A Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

  <>I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye area called.
—Ephesians 4:1

           Writing from his jail cell in Rome, Saint Paul sent a message of encouragement to the Christian community in Ephesus, on the west coast of what is now Turkey.  The section of the letter that was read this morning follows immediately after the section that was read last Sunday.  You will recall that last Sunday’s epistle began with Paul’s desire that the Ephesians should not be discouraged when they heard about Paul’s suffering, which he said was for them.  In this morning’s reading, Paul describes himself as “the prisoner of the Lord”; but the Greek might be better translated as “the prisoner in (or for) the Lord.”  He is not kidding.  At the time that he wrote the letter Paul was under arrest for preaching Christianity in the imperial city.

          In the part of the letter that we read last week, Paul tells the Ephesians that he prays to God that Christ might dwell in their hearts and that they might know the love of Christ and be filled with all the fullness of God.  It is a prayer that Paul might very well have made for us, and that we ought to make on our own behalf. 

          Now Paul tells the Ephesians what he expects of them; and, once again, he might very well be writing to us.  What Paul says to the Ephesians is what needs to be said to every Christian community and to every Christian.  “I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.”  In that sentence, Paul reminds his readers (or hearers) that Christianity is a vocation, a calling.  More especially, it is God’s calling us to be his disciples.  Before we chose Christ, Christ first chose us.  He is, after all, the good shepherd who knows his sheep, and his sheep hear his voice when he calls to them, and he leads them in to safety and to good pasture.  As Saint Peter wrote in his first epistle, he has called us out of darkness into his own marvelous light.
 
          Ours is a high calling, and we must not take this calling lightly, but must be attentive to the dignity to which we are summoned.  Saint Thomas Aquinas, commenting on this verse, wrote that if someone had been chosen to a rank of nobility in a kingdom, it would be unworthy of him to act like a peasant.  Similarly, he wrote, we are called to be fellow citizens of the saints in God’s own household; and it is unworthy of us to engage in earthly affairs or to worry about worldly matters.
 
          We must walk worthy of our calling; we must live up to this calling.  And in this regard, we must endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace.  Paul specifically commends to his readers four virtues, which they must cultivate:  lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, and forbearance.  These virtues are related to each other; and each of these virtues involves the rejection of its contrary vice.
 
          The first virtue is humility (or lowliness); and its opposite vice is pride.  Pride inclines a person to want to lord it over others, while at the same time resisting the attempt of others to rule over him.  Pride is, therefore, a source of dissension and strive in the community, or, as the book of Proverbs says:  “Among the proud there are always contentions.”  Therefore, as the first step toward walking worthy of our calling, Saint Paul calls on us to subdue our pride and to cultivate the virtue of humility.  As the Apostle James wrote, “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”
 
          Next, Paul urges meekness.  This meekness is the opposite of anger.  When we give way to anger, we desire to inflict injury on others, perhaps with words, perhaps with physical violence.  Anger blinds us, it deprives us of our reason, it sets us against our brothers and sisters.  Again, it is as Saint James wrote:  “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”  But if we are meek, we will endure injury without inflicting it, we will avoid conflict and preserve peace.
 
          Third, Paul counsels long-suffering, which is the opposite of impatience.  Impatience often arises out of righteous indignation;  we are conscious of an insult and we must have it redressed immediately, we see something that is wrong and we want to set it right straightaway.  But if we are patient, we will endure wrongs that are done to us.
 
          And fourth, Paul advises forbearance.  The vice that is contrary to forbearance may be called inordinate zeal.  Inordinately zealous about everything, we are apt to pass judgment on whatever we see, not waiting for the proper time and place.  This kind of inordinate zeal leads to turmoil, and turns the members of a community against one another.
 
          Of the four vices that threaten the peace and unity of the community, the first is pride; and pride is, in a sense, the wellspring of the other three.  If we are consumed with pride, we cannot walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we have been called.  To be worthy of our calling, we must not be proud, but humble.  Pride makes us think too highly of ourselves, and to forget that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves.
 
          In today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus also teaches the virtue of humility.  The occasion is a dinner party to which Jesus has been invited, and which was also attended by a number of lawyers (that is, Torah scholars) and Pharisees.  When the time came to go in to dinner, Jesus noticed how his fellow guests tried to find themselves the most important seats at the table, and he said to one of them: 
 
          When you are invited to a dinner party, do not rush to grab the place of honor for yourself; next thing you know, the host may come to you and tell you to give up your chair to a more honoured guest.  When that happens, you will have to find a place way in the back.  On the other hand, if you take a seat at the back of the room, the host may come and say to you, “Friend, go up higher.” 
 
          Now the Gospel is not an etiquette book, and Jesus is not a teacher of party manners.  Instead, this saying of our Lord’s is in the nature of a parable.  It is a kind of cautionary tale, applicable to all that we do in life.  The scramble for the best seats at the dinner party represents a spiritual problem, which is the desire to show off, to impress people, and to win esteem in public opinion. 
 
          But God is not impressed with our outward show; God sees the inner man, he regards what is in our hearts.  If we make ourselves out to be important, we will have our comeuppance; but if we are humble, he may say to us:  Friend, come up higher.  “Whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
 
          There is a story told in the Gospel about two of Jesus’s disciples who let pride get the better of them and tried to pick out a couple of choice seats for themselves.  James and John came to him and asked a favour.  He asked, "What is it you want?"    They answered him, "Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."  Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"   They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;  but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared."  
 
        James and John had acted just like those lawyers and Pharisees who tried to get the best seats at the dinner party.  Jesus used this as an opportunity to teach the disciples.  Jesus summoned them and said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones make their authority over them felt.  But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.   For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
 
          It is the revolutionary nature of the Gospel to turn the things of this world on their head, to show that in the end, what seems to be important in the world is of small matter in the kingdom of God.  Can we forget the song sung by our Lady while she carried Jesus in her womb?
 
          My soul doth magnify the Lord,
          and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour,
          for he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden. 
          For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
          For he that is mighty hath magnified me, and holy is his Name.
          And his mercy is on them that fear him, throughout all generations.
          He hath showed the strength of his arm: 
          he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
          He hath put down the mighty from their seat,
          and hath exalted the humble and meek.
          He hath filled the hungry with good things,
          and the rich he hath sent empty away.
          He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel,
          As he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed forever.
 
 
Church of Saint Mary Magdalene
Orange, California
30 September 2007


See a list of the deacon's homilies.