Trinity VI 2021

​Pour into our hearts such love towards thee,
that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain
thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire.
(Collect, Trinity VI)

I do not know how often we think of the promises of God. If we are like most men, we don’t. Our consciences don’t seem to be alerted and awake to what God plans and promises for all men. We don’t seem to be readying ourselves for a future with God in Heaven. Or if we do, it is of secondary importance to this life and thus is unlikely to do us much good. We are so possessed by our lives in the here and now that our eternal destiny doesn’t seem to matter much. But Jesus is quite clear about it all. Our future matters a lot. And we had better be preparing to be with Him in Heaven and not separated from Him in Hell. God has given himself to us in Jesus Christ, and if we hope to find life with Him in His Eternal Kingdom, we must prepare for it in the here and now. Eternity, after all, is forever. 

To be sure, this will not be easy. Nothing in life that is precious is ever obtained without sacrifice and hard work. And God’s promises are no exception. They seem beyond our reach  -beyond all that we can desire, as our Collect for this morning reminds us. But exceeding all that we can desire is no reason to stop pursuing them. Desire is an inward stirring and passion for an object that we do not yet possess. What is beyond all that we can desire means simply what exceeds and surpasses our knowledge or ability to cognitively create. What God promises is the subject matter of His own love for us. What God promises to us is a way to that love that He provides through life in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ and by the indwelling of our Lord the Holy Ghost. Beyond all that we can desire means that our desire for God will be transformed into a love far greater than we have ever perceived or known. The kind of love that God has in store for them that begin to love Him truly nowwill be perfected then because the then can never be threatened by sin. It will be a love that cannot be destroyed.
          
Here and now we are called to start getting used to God’s love. This must involve practicing the presence of His rule and governance in our lives.  In fact, in this morning’s Epistle, St. Paul plots out the way to receive this very love. Yet what a strange way he contrives! To embrace God’s living love in our lives, the Apostle would have us consider death. In fact, he insists that we shall never receive the promises that exceed all that we can desire until we die. But what does he mean? Is he preparing us for earthly death? Most people view death as non-existence, that state when the body shuts down and all consciousness is lost. And the closer they get to it, the more fearful of it they become! But the death that St. Paul is getting at in this morning’s Epistle is spiritual and inward; it is the death that we must die here and now so that we might be saved. It is a death to whatever separates us from the knowledge and love of God. This is the death in which we must try our best to die to all other loves, or at least to love all others only in relation to our first love, which must be the love of God. So, it is no small wonder that so many men fear to undertake it. As G. K. Chesterton writes:
           
           I tell you naught for your comfort, 
          Yea, naught for your desire, 
          Save that the sky grows darker yet 
          And the sea rises higher.
                                             (Ballad of the White Horse)
 
This death will be difficult and will involve a real inner spiritual battle on the dark plain of human existence. The man who will die to himself must be willing to wage war against the darkness of his sins. Sin a lesser love or a forbidden love which steals our attention away from the love of God. Thus, he must examine closely how his other loves have vied for primacy of place in his heart against the love of God. At first, it may seem overwhelming, and yet, in the end, if we have faith in Jesus Christ, we shall realize that God has provided us with the means to loving Him above all things. (Idem) Know ye not, St. Paul writes, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? (Romans. vi. 3) You and I, as baptized Christians, have been initiated already into Christ’s death. By loving [Our Heavenly Father] above all things, Christ has taken on our sin and in His one, and all sufficient Sacrifice, Oblation, and Satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, He has brought our old earthly death to an end. We believe that the spiritual death to sin, Satan, and deathitself has been won for us by Jesus Christ. And it does not stop there. 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. (Romans vi. 4) Jesus Christ has died the spiritual death that we were not capable of dying. He has died for the sins of the whole world, and in His dying, He has reopened the gates of everlasting life to all men. The living love of God is given back to the world in the death of God’s own Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. The living love of God in the heart of Jesus Christ reveals love as death, death to the self, death to all that is other than God. This living love, thisdying death in Jesus Christ opens the kingdom of God to us all once again. All men are invited into the reality of this death through Baptism, that in and through Jesus Christ they might die to themselves and begin to come alive to God.

So, Baptism is our first incorporation into the reality of the death of sin. Technically speaking, Baptism washes away the stain and corruption of Original Sin. But actual sin remains. We all know only too well that devil is not thwarted by the Sacrament of Baptism. The hard work of redemption continues long after our first Baptism into Christ’s death. 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. 5-7) Life for the Christian in time and space must involve a conscious and ongoing death to our lesser loves, or to sin. St. Paul certainly speaks of future Resurrection when Christ shall come again to judge both the quick and dead. But to be counted worthy of salvation then, we must be dying constantly to sin now. This means that we must believe in Christ and that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans vi. 6) Thus, we are called in the here and now to ongoing repentance, self-conscious awareness of the sins that so easily beset us (Hebrews xii. 1), and with the determination to confess them to turn to God…our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble. (Ps. xlvi. 1) Death to ourselves involves hard work.

Therefore in this morning’s Gospel reading Jesus teaches us that there can be no place for pride, envy, wrath, sloth, covetousness, gluttony, or lust. Jesus reminds us that these sins compete with the death we must embrace. Ye have heard that it was said of 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. (St. Matthew v. 21) We might very well have just cause to be angry with a brother. If we don’t forgive and hope for his salvation, then the love of God that was planted in us at Baptism is dead. Jesus is then not alive in us and His love is as good as dead in us, and we are alive to a much more pernicious future death in Hell! If we kill God’s love in Jesus, we cannot hope to be rewarded with His promises.

St. Paul reminds us that when we were the servants of sin, we were free from righteousness, (Romans vi. 20)…but now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, we have our fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. (Romans vi. 22) For, Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. (Romans v. 8) In fact, Christ died for us while we were yet nailing Him to the Tree. Yet, as He was dying for us, He was still longing for our salvation. This is that kind of love that enables us to obtains God’s promises because it exceeds all that we can desire (Idem). This is the love that stoops down from heaven as the forgiveness of sins in the heart of Jesus. This love never ceases to desire our salvation. Jean Mouroux reminds us that God is present to His creature…by the love He excites in the very heart of its existence; whence it is that the whole world is tense with one immense aspiration, quickening, and unifying, towards the First-Beloved. (The Meaning of Man, p. 183). 

With God’s love, we should yearn to partake of the merits of Christ’s death. Romano Guardini has said, the saints are those who penetrate into the existence of Christ; who lift themselves, not by ‘their bootstraps’ but by Christ’s humanity and Christ’s divinity. (The Lord, p. 447) Christ is the incessant desire of God for man made flesh. Christ is the incessant desire of man for God. In one Person, Jesus Christ is that love that forever longs for us to obtain God’s promises. (Idem) Remember, God has prepared for those who love [Him] such good things as pass man’s understanding. Until we allow Christ to pour into our hearts such love towards [Him] and love Him above all things, we shall not obtain His promises which exceed all that we can desire. (Idem) Simon Tugwell reminds us, God is only Himself in pouring Himself out. (The Beatitudes, p. 24) We must pour ourselves out to be full of Jesus Christ. Then, being full of that love that obtains His promises, God’s excessive love shall pour from us into the hearts of others also. 
Amen.
 
 

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