Episode 22: 1/30/09

Readings:

Psalm 51
Isaiah 51:1-8
Galatians 3:15-22
Mark 6:47-56


Sermon:

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:1-6

Grace, Mercy and Peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Who amongst us is righteous? Who amongst us has the strength and the perseverance to walk according to all of the precepts of the Lord? Who amongst us can keep the law purely and wholly within our souls and our bodies and our minds?

None… no one… not one…

It’s a hard, harsh truth, a grim reminder of our mortal flesh and the weakness of our resolve. In sin we were born, and once more in sin, for the iniquity that does rip at our soul, we do die, fallen, our life but the short days of this earth, one breath taken, one step taken, until one day they are all taken from us and we no longer walk among the living.

And to a great many people, that’s all that there is. A life lived, and then nothing more, nothing else, beyond the grave. Amidst darkness and chaos life was conceived, the universe and nature, determined on a colliding course with one another, until suddenly there it was, until suddenly out of the nothingness came everything. If from darkness and chaos we did come, then to darkness and chaos we shall return.

It’s been a wisdom of this world that has weighed on the lives and the works of the Saint’s since first they took up the call of the Lord, the Holy Spirit working within them to bring them to that divine mission of loving mercy that comes through the power of the Redeemer. From the prophets who would be sent unto this world with the voice of God to speak the truth to the fallen children of God to the Disciples given the words of the Great Commission “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Sprit: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:18-20), they were, as was the Lord, acutely aware of the wisdom of this world.

The truth is that man… that people, for the most part, don’t like to be held to a degree of account, nor to be considered accountable for their actions. They often times like to abide in a world we’re they can do what they want, when they want, how they want, believing that it is right, that there are no consequences for their actions, there were no punishment for their sins.

So they would turn their backs on God, declaring that He is not there, somehow foregoing every evidence that He is there, so to make it somehow easier to believe that nothing really matters. And why not? Why wouldn’t they? As a God of Justice, one often described as vengeful, they would not want to incur His great wrath against them. How better to believe that you shall not by believing that He is not there, turning their eyes to gods that could not see or could hear the iniquity of their sins.

There, with each generation, with each child born, taught this worldly wisdom, this earthly knowledge, it becomes an easier lie to deceive ourselves with, until suddenly we just declare it to be truth, no more questions asked, no more need to supply answers.

And yet, here there has to come a fundamental understanding, a fundamental truth of God’s great love for us and that divine mercy in which He shows to us. Though a vengeful God, though a God of Justice, though a punisher of iniquity and sin, that is not all, that is not all that He has been meant to be seen as, and those who see Him only as such see Him not as He is but through the eyes of guilt and sin that believe that otherwise wrath would be showered upon them for their transgressions, see Him as the world constructs Him, a God that He is not.

But they are not alone, each of us, the faithful and the unfaithful alike, are sinners, it is the great equalizer amidst this world, and there it is only through the power of Christ that we are born anew into sainthood, the wickedness of our flesh washed away through the Blood of the Lamb. It is only through the love of Christ that we find mercy, a mercy that looks not to those transgressions of our being but the faith held within our hearts, working to create us anew. Yes, we stumble and at times we even fall, perhaps we wander away from the path of righteousness, relying on our wisdom or our knowledge, believing we can find redemption through our own justifications, through our own works, through our own actions, and yet, through it all, in it all God never loses hope for us, His Spirit searching for us, to once more be brought back to walk down that path with our Savior, in the love He has for us.

There each of us, we have a duty, as followers of that road, on that journey with Christ, to push back the onslaught of those who would forsake God for this earthly understanding that seems bound to its own arrogant self righteousness, for the redemption found in Jesus of Nazareth, that redemption that was intended not just for any one person or any one group but for all of humanity, that all people, in all places, might come to a better, greater peace than anything they could ever know.

Just as St. Paul preaches that Gospel Message of Christ’s salvation, reminding the believers in Ephesus of Christ’s great sacrifice and what it means to us, so to must we take hold of that same message, grasping it, holding on to it, pulling it close to us, and there opening our arms in love and compassion to share it with our fellow man.

This is the nature of the Gospel we can never forget or forsake in all of the days of our life, in all of the steps we walk in.

Lord, grant this unto us all.

Now may the peace of the Lord that transcends all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus even unto life everlasting. Amen.