23rd Sunday after Pentecost

Byzantine Homilies • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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The enslavement of this age is broken through throwing ourselves in allegiance at the feet of Jesus, and his freedom results in mission, although it may be mission that is rejected by a world still in bondage.

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Title

Mercy and Love Grasped by Commitment Produces Life with Christ

Outline

The Self-Made Person is the Enslaved Person

We live in a world of autonomous individualism

What counts is me and my freedom and rights

But we live in a world of addiction, whether to pornography or drugs, whether to consumerism or the internet or simply to our own impulses - we are anything but free

Jesus displays that in the incident narrated

The man who meets Jesus is totally enslaved to destructive impulses, in this case demonic (but we often do the job of the demonic for them). He was disruptive to his community and destructive to himself.

He comes to Jesus, either drawn by Jesus or in desperation, perhaps with the demons wanting to scare Jesus off, with Jesus as his only hope

When Jesus confronts them, the demons realize that they are in real trouble. They fear torment and/or being sent to the abyss, despite being many (Legion) and beyond the power of those around to control

They bargain promising to leave peacefully if allowed to enter the swine, but when they do so they destroy the swine and find themselves disembodied anyway

We are not told why Jesus allowed this; perhaps it was out of kindness for the man versus a violent expulsion, perhaps it was to show the people around their addiction

The report gets to the town and they rushed out and “found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind”

Rather than praising God for the healed man, they are afraid: was it because they feared the power of Jesus, especially if they wanted to make him pay? was it because their addictions to goods and control were revealed?

Whatever the reason, rather than asking Jesus to help others in the town or to teach them or to free them from their inner bondages, they ask him to leave - fear rejects love

The formerly demonized man wants to go with Jesus, but instead receives a commission: “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” For the man, God is Jesus, and so that is what he announces.

Paul makes the application

God, rich in mercy, made us alive with and in Christ, and raised us up with him so that we rule with him

We were in bondage and God freed us by joining us to Jesus on the basis of our commitment or allegiance.

Now we are free from what bound us or how the world tries to bind us insofar as we are in Christ - we experience his rule.

In fact, we discover “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

And the future is better: “in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Do you see how these were all true of the formerly demonized man?

Now we need to live this out

We have to reject the solutions of the townspeople and be aware enough of our bondage and desperate enough to throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus

And then we learn from Jesus, and willingly follow Jesus, even when he sends us on mission

In the world we may indeed have troubles, but we will know inwardly that we not only are with Jesus but that we rule, even if in the world we may have troubles.

We also remember that the only alternative is self-destructive bondage if we choose to go it alone

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 11-12-2023: Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

EPISTLE

Ephesians 2:4–10

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—9 not because of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 10-31-2021: Nineteenth 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) (11-28-2021: Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost)

SUNDAY, October 31, 2021 | OCTOECHOS TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Dark Vestments

Matins Gospel Matthew 28:16–20

Epistle Ephesians 2:4–10

Gospel Luke 18:18–27 (30th Sunday, Greek) or Luke 13:10–17 (27th Sunday, Slavic) on 19th Sunday Luke 8:26–39 (23rd Sunday, Slavic)

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) (Faithlife; Bellingham, WA, 2015; 2015).

Sts Stachis, Ampliatis, Urban, and Narcissus, Apostles (Rom 16:8-9,11) and St Epimachus, Martyr (m 250), our Venerable Mother Maura

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