SERVANTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

A Contemporary Byzantine-Style Icon of Christ Multiplying the Loaves

A SERMON FOR THE SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

“But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” - Romans 6:22

INTRODUCTION

Grace and peace be with you all, my brothers and sisters, on this holy Lord’s Day, as we gather in the stillness of Mid-Summer, beneath the warm and watchful gaze of God’s holy providence. The turning of the calendar brings us now to the first Sunday of August, a month of early harvest and preparation, of endings and new beginnings. The fields grow heavy, the days grow slightly shorter, and our hearts turn toward the sacred rhythms of the Church and the quiet shift of life’s seasons.

This week in our Western Orthodox calendar, we have commemorated the faithful witness of St. Joseph of Arimathea, that secret yet courageous disciple who, amid the shame of Golgotha, boldly claimed the body of Christ and gave it reverent burial. We honor also the memory of the Holy Maccabean Martyrs, those valiant souls of the Old Covenant who chose faithfulness unto death rather than apostasy before tyrants. Their witness stands ever before us as a solemn call to perseverance and holy conviction. We also begin the Dormition Fast, a time of self-denial and meditation on the fantastic concept of Christ’s Incarnation, God’s use of the Blessed Virgin, the Most Holy Theotokos and Mother of Our Lord, to bring salvation into the world, and the way in which we are connected through the Holy Spirit with all the Saints and Angels in Heaven!

It is also a season of transition for many in our parish family. This time of year marks a rite of passage, as our young men and women prepare to depart for college and new callings. They will leave behind the familiar rhythms of home and parish life and step forward into a wider world: often filled with both promise and peril. To them we say: you do not go alone. You carry within you the prayers of your Church, the blessing of your fathers and mothers, and the indelible imprint of Christ in your baptism and chrismation. Your journey will not be without challenge, but if you seek first the Kingdom of God, all other things shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:33).

And so, as we turn to today’s sacred readings and to the table of the Lord, we do so with hearts both grateful and expectant. The Lord who fed the multitude in the wilderness is here to feed us still. The same Spirit who filled the tabernacle with glory now seeks to dwell within our hearts. And the same Christ who called His disciples to sit and be filled now bids us be seated at His altar, that we too might rise up renewed.

Let us turn, then, beloved. Let us attend to the Word and the Sacrament, that we may be made ready for the path ahead: near or far, young or old, familiar or unknown. The Lord is here, and He has compassion on the multitudes and feeds us with His own bread, parted but not divided, distributed to the faithful and not depleted, bringing the Kingdom to Come into the hear and now.

Let us start by reading again God’s Holy Word…

SCRIPTURE

Romans 6:19-23

I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

St. Mark 8:1–9

At that time: The multitude being very great, and having nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: And if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way: for divers of them came from far. And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness? And he asked them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven. And he commanded the people to sit down on the ground: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people. And they had a few small fishes: and he blessed, and commanded to set them also before them. So they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets. And they that had eaten were about four thousand: and he sent them away.

SERMON

Dearly beloved in Christ, today’s Gospel from St. Mark chapter 8 tells of a multitude gathered about Christ in the wilderness, famished after three days of seeking Him. Our Lord, moved with compassion, takes seven loaves and a few small fishes, blesses them, and feeds four thousand souls with divine abundance. The miracle reveals both Christ’s power and His pastoral love. He does not send the people away fasting; He fills them, and they are satisfied.

This is no mere story of hunger and bread, but a sacramental image of our salvation. For man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God (Deut. 8:3). And today, that Word of God speaks plainly through the Epistle, from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

The heart of today’s message is this: you are no longer slaves to sin, but servants of righteousness, and this servitude, paradoxically, is your greatest freedom. For true liberty is not doing what one wishes, but what one ought to do, in the ultimate empowerment of the image and likeness of God.

THE TRUE NATURE OF FREEDOM

As the Apostle writes: “When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness… but now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness” (Rom. 6:20–22).

Here is the great paradox of the Christian life: that the servant of God is freer than the sovereign of sin. The ancient Fathers understood this well.

St. Gregory of Nyssa, in his Homilies on Ecclesiastes, wrote: “He who submits to God gains mastery over himself.”

St. Ambrose echoes: “Obedience to God is the beginning of liberty, for no man is free who is a slave to his passions.” (De Officiis, II.21)

Compare this to Socrates, who, in the Phaedrus, warns that the unbridled man, enslaved to his appetites, is like a charioteer dragged by wild horses into chaos.

So too in the Desert Fathers: Abba Poemen once said,

“Teach your mouth to say that which is in your heart. And if your heart is in Christ, your speech shall be free.”

The modern world tells us freedom is the license to choose anything. But we know, with the saints and sages, that freedom without truth is a form of bondage, and that true liberty is found only in submission to the will of God. Ultimate freedom is godlike transcendence and love, overcoming the limitations of the fall and the bondage and perversion of the human will, which is tied to passions and full of impurities in the natural state, but able to freely follow God in a relationship of mutuality, creativity, and unhindered love and understanding through the presence of the Holy Spirit imparted in baptism.

THE FEAST OF THE FAITHFUL: PARALLELS IN SCRIPTURE

Today’s Old Testament lesson, from Exodus 40, depicts the completion of the tabernacle, the sacred dwelling place of God among men. The glory of the Lord filled the tent, so that even Moses could not enter. Here we see the divine principle of preparation before presence: before God fills, He commands structure. Before glory descends, obedience is required. Before fullness and power, self-emptying and repentance are proportional to the gifts received.

So it is in today’s Gospel: before the people are fed, they are made to sit down (Mark 8:6), which was an act of order and submission. They submitted to Christ’s ordering and will.

And what does Christ feed them with? Seven loaves, a number of covenant perfection. The echoes are deliberate:

As the manna came down from heaven (Ex. 16:4), so now the true Bread is broken for the multitude.

As Elijah was sustained with bread in the wilderness (1 Kgs. 17:12–16), so now the Bread of Life sustains us in our pilgrimage.

This meal in the wilderness is not only a miracle of providence, it is a foretaste of the Eucharist.

St. Irenaeus of Lyons proclaims: “He took that created thing, bread, and gave thanks, and said, ‘This is My body.’” (Against Heresies, IV.18)

In feeding the body, He nourishes the soul.

In ordering the crowd, He teaches the Church.

In multiplying the bread, He foreshadows the Sacrament of the Eucharist. This is the famous line we say at the ending of the Liturgy of St. James of Jerusalem - "parted, yet not divided." This symbolizes the mystery of the local Church, which is full and complete in each place, fully "kata holos," and yet also a part of a universal and undivided Body of Christ.

THE SACRIFICE OF CONSCIENCE AND CHARITY

In our additional epistle, from 1 Corinthians 7–8, St. Paul speaks of freedom restrained by love: “If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth” (1 Cor. 8:13).

This is the ascetic logic of love. Liberty must be tempered by charity. Just as Christ did not exercise His divine freedom to avoid the Cross, but emptied Himself (Phil. 2:7), so we too must die to self for the sake of others.

This is echoed by St. Augustine, who teaches in De Doctrina Christiana: “All knowledge puffs up, but charity edifies. It is better to walk humbly with charity than to strut with pride and knowledge.”

So whether it be discipline of the body, guarding of the tongue, or sacrificial love, we find that the Christian life is a holy liturgy, extending beyond the altar and into the habits of the heart.

THE INTERIOR TEMPLE

The tabernacle of Exodus 40 becomes the template for the soul of the Christian. As the cloud of glory filled the sanctuary, so the Spirit of God fills the penitent heart.

St. Macarius the Great taught: “The heart is but a small vessel; and yet dragons are there, and lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the treasures of evil. But there too is God, and the angels, and the life of the kingdom.” (Homily 43)

Let us then cleanse the inner tabernacle. Let us rend the veil of pride, set the table of charity, light the lamp of prayer, and offer incense from the altar of a contrite heart.

Only then may we say with the Psalmist, “Bow down thine ear, O Lord: make haste to deliver us”(Ps. 31).

SUMMARY 

You are not your own. You have been bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20).

So yield your members (your body, your speech, your desires), as instruments of righteousness unto holiness.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.

And that gift is not distant or abstract: it is Christ Himself, broken and given, here in the wilderness of this world.

A POEM FOR REFLECTION

“Bread in the Wilderness”

We followed Him past gates and trees,

Through thorny paths and desert breeze,

And found Him where no feast was spread

But mercy multiplied the bread.

He looked upon their wearied face,

And filled the earth with silent grace.

He broke the loaves with lifted eyes,

And heaven’s bounty split the skies.

Not only flesh, but our souls He fed,

With the wine of holy words and His living Bread.

So too in our deep hunger, grief, and loss,

He leads us gently to bear His Cross.

O let us hunger now in vain,

But feast on love, and bear the pain;

For He who fasted, wept, and died

Now lives again, and walks by our side!

COLLECT

O LORD, who didst feed thy people in the wilderness with bread from heaven, and dost even now nourish us with the Body of thy dear Son: Grant us grace, we beseech thee, to hunger for righteousness, to live as thy servants in holiness, and to yield ourselves wholly to thy will; that being made partakers of thy life, we may walk in thy light and feast at thy Table forevermore; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.

Amen.