Word Count: 1976
Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 Romans 10:8b-13 Luke 4:1-13
Summary: If we desired the things of God, then we would not need to ask him for them for them. He would give them to us automatically, and we would not need to ask Him for the grace to receive them. Confused, read on and enjoy …
This sermon was delivered to the congregation in St Oswald’s in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 21st March 2010: by Gordon McCulloch (A Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).
Please join me in my prayer. Father, Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight. Amen
Our Gospel reading is taken from Luke’s Gospel, chapter 4, verse 1 to 13: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'
"Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'
"Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'
"Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time”.
Introduction:
Although we have had some good readings this morning, our sermon is taken from the collect, of all places. Do you remember what was said? Did you understand it? Let us see.
In today's collect, we asked God to “grant Us grace to love what He commands, and desire what He promises.”
Yes, we said it fast, we agreed with it as it is a nice holy sentiment, but I am sure most of you, like me, never really noticed it, but it sounds nice and it sounds like something everyone should hope for, but actually, not everyone believes it.
“Grant Us grace to love what He commands, and desire what He promises.”
Like a lot of things that are in the Book of Common Prayer, today’s collect makes good theological assumptions, and only when we understand what those are; can we really see what this phrase is getting at.
The first thing we have to realise is that it assumes that we do not do those things already. We do not love what God the way he commands us to love him, neither do we desire what God has promised us. Is that not strange, but it is true?
We do not love all our neighbours for example. Me, I love all of God’s creatures, but I would like to see some of them stuffed.
We do not desire what God promises, because if we already desired those things, then there would not be any need to ask God to grant us the grace to desire to do them. We do not ask God to grant us the grace to desire a bar of chocolate, or an ice cream, or the desire for financial security, because we already desire that. That would just be a waste of time.
By the way, there are no scriptures for Ice cream nor Chocolate, but there are plenty of scriptures where God has promised us financial security; and I am still asking.
Anyway, the collect begins by assuming that something is wrong and it needs to be fixed; and we are basically not all desiring something that God desires.
For example: some people take what might be called a “Creation-centered” view of the world. These people take seriously the story of Creation in the book of Genesis, where God created the world, “and believed it was good or even perfect.”
They say that God would not make anything that was not perfect and so while there might be a bump in the road here or there, but everything is basically good, and so there isn’t much left to ask God for “the grace to love, and desire what He commands and promises”; as they are already satisfied; they just need God to remove a few of the obstacles in there way.
That way of thinking, is for people in denial or those who have lead a sheltered life, or for those who have done nothing. This philosophy was popular in the early part of the 20th century, before things like two World Wars seemed to indicate that all was not well; but it become popular again in the last couple of decades, under names like “New Age” and “Creation Spirituality” and generally for those who want to appear perfect. You know what type of people I speak off. Definitely, nobody here of course.
On the good side, it honours God’s creation and God’s original intention for all of us. On the bad side, though, that way of viewing the world tends to overlook things like war and poverty, and disease and other minor irritations.
And theologically speaking, it overlooks the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, because if the world is “pretty okay” with just a couple of wrinkles here and there, then why then did Jesus die on the Cross? To save us from … say the odd shower of rain now and again.
A Richard Niebuhr, (Ni buhr) one of the 20th centuries great theologians, summarized Creation-centered theology puts it this way: “A God without wrath, brought men without sin, into a kingdom without judgment, through the ministrations of Christ, without a Cross.” I love it.
So given the evil in the world, and the way that Jesus was treated on the cross, it seems that what began as good, has gone terribly wrong somewhere. So it makes sense that we should ask God to change us; so that instead of acting selfishly and self-destructively, we’ll do what God wants us to do.
So the next question, though, is whether that can ever happen; Can we do what God wants us to do?
Some people do not think they can, as they take evil and sin very, very seriously. These people believe that human beings are so fallen, so full of sin, that they will never be able to love what God commands; or desire what God promises. The best they can hope for is to ask God for forgiveness for all that they do; and for all that they think and, even, for all that they are. And they go to church and unless the minister tells them how bad they are, unless he puts them down and rubbishes them, they will not feel happy.
I have actually been to services where I heard it said, “O the minister did not half tear a strip of us today, but that was a good service, I feel much better now.” EH!!!
Everything with them is in the negative, everything is unclean; and I am sorry to say that religion, taken the wrong way, religion focused on the Old Testament with fire and brimstone, and not of grace; can do that to people.
In their mind, they will always remain sinful, and the only thing they can hope for is that God will ultimately forgive them. This is called a “Fall-centered” theology, and according to this view, the critical event in human history was the Fall, the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Before that, creation was perfect, but since the fall, sin has so infected mankind, these people cannot trust there own judgments, because they are so affected by sin; and all they can do is throw themselves on the mercy of God.
“Fall-centered” theology focuses almost entirely on the graphic death of Jesus, rather than His life, or His resurrection.
So if “Creation-centered” people wouldn’t need to pray today’s collect, “grant [Us] grace to love what [He] commands and desire what [He] promises.” and if “Fall-centered” people will not pray it because it is beyond their sinful reach; the fact that we are praying it here today, suggests that we as Episcopalians or Anglicans are praying something else.
We are not “Creation centred”, because we take sin seriously, but we are not “Fall-centered” people either; because sin is not the end; just as the Cross was not the end. Roman 8:1 tell us that “We are not under condemnation but under grace”. Yes we do not deserve it, but that is grace. If we did deserve it, that would not be grace,
Just as the Resurrection followed the crucifixion, redemption follows sin. We were atoned for redemption by the death of Jesus on that cross; we Episcopalians on Anglicans are “Redemption-centered” people, and focus on the Risen, resurrected Jesus who is alive and amongst us.
That means that Creation is good, because God made it, and we do not have to deny ourselves the blessings of this life; because God created us and everything around us, is for us; and we can enjoy “things” and embraces the “things” of God. The world is God’s handiwork, it is miraculous and we are told to enjoy it.
However, we also realize that we are a fallen people. We confess our sins together each Sunday. We kneel before God and proclaim that we have done wrong, and we have not done what we should have. The fall for us is also very real: but we have a saviour that paid the price of our sins, so that we can be free from the sin that cripples us. We are free from sin because of Jesus, and not for anything good we have done. That is the definition of grace.
Jesus broke the bonds of sin and death. We will never go back to the innocent paradise that was Eden; and we will never become sinless, (not in this life at least); but we can be redeemed. With Christ’s help we can come to see the world as God sees it, we can love what God commands us to love, and we can desire what God promises. Because of Jesus, that is well within our reach.
God has given us eyes to see the needs around us; the hearts to feel the pain of others; the minds to figure out how this world can be a better place; and the hands to make it so.
We therefore must recall the goodness with which God created us; but we must also have to face our sinfulness.
We have to trust that God will not only forgive us, but also transform and redeem us, to make us more like Him. That way we can do the work God has set before us.
In that spirit, I finish with the collect we prayed earlier:
“Grant your people grace Father; to love what you command, and desire what you promise”.
Amen.
