Translation of the Epistle for the Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
Les Paraboles, 1908.
Brethren, We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh; for if you live according to the flesh, you shall die but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba (Father). For the Spirit Himself gives testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God and if sons, heirs also, heirs indeed of God, and joint heirs with Christ.
Continuation of the Holy Gospel According to St. Luke
At that Jesus spoke to his disciples of this parable. There was a certain rich man who had a steward and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him and said to him, “How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship. For now thou canst be steward no longer.” And the steward said within himself, “What shall I do because my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship? The dig I am not able, the bag I am ashamed, I know what I shall do, that when I shall be removed from the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. Therefore, calling gather every one of his Lord’s debtors, he said to the first, How much dost thou owe my Lord? But he said a hundred barrels of oil, and he said to him, Take thy bill and sit down quickly and write fifty. Then he said to another, And how much dost thou owe? Who said a hundred quarters of wheat. He said to him, “Take thy bill and write eighty.” And the Lord commended the unjust steward for as much as he had done wisely for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. And I say to you, make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity that when you shall fail they may receive you into everlasting dwellings.”
The Saving Words of the Gospel.
For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, the Holy Ghost. Amen
Transcription of Sermon
Last Sunday with the Epistle from Romans, we were confronted with who it is we serve. Do we serve our passions, or do we serve Our Lord? We can’t serve both, and we are called to actually put our passions at the service of God Himself. And so, that it’s not a repression of the passions, it’s not a denial of them, it’s a channeling of them in our service towards Him.
And so, continuing this theme, similarly, in Chapter 8 of Romans, we’re confronted with the way in which we serve God; an attitude. Which is the proper attitude? We’re confronted with these two choices: You have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, and we hear all throughout the Old Testament this notion of fear of the Lord but here it seems that Paul is saying we shouldn’t fear the Lord. So, which is it? Well, it’s both. We ought not fear Our Lord in a servile way, but we ought to fear Him in a filial way. And so, this fear of the Lord seems to run up against perhaps the, you know, the notions we’ve been taught ever since the ’70s and the ’80s, that God is an almighty garden Smurf and there are no consequences for sins, and he loves everybody and, therefore, everything’s okay. And therefore, the notion of fear of the Lord is lost, but we see in Proverbs that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And so, should we be afraid of Him? No. Should we fear Him? Yes. What does this mean?
Notice in the Old Testament, where fear of the Lord is discussed in many cases, it’s an injunction in the rearing of children; teaching them the ways of wisdom beginning with fear of the Lord. So, this is a lesson that everyone is supposed to learn. Now fear of the Lord regards – it’s a gift of the Holy Spirit by the way – it also regards something called piety. Not piety in the sense of an emotion or piety in the sense merely of an external act of devout action, but pietas in the Roman sense. Pietas orders our relationships. Pietas, for the Romans, meant that I recognize the authority my father has over me and I respect him because of that. Not only my father but also legitimate authority. My mother, grandparents, my elders, and there’s a certain respect and veneration for one’s ancestors, for one’s patria – one’s own people. And so, we submit ourselves under that authority, but when one becomes a parent, then this pietas has a different expression because then it means solicitude for the needs of the dependents. And so, this pietas, which in human terms, what it does is it orders relationships so they’re functional and thriving.
With Our Lord, this pietas, this fear of the Lord, is a fear of offending him because of who He is, as opposed to what is called servile fear. Servile fear means I’m afraid of Him because of consequences. Notice when children haven’t reached an age of reason, they need to understand consequences for actions. Right? “Behave good, things happen; misbehave, bad things happen.” Well, many people don’t really mature in their spiritual lives and have that notion, almost a rules-oriented notion, in following Christ, in being a Catholic. The rules are there for sure, but our obedience to Him ought not be because the rule says so. The obedience ought to be an expression of love. If you love me, you’ll keep my commandments. In other words, love and obedience are two sides of the same coin. Love without obedience is sentimentality, and obedience without love is mechanical fulfillment and neither one of those goes anywhere far.
And then as we grow up, this notion, if we don’t mature in our spiritual lives, this servile fear becomes almost a deal we make with God. Do you see this as kind of a foundation of the entire evangelical movement, this deal made with God? There’s this man-made notion. Right? If you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you’re saved. You can’t lose heaven. You don’t see that in Scripture. So, we have this, you know, these Bible, Bible Christians having this extra-biblical belief, and doing this work, by the way, it is a work, to make that statement that, “if I accept God as my personal Lord and Savior, I’ve won heaven.” Well, that sounds like a deal because now God owes me heaven, and evangelical pastors often struggle with their parishioners knowing that there is a hardness of heart, because what do they have to leverage with? They can’t lose heaven. So, why should they live up to their dignity as Christians? Why should they live purity? Why should they live poverty of spirit? Why should they live meekness? Why? Why not get everything I can in this life and heaven on top of it.
Well, this is a deal that our Lord doesn’t make with us. This is a man-made notion.
What is radical here in Romans is that God adopts us. He makes us his children. No other religion teaches that. In Islam, if you call god father, that’s it. You lose your head. That for them is a sacrilege. God is, as G.K. Chesterton calls him, for the Muslims, who’s a false god, he is “the lonely god of Omar,” incapable of relatability.
The true God is a trinity. He is relationship. He is a relationship in His most primordial essence. There was never a time when there was a Father without the Son. There was never a time of the Son without the Father. There was never a time of the Holy Spirit, kind of in the offing, waiting to be generated by the Father and the Son. No. No, they are co-eternal. Three persons, co-eternal persons, not three gods. This is the primordial relationship.
And what does God do with us? He invites us into it. The word is κοινωνία (koinonia). Κοινωνία means participation. We are invited to participate in His life. He bestows on us the dignity that is that of Christ. He is the Son. We become sons in the Son. We participate in His nature. As a result, being adopted by God the Father, the only thing we fear is offending Him. We don’t fear illegitimate regimes that want to rule over us. We don’t fear people. We don’t fear demons. We fear our own ability to offend Him because we all know we have a history of that. We’ve done it many times. We’ve let Him down. We’ve let ourselves down. We haven’t lived up to our own dignity as children of God. And for Our Lord, that’s not a problem.
We come back to Him. We confess our sins. He’s waiting for us. We confess, we’re forgiven, and we continue our best, doing our best, to live up to that dignity that He has bestowed on us. And so, when we truly love Him, fear of the Lord then is a logical consequence. In fact, we could even say that fear of the Lord is just an expression of this filial love. As we mature in this participation in His life, the life of grace, we grow in wisdom and love of God. And we discover that actually this fear of love, this fear of the Lord is an expression of love for Him, made real in our surrender to His will, made real in our adoration, our petition, in our contrition, and in our thanksgiving.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, the Holy Ghost. Amen.
— Fr. Ermatinger