Brutally Honest

Ascension Sunday

By Fr. D.

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.

The Easter season proper has come and gone, and now we are in the short season of Ascensiontide. This past Thursday, we celebrated the Feast of the Ascension, marking the return of our Lord Jesus Christ into the realms of eternal glory, His final departure from the earth until His Second Coming at the end of time. Shortly before returning to the Father, our Lord Christ told His disciples that He would send to them the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, but only after He had ascended into heaven. At this point in the drama, the Holy Ghost has not yet come, so we are in that “in–between–time,” the time when the disciples were left waiting, wondering exactly what was to come next.

As the Gospel lesson for the day begins, Jesus is speaking, and He says, John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: He is telling the disciples that He will send the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, who will come from the Father. Notice how the Holy Ghost is characterized as the “Spirit of truth,” that is, “truth itself.” In our relativistic age, when the very concept of truth is scarcely understood, the idea of the Holy Ghost as the very embodiment of truth is extremely difficult for many people to grasp. And yet, all that not withstanding, truth is absolute, and the Holy Ghost is indeed the essence of truth, come to us from God the Father at the command of God the Son. We, as Christians, are incredibly blessed simply to be given the concept of absolute truth. This simplifies our lives, makes correct choices possible, gives us a certainty in life that forever eludes the relativist. The relativist thinks that relativism is freeing, but it actually enslaves him to uncertainty in every decision he ever makes.

We have here also a very clear identification of the Holy Trinity, and of the concept of Order within the Holy Trinity. The Son is obedient to the Father. The Holy Ghost is responsive to both the Father and the Son. And yet, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are all coequal God. Jesus says that the Holy Ghost will testify of Him. This is the principal work of the Holy Ghost in the world, to witness to the Son and make Him known throughout the world.

Jesus goes on to tell the disciples that they too will bear witness to him. They will be strengthened by the power of the Holy Ghost, and they have the commission to do this because they have been with Him from the beginning of His ministry.

He then makes a statement that we may easily misunderstand: John 16:1 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. The difficult word that may cause us to misunderstand is the word “offended.” It means “to cause to stumble.” Thus Jesus is telling his disciples, and us, these things so that what happens as a result of them will not cause us to stumble. It is a warning to us, a caution, that we are going to be facing difficult times, and we must know that Jesus has not led us into this unawares. If we thought that Jesus did not know this was coming, we would be likely to lose faith in Him. If we know that He has prepared us for all of it, then we can follow Him with faith. Then He specifies the particular difficulties the disciples and we are going to face.

Jesus says that two things are going to happen, a double sword hanging over the disciples. They are going to be put out of the synagogues on the grounds that they are unbelievers, and secondly that people will try to kill them, saying that it is done for God’s sake, because they do not know either the Father or the Son. We know, of course, that exactly these things did in fact happen historically, just as our Lord predicted.

I suggest that we bring these two warnings forward to the current time and think about how they are being lived out in our current age.

First consider the matter of being put out of “their churches.” Look at what has happened to the many mainline churches in America today as they have turned away from Christ. They have embraced the standards of the world, and they have turned their backs on the Gospel of Christ more and more. Environmentalism, social programs, voter registration, UN Millennium Development Goals, etc. have often completely replaced concern for the salvation of souls. In each denomination, there have been small groups who have resisted, who have tried to hold fast to what their denomination has stood for historically, but what has happened to them? They are progressively turned out. If they try to leave quietly in small groups, such as a single parish, taking their buildings and property with them, they are usually sued and destroyed.

Christians, and Jews, are killed often by muzlims on jihad in the name of the false moon god of Arabia, even in America. Mestizos from Latin America, even though claiming to be Roman Catholics, invade America where they steal, rape, kill, and destroy, while they say they are in search of a better life. They bring with them the American Indian/Roman Catholic fusion cult Santa Muerte (Saint Death) that is based on idol worship and paganism as I recently saw in San Antonio, TX. Simply standing up for that which is right and true is usually an invitation to be attacked, at least verbally and sometimes physically in our modern, politically correct land. Anyone who holds to the “old fashioned” idea that truth is absolute is considered an enemy of modern society where liberalism has decreed that all ideas are relative and that nothing is absolute. To contradict this is to invite at the very least a verbal attack from those who preach tolerance but practice none at all. Christian ideals are definitely not the defining guidelines for our society today.

In the days following the Ascension, the disciples thought that they were in the last days. As the days passed, Pentecost came and went, but they continued to think that they were still living in the last days, and it is this sort of thinking that we see reflected in St. Peter’s epistle lesson for today. It is particularly appropriate for our times today where we truly seem to be in the last days. Notice how St. Peter begins: 1 Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. He does not say, “Eat drink, and be merry” but rather, “be sober and watch unto prayer.” Whether this is truly the end of all things, or it only seems so, what St. Peter advises is always the better choice.

St. Peter goes on: 1 Peter 4:8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Now the word translated here as charity is agaphn, agape. This word means an all inclusive, undeserved love, so Peter is calling for a this sort of love, which is well described by the word charity understood broadly, among Christians. By having this sort of general charity, a willingness to accept each other as they are, to help, to support, to live in harmony, this will cover a multitude of sins.

1 Peter 4:10–11 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. God has given different gifts to each of His people, and they are to be used, used for the benefit of His people and to the glory of God. No man is to keep the gifts of God simply for himself, hoarding what God has given him as his own, to keep for himself. Rather those gifts must be ministered to the whole community. Thus if one is rich in the things of this world, they must be shared for the benefit of the community. If one is given knowledge, it must be taught to the community that all may benefit. If someone is given skill or strength, this is for the benefit of the community that God may be glorified. If one is called to be a minister of God, it is for the benefit of the community and not for the benefit of that individual. All of these gifts are from God, and all are to be used and glorified through Christ. All gifts are given through the grace of God to be used for the well being of His people to His glory through Jesus Christ. This is what St. Peter said to the early Christians, and it is equally applicable to us today, whether we are truly living in the end times or not.

All of this is possible only through the power of the Holy Ghost, present in our lives. Thus, here in this time between the feasts of Ascension and Pentecost, we are grateful that in our lives, the Holy Ghost has in fact already come. We still celebrate the feasts today, but the coming of the Holy Ghost into the world happened almost 2000 years ago, and for that we can be most grateful. We see His work around us every day, and we live by faith that we are supported by the Holy Ghost in our lives each day.

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.

Rogation Sunday

By Fr. D.

Easter 5

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.

In a more typical year, with Easter coming a bit earlier than it did this year, about the time of the Fifth Sunday after Easter you would see the farmers beginning to prepare their fields for the year’s planting, for the crops that will yield the harvest at the end of the summer or in early fall. The farmers are probably 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 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. This year the farmers are no doubt ahead of the Church!

Days set aside specifically for prayer for agricultural prosperity are 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 after 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 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 just as we need to pray for a successful harvest, we must also pray 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, not 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 Son, Jesus Christ. The Father only hears His 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 should 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 to our true 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.

The expected coming of the Holy Ghost

By Fr. D.

Easter 4

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 was 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 what 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 in 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 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 that good and perfect gift, the gift of God who is stable and enduring.

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.

Christian Life in the World

By Fr. D.

Easter 3

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 Greek language 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 Greek speaking 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 far 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 sounds 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 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.

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. 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 not disagree with the actions of government, or that such things should not happen with regularity. But the point is, government is not to operate to the destruction of the nation, to the detriment of the populace as a whole.

Our government today is operating without regard to the law, particularly without regard to the Constitution. It has assumed a philosophy of “might makes right,” and under those circumstances and in those actions, we are not in any way obligated to obey it, except that we will be punished if we do not.

In the past year, we have seen the Department of Homeland Security institute the most absurdly intrusive and invasive forms of search on airline passengers, supposedly for airline security. We are supposed to simply accept this, ignoring the fact that they have never yet caught a single suspect, prevented a single hijacking, or accomplished anything of value. But they think that they are justified in demanding the right to commit sexual assault on passengers or to see everyone nude by means of high radiation scanners. There is simply no way to construe this as the work of God’s agents, working for good. It is a fundamental principal of Christian ethics that evil is never done that good may follow.

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.

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.

Christ The Good Shepherd

By Fr. D.

Easter 2

1 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.

We continue to bask in the glow of the Resurrection, the glories of Easter, the sense of joy associated with the risen Christ. There is a feeling that all is right with the world. Christ is risen, Alleluia!

And yet, as we look around us in our everyday world, we see that Not All Is Right With The World. We have celebrated the feast of the Resurrection, just as we do every year, but we still have not entered into the Kingdom of God on Earth, the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus. Still He forebears, and we are still in the world. Why the delay?

Actually, the world has not gotten any better at all. When you think about it, is our society any more like the Kingdom of God today than it was a year ago? Ten years ago? Twenty years ago? More? I’m not sure how you will answer those questions, but in my thinking, we seem to be moving away from the Kingdom of God in society at large. There is a far greater disregard for Christian faith, there is a general attitude that it is perfectly acceptable to live entirely for yourself, there is a willingness to disregard Truth, the Truth which means that delusion is freely accepted. We are moving rapidly toward a totalitarian form of government that will enslave most of us. It is going to be much, much more difficult to be a Christian in the future than it has been in the past. We can expect many lukewarm Christians to fall away from the faith.

In many of our parishes, we received new members by Confirmation and some were newly Baptized within the past few weeks. This is how the Church continues to grow, to receive people into the Kingdom of God even in this world. Easter has been the traditional time for these things to happen. It is into this increasingly paganized world that these new Christians are going to be called to live the Christian life, even as the times become increasingly difficult.. It is particularly to these, as well as to the rest of us, that St. Peter writes in today’s Epistle lesson. Peter was living under house arrest in Rome, and he wrote to encourage and strengthen Christians throughout the Roman empire because he realized that they were going to be subjected to the scorn and sneers of their Roman neighbors, even before the actual killing of Christians began, because being a true Christian necessarily makes one different from society at large.

In a passage preceding our Epistle lesson, St. Peter says, 1 Peter 2:13-15 13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; 14 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: This is quite similar to what St. Paul says in Romans 13, and in this, St. Peter makes it clear that Christians should not resist the persecutions of the heathen government. These are difficult words for us, as Americans, to hear. For the first time in our lives, we see a truly heathen government rising up to overwhelm us, and the idea that we are to submit quietly to it does not sit well with us. One commentary observes that St. Peter’s comments, and presumably St. Paul’s also, apply to those living within a settled state. For a country at internal war, such as we are very close to in the United States, then these comments have to be modified suitably.

At the beginning of our Epistle lesson, St. Peter explains that there are two kinds of suffering: (1) earned suffering and (2) unearned suffering. 1 Peter 2:19-20 19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. 20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. Earned suffering is that suffering which comes to us because of wrong that we have done, and therefore deserve the suffering that results from it; there cannot possibly be any merit in such suffering. It is the punishment we brought entirely upon ourselves. On the other hand, if we suffer for the cause of Christ, that is when ye do well, because we are living the lives that Christ has called us to live, then if we encounter suffering on account of that, we suffer with Christ our Lord, provided that we accept it with grace and patience.

This suffering can take various forms. There is the obvious physical abuse at the hands of a mob or at the hands of vicious officers. These things do happen to Christians; they have happened in the past, and they will happen more frequently in the future as our society becomes more paganized. There is also the less obvious suffering that is no less real. One of these that we see even now is the person refused a new job, or a promotion, because they are a Christian and it shows. There will always be plenty of other “reasons” available to give cover for not awarding the position to them, everything from lack of competence to failure to dot an “i” on the application form. There will be qualified people denied the opportunity for an education, simply because they are Christians and insist upon the Truth. There will be good, well qualified people kept out of public office because they are Christians. There will be poor, destitute people denied food and shelter because they are Christians. It is all coming, coming to our door steps quite soon. We see it already when the Attorney General of the United States clearly says that he will not enforce the laws fairly, but will give preference to “his people.”

But look at how we are called upon to accept these things: 1 Peter 2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Hereunto were ye called... this is the manner in which we are called to live, even to follow in the foot steps of our Lord in His suffering. This is a tall order, and most of us hesitate. It is one thing for Jesus, the Son of God to go to the Cross for us, but we really hesitate at the thought that we too must follow down that same path! There is a cross at the end of that path, a cross with our name on it. In all likelihood, it is not a physical cross made of heavy timbers, but it is a cross never the less. We find that a frightening prospect. We think we know what it means, at least vaguely.

This is the path to sanctification. We were justified by Jesus’ Death and Resurrection, which means that we are on the route to return to the Father at the end of time. But the Father is holy, completely holy, and no one can come into his presence who is not holy. We, in our earthy lives are not holy, and that is why the process of sanctification is required; we must become holy. Even at the point of death, very few of us have become truly holy. Even so, we work toward this end. As Peter says, 1 Peter 2:24b ... that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. We are called to live lives of righteousness, dead to sin, because we are healed by the wounds of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

In the final verse of our Epistle lesson, Peter reminds his readers why Jesus has done all of this for them and for us: 1 Peter 2:25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. We and all mankind were completely lost in our sins without the work of the Saviour, just as sheep wandering in the wilderness. The shepherd is the guardian and protector of the sheep. The sheep tend to wander into dangerous places and to get into difficult situations when left alone, so that the sheep are quite dependent on the shepherd to look after them. The term bishop refers to an overseer or inspector, a supervisor, if you will, who would direct the spiritual life of the people under his care. All of this leads us directly into the Gospel lesson for the day that begins with the words of Jesus: John 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. Jesus begins by establishing the characteristics of the good shepherd, the fact that the good shepherd is willing to lay down his life for his sheep. We know that this is in fact what Jesus, the Good Shepherd has done for his sheep. This is contrasted with the hireling who only views the job of herding the sheep as a matter of employment, not as his calling. The hireling will do his job as spelled out in his employment agreement, but his life is not committed to his sheep – it is an 8 to 5 job for the hireling. For the good shepherd, the sheep are his life; he is willing to die to protect his flock.

Jesus described His relation with His people in terms of a shepherd with his flock. He says, John 10:14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. Thus Jesus is the good shepherd, He knows his own flock, and I think particularly important to us, is the last phrase, and am known of mine. We have an increasing number of charlatans about these days who claim to speak for Christ. Listen to what they say, and ask yourself if you hear Christ speaking through them. If not, the speaker does not know Christ, and should not be taken to speak for Him. Of course, to do this effectively, you must know yourself what Christ said, how the Bible is to be understood, and thus be in a position to evaluate such false prophets.

You will recall that the public ministry of Jesus was almost entirely to the Jews. He rarely spoke to non–Jews. There was the case of the Syrophoenician woman, and also the Samaritan woman at the well, but there are few other recorded instances of Him speaking publicly with anyone other than the Jews. Thus there is great importance to the statement in John 10:16 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. We have to understand that Jesus is here again talking to a group of Jews, but he is speaking to them of both “this fold” which refers to the Jews, and also of “other sheep” that refers to us, the Gentiles. What Jesus is saying, in a veiled form, is that the Gentiles will be saved along with the Jews, something that would have been quite unpalatable to the Jews of His day. As God’s Chosen People, the Jews were quite certain that salvation was for them alone, and the idea that salvation might include anyone else would have been highly offensive. Remember that, by this time, their concept of faith was reduced to keeping the 613 points of the Jewish Law. The direct relationship with God had long since been frozen out of Judaism. Thus what Jesus is saying is a truly radical idea, one that would certainly make many enemies among the Jews. But He is saying that there will be “one flock, and one shepherd,” meaning that He will be the Saviour of all. For this we must give special thanks!

It is Jesus the Good Shepherd, the shepherd who did in fact give His life for His sheep, that is now the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. We are indeed called upon to face trials, temptations, and much suffering, and to do it gladly for His sake. This is the way that we are sanctified and brought closer to Him and prepared to come home to His Father and our Father who receives us by adoption and grace. Jesus has gone before as our example, and now He stands there to guide and support us as we make our way toward Him.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Low Sunday

By Fr. D.

Easter 1

1st St. John 5:4 – 12
St. John 20:19 – 23

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Christ is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! We continue in the celebration of Easter, with today being the Sunday traditionally known as Low Sunday. This is the day when many people do not attend Church, having made a big effort to be there for Easter. I am glad that you are here this morning.

Our Gospel and Epistle lessons today are both taken from the writings of St. John Evangelist. The Gospel of St. John is decidedly different from the Synoptic Gospels. The Synoptics each present a more or less chronological telling of the story of Jesus’ life, each with a different emphasis and intended for a different readership. St. John’s Gospel is clearly written to persuade people to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah. We read in

John 20:30-31 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

As such, the Gospel of John is not organized chronologically, and the selection of topics covered is dictated by the stated purpose. St. John is concerned with bringing people to faith, not with teaching history. It helps us understand what we read if we keep this in mind as we read what St. John has written.

The Gospel lesson begins on Sunday evening, the day of the Resurrection, with the disciples in a closed and barred room, fearful and wondering what was going to happen next. They knew most definitely that Jesus had been crucified and now they had been told that His body was missing from the Garden Tomb. There were stories that He was risen from the dead, but who could believe such tales? They knew that the Jews had been anxious to destroy Jesus during His life, and with these latest events, it seemed likely that the Jews might come after the disciples as well.

In Ch 14 of St. John’s Gospel, in a long discourse during the Last Supper, Jesus tells the disciples John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; so they know that they are not utterly abandoned forever. But they don’t know when the Comforter will come, or just exactly what this really means. Who, or what, is the Comforter?

The room has been completely closed off, and suddenly Jesus appears among the disciples and gives them the traditional Jewish greeting, “Peace be unto you.” This right here is a miraculous event. This Man they all thought was dead suddenly appears among them, very much alive, and in a room that they have carefully barred to prevent entry. And yet Jesus does enter, and He speaks to them in greeting, and then He shows them His wounds. This is to further prove that it is Himself, and that He is the victor over death. Death has not defeated him, but rather He has risen from the grave, the same Person that was placed in the Garden Tomb, is now standing there among them, talking with them. This is not an apparition, not a ghost, not a vision, but Jesus Christ in the flesh, the same Man who had walked the roads of the countryside with them and taught them for three years, the same One whom they had seen crucified on the Cross at Calvary. And now He is with them again. John 20:20b Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. They believed that it truly was Jesus come back to them there in that closed and barred room.

After this initial period of establishing that it is truly Jesus Himself, in the flesh that has come again to them, Jesus greets them again, rather formally. John 20:21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. It is both a greeting, and a commission, a commission to go out into the world in the same manner that Jesus Himself has been sent into the world, as servants of God. Think about that for a minute. These disciples had gathered in this locked room to consider what to do next, to find strength in numbers, to consider their options. They were a frightened group. Then to receive this sort of a commission must have absolutely scared them out of their wits. They have just seen the consequences of Jesus’ mission – the terrible scourging from the Roman soldiers in the Praetorium, the inquisition before Pilate, the agonizing trudge to Golgatha, and then the horror of the Crucifixion itself. And now that Christ has passed through all of this, He is handing it all on to them, — and to us. No doubt that must have tempered their joy just a bit!

And then He breathed upon them, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. This sounds extremely strange to modern ears, but this would have been well understood in ancient times. Since the very earliest times, men have realized that when a man ceases to breathe, his spirit has left him, even if he appears to be physically undamaged. By extension then, the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, is associated with moving air, with the wind, with breath. One of the most vivid examples is in Ezekiel 37 in the Valley of the Dry Bones when all of the bones have been called back together, and the sinews and flesh placed upon them, then we read, Ezekiel 37:9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So in the case at hand, Jesus is simply giving them the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, when He breathes upon them and says, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.

And then Jesus continues to give the disciples, and through them, the Church, the Power of the Keys, when He says, John 20:23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. This is very similar in content to St. Matthew 16:19, although the exact choice of words is different. Matthew 16:19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Based on the words of St. Matthew, we can make the argument, based on the verb tenses, that this passage is saying that the power given to the Church is actually simply the power to recognize actions that have already been done in Heaven, not the power to forgive sins. St. Matthew’s statement is better translated from Greek as I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou bindest on earth shall be having been bound in the heavens, and whatsoever thou loosest on earth shall be having been loosed in the heavens. This means that what actions the Church proclaims are simply recognition of actions already completed in Heaven as indicated by the future perfect verb tense. We cannot make the same arguments for the exact words given by St. John, but since we must assume that these are both based on the same event, this is probably a proper interpretation for both passages.

When we turn to consider the Epistle lesson for the day, we need to consider again to whom this is written and why. St. John does not write as an evangelist seeking new converts, but rather he is writing to mature Christians, and he writes to build up and strengthen the faith of those to whom he is writing. One of his great concerns was gnosticsim, Gnosticism is the heresy that says that matter is evil, that God did not create the material world, and Jesus could not possibly be God incarnate. Gnostics believe in a a superior, hidden knowledge, higher than Christianity. Freemasonry is the classic example of gnosticism in our time.

The lesson begins with St. John speaking of the Christian as one who is able to overcome the world, and he is able to do this precisely because of his faith. To be a Christian, to believe that Jesus is the true Son of God, is to be able to overcome the temptations of the world; that is what faith in Christ does for us. St. John says, This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; we may be inclined to puzzle over the meaning of this phrase because we do not speak in these symbolic terms. Water symbolizes purification, the washing away of sin, and blood symbolizes sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. Thus he is saying that this is Jesus who comes bringing forgiveness of sin, cleansing in every way that we understand that it may be accomplished.

The idea of proving something by the use of witnesses is well established in the Old Testament, and throughout the New Testament as well. We find repeated references to In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established so this idea is familiar to all to whom St. John is writing. John now uses this idea in a new and unusual manner when he says, 1 John 5:6–8 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. Now, rather obviously the original understanding of this idea was to the witness of three men, but St. John turns this to mean the witness of the Holy Ghost, the water, and the blood. This shows the remarkable spiritual insight of St. John, that he could see the testimony of these three spiritual entities as being similar to, but stronger than the traditional testimony of three human witnesses. He goes on to say, 1 John 5:9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. Surely we cannot reject the witness of God Himself!

St. John then moves on to make two points: (1) 1 John 5:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: This is to say that the man who believes in Christ sees who Christ is, sees his own need for Christ, and becomes his own witness for Christ. And the second point, (2) he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. The antecedent for “him” is less than clear, but what this is saying is that the man who does not believe on the Son of God has made God a liar, and the reason that this man has made God a liar is that he had denied God’s testimony regarding His Son, Jesus Christ. St. John has just previously established that it is God Himself that testifies on behalf of Jesus, therefore anyone who refuses to accept this testimony is saying that God is a liar.

Then St. John restates the testimony, given by God, regarding His Son, Jesus: 1 John 5:11–12 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. The key words are right there at the end: He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. If we have Jesus, we are saved and have eternal life; if we do not have Jesus, no matter what else we may have, we do not have life and are lost. It is really pretty simple, isn’t it?

Let us pray again the Collect for the Day:

Almighty Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification; Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The Day of Resurrection

By Fr. D.

Easter

Colossians 3:1–4
St. John 20:1–10

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Alleluia! Alleluia!! Christ is risen from the dead! Alleluia!! We celebrate the joyful Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Risen Savior, risen from the grave, breaking the bonds of sin and death forever!! Alleluia!! Christ is risen, He is risen indeed. We know how the story ends, so we are in no doubt about it at all. We look back on the whole picture, seeing this as the high point of the action, the moment of victory when death is eternally defeated and the victory is secured by our Saviour Jesus Christ. We want to rejoice and cheer, to celebrate and feast.

We might do well, however, to recall that, on the first Easter morning, none of this was evident, nothing was clear at all. The followers of Jesus were dejected, bewildered, rather bitter because all of their dreams had come crashing down on Good Friday afternoon. They were trying to come to terms with the end of their expectations and hopes, and they were unable to see the Resurrection, they could not even recognize their Friend. Thus when the resurrected Christ says to Mary Magdalene John 20:15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. She thinks Him to be the gardener! On the Emmaus road, the two disciples talk with a Stranger, telling Him about the recent events concerning Jesus whom they had thought was the Messiah until He was crucified, and now His body is missing from the garden tomb. Jesus responds with Luke 24:25-26 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? and at that point He begins to set them straight about Himself.

The Good Friday death of Jesus Christ and His subsequent Resurrection on Easter morning forces us to think seriously about just what it is we believe about life after death. The common wisdom in our day is that of the secular materialist who says that when you die, your body is returned to the earth, and that is the end of you. There is nothing more, you simply cease to exist completely. But we are not secular materialists; we are Christians, and we believe in the existence of an immortal soul for every person. So where does that put us at the moment of death? The pre–Christian pagans usually considered some sort of life after death, and it seems inconceivable that the soul should simply vanish. We have the words of Revelation 14:13b Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. This passage from Revelation indicates at least some sort of spiritual existence for those that have died in the Lord. So as Christians, we have no doubt at all about the continued existence of the soul after death; we reject the secular materialist position altogether.

But come back to the Resurrection itself. In His first post–Resurrection appearance to the disciples in the upper room, Jesus said Luke 24:39 Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. Notice in His statement the emphasis on His physical resurrection body, and the fact that He is not some vaporous spirit but actual flesh and blood. We are all accustomed to the idea that religion deals with spiritual things, and we recall St. Paul’s statement Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Paul shows us the Spirit and the flesh in conflict, and we see that the resurrected Jesus Christ is very much flesh and bones. Why is the flesh restored for eternal life, the flesh which has been the cause of so much of our stumbling and failing?

But the resurrection of the dead is more than the revival of a corpse, the return of life to an earthly body. There were instances of that sort in the revival in the raising of Lazarus and the raising of the son of the widow of Nain. In each of those cases, the men were simply restored to their ordinary human bodies, with their natural conflicts and failings, to eventually die again. It was a temporary delay of death only, and in nowise a resurrection to eternal life. In the true resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. This is a tranformation, in which the strife between the spirit and the flesh comes to an end, and the body comes to a clear and translucent expression of the soul. This is the spiritual transformation in which nothing is lost, but everything is made new, to produce the new, eternal spiritual body.

The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, long recognized by wise men before the time of Christ as well as Christians, is of great importance. But we are not pure spirits as the blessed angels are. No, we are made of flesh and bones, and our complete salvation requires that our flesh be saved as well as our souls. This means that all of its weaknesses and perversities must be overcome, all be made new and perfect in the transformation that occurs at our resurrection. Our expectation in eternal life with God is physical bodies made perfect, recognizably ourselves but made unimaginably new and perfect. As St. Paul says, 2 Corinthians 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

Resurrection comes at the completeness of our salvation, as we are ready to enter into Heaven. The reality of the resurrection was evident even to the ancient Hebrew Job, Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Job knew that when we eventually come face to face with God, it will be in the flesh of our resurrection body.

Resurrection is a difficult thing for us today, really no less and no more so than it was for the disciples on that first Easter morning. The question was asked of St. Paul 1 Corinthians 15:35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? If someone asks us this question today, we are not able to give them a simple answer, because it is a truly mysterious matter. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only example that we have, which makes the details that are recorded in the Scriptures matters of extreme importance. There are the matters about finding the stone rolled away, the position of the grave clothes, Jesus speaking with various people, people touching Jesus’ hands and side, His eating and drinking with the disciples, and so on.

Our Church is founded on the witness of the Apostles who were among the first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death by rising from the grave is the whole basis for the Christian hope that we, too, may be heirs to life eternal in Heaven with Him. He has given us the sacrament of His Body and Blood, the Bread of Eternal Life and the Cup of Everlasting Salvation, to preserve us both in body and soul for all time and beyond.

This is the day when we celebrate the resurrection of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, now fully restored to eternal life after going to death by Crucifixion for our sins on the Cross, to live and reign forevermore at the right hand of God the Father. His rising from the grave is the final victory over sin, death, and the grave. These no longer have power over Him, and because of the fact that He has borne our sins, they no longer have power over us if we believe on Him. For this we can only offer thanksgiving and glory and honor forever and ever. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The Humility of Christ

By Fr. D.

Lent 6 – Palm Sunday


Philippians 2:5–11
St. Matthew 27:1–54

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Today is Palm Sunday, the day of our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the beginning of the fast moving, final week of His life. In our Gospel lesson this morning, we heard the whole Passion Story related according to St. Matthew. As the week progresses, we will hear it related by each of the other evangelists, each with a different insight, a different point of view.

This past Sunday, the focus was on the doctrine of the Cross as the sacrifice for our sin and the basis for our sanctification, the work of Jesus Christ upon the Cross for our salvation. Today we shift our attention more towards the Person of Christ, the Divine Sufferer, as we try to learn how to be more like Him. He is the ultimate example for us of godly life and the ideal of our sanctification.

In the physical events of the week ahead, the body of Christ is to suffer all manner of grievous injury. The torn body becomes for us the visible sign of the inner holy mind. We aspire particularly to the humility and patience seen in the mind of Christ. It is not ours by nature, but it can be ours by grace if we come to see its beauty as shown to us by the Holy Ghost.

The humility of Jesus Christ is of His most fundamental nature. Recall first that He existed with God the Father on the Throne of Heaven from before the beginning of Creation. He is of exactly the same substance as God the Father, without any difference of inequality. As the Prologue to St. John’s Gospel begins, John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That Word is Jesus Christ. And yet, this same all glorious Jesus Christ responded in the humility of a Son to the directions of the Father, and willingly came to live among men in the Incarnation. This is humility of such extreme proportions that we have great difficulty understanding it, and yet Jesus Christ accepted it in obedience to His Father and for us men at a time when He was still upon the Throne of Heaven. He did this, knowing full well all that it would entail for Himself. He did it without quibbling over being equal in glory to the Father. He responded in love, the love of the Father. He is truly the one described in Revelation 13:8b ... the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

There had been various times when God had made Himself known to man before the coming of Jesus. We think of God speaking to Moses in the burning bush as one such event. These events are called by the technical term theophany, a manifestation of God. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ was much more than any theophany, however, because Jesus made God manifest in man, rather than simply manifest to man. Here was a real man, a human being, who was God in human form. This is far more than had ever happened previously.

One might expect that God, coming in human form, would come as Lord and Master, for truly He is just that, but Jesus Christ did not do that at all. He took a very low position in society, becoming essentially an itinerant teacher and healer with no possessions beyond the clothes on His back. He never concerned Himself with money, but went about serving people, preaching, and teaching the Gospel. He made it very clear to His followers that to follow Him would not lead to riches, to worldly success, power, fortune, or fame. Rather He talked constantly of the coming of the Kingdom of God and what would be required in order to enter into that Kingdom. Thus His humility is evident in that He was constantly pointing away from Himself and toward God the Father. It was not always seen in this way, because He also said that He was the Son of God, and that was considered blasphemy by the Jews.

Jesus Christ lived as a man, sharing all the common trials and difficulties of human life, including hunger, thirst, pain, fatigue, sorrow, grief, anger, and regret. He lived a life without sin, and went to His death as any man would. But it was an extraordinary death, shameful and cruel, of the sort reserved for troublemakers and slaves. He accepted this in complete humility, just as he had accepted everything else. Philippians 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Philippians 2:9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: It is in His great humility that Jesus is exalted as Savior of the world, and thus His Name comes to signify His humility and His passion forever, a cause for which Philippians 2:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; It is the glory of a King to be recognized as such even when not wearing His crown, and thus it is to the honor of God that Jesus Christ should be recognized as King in human hearts, even though there is no outward sign of his divine royalty. The true glory of God is in His love, not in His power.

We continue to consider the mind of Christ as we turn our attention to the Gospel lesson.

We consider first his patience with Judas which is recorded in the chapter previous to our Gospel lesson. There Jesus warns Judas rather grimly, Matthew 26:24 The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born, but there is no chastisement. He is gentle with Judas rather than upbraiding him. We know that the words of Jesus eventually had their effect on Judas who tried to return the blood money, and when that failed, he went and hanged himself. We need to be more responsive, to be sure that we hear the words of Christ, spoken to us, and respond to them before they lead us to similar acts of despair.

When He was brought before Pilate, various and sundry accusers charged Him and He simply refused to answer. Matthew 27:12 And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Their charges were all lies; there was really nothing to say other than to deny them and most of them were simply not worthy of any response at all. Although it is unlikely that any of us will face a situation exactly like our Lord faced before Pilate, we can take to heart his message of non–response. In this way, we apply the last of the beatitudes, Matthew 5:11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. We simply don’t need to respond, just as our Lord Jesus did not respond.

When Pilate offered to release a prisoner, the crowd, encouraged by the Jewish authorities, demanded Barabbas, a highwayman and murderer. When Pilate asked what they wanted done with Jesus, the crowd cried out for His execution on the grounds that he was guilty of treason and blasphemy. All of this, Jesus bore in silent humility even though absolutely none of it was true. It was all necessary for the will of the Father to be carried out, and the Son was being humbly obedient to the Father. We are to be silent when others are preferred before us; when we are falsely accused we are not to make a fuss of denials and counter charges.

Recall that the soldiers spent quite some time mocking Jesus. They put Him through all manner of gross indignities, pretending to treat Him as a king. And yet, we often allow our sense of wounded pride to get the better of us and lead us into sin. How can we justify such pride when the Lord of Life, the Savior of Mankind, was mocked and treated so spitefully by those Roman soldiers and yet He took it all quietly, humbly, without so much as a word said back to them? We need to conquer our pride, to see ourselves with the mind of Jesus, rather than as our usual proud selves.

Think about the patience of Christ upon the Cross, Christ in pain. On the Cross, Christ felt that He was all alone, subject to the taunts of the two thieves, the jeers of the crowd, the harassment of the Jewish leaders, and finally deserted by God. How well do we do as pain–bearers? Are we not much more adept as bringers of pain and suffering through our anger, bitterness, hatred, and indifference?

The last loud cry from Jesus Christ was, It is finished, which was not a cry of suffering, but rather a cry of victory. He had endured to the end, and emerged victorious. There were three immediate signs of this victory.
∙ The veil of the Temple was rent, showing the conquest of sin by ending the separation between man and God.
∙ The tombs of the saints already dead were opened, showing the conquest of death.
∙ The heart of the Centurion at the foot of the Cross was converted. Matthew 27:54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

Let us look to the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ, as He approached the Cross as a model for our own lives, recognizing that we will never achieve that level of perfection but striving for it as our goal. To be like Christ is the goal of every Christian, and humility is one of the most difficult aspects of that “being like Christ.”

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Christ the Victim, Christ the High Priest

Lent 5 - Passion Sunday


Hebrews 9:11–15
St. John 8:46–59a

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

We stand now at the end of our journey to Jerusalem; the city is near at hand. What remains now is the final sacrificial action that is about to unfold before us. In the usual practice of the Church, the event would be commemorated on a Sunday, and then the doctrinal consequences would be elaborated on the following Sunday. However because of the packed sequence of events from Palm Sunday to Easter, the Church has chosen to elaborate the doctrinal significance on this Sunday, before the events. Thus today, Passion Sunday, provides the doctrinal background for the events that are about to unfold during the next two weeks. It is therefore a Sunday of great importance for our understanding and appreciation of the entire Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter sequence.

Every sacrifice offered for sin has a double intent. On the one hand, it is intended to convey a sense of pardon for sins committed. At the same time, however, it is also intended to make men aware of their sins, to convey a definite sense of guilt lest they make light of their sins. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross most certain contains both of these aspects. The fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is our hope that dies for us upon the Cross throughly convicts us of our sin, so that there is no chance that we may take it lightly.

You will recall that, once a year, the Jewish High Priest entered the Holy of Holies to make atonement for himself and for all the people. This was something he was only able to do once each year. In the Epistle lesson, St. Paul compares that with the work of our High Priest, Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, ... The blessings that the Jews continue to wait for are already come to the Christians, because Jesus has come as the High Priest who brings those long awaited things. The long awaited Jewish future is the present reality for Christians, simply because we have the Messiah that the Jews have refused to see. What a difference this makes, right down to our present day!

On the Jewish Day of Atonement, the High Priest passed from the Tabernacle (the Holy Place) into the Holy of Holies, the presence chamber of God. This was where the annual atonement for the people was made. As St. Paul observes regarding Jesus Christ, our High Priest, Hebrews 9:11b-12 ... by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 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. Jesus has passed through the Tabernacle of His own body on the Cross, by His own blood He has entered into Heaven to intercede for us, and from that position at the right hand of God He obtains our eternal redemption. How vastly more powerful this is than the actions of the Jewish High Priest who goes once a year into the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the people, while our High Priest, Jesus Christ goes directly to the right hand of God! There is simply no comparison.

The work of the Jewish High Priest is of limited effect and must be repeated annually. You will recall that even in our day, the Jews still observe, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, even though the Jerusalem Temple is long gone, the point being that their annual act of atonement comes with an expiration date. In contrast, the work of Jesus Christ has no expiration date at all. It was done once for all time. There is no need for the sacrifice of Christ to ever be repeated. What Christ has done is sufficient to remove the sins of the whole world for all time, neither requiring nor allowing any repetition.

Think for a moment about the nature of the sacrifice involved. The Jewish priest sacrificed various animals on the altar, cattle, oxen, sometimes even birds. In all cases, the victims of the Jewish sacrifice were a lower life form than that of the priest making the sacrifice. Now contrast this with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, even neglecting for the moment that He is the Son of God. This was the sacrifice of a human life, something ever so much more than an animal sacrifice. If an animal sacrifice could atone for human sins, how much more could the willing sacrifice of a human life be expected to raise us up from dead works, and how vastly more so remembering that this was in fact the Son of God?

The Day of Atonement was a central element of the Jewish Covenant, the basis for the renewal of their annual covenant of grace as God’s Chosen People. Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross brought us a better covenant and the promise of our inheritance in His kingdom by His grace. That covenant was established by the death of Christ, and we are brought into that covenant through baptism, so that we speak of being “baptized into His death.” Baptism is the only entrance into the covenant established by Jesus in His death, the covenant that was Christ’s atonement “made once for all.”

It has become something of a fad in recent times to ask the question, “Did Jesus sin?” With an opening question like that, people can then proceed to write all manner of nonsense and find a willing readership. It is, however, an important question and has a very clear answer. Think about what we read throughout the New Testament. On numerous occasions, Jesus challenged various individuals and groups regarding their sins, and many tried to entrap Him as well. None ever managed to convict Jesus of sin, although He showed many people to be caught in various sorts of sins. Jesus was keenly aware of the fact that He alone was without sin. He frequently condemned sin in other people, but he never spoke of sin in Himself, simply because He knew that there was none. When He taught us to pray, He taught us to ask for forgiveness of our sins, but He never joined in such prayer Himself.

Sin is not just an act or a word, but rather it reflects our attitude towards both God and man. Sin dishonors God and places self first. Only Jesus could say, John 8:49b ... but I honour my Father, ...and John 8:50a And I seek not mine own glory: This was because Jesus lived a perfect life based on the perfect motive, something we find ourselves unable to do.

What have men actually seen in Jesus? What has He shown Himself to all men to be? During His earthly ministry, Jesus freely healed the sick and lame up and down the length of the land, while teaching the people along the way and working His miracles. In His miracles, they saw Him do many marvelous things such as feeding great masses of people starting with almost nothing, they saw Him cure people who were not even present where He was in the case of the Centurion’s servant and the daughter of the Syro-Phonetian woman. Most miraculous of all, they saw several people raised from the dead, people who had been in the tomb for several days in at least one case. All of these show that He is a source of life that can conquer death, a gift of God to Him and Him alone. This set Him apart from all of the previous prophets and great leaders of Israel in the past. He said He was the Messiah, and there was every reason to believe Him.

On this last point, His claim to be the Messiah, we need to go further. John 8:54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: There could hardly be any clearer way for Christ to claim to be the Son of God. He says that He is honored by God the Father, the one that the Jews claim to worship as their God. To the unbelieving Jews, this is necessarily blasphemy. To us, who understand Jesus as the Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, this fits perfectly well, but what a shock this would be to those hearing it for the first time! He is the Son from Eternity, the Son by inheritance, being one with the Father. His Sonship is thus completely different from our derived sonship that only comes about through adoption by grace in baptism. Thus He speaks in John 20:17b ... my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

John 8:55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. The verb, to know, can be really loaded with meaning as it is in this case. Sometimes we use the word in the simple meaning, such as, “I know how to get to the store,” referring to simple knowledge. But there is also a much deeper meaning for the verb to know, meaning to have knowledge at the most intimate detailed level. That is the sense in which Jesus uses the word here when He says, but I know him. Jesus and the Father are one, so when Jesus says that He knows the Father, He is saying that He is truly united to the Father. He goes on to say that He keeps the Father’s commands, the Father’s saying.

Jesus next comment totally confuses the Jews, John 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Abraham is described as the friend of God, and we may understand that he was given some vision of the Christ that had existed from before creation. We have to remember that Jesus Christ exists outside of time, just as God the Father who revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush, one who has neither past, present, nor future.

Our Great High Priest and Sacred Victim must therefore be
∙ holy, harmless, undefiled
∙ completely without sin
∙ established in His unique Sonship with the Father

As we consider the awesome events unfolding before us in the next two weeks, we may want to reflect on the following Collect. This was proposed for a revision of the Book of Common Prayer in 1688 for use on this day, but the entire revision was rejected and thus this Collect was never included.

O Almighty God, Who hast sent Thy Son Jesus Christ to be an High Priest of good things to come, and by His own Blood to enter in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us; mercifully look upon Thy people, that by the same Blood of our Saviour, Who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot unto Thee, our consciences may be purged from dead works, to serve Thee the living God, that we may receive the promise of eternal inheritance, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Laetare!

Lent 4

Galatians 4:21–31
St. John 6:1–14

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Laetare! Rejoice! This is the opening word of the ancient Latin Introit for this Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent. We rejoice because we are nearing the end of our journey to Jerusalem with Jesus. This day has several other names as well, such as Refreshment Sunday, referring to Jesus’ great miracle feeding of the five thousand in our Gospel lesson. We are midway through the long fast of Lent, and for today only, we get a brief reprieve, the tone of the day is lightened just a little bit. You may notice that we have flowers on the altar for the first time since Lent began; they will go away again after today until Easter. If our parish had rose vestments, we would be using them today instead of violet. Thus there is distinctly a bit of refreshment for us this day. It is also kept as Mother’s Day in England, some say because of the reference to Jerusalem in the Epistle lesson in Galatians 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

This is the midpoint of Lent in more than simple time. In the first half of Lent, we have been immersed in three Sundays of intensive contemplation of our sins, the temptations of devil, the flesh, and the world. Today we pass away from temptations to a Sunday on Grace, illustrated for us in both of our lessons. In the Epistle lesson, we have the grace of adoption of sons laid out for us, and in the Gospel we have the grace of sanctification presented. Let us pay close attention to what both of these have to say to us.

Our Epistle lesson is drawn from St. Paul writing to the Galatians, referring back to the two sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael as the son of Hagar was born a slave. This put the two half–brothers in rather different relationship to their father Abraham. Thinking in terms of allegory, St. Paul sees these two families as representing Judaism on the one hand, and the Christian Church on the other hand when he says Galatians 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. He is pointing to the fact that the Jews are strictly bound under the Law of Moses given on Sinai, and as such are in bondage to the Law. Jewish life under the Law had become a heavy burden to be borne under a severe Master, rather than a loving Father. All that Judaism had to offer to its people was more and more of the same; remember that it had been four hundred years since the last of the prophets spoke.

Isaac was the son of Sarah, a free woman, the chosen wife of Abraham, and was thus himself free. Sarah, the free mother whose children are all free, comes to represent for us the Christian Church, the Jerusalem which is above, Galatians 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. In each case, it is the status of the mother that determines the relation of the child to the father. Thus the fact that we belong to the Christian Church through our baptism determines our relation to the God the Father, making us His children by the adoption as sons. It is because we are members of Christ that we are children of God and have received the baptism for the remission of sins. By God’s own will, He establishes with us in His grace, a position of being His adopted sons. This is nothing that we do, but solely the action of God the Father.

Being adopted as sons, we are under the obligation to act as sons, not as servants or slaves who only do the minimum that is required to meet the master’s demands. As sons, we are obliged to give what the slave withholds, and for this reason, some may prefer slavery. The son gives all for he must say, “I am my father’s son.” At some point, he will realize that this enables him to say, however, “My Father is mine,” allowing him a conscious dignity and liberty that comes from identifying with the Father. The son serves as one in favor, not for favor; as a debtor to love rather than for wages. While the thought of the crown that lies ahead is a source of joy, the real driving force for the son is the Cross that stands behind him.

The service of sons must be a willing offering, rather than simply a dull, heavy burden. If it becomes the later it looks much like the Jewish Church at the time of Christ, dull, joyless, and legalistic. Thus we are cautioned to be sure that Galatians 4:30b Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. They are not to be found among us! We must throw them out, literally eject them from our midst.

Our Gospel lesson for the day is the story of Jesus’ miracle feeding of the five thousand as recorded by St. John. This story is one of the few events recorded by all four evangelists, which puts it in a special category all by itself. It serves as the Gospel lesson today when we are bidden to turn to Jesus for refreshment, and once again late in the Church year, on the Sunday next before Advent, when we are bidden to gather up all the fragments that nothing may be lost.

John 6:2-3 And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. Jesus has been followed into the wilderness by a large crowd. This is a remote area, far from sources of food for the crowd. It is Jesus who raises the concern about the welfare of the crowd, John 6:5 When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? When Jesus looks at the crowd, He has sympathy because, unlike us, He sees individuals, not a mob, and He is concerned for each person in the crowd. The same is true today; Jesus still sees individuals, not masses of humanity. He deals with us one by one, and is aware of our individual needs and problems. He is never too weary to love each of us as individual people and He anticipates our needs.

Jesus then asked Philip about the possibility of buying bread, John 6:6 And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Our Lord wants us to be aware of our need for Him, our inability to provide for ourselves. He wants us to realize just how completely inadequate we are without Him. Philip’s response makes this point, John 6:7 Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. In the thinking of men, there is simply no way forward. This is reinforced by Andrew who says, John 6:9 There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? From a human perspective, there is simply not enough to work with to feed the great crowd. But they are not thinking from a divine perspective at all. Poor people, poor Church, if everything were to depend upon us!

Jesus increases the sense of expectation when He says, John 6:10b Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. Just imagine this vast assembly of 5000 men, sitting on the ground, waiting, waiting for what Christ would do next! To wait for Christ is a major part of the process of sanctification; Isaiah 30:18b for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. Waiting for the Lord is much of the process of our sanctification, sometimes a very hard part. For those that do wait, they shall never go away dissatisfied from worship, prayer, or sacrament.

Just as in this great feeding miracle, the only source of satisfying food is our Saviour Himself. He gives thanks to the Father, and then breaks the bread, over and over, multiplying without end in His hands. In the same manner He gives Himself to us in the Eucharist as solid, life sustaining food, multiplying endlessly until the end of time. As long as He blesses the Meal, it is His Body and His Blood, given for the remission of sins unto life eternal. There is always enough, until the last of His children is fed.

Through baptism we are brought into the grace of adoption as sons. Through the Holy Eucharist we are fed by the grace of sanctification in our lives. Let us close with the words to O Esca Viatorum, Hymn #192 of The Hymnal 1940:

O Food of men wayfaring,
The bread of angels sharing
O manna from on high!
We hunger; Lord, supply us,
Nor thy delights deny us,
Whose hearts to thee draw nigh.

O stream of love past telling,
O purest fountain, welling
From out the Saviour’s side!
We faint with thirst; revive us,
Of thine abundance give us,
And all we need provide.

O Jesus by thee bidden,
We here adore thee, hidden
‘Neath forms of bread and wine.
Grant that when the veil is riven,
We may behold in heaven,
Thy countenance divine.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.