Homily for 22 March 2015--Fifth Sunday of Great Lent: "Relationship with the Living God"

Homily for Fifth Sunday of Great Lent—St Mary of Egypt

22 March 2015 10 April 2011

Epistle:  Hebrews 9:11-14                                Gospel:  Mark 10:32-45

 

In today’s reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, the author tells us that “the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, will cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.”

By sacrificing His own life, Christ takes away our sins so that we can worship the living God.

Like so much of our Christian faith, this seems to be a contradiction or a paradox:  Christ, who as God is immortal, dies so that we mortals, who are dead because of sin, can worship the living God.

What is eternal and immortal dies . . .

What is dead comes to life . . .

But God is living, now and always and forever . . .

This is what is important.  This is what saves us.  This is the great Truth we celebrate at Pascha and in every liturgy and every day.  Our God is the Living God who gives us eternal life.

It’s interesting that “dead works” is the phrase used to describe sins—which Christ’s death takes away so that we can properly worship the living God.

What does “dead works” mean?  Works are our actions, our efforts, our deeds—the things that we do on our own, by our own motivation, for our own purposes.  They are dead because they don’t come from God and they don’t lead us back to God.  When we try to do things on our own—by me, to me, for me—then we’re acting without God; we’re acting as if we don’t need God.  Ultimately, we’re acting as though we believe we can save ourselves.  And that is a dangerous delusion.

Sometimes we do this even when we are trying to be good and religious and holy.  For example, sometimes people want to do something good for the church, but it has to be done their way, on their terms, without the help of anyone else—even if doing it that way causes disagreement or resentment or offense.

Similarly, sometimes people insist on being married in church or having their baby baptized—even though they never come to church or have no intention of being part of the church.

They want to do the works without, it seems, having a relationship with the Living God.  And so those works are dead.  If we focus on the actions or the rules or the appearances rather than on how they connect us to God, they become just empty shells.

This is what Jesus means when He tells James and John that they don’t know what they’re asking for when they ask to be seated beside Him in Paradise.  They don’t see beyond the position, the privilege, the prestige, to the sacrifice, the suffering, the relationship involved.

The relationship with the Living God must come first.  We have to value it and want it.  We have to know that we can’t get it on our own, by our own efforts.  We have to do what Jesus did—we have to put other people first, to serve rather than be served—so that we will come to know the Living God in living people, who are made in God’s image and likeness and who show God’s face to us.

Jesus invites us to this relationship with the Living God.  He has already made it possible, and continues to make it possible, because He gave His life as a ransom for many, cleansing us of our dead works and teaching us to worship the Living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.  Amen.