Sunday, August 25 (OS 12), 2019: 10th Sunday after Pentecost; Afterfeast of the Transfiguration; Martyrs Anicetus and Photius (Photinus) of Nicomedia (305); Hieromartyr Alexander, bishop of Comana (3rd c.); Martyrs Pamphilus and Capito.
Ss Cyril &Methodius Orthodox Church
Madison, WI
Epistle: 1 Corinthians 4:9-16
Gospel: Matthew 17:14-23
We need to understand carefully what St Paul does and doesn’t mean when he describes himself as the least among men. We shouldn’t take this to mean that the Apostle felt himself to be useless or having nothing to say. This is not “apostolic” self-loathing or negative self-image.
It rather much like what we say when we realize that someone really and truly loves us. We look at the person and wonder, how can they love us? They know us and yet, they love us. How we wonder is this even possible?.
Looking at Christ, Paul realizes that God’s love for Him is wholly a gift. He speaks about himself the way he does because he is overwhelmed by the magnitude and gracious nature of God’s love for him.
And yet Paul’s humility doesn’t prevent him from preaching the Gospel. It doesn’t keep him from reminding the Corinthians that they too are loved by God.
And neither does it keep him from speaking a hard work of correction when needed.
This leads us to another question. Why odes St Paul call himself a fool and the Corinthians wise? Here the Apostle engages in a bit of irony.
The Corinthians have misunderstood what it means to be forgiven and to find freedom in Christ. For them, freedom is license. For St Paul freedom is something altogether different.
To be free in Christ means to accept the awesome and humbling invitation to preach the Gospel “in season and out” as he tells St Timothy (2 Timothy 4:2).
It is his wholehearted commitment to preach the Gospel that makes the Apostle able to bear up under hunger and thirst.
Because he knows he is loved by God he can endure being homeless and naked.
Because he knows he is loved by he can be dishonored, persecuted and defamed but never wavers in his preaching of the Gospel.
At the same time, there is in his heart no hint of the suggestion that he deserves to suffer. Neither is there anything to suggest that his sufferings are anything other than evil.
But for all that he suffers, Paul remains faithful because, again, he knows God’s love for him.
Though they received the Gospel from St Paul. the Corinthians struggle to accept this same love. Do they know they have been forgiven? Yes, absolutely! Their debt to God is paid in full. But the understanding of forgiveness is shallow, transactional really.
But loved? This is something they can’t wrap their minds around and so can’t seem to accept. And because they are unsure of God’s love for them they remain attached to the standards of this world.
This is why Paul tells them that he and the other apostles “are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored!”
But the Corinthians are not wise and strong and distinguished by God’s accounting but by the world’s.
In the view of the world, my value is determined by what I do, by my position in society, by my wealth and the power I command. Sadly, this rather than God’s love for them is still the standard for many of the Corinthians.
To see the harm done by the world’s standards to our life in Christ, we need only look to today’s Gospel.
The disciples fail to cast out the demon because of the weakness of their faith. They travel with Jesus. They listen to His teachings. They eat with Him. Their every waking moment is an experience of communion with Jesus.
And yet for all this, they don’t understand the gift they’ve been given.
Like the Gentiles, like the Corinthians, like too many Orthodox Christians today, they still love power. They still think that being a disciple is a matter of authority rather than service. They fail to cast out the demon because they are still seeking the first place in the Kingdom of God (see, Matthew 20:23 and Mark 10:40).
Gently but firmly, Jesus corrects them. He tells them they failed because they lack even faith the size of a mustard seed.
And what is this faith? That the Creator of the universe loves each and everything single human being. There is no one we meet who isn’t loved by God.
The struggle we face is not convincing someone of the truth of our theology–true though it is. Neither is it making clear to others the beauty of our worship, the depth of our spirituality. All these things are easy enough to do relative to the one thing that we must do first.
And what is that thing?
To help people come to know and accept that they are loved by God.
Though they received the Gospel from St Paul, the Corinthians did not believe they were loved.
Though they lived and traveled, eat and prayed and were taught by Jesus, the disciples only slowly came to believe and accept His great love for them.
Before all else, we need to introduce people not just to the God Who loves them but God’s love for them. In this task, we need to be patient with others and with ourselves.
It just takes time for others to believe they are loved.
My brothers and sisters in Christ! We need to be faithful in the work to which we have been called. We need to resist the temptation to substitute theology or history, liturgy or ascetical struggle for a clear and convincing proclamation and demonstration of God’s love.
While God’s love is one and the same for each of us, the form it will take, the words we will use, will be different for each person. For some, love will require a word of consolation; for other, moral challenge.
And yes, some will come to know God’s love through theology or history. Through liturgy or asceticism.
But whatever the medium, we can’t lose sight of the goal. Helping the person in front of us know God’s love.
In Christ,
+Fr Gregory
