Trinity VI 2022

 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

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