O God who hast prepared for them that love Thee
such good things as pass man’s understanding…
(Collect: Trinity VI)
 
          We have said that the Trinity tide is all about fertility and growth; it is the green season, and in it we focus on God’s spiritual harvesting of virtue in our souls. The green vestments and Altar hangings of this season draw our minds from things earthly to things heavenly, from the green crops and plants of the fields that surround us physically to the idea and image of spiritual produce and yield in our souls. Thus, we are to be moved and inspired to grow the fruits of God’s seed, His Word, in our hearts. And, yet the end of our spiritual endeavors relates specifically to certain Divine promises - such good things as pass man’s understanding, as our Collect reminds us of this morning. The Collect tells us that we love God above all things, (Idem) that we may obtain His promises, which exceed all that we can desire. We shall be blessed with God’s good things permanently only if we love God above and beyond all creatures. Thus, God’s eternal reward is given to who love His Grace.
          
But loving God is a virtue that is not easily attained. Last week St. Peter and his fellow Apostles, having obeyed Jesus by letting down their nets for a draught of fishes and finding themselves the beneficiaries of supernatural power and might, surrendered themselves to the radical otherness of God in Jesus. With a deeper fear of the Lord, their faith and confidence in Jesus were made more sure as they forsook all and followed Him. (St. Luke v. 11) They were being caught up in Christ’s net, and so slowly but surely, they began to die to themselves and come alive to Jesus Christ. The Divine Virtue began to be felt in the presence of God’s Holy One. If we are going to discover how to love God above all things, we had better begin with the fear of the Lord and God’s power in Jesus Christ.
But there is more. Christ says to us today that except [our] righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, [we] shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (St. Matthew v. 20) He intends that our faith and confidence in His power should be converted into righteousness. Righteousness of the ancient Jews – of the Scribes and Pharisees – was the law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The religious world that Jesus found when He came down from Heaven was one defined by the strict Law of Moses and the Fathers. Its rites were administered by the scribes and pharisees, who were called to make men right with God through the Law. Every evil deed had its onerous form of penance. And in it was much that was correct.

But Jesus found something lacking. Romano Guardini reminds us, so long as we cling to [human] justice, we will never be guiltless of injustice. As long as we are entangled in wrong and revenge, blow and counterblow, aggression and defense, we will be constantly drawn into fresh wrong. (The Lord, p. 81) Ancient Jewish Law was obsessed with sin and its punishment, with finding it and punishing it in a way that could only reveal the loss of its original spirit. The Temple’s ministers, the Scribes and Pharisees, had become possessed by evil and unrighteousness. Thus, the Jewish System, as it had developed, had lost its way as the righteous had become even more judgmentally consumed not with sin but with the unrighteous or sinners. Fallen man is always in danger of confusing the two. Needless to say, the system was so powerful that publicans and sinners in Jesus’ day had come to despair of any real hope for redemption from those whose judgment precluded any love or forgiveness.

But Jesus came into the world to remind us that the cycle of unrighteousness and sin can be broken only through the spirit of love and the forgiveness of sins. So, He proceeds to teach his listeners about the problem with the spiritual character of the scribes and pharisees and, for that matter, of any religious man whose notion of righteousness is bound up with imposing a Law that is robbed of any love.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: (Ibid, 21)
 
Jesus surmises that Religious folk are prone to anger against sinners when they have no just cause. True enough, we all must love righteousness, and we must hate unrighteousness and sin. But to be angry with sinners just because they are sinners isn’t just cause for our anger against them. We might just as well be angry with ourselves since we, with them, are caught in the horrible grip of sin! Of course, there might be rare times when there is just cause for righteous indignation or anger. But the rarer that is for us, the better, since we all are sinners. Jesus comes into the world to teach us to hate the sin and love the sinner. And this was clearly lost on the scribes and pharisees. Our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and pharisees. (Idem)

Jesus goes on to reinforce his point. Whoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of the judgment…. (Ibid, 22) Judging sinners in our hearts with anger, without cause, reason, or moderation that desires their salvation and betterment by God’s mercy and forgiveness will judge us by the Father’s Love. Our hearts must desire God’s righteousness for all men. Next Jesus says that Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council….(Ibid, 22) Allowing our anger to explode into tongue-murder, as Matthew Henry puts it, demeaning other man as worthless will measure our every word according to the council of God’s Wisdom and Word. Raca means thou empty or worthless man! Jesus concludes by saying but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. (Idem) When our anger condemns a man as a fool, we have despaired of God’s Power and grieve the Holy Ghost. And it all proceeds, again, with angrily judging other men without cause. St. Augustine says this means that we are angry at the brother and not the cause (Retr. i. 19). Thus, Jesus reveals that it is not the sin but the sinner who has become the object of our unrighteous anger.
        
Jesus teaches us that the real threat to loving [God] above all things is internal and spiritual. Anger or wrath threatens to damn us all. Its loveless judgment, its malicious council, and its Hellish despair should terrify us all. Anger or wrath kills the soul inwardly and spiritually. When one is angry at sinners, one ceases to identify with all other men. When one is angry at sinners and not with sin, the path to righteousness has been completely abandoned. When one is angry at sinners, one forgets oneself. Jesus insists that we be reconciled with [our offending] brother… [and] agree with our adversary quickly… lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. (Ibid, 24,25) Enslavement to anger and judgment might hold us forever in the prison-house of Hell because we have forgotten that the sin that we find so quickly in others is sin that we know in ourselves but fail to confess.
        
The angry pursuit of earthly justice threatens every religious man. It corrupts his soul with an undue sense of superiority and hubris. The proud man forgets that he needs those good things as pass man’s understanding… and the promises that exceed all that we can desire. In sum, what is lost is the consciousness that we all need the forgiveness of sins that Jesus Christ brings. This forgiveness of sins passes man’s understanding because it is unnatural to our fallen condition, and its effects yield promises that exceed all that we can desire. Christ’s righteousness is the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins alone overcomes God’s anger and wrath against our sins and makes us right with Him. Loving God above all things is in peril because we fail to allow the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus Christ to then become so alive in us that it crucifies our anger, judgment, and unforgiveness of all others.
        
Our anger, wrath, and unforgiveness of others must be conquered by what Jesus Christ has done to overcome God’s wrath against our sin. St. Paul in this morning’s Epistle asks us, Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. (Romans vi. 3-7) When we begin to remember what God in Jesus Christ has done to reveal God’s Anger against sin as His Love for our salvation, we cannot help but die in Him to be freed from our sin. The anger that we have reserved for all others will die. Our old man will be crucified with Christ and come alive to righteousness in His forgiveness of our sins. We shall discover that the only form of anger and judgment suitable for our spiritual journey is what we direct against ourselves as we persistently seek to conquer our propensity for anger, judgment, and unforgiveness. 
        
Christ tells us to agree with our adversary quickly. (Idem) St. Augustine teaches us that in doing so we are really seeking to be reconciled with the Image and Likeness of God in our neighbor. (Idem) What we ought to love in all men is Christ’s Righteousness waiting to be brought alive by our faith in His Grace. No one except for the Devil should ever be our enemy. For God, in Jesus Christ, wants us, through faithful prayer, loving forgiveness, and hopeful aspirations to imagine such good things as pass man’s understanding. Loving Him above all things we pray that we might obtain His promises which shall exceed all that can desire. And this desire must for our miraculous incorporation into the new life of Jesus Christ that makes enemies friends and all of us heirs together of His eternal promises because our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees (Idem).    
Amen.
©wjsmartin
 










O God who hast prepared for them that love Thee
such good things as pass man’s understanding…
(Collect: Trinity VI)
 
          
We have said that the Trinity tide is all about fertility and growth; it is the green season, and in it we focus on God’s spiritual harvesting of virtue in our souls. The green vestments and Altar hangings of this season draw our minds from things earthly to things heavenly, from the green crops and plants of the fields that surround us physically to the idea and image of spiritual produce and yield in our souls. Thus, we are to be moved and inspired to grow the fruits of God’s seed, His Word, in our hearts. And, yet the end of our spiritual endeavors relates specifically to certain Divine promises - such good things as pass man’s understanding, as our Collect reminds us of this morning. The Collect tells us that we love God above all things, (Idem) that we may obtain His promises, which exceed all that we can desire. We shall be blessed with God’s good things permanently only if we love God above and beyond all creatures. Thus, God’s eternal reward is given to who love His Grace.
          
But loving God is a virtue that is not easily attained. Last week St. Peter and his fellow Apostles, having obeyed Jesus by letting down their nets for a draught of fishes and finding themselves the beneficiaries of supernatural power and might, surrendered themselves to the radical otherness of God in Jesus. With a deeper fear of the Lord, their faith and confidence in Jesus were made more sure as they forsook all and followed Him. (St. Luke v. 11) They were being caught up in Christ’s net, and so slowly but surely, they began to die to themselves and come alive to Jesus Christ. The Divine Virtue began to be felt in the presence of God’s Holy One. If we are going to discover how to love God above all things, we had better begin with the fear of the Lord and God’s power in Jesus Christ.
But there is more. Christ says to us today that except [our] righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, [we] shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (St. Matthew v. 20) He intends that our faith and confidence in His power should be converted into righteousness. Righteousness of the ancient Jews – of the Scribes and Pharisees – was the law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The religious world that Jesus found when He came down from Heaven was one defined by the strict Law of Moses and the Fathers. Its rites were administered by the scribes and pharisees, who were called to make men right with God through the Law. Every evil deed had its onerous form of penance. And in it was much that was correct.

But Jesus found something lacking. Romano Guardini reminds us, so long as we cling to [human] justice, we will never be guiltless of injustice. As long as we are entangled in wrong and revenge, blow and counterblow, aggression and defense, we will be constantly drawn into fresh wrong. (The Lord, p. 81) Ancient Jewish Law was obsessed with sin and its punishment, with finding it and punishing it in a way that could only reveal the loss of its original spirit. The Temple’s ministers, the Scribes and Pharisees, had become possessed by evil and unrighteousness. Thus, the Jewish System, as it had developed, had lost its way as the righteous had become even more judgmentally consumed not with sin but with the unrighteous or sinners. Fallen man is always in danger of confusing the two. Needless to say, the system was so powerful that publicans and sinners in Jesus’ day had come to despair of any real hope for redemption from those whose judgment precluded any love or forgiveness.

But Jesus came into the world to remind us that the cycle of unrighteousness and sin can be broken only through the spirit of love and the forgiveness of sins. So, He proceeds to teach his listeners about the problem with the spiritual character of the scribes and pharisees and, for that matter, of any religious man whose notion of righteousness is bound up with imposing a Law that is robbed of any love.

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: (Ibid, 21)
 
Jesus surmises that Religious folk are prone to anger against sinners when they have no just cause. True enough, we all must love righteousness, and we must hate unrighteousness and sin. But to be angry with sinners just because they are sinners isn’t just cause for our anger against them. We might just as well be angry with ourselves since we, with them, are caught in the horrible grip of sin! Of course, there might be rare times when there is just cause for righteous indignation or anger. But the rarer that is for us, the better, since we all are sinners. Jesus comes into the world to teach us to hate the sin and love the sinner. And this was clearly lost on the scribes and pharisees. Our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and pharisees. (Idem)

Jesus goes on to reinforce his point. Whoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of the judgment…. (Ibid, 22) Judging sinners in our hearts with anger, without cause, reason, or moderation that desires their salvation and betterment by God’s mercy and forgiveness will judge us by the Father’s Love. Our hearts must desire God’s righteousness for all men. Next Jesus says that Whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council….(Ibid, 22) Allowing our anger to explode into tongue-murder, as Matthew Henry puts it, demeaning other man as worthless will measure our every word according to the council of God’s Wisdom and Word. Raca means thou empty or worthless man! Jesus concludes by saying but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. (Idem) When our anger condemns a man as a fool, we have despaired of God’s Power and grieve the Holy Ghost. And it all proceeds, again, with angrily judging other men without cause. St. Augustine says this means that we are angry at the brother and not the cause (Retr. i. 19). Thus, Jesus reveals that it is not the sin but the sinner who has become the object of our unrighteous anger.
        
Jesus teaches us that the real threat to loving [God] above all things is internal and spiritual. Anger or wrath threatens to damn us all. Its loveless judgment, its malicious council, and its Hellish despair should terrify us all. Anger or wrath kills the soul inwardly and spiritually. When one is angry at sinners, one ceases to identify with all other men. When one is angry at sinners and not with sin, the path to righteousness has been completely abandoned. When one is angry at sinners, one forgets oneself. Jesus insists that we be reconciled with [our offending] brother… [and] agree with our adversary quickly… lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. (Ibid, 24,25) Enslavement to anger and judgment might hold us forever in the prison-house of Hell because we have forgotten that the sin that we find so quickly in others is sin that we know in ourselves but fail to confess.
        
The angry pursuit of earthly justice threatens every religious man. It corrupts his soul with an undue sense of superiority and hubris. The proud man forgets that he needs those good things as pass man’s understanding… and the promises that exceed all that we can desire. In sum, what is lost is the consciousness that we all need the forgiveness of sins that Jesus Christ brings. This forgiveness of sins passes man’s understanding because it is unnatural to our fallen condition, and its effects yield promises that exceed all that we can desire. Christ’s righteousness is the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins alone overcomes God’s anger and wrath against our sins and makes us right with Him. Loving God above all things is in peril because we fail to allow the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus Christ to then become so alive in us that it crucifies our anger, judgment, and unforgiveness of all others.
        
Our anger, wrath, and unforgiveness of others must be conquered by what Jesus Christ has done to overcome God’s wrath against our sin. St. Paul in this morning’s Epistle asks us, Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. (Romans vi. 3-7) When we begin to remember what God in Jesus Christ has done to reveal God’s Anger against sin as His Love for our salvation, we cannot help but die in Him to be freed from our sin. The anger that we have reserved for all others will die. Our old man will be crucified with Christ and come alive to righteousness in His forgiveness of our sins. We shall discover that the only form of anger and judgment suitable for our spiritual journey is what we direct against ourselves as we persistently seek to conquer our propensity for anger, judgment, and unforgiveness. 
        
Christ tells us to agree with our adversary quickly. (Idem) St. Augustine teaches us that in doing so we are really seeking to be reconciled with the Image and Likeness of God in our neighbor. (Idem) What we ought to love in all men is Christ’s Righteousness waiting to be brought alive by our faith in His Grace. No one except for the Devil should ever be our enemy. For God, in Jesus Christ, wants us, through faithful prayer, loving forgiveness, and hopeful aspirations to imagine such good things as pass man’s understanding. Loving Him above all things we pray that we might obtain His promises which shall exceed all that can desire. And this desire must for our miraculous incorporation into the new life of Jesus Christ that makes enemies friends and all of us heirs together of His eternal promises because our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees (Idem).    

Amen.
©wjsmartin

 
 


Fisher of mortal men, them that the saved be,
Ever the holy fish caught up from the depths of the sea,
Out of the world’s tumultuous sea of sin
Enticed into thine embrace, forever to be held therein .
(Clement of Alexandria)
 
        
Post-modern man seems wholly afraid of being caught –caught in an embarrassing situation, caught off guard, caught red-handed, caught asleep at the wheel, or caught out as incompetent. The fear is caused by an absence of spiritual integrity that reacts angrily to a world whose expectations he has been denied but are still being asserted by his neighbors. The post-modern fearful man has told us all that we ought not to have any hope for betterment since we are all genetically pre-determined to be less than mediocre. We are meant to congratulate such a man on his genius as if he had discovered something profound. He is Big Brother and we are all the incurably ignorant plebian masses. When other people’s natural instinct for certain norms of law and order react to his imbecility, they are met with the juvenile gibes of derogatory derision. For the adolescent, judgment moves in one direction –away from the self and onto others.

Fortunately for us, today’s Gospel turns us around and encourages us to move in a better direction, to be self-consciously caught out in our sinful condition so that we might be caught up and into the net of Jesus Christ. For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth; And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. (Hebr. xii. 6) Prior to today’s reading, St. Luke tells us that Jesus had been healing those who were sick with divers diseases. (St. Luke iv. 40) Exhausted, He then went into a desert place (Ibid, 42) to pray, only to be interrupted by the multitude who would have kept Him from leaving them because they were caught up with His miracles. He said, ‘I must preach the Kingdom of God to other cities also’. But they nevertheless followed Him. Today we read that As the [same] multitude pressed upon Him to hear the Word of God, He stood by the lake of Genesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. (St. Luke v. 1) This crowd pursues Jesus pressing upon Him to hear the Word of God, that He is nearly driven to take refuge in the sea! The sinful world they inhabit can offer no peaceful refuge or shelter from their sin. And so with all zeal, alacrity, and dispatch, caught by the short hairs in the devil’s lair, they are determined to be caught up into the salvation that Jesus brings.

But the zeal and passion with which men press upon Jesus must be tempered and moderated. When we press upon Jesus overzealously or impetuously we run the risk of being caught up in passion and emotion. Zeal must be converted into spiritual love that yields sober detachment, needed to discover Christ apart from our passions. The crowd is quieted, Jesus is silent, the sea is still, and the only activity we discover comes from fishermen who were gone out of their boats and [were] washing their nets. (Ibid, 2) We ought to be caught up in the stillness of this event. These are men whose worldly success and failure depend upon the uncertain moving winds, stirring sea, and elusive fish.

These men are caught up anxiously over the seas of chance and fortune. Isaak Walton says, Blessings upon all who hate contention, and love quietness, and virtue, and angling. (The Compleat Angler) Angling is fishing, but with A. K. Best we must remember that often the fishing [is] good, but the catching [is] bad. And that, They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep. (Ps. cvii. 23, 24) The rising and falling of the great deep aggravate the fisherman’s art of following and catching his prevaricating prey. Two motions blend to confuse and confound the fisherman’s science of the seas. Walton says that Angling may be said to be so like mathematics that it never can fully be learnt. (Idem) Driven by persistent curiosity and wonder, fishermen aim for a precision they never obtain.

So we read that Jesus entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land: and He sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. (Ibid, 3) Jesus doesn’t force Himself upon any man. Archbishop Trench reminds us that the work of the fisher is one of art and skill, not of force and violence. (Miracles, p. 106) So He prays or asks Peter to thrust out a little from the land so that spiritual men might be caught up into the net of His preaching. He has no pulpit, and thus, as Matthew Henry reminds us, must ask St. Peter for the loan of his fishing boat. (Comm: Luke V) The multitude –the hoi polloi, must learn of the distance and differentiation between their condition and that of the fishermen. The multitude on the shore had zeal aplenty, but
Peter and his fellow fishers –James and John, were humbled by another night of laborious failure.
Jesus commands Simon Peter: Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draft. (Ibid, 4) Simon responds, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing….(Ibid, 5) Peter confesses the impotence of the fishermen. Yet, they pressed on, washed their nets, and cleansed theirs boats hoping for a better return the next time round. Oddly enough, now Jesus takes them out in the clear light of day. He will take their craft and trade into the clear light of day. Peter is perplexed. We know that we are fishers, but is Christ a fisher also? Christ presses upon Peter. Peter presses upon Christ. Peter obeys humbly. Nevertheless, at thy Word, I will let down the net. (Idem) Peter the fisherman may doubt his profession’s precision, but he does not doubt his Lord. He and his fellow men have already been caught out and seized by the consciousness of their fallen condition. Now they are caught up and into the commands of their Christ. Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. (Ps. cxxvii.1) Peter’s hope for accomplishing anything on his own has been thrown overboard; but he knows that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. (Is. xl. 30, 31)

And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net brake, and they beckoned to their partners in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both ships, so that they began to sink. (Ibid, 6,7) The word of Jesus is obeyed, and God can catch man up into a new life.

But what is the real miracle? Is it merely the miracle of the draught of fishes? The answer can be found in the response of St. Peter. As Isaac Williams explains, [St. Peter had] no thought of his own profit at such a supply, no sense of relief after having so long toiled in vain occurred to him, but all was lost in the feeling of God’s presence and of his own sinfulness. (I. W. ‘The Peaceable Ordering of the World.’) Peter falls down before Jesus and says, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’ For he was astonished, and all that were with them, at the draught of fishes which they had taken. (Ibid, 8,9) Archbishop Trench writes, Peter, while drawing the multitude of fishes into his net, has himself fallen into the net of Christ, taking a prey, he has himself also been taken a prey, and now the same man as ever after, yielding as freely to the impulse of the moment…can no longer, in the deep feeling of his own unholiness, endure a Holy One so near. (Idem)  

St. Peter can do little by his own ingenuity and effort. Man’s craftsmanship and science can produce only unpredictable and impermanent gains in comparison of what God in Jesus Christ can do for us. There is a miracle of fishes. Jesus’ power is manifested. This is the first miracle. Next, the same power of God in Jesus Christ converts Saint Peter. He is drawn and caught up into Christ’s net. His heart sinks, as he discovers the Wisdom and Love that alone can draw the migrating soul back out of the tempestuous depths of human sin into the net of that love that can reconcile all men to God. Peter senses the loss of himself; he is drowned in the sea of spiritual death. This is the second miracle. Peter dies to himself. He is poor in spirit. Peter comes alive to Jesus Christ. Grace abounds. Father Mouroux reminds us that man must realize that [he] is dust and ashes before his God; however much he abounds, he is always a poverty-stricken thing hanging on the Divine Mercy, and however much he may be purified, he is still a sinner face to face with Holiness. (The Meaning of Man, p. 217) 

The fish which the men have caught are still alive –flailing, thrashing, and thwacking with all their might to return to their life in the sea. Peter falls down, surrenders himself, and begins to die in order to embrace Christ, the New Life. Jesus says, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. (Ibid, 10) At the conclusion of our Gospel we then read that when the [Apostles] had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed Him. (Ibid, 11)

The Apostles were on their way to becoming fishers of men for Jesus. Their forsaking all is a spirit of self-abnegation. To be caught up in the net of Christ elicits spiritual death to oneself. If we would become Apostles of Christ, in ourselves the contradiction [must be] felt between the holy and the unholy, between God and us sinners. (Trench, 102) For then we shall become spiritual fish out of water, caught up into the net of Christ, so that other men might see that even our postmodern sea of tumultuous sin is not beyond the powerful craft of the Fisher of Men. So let us close by singing along with Mr. Walton, not only caught up by Christ into His net, but also pressing upon Jesus that we too might become fishers of men.

The first men that our Saviour Dear,
Did chuse to wait upon Him here,
Blest fishers were, and fish the last
Food was, that He on earth did taste.
I therefore strive to follow those,
Whom he to follow Him hath chose.
 
                           (The Compleat Angler, Modern Library, p. 112)
 
 
 
Amen.
 

 
If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that
is where the sting comes in. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost
us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal.
Oswald Chambers ‘My Utmost for his Highest’, January 11.
 
Today’s quotation is taken from Oswald Chambers, an English Baptist minister who lived from 1874 until 1917. He died at the ripe young age of 43 when serving as a chaplain to the Royal Army in Egypt, died of appendicitis because he refused to take a bed that was intended, he was sure, for the wounded soldiers of the Battle of Gaza. Before he died, he left us with numerous works, including his famous My Utmost for His Highest. In it, amongst other gems, he reminds us that Christian Discipleship costs those who do not love [Christ] a great deal, and that this is where the pain begins. (Idem)
        
I have opened with these remarks 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) On the one side, we find the publicans and sinners, and on the other the Pharisees and Scribes. So we have those who need what Jesus has to offer and against them the self-righteous religious Jews who judge Him for keeping company with them. Nestled in between the two groups are, as always, the Apostles who are called to glean the truth from what Jesus will have to say to the publicans and sinners. So Jesus, reading the censorious thoughts of the religious and pious Jewish Elders, offers two parables. What is interesting about the parables is that Jesus uses them to address all his listening audience. The teaching to be gleaned from them is to alert the Apostles and us to the dangers that threaten to ruin the religion of good people.

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) An Australian scientific study done in 2012 concludes that sheep are selfish animals which congregate towards a safe center. (Flock and Awe…) When one errs and strays from the sheepfold, the shepherd must set out to find it. Sheep are not only selfish but stupid. They don’t realize when one of their own goes missing. And, presumably, they don’t care. Provided they are together and safe, they are happy enough. The lost sheep is missed only by the shepherd, who rejoices when he finds it.
Jesus teaches us the parable in order to point us to the character of spiritual shepherds and spiritual sheep. The Pharisees and Scribes, presumably well-positioned through moral education and application to be good shepherds, are more like selfishly safe and contented sheep. The limitations of their ministry are revealed throughout the life of Our Lord. Those who were called to be religious pastors and shepherds to bring the sinful into the righteousness of the Law have become a brood of vipers whose chief claim to fame is cherishing the limited moral purity they possess and protecting it against any threat of contamination through contact with publicans and sinners. As Archbishop Trench remarks, they had neither love to hope the recovery of such, nor yet antidotes to preserve 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 a shepherd’s love and care. The shepherd returns home with the lost sheep while the ninety and nine remain in the sheepfold not noticing that anything has happened. Special care and more individual attention are afforded to the lost sheep. The lost sheep is a symbol of fallen man, knowing he is lost and needs to be found, or who knows that he needs a shepherd to rescue and save him. 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 parable that Jesus teaches rebukes the self-righteous Pharisees who think that they are good enough. A true Disciple of Christ will be more like the publicans and sinners, who need what Jesus Christ has to offer. And what He has to offer is something far greater than any limited moral human goodness that sets us apart not only from sin but also from sinners, whose company, we believe, only stands to corrupt us.
        
Jesus elaborates 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) In Jesus’ day silver coins were stamped with the image of Caesar, much like our coins are stamped with the image of various past Presidents. The point is that the image of the king on the coin points to a greater value symbolized in the parable. Men are made in the image and likeness of God, and so the lost coin that the woman recovers in the second parable symbolizes God the Father’s most precious possession, His human children, whom He seeks to find and reconcile to Himself. He does so by the good shepherd, His own Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sends into the world to sweep the house [of the fallen creation], until [He] finds sin-sick souls. 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 realizes not only that he has erred and strayed from the right way of God but is sought out and found precisely because, despite his sin, He remains forever a precious treasure to God.
        
Of course, for the Pharisees and Scribes, the truth contained in Jesus’ parables fell on deaf ears. And this, 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 was that they did not realize that the Law of Moral Goodness can never save a man. Unfortunately, the Law inevitably divides publicans and sinners from good people. The Pharisees and Scribes were self-consciously better than others and remarkably unconscious of their need for a Saviour. What they could not see in the publicans and sinners was their own sin, that they were lost sheep or even a lost coin of great price. Thus, their pride prevented them from seeing that Jesus ate and drank with publicans and sinners precisely because the latter knew that they were lost sheep in need of a Good Shepherd who could find and save them forever.
        
When we discover ourselves to be publicans and sinners who have been lost and found by Jesus Christ, the Pharisees and Scribes of this world will lose us. No longer will they be able look down upon us with their treasure of contempt and ridicule. For, with St. Peter in this morning’s Epistle, we are becoming subject to our fellow men, clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. (1 St. Peter v. 5) We are humbling [ourselves]…under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt [us] in due time. (Ibid, 6) The humility that allows us to be found by Jesus the Good Shepherd, reveals our utter dependence upon God’s healing Grace. We share the same dreadful disease of sin with publicans and sinners. 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 Christian Disciple must suffer the fact that like a stupid sheep, he will always be tempted to get lost. He suffers too as a potentially lost coin who forgets his value to God and the price that was paid to redeem that value, once for all, by Jesus on the Cross of Calvary. As true Disciples, we must confess that we are the chief, the chief, the greatest of sinners, who are spiritually lost and in need of a shepherd who calls not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (St. Luke v. 30)
        
Our obedience to Jesus Christ is free and should become our delight. It will cost others a great deal. (Idem) They will lose the power they held over us and will persecute us. Our gain is greater. Let us fervently believe that we were once lost but now are in the process of being found by Jesus Christ. Let us remember that we are no better than our brethren that are in the world and that we are in danger of being much worse should we elevate ourselves above them by reason of our religion or piety. Our Heavenly Father will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. ii. 4) Our righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees. (St. Matthew v. 20) The Good Shepherd or Saviour we need his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes [we] were healed. (1 Peter ii. 24) Salvation is free for us; it cost God the Father a great deal. Oswald Chambers asks the Christian this:
Who of us would dare to stand before God [on Judgment Day] and say, ‘My God, judge me as I have judged my fellow men’? We, [with the Pharisees and Scribes] judge our fellow men as sinners; if God should judge us like that, we should all end up in Hell. (Ibid, June 22) God resisteth the proud, and giveth Grace to the humble. (1 Peter v. 5)
 
With all men, let us find ourselves as Christ’s lost and found. Then, there will be joy in the presence of the angels of God (Luke xv. 10), to whom, as St. Bernard of Clairvaux suggests, the tears of all penitents is angelic wine.
Amen.