His cross and follow me and for most of us this
is a struggle. We tend to be selfish instead
of selfless and we think of ourselves first though
we want to love our neighbor and we would like
to be unmercenaries to a certain degree anyway
and our eyes though they remain on ourself, on
our own needs, on our own wants. And so the question
for us to ponder today, for each one of us, is
how do I become selfless and love my neighbor?
How can I do that? Today's gospel from Luke will
help us explore this more. Jesus arrives by boat
in the gatherings and encounters a man who had
demons. They tormented him so badly that he had
no clothes and lived in the tombs. And Jesus
commanded those demons to come out of that man,
and he sent them into swine and into a herd of
pigs. And those pigs ran violently down a steep
slope into a lake and drowned. here for us today
is twofold. One, demons are commanded by Christ
and they have no power before him. Our Lord and
God and Savior Jesus Christ is Lord over all
of creation. Everything is subject to his authority.
Trust in Christ our Lord and do not be afraid.
And the second lesson, which is more directly
relevant to today's message, is that in order
to follow Christ, we must deny ourselves. The
Gadarenes, they saw miraculous healing. They
saw demons commanded by the Lord. His power was
evident. One might expect everybody there to
welcome him and to fall down before him. Before
the Lord Jesus. But instead. They ask him to
leave. Please just go away. Why? They were afraid.
And they did not want to change. And this gets
in the way of us being selfless. If we're selfish.
And we do not want to change. They raised swine.
They were forbidden by the Mosaic law to do so.
But they did. and they knew that it went against
that law, what was their priority in life? It
was to make a profit, not God, not his law, not
following where he would lead, but their swine.
And so, how do I become selfless and love my
neighbor like the unmercenaries? Well, We must
be like the man who came to Christ healed, demons
cast out, and he comes before him and humbly
says, Lord, I want to follow you and go where
you want. The Lord told him to do something different,
to go to his family. But the desire of his heart
was to follow the Lord. We must be willing to
give up raising swine, whatever that sin is in
each of us. that we need to get away from. We
need to leave selfishness behind, be willing
to change, to strive to keep Christ's commandments,
to determine in our hearts, to seek to draw close
to God, and to do this, we must learn to deny
ourselves. Archimandrite Simeon Kragiopoulos
says of self -denial, There is no other way to
be of the Lord and for the Lord to have faith
in you and to bless you. You must deny yourself.
This is the renouncing of the self. It's the
whole assesis of the spiritual life. The great
evil that man now experiences because of the
fall. is that man is locked inside himself. He
holds a high opinion of himself. If you wish
to make a good start, guard this phrase, deny
yourself. 2 Timothy 3 .1 -2 reads, This know
also that in the last days perilous times will
come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves.
John 12 .25 says, He that loveth his life shall
lose it, and he that hateth his life in this
world shall keep it unto life eternal. So are
you ready? Are you ready to move away from a
self -centered life of worldly pursuits, to give
up raising swine, to move away from self -love?
and truly learn how to love your neighbor, there
is only one way to do it, and that is to follow
Christ, to prioritize your faith in him as more
important than anything else in this world, to
learn to deny yourself and to humbly seek God's
will. And you can only do these things with God's
presence and help. So the first step is to draw
close to God, to leave the world behind you,
to come to church, to confess your sins, to take
holy communion, to pray here together with your
brothers and sisters in Christ and also at home,
and to read the holy scriptures, to prioritize
your faith, to deny Do this and be filled with
the Holy Spirit and then God's love will flow
through you. And with the Holy Spirit flowing
through you, then you will be able to truly love
your neighbor the way God has called us all to
do. So let us prioritize our faith and seek first
the kingdom of heaven. May God work in all our
lives and sanctify us, for he is holy. Glory
to Jesus Christ.