Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Octoechos Tone 4. Post-feast of the Dormition. Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus (313-24).
1 Corinthians 16:13-24. Matthew 21:33-42.
Read 1 Corinthians 16:13-24
Boundaries in relationships are important. For self-respect and respect for others, we honor the integrity of each other’s bodies, emotions, and relationships. By respecting boundaries, we love ourselves and others at the same time. But we don’t always. We sin.
God has the healthiest boundaries in all existence. He will never violate Himself or others. When others violate Him, He does not change, He does not sin. That is holiness. We would not want to live in a universe where God stops being holy. That would be a horror.
But without realizing what we’re doing, we sometimes do want that. We sometimes want God to let love be easier, to not take our sin so seriously. We sometimes want Him to redefine love according to our brokenness, ignorance, and failings.
Today’s epistle reading begins and ends with love: “Let all that you do be done in love… My love be with you all.” But then Paul says, “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.” Aren’t we supposed to love our enemies? Aren’t we supposed to bless and not curse?
Paul is actually ending this epistle with words from the earliest liturgy of the eucharist.
The word “accursed” he uses is “anathema” – to be excluded from communion. The early second-century writing, The Didache, also has this as part of its eucharist instruction: “If anyone is holy, let him come; if anyone is not, let him repent.”
We do not have to wait for a situation of scandalous sin as extreme as Paul was addressing in the Church at Corinth to have something from this epistle to apply to our lives. All we have to do is to take our sin as seriously as God does – repent and confess, then come and receive, not violating His boundaries.