Homily for 22 June 2014: 2nd Sunday after Pentecost
(Romans 2:10-16) (Matthew 4:18-23)
St Paul writes to the Christian community
in Rome that “God shows no partiality.”
In a world where everyone believed that the God of the Jews and all of
the pagan gods always showed partiality, this was a remarkable change.
The Jews believed that God had chosen
them for His specially-favored people, above all other nations. And they worshipped God and kept the Law—the
Torah—so that God would continue to favor them.
The Greeks and the Romans, the Persians
and the Egyptians, and all the other people of the Roman Empire believed that
the gods had to be pleased and flattered and kept happy by sacrifices and
offerings and prayers, so that they would show partiality—that is, so that they
would take care of the people with good weather, abundant crops, victory in
battle, and so on.
But Jesus Christ changed all that. As God, He established a new kind of
relationship with people. A relationship
of love and willing cooperation, instead of a relationship of fear and enforced
service.
In today’s Gospel reading, we see an
example of this—Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee when He sees four
fishermen—Andrew and Peter and James and John.
And He calls to them, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of
men.” He doesn’t force them or threaten
them. He invites them, and He promises
to make them something more than they are.
He promises to make them His co-workers in the work of salvation—not
servants or slaves, but brothers.
And his ministry of healing and
proclamation also shows no partiality—Jesus goes all over the country healing
“every disease and sickness among the people.”
Not just certain diseases, and not just the sicknesses of a certain
class of people. This is truly a new
relationship—a New Covenant—between God and people.
When St Paul says, “God shows no
partiality,” he means that God doesn’t judge us on the basis of who we are by
birth, or nationality, or social class; wealth or poverty, skin color or
language. God judges us on the basis of
what we do—how we act in relationship with God and with other people.
St Paul explains that God’s law is the
same for everyone, Jews and Gentiles, but it is given differently. The Jews must obey and be judged according to
the written Law of Moses, but Gentiles must obey and be judged according to the
law revealed by God in the human conscience.
This is harder, actually, because it
means we must always try to understand God’s will and figure out for ourselves
how to live it in our everyday decisions and actions. We can’t just point to the written law and
say, “Well, according to the rule-book this is OK.” We must willingly choose, freely decide, to
do what is right according to the will of God—as revealed to us in the Holy
Bible and explained in the teachings of the Church.
God shows no partiality. God loves all his children and wants us all
to be saved. God shows no partiality,
but God imposes different kinds of responsibility on different people, all with
the same purpose—so that all who follow God’s law and do God’s will may be
justified and saved, to the glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, One
God, now and ever and unto ages of ages.
Amen.
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