Slavery to God Frees Us from Sin and Leads Us to Salvation

Homily for Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Romans 6:18-23…………….Matthew 8:5-13

In today’s Gospel story, Jesus heals the slave of the Roman army officer and is amazed at the officer’s attitude of accepting Jesus’ authority. The Roman officer basically says to Jesus that everyone is a slave to someone: his slave obeys him, he obeys his superior officers, and the forces of sickness obey God.

St Paul talks to the Roman Christian community also in terms of slavery. He tells them that in their former lives, before they believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, they were slaves to sin, but now they are slaves to righteousness.

In the modern world, it’s hard for us to relate to these images of slavery. Thank God, about 150 years ago the Church stopped supporting slavery and began to teach that taking away any person’s freedom was against God’s will and Jesus’ teaching.

But let’s try to imagine the conditions of slavery. Slavery meant being treated like an animal or an object. You had no rights of any kind. You had to live where your master said to live, eat what was given you, work as long and as hard as you were ordered, and accept whatever punishment or reward that was given. You could be separated from your family, sold to someone else, even killed. All you had for yourself were your thoughts and dreams and prayers—and you couldn’t tell them to anyone.

When we think of slavery in such concrete terms, it’s easy to understand why St Paul describes people as being slaves to sin. Sin can take over our lives. It turns us away from God and makes Satan our master. Even if we want to do what is right, somehow we are compelled to do what is wrong. Eventually it begins to seem normal, and we accept it. We become slaves of sin, and what is the result? Death. Not just physical death, but spiritual death, and unless we can break free, eternal death, separated from God.

But it is an illusion to think that we can be entirely and completely free. For we are the creatures and God is the Creator. Our lives are impossible apart from God. God’s breath is the life in us. God’s love beats in our hearts. God’s wisdom fills our minds. God’s mercy is poured out into our souls.

So, in a sense, we are always slaves—either to sin or to righteousness, to Satan or to God. But God is a loving master, whose will is to reunite us with Him in grace and love for eternity. St Paul says, “Now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.”

God is always calling us to share Divine Life, is always reaching out to us in love. We can experience this anytime and anywhere, but perhaps the most powerful place and time is in the Divine Liturgy on Sunday morning. God brings us into God’s presence. We give God praise and glory. We greet each other with a holy kiss. God comes to us in the words of the Holy Bible, in the prayers of the Anaphora that tell us once again

everything that God has done for our salvation, and in the Precious and Holy Body and Blood of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ Himself. In a way, we can say that the Liturgy is a celebration of our blessed slavery to God, the slavery that frees us from sin and leads us to eternal salvation.

And so, as slaves of God, we give thanks and praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.