2nd Sunday of Luke
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1; Luke 6:31-36
The Sermon in a Nutshell
(1) We all think we know best—about almost everything—and the fact that we think we’re always right only reinforces this idea.
(2) As we prioritize our ideas, we start to believe that rules and regulations made by other people don’t have our best interests at heart, so we rebel against them.
(3) But, when we rebel, we end up thinking only of ourselves, neglecting others, and enduring the wrath of authorities more powerful than us—including God. In the case of Adam and Eve’s rebellion, they ended up giving death power over everyone.
(4) God has given us rules to live by, not because he’s trying to control us, but as a rebellion against this world—a world enslaved by death and sin.
(5) As God-loving rebels, Christ has given us the formula to stand against injustice, darkness, hopelessness, and idolatry of all sorts. He has given us the formula to enter into the Kingdom.
(6) How joyful are we by embracing a way of life that leads to life instead of death.
(7) By walking the way given to us by Christ, God is merciful to us and his love cleanses us from every defilement. This makes us perfect and holy in the eyes of God, but, more importantly, it makes us children of the Most High.
Full Text
(1)
There’s a famous story about a father and a son, Daedalus and Icarus, who are are imprisoned on the island of Crete by King Minos.
Daedalus, a skilled inventor and craftsman, decides to escape from the island by creating wings made of feathers and wax for himself and his son. Daedalus gives Icarus a law: not to fly too close to the sun, as the heat would melt the wax, nor too close to the sea, as the water would make the feathers too heavy.
However, Icarus becomes exhilarated by the sensation of flight and ignores his father’s law. He flies higher and higher toward the sun until the wax on his wings melts, causing him to fall into the sea and drown.
In short, Icarus thought he knew best—he thought he was right and could do want he wanted, but it resulted in a tragic end.
(2)
The basic message of the Bible is that each of us has a little bit of Icarus in us—a little bit of rebellion that urges us to do what we want, even if it’s not what’s best for us.
As Americans, we tend to cloak our rebellion in the idea of individualism: an idea that grows until we’re convinced that we’re right and we can do as we choose.
At its worst, this becomes a way of life that puts the ego first and pushes others aside. It divides our world into those for us and those against us, those who are “friends” and those who are “enemies.”
And, once we’ve established enemies, it’s our duty to destroy them. After all, isn’t that what enemies are for?
(3)
But, only thinking of ourselves and neglecting others doesn’t always work out so well.
Take the case of Adam and Eve.
God gave them a law, but they rebelled against God, thinking it was in their best interest to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They soon discovered their nakedness and hid from God.
The irony is that in thinking they knew best, they discovered that they fell far short of being perfect, their shortcomings were fully exposed, and thus they tried to hide their nakedness from God.
Of course, no one can hide from God, and they were banished from paradise, resulting in the introduction of death into the world. This death spread so that now all people and all things have their end.
Later, after the people established themselves as the nation of Israel, God again gave them a law. However, once more, they thought they could leave God behind. They begged Samuel to give them a king, just like the other nations had. Despite Samuel’s warnings that kings were egotistical monsters, God allowed Samuel to anoint them a king.
How did that turn out? The prophets tell us that the kings forgot about justice; they forgot about the most vulnerable in society: the sick, the orphan, and the widow; they began wars and conscripted mothers’ sons to fight in them; they built grand palaces at the expense of the people; they took other men’s wives…
In short, the kings rebelled against God by ignoring God’s law, and what happened? The people were exiled to Babylon. It was the death of the nation of Israel, and it enslaved the people to a foreign power.
(4)
It’s not that God doesn’t want us to rebel; He does. The key is that our rebellion shouldn’t be against God; it should be against the ways of the world.
In fact, it’s God who gives us instructions for rebellion.
In a world that tells us to look after our own and keep foreigners at a distance, Christ taught us to rebel by loving everyone, including our enemies.
In a world that tells us that business is about “who you know, not what you know,” and that you should do favors for others so they do favors for you, Christ teaches us to rebel by doing good even for those who wouldn’t do good for us.
In a world that tells us that possession is nine-tenths of the law, Christ teaches us to rebel by lending without expecting anything in return… that is, we should always be giving away what we have.
God has given us His Law to live by, not because He’s trying to control us, but as a rebellion against this world—a world enslaved by death and sin.
(5)
As God-loving rebels, Christ has given us the formula to stand against injustice, darkness, hopelessness, and idolatry of all sorts.
One such rebel of our day is the Righteous Martyr Maria of Paris.
Born Elizaveta Pilenko in 1891, Maria was initially taken with revolutionary ideas. She believed that the way to end suffering was through political rebellion. However, after reading the Bible and the lives of the saints, she became convinced that what the world really needed was Christ.
She eventually became a nun and moved to Paris where she founded a new sort of community. She turned her rented apartment into her “convent,” but she also opened her doors to refugees, the needy, and the lonely, sometimes even giving strangers her own bed and sleeping in the basement herself.
As her ministry evolved, she rented other buildings for people in need and served up to 120 dinners every day.
To truly get a sense of Mother Maria, listen to this story from her hagiography:
“Despite a seemingly endless array of challenges, Mother Maria was sustained chiefly by those she served — themselves beaten down, people in despair, cripples, alcoholics, the sick, survivors of many tragedies. But not all responded to trust with trust. Theft was not uncommon. On one occasion a guest stole 25 francs. Everyone guessed who the culprit was, a drug addict, but Mother Maria refused to accuse her. Instead she announced at the dinner table that the money had not been stolen, only misplaced, and she had found it. ‘You see how dangerous it is to make accusations,’ she commented. At once the girl who stole the money burst into tears.”
During WWII, Mother Maria helped the local Orthodox priest issue fake baptismal certificates to Jews in order to keep them safe from the Nazis. She also helped smuggle Jewish children out of the concentration camps, saving their lives.
Eventually, the Nazis caught on to what Mother Maria was doing, and she died in a gas chamber in 1945, on Great and Holy Saturday. And thus, she entered into paradise.
St. Maria lived her life by the Law given to us by Christ: love your neighbor as yourself, and in so doing, she became a rebel against the world.
For us, we too may enter into paradise by also following God’s Law and rebelling against the world.
(6)
How joyful we are when embracing a path that leads to life instead of death.
By embracing God’s Law, we are, as St. Paul tells us today, a temple of the living God, set apart and holy.
We shall be God’s people, separated from the world, and God will welcome us and be our Father.
(7)
By walking the way given to us by Christ, God is merciful to us, and His love cleanses us from every defilement.
By walking the way given to us by Christ, we bring the Kingdom to those in need all around us, just as Mother Maria brought the Kingdom of God to countless people in Paris during the early 20th century.
By walking the way given to us, Christ makes us perfect and saintly in the eyes of God, but, more importantly, it makes us children of the Most High.
Amen.