OF SINNERS AND REPUBLICANS

A SERMON FOR THE 11TH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

INTRODUCTION

Beloved brethren in Christ, the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity confronts us with the essence of true religion: not outward show, but inward truth; not pride, but humility; not boasting, but grace. The Psalmist declares, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

Today’s readings bring us to the heart of the matter: Leviticus presses upon Israel the holiness of God and the need for purification. St. Paul proclaims the Gospel as the death and resurrection of Christ, witnessed in power, received in faith, and lived out in charity. And in the Gospel, our Lord sets before us the great reversal of the Kingdom: the self-exalting Pharisee is cast down, while the humbled Publican is lifted up.

This is the pattern also lived by the saints we remember: St. Moses the Black, who turned from robber to monk; St. Augustine, who confessed his restless heart; St. John the Baptist, who said of Christ, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30); and St. Aidan, who walked humbly as a missionary shepherd. Their witness is our guide.

SCRIPTURE 

OLD TESTAMENT (Leviticus 11–12)

In Leviticus we hear the Lord’s commands concerning clean and unclean. To modern ears, these regulations may seem arbitrary. Yet their purpose was to teach Israel that fellowship with the Living God requires separation, consecration, purification. As St. Paul explains, “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). St. Augustine notes that the ceremonial law was given “to admonish the proud, and to make manifest the need of grace”(Contra Faustum, 6.5). The Pharisee in our Gospel missed this lesson, boasting in the Law instead of letting it humble him.

EPISTLE (1 Corinthians 15:1–11; 16)

St. Paul summarizes the Gospel: “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures… was buried… rose again the third day… and was seen” (1 Corinthians 15:3–5). This is the kerygma, the beating heart of the Church’s proclamation. St. John Chrysostom, in his Homilies on First Corinthians, remarks: “See how he everywhere makes the prophecy his evidence; for he brings forward what was written a long time before, and confirms it by what was done after.”

St. Paul then exhorts in chapter 16: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity” (vv. 13–14). Here is the balance: strength in confession, gentleness in love. St. Gregory Nazianzen comments, “To be great in tongue is not to be great in faith; let us rather be great in love, for charity never faileth.”

GOSPEL (Luke 18:9–14)

Two men stand in the Temple. The Pharisee lists his merits; the Publican smites his breast. Christ declares, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other” (v. 14).

St. Cyril of Alexandria writes, “The Pharisee is condemned, though he fasted and tithed; the Publican is justified, though he could only say, ‘God be merciful to me.’ For he who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted. Humility is the ladder to heaven.”

St. Bede the Venerable, that great English doctor, adds: “The Pharisee, boasting of his merits, lost the merit of his prayer. The Publican, accusing himself of sin, laid hold on mercy.”

Thus the Publican becomes a figure of the Christian soul, standing at the altar of the Cross, pleading not works, but mercy.

SERMON

When I was a child, listening to the Scriptures without understanding, I was deeply concerned when I heard my father preach about Jesus spending time with the “Sinners and the ‘Republicans.’” I remember asking him one day after his prayer service, “Dad, why are we Republicans if Jesus was trying to convert them to be better people?” He laughed and said, “Republicans need Jesus, too, and they should all be converted, but Jesus was talking about a ‘Publican’ - a Jewish person who betrayed his own people and served the pagan Roman state!” Many years have passed, and I remember this story every time I read this passage. I remember that we must all be converted, and I find it interesting how much “Republican” and “Publican” have come to resemble one another during my lifetime, as parties become more important than the eternal and unchanging truth of God to some people. May the Lord help the Church to retake the public sphere and to convert our fallen nations back to Christ. May we all become “Converted Publicans!”

St. John Chrysostom tells us plainly: “The Publican gained heaven by one word; the Pharisee was cast down by many.” In other words, it is not the eloquence of prayer that justifies, but the humility of heart.

The Pharisee embodies what Isaiah warned against: “This people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me” (Isaiah 29:13). The Publican fulfills the Psalmist’s cry: “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice” (Psalm 130:1–2).

This contrast is woven through Scripture. Hannah prayed silently, her lips moving, and God granted her Samuel (1 Samuel 1:13). King David, smiting his breast in repentance, heard the word, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin” (2 Samuel 12:13). St. Peter, after denying Christ, “went out and wept bitterly”(Luke 22:62). In each case, tears and humility, not boasting, drew down mercy.

The Fathers echo this theme. St. Ephrem the Syrian, in his Hymns on Paradise, writes: “The ladder to the Kingdom is hidden in the soul; lowly is the heart that ascends.” St. Basil the Great exhorts, “Never boast of your works; remember the thief on the cross, who entered Paradise by a single prayer.”

And here we recall also St. Moses the Black, once a violent man, later the gentlest of monks. When he was accused, he confessed openly, “They have spoken truly, for I am a sinner.” In that humility, he became radiant with the grace of Christ.

I was speaking this very morning with one of our young minor clergy about the dangers of pride among aspirants to the priesthood. Too often, he said (and I have seen it myself), young men long for the clerical state not out of love for Christ or for souls, but so that they might “hold the line” or “enforce the standards,” as if the Church were a garrison to be guarded rather than a table to be spread in love. In my own seminary days, I suffered because I was too trusting, sharing freely with those who, instead of rejoicing in fellowship, sought advantage and power. But the Gospel is not about withholding; it is about sharing, about pouring out one’s life for the salvation of others. To desire the priesthood as a position of self-righteousness or superiority is to come for the very opposite reason that Christ came, who humbled Himself even unto death. Pride is the root of all our sins, and the nearer one draws to the altar, the more dangerous it becomes. Therefore we must repent constantly, guarding our hearts lest we turn from the mercy of God to the false security of self-exaltation.

In English verse, Fr. George Herbert’s The Collar captures the restless pride that is subdued by divine mercy:

“But as I raved and grew more fierce and wild,

At every word,

Methought I heard one calling, Child!

And I replied My Lord.”

So also St. Augustine confesses: “Thou didst call and cry and burst my deafness; thou didst gleam and glow and dispel my blindness; thou didst touch me and I burned for thy peace” (Confessions, X.27).

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

How, then, shall we live?

1. Pray as the Publican prayed. Let the Jesus Prayer - “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”- be our breath, our heartbeat. This is the beginning and ending of our faith, the prayer of repentance and faith, and the prayer of the heart, the mystical prayer of the Dessert Fathers. 

2. Embrace humility as freedom. St. Augustine: “To serve God is perfect freedom.” When we bow low, we are lifted into His liberty. We do not need to think at all about our pride or place before Christ. We do not need to strive or posture. In the light of Christ, we are unique, beloved, full of worth and called to intimacy with God. Before Christ, all humanity is equal as a reflection of His Face. 

3. Live charity in action. As St. Paul said, “Let all your things be done with charity.” To despise another, as the Pharisee despised the Publican, is to fall from grace. To serve the least, as Christ served us, is to walk in the Kingdom. This is why we must never let our theology or liturgy become an excuse against service and self-debasement. We must always serve those around us, and intentionally destroy the false idol of the projected self, which wants to be treated as a king or a lord. 

4. Witness in meekness. Like St. Aidan, whose gentle teaching converted a nation, let our faith be adorned with patience and compassion. Gentleness and service, humility and love, putting ourselves down and lifting others up, is always the Way of the Logos, the pathway to bringing God into the world. 

COLLECT

Let us pray…

O Lord God of mercy and compassion, who hast taught us that thou resistest the proud but givest grace unto the humble: Grant that we, after the example of the Publican, may smite our breasts in true repentance, and with the contrite heart of St. Moses the Black, the burning love of blessed Augustine, the fearless witness of John the Baptist, and the meek zeal of Aidan thy bishop, may be justified by thy grace, renewed in thy sacraments, and lifted into the fellowship of thy saints; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.