Trinity XX Sermon 2025

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools,
But are wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
(Ephesians v. 15, 16)

In this morning’s Epistle, St. Paul exhorts the Ephesians and us to walk circumspectly. Circumspection comes to us from the Latin word circumspecere. It means to look around, to be cautious and watchful. St. Paul is urging his Greek audience to proceed with caution. Of course, St. Paul uses the word walk in a spiritual manner, and he means proceeding with wisdom and prudence supplicating God…through [His] bountiful goodness…to keep us from all things which may hurt us. (Collect, Trinity XX) We must walk circumspectly, being ready both in body and soul to cheerfully accomplish those things which [God] wouldest have done. (Idem) Otherwise, we turn into fools. Fools do not embrace Divine Providence. They are swift to speak and slow to hear. (St. James i. 19) Fools are consumed with the things of this world, refuse to see the world in and for God, and hang upon what is impermanent and uncertain.
         
Circumspection is fueled by God’s wisdom so that we might not play the part of fools. Wise men know that the world around us is full of temptations to gluttony and greed. Because the world belongs to God, everything in it is to be used in His service for salvation. Utility forbids excess. Excess bespeaks idolatry. Thus, wise men learn how to redeem the time. Redeeming the time is the best use of this world in preparation for the next.

St. Paul tells us this morning that we are called to be not unwise but understanding what the will of Lord is…and to be filled with the Spirit. (Ibid, 18) But what is the nature of this filling? Paul Claudel tells us that

the Holy Spirit is ardent, luminous, and quickening by turns, who fills man and makes him aware of himself, of his filial position, of his weakness, of his discontent in his state of sin, of his dangers, of his duty, his unworthiness and the inadequacy of everything around him.

The Holy Spirit enables us to find ourselves in Jesus Christ. We come to understand our need for Christ because everything around us is inadequate. Neither food, drink, sex, nor money can save and deliver us from sin. Neither can they enable us to embrace the spiritual goodness and virtue that are necessary for our return to God.  
         
God’s Providence reveals to us how He sees us and how He intends to redeem us. Providence means seeing into things and grasping their meaning. Circumspection leads us to learn how God sees us and intends to help us to reach him. Jesus illustrates it in this morning’s Gospel. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding….(St. Matthew xxii. 2) God sees us as those in need of an invitation and considers us important and worthy enough to ask us to a great occasion. He invites us to the nuptials of his son. Through the Holy Spirit, God sends out invitations through His servants. Yet we read that those invited would not come. (Ibid) A second invitation is sent out because God knows our weaknesses, and He thinks that this might stir us to the urgency of the event. But we read that those who were invited, made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise, and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. (Ibid, 5, 6)

The Parable really speaks first about those who are too busy to make any time for God and His gracious invitations. It reveals also how sinful we human beings are since, with those in the parable, we violently reject Him by slaying His messengers. When we violently put ourselves before God and his generosity, God the Father will sends forth his armies of angels to destroy us and burn up [our] city. (Ibid, 7) Fools always bring on their own destruction. Those who cannot be bothered with God, who have better things to do, or who resent the presence of God in life, will be rewarded for their foolishness. They may be fair-weather Christians who are neither hot nor cold, lazy pagans who are spiritual but not religious, or they may be card-carrying Atheists who, for whatever reason, hate God for His love. In either case, those who have no time for God will be rewarded with destruction, or Hell.

But before we get too excited about what this means for us churchgoers, we must read the rest of the Parable. God’s wisdom and love are still alive in the hearts of His friends through the Holy Spirit. He sends them out again. 

Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. (Ibid, 9, 10) 

Remember, with those first invited, some have refused to come and some have become violent with the messengers. Now the invitation is extended to new guests who will be found in the highways, no doubt a reference to workers, the poor, the uneducated, strangers and foreigners, outcasts, and even notorious sinners like us. The new guests are all those who live in the world, both bad and good, whom God wants for Himself. 
But what do we read next?

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:  and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. (Ibid, 11-14) 
 
What is this business about the wedding garment? It seems that in the end, both the bad and the good, not playing the fool, but walking into the wedding with circumspection, must be clothed with a spiritual disposition that seeks God’s Grace. St. Gregory the Great tells us that this wedding garment is charity, or the love of Christ offered to the Bride. 

The wedding garment is that charity of God which adorns the soul with God’s Grace. Those who have charity have been clothed with love and are thankful for it. They are more thankful because they know themselves to be unworthy of the invitation. After all, they might have been left in the highways, trudging along as those who might never have received such an invitation, and never to know the gifts of the king.

So, the man not wearing the wedding garment had not put on the adornment of the new and spiritual man. (R. C. Trench, The Parables, The Marriage of the King’s Son.) He thought himself good enough to have been invited, and he rested in his own goodness. He was a taker and not a giver. Because he did not walk circumspectly, surveying the landscape, he forgot the generosity of the giver, and did not imagine what the king might have in store for his future. He had learned too late that the king called him friend for a reason.
 
St. Paul insists that those of us who have been invited to the wedding of God’s Son must walk circumspectly, redeeming the time. This is St. Paul’s way of saying that we must be clothed with a wedding garment. The wedding garment is an inward and spiritual state of gratitude, prudence, and moral effort. To be clothed in the wedding garment means to participate in the wedding and learn what it means. That the king does not rebuke his messengers for bringing this man to the wedding tells us that the wedding garment is not physical clothing. Rather, the king is concerned with the clothing of the soul. He sees the thoughts of this man’s heart, whether he was circumspect or not, prepared to redeem the time or not, inwardly intending to be clothed with gratitude to the king or not. If we are not clothed in the wedding garment, we are left speechless. Then said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Ibid, 13)

Today, if we are circumspect, we shall begin to redeem the time. Many are called but few are chosen. (Ibid, 14) They are chosen who are clothed with righteous zeal for God, consecrating the time and returning His love. If we put on the wedding garment, we shall be given moral strength, our characters will be redeemed, and we shall be ready to bear all adversities and suffer gladly, with renewed vigor as we discover our new lives with and for Jesus Christ, the bridegroom. God intends for us to clothe ourselves with His love. Of course, the wedding feast is an image of our communion with Jesus. This communion will reveal Christ’s faithfulness to us, His bride. We will even go with our beloved to His Cross where we will learn of His love for us to the point of an unjust death. If we remain faithful to Him in love, He will keep us fast at His side and lead us through death and into resurrection and return to God. Then, rather than playing the part of fools, by His Grace we shall have been wise for salvation.

Amen.
©wjsmartin