The Value of our Relationship with Christ

Homily for the Eight Sunday after Pentecost, B

Today’s readings abound in many practical lessons for us. We learn about trust in Elijah’s relationship with Elisha and in Christ relationship with his disciples. We learn about faithfulness in Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians. But there is one thing I consider to be the most important lesson in today’s readings.

Simply put, everything that takes place in today’s readings and everything we can glean from them come by way of the relationships presented. Nothing happens in isolation. Whether it is Elijah and Elisha, Paul and the Ephesians or Christ and his disciples, it is through these relationships that we come to learn more about the meaning of trust, faithfulness, faith, patience and perseverance, but also about unbelief and doubt; about fear and immaturity.

We can answer many things to the question of “What is the purpose of our existence?” Yet, by far the most important answer to this question is “To know God and to worship him with all our strength, all our mind, all our heart and all our spirit.” Our peril as Christians has always been to lose sight of who God is and he is first and foremost relational. He created us to have a relationship with us, both individually and corporately.

You and I together are bound in a corporate relationship with God as members of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. We are members to one another and governed by the head who is Jesus Christ. We continue in that relationship when our corporate worship ends. We do not stop being members of Christ body once we leave this building’s doors.

But each one of us also walks his or her own journey with Christ and while our destination is the same, the Lord will decide to take each one of us through a process that is not completely equal to that of my neighbor’s. We will all enter into the kingdom of heaven by the narrow road of the cross of Christ; there is no other way. But as we grow in our relationship with God, he will decide that if I’m a little arrogant, I need to grow humble. If I’m a little impulsive, I need to become more patient. If I have a foul mouth, I need to work on a clean one. These are some of the things that God works in each one of us as his children and they spring out of a relationship with him.

Life will put many distractions ahead of us so that we belittle if not forget who we are in Christ, the sons and daughters of God. The many distractions of this world will keep us from growth, and our own sin, if not brought to Christ, will disable us spiritually.

How are we to remain steadfast and faithful to Christ our Lord in the midst of so many distractions that we ourselves create or that come across our doorway?

The relationship between the prophets Elijah and Elisha exemplifies what it is to remain focused on the hope of our redemption.

Elijah is at the end of his ministry; about to be taken up to heaven. Elisha is the successor appointed by God to continue bringing his word to Israel. Elijah does something quite interesting, and perhaps a bit incomprehensible. On three different times he tells Elisha to stay back because he needs to take care of business somewhere else. First, he told Elisha, "Stay here; for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel." Then, he told him again, "Elisha, stay here; for the LORD has sent me to Jericho." Lastly, he told Elisha, "Stay here; for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan."

Why so much insistence on separating himself from his pupil at the moment when he was about to be taken up to heaven? Well, these were distractions sent to Elisha so that he might lose sight of the prize coming his way, a double portion of the Spirit of God. Yet, he made sure not to lose sight of his master at the crucial moment when their relationship was about to end. In fact, yielding to his master’s request would have signified the real end of their relationship as master and pupil, but Elisha met his master’s bizarre requests with opposing determination. Three times Elijah had asked him to stay back and three times he responded, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." I like how The Messenger version puts it, "Not on your life! I'm not letting you out of my sight!" How are we meeting the distractions of life? How do we confront them? What is our response when they try to make us lose sight of our hope in Christ and our relationship with him?

Elisha’s commitment to his master was shown in his replies. Relationships are nothing if there is no faithfulness in them. They’re as good as dead.

“There’s not a chance I will leave you alone, Elijah. Don’t even think about it.” Let me tell you that Elijah was not expecting any other answer from his junior prophet. I want to also tell you that that is the same answer Christ our Lord expects from us his children at crucial times in our lives. “Oh no! There’s not a chance I’m going to leave you alone, Lord. Don’t even think about it.” It shows how we regard our relationship with Christ regardless of any distractions that might and will come our way. Any other reply would have been wanting and would have left us wanting of the Spirit of God.

Elisha pressed on with his master. We should also press on with ours.

Allow me to put it this way. A friendship is different from a courtship and a courtship is way different from a marriage. They have in common that they are all relationships, but they differ greatly in the amount of commitment to that relationship. Each stage in this progression means growth in that relationship and everything else grows with it. A husband as God would have us be grows each day in his faithfulness and commitment to his wife. A husband as God would have us be will not allow himself to be distracted by what might come our way however enticing. So would a wife that knows the value of her relationship to her husband.

This is exactly what Saint Paul tells to his Ephesian brothers and sisters in chapter 4 of his letter when sharing with them what it means to grow in Christ.

“I, Paul, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Relationships take our time and effort. They are hard work and that’s why any relationship worth its salt will require of us a lot of love, humility and patience. These ingredients must be found in any true relationship.

Paul wants us to understand that in Christ we are to grow in our relationship with him and in our relationship with each other as brothers and sisters. Listen to his words,

“But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ's gift. […] To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming.”

There are tests sent to us by God to help us grow into the image of his Son Jesus Christ. Then, there are tests sent to us by Satan so that we completely reject God, so that we remain distracted, shying away from developing into mature Christians and growing as the body of Christ. So that we remain, in Saint Paul’s words, as “children, tossed to and fro and blown about every wind of doctrine.” If we remain like little children soon enough we will decide that this is just a waste of time. That it’s just to much. That we cannot do it.

We persevere against the distractions of this world when we do what we have done today. We all could have stayed home, couldn’t have we? Some of us would still be sleeping right now cuddling a pillow or two. But we don’t persevere in Christ by sleeping. We persevere and grow in him by saying no to our own flesh and yes to Christ and his kingdom. In our relationship with Christ we have much to gain. Without a relationship to Christ, we don’t just have much to lose, we are simply lost.

Yet, we have come saying no to ourselves and to so many other distractions that would have kept us back from seeking God’s grace this morning. Today, we have said as Elisha told Elijah,

"Not on your life! I'm not letting you out of my sight!"

Today, we have come for Christ, haven’t we? Here we will find him. Do not, my brothers and sisters, let Christ out of your sight, never ever. It is because our relationship with him matters to us that we approach him in humility to receive his grace from his own hand so that we might grow in him. Amen.

Let us pray.

God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.