Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost.The Great-Martyr Barbara (286-305); Our Venerable Father John of Damascus (749)
Ephesians 5:9-19; Luke 12:16-21
Read Ephesians 5:9-19
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
There are always two things happening in a conversation: the topic of conversation and what people are doing with the topic of conversation. Sports might be the topic but one person could be seeking to bond over their favorite team while the other could be trying to outdo the other in knowledge of stats – same topic but each are doing very different things.
More conversations on more topics are happening than ever before but what people are doing with them is more polarized than ever. How are we to engage in conversation with others?
Today’s reading connects the kind of speaking we are doing with either light or darkness. It is difficult to talk about anything without looking at it clearly. The most effective artists, scientists, and theologians have an unflinching eye – they do not avoid the sometimes-uncomfortable challenge of looking clearly at what they are talking about. It is not to avoid that that St. Paul says, “For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret.” He is referring instead to his previous warning in verse 4 against what we can fall into doing: “Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity,” regarding “immorality and all impurity or covetousness.”
Instead, like an interpretive frame around today’s reading, in verses 4 and 20 Paul connects the light by which we see things with thanksgiving: “Instead let there be thanksgiving,…always and for everything giving thanks.”
G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Thanks is the highest form of thought.” If we want to see our way clearly in conversation with others, prepare by nurturing a heart of gratitude, enlightened in Christ. What would you do differently in conversation if your starting point was one of gratitude?