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To be a Disciple is to be a devoted love-slave of the Lord Jesus. Many of us who call ourselves Christians are not devoted to Jesus Christ. (Oswald Chambers)

I have opened this morning’s sermon with these words of Oswald Chambers because I believe that the dangers of false Discipleship are everywhere present in this morning’s Gospel lesson. In it, we read that Then drew near unto [Jesus] all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. (St. Luke xv. 1,2) What we have, it would seem, are the publicans and sinners huddled around Jesus, eager to hear His Word, and the Pharisees and Scribes standing off at a distance, murmuring and judging Him. First, we find those who are interested in and desperately needing what Jesus has to offer, and then the self-righteous Jews judging both Jesus and the company He is keeping. Nestled in between the two groups are, as always, the Apostles. Now, Jesus knows exactly what the religious and pious Jewish Elders are thinking, and so He offers two parables. The truth of these parables is not specifically addressed to the publicans and sinners but to the Scribes and Pharisees and even to the Apostles. But, of course, what Jesus teaches is always meant for all, that whosoever hears His words might become a true Disciple.
          
So Jesus asks, 

What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. (Ibid, 4-6) 
 
Zoologists tell us that sheep are selfish animals which congregate towards a safe center. (Flock and Awe….) Occasionally, one errs and strays from the way of the sheepfold, and so the shepherd must set out to find it. There is no indication that the ninety and nine detect that one of their members is missing. Provided they are safely fenced in by the sheepfold, they are content and satisfied. The one who does miss the lost sheep is the shepherd, who then rejoices when he finds it. Jesus suggests that the Pharisees and Scribes are more like the ninety and nine safe and contented sheep than like the shepherd. The untold dangers associated with forsaking their communal safety and seeking out the lost sheep are paralleled with the Pharisees’ fear of ritual pollution through contact with publicans and sinners -spiritually lost sheep. For, as Archbishop Trench remarks, they had neither love to hope for the recovery of such men, nor yet antidotes to preserve and protect themselves while making the attempt. (N.O.P’s. p.286) The publicans and sinners are clearly more like the lost sheep in need of being found by the loving shepherd. The shepherd values the lost sheep so much that he leaves the ninety and nine because, for him, every sheep is of great value, like a repentant sinner who needs to be rescued and saved by God. Jesus says, I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. (St. Luke, Ibid, 7) Clearly, then, the truth found in Jesus’ parable rebukes the self-righteous, selfish contentedness of the Pharisees, who cannot be true shepherds because they were never lost sheep who became true disciples. A true Disciple of Christ will not be self-righteously satisfied but, like the lost sheep, like the publicans and sinners, whose lost state elicits repentance and the saving Grace of the Good Shepherd.

Jesus continues with another parable. 

Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. (Ibid, 8,9) 
 
The light symbolizes Christ and the woman images Mother Church. By the light of Christ, the woman, -the Church, sweeps her house, -the world, and seeks diligently until she finds the lost coin –souls who are lost in sin. As with the first parable, the woman rejoices when she finds what she has lost, just as there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. (Ibid, 10) The true Disciple of Christ will learn that he is like the lost coin. As such, he is like the publican or sinner who is lost in his sin but is afforded neither value nor worth by the Pharisees and Scribes of his own day, –or the religious authorities in any age, who have judged him to be lost in sin, unlike themselves. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, comes into the world to find His sheep lost in sin to give them new meaning and worth. As a lost coin, the true Disciple finds his worth and value in the One who persistently seeks him out, mercifully rescues him, and lends him new virtue as He redeems him. 
         
Of course, for the Pharisees and Scribes, the truth contained in Jesus’ parables fell on deaf ears. And it wasn’t that they were wholly devoid of holiness or goodness. In so far as they followed the Law, they were obedient to God. But the problem for them, and the threatening danger for the Apostles and Disciples of Christ, is their indifference to the cost of discipleship – for Christ tells them that they weren’t good shepherds because they had never known themselves to be lost sheep or lost coins. Jesus tried to show the Scribes and Pharisees that they were not paying the price or cost of discipleship. The cost or price of discipleship is the admission of being lost in sin. They truly refused to move beyond the confines of their law and tradition to see that what it taught was that all men are lost in sin. The Scribes and Pharisees could not see that the Law was meant to teach all men to repent because they were lost in sin and in need of God’s Grace to save them from it.

The cost of discipleship is identification with the publicans and sinners. What Jesus suggests is that before anyone can become a shepherd, he must first have been a lost sheep. This doesn’t mean that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, was ever lost. But His followers must know themselves to be lost sheep and lost coins because, unlike Him, they cannot save man from sin. A man cannot try to get lost, for then he is not lost but just hiding and concealing himself. What Jesus means is that every man, and especially priests, must realize that he is lost because he is a sinner who has erred and strayed from God’s ways like a lost sheep. (General Confession)

Jesus says, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. (St. Matthew v. 20) Now, clearly, what the Pharisees and Scribes missed and what every true Apostle and Disciple of Christ should embrace are the virtues of humility and meekness. Pride, humility’s opposite, puffs a man up with a sense of his own self-important religiosity. The proud man measures his own goodness against other men’s sins. He has no need of redemption or salvation because he does not realize that he is lost in sin and must repent. But the publicans and sinners flocked to Jesus because they were lost in sin and painfully sensed that they had no value. Until Jesus’ coming, they had no one to bear the cross of their lost and worthless spiritual state. In Jesus, they find one who lovingly finds them and promises them new worth and value by stirring them to repentance and hope for salvation. Jesus sees in them the makings of true disciples; in them he finds those who know that they are lost and are now being found. You can’t be found until you feel the pain of being a lost sheep and a lost coin.

The true Disciple of Christ will be a man who once was lost but is now found. With St. Peter in this morning’s Epistle, he will be subject to his fellow men, and clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. (1 St. Peter v. 5) The true Disciple of Christ will humble [himself]…under the mighty hand of God, that God may exalt [him] in due time. (Ibid, 6) True humility expresses man’s utter need for God’s caring love and healing power in Jesus Christ alone. The truly humble man subjects himself to his fellow men because he shares the same dreadful disease of being lost in sin, in equal need of redemption from the One who can carry his cross. St. Peter says, Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, seeing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. (Ibid, 8,9) The true Disciple of Christ sees the same afflictions…in our brethren in the world, living under the pain of despair and the death of sin. The afflictions of all men belong to our common condition that finds worth and value in Christ and His Cross.

My friends, let us study the cost of discipleship that Christ teaches in his parables. We shall not grow spiritually if we look with arrogant pride upon the world full of lost sheep whose condition we do not share. We shall grow spiritually if, with the publicans and sinners of old, we draw near to Jesus, who comes to find us and carry us on His shoulders to the Cross of His Love. God resisteth the proud, and giveth Grace to the humble. (1 Peter v. 5) We shall advance, knowing we were as sheep going astray but have now returned unto the Shepherd and [Bishop] of [our] souls. (1 St. Peter ii. 25) We shall mature spiritually, realizing that Christ, like the woman in today’s Gospel, has searched the world diligently for His lost coins of great value and found His hidden treasures in our broken hearts, made to find worth on His Cross. There will be joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth…than over ninety and nine just persons who have no need of repentance. (St. Luke xv. 10,7) The sinner’s humility is greater than the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. He repents to be lifted with Jesus up onto His Cross. On the Cross of His Love, Jesus suffers and dies that we who were lost in sin can be found and redeemed. 

​Amen.
©wjsmartin

 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God…
The voice said, Cry.
And he said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass,
and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
the grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it:
surely the people is grass.
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
                                                      (Isaiah xl. 3, 6-8)
 
         
Today we celebrate the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. John the Baptist was six months older than Jesus and was born to prepare the way for Christ’s birth. Of course, technically, being in June, we are six months away from Christmas, so the Church in her wisdom has got it chronologically set his Feast Day for June the Twenty-Fourth. 

Every year, we celebrate John Baptist’s birth in Trinity Tide, our season of continual acclimation to the life of God the Holy Trinity. In this season, we are called to be as the Father is, and to know through the Son’s Wisdom and Word by the operation of the Holy Ghost’s Will and Love. True life is found in our confession of the true faith, acknowledging the glory of the eternal Trinity in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the unity. (Collect, Trinity Sunday) True life for redeemed Christians is found in steadfast faith and defended from all adversities that threaten our union with God the Holy Trinity. In Trinity Tide, you and I are called to die to our old sinful selves and to come alive to the Father, through Jesus the Son by the Holy Ghost.
         
Thus, it is fitting that the Feast of John Baptist should fall in this sacred season. For John Baptist’s difficult and short life gives us a good introduction to our habituation to the life of the Trinity. John was not unlike you or me. His understanding of himself is a perfect paradigm for our approach to God the Holy Trinity. John Baptist is the precursor and forerunner of all men who would know themselves as needing God the Father’s Son and Word through the Holy Ghost. Let us therefore see if we can prepare ourselves to welcome the Father’s Word of Love into our souls. 
         
John’s conception and birth were unusual, to say the least. So too is the conception and birth of God’s Word in any man’s soul! His father was 
a priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. (St. Luke i. 5-7) 
 

John’s parents were unable to conceive a child. Those who prepare to welcome Christ the Word’s coming into the world cannot conceive it either. Grace is essential. John’s conception was miraculous. So we read that Zacharias was visited by the Angel of the Lord, as he was ministering [alone] in the temple, and he was and when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. (Ibid, 12) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov. ix. 10) and the wisdom to be born in John Baptist is sired by those who fear God with awesome wonder and reverence. The Angel informed the aged Zacharias that he and Elizabeth would give birth to a son in their old age. For with God nothing shall be impossible. (St. Luke i. 37) Zacharias doubted, And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. (Ibid, 18) Because of his doubt, he was struck dumb until the birth of the child. He was told that the child’s name would be John. John means Graced by God in the Hebrew.
         
John’s conception and birth were unusual and his life would be even more so. He was called to be a Nazarite, of the sect of Jews whose lives were given to total abstinence, mortification, and fasting.

For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. (Ibid, 15-17)
 
John was called to take up the mantle of Elijah the Prophet in order to prepare the Jewish People for the coming of Christ. The extreme conditions of his calling were necessary to focus solely and whole-heartedly on the Advent of his cousin, Jesus. 
         
John began his mission by quoting Isaiah. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. (Is. xl. 3) John was gifted by God’s Grace to know that he lived in a wasteland and wilderness, barren of all goodness, full of evil, ridden with pride, envy, malice, and deceit. He is alone like so many who pray and wait for the coming of the Lord. He is a faithful Jew as you and I are trying to be faithful Christians. Yet, at the same time, like all of us, he believed that places bereft of God’s goodness are always ripe and ready for the coming of the Lord. All earthly comforts were inimical to John, all vanity and vexation of spirit were dangerous. John knew that the world must be stripped of mammon’s niceties if man would prepare for the coming of Christ into his soul. Nothing in this world can match John’s hunger and thirst for righteousness. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain shall be made low. (Idem) The valley of humility, unselfing, lowliness, and spiritual poverty is a necessary spiritual home for the coming of Christ. The high mountain of pride, envy, wrath, and covetousness must be crushed. All self-absorption and narcissism amounted to nothing for John. He believed that the One for whom he prepared was the Saviour and Redeemer of the world. He lives for Christ’s coming and this alone. All else is reduced to the meaningless nothing in comparison to what he awaited. So, John was clothed in camel’s hair and ate locusts and wild honey. (St. Matthew iii. 4-6)
         
From his position of austerity and self-denial, John Baptist cried Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. (St. Matthew iii. 2) The way of repentance leads us to abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good. (Romans xii. 9) John’s cried out to the men of every age that they might know their sin and what it ruination it brings. Repentance is a self-conscious admission of sin and sorrow over it. It requires that humbling of the self that knows that sin has offended God who is all good and deserving of all our love. Repentance is spiritual cleansing that moves us to admit, claim, and confess how our sins have run clean contrary to God’s will for us and others. In John Baptist, you and I can identify with one who is clearing the human slate of all that stands in the way of Christ’s coming into the world and our souls. Clinging to ourselves is the chief obstacle to Christ’s Incarnation and Mission of Salvation for us.
         
No doubt, it is difficult for us to imagine being as John Baptist was. We are so encumbered by a world of senseless noise, beastly ways, no fear of God, and not so much as any acknowledgment that we have souls, let alone bodies, that need Christ and His coming! John Baptist knew better. We might not be able to embrace the austerity of his life and complete possession with the coming of his Lord. But here a little and there a little, we might be able to make those changes that secure our hearts for Christ and His coming to us in this Trinity Tide. Perhaps, we need that consciousness of our sin that leads us into deeper prayer for God’s mercy in His Son through the Holy Ghost. With John, we ought to make time for prayer, beginning with repentance, to begin to become unselfed as he was. When we repent, we pray for the death of our old sinful selves and a deeper longing for what Christ longs to become in us. 
         
John Baptist ended his days in prison, awaiting execution by beheading in King Herod’s prison. He had no rights under the Romans and was an alien to Caesar’s privileges. He was left alone, unable to follow his cousin Jesus and to witness what wonders He was working in the world. Perhaps John Baptist’s last state is mirrored in our own. With John, we find that our abstinence and self-mortification seem senseless and meaningless in a world that has abandoned Christ’s coming from the Father through the love of the Holy Ghost. 

John’s life was cut short, but perhaps our spirits can identify with his. Our spirits have been beaten down by forces of evil that John never imagined possible. John would lose his earthly life prematurely, but our spiritual lives too have been cut down by Satan with what feels like death. All around us we find sadness, self-loathing, and self-hatred that amount to death. But in John’s death, you and I can find hope. In his darkest hour, John remembered his father Zacharias’ prophesy. 
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. 
(St. Luke, i. 76-79)
 
As John Baptist was about to die, Christ was being made alive. As we die to sin, Christ longs to live in us. Christ too would be executed on His Cross, without any just cause or reason. But Christ would die, to make all men alive. This is our hope. John Baptist’s death was taken up into the Day-spring on high that visited [him], to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Idem) John said, Christ must increase, and I must decrease. (St. John iii. 30) The evil of this world is no excuse for despair.

Amen.
©wjsmartin

To be a Disciple is to be a devoted love-slave of the Lord Jesus. Many of us who call ourselves Christians are not devoted to Jesus Christ. (Oswald Chambers)

I have opened this morning’s sermon with these words of Oswald Chambers because I believe that the dangers of false Discipleship are everywhere present in this morning’s Gospel lesson. In it, we read that Then drew near unto [Jesus] all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. (St. Luke xv. 1,2) What we have, it would seem, are the publicans and sinners huddled around Jesus eager to hear His Word and the Pharisees and Scribes standing off at a distance murmuring and judging Him. So, we have those who are interested in and even need what Jesus has to offer, and then the self-righteous Jews judging both Jesus and the company He is keeping. Nestled in between the two groups are, as always, the Apostles. Now, Jesus knows exactly what the religious and pious Jewish Elders are thinking, and so He offers two parables. The truth of these parables is not specifically addressed to the publicans and sinners but to the Scribes and Pharisees and even to the Apostles. But, of course, what Jesus teaches is always meant for all, that whosoever hears His words might become a true Disciple.
 
So Jesus asks, 

What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. (Ibid, 4-6) 
 
Zoologists tell us that sheep are selfish animals which congregate towards a safe center. (Flock and Awe….) Occasionally, one errs and strays from the way of the sheepfold, and so the shepherd must set out to find it. There is no indication that the ninety and nine detect that one of their members is missing. Provided they are safely fenced in by the sheepfold, they are content and satisfied. The one who does miss the lost sheep is the shepherd, who then rejoices when he finds it. Jesus suggests that the Pharisees and Scribes are more like the ninety and nine safe and contented sheep than like the shepherd. The untold dangers associated with forsaking their communal safety and seeking out the lost sheep are paralleled with the Pharisees’ fear of ritual pollution through contact with publicans and sinners -spiritually lost sheep. For, as Archbishop Trench remarks, they had neither love to hope for the recovery of such men, nor yet antidotes to preserve and protect themselves while making the attempt. (N.O.P’s. p.286) The publicans and sinners are clearly more like the lost sheep in need of being found by the loving shepherd. The shepherd values the lost sheep so much that he leaves the ninety and nine. Why? Because to the shepherd every sheep is of great value, like a repentant sinner who needs to be rescued and saved. Jesus says, I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. (St. Luke, Ibid, 7) Clearly then, the truth found in Jesus’ parable rebukes the self-righteous, selfish contentedness of the Pharisees, who are neither true shepherds nor potential disciples but self-interested sheep. A true Disciple of Christ will not be a selfish sheep but like the lost sheep or like the publicans and sinners, whose straying and wandering wait to be found by their shepherd.
Jesus continues with another parable. 

Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. (Ibid, 8,9) 
 
The light symbolizes Christ and the woman images Mother Church. By the light of Christ, the woman sweeps the house – the Church, and seeks diligently until she finds the lost coin – sin-sick souls whom she has negligently lost. Again, as with the first parable, the woman rejoices when she finds what she has lost, and so there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. (Ibid, 10) The true Disciple of Christ will learn that he is like the lost coin. As such, he is like the publican or sinner who knows his sin but has felt to be of no value or worth to the Pharisees and Scribes of their own day– or the religious authorities in any age, who have judged him to be beyond redemption. But if he follows Jesus, he knows that the Good Shepherd will find him and redeem his value. As a lost coin, the true Disciple finds his worth and value in the One who persistently seeks him out, mercifully rescues him, and lends him new dignity and virtue as He redeems and restores him. 
          
Of course, for the Pharisees and Scribes, the truth contained in Jesus’ parables fell on deaf ears, and not because they were wholly devoid and destitute of holiness and goodness. In so far as they followed the Law, they were obedient unto God. But the problem for them, and the threatening danger for the Apostles and Disciples of Christ, is their indifference to the cost of discipleship – for Christ tells them that they ought to be like the Good Shepherd who searched for the lost sheep or the woman who swept the house in search of the coin she had misplaced. Jesus tried to point out that the Scribes and Pharisees were not paying the price or cost of discipleship. For they refused to move beyond the confines of their law and tradition, beyond of the security of the treasure they thought they possessed, in order to risk it all for the riches to be found in the conversion of one sinner. The Scribes and Pharisees could not be good shepherds, precisely because they had never known themselves as lost sheep or the lost coin, or like the publicans and sinners.

The cost of discipleship is identification with the publicans and sinners. What Jesus suggests is that before anyone can become a shepherd, he must first have been a lost sheep. This doesn’t mean that Jesus the Good Shepherd was ever lost. But his followers must know themselves to be lost sheep and lost coins before they can become His fellow shepherds. A man cannot try to get lost, for then he is not lost but just hiding and concealing himself. What Jesus means is that a man must realize that in relation to God he is very much like a lost sheep or lost coin because he is spiritually lost with lost value to God and His Kingdom.

Jesus says, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. (St. Matthew v. 20) Now, clearly, what the Pharisees and Scribes missed, and what every true Apostle and Disciple of Christ should embrace are the virtues of humility and meekness. Pride, humility’s opposite, puffs a man up with a sense of his own importance and worth. Pride measures its own goodness against other men’s sins. It has no need of redemption or salvation because it does not embrace with meekness its utter dependence upon God to secure any worth or value. But the publicans and sinners flocked to Jesus because were lost without any value claim. Until Jesus’ coming, they had found no merciful friend who cared enough for their spiritual wellbeing to find and rescue them. In Jesus they find one who lovingly finds them and promises them new worth and value by stirring them to repentance and hope for salvation. Jesus sees in them the makings of true disciples; in them he finds those who know that they are lost and are now being found. One can’t be found until he knows that he is a lost sheep and a lost coin.

The true Disciple of Christ will be a man who once was lost, but is now being found. With St. Peter in this morning’s Epistle, he will be subject to his fellow men, and clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. (1 St. Peter v. 5) The true Disciple of Christ will humble [himself]…under the mighty hand of God, that God may exalt [him] in due time. (Ibid, 6) True humility reveals man’s utter need for God’s caring love and healing power in Jesus Christ alone.

The truly humble man subjects himself to his fellow men because he shares their same dreadful disease of sin and knows himself to be in equal need of redemption. St. Peter says, Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist steadfast in the faith, seeing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. (Ibid, 8,9) The true Disciple of Christ sees the same afflictions…in our brethren in the world, assaulted by confusion, madness, and sin. The true Disciple of Christ knows that their afflictions belong to our common condition that finds worth and value in Christ alone. 

My friends, let us study closely the cost of discipleship that Christ teaches in his parables. We will not grow spiritually if we look with pride and arrogance upon the world full of lost sheep whom we judge to be beyond the pale of salvation. We will grow spiritually if, with the publicans and sinners of old, we draw near to Jesus humbly. We will be infused with Christ’s righteousness if we remember that God resisteth the proud, and giveth Grace to the humble. (1 Peter v. 5) We will grow when we realize that we were as sheep going astray but have now returned unto the Shepherd and [Bishop] of [our] souls. (1 St. Peter ii. 25) We will grow like the woman in today’s Gospel, searching the world diligently for the lost coins of great value, Christ’s hidden treasures, our future brethren, who are made to be our equals in the gift of repentance and redemption. Let us remember that there will be joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth…than over ninety and nine just persons who have no need of repentance. (St. Luke xv. 10,7) Righteousness, greater than the Scribes and Pharisees is the Love of Christ in our hearts that bleeds to Death on the Cross until He finds the lost sheep and lost coins in us and for others. 

Amen.
©wjsmartin

Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst 
thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: 
but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
(St. Luke xvi. 25)
 

Last week we were invited to participate in the life of God the Holy Trinity, one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We have entered Trinity Tide. Trinity tide is all about belief that grows into God’s Wisdom and Love. Trinity tide is about submitting to the Being of God the Father, embracing His Wisdom and Word in the Son by the Love and Will of the Holy Ghost. Our season of Trinity is the longest in the Church Year because it takes time to allow God to penetrate our being, knowing, and loving. 

Now, as we all know, learning to love God’s Wisdom and Love is difficult. In fact, we really do need to have a vision or knowledge of His Goodness if we hope to apply it to our lives. In the New Testament, we are constantly reminded of what this vision is and is not. Today, we learn from the Pharisees what it is not and from our Lord Jesus Christ the true vision of it. Prior to today’s Gospel, Jesus had just warned His hearers that Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. (St. Luke xvi. 13) Mammon means both riches and possessions in both the Hebrew and Greek. It can also mean that in which one trusts. Archbishop Trench reminds us that while the Pharisees’ way of life was sparing and austere –many of them were ascetics…. their sins were in the main spiritual, (Par., 343) their real sin was covetousness. For they did not trust in God’s provision, were all rooted in unbelief, in a heart set on this world, refusing to give credence to that invisible world, here known only to faith. (Idem) Their theological vision extended only as far as the Ancient Law, and they believed that this was as close as man got to God. As a result, they enviously resented the vision of God’s Wisdom and Love in the life of Jesus Christ. They coveted their own vision and power.

So, Jesus gives them a parable. There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day….(St. Luke xvi. 19) St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the worship of Mammon is here illustrated in the prosperity of the wicked by way of temporal success. (St. TA: Hom. Trin. I) First, we read that the man was rich in earthly things. Second, he was clothed in purple –the costliest of colors in the ancient world, which adorned princes and kings. Third, in fine linen –secured only at a high price from the looms of Egypt. So, the rich man would have had a robe of princely purple and an inner tunic of the softest linen. We know that this was his customary attire since he wore it as he fared sumptuously every day.  That he has no name is, according to the Archbishop Trench, indicative of the fact that he is everyman, or most men who live forever for this world and seldom give any thought for the next.

We read also that there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. (Ibid, 20,21) Those who are destined for the Kingdom have their names written in the Book of Life. The poor man’s name is Lazarus. His name is also translated as Eleazar, and it means the one whom God has helped. That he is a beggar is clear. But because he was full of sores (Idem), in earthly life he was unable to walk and so was carried and laid him at the rich man’s gate (Idem) by those who, no doubt, prayed the rich man would have mercy upon him. That there was no relief for this man’s hunger is seen in his desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. That stray dogs came and licked his sores, reveals that he was ignored by his fellow man. The brute beasts had compassion and mercy upon Lazarus clothed in sores while the rich man and his associates clothed in purple and fine linen fared sumptuously. One had hosts of attendants to wait upon his every caprice; only stray dogs tended to the sores of the other. (Trench, 349)

So, we find a great contrast between the rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus’ sickness and poverty provide us with a vision of the external and visible signs of man’s true state without the Grace of God. St. Thomas tells us that Lazarus reveals to us that adversity in this present life, though short-lived, characterizes the life of the saint in three ways.  First, there is poverty of possessions –a beggar named Lazarus is a vision of spiritual indigence and that poverty of spirit that needs God more than anyone else. And fear not, my son, that we are made poor: for thou hast much wealth if thou fear God and depart from all sin and do that which is pleasing in His sight. (Tobit iv, 21) The vision of true riches is found when we fear God and depend upon Him for any and all manner of goodness that He might bestow upon us. Second, St. Thomas says, the life of a Saint is found in contempt of this world. ‘Lazarus was laid at his gate.’ ‘We are made as the filth of the world and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.’ (1 Cor. iv. 13) If men follow Jesus, the vision of God, they will be ignored and abandoned at rich men’s gates, who ignore them. Third, the saints will endure bitterness of tribulations and afflictions –‘Full of sores.’ Discipline and correction provide a vision of the means that our Heavenly Father uses to refine our faith, perfect our hope, and deepen our love for Him in Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. (Hebrews xii. 6)

Next, we read, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. (Ibid, 22) Lazarus is a vision of the Saint who is taken to Paradise at the time of his death. We learn also that the rich man died and found himself in Hell whence he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. (Ibid, 23) St. Thomas reminds us, Lazarus was received with honor and glory by the Angels. The rich man was buried with honor and glory by unnamed earthly men...only to end up in Hell. (Idem) Lazarus is relieved of his suffering and pain and we hear no more from him because Heaven’s Mercy is now his treasure. The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them. (Wis. iii. 1) But the Rich Man, like the covetous Pharisees, is left out. His soul and body are tormented because he coveted his vision of God in the religious duties of his own day and did not love his poor neighbour. To make matters worse, he has a vision of Paradise and knows that Lazarus is in a better state, having been relieved of his earthly suffering and poverty. So, he cries, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. (Idem, 24) The Rich Man cries out for relief from his earthly body’s torture because, like the Pharisees, he is still covets the vision of his former position. Send Lazarus to me; surely he is now fit enough to wait upon me! 

The parable gives us a vision of the hard truth of God’s Justice. Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. (Ibid, 25) O thou who trusted not in God but in earthly mammon, who trusted in perishable commodities and relied upon them solely to ensure your impermanent happiness, see what you have forsaken! Because you did not believe and trust in me, saith the Lord, you shall live with what you desired most forever in eternity! Men have one life to live, and at death they shall be judged. When a man dies, he is either taken up or cast down. If he is taken up, he cannot descend to help his lost brothers; if he is cast down, he cannot ascend. At the end of life, the vision of God or gods shall be rewarded with Heaven or Hell. The rich man, with his eyes still centered on earth, asks Abraham to rescue his earthly family. Send Lazarus to my brethren that he might serve up the truth to them (Ibid, 29), for if they see Lazarus risen from the dead, they will believe. (Ibid, 30) Abraham assures him that they will not be persuaded though one rose from the dead since they did not hear Moses and the Prophets. (Ibid) 
Even a vision of Resurrection seldom saves covetous ‘good men’. For I say unto you that unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matt. V. 20) We have a vision of this in Christ on His Cross where, though He became Lazarus, poor and abandoned, in the poverty of His death, He was already hard at work doing for poor fallen men what they could not do for themselves.

In this life, Lazarus was poor, but he is now rich in Paradise. The rich man is now poor in Hell, clinging arrogantly to the vision of God that rejects His Wisdom and Love in Jesus Christ. The rich man is destined to live forever in the illusion of his own worth. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John iv 8)

Today, by God’s Grace, let us acquire a vision of ourselves in poor Lazarus, reaching out to Christ alone, knowing that we cannot pass through Heaven’s gate unless we obtain Heaven’s mercy, ‘hoping to obtain crumbs that fall from [God’s] table’. Lazarus, full of sores, is like Christ on His Cross, longing to make His death into new life. In Lazarus and in Christ, we desire to eat of the crumbs that fall from [God’s] table. Like Lazarus, if I have no strength of will, no nobility of disposition, no excellence of character, Christ says, “Blessed are you”, because it is through this poverty that I enter His Kingdom….I can only enter His Kingdom as a pauper. (O. Chambers, August 21) Lazarus the pauper is a vision of Christ who became poor, that [we] through His poverty, might be rich. (2 Cor. viii. 9)

Amen.

©wjsmartin
 

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After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. (Rev. iv. 1)
            
Today is Trinity Sunday. So, following the traditional Western lectionary, we enter the season not of Pentecost but of Trinity Tide, not disrespecting the Holy Ghost or the importance of Pentecost, but acknowledging that our life in God’s Spirit must come from the Father and the Son. Trinity means three, and Trinity Tide is an invitation into the threefold life of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Should we make the mistake that many do in abandoning the Trinity for some ungrounded season of the Spirit, we might find ourselves moved far more by our own spirits and fanciful feelings rather than by the Holy Spirit’s mission to establish Jesus Christ in us, as the express image of the Father’s Person. (Hebrews i. 3)

Christianity is a religion founded on the facts of Divine Revelation. Its God is a God who wishes to be known. (The Christian Year, p. 142) Christians believe that God the Father created all things through His Word or Son by the efficacy of the Holy Spirit they exchange. Christians believe that the Father has never ceased to illuminate His people through His Word by the strength of the Spirit they share. In His Incarnation, Christ Himself reveals the same Trinity when He obeys the Father through the Spirit, even unto death upon the Cross. (Phil. ii. 8) And following His Ascension, Christ invites all men into new life which He has won for them, promising to send…the Holy Ghost (St. John xvi. 26) whom the Father will send in [His] name that they may persevere in their journey to the Kingdom. So, God the Holy Trinity reveals Himself to His people, a door is opened, and man learns the way that leads him higher and higher.

A door is opened in this morning’s appointed Psalm. 
It is the Lord that ruleth the sea; the voice of the Lord is mighty in operation: the voice of the Lord is a glorious voice…. The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire; the voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness…the voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to bring forth young…in His temple doth every man speak of His honor…the Lord remaineth a King forever. (Psalm xxix. 4,7,8,9) 
 
David the Psalmist is overwhelmed by the Father’s Word, who rules, creates, moves, informs, and rules the whole of creation through the Holy Spirit’s Ghostly Strength. Isaiah the Prophet is likewise undone as a door is opened to his soul also. 

He saw the Lord upon the throne, high and lifted up, [whose] train filled the temple…that above it stood the seraphims…. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. (Is. vi. 1-3) 
 
The Thrice-Holy Trinity humbles the prophet with awe and wonder. Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. (Ibid.5) The Father sends one of the seraphim to purify the prophet’s tongue of all evil, that the Spirit might inspire him to articulate God’s Word and Wisdom to his fellow men. And in this morning’s Epistle we learn that the same door in opened in Heaven to the Apostle and Evangelist, St. John, who is called to come up higher. 

Of course, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is difficult to understand. St. Augustine of Hippo, that great 4th century North-African Doctor of the Church, finds an image of it in the human soul: 
The human soul is – it exists; the human soul knows –it understands; and the human soul wills – it loves. So also God is, He knows, and He wills. God is pure being -He exists always; God is pure knowing – He begets His Word or His Son eternally; and God is pure loving –His will and love proceed as Spirit always. God is one substance who expresses His spiritual life through three Persons. (De Trinitate. Aug., Dr. Robert Crouse summary) 
 
Man is one substance who exists, thinks, and wills. Man is alive, he thinks and speaks, and he wills and loves. God is one as well. The Father exists eternally. He speaks His Word and expresses His Thought eternally in His Son. He wills through His Spirit of Love and the Son returns the compliment through the same Spirit.  

But God is more than just Himself. He creates and makes through His Word by the Spirit of Love that they share. God intends to be known and loved. He persists in His intention even after Man’s Fall. He sends His Son in the flesh to repair, redeem and return Man to Himself. This morning’s Gospel illustrates the Way nicely. For here we read that a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, named Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. (St. John iii. 1) Matthew Henry tells us that 

coming to Jesus by night is an act of prudence and discretion. For we should all come to be with Christ ‘when the busy world is hushed’ that we might then better learn from Him. Coming to Him by night shows [also] a greater zeal for truth since we are willing to forsake the evening’s pleasures for the sake of the truth. (Comm: John iii) 
 
St. Thomas Aquinas tells us coming to Jesus at night symbolizes also that honest state of obscurity and ignorance that seeks to find God once again. (TA: Comm. John iii.) In the night, Nicodemus approaches Jesus in the calm of night, with zeal seeking to know. Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. (St. John iii. 2) Nicodemus knows that Jesus’ teaching is divinely inspired. He asserts boldly that God is with Him because of the miracles Jesus performed. Moved by Christ’s wisdom and goodness, Nicodemus is nevertheless blind to the meaning and nature of Christ’s Person. Jesus says: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. (St. John iii. 3) He means that the mysteries of eternal salvation can be seen only through the cleansing of regeneration in the Holy Spirit, (Tit. iii. 5) in the righteousness of faith. (TA, Idem) Nicodemus is confused: How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb? (Ibid, 4) Nicodemus knows that he exists, knows, and wills but cannot fathom how he can be born again.

Jesus helps Nicodemus to understand. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.(St. John iii. 5-7) If fallen man does not come to know that he needs rebirth through water and the Spirit, he cannot be saved. The washing of the body with water is an external and visible sign of how the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father to cleanse man of sin by the Wisdom of the Son. Man is born of the flesh, and so neither his body nor soul can save him. Jesus says, Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (St. John iii. 8) Jesus says that the wind comes and goes, and we can never master its mysterious movements. We inhale and exhale and never think about where our breath came from and wither it goes. Jesus says, If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? (St. John iii. 12) Nicodemus is a religious ruler in Israel who should remember that the Father’s Word gives life and meaning to all creation through the undetectable breath of His loving Spirit. Nicodemus, if you do not humbly believe and remember that the invisible Spirit gives you life and meaning, how will you see the Wisdom that will birth you again inwardly and spiritually through my Death and Resurrection for a better heavenly future with my Father?

We speak of what we know, and bear witness of what we have seen. (Ibid, 11) The Word of God made flesh, the Son, reveals what He knows from the Father through the Spirit. Nicodemus does not yet know that no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. (Ibid, 13) Man has fallen from God; he cannot know or will the good that reconciles him with God. The Son of Man came down from Heaven in the likeness of fallen flesh to redeem it with the Spirit’s Love on the Cross. That which is born of flesh is flesh; that which is born of Spirit is Spirit. (Ibid, 6) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. (Ibid, 13-15) Only if he believes and knows that Christ’s Death alone conquers his sin, can man die to it and be born again through the Spirit, lifted into Resurrection and Ascension for reconciliation with the Father. Behold a door is opened, as God makes all things new.

God the Holy Trinity desires for us to participate in His life that we might reveal it to others. We do not worship a distant and unreachable God. Behold a door is opened. Jesus reveals the Father’s Wisdom by the Holy Spirit as He descends to work His redemption into our souls and bodies. Obeying the Father, in the Love of the Spirit, Christ the Wisdom of God dies for us that we might live. Our Father desires that we should be born again each new day as the Holy Ghost brings the Word of God to life in us. Our One God longs that we should surrender to His Grace, to be as the Father is, to know as the Son knows, and to love as the Spirit loves. And then as born again as sons and daughters of the Father, we shall sing out the Son’s Word of salvation with the Spirit’s Love that makes Heaven and Earth one, through Jesus Christ our Lord –both flesh and Spirit in obedience to the Father, perfectly blended to save you, me, and all others. 

Amen.   

©wjsmartin