Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost; Octoechos Tone 6; 🕂 Hieromartyr Theodore Romzha, Bishop of Mukachevo; 🕃 The Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian.
Polyeleos Feast. Passing into Eternal Life of the Servant of God Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, 1944.
Ephesians 2:4-10; Hebrews 13:7-16; Luke 8:26-39; Luke 12:2-12.
Read Ephesians 2:4-10
With so much going on that is out of our control, what does anything we do now have to do with anything? Past astronomical and geological time is vast, future eternity is infinite, and in the present in between them we can feel alienated from the direction of things. Forces already in motion can seem inevitable and unstoppable. Whether it’s the natural order, international affairs, our neighborhoods, our families, or within ourselves, things can move fast and overwhelm us to the point that we can find ourselves losing perspective, energy, or resolve.
The first part of this epistle reading secures us in what God has done in the past. Paul doesn’t just state that God, “made us alive together with Christ,” he emphasizes how invested God, by his very nature, is in us, “rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us.” Our temporal lives are already connected to eternity by virtue of being united with Christ who has been raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. “The riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” are “immeasurable,” and God means to show us that for eternity.
Secure in the very nature of God, united with Christ in heaven, and fortified with a vison of eternity, the second part of this epistle reading shows that the things we do now matter. Like God, we too have works to do. God has already put them in the unfolding created order. We can recognize them because they are “good.” Sometimes we may see the good thing to do but devalue either ourselves or the good thing. God highly values both. If we do the thing, we will experience the joy of being active in our unity with Christ and discover more things worth doing.