Serve with Love, Avoid Greed
Sermon preached by Dimitri Newman on Sunday, June 9, 2024
In the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen!
Christ is Risen!
In today’s epistle we heard about a slave girl, who was possessed by a spirit, which had the power of divination, that is the spirit was able to tell the future. The people of Phillipi, where the apostles were, would apparently spend a great deal of money to have their fortune’s read. Despite how skeptical our culture is toward fortune-telling and psychics, it is still a multi-billion dollar industry today; so we can imagine the eagerness people would have had when the culture collectively accepted this profession as having communication with spirits or gods. In fact in 1 Corinthians 10:20 St. Paul identifies the gods of the nations as demons when he says “the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons.” The historian Herodotus recorded an episode of a consultation of the Oracle of Delphi, who was a young woman who would be possessed by the god Apollo to give cryptic verses concerning the future. When the Persian King Xerxes invaded Greece in 480 B.C. the oracle told the Greeks that they would be safe behind a wall of wood, which the Greek general Themistocles correctly interpreted as a fleet of wooden ships, with which the Greek were able to defeat the Persians. The people of the ancient world wholeheartedly believed in the power of these spirits to tell the future and would be very willing to spend money to learn of their personal futures. We see that the masters of the possessed slave-girl in the epistle had gained much wealth from their exploitation of the poor girl, since as a slave none of the money earned from the readings would go to her but to her owners.
In 1 Thessalonians 4, St. Paul tells us of a few things how we “ought to walk and to please God.” Of these the owners of the slave-girl were greatly lacking, namely mutual love and honest labor. He writes “you yourselves are taught by God to love one another” the masters do not show love towards their slave; they would rather she suffer at the hands of this spirit than to have her cured and are so angry with St. Paul, that they have him arrested. Later in 1 Thessalonians 4 St. Paul writes “aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with our own hands as we commanded you.” The masters became rich without having to lift a finger themselves, relying on the spiritual suffering of this poor girl. In fact St. Paul had little patience for people who did not have to work for their money. In an often mis-interpretted verse from 2 Thessalonians the apostle writes “if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.” St. Paul here is talking about the wealthy, who do not have to work for their bread, but are instead busybodies, who have the ability to come early and eat the food, while everyone else has to work.
So then, we ought not be like these masters in the epistle. We often try to compartmentalize our lives. We keep all the religious stuff over here, family stuff over there, work stuff over there, but in reality, the commandments of Christ should permeate through and guide our entire lives. So when we are working, we should strive to make sure that our work is honest and for the glory of God. St. Clement of Alexandria put it this way: “Practice farming, we say, if you are a farmer; but while you till your fields, know God. Sail the seas, if you are devoted to navigation, but meanwhile call on the Heavenly Pilot.” (Exhortaton to the Heathen). It is easy to forget about God while being distracted at work. Beginning our day with a prayer, even if it is a short prayer in your car before you walk into work, can help to keep our mind on Christ throughout the day. Also memorizing a short, repeatable prayer, such as the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ son of God have mercy on me a sinner” can be helpful to recite whenever you have a second and think of it.
Another part of working for the glory of God means avoiding temptations at work. In our pursuit of accolades and promotions, there can be the temptation of dealing underhandedly with coworkers, or if we are in positions of power over other people, there might be a temptation to take advantage of those people, to give them unfair compensation or overwork them. This can happen only when we forget the commandment to love one another. It is important to remember that work is a means to an end. We have to work, in order to provide for ourselves and those who depend on us, but if we make the work itself more important than the human beings we work with or the people for whom the work is providing, then we are denying the image of Christ in those people. We should deal with them and everyone with mutual love and repsect and not take advantage of them
So then what if we already have a greater share of money than we need, our needs and the needs of our family are met and there is more money left over. When the parents of St. Antony died, they left him a great inheritance, as they were very wealthy. Following the example of those in Acts who “sold their possessions and brought and laid them at the Apostles' feet for distribution to the needy” St. Antony gave three hundred acres of fertile land to the people of his village, sold his moveable property and gave the proceeds to the poor, making sure however to put enough aside so that his sister would have enough to be taken care of. I think St. Antony is a great example to follow when we have an excess of money. St. Antony knew that he needed to follow the example set forth in Acts, but also recognized that there was still someone who depended on him and so he did not give all he had. In order to make sure that his sister was taken care of, he set aside enough for her to reside comfortably with a group of female monastics. If we have more than we need, then it no longer belongs to us and we should give it to the poor, to whom it should now belong. St. Basil the Great once said “someone who takes a man who is clothed and renders him naked would be termed a robber; but when someone fails to clothe the naked, while he is able to do this, is such a man deserving of any other appellation? The bread which you hold back belongs to the hungry; the coat, which you guard in your locked storage-chests, belongs to the naked; the footwear mouldering in your closet belongs to those without shoes. The silver that you keep hidden in a safe place belongs to the one in need.” And so if we have more than we need, we should put aside that which we need in order for us and those who depend on us to be comfortable, but the rest should be given away to the poor.
If we, as St. Paul exhorts us, deal with others with mutual love, and labor fairly, we avoid being like the masters in today’s epistle. And if we should ever be confronted with our misuse of our fellow human, let us not react as they did, in anger, bringing accusations against those who call us out, but instead use it as a chance for repentance and bring our work life back in line towards the glory of God and not the lining of our own pockets.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.