What We Owe One Another in the Body of Christ

Sermon for Pentecost 5

Romans 10:4; Romans 13:8; Galatians 6:2

This month I have prepared a list of sayings of the Desert Fathers that you can reflect on each day through the month. These sayings of wisdom come from the early days of monasticism when believers fled to the desert to work and pray apart from the distractions of ordinary life.

 We might think that these were hermits separated themselves from other Christians to cultivate their personal relationship with Christ.  Indeed we find wisdom in these sayings:

·         About finding God in silence

·         About the practice of unceasing prayer

·         About the struggle with demons

·         About the cultivation of the virtues

·         About the path of repentance

But we have these stories and sayings because these holy dwellers in the desert were

concerned with—and involved with—others. Many of their sayings have to do with their relationships with one another.

Last Sunday, we said emphatically that no one can be a Christian alone. To be a Christian is to share the New Life of Christ together with others. It is to be a member of the Body of Christ and to actively partake in the Holy Communion of the Church.

There is a story from the Desert Fathers that says what our attitudes should be toward others in this Body of Christ. Perhaps you have heard it.

Two monks in the Egyptian desert made their living by making baskets. One day, they went into Alexandria to sell the baskets they had made. At the end of the day, one said to the other, “Let us go back to the desert to take up our prayers again.” The other said, “You go.  I must stay here. For I am not worthy to continue the path of holiness in the desert. You see, this very day, while you were selling baskets, I wandered off and I fell into the sin with a woman.”

The other said to him, “I too, when you had wandered off, also fell into the sin of the flesh.  But let us not despair. Let us go back to the desert and live a life of repentance and pray that the Lord would have mercy on us.”

So they both went back to the desert together. And they both confessed to the gathering of the community of monks that they had grievously fallen into temptation. And they asked everyone to pray for them. And both accepted the penance given to them. And from that time on the two did not cease to live a life of humility and penitence for their sin

After some years, one of these monks died, and then the other. And at the funeral of the last, it was revealed that only one of these monks had actually fallen into the sin he had confessed. The other had confessed the same sin, for the sake of the other.  Not wanting the other to fall into despair and be lost, this righteous monk joined the other in his confession and repentance. So it was that both were saved.

This is an example of the kind of life we share together in the Body of Christ, the Church. It is a life of the deepest kind of love. This is the love called agape love—self-giving love. It is the kind of love that the Lord Jesus Christ was talking about when he said, “A new commandment I give to you. Love one another.  As I have loved you so you must love one another!” (John 13:34).

Today we read in our Epistle that “… Christ is the end of the law that everyone who has faith may be justified” (Romans 10:14). Please understand.  This does not mean that we can do anything we please. The Lord Jesus Christ has fulfilled the Law of the Old Covenant. So we are no longer “under the Law but under grace.” (Romans 6:14).

But, in a sense, we in the Body of Christ are given a “Higher Law.” This is the “Law of the New Covenant.” The scriptures call it the “Law of liberty”; the “Law of the Spirit of Life”; or simply the “Law of Christ.”

Let’s be clear what this Law of Christ is.  Some would suppose that it is the  rules regulations of the Church. They would assert that the Law of Christ consists of the obligations of the members of the Orthodox Church. These are the traditions of the Church set down in its “Canons.”  Or even the duties of parish members set down in its constitution.

According to this idea, those who are willing to follow these regulations are members of “our church.”  Those who do not (or cannot) follow them are not members.

But what does the scripture say? St. Paul says it, ““Owe no one anything except one thing—that you love one another. For those who love fulfill the Law” (Romans 13:8). We are not bound together by the rules and regulations of the “old Law.” But we are bound together by the New Law of Christ.

What is this “New Law” of Christ? The Lord Himself taught that our fundamental obligation to the Holy God is to love Him with our whole heart, and soul, and mind. (Matthew 22:37). And our fundamental obligation to our fellowman is to love our neighbor as ourselves. (Matthew 22:39).  And our primary obligation to our fellow members of the Church is to love one another just as Christ has loved us.  (John 13:34).

You see, the Church is much more than a business that has rules, requirements, and dues.

It is the Living Body of Christ in this world. And in this Body of Christ, we bear one another’s burdens.  For as St. Paul says, it is in bearing one another’s burdens that “…fulfill the Law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2)

That is the very essence of love--that if we share the forgiveness of God and the hope of the resurrection, we also share in each other’s struggles. Bearing one another’s burdens means supporting one another in the “good fight of faith.” And instead of judging or condemning others, we encourage one another.  And if anyone has gone astray, it means seeking to restore that person to the fellowship in humility and gentleness (Galatians 6:1).

We are in this together. And our Holy Tradition is, above all, the way of the cross-- the way of self-giving love. Christ is the end of the “old Law,” the "Old Covenant." The begining of the "New  Covenant" is Christ our Lord .This new Law of Christ is fulfilled when we love one another as Christ has loved us. That is what we owe one another in the Body of Christ.