–20

Gospel Luke 8:26–39 (23rd Sunday, Slavic)

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