Third Sunday after Pentecost 2022

Peter H. Davids

Byzantine Catholic Homilies • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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If we fully trust in God he is making us righteous and we can have peace as we rest in that process. That includes the peace one can have as suffering produces virtue and the peace one can have as one lives the Lord's Prayer.

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Our Venerable Father David of Thessalonica; The passing of the Blessed Martyr the Priest Nicholas Konrad and the Blessed Martyr the Cantor Vladimir Pryjma (1941). The Passing of the Blessed Martyr the Priest Andrew Ishchak (1941).

Title

We Have Peace

Outline

Lots of people, perhaps most people, lack peace

They are upset about all the evil they see in the world, often in the people around them who do not share their world-view

They are upset in their personal relationships, economic circumstances, and other parts of their life

They would be in turmoil about their relationship with God if they thought about him much

Paul tells us that this need not be the case

If a person has put their trust in Jesus, God is making them just or righteous. And because we have embraced this change in Jesus, we have peace with God in the core of our being and that radiates into our whole life. We live a life of hope.

Even our sufferings need not disturb this peace, for they actually work for our good producing endurance, character, hope, and the experience of God’s love: “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Yet we must embrace the process to receive its benefits.

Jesus as usual makes this change concrete

He wants to change our worldview, make our eyes healthy, so we see the world as God sees it, with love and compassion, from God’s position of peace

He wants us to be free from being torn this way and that from trying to serve two masters, God, ultimate, value, and Mammon, i.e. money, property, possessions. We get this unity of peace when we remember that we come to him daily for our needs and really live that way. He deals with the future.

His concrete examples are food and drink and then clothing - basic stuff. The birds at my bird-feeder are not concerned about their being anything in it tomorrow, but are enjoying the supply in the moment. Likewise we can think about clothing or, in our climate, housing. God provides today.

Our concern should be a single immediate concern: knowing that God is caring for our needs, “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” I.e. letting God’s rule and God’s righteousness characterize our lives.

What I have said is easy to say, but hard to live

We have so many counter-messages; we must discipline ourselves to counter them with the kingdom message.

It takes discipline to ask, “How can I cooperate now with your working your righteousness in my life, in your making me just like you are just?” The answer often comes in quiet meditation.

It takes discipline to push anger and worry aside and ask, “Father, help me look at the world through your eyes and see where your kingdom is coming and cooperate with it.”

It takes disciple to be suffering and say, “I embrace this, Jesus, knowing that you are producing virtue in me through this. May your hope be always in me and may your Spirit flood me with your love, love for you and love for others.”

It takes disciple to push worry aside and say, “I welcome the supply of “daily bread” that you have given me. Help me not to worry about or be controlled by future needs, but rather to follow your call in the present, cooperating with you as you direct me in actions that you may be using to supply me in the future.”

We can have peace with God and live in peace to the degree our trust and hope in God grows and works itself out in our lives.

Readings

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 7-3-2022: 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) 7-3-2022: 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) (6-26-2022: Third Sunday after Pentecost)

SUNDAY, June 26, 2022 | OCTOECHOS

Byzantine Lectionary (Revised Julian) 7-3-2022: 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

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