Homily Notes: The Sunday after Theophany
Ephesians 4:7-13; St. Matthew 4:12-17
Three Points from today’s scripture lessons:
Point One: Darkness vs. Light. Christ came to bring us light.
4:16 “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.” (quoting Isaiah)
Our goal as humans – as people who want to be good – is to become children of the light and of the day (1 Thessalonians 5:5). [Develop the theme of light and darkness in the heart]
Point Two: We must repent – remove the darkness in our lives and in our souls – to be part of the Light of Perfection. Being in the light and part of that light brings joy and contentment. Joy and contentment are the fruit – not the goal – of a live lived in the light.
We have the relationship between happy and good exactly backwards. We think; “it is good for me to be happy”, and then find the ways to become happy. This sets us up for failure. Happiness is not the way to goodness; being good is the way to real happiness. [Pursuing the good life through happiness will get us neither.]
The awful irony is that when we confuse happiness with good, we often end up embracing things that actually darken our lives and our hearts.
- Unhealthy relationships. Forming relationships are part of our calling; part of being human. Like a sweet poison mixed into our dessert, unhealthy relationships bring us happiness in the beginning but soon spread their noxious effects.
- Sex before and outside marriage (to include pornagraphy). Again, we get into these activities because they bring us happiness, but they end up keeping us from lasting joy and contentment. Pornography becomes an addiction and ruin’s a man’s ability to have a normal relationship with a real woman. Similarly, pre-marital sex, even between partners who love one another, changes people so that they cannot enjoy all the fruits of a healthy marriage. Thus our attempt to find happiness through sex manages to undermine one of the most powerful gifts God has given to increase our joy: marriage.
- Gluttony [personal testimony about the perverse effects of stress eating and gluttony]
Instead of looking for happiness, we would do well to “seek first the Kingdom of God” – where the source of joy dwells.
Parents are often the worst about this, and we really set our kids up for failure. You can tell that our priorities are wrong for our children when we let them pick things based on how much they enjoy them, rather than teaching (and requiring!) them to first do those things that will make them better people. Parents instinctively want happiness for their children, but this is a trap if they do not teach them that being good is the path to everything that is worthwhile in life. You may think I am exaggerating, but look at what parents allow their children to do on Sunday mornings! Is there any more obvious choice between giving children what they want (i.e. what makes them happy) vs. what will make them good?
Doesn’t this make the trap all the more obvious? Doesn’t the fact that so many parents sign them up for sports and the like knowing that it will cause them to miss Church help explain why our youth and young adults are having such a hard time being responsible and reliable:
- Not only have we taught them that their happiness and feelings come first (a TERRIBLE lesson that sets them up for disaster in relationships and work/productivity… not to mention salvation)
- We have taught them to evaluate Church – the mechanism of our perfecting – based on how it makes them feel.
And parents aren’t the only one who teach children that this is the normal way to manage their lives: we do it by our example. How many times have we skipped prayer or worship because we were just “too busy”, we were “on vacation”, or because we just did not like the way the service was done or when it was held?
As if Church were an optional entertainment rather than the sanctifying experience of illumination itself.
Is there any better example of the tragedy obtained when we pursue happiness instead of righteousness? In the moment that we put our feelings about prayer and worship over the act itself, we have given ourselves not to the Source of Light, but to the Prince of Darkness. [tie it back into the Christ defeating the devil in the wilderness]
We all do it. Seriously, even in those moments when we actually overcome our hedonism in favor of goodness, we are prone to mistake our feelings about what is good for goodness itself. And these mistakes – these sins! – have darkened our souls, poisoned our families, and corrupted our community. We are called to be children of the light and the day, but we have embraced the darkness of our passions. And that darkness spreads among us and rejoices with the darkness of this world.
And so we have Christ, after facing down the Prince of Darkness in the wilderness, coming out in the very next paragraph of the Gospel saying;
“Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Note that He doesn’t say “You have suffered long enough in darkness, come cozy up to the light!” He says; [heaven is coming, the source of all light is in your midst]: “Repent!” [Repent so that you can embrace the everlasting joy that this light brings.]
Repentance is not fun. We don’t do it because we enjoy it. It doesn’t make us happy. We do it because we want to join Christ in that light, but the darkness that has accumulated in our souls does not allow for it. The stains of our sin has soiled our baptismal garment, making us unworthy to be in the precense of God. Repentance is the Baptism of Tears that washes away this darkness that has gathered in our souls; it removes the stains; it destroys the old man of the world we have allowed to live our lives in our stead. Through Christ, we can be good again. We can embrace the light and allow its rays to enlighten and perfect us. But it takes tears.
Point Three: What children of the light do.
[Like Christ, who did not figure His victory over the devil – or His Throne in Heaven – something to be exploited or an excuse to rest on his laurels…] We don’t just bask in our newfound goodness, we bring it others. We don’t hide the light God has allowed to reflect through our lives under a bushel – we let it shine. And because we have been given different gifts, all of us do good [all of us shine] in different ways.
Every talent is turned towards the building up of God’s kingdom. The parish is the place where we practice our gifts. As we heard in today’s epistle;
Ephesians 4:11-13
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers [I would add, some singers; some dancers; some cooks; some managers; some healers; some artists; some ready hands] For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.
It is not enough for us to be happy, we must be good, we must become children of the light, … and good people do not stand idly by as others still suffer in darkness. True “Children of the Light and of the Day” bring that goodness and light to others, and they do it in very specific ways. It takes a lot more than just coming to Church on Sundays and feast days to be a worthy son of God (e.g. Psalm 81/82)!
All of us are called to worship, but that is only the beginning of our life in Christ. Too long have we as individuals and we as a parish sat on the sidelines, basking in the light of Christ. To what end? Have we spread His light? Have we brought His healing to others?
We have great gifts here as individuals and as a parish; it is time we put them to use for something other than making us feel good.
