|
Rogation Sunday: Easter V, 2009
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Two weeks ago, the readings spoke to us about limiting our freedom – about becoming disciplined – as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. As part of this, St. Peter urged us to “submit ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake.” Last week, the readings built on this call for discipline by reminding us that we all have “unruly wills and affections” which need to be ordered. Our perspectives and priorities – our understanding – needs to be transformed. In the Gospel, Jesus specified out understanding of sin, and righteousness, and judgement – the world’s way of looking at these needs to be radically changed. Therefore, the Holy Spirit has come to show us the Truth in these areas.
Today, the Collect, Epistle and Gospel show us the next step. What does it look like to have our unruly wills rightly ordered? How should a Christian think and act? Today’s Collect gives us the answer: “Help us to ‘think those things that be good’, and to ‘perform the same.’” This is what the Christian life is about – following the Lord Jesus Christ – which means thinking and doing what is good. And the necessarily involves limiting our own freedoms to think and do whatever we feel like doing. It involves a change in perspective – a desire, a thirsting for the Lord and His holiness and Truth.
With that in mind, let’s take some time to look into the Epistle and Gospel. Actually the verb “to look” is the key word. St. James is emphasizing the importance of ‘doing’ rather that just ‘hearing’ – of being a ‘participant’ not just a ‘spectator’. He is making this point in an effort to explain the responsibilities involved with following Christ. He calls this ‘pure religion’.
“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, ‘To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”… “Be you doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
So, St James emphasizes ‘doing’; and he uses the analogy of looking into a mirror to help us understand a particular concern that is on his mind. Let’s read the second and third sentences of the Epistle again: “For if any man be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass (i.e. a mirror). For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and forgetteth what manner of man he was.” Here’s the picture, then: a hearer who is not a doer, is like somebody who is in a hurry. He stops quickly to check his hair in the mirror, and off he goes after a passing glance, forgetting in a second what he just saw.
One commentator, in taking this analogy to its proper conclusion, says this:
“A mere hearer of the Word looks at the Word which, properly and devoutly used, would reveal his own self to him; he looks at it only for a moment, and forgets all about himself; but if instead of this hasty glance he steadily contemplates himself in the mirror of God’s Word, with the view of amending whatever is amiss in the sight of his heavenly Father, he gets the blessedness which is expressed in the words of the following verse.” “Steadily contemplates himself” – keep that in mind as we move into the next sentence. Here it is: “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.” All right, let’s consider the meaning of this verb “to look” – “whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty.” To look into something, in this sense, means to stoop down and study – as you would, for example, a map; or, something on the ground. It means to “steadily contemplate”, rather than to quickly glance at it.
Now, if we use this with what Jesus says in the Gospel about “asking” – “asking in His Name” – we get a much more complete picture of prayer. Instead of shooting a quick request frivolously up in prayer, we are called here to first “look into” and “steadily contemplate” and really think over what would truly be good in this situation. “Lord,” we may ask “what would you find good and pleasing in this situation? What is your will?”
Illustration: shooting up prayers vs. being changed by God in prayer by “looking into His will”
Before we close, let’s take a minute to consider what St. James meant by “the perfect law of liberty” - “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.”
M.F. Sadler says this:
“The law of liberty is evidently a law which proceeds from within, and is not imposed from without.” (Hence the name, “law of liberty.”
If a man is unrenewed in soul or spirit, even the law of God is a bondage to him. Because it is imposed by another. However, if the man is renewed by union with the Son of God and the operation of the Holy Spirit, then the law is imposed (and taken on) by himself, and is seen by himself to be clearly in accordance with his highest interests, and conducive to his highest happiness; and so, instead of looking upon the will of God as a bondage, he looks upon sin as a bondage. Such a man is a doer of the word.
|
Saint George's Anglican Church
