May 27, 2012
Today is the feast of Pentecost, the celebration of the coming of the Holy Ghost to the believers, just as Jesus Christ had foretold. It is the Holy Ghost that has guided, guarded, and protected the Christian Church for the past 2000 years, and continues to do so yet today.
I have no proper sermon for you today because I am traveling. I will be on vacation for the next several weeks, but will return a few weeks from now.
Preached May 20, 2012
1 St. Peter 4:7–11
St. John 15:26–16:4a
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Today is traditionally called “Expectation Sunday,” the one Sunday between the Ascension of our Lord that occurred this past Thursday and the coming of the Holy Ghost that happens next Sunday on Pentecost, or Whitsunday as we Anglicans usually call it. The term Whitsunday derives from the white robes worn by the newly baptized worn at this time. Thus we are in that brief period of expectation, waiting for the coming of the Holy Ghost after the Ascension, a time in which the disciples were left to wait and watch and pray.
Our Epistle lesson for today begins with 1 Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. The end of all things … what is Peter talking about? Please keep that question in your minds as we turn to consider a part of the account of the Ascension itself, Acts 1:9 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. What was happening here? Why did it happen in this way?
Let us first remember that Jesus never did anything just because … it was always done for a reason, to glorify God, to show His relation to the Father, to teach, to enable others to believe, etc., but always for a reason. Jesus could have returned to the Father by simply disappearing. It is recorded that He simply appeared in places, indicating that He was able to travel through space and time in supernatural ways, and there is no reason to think He could not have simply disappeared and been gone. But Jesus chose to ascend into Heaven in this way to show us the reality of human bodies made perfect being able to ascend into Heaven itself in order to give us hope. It is the promise to Christ’s followers that they too will one day follow Him where fallen and unredeemed man has no right to go.
The common image that many have of our Lord ascending is something like Superman saying, “up, up, and away,” and streaming away from the earth, but that is not at all what is described in the verse from the Acts of the Apostles just read. Rather it says, and a cloud received him out of their sight. For those who know the Bible, this does not just suggest a clump of water vapor lazily drifting along in the atmosphere, but rather it refers to the Shekinah, the visible sign of the glory of the Lord that occupied the inner sanctuary of the Temple, the “holy of holies,” in Jerusalem. Thus to say that Jesus was received into the cloud is really to say that He was received back into the glory of the Lord, the Shekinah, that had watched over the people of Israel for generations. This is describing the re–unification of the Holy Trinity at that moment.
It is in this entry of Christ, as the great High Priest, into the holy of holies, that finally completes the sacrifice that was begun on Good Friday. As with any sacrifice, the first step is the death of the Victim, and that was accomplished on Good Friday. We remember quite vividly the sorrows of that day! But then Christ is raised from the dead on Easter Day and we tend to think in terms of everything being completed at that point. But we are not really very familiar with the way sacrifice is done. It is not complete, it has no effect until it is offered to God the Father. Thus it is in the Ascension that our great High Priest finally completes the sacrifice by entering into the presence of the Father in the Shekinah, the “holy of holies” not made with human hands but provided by God Himself for the completion of the sacrifice. St. Paul speaks of this when he writes Hebrews 9:11-12 11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
Having completed the sacrifice that is sufficient for the remission of sins forever, Christ is then seated at the right hand of the Father. Thus His work for the salvation of man is completed, and Christ remains with His Father and the Holy Ghost, just as they were when the work of Creation was ended. All that remains now for Christ to do is His coming again at the end of the world to judge the nations.
So let us return to the question, what does it mean when we say the end of all things is at hand? We think we live in a modern world where things are getting better and better by the day. Through technological advances we seem to be able to subdue nature in the most amazing ways. There are many all around us who aggressively insist that there is no God, and that only fools would believe such an fable. Several popular atheist authors such as Richard Dawkins, the recently deceased Christopher Hitchens, and others are very forthright in declaring their advocacy of atheism today, and countless others quietly deny God. But still God forebears.
There are, of course, various ways to organize the history of the world. From a Christian perspective, the really important events, the events that “change the world,” are these:
1) there was the Creation, in which God created man from absolutely nothing at all;
2) there was the Fall, in which man rebelled against God and brought sin into the world;
3) there was the Sacrifice of Christ, including His Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, that redeemed mankind from sin;
4) there will be the Second Coming and the resurrection of the dead at the end of time.
In observing Ascension Day, we have just celebrated the beginning of the end of the world. The last phase of the universe began the day that Christ ascended into Heaven, because that is when the countdown began for His return at the end of time. There are no more “major events” left to occur between now and the end of the world. We have no idea when the end will come, and I do not wish to be an alarmist. On the other hand, I do not want to paint a rosy picture that says, “everything is just fine, go back to your knitting,” either.
We all know of various groups that have predicted specific dates for the end of the world. They often sell all their possessions in anticipation of the date, possibly to gather in a particular place such as a mountain top or other symbolic location, and then they wait, only to be disappointed. No, this is not what I want to encourage anyone to do at all.
But rather look again at what St. Peter says: 1 Peter 4:7-8 7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. There is no doubt but that we live in the end times, but rather only a question about the immediacy of the end. With that last issue completely unknown, we must treat it as immediate, that is, as something that may happen at any moment. Indeed, for any of us as individuals, this is without question true because we have no way to know when our own lives will reach their end, irrespective of whether it be the end of time for all mankind or not. Thus the only rational way to live is to believe that we do indeed live at the end, and to conduct ourselves accordingly. This means, as St. Peter says, to be sober, to watch, and to pray.
To be sober means more than simply not being intoxicated with alcohol or narcotics. It means to have a serious, considered outlook on the world, not given to fantasy, and placing the proper value on everything. We cannot possibly be sober if we do not think of God, of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, of the imminent Second Coming of Christ, as the main considerations in everything we do. All of this is facilitated as we keep watch for Christ’s Second Coming in constant prayer to the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Ghost.
From this short list of major events, you can see that we are clearly in the last phase, and there is only one more major event left to occur. This is why the end of the world has begun; we simply do not know how long it will last.
Let us pray again the Collect for the Day:
O God, the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven: We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless: but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Preached May 13, 2012
St. James 1:22–27
St. John 16:23–33
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Have you been for a drive in the countryside recently? If you have, you have no doubt noticed that the farmers are preparing their fields for this year’s planting, for the crops that will yield the harvest at the end of the summer or in early fall. The farmers are those who most directly face the hazards of nature, the risks of too much rain, too little rain, too much sun, wind, hail, lightening, and all of the other disasters that nature sometimes brings upon us. Because a successful harvest is of such great importance to all people, the Christian Church has long prayed for the whole agricultural enterprise.
Days set aside specifically for prayer for agricultural prosperity have long been called Rogation Days. The Latin verb rogare means to ask, but more than just to ask as in to ask a question, it is to ask in supplication. Thus Rogation Days are days in which we go to God in prayer, seeking God’s approval of our work and his blessing on it that it may prosper for the good of our community. In the earliest times, there was a single Rogation Day, observed on April 25, which was later known as the major Rogation Day. Later, the Sunday before Ascension Day and the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday following that Sunday were added as what were called the minor Rogation Days. In most places, only Rogation Sunday is observed today.
The first records of Rogation Day appear in Europe in the fifth century. It appears in England in the year 747 AD, all providing us clear evidence that the practice was well established in the undivided Church.
Outdoor processions have generally been a traditional part of the observance of Rogation Sunday. These were suppressed in Tudor England, but were restored by Elizabeth I in 1559 who ordered that “the perambulation of the parish” should be made on Rogation Sunday. This is an occasion for a procession to pass throughout the whole parish, in some cases a trek of quite a few miles, to bless the fields and assure that all boundary marks have remained in place through the winter. This is sometimes called “beating the bounds.”
But even as we need to pray for a successful harvest, we must go much further, praying to our Father in Heaven for all of our needs. We do not pray to God to remind Him of our needs; He is already much more aware than we are of just what we need. Rather we pray to remind ourselves just how dependent we are upon God, how we live and move in His love only, and without Him we die forevermore. But let us look at the situation at the beginning of our Gospel lesson: John 16:23-24 23 And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. For several years, the disciples have had Jesus with them all the time. They have come to rely on Him for everything literally. He has taught them, but He has also provided them food and shelter. They have become totally dependent directly upon Jesus Himself. That worked just fine as long as Jesus was going to be physically present with them all the time, but now Jesus is preparing them for His departure. He is telling them that they must learn to ask the Father, rather than to ask Him. Jesus is pointing out to them that, up to this point, they have not asked the Father, but rather they have been asking Him. Now they must change and begin to ask the Father directly.
But there is a catch. They must not just approach the Father of Lights in their own names and expect to be heard. That will avail them nothing at all. God will turn a completely deaf ear, and we need to be listening at this point as well. Jesus tells them that whatever they ask the Father, “in His name,” they will receive, and He says this twice for emphasis. So only if we approach the Father, through the Son, that is, “in Jesus’ name,” then will we be heard, but if we think that we will be heard for ourselves, we can just simply forget about it. Now that will really irritate a lot of modern egalitarians, but that is just the way it is.
Jesus has spoken much all along about the fact that He is the Son of God. It is that relationship that enables Him to pray to the Father. In telling the disciples to pray to the Father, He is telling them that they too are to be sons by adoption and grace and therefore able to pray to the Father. Jesus says, John 16:26-27 26 At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: 27 For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God. Jesus is saying to the disciples, because you pray in My Name, the Father will hear you directly as His adopted sons because you have loved and believed on His true, natural Son, Jesus Christ. The Father only hears His true Son and His adopted sons!
If we truly pray in this way, our lot in this world is going to be quite simply tribulation. We have it directly from Jesus himself. But we also have it straight from Jesus, Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. This must give us great peace, even as we are surrounded by chaos and turmoil in our daily lives. This world is not our true home which is in Heaven; we are here only as pilgrims, passing through on the way home. Let us not be overly concerned with what happens here.
But the Christian life consists not just in thinking sweet thoughts! St. James tackles that idea head on in the first verse of our Epistle lesson, James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. In some respects, that is one of the most brutal verses in the whole Bible! It really hits us in the face pretty hard. What is James saying to us here as he goes on to talk about the man who looks in the mirror and then forgets what he looks like?
The standard for the Christian is Jesus Christ. When we look at Christ, we see perfection in character, words, deeds, and teachings.
(1) When we look at ourselves, if we are honest, we see ourselves as we are. We see our defects, our character faults, the failures in our actions, where our words have gone astray. The person who has never seen Christ has no basis of comparison, but imagines himself to be pretty good.
(2) We also see ourselves as we ought to be. The standard of Christ–like perfection is what we ought to be; this is what the Lord God designed us to be before sin came into the world. By this standard we are condemned.
(3) Finally we see ourselves as we can be as free men in Christ Jesus. We see ourselves still failing to satisfy the standard of the Law in many ways, but striving to do so for the love of Christ, not to satisfy the Law, but be more like Jesus. This last is the man that St. James describes in James 1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
St. James then goes on to enumerate three specific practical points of special importance for the Christian life:
(1) The first is to bridle the tongue, the organ of speech, that can do so very much damage in so little time. Boasting, flattery, angry spiteful talk, immodest speech, lies, exaggerations, etc., the list is almost endless as to the ways the tongue can cause trouble. While it is true that it can be wrong to fail to speak up, that is far less often a problem than words spoken than should have been left unsaid.
(2) He speaks of visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and by that he is referring to acts of charity, to the support of those in need. Just as Christ helped those in need, He likewise expect us to do the same. We cannot stand by and ignore those in need and expect to have the approval of God.
(3) To remain unspotted by the world means to maintain personal purity, to avoid the defilements, seductions, indulgences, and temptations of the world. In the statement that begins, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this …,” the word translated as religion literally means worship, so the statement is that no worship is acceptable to the Father that is not accompanied by charity and personal purity. In the eyes of God, you cannot be one person on Saturday night and a different person on Sunday morning.
Our Collect for this day asks God for two things, for inspiration and for guidance. The word “inspiration” has at its root the idea of bringing in the Holy Ghost, in–spiriting. We seek to be in–spirited to keep us moving in the Christian life; we should never think that the age of inspiration is over. Just as we need inspiration to get us going, we need also the guidance of the Holy Ghost to keep us on track so that we arrive at our proper Christian goal in life. As we think about praying for a successful harvest, both in the fields at the end of the summer and in our lives at the end of our days, let us pray again the Collect for the Day:
O Lord, from whom all good things do come; Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by thy merciful guiding perform the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Preached May 6, 2012
St. James 1:17–21
St. John 16:5–15
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Today is the fourth Sunday of the Easter Season, five weeks after Easter Sunday, the feast of the Resurrection. Thus we are well into the time period when Jesus was with His disciples following His resurrection. By this time He had been seen by a great many people and no doubt everyone was wondering what to expect next. Clearly things were not as they had been prior to the Crucifixion, but at least at the moment, Jesus continued to make Himself known among many people. What would He do next?
We, of course, have the advantage of hind sight. We know that the time of the Ascension was in fact drawing near, the time when Jesus would finally return to Heaven to remain there until the end of time. This would be followed by Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Ghost as recorded in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles.
Before the Crucifixion ever occurred, Jesus spoke to the disciples the words that we have recorded in our Gospel lesson for today. He tells them that He is going to the one that sent Him, and that can only mean that He will be returning to the Father. Surely the disciples understood that — or did they? It is hard to be sure just what they understood and did not understand, because they were right there in the middle of the whole process, rather than observing it from after the fact as we do. Jesus went on to tell them that He was going to send the Comforter, but that the Comforter would not come unless Jesus leaves. To be honest, I have to think that statement would have made very little sense at all to the disciples. Would they not have said, “who, or what, is this Comforter? we think we would rather have Jesus stay with us.” I’m sure that they were also quite accustomed to saying among themselves, “what did He mean when He said, ….?”
Again with 20–20 hind sight, we understand that Jesus was talking about the Holy Ghost, His Spirit, that would come upon them and work throughout the world until the end of time. Jesus talked about the things the Holy Ghost would do. He said that the Holy Ghost would reprove the world of sin and of righteousness, which is to say that He will demonstrate these things with utter clarity to believing minds and will completely silence all objections. Now we may still misunderstand what Jesus is saying here.
He goes on to elaborate, John 16:9 Of sin, because they believe not on me; Now it begins to become more clear; Jesus is saying specifically that the Holy Ghost will convict the Jews of their sin in not receiving Him, the Messiah that was sent specifically to them as foretold by the prophets to the Jews, such as Isaiah 35:3-6 3 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. 4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. 5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. 6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. Exactly this did happen, the Jews were convicted of the sin of unbelief on the day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2:37 37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
Taken more broadly, we should understand that the Holy Ghost still convicts all men of sin, He shows us what sin is, He shows us our sins, and He shows us what we must do to atone for our sins. Thus while the original application of the words seems to have been directly to the unbelieving Jews, it extends today to all men where faith wavers and sin remains rooted in our hearts.
When we look at the life of Christ, what did He do? Well, of course the answer to that question is many things, but supremely His sacrificial death on the Cross and His rising again for our Salvation, His completed sacrifice for our sins. We can never say too much about that central aspect of Christ’s ministry, but if we look at the other things that He did, the two things that are prominent are His teaching and healing. But now, Christ has told the disciples that he is going away; so who is going to pick up those important parts of His ministry among men? St. John answers this for us when he quotes Jesus as saying John 16:13-15 13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15 All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
This passage takes us right into the heart of the mysterious Holy Trinity itself. Jesus is describing a power transfer from Himself to the Holy Ghost. In both the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed, we confess that Jesus Christ has ascended into Heaven and sits on the right hand of God the Father. This indicates a connection of extreme intimacy and power sharing between the Father and the Son within the Kingdom of Heaven, and indeed Jesus says in our Gospel lesson, All things that the Father hath are mine: But Jesus also says that the Holy Ghost will receive that which belongs to the Christ, and will show it to men; Jesus actually says this twice. Thus the charge to the Holy Ghost is to continue the work of Christ among men throughout the world until the end of time. This is what it means for the Holy Ghost to guide men into all truth. Thus we see the ordered relation within the Holy Trinity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost – each of the three Persons of the Godhead taking a different role in the on–going process of the salvation of mankind.
It is the Holy Ghost that St. James has in mind when he writes in our Epistle lesson for today, James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. The Holy Ghost is the conveyor of those good and perfect gifts, the gifts of God who is the stable and enduring provider for His children.
In the popular mythology of our day, we are all pretty good folks. Just look around you. We all dress well, we drive nice cars, we speak well, we all have enough money that we all come off as pretty good folks. But are we really? Are you really? Are we prepared to say to Jesus that we are pretty good folks? Are we ready to tell the Lord that everything is under control, and we are confident of our sinlessness? Most certainly not if we are even a little bit honest! We are in some respect the Pharisees of the present day. We at least manage the appearance of respectable lives, lives without flagrant sins that are readily visible for the whole community to see. But that certainly does not mean that there is no sin in our lives.
Thus, even though we lead apparently respectable lives, we are still aware that we are sinners, under God’s judgement. We are want to say with the Psalmist, Ps. 143:2 And enter not into judgement with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. This is where the role of the Holy Ghost becomes so crucially important for our lives. We have been justified by the blood of Christ, but we are far from being sanctified, made holy. He is the steady beacon in our lives, coming from God the Father through Christ the Son, the one who is completely unchanging. Even those whom we think of as the most steady among us are remarkably lacking in constancy by standards of the Lord. This is simply our human failing, the weakness of human nature that it does not have the stability required to remain truly fixed on God. It was to remedy this defect that the Lord has provided the Holy Ghost, to give us the steadying influence, the guide to keep us fixed on Christ our Saviour, in order to secure our salvation by continuing to lead us in holiness.
For those who accept this guidance, they become the people given over to the Lord. This is what St. James means when he speaks of “a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” The evidence of belonging to this select group is being quick to hear, to listen, but slow to speak, and particularly slow to show wrath.
And then we come to another passage that is particularly important for us in our present times, James 1:20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. In America today, we live in angry times, times when many people are very angry over the way our political system is working, or not working. What does this verse say to that? Does this mean that we, as Christians, should remain on the side lines, and stay uninvolved because anger is much a part of the process? I do not think that is what it means at all, but rather that we should be sure that our own motives are not those of anger. As Christians, we are to be involved in the civil government, we are to take a part and express our thoughts, even strongly if necessary, but without violence to other people. In this way, we can express the righteousness of God, but without wrath.
The last verse of the Epistle lesson sounds a bit strange to modern ears: James 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. Even so, the message is quite clear: we are to abandon all the sinful desires of our human nature, the sins of the flesh which also infect the mind. These things lead straightway to death and push out God. Rather, under the guiding of the Holy Ghost, we are to receive the Word of God, as something grafted into us, much as a new branch is grafted onto an existing stem. Think about that for a moment; this is not something that we are born with at all. Rather this is something that comes to us through Water and the Holy Ghost in our Baptism. It is nurtured and grows throughout our lives under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. This is the way that holiness is developed within us after we have been received into the Church through Baptism.
Our Collect for today expresses rather well our situation when it says,
O Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of men; Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Preached April 29, 2012
1 St. Peter 2:11–17
St. John 16:16–22
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The first epistle of Peter begins with these words: 1 Peter 1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, By consulting a map, we find that he is describing all of what is present day Turkey, plus whatever else he may have included under the term “Asia.” This is a lot of territory, but it does not include any of the Jewish homeland; these people were all Gentiles. And yet, much of St. Peter’s address to them is in terms as though they were Jews. How is this?
We may reasonably attribute this to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. This translation, said to have been made by seventy scholars, and hence the name Septuagint, was made around the year 270 BC at the synagogue in Alexandria. It spread among Greek speakers all around the Mediterranean, and facilitated the development of small colonies of pseudo–Jews, people who followed Jewish laws and customs, but were entirely Greek in their heritage. These people were well versed in the Old Testament, and hence many were ripe for conversion at the coming of Christ. Thus St. Peter can address, as Jews, people physically far removed from Israel, people who were familiar with the Old Testament through their study of the Septuagint, and who had now come over to Christianity.
Chapter 2 of Peter’s epistle is a series of exhortations about how to live, instructing the people about right behavior. Peter develops an extensive allegory of Christ as the corner stone of Zion. It is at the end of that allegory that we come to our Epistle Lesson for today.
As the lesson begins, Peter is talking about the fact that Christians have no permanent home here on earth. We are to live as pilgrims, simply passing through this life, with our eyes fixed on the goal that lies ahead. Think about that for a moment. How does that square with the message of the world today, the message of “I’ve got mine” or “Get it while the getting is good”? They are completely contrary, are they not, and yet only one of them is the road to heaven. The other is the road to perdition.
In order to enable us to keep our eyes on the goal, on heaven, St. Peter exhorts us not to be distracted by fleshly lusts, which as he says, war against the soul. One of the main reasons people are attracted to the pursuit of money, power, and other evils, is the opportunity it provides for them to indulge these fleshly lusts. It takes money and/or power to indulge in over eating, gambling, pornography, etc. And there is always the old fashioned greed factor, the love of money for its own sake. This can be every bit as deadly as any of the others, perhaps worse. If we have our eyes on heaven, we do not need any of these things because God will provide the things that are essential and everything else is superfluous.
St. Peter goes on to warn them about the need to preserve a good reputation in the community by speaking carefully. This is important for the honor of the community in order to put down the rumors being circulated about the Christian community. There are many ideas as to the meaning of the phrase “in the day of visitation”; you can let your imagination run wild with that one as there is no general agreement on exactly what that means.
The last part sounded rather like St. Paul, and the next part sounds even more like Paul: 1 Peter 2:13–17 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. 15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. 17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
Now this immediately brings to mind the passage where St. Paul writes in Romans 13:1–6 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. 6 For this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
It really sounds like Peter and Paul are working off the same script, doesn’t it? The plain meaning of these words for ordinary times is not difficult to discern for any of us. The problem is that we live in extraordinary times. We live in times when government is acting against the interests of the nation it is supposed to serve, and this raises serious questions for Christians as to how passages such as these are to be considered. Are we duty bound to accept what the government says in all cases, without objection? That is what these passages appear to say on the surface, and that is what many Christians blindly take them to mean. But is that consistent with the rest of what you know of the Christian faith?
We may consider some possibilities to explore this question. Suppose the government were to reinstated the medieval “Law of the First Night” whereby the ruling authority had the right to sexual relations with all new subject brides on their wedding nights. Would we all be bound to go along with that? I don’t think so, and yet a superficial reading of these passages suggest that we must.
One of the functions of our government is to issue our money. If the government does anything to devalue that money, then it acts against the interests of those people who already hold that money, namely our nation. We see our Federal Reserve Bank wildly printing money, adding to the money supply and thus devaluing our currency, to the detriment of everyone who holds American dollars by making them worth less than they were previously worth. This is harmful to our nation, and yet our government does this to our people with impunity. Should we support this robbery of our assets? I do not think so.
Consider another possibility. Suppose our government decided to abandon our border enforcement, leaving our nation open to uncontrolled floods of illegal immigrants from Latin America. No, wait ….. this is already happening too. It seems that the superficial reading of these passages has already taken hold in this case.
St. Paul is a bit more help than St. Peter at this point when he says, speaking of the ruler, 4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. That is the key element; he is the minister of God for good. Government is not appointed to do us harm, to run rough shod over us. Now this is not to say that there will not be times when individuals will disagree with the actions of government; often such things will happen with regularity. But the point is, government is not to operate to the destruction of the nation, to the general detriment of the populace.
Our government is operating without regard to the law, particularly without regard to the Constitution, today. It has adopted a philosophy of “might makes right,” and under those circumstances and in those actions, we are not in any way obligated to obey it.
When the government detains, arrests, and abuses people, as it continues to do, simply for not obeying its orders, it is not acting for good. It is no longer God’s agent for good at that point, and we are under no obligation at all to obey it.
As Christian people, we have an obligation to evaluate the actions of our government, to determine when it is God’s agent for our good, and when it is not. We must be careful in this judgement. The fact that I do not like what the government is doing is not sufficient reason to say that it is not God’s agent. It is only when it is acting to the detriment of the whole nation can it be said to be no longer God’s agent, and this is not a judgement that can be reached lightly. It seems that we are in such a time right now when the majority of Americans are being targeted by the government in one way or another.
In so much as we can, we must honor our government, but that is only to the extent that it is honorable. When it acts honorably, we certainly should show it honor and respect; when it acts disgracefully, we cannot and must not! We must always fear and love God! This is never hard to do, because God never changes.
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
1 St. Peter 2:19–25
St. John 10:11–16
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Let us begin with a reading of our complete text for the day, an extension of the Gospel lesson:
John 10:1–16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. 2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. 5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. 6 This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. 7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.
This is the first part of the familiar parable of the Christ the Good Shepherd. This is one of the most popular images of Jesus, a term that is used in the name of countless Churches. But how well do we really understand this parable?
We might backtrack to ask, “How much do we know about sheep? When was the last time you saw a live lamb on the hoof?” Most of us don’t have much experience with sheep because we are city people in modern America, and sheep are simply not a part of our lives. I think I have seen sheep up close on a few occasions, but I could not tell you exactly when those times were. And yet, sheep and shepherding are constantly a part of the Biblical narrative. Recall Psalm 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want, as just one of the many examples. You will recall also that a lamb was the standard sacrifice for sin at the Temple in Jerusalem. Sheep and shepherds are everywhere we look throughout the Bible, and we have to have some understanding of them to make sense of the Scripture, even if we are city people.
Sheep are extremely docile animals, and apparently rarely make a sound, even though they are able to speak. They are rather timid, and really do best when cared for by man. They are trusting, easily led, and rather dependent creatures. When well cared for, they produce generous crops of wool that they give up willingly and they do not fight even when being led to slaughter for meat.
The sheepfolds of the ancient Mideast were walled structures, open to the sky, with a single door. Sometimes these were in the open pasture lands, and other times they might be attached to the owner’s home. These served as a place to confine and protect the sheep for a period when the shepherd might be away. On his return, the shepherd would open the gate blocking the single door and call his sheep out. If two flocks might have been put into the sheepfold together, the shepherd’s own sheep would come out in response to his voice, but the other sheep would not follow him because he would be a stranger to them.
The Scripture we are considering this morning, appears to be a continuation of the discussion that Jesus has been having with a group of Pharisees in Chapter 15. The opening words, “Verily, verily,” suggest a continuation, rather than the beginning of a new episode, and with these words, Jesus begins the parable. Now remember that a parable is a veiled or hidden teaching, so the meaning of the words is not what is right on the surface.
Jesus says, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. Now no doubt the Pharisees would have thought, “There he goes again, talking in riddles. Who said anything about a sheepfold?” What is Jesus talking about here? The Pharisees, as we know, were very wound up in their own legalistic approach to Judaism, keeping all 613 Mosaic laws, etc. But in addition to that, they saw themselves as the maintainers of Judaism itself, the ministers of the true religion of Yahweh. A major part of their dispute with Jesus was that he had not “obtained a licence” from them before beginning His public ministry, as they thought was necessary. They were the established religious authority, and anyone who wanted to be an itinerant preacher, healer, or whatever, needed their approval before engaging in such activity. Jesus had not gotten proper authorization, an operating permit, so to speak, so that even before he began criticizing them, he was in trouble with them.
Jesus explains in vv 7–9: Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, and to anyone that pretends to be a minster of God without coming through Jesus Christ, that they are all thieves and robbers that come in over the wall. Jesus is both the door, and the one who comes in by the door. The Pharisees and various false prophets had all come before Jesus, and he is calling them all out, saying that none of them are valid. Only those who come through Christ are valid ministers of God. This remains true today, just as it was true in that conversation with the Pharisees 2000 years ago.
Christ then goes on to contrast the thief with Himself in v. 10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Those who come, pretending to be ministers of God but without the Spirit of Christ do in fact come to tear down the Church – to steal, to kill, and to destroy. There are numerous glaring examples of this, such as the TV evangelists who are suddenly brought down by personal scandal. But there are also more subtle, much less obvious examples of ministers whose heads have been turned by the world, by power, by authority, that have led them to compromise the Gospel. These too steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus comes that the Church might have life, because it is only through Him that we have life at all. And He comes to give it to us, and to give it more abundantly.
Then we have Jesus famous statement, 11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He is saying that He is going to die for His Church, although no one in the crowd that day would have understood it that way. He is referring to His coming sacrifice on the Cross, the time when He would give up His life for the sins of the whole world, and particularly for His sheep. The crowd no doubt thought he was simply describing the way a good shepherd responds to a crises threatening the sheep.
Then follow two very interesting verses: 12 But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. 13 The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. Let us remember that the sheep are the Church, and the shepherds are the pastors of the Church. Earlier in this passage Jesus spoke of false ministers, now he is speaking of weak, unfit ministers. I would like to relate a contemporary example of just this exact sort of thing.
It has been just over 30 years since the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania. That episode lasted just about a week before it was brought under control, if memory serves correctly. At that time, there was a particular young woman living a few miles from the Three Mile Island nuclear plant who was several months pregnant. Within a day or two of the beginning of the accident, the announcement was made that pregnant women should leave the area until things were cleared up, so this woman packed up and went away for the duration. The problem with that was that this same woman was the Pastor of a Lutheran parish very close by, and her parishioners needed her support during this catastrophic event. They could not leave; most of them worked at the plant and were needed to deal with the emergency. But the hireling fleeth, because (s)he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. This is rather clearly not modeled on the Good Shepherd!
Jesus then reasserts his relation with His sheep and also His relation with the Father, saying, I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. Jesus is saying that He knows each one of us by name, just as the Good Shepherd necessarily would do. Whether His flock is small or large is immaterial; He knows us all by name, just as we know Him. We know Him, and we know that we can trust Him. This is a fundamental part of our faith. If we do not trust Jesus, then we really do not have faith in Jesus, nor do we know Him. But we do know Him, and we do trust Him, because we have seen that He is the Good Shepherd that has already laid down His life for us. We also know that Jesus knows the Father. We have seen Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, the events in the Garden of Gethsemane leading up to the Crucifixion, the Crucifixion itself, the Resurrection and Ascension, we have a long string of witnesses to the unity of Jesus with the Father and the Holy Ghost.
And then the final verse, 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. No doubt the Jews would have said to themselves, “Who or what is He talking about?” The answer, of course is Us, the Gentiles. Although Jesus preached almost exclusively to the Jews, it is completely clear that His intent was that His message would be carried further, carried to the Gentiles and to the whole world. The most conclusive evidence of this is, of course, found in St. Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Let us be ever so grateful for this!
+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
It was 100 years ago this morning that the great ocean liner RMS Titanic sank on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Over 1500 souls perished from this life in the icy, dark waters of the north Atlantic, including among them many of the great and famous of the age and far more that remain completely nameless. The latter group were make their way to the new world for a new start, traveling in steerage, and they perished in large numbers.
The original design of the ship called for 64 life boats, but this was quickly cut in half to 32. Later, this figure was cut in half again, down to 16 as being sufficient along with 4 inflatable life boats. This for a ship with well over 2200 souls on board!
The chief designer of the ship was on board for the maiden voyage, to check out any small bugs that might develop. When notified what had happened, he was asked, “how long do we have?” After some brief calculations, he replied, “an hour and a half, two at most.” He was remarkably close as the ship disappeared from the sea surface about two hours later.
In that short time, many people had to make their peace with God who they would soon see face to face. It behooves us to remember them, to recall that great calamities strike in our day as well, and that they too were children of God, in need of our prayers to this day. Let us pray for the repose of the souls of all those who perished with the sinking of the Titanic 100 years ago this morning!
Let us pray:
O God the Father, Creator of the ocean depths and to whom alone they are truly known, receive the souls of all those who went down with Titanic, we pray, O Father, in frightened and unprepared deaths by drowning in the dark, icy waters of the sea. Release them from their final terrors and receive them into the loving arms of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, we pray that they may abide with Him until the Last Day. Have mercy upon all of these souls we pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. Amen.
