October 4th, 2026: The Golden Rule, St Luke, Fr Daniel York

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The idea of the so

-called Golden Rule isn't unique to Christianity

per se. The maxim was not unique to Jesus, but

in fact ubiquitous throughout all of antiquity,

from China, Confucius, to Greece, Homer, and

Isocrates. to Rome, Seneca, to the Holy Land,

ranging from Tobit in the Septuagint to Rabbi

Hillel and Rabbi Akiva, contemporaries of Jesus,

whose memories are preserved in the Mishnah and

Talmud. More recently, the maxim was recast as

the interpretive lens to understand Homer's Odyssey

in Christopher Nolan's latest film. through the

category of Xenia, or what the film calls, what

Christopher Nolan coins, Zeus's Law. The idea

that we should remember to treat others and host

them as we wanted to be treated and hosted, in

the case that they might be gods. Something similar

appears in the book of Genesis. practices hospitality

to the Lord in the form of three angelic powers.

The letter to the Hebrews even uses the same

Greek word that some have entertained angels

unawares. For Homer, however, the maxim has to

do with not making the gods potentially angry

and stirring up their wrath. Be kind. and hospitable

to everyone, in case the person you're dealing

with is a god and will be your undoing and demise.

So please them. I suspect that some of us actually

subconsciously live our life this way, relating

to Christ as if he were more like a Greek god,

more like Zeus or Poseidon. than the God of Israel,

ready to punish, ready to strike us down, that

he might fly off the handle at any moment if

we make the wrong move, likely why so many of

us struggle with anger. So then, what is it that

makes Christ's words to us this morning unique?

What marks his version of the golden rule? As

different, just as you want others to do to you,

you also do to them likewise. The difference

is in what Christ grounds the maxim, or rather

in whom he grounds the maxim. In the person of

God the Father, depending on his very character,

the very character of God. Be merciful then.

just as your father also is merciful. That sounds

palpably different from Homer. The word here

is actually closer to compassion. We say it every

morning and evening, actually, in our prayers,

if we say this prayer, as we unite ourselves

to the prayer of King David. Have mercy on me,

O God. According to thy great mercy. And according

to the multitude of thy. That is of thy compassion.

Compassion. The concern for another's misfortune.

To better it. To elevate it. To remedy it. To

intervene into it. A reality fundamental to God's

very character. We sing it every Lord's Day liturgy.

when we sing the psalm, that he sets upright

those cast down, that he takes care of the widow

and the fatherless, and on and on. As the Lord

puts it this morning, God is kind. God is kind.

We should let that sink in. God is kind. God

is kind, even to the ungrateful, or perhaps better.

the graceless, and the wicked. It is God's philanthropia,

what we say all the time in our services. The

priest exclaims all the time that he is the lover

of mankind that grounds Christ's golden rule.

For Christ, brothers and sisters, the problem

for us is not that God might strike us down or

punish us. or doesn't love us, but rather it's

the question Christ asks us. Some versions render

the question like this, what credit is that to

you? This is a little more of a Western interpretative

reading. The King James puts it as this, what

thank have ye? The word haris can certainly be

rendered as thank, like the word evharistia.

What we gather here to do, to commune, to Eucharist,

to give thanks. But Christ's words here should

be taken more simply and much more straightforwardly.

The word means grace. If you do these things,

love, do good. That means bring things to a working

order. that God actually intended them to be

in creation, right? When he declares things good,

they work according to his intended design, which

we get to participate in. If you do these things,

love, do good, and lend in the way that the world

does them, according to how Homer would have

you do it, or maybe today some billionaire out

of Silicon Valley talking about righteousness

and justice would have you do them. What grace,

what grace is that to you? You see, God wants

to give grace. God wants to give us grace. As

St. James puts it in his letter, God opposes

the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And

he always gives more grace. God is ready to shower

us with his grace. God is ready to shower us

with his divine life. Grace is that life. It's

his own divine activity, life and energy, coursing

from him through us, into us, the life and activity

of the Holy Spirit, Christ born, Christ formed,

Christ dwelling in our hearts, the hope of glory.

Like I mentioned last week, St. Luke again configures

his points intentionally around Mary, the mother

of God, who underlies so much of his entire gospel,

who figures so many of the right categories in

his gospel. This is one of the main reasons Luke

is so heavily associated with the icon of the

Theotokos, what Gabriel says to her. Rejoice,

O full of grace. You have found grace, you will

bear a son and he will be great and will be called

son, child, son of the most high. That sounds

so similar to what Christ says here. What grace

is that to you? How will you receive the grace

that only God can fill you with, change you with,

and heal you with? But if you do receive it,

your reward will be great. He will be great.

And you will be sons of the Most High, children

of the Most High. At the spiritual level, the

same thing will happen to you as happened to

the Mother of God, which is what we celebrate

in every single one of her feast days. You will

bear grace in your bodies and souls. and you

will manifest the same sonship as Christ her

Son, and thus manifest that you are indeed sons

of the Most High, God the Father, he who is merciful,

kind, and the lover of mankind. When we love

others, do good and lend, because we don't want

to be punished by God, or more positively put,

we want to be approbated. We want to be spoken

highly about by others. We want to be recognized

or rewarded by men or even God. We close ourselves

off to the grace of God. Not because God doesn't

want to give us that grace. Not because God doesn't

want to dispense it upon us. No, he always does.

But because we have robbed ourselves of his grace.

We haven't truly opened ourselves up in mercy

and compassion. We haven't prepared to receive

that grace. Our hearts are not in the right state

or context to receive it. Rather, as St. James

puts it in his letter, again, we have an ulterior

and sinful motive. Or, as St. Paul puts it in

the epistle reading this morning, we have sown

sparingly. and thus we will also reap sparingly.

We have thought about God as meager, as stingy,

as small, as mean in the classic sense, as miserly

toward us. And so we do things as his image,

as being made in his image, reflecting what we

believe to be true about God. Our beliefs actually

manifest. What we believe about God actually

manifests in how we live our lives as Christians.

And so we do things, what? Grudgingly, as St.

Paul puts it, out of necessity, not out of mercy,

not out of compassion, not out of kindness. Not

really. We might smile, but we don't do it like

that. God loves the one who cheerfully gives

himself or herself. And to that person, God is

able to make all grace about, St. Paul says.

But where are we at? Brothers and sisters, to

be motivated by this kind of compassion, mercy,

and kindness, we have to remember that our own

lives are an outworking of God's compassion on

us. St. Peter so often puts it, you are all over

the place because you have forgotten. you need

to remember again God becoming human, God emptying

himself for us, God filling us with his life,

God drawing near to us in love. Even when we

don't want it, he is still doing it, even if

we can't receive it. God isn't like a begrudging

parent, father or mother, that guilts us for

things we do. Or don't do. God isn't stingy.

God isn't withholding grace, waiting for us to

prove something to him. No, he opens grace even

to those who don't want to receive it. Maybe

deep down, we don't like prodigals. We don't

like those who are reckless. Those who are squanderers

of their lives. Those who are squanderers of

grace and our compassion. And the idea of loving,

doing good and lending without reciprocity, it

sounds more like a sham. It sounds really like

a waste of time, if we're going to be honest.

What good is it going to do? Or maybe we flock

towards the needy, those who seem like they're

a little bit marginalized, to use the popular

word today, those who look like they're a little

on the fringes, so they can be a project for

us. To make us feel better about ourselves and

superior as if we were the dispensers of grace

when we ourselves don't even receive grace. And

we are hollow and dried up inside like no one

knows. Guilt, fear, shame, the fear of punishment,

pride. Brothers and sisters, these things are

not from God. And sure, we can live our lives

that way according to these things and let them

motivate us. Go for it. But what grace is that

to us? What grace is it? See, it's not that Christ

doesn't care about other people. He does. But

his point to us this morning isn't actually about

them. It's not about doing things for other people.

It's about whether we will get out of the way

of ourselves and receive God's grace or not.

As St. Paul puts it in the letter to the Corinthians,

can we open our hearts? Can we enlarge them?

Can we make space for God? I think most of our

problems have to do with that. That over time,

through all the circumstances of our life, our

life experiences, things we've maybe experienced

with our parents, with our kids, things we've

experienced at work, through our lives, disappointments,

failures, dreams that never materialized, the

difficulty of coming to terms with the reality

of our lives, what they actually are. Through

all these things, we have clogged our hearts

with the world, that we are actually, by doing

that, we have become, we have put ourselves in

Christ's way and desperately need to get out

of the way of ourselves and Christ. so that he

can do his work in us. Therefore, be merciful,

even as your Father also is merciful. Amen.