Sermon on July 4, 2010
Sermon for the Episcopal Church of St John the Baptist, Capitola,
given by Rev. Steve Ellis
The Episcopal Church of Saint John the Baptist welcomes all to worship God and to share Christ's love in the world. We are a parish family committed to provide liturgy, Bible study, music, counseling, and Christian education for children, youth, and adults, and to equip all our members for life and for service to others.
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Old Testament Lesson
Isaiah 66:10-14
Psalm
Psalm 66:1-8
New Testament Lesson
[My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves. All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor's work, will become a cause for pride. For all must carry their own loads.
Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher.]
Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised-- only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! As for those who will follow this rule-- peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
Galatians 6:(1-6)7-16
Gospel
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, `Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.'
"Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me."
The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!" He said to them, "I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."
Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
Sermon
We hear Jesus send the disciples out, seventy of them, which is a symbolic number, and means enough for all the nations, that the gospel will eventually be for all peoples. He sends them to take God’s peace to all and invite them to live in the presence of God, to live at peace with one another, or in the words Jesus uses in Luke’s gospel (4:18-19), the words of Isaiah,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, / Because God has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, / He has sent to proclaim release to the captive and recovering of sight to the blind, / To set at liberty those who are oppressed / To proclaim the year of God’s Jubilee.
You can see why many would be opposed, and not receive this message of peace. This threatens any exploitive way of life, and most of us have something to protect. At first God’s ways seem only to restrict us from seeking our own advantage and perhaps we don’t see the love and grace and justice that will heal our hearts and minds. So Jesus, in sending the disciples out, knew that some would respect and welcome their message, and some would reject them, and who knows? I think part of his motivation was to show them the power of the gospel to free some, and the reality of rejection by others, so that they could become mature disciples and find their peace in God’s Spirit and not in the approval of others.
Galatians is all about how revealing this grace of God is, separating fact from fiction, integrity from hypocrisy. It does this under the metaphor of FLESH vs. SPIRIT, and, if we understand it, that can be very helpful, so let’s follow Paul’s examples:
Restore the sinful - you stand in the same grace, and if you think you are better you aren’t standing in the grace! So watch your own contribution, how you serve the gospel, and not how the other guy does. If you are playing both sides of the fence, trying to succeed big for the sake of your godless desires AND to please God, you won’t fool God. (FLESH VS SPIRIT is just saying what “pride goes before a fall” says: trusting in visible stuff, whether circumcision so you’ll be accepted, or being fit and tanned, or making your home or your car a showplace, or having advanced degrees or professions just so that you can show them off and be honored, or trusting your accumulated net worth as your salvation, or anything else that takes you away from relying on the walk with God as your real net worth, your real status, your real hope and salvation, your real health and strength.) The way you love you = sowing to the flesh. The way God loves you? Sow to the Spirit. Learning the distinction doesn’t come in one flash, but incrementally.
Another way of saying it is that loving ourselves, without God’s love as our foundation, is both exhausting, because it cannot be enough, and hostile, because in our desperation we put ourselves before others and misunderstand them and compete when there is no need. We end up worn out, disappointed, and hurting the ones we meant to bless. It might be better to paraphrase this as SELF vs. Spirit, and to see that it isn’t that God wants us to leave flesh behind, to leave self behind, but that self cannot find its fulfillment without walking with God. Self and Spirit.
This goes for nations, too. Insofar as we are faithful to God’s calling, we will be more secure. Insofar as we forget God we will be full of ourselves and in danger of a great fall. And when we trust God, when we are in Christ, there is a new humanity, a new creation, this is glory, we live in gratitude, live not only for ourselves, but for Christ and those he loves, and so we are devoted to restoring the sinner, working for the common good, opposing the lawless and the unjust, and serving well the nation to which we were born, or in which we were naturalized, and also being constructive and devoted to the well-being of that city and nation in which we dwell.
In patriotism as in all things, we must guard that we are walking with Christ, his purposes above our advantage, our hope in God and not ourselves. I think the Prayer Book catches the spirit of this beautifully, and I ask you to pray it with me, and ask God to make us citizens, in this way, of heaven, and because we put citizenship in God’s realm first, good citizens of this nation, or good sojourners in it. Turn with me to page 820 in your Prayer Book.
18. For our Country
See also Various Occasions no. 17.
Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our
heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove
ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will.
Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and
pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion;
from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend
our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue
with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and
peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we
may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth.
In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness,
and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail;
all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
It isn’t that God is opposed to “flesh” (which really just means “self-seeking”. It is that “flesh” is opposed to God. The desires of each individual self can only be fulfilled by a deep and devoted cooperation with God, for which we were created. God desires this fulfillment for us. God wants our selves to be fully developed and enjoyed, but this can only happen in cooperation with the divine. Jesus said, “I came that you might have life ,and have it abundantly.” So self can be at war with God, or self can be “in cahoots” with God. Guess which one works better?