The Fourteenth Sunday
after Trinity
D. G. Phillips
Holy Communion
Petite Riviere, West LaHave, Broad Cove –
September 13, AD 2009
Galatians 5:16f St. Luke 17:11f
And one of
them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back,
and with a
loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face
at his feet,
giving him thanks.
As we ascend ever
higher in the Christian life we are coming to know and love Jesus
more. We discover that He is evermore dwelling in us and we in Him.
And Jesus is
calming our hearts within us of all the distracting noises and our
hearts are more and more a place, not of business, but of prayer.
(Trinity 10)
Coming to know
Him never means forgetting about ourselves, but we keep the sharp
point of our minds turned inwardly to see Him within us and above us
– as if we were travelling inwardly towards the holy of holies in
the Temple that is our soul. (Trinity 11)
We have begun to
hear Jesus voice, the voice of His Spirit, leading us, guiding us,
praying in us to the Father with words too deep to comprehend.
(Trinity 12)
Our compassion
for others is growing because we know ourselves to have been wounded
deep within by the violence of the world, the flesh and the devil.
And we also know that Jesus, the Good Samaritan, has anointed our
wounds with oil and wine, carried us on His body, and brought us to
His Church to be fully healed. (Trinity 13)
We are
continually reminded to look inward, because it is there that God is
discovered working within us and leading us higher.
If would continue
to ascend it is there that we would stay – not avoiding but
confronting ourselves.
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You know how
airplanes, as they prepare for take-off begin by gaining speed first
on earth and only after a certain speed on earth do they
(mysteriously) lift-off and soar upwards. For this to happen, the
pilot needs to want the plane to take off, the pilot must decide to
point the airplane to the skies.
We might find
ourselves at a certain point in the Christian life where we are
healed of our infirmities – we have been gifted with a certain
wisdom and courage for our life here, we are living temperate lives,
self-controlled so that we are not being destructive in our
interaction with the world and there is a certain justice in our
soul – we are acting in a good way towards our neighbours.
We might wonder
what is the next step – am I simply now to fill my life with good
works and make all things better for my neighbour – helping out in
the community, working to create a more just society, a kind of
Kingdom of heaven here on earth? This is not a wrong desire, it is
motivated by love, but it is a limited vision – as Christians, we
seek a better country, that is, an heavenly.
If the pilot of
the plane simply aimed the plane to run over the face of the earth,
it would be very fast and would cover much ground, but it would
never ascend the heights – and it would never cover much ground in
the end because of all the obstacles there.
If we are going
to ascend to the heights of heaven, we need to believe it is
possible, we must hope that it can happen to us, and we must
really desire it whole heartedly.
So we keep
looking inwardly to see what it is that we are believing is
possible, what it is we are hoping for, and what it is that we
really want. And in this steady introspection we may very well
see that, even though outwardly our lives are conforming to the laws
of love, that inwardly we are still unconvinced that it is possible
to ascend the heights, that we are not really hoping for heaven, for
the vision of God, and our desire has mixed ends.
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In the Epistle
this morning, St. Paul contrasts the works of the flesh and the
gifts of the Spirit. And this contrast between two ends – an
earthly and a heavenly – is meant to help us see the battle that we
are having inwardly. If we are honest with ourselves, we will see
the battle that is being waged in us. And if this battle continues
in us inwardly, even if our lives are conforming outwardly to
Christ, we will not yet ascend the heights of heaven, our love is
stymied, held back, ineffective, unreleased to its true ends. We
find we are spending a lot of energy wanting one thing inwardly and
another part of us knowing that that desire is not right. We
will become weary in this inner turmoil and find ourselves in a
state of spiritual dullness, without joy, doing our duty outwardly
but not rejoicing in it. [e.g. the dream
of the Siren in Dante's Purgatorio, Canto XIX]
God does not want us
to stay there in a state of stuck, no longer being destructive, but
also not having our desire released towards its true end – the love
of God and our neighbour as ourselves.
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In
the Gospel Luke tells us the story of an incident in Jesus’ life as
he was travelling from Galilee and Samaria towards Jerusalem (going
in the opposite direction of last week).
Ten lepers cry
out for mercy, he tells them to go and show themselves to the
priests, which is what the law required that they do when they are
healed before being allowed to enter back into the community. As
they walk, they are cleansed of their leprosy. Only one returns to
Jesus, with a loud voice glorifies God, falls down on his face at
Jesus’ feet, and give thanks.
Something
different has happened in this man – he goes well beyond what the
law required of him, his spiritedness has been released, there is an
exuberance, he is compelled by love to give thanks to Jesus, it is
not some kind of self generated effort. Like the man who could not
keep silence when Jesus healed him of his deafness and opened his
mouth, this man is ecstatic, going beyond what Jesus asked him to
do.
If we find
ourselves walking to and fro on the earth and maybe even busy in
good works upon the earth but not transcending – if we want to go
higher but find ourselves stuck, there is an answer.
St. Paul says,
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
We are to turn
our minds inwardly but away from what we gave up. It is the gifts
of faith, hope and love that give us the lift-off that we desire –
they enable us to walk in the Spirit: faith directs our inner
gaze heavenward, hope fills us with joy and expectation at the
vision that awaits us, and love is that power that lifts us
heavenward. Pray for these gifts continually.
Our souls are
being made ready for this flight by Jesus. As pilots of our souls,
let us set our sights on heaven, the vision of God, seeing and
loving and giving thanks and praise to Jesus. It is God that will
bring us there.
It is the man who
sees what Jesus is doing in him, who cannot but return to lovingly behold him
and give thanks. It is to him and to us who are here today to
give thanks, that Jesus says, Arise, go thy way; thy faith hath
made thee whole.
ALMIGHTY and everlasting
God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and,
that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love
that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The Collect for Trinity XIV
