Third Sunday after Trinity
D. G. Phillips
Holy Communion
Petite Riviere, Broad Cove and West
Dublin June
8, AD 2008
1 Peter 5:5f
St. Luke 15:1-11
ALL of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility…
Humble yourselves…under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time.
We are beginning
our ascent in Trinity season with the basics of the Christian faith.
We learned in
the past two weeks that it is impossible to say we love God and to
at the same time to hate our neighbour. And we will see this again
and again during this season – the love of God and the love of
neighbour are intimately bound – and we will see that a sin against
God has its outward manifestation in a sin against our neighbour.
We are shown
this so clearly in today’s Gospel.
The
Son of God comes down from heaven and is Incarnate in Jesus Christ.
He draws the Publicans and sinners to him. And Jesus teaches them
the way of truth – calls them to repentance, and speaks the words of
forgiveness that they long to hear. Having met Jesus they know
themselves to have been lost without Him and that they have been
found by God.
The Scribes and
Pharisees, on the other hand, who study the law, who seek to be
faithful to it in outward ways, are drawn to Jesus, but only to find
fault with Him. They don’t see themselves as lost and found by
God. They manifest their sin towards God by their reaction to their
neighbours and to Jesus. They are full of pride. They think
themselves better than the Publicans and sinners (perhaps because
they are better at following the law, or at least some parts of the
law, outwardly) and they think themselves better than Jesus, because
he associates with Publicans and sinners.
Do you see how a
sin against God has an outward manifestation as a sin against
neighbour? So we can look at our relations to others to know how we
are relating to God. The Scribes and Pharisees think themselves to
be better than their neighbour and even better than God incarnate.
Do we see this
sin manifesting itself in us?
Many years ago,
having strayed very far, I was brought back by Jesus to God – I was
given faith, but I was still very eccentric in many of my beliefs, I
still had my own ideas about many things (I pray that my faith is
now less and less eccentric). While praying daily and reading the Bible
privately, I stayed away from the Church for a few years, thinking
that if I went into the Church my faith would be ruined. But I went
on a long trip to discern God’s will (I believe at the nudging of
the Spirit). I was in Spain in a small village at the base of a
mountain and went up to the top for a hike. On the way I passed
through a flock of sheep, and finally at the top of the hill there
was the ruin of a castle. There was only one room still left intact
and it had an opening in the wall. When I looked in, there was a lamb
standing there that had strayed from the flock. I thought I should
get it back to the flock, it seemed lost, so I chased it outside and
then back to where the other sheep were, and sat down to rest and
watched it for a while, from a distance. And I saw it again, moving
away from the flock – and I felt concern for it. And suddenly I had
an overwhelming sense of God saying – That is how I feel about you!
It was after that that I began to look for a church to join.
Each of you
know something of this experience – especially if you are parents.
Do you know the experience as you watch your children growing up?
Do you know that experience of seeing them from a distance and being
concerned that they seem to be just on the edges, not willing to
draw near but seeking their own way – I don’t mean in relation to
their work or choice of spouse, things they must figure out for
themselves – but in relation to God, just lingering on the outskirts
of the flock?
And what about
you and I? Do we continue to hold to peculiar positions? Will we
submit ourselves fully to Christ, recognizing the pride that is in
us, that could sever us from Him, forever? Do we have a partial
commitment or will we fully submit ourselves to God? Will we test
our ideas about God and the soul and our salvation with God’s Word
written and humble ourselves under it? Will we submit
ourselves to the most basic spiritual disciplines?
Pride can be
such a difficult thing for us to see in ourselves – it is often the
air we breath. But perhaps we can see the state of our souls better
by how you and I relate to other people, and the wider church with
all of its struggles. Do we see ourselves as better off to stay at
a distance from its ills – will we come tonight, if we can, to the
regional Evensong in Lunenburg? Will we keep our eyes on the One
Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church and also mingle with fellow
sinners as we make our way in this wilderness?
It helps for us
to remember that we are here this morning not because of mere duty
or what others might think of us if we didn’t – but because we are
lost sinners who have been found by Jesus. And we come here humbly,
desiring to give God thanks, knowing our desperate need for the
inspiration of God’s Word – written and made visible in the
Sacrament – and our need for the counsel and fellowship and
encouragement of one another.
The alternative
is frightening. St. Peter warns us in today’s Epistle,
Be sober, be
vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
The roaring lion
is a figure of the devil – it is a figure of the proud boaster
against God (large mouth, big head!). We don’t start there, but if
we linger at the outskirts of the flock, not keeping close to one
another and to Christ Himself, we can be gradually drawn away
further and further from the teachings and fellowship of Christ,
until we come to the point where we might even, God forbid, reject
them altogether.
This is what St.
Peter is warning us about, it is what happened to the Scribes and
Pharisees who despite being in the center of the religious life of
the Covenant people, departed from the heart of the Law and could
not receive the Gospel when the One who fulfilled the Law perfectly
was in their midst.
Jesus tells us
that there has been joy in heaven that each of us has been found by
Him and brought here today. Let us now join in with that joyful
celebration in heaven as we draw not away, but ever closer to the
heart of that great feast in heaven.
All of us desire
greatness – and our autonomy, to do it our own way – it is in our
very nature to want greatness – but greatness, Jesus tells us, is
only found in humbly submitting ourselves to one another and to God.
ALL of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility…
Humble yourselves…under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time.
Amen.
