Trinity Fourteen

Collect

Almighty God, whose only Son has opened for us a new and living way into your presence: give us pure hearts and steadfast wills to worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

or

Merciful God, your Son came to save us and bore our sins on the cross: may we trust in your mercy and know your love, rejoicing in the righteousness that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Post Communion

Lord God, the source of truth and love, keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, united in prayer and the breaking of bread, and one in joy and simplicity of heart, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Readings

Old Testament

So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked ones, you shall surely die’, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life.

Now you, mortal, say to the house of Israel, Thus you have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?’ Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Ezekiel 33.7–11

Psalm

33    Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes ♦
and I shall keep it to the end.

34    Give me understanding and I shall keep your law; ♦
I shall keep it with my whole heart.

35    Lead me in the path of your commandments, ♦
for therein is my delight.

36    Incline my heart to your testimonies ♦
and not to unjust gain.

37    Turn away my eyes lest they gaze on vanities; ♦
O give me life in your ways.

38    Confirm to your servant your promise, ♦
which stands for all who fear you.

39    Turn away the reproach which I dread, ♦
because your judgements are good.

40    Behold, I long for your commandments; ♦
in your righteousness give me life.

Psalm 119.33–40

Epistle

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this saying, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Romans 13.8–14

Gospel

‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’

Matthew 18.15–20

Sermon on Sunday, Trinity Fourteen

Last week we thought about pride and its deleterious effect on our lives, and how it interferes with our fulfilling the one commandment Jesus laid upon each one of us. Paul carries on with his analysis of the law of love in this way –

The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

Paul wants to overthrow the old understanding of the Law, doesn’t he? No more prohibitions, he proposes only positive action. He anticipates the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven and God’s rule in our lives. He counsels us in these words, “Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Paul has described an entirely new way of being in the world here, hasn’t he? He goes on –

Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy.

Paul is counselling us to live a new life – he wants us to live “honourably”, a life in which we are fitted with a new type of protective clothing, an “armour of light”. This new accoutrement does not allow revelling and drunkenness, nor debauchery and licentiousness, nor quarrelling and jealousy. Different, indeed, is the life Paul expects in the light. These ordinarily acceptable states of affairs are a darkness, Paul tells us. We normally see parties and excess to be acceptable in our everyday life. However, Paul says there is no honour in them at all, and we would agree, wouldn’t we? We long for a life that is open, honest and bright – in the light, even though, apparently, we pursue a life hidden in the dark. In fact, I think Paul is describing what we would hope for in our moments of clarity.

He wants to overturn the usual – that all so natural, everyday mode of being – for something else. Normally, we only make provision for our immediate needs, what Paul is calling “the flesh”. We worry about food and clothing, and then that extends to fine food and rich clothing, and then that becomes mired in conspicuous consumption and its consequences for the planet but, more significantly, for our souls. Gratifying the flesh has never been more in question than in this generation, for everyone has been asking questions about the state of health for all existence on planet earth. The other day I was listening to the radio and there was a frightening exposition of how the environmental crisis has come about, and how long it has been building up. It would seem that the industrial revolution and the rise of capitalism have coincided to reach this point in the history of the planet. They have conspired to deflect our attention away from spiritual health to the comfort of the flesh alone. Hymn writers have reminded us about this, from the time of Blake in the eighteenth century, let alone Paul so long ago.

Blake is asking us to put on that armour of light, just as Paul wrote to the Romans, but he is contrasting the new Jerusalem with the darkness of the satanic mills appearing in his time and still stand today. We must equip ourselves with new weapons. We must mount a chariot of fire and ride into the conflict on the side of the light against darkness. Blake wants us to realise that the holy lamb of God has walked the pleasant green land before the hills were clouded by the smog of concupiscence. The messenger is still amongst us, whose feet did roam in that ancient time of the garden of Eden, but, more significantly, even now moves among us – though he is too often unseen and unheard because of the darkness.

Blake, like Paul, wants us to wake up to the reality of our heart’s desire – its true intention for that heavenly Jerusalem to be built here and now for us, and for the generations coming after us. They both argue that it is possible to accomplish the coming of the kingdom. Paul wants to renew all of creation, while Blake’s desire is for a return of “England’s green and pleasant land.” Blake’s vision in the hymn is a national pride in a pure land where the master could truly walk from shore to shore, where we could see Jerusalem built here as it was, before the satanic mills clouded the horizons. We have obscured the vision which once was clear for all to see.

Paul also speaks of that time when God will be with us, a time of dread for those whose interest is only the flesh, and even more terrifying for those whose lives have taken a spiritual direction. Paul writes of our anxiety before this very real future, this extremely close advent of Christ’s final judgement.

The language is much the same as that of the climate protesters around us today. They have been interfering with a lot of everyday things, haven’t they? Interrupting all those sporting events, and causing traffic chaos. They and Paul want to rouse us from the sleepiness of the everyday, where we just keep going along with things as they are. But he asks, are we loving our neighbours? Those neighbours are more than the person next door just as Jesus taught, we must see the whole of creation as a neighbour – for everything has an impact on everything else, microcosms reflecting the macrocosm. The world is a cohesive whole and love is the only way to treat everything, if there is to be no harm.

That is the whole point of the revolution of the Law – the Law should be something we want to fulfill. The Law should not be something to “get around”. No one should obfuscate and turn words around from their intended meaning so that we can get our own way, to follow “the desires of the flesh”, as they used to say. – Love is never so selfish, is it? Love always tries to realise what is good.

Love always intends what is right, not what is convenient, not what is without peril. When we love our children or when we ask our partner for that life-time commitment, we are at risk. That is what we always say about true love, isn’t it? However, let’s start the revolution here – I want you to see yourself as invulnerable when you love, because you are clad in the armour of light. No harm can come to you because you are living and loving in the clear light of day, not in the night in which quarrelling and jealousy easily appear, that disquiet when the desires of the flesh disturb us. We would be very different people if we were to obey that one Law, don’t you think? Like I said last week, love could transform everything – even vengeance. Love would transform the everyday into the extraordinary. Jesus’ Law of Love would be something we would be happy to fulfill, and I would hope that spirit and flesh would no longer fight within us.

Amen

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