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Sermons
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Monday, 25 February 2008 |
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Lent 3, 2008: Holy Eucharist
"But if I cast out devils by the finger of God, no doubt the kingdom of God hath come upon you." (St. Luke 11.20)
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Our grade nine grammar teacher was Mrs. Glover, and she was tough! She maintained a very high standards in her classroom and she urged us to do the same in our school work, and that was good. Up until that year, I had never heard of the term 'undivided attention', but that is one of the first things she taught us. "I want your undivided attention," she told us on the first day. "Your attention is not good enough. I want your undivided attention." And believe me, she got - one way or the other!
Its funny how we remember things, but the word 'divided' in this morning's Gospel brought all of that to my mind. Jesus was casting out a devil that had caused the person to be unable to speak. And, when the devil was gone, some of the people wondered in amazement, while others said that the Lord had done it by the power Beelzebul, the prince of the devils. This Beelzebul, the prince of demons, apparently was connected to the pagan god, Baal, of the Old Testament. You see, B-e-el-z-e-b-u-l is probably the same god as B-a-a-I--z-e-b-u-l. In any case, the Jews used this pagan god's name as a synonym for Satan.
In response to those who suggested that He had just done this miracle by the power of Beelzebul, Jesus said, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against itself falleth; if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?" This, of course, is where Mrs. Glover's call for our 'undivided attention' came to mind. "A kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. "
Very often, we are represented by the person who is in conversation with Jesus in the Gospel. I suppose that, in one way or another we can see ourselves in each of the people present. For example, we can recognize ourselves in the man possessed with the devil, because, like him, we all have things our souls need to healed of By whatever means, this man's soul had become possessed by one of Satan's demons, so much so that he was now unable to speak. The spiritual darkness within him had manifested itself in a physical symptom - and that is often the case. Because our souls are within our bodies, the one affects the other. Ifwe are depressed, we may be physically ill as well. Or vice versa.
But how does this begin? It is king of scary to think about, being possessed by a devil and living in spiritual darkness. Interestingly, St. Paul speaks of this very thing in this morning's Epistle. "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them: for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret." This is helpful to us, for sure --listen again: "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove (expose) them."
St. Paul reminds here that we have a choice when it comes to participating in the works of darkness. We can allow our souls to be divided by opening our hearts and minds to worldly things, and by investing in or loving those things. Against this, of course, we are warned by the second commandment, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image... Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them." And that's the thing: although we might not physically get on our knees before the thing -whatever it is (money, power, popularity, comfort, beauty, athletics, performance) - we certainly are inclined by our fallen human nature to bow down to it in our hearts and minds. We have that tendency within us to love material things more than spiritual things; to give our lives over to the pursuit of what is visible at the expense of what is invisible. And that is a divided house, which the Lord tells us will fall. As Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Mammon." (St. Matthew 6.24)
So, the point is that we have a choice about who we will serve; and we have a choice about what we will love; and we have a choice about how we will live and with what we fill our minds and hearts. And that is true - it must be true; otherwise we would be obliged to say that Satan is stronger than God. But we believe that Jesus died and was buried and rose again in order to defeat the powers of Satan. He entered the territory of death and hell, bearing our sins in His own body so that we may be saved and freed from the darkness and bondage of sin. And so St. Paul says, "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."
Actually, it is this power of God about which Jesus speaks in the last part of today's Gospel. He said, "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace; but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth the spoils. He that is not with Me is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me scattereth. " You see, as one commentator points out (M.F. Sadler), the strong man that Jesus speaks of here is Satan. His house is human nature. Two weeks ago we see him tempting the Lord Jesus, and last week we met the woman whose daughter was grievously vexed with a devil. Satan is the strong man; BUT, the Stronger Man Who overcomes Satan is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ. As our commentator says, "By His Incarnation, Jesus entered into the very citadel of the kingdom of evil. He bound the strong man; that is, He set bounds to Satan's power, and gave assurance of Satan's final expulsion by spoiling his goods - that is, by rescuing bodies, souls and spirits who were before entirely under Satan's power." And, at last, by His own Death and Resurrection destroyed the power of death, making the grave to a bed of hope for the Christian.
The Lord sets before us the dangers of having a divided soul. He reminds us that His power is sufficient - that, through Jesus, the Devil has no power over us except the power we give him. Whereas Satan tries to divide our loyalties and lure us into the kingdom of darkness and SELF, our Blessed Lord, by His Holy Spirit, is constantly prompting us and leading us to Himself - to His Sacred Heart, to His good and perfect Will and to the kingdom of Heaven where there is Life Everlasting.
Standing beside the Jordan River, on the edge of the Promised Land, Moses told the Israelites, "See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord you God which I command you this day, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in His ways, and by keeping His commandments and His statutes and ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you this day that you shall perish. . ." (Deuteronomy 30. 15-18)
Dear friends, the same choice has been set before us. With undivided attention set your heart on the Lord and the Kingdom of Heaven. Choose Life.
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Monday, 18 February 2008 |
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The Second Sunday in Lent, 2008: Holy Eucharist
"Then Jesus answered and said unto her, '0 woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt'" (St. Matthew 15. 28)
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The mother who comes to Jesus in this morning's Gospel is desperate. We are told that she cried unto Him saying, 'Have mercy on me, 0 Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.' She cried - but who wouldn't have? She cried out to a complete stranger; but don't forget, this was not a broken arm, or a rash, or a fever - her daughter was 'grievously vexed with a devil'. The enemy attacking her little girl was invisible and she was powerless to help her. Our hearts go out to her, even now. Anyone who has had a seriously sick child knows the desperation this mother from the land of Canaan must have felt that day.
And that was another thing against her - she was from Canaan, a Gentile. Is that partly why the disciples urged Jesus to 'send her away'? 'Send her away; for she crieth after us,' they said. So, in summary, just for the record here are all the things that were stacked against this woman: first, she was a woman, and although that didn't matter to the Lord, it did to some; second, she was a Gentile; third, she was a stranger; fourth, her daughter was sick from the inside out being 'grievously vexed with a devil'. All of these things would have been ample reason for her to have given up. She was after all, from one perspective, powerless.
Actually, that's what the Collect says - not just about this woman, but about us! Listen to this: 'Almighty God, Who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves. . . ' . Is that really true - that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves? Well, there are different ways of thinking about 'power'. For example, we might think of power in terms of energy - the energy needed to heat and light our houses and to fuel our vehicles. Natural gas. Water power. Wind power. Nuclear energy. Fossil fuels. Wood heat. Surely with all of these options we are self-sufficient, aren't we? Not really. Don't we all get a little edgy if the weather forecast calls for four or five hours of freezing rain? Then, we are certainly earnest in prayer, and how appropriate are these words, 'Almighty God (that is, All-powerful God; the God of all might) - Who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves.'
But that, of course, is only one way of thinking about power. We have lots of other powers, don't we? We have the physical power of our own bodies, and the intellectual powers of our minds. And don't forget the power of the heart – of love, that is. And we should also include here our will power. That's a pretty good list, and it paints a very nice picture until we are faced with trials and trouble. Can any of these personal powers keep us from sickness or death? Can any of them guarantee us God's mercy? 'Lord, I just discovered the cure for cancer, so I know that you will have a special place for me.' Is that how it works?
Not at all. We stand before the All-knowing, All-seeing, All-powerful God; King of the universe Who is the beginning and ending of all things; the Maker and Redeemer of the world - we stand before Him without a thing to brag about. We are weak, and He is strong. He is Holy and Worthy, and we are not. Indeed, as St. John was shown in the Heavenly vision, the proper understanding is that we would find our sufficiency and help in God and not in ourselves. "Then I looked," wrote St. John "and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, , Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. '" (Revelation 5. 12)
That worship of the Lord by the heavenly angels, is that not what the Canaanite woman brought to Jesus? She knew that she had no power to help her daughter. Sickness and trouble have a way of showing us this; and, even better, of leading us to Christ Who can help. To an old and decrepit body, Jesus offers His own Resurrection Body healed of pain and sorrow. To a miserable sinner like me, He offers forgiveness and peace. To a dying person, He offers everlasting Life. His power and majesty has authority in every corner of this universe - visible and invisible -- From the nearest particle of air, to the farthest land, Christ Jesus has dominion. "For to this end," wrote St. Paul (for this reason) "Christ died, and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living." (Romans 14.9)
And that is the key, isn't it? That Jesus died. His power was not gained or demonstrated by worldly methods. He used no military force; no politicking; He exerted no influence except that of God's mercy and love. On the contrary, His power was ultimately revealed through the Cross and at the Empty Tomb. Incredibly, the Almighty God became our Substitute and suffered and died and rose again in order to save us From the powers of sin and death. And by His mercy towards us, all of creation knows of God's Perfect Love.
As we continue on the road to Calvary with the Lord Jesus, let us walk with humility, knowing that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves. Let us seek that humility of Christ that we might truly repent of our sins. And let us imitate the example of the Canaanite woman, who, though she was powerless, still had great hope by faith. In Jesus, the Blessed Son of David, we too have this Everlasting Hope, so let us put our whole trust and confidence in Him.
THE COLLECT.
ALMIGHTY God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Saint George's Anglican Church
