To whom do you sacrifice? — First Sunday of Luke
Brethren, it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has
commissioned us; He has put his seal upon us and given us His Spirit in our
hearts as a guarantee. But I call God
to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming to
Corinth. Not that we lord it over
your faith; we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your
faith. For I made up my mind not to
make you another painful visit. For if
I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have
pained? And I wrote as I did, so that
when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me
rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. For I wrote you out of much affliction and
anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you
know the abundant love that I have for you.
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At that time, Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. And He saw two boats by the lake; but the
fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was
Simon’s, Jesus asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the people from
the boat. And when Jesus had finished
speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for
a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master,
we toiled all night and took nothing!
But at Thy word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed
a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to
their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so
that they began to sink. But when
Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me,
for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he
was astonished, and all that were with him, at the catch of fish, which they
had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were
partners with Simon. And Jesus said to
Simon, “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men.” And when they had brought their boats to
land, they left everything and followed Him.
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2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4
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Luke 5:1-11
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, one God. Amen.
In our modern world we have easy access to many things:
clean and safe water from the tap, fruit in the shops which, for most of the
history of humanity in these islands would have been considered strange and
exotic, we consider everyday and ordinary.
The ease of modern life is not limited to food and drink, in our leisure
too: we can get hundreds of channels on our televisions, binge watch programmes
from the internet, we can fill our minds with a seemingly endless array of
radio, podcasts and music. We have
choices of what to do with our life far beyond even our parents and
grandparents.
Given all this choice in our life, is there any wonder why
attendance at Church is falling so rapidly across this country. Churches cannot compete, cannot provide the
entertainment value, cannot offer a perfect release from our stressful lives. Many in our society look for such a release
through meditation classes, yoga and the like yet all these have a finite
lifetime: no matter how mindful a
person is, he will eventually die.
Yes, the Orthodox Church cannot provide entertainment and
mindfulness: but precisely because these are not about Truth and Life. They have their place and yet the Orthodox
Church offers something profoundly deeper and more valuable, instead of a release from reality the Church offers
you true reality because she brings
you into contact, into relationship, with the divine.
We become, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, more and
more like what we consume. Like parents
who warn their children with whom they should be friends for fear that they may
become like them, the same is true for all of us. The ancients saw this but were, at least,
intentional about it: those who wanted victory in war could offer sacrifices to
Mars, Aries or Thor and would then find themselves becoming more violent and
“better” warriors, those wanting beauty, children, a bountiful harvest or any
other human endeavour could likewise find gods to whom they could offer sacrifice
and whom they could emulate.
The ancients’ intentional way contrasts strongly with our
modern way. We believe we have
progressed so far from “primitive man” yet we offer sacrifices to gods around
us: whether to the god of entertainment in a stadium or through a screen, to
the god of bounty in shopping centres and online or to the god of fitness in a
gym, we sacrifice to and become like what we consume. Human progress indeed!
“To sin” means “to miss the mark, the target” and
sacrificing to these gods – an all too easy activity to fall into in our
capitalistic culture – is sinful. But it
was not meant to be so. In the beginning
God created us to be consumers, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely
eat;” the Lord establishes us as consumers, as eaters, but places a limit – he
creates a fast, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall
not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”1 It is not a sin to eat – or to play, to
relax, to enjoy – but the sin is established if we treat each as an end in
itself: if I eat to give me strength for the day then it can be good whereas if I eat so that I may be full then it is
sinful, if I take part in an activity to keep my mind active and alert it can be good whereas if I do it to ignore
the rest of my life then it is sinful, if I shop so that my family and I can
have the food and clothes we need then it can
be good whereas if I do it so that I may have the pleasure of spending
money then it is sinful.
This is the heart of the Christian message, it is what makes
Orthodox Christianity different from all religions: it is not necessarily what
I do which will save me but my intentions.
This comes out beautifully in the Sermon on the Mount, chapters five to
seven of Matthew’s Gospel, and, as I have said on previous occasions, I strongly
encourage you to read it and reread it.
What, my brothers and sisters, are we to do? Elsewhere in Scripture, the Lord summarises
the Christian message as “You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind …
[and] love your neighbour as yourself. On
these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”2 This familiar phrase, from St Matthew’s
Gospel along with a similar one in St Mark’s, is absent in St Luke’s from where
this morning’s Gospel reading is taken; for St Luke was writing his Gospel not
for someone for whom the Old Testament was a given but for a Gentile audience –
those who may be familiar with the Old Testament but not to the extent of the Jews. For St Luke’s account does not dismiss the
Old Testament but sees it opening up to include all within the household of God: “Thus it is written,” says the
Lord in St Luke’s Gospel, referring to the Old Testament, “and thus it was
necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,”
but then the Lord extends this to all peoples, “and that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at
Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of
these things.”3 So, according to St Luke’s Gospel – which is
not in contradiction to the others but has its own emphases – the answer to the
question, “What are we to do?” could be summarised as “We are witnesses: go and
preach repentance and remission of sins to all nations.”
This, my brothers and sisters in Christ, is the goal – the
mission, the reason – for the Orthodox Church in this country, to preach
repentance and remission of sins, this is why this Church is so important. Our society needs this message – the people
of Poole and Bournemouth, Dorset and Hampshire along with the wider region need
this message. St Paul describes, in his epistle
to the Romans, how much in need of the Gospel of Christ our world is:
For since the creation of the world His invisible
attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even
His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because,
although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but
became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and
changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible
man … [they] exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served
the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.4
They worship, they offer sacrifices to, the creature – the god
of beauty, the god of youth, the god of wealth, the god of leisure – rather than
the Creator. Again, “What are we to do?”
could be answered by “We are witnesses: go and preach repentance and remission
of sins to all nations.” Not that we should
necessarily all go and shout on street corners nor knock on doors but that our
sacrifices to the Church – our prayers, our time, our talents, our money –
enable this work to be completed.
What can you, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, offer
to the Church? What can I? What can we sacrifice so that we transform
and transfigure ourselves more closely to the likeness of God. God calls each one of us to himself, invites
us closer, and by the sacrifice of our prayers, our time, our talents and our
money we become more like him. Whom do we
want to become more like – to whom will we give our sacrifices – the gods of
this age or the true God?
The Lord has given each one of you a start: he has called
all and we, like Simon and Andrew, James and John in today’s Gospel, have got
into the boat with him; after his teaching to the crowds from the boat only two
initially, followed by two later, joined him in the Ark of Salvation which is
the Church. Simon, later called Peter in
this morning’s Gospel, was, perhaps, like all of us in being a little uncertain
about what he was to do. He pointed towards
the easy life – the life of choices and leisure activities which so easily
tempts us – but was willing to put his trust in the Lord. He said “Master, we toiled all night and took
nothing!” He acknowledged the “easy”
life yet he recognised in the call of the Lord a better way, a way which leads
to life, “But at Thy word I will let down the nets.”
Are you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, willing to let
down your nets even after toiling all the night? Am I?
Are we willing to take the next step in the spiritual life to which the
Lord and his Church calls us? Do we give
excuses?
When they had done this they received a great blessing, a
great shoal of fish. Note that this was
not treasure nor caviar, the Lord promises us what we need for life rather than
extravagance. And Peter was able to
recognise, in this moment, his own unworthiness: “Depart from me, for I am a
sinful man, O Lord.” This should be our
attitude when we come into contact with the divine, a recognition of our sin,
but also a comfort and support: the Lord immediately replied, “Do not be afraid.”
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ: do not be afraid. We are surrounded by a world of choice and
leisure yet the Church can offer to you a way to Life. Take up the call. Heed the voice of the Lord. Your sacrifices – where you place your
prayers, your time, your talents, your money – reveal whom you would like to
become: become like God, become one who has life, who has hope, who has
purpose. And in becoming like God you
will enable others to come to him by your example.
That all nations may come to know the grace and mercy of God
the Father through his beloved Son in the Holy Spirit. Amen.
1
Gen. 2:16-17.
2
Matt. 22:37, 39-40. See also Mark
12:29-31.
3
Luke 24:46-48.
4
Rom. 1:20-23, 25.
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