Union with Christ and the Parable of the Rich Fool

Throughout his epistles St Paul writes about his, and our, union with Christ.  By this union Christ indwells us, and we indwell Christ.  The epistle reading for the ninth Sunday of St Luke comes from his letter to the Galatians.  We have this verse:

I was crucified together with Christ.  I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me (Gal 2: 20).

With this verse, St Paul states he was co-crucified with Christ.  How did this come about, and by what means?  The answer comes from baptism — both his and ours:

Or are you ignorant that everyone who was baptized in Christ Jesus, was baptized into his death?  Therefore, we were buried together with him through baptism [dia tou baptismatos – showing agency] unto death in order that just as Christ was raised from death through the glory of the Father, so that we might walk in newness of life.  For if we were conformed to the likeness of his death, even more we shall be united with his resurrection (Romans 6: 3 – 5).

St Paul teaches we also have union with his resurrection.  We have been joined, or united, to Christ’s resurrection.

In addition to baptism, the sacrament of the Eucharist also brings about this union with our Lord:

Therefore, Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you have no life in you.  The one who is eating my flesh and is drinking my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him in the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  The one who is eating my flesh and is drinking my blood abides in me and I in him (St John 6: 53 – 56).

We also maintain this union with Christ by conducting our lives according to his teachings.  St John records these words of Jesus from the metaphor of the Vine and the Branches:

Already you are clean by the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in me, and I in you.  Just as the branch is not able to bear fruit on its own unless it should abide in the vine, likewise neither can you, unless you abide in me (St John 15: 3 – 4).

Our salvation consists not only of the forgiveness of sins.  Though this forgiveness is foundational, there is more to salvation.  It is ultimately, and in its fullest form, a relational union by, in, with, and for Christ.  In his letter to the Colossians, St Paul gives us a summary statement:

…the mystery which has been hidden from the ages and generations, but now has been manifested to his saints.  To them God chose to declare how great among the Gentile are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1: 26 – 27).

This leads us to the salvific model of theosis.  As this union is worked, or penetrates, into the entirety of our being, we are partakers of the divine nature, and  we become godly, and godlike.  Christ is formed within us because we carry within us God the Son.

Furthermore, St Paul instructs us that this union exists even beyond our present physical condition:

If, therefore you have been raised together with Christ [the Greek construction affirms the positive], seek the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.  Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of earth.  For we died, and our life has been hidden together in Christ in God.  Whenever Christ is manifested, who is your life, then also you shall be manifested together with in in glory (Colossians 3: 1 – 4).

Even now, St Paul declares, we are seated together with Christ and will experience our resurrection by this ontological union!  I offer a listing of these facts about our salvation:

+  Christ lives in us, and we live for him.

+  We were crucified together with Christ by our baptism

+  We were raised together with Christ by our baptism

+  If we are eating and drinking his Body and Blood we abide in Christ and he in us.

+  If we by faith conduct our lives according to the teaching of Christ we abide in him and he in us.

+  We are hidden together with Christ in the heavens.

+  Christ is in us — the hope of glory

This union in Christ represents just a part of a greater union which extends far beyond ourselves.  St Paul informs us of what is called recapitulation:

[I am] declaring to you the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he set forth in him for the plan for the fullness of the ages, to gather together all thing in Christ — those things in the heavens and those things upon the earth (Ephesians 1: 9 – 10).

Hence, I expand upon recapitulation.  Jesus becomes a creature by assembling his human body from the elements of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, oxygen, etc., in the uterus of Mary.  Thus, as a microcosm of creation, Christ has gathered together everything and everyone into himself.  By this he has undone the shattering and scattering of all things into death, darkness, sin, and alienation when Eve disobeyed and Adam capitulated which led to the sin that occurred in the Garden.  Adam and Eve were to be the stewards for the care of all creation.  They were to serve it as priests, vice regents, and prophets of God for all of creation.  They failed.  Christ succeeded.  He overcame death and granted life for all and all things by his resurrection.  By his ascension into heaven all things are held together in him in his glorified body.

This union with Christ demands that we walk in newness of life, and in this newness of life bear Christ to all of humanity and all of creation.  This will mean an ongoing struggle of our will to be conformed to his will and ways.  But, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit (who also abides in us) who works with us to overcome our sins as we choose to cooperate with him.

Let’s now move to St Luke’s Gospel reading for the day.  It gives us The Parable of the Rich Fool.  This parable tells us what we are not to do in this life.  There is a background for today’s reading which is from St Luke 12: 13 – 15.  An outline is presented,

A man asks Jesus to judge between him and his brother for a proper division of the inheritance.

Jesus replies:  “Man, who made me judge or divider over you?  Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Now we move to the Rich Fool:  He had an abundance of crops from his harvest.  It was so great that it could not be properly stored.  He tears down the old, and builds new barns and granaries to hold the abundance.  So far we have no foul.  However, this changes when we discover this internal monologue:  “Soul, you have ample good laid up for many years; take your ease eat, drink, and be merry!”  (St Luke 12: 19).  So, here we have the foul:  He saw his harvest and wealth to be exclusively for his own enjoyment.  God replies to his folly:

Fool!  This night your soul is required of you.  And the these you have prepared, whose will they be?  So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God (St Luke 12: 19 – 20).

So what can be said about The Rich Fool:  He could have partied and feasted with the blind, the lame, the poor — those who could never repay him.  He could have given from his surplus to feed those in need.  He could have shared from the profits of sales with the poor of his synagogue.  Like the Rich Man who ignored Lazarus, all he had to do was give of himself and of his wealth to  bring aid and comfort to another.

With our salvation — our relational union in, with, and for Christ — we are to conduct ourselves according to his teachings.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work according to his good pleasure” (Philippians 2: 12b – 13).

As noted above, we are to set our minds on things above — things which will last, and not on the things of this world system which will perish.  We can make a summary with this instruction:  Be self-giving and other receiving!

Here is a corresponding sermon given at St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Tacoma, WA given on 11/17/24:

In Christ,

Fr Irenaeus