Blog Post Title Two

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Bishop Grote's Pastoral Exhortation at Synod 2015

When Christ Comes

St. Luke 3:15-20

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Advent 2007

I. He Makes People Think

The people were expecting the Messiah to come, so when John came they began to think and question whether he was the Messiah or not.

True religion has made a great step forward in a family or parish when people begin to think. Thoughtlessness about spiritual things is one of the main features of unconverted people. They don’t like or dislike the Gospel because they never think about it.

Let us always thank God when we see an inclination to reflect on religious matters because consideration is the road to conversion. Thinking is not faith or repentance, but it is a hopeful sign. When people actually begin to think about the Word of God we ought to be very thankful to God and to be encouraged.

II. He Makes a Difference in His Church

He will purge his threshing floor and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.

The visible church is a mixed body of believers and unbelievers, and it is beyond our power or prerogative to separate them. False profession is often so much like the true that right discernment of a person’s true character is impossible. People you thought you knew turn out to be impostors.

But Christ is active in his Church now and at his last coming to separate the true from the false. He will at the end divide the wheat from the chaff, and make no mistakes.

We may see him already at work as those who made profession depart and fall away. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us they would have continued with us. 1 Jn 2:19

III. He Rewards His Servants

The story is closed with John’s imprisonment, and we know that Herod later beheaded him. John appealed to Herod on the basis of law and justice, but Herod sentenced him out of his own selfish desires and personal interests.

All true servants of Christ must remember that whatever good or bad comes to them in this life, the best is yet to come, and they must not think it strange when they are oppressed by men. The world that persecuted Christ will never hesitate to persecute Christians. Do not marvel if the world hates you. 1 Jn 3:13.

But let us take comfort in the thought that our Lord has laid up in heaven for his people such things as pass our understanding. The blood that his saints have shed will be reckoned for one day. The tears that often flow so freely in consequence of the unkindness of the wicked will one day be wiped away.

And when John the Baptist, and all who have suffered for the truth are at last gathered together, they will find it true that heaven makes amends for all.

Prepare for His Coming

St. Matthew 11:1-9

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Advent 2007

 “Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Lord, you have been favorable to your land; You have brought back the captivity of Jacob.”

The Lord is at hand! Prepare for His Coming! This is the theme of Advent. We cannot prepare for His First Advent, as this lies in the past. But the commemoration of his birth reminds us that there is a Constant Coming and a Future Coming. For these we are to prepare. At the First Coming, St. John prepared the way. The Lord still has His messengers who are to prepare the faithful for a happy celebration of his First Advent, for his Constant Coming in Word and Sacrament, and for his Coming in Power and Glory. They are the ministers of Christ. The Scripture lessons and Collect for this day direct attention to them and call upon the faithful to examine their attitude toward Christ’s messengers and their message.

In the Holy Gospel, our Lord says of St. John that he was His messenger, preparing the way before Him. In St. John 1 it is said that the John came to bear witness of the Light. He was not the Light, but the messenger of preparation for the Messiah who was to arise and give light, to be the Light of the world. In preparation for the Advent we pray that by Christ’s gracious visitation the darkness of our hearts may be dispelled and the Light shine in the darkness.

I. The Danger of Christmas

A. Through her ministry the Church endeavors to prepare her children for the Advent. This is the reason to introduce John the Baptist at this point. This is the second Sunday before Christmas, and there is the danger that from here on our preparation will consist largely in working ourselves into an emotional, sentimental state about a poor Babe born in a stable. We need to be reminded that Christmas means more than gushing over a touching story or indulging in a spree of unselfish giving. We need to have the voice in the wilderness cry to us, “Make straight in the desert a highway for your God!” God is coming.

Prepare His way into your hearts and lives, for it is here that He would enter and rule. The unbelieving world around us gets very sentimental over the poor Babe because it knows nothing of, and cares less for, the spiritual aspects of Christmas. “Blessed is he who takes no offense at Me.”

B. St. John’s mistake was that he expected things not included in the divine plan. We must not make that mistake. What should we expect and prepare for? Jesus said, “Go and tell what you see and hear.” What does Jesus want us to hear and see? The prophets tell us what we may expect. “The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied” (Ps. 22:26). “The deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see” (Is. 29:18). “The Lord has anointed Me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. . . to comfort all who mourn” (Is. 61:1, 2).

What do we see and hear? The spiritually poor, those who mourn over their sins, shall be satisfied. The thought of sin is not out of place as we prepare to celebrate Christmas. The Child in the manger can mean nothing to us unless we come with the words ringing in our ears, “You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Thank God if you come to Bethlehem with guilt feelings! You may leave them there and go away without them. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” In Bethlehem God enters our human life as a true man to cancel all sin and to take all guilt upon Himself. Peace, the peace between God and man, is accomplished in Bethlehem. We sinners are again the objects of God’s good will. In and through the Christ Child, God has established a contract and bound Himself to forgive all and every sin.

II. The Trustworthy Minister

A. John was such a faithful minister. His faithfulness to duty had caused him to be “in the prison,” and finally it cost him his life.

B. Condemned to inactivity, John became impatient when he heard of the quiet, peaceful manner in which his Master was establishing the Kingdom. Things were not going as he had imagined. He sent a message implying that it was high time to get things under way. The threshing floor was to be cleared, the chaff burned with unquenchable fire. This shows that even the strongest are at times weak, and the most sincere Christians have dark times of failure and discouragement.

III. The Faithful Minister

Our Lord’s treatment of St. John is a strong encouragement.

A. Tell John again just what is happening. "Am I not doing what I must do according to God’s plan as revealed by the Prophets? I am doing the deeds expected of Me." Christ will be judged by His deeds.

B. Jesus refrained from blame, and He lavished praise. He will always praise in His ministers the same qualities He found to praise in John. He praises their firm steadfastness. He does not want them to be “reeds shaken in the wind” of a popularity contest. He praises the true prophet who declares His will, and the true messenger who prepares His way.

C. On this Sunday the Church declares that Jesus, who healed the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, who raised the dead and preached good news to the poor, is indeed the promised Savior. The Church invites you, her children, to confess and proclaim your faith in Him and His salvation by eating His Body and drinking His Blood. By eating and drinking this Sacrament you declare that the Redeemer came to save you, that his Body was given and his Blood was shed to purchase for you the forgiveness of your sins, and all the heavenly treasures that are yours because all your sins are forgiven and you are at peace with your heavenly Father. By drinking of the Cup of the New Covenant you participate in that Covenant and have forgiveness, life, and blessedness.

As a participant in the Covenant, however, you have definite obligations. Christ is your King, who has bought you with a price to be His own, to live under Him in His Kingdom. As you now proclaim Christ’s death for you, as you enter once again into the Covenant, you declare that you welcome your King as an obedient subject. You come turning away from your sin and selfishness. And by your life you will show what you have seen and heard, that you have found Christ a loving, glorious Lord and King, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.

The Coming of the Blessed Kingdom

St. Luke 21:25-36

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Advent 2007

Daughter of Zion, behold, your salvation comes. The Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and you shall have gladness of heart. Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You that lead Joseph like a flock.

The message of the First Sunday of Advent was “Your King is coming! Prepare!” We spoke of his visible coming to Jerusalem in humility and meekness, on his way to the Cross. This was a picture of his constant coming in his Word and Sacrament, invisible, without his outward glory and power. The message of the Second Sunday of Advent is: “Your King is coming again, visibly and in power and glory, to deliver his own from all evil!” It is a message of encouragement and hope. That is why the Church has always combined the Sundays of Advent with a consideration of the final coming of Christ at the end of the world. So the two comings of Christ, his first coming to Bethlehem and his Second Coming at the end of the world the Church has historically conflated together into the season of Advent.

Many ignore and reject the Lord now, but the day is coming when his majestic voice will fill his enemies with terror. This is not, however, the heart of today’s message. The teaching of today is addressed to the faithful. “Behold, your salvation comes!” That is what we hear this Second Sunday of Advent. You shall be delivered from all your enemies. All who receive the King as he comes to his people in Word and Sacrament, all who remain faithful until the end shall then have gladness of heart.

I. A World in Despair

The first thing I would draw to your attention is that the world outside of Christ is in despair. That doesn't mean that they know they are in despair or feel as though they are in despair, but the fact is that the world outside of Christ is in despair. Without Christ the course of this world is without hope because we are left only with our own efforts, plans, and devices. There will be distress, perplexity, fear, and foreboding. All who have not learned to love Christ will always dread his appearing.

II. The Christian Hope

The second thing we notice in this passage is the Christian hope. That which makes unbelievers fear, if they ever stop to think about it, is the coming of Christ in great glory. Here comes the Judge. That is what unbelievers fear. But we do not fear it. That same coming of the Lord Jesus Christ will inspire the believer with eager hope. The believer will look up and raise his head in eager, joyful expectation as he sees his redemption drawing near (vs. 28).

We know that the storms sweeping over the world are the gales that usher in the spring and summertime of God’s Kingdom and the perfect sunshine of Christ’s presence (vs. 31). That was true of the Christians in the first century. You will recall in the first few centuries of the Christian Church there was terrible persecution and the Christians worshiped in the catacombs in the city of Rome. The words of Jesus to them were very real. That is, "Look up and see your redemption is drawing nigh." Those words are still true today. We may not feel quite the immediacy of them because we are not suffering the same kinds of persecution, but still that is the comfort and the hope of Christians today. Times of difficulty are encouraging because we know that our Savior will come to deliver us, and there is a final day coming when that deliverance will be complete.

III. The Certainty of the Christian Hope

Our hope is as sure as the sure Word of Christ. All else shall pass away, but Christ’s words will never pass away. Each generation finds his words true. The Bible is a book of calm confidence. It sees the worst and yet assures us of the best. In other words, the Bible doesn't sugarcoat things and doesn't tell us unreasonably that everything it going to be all right. No, the Bible teaches us in the spirit of God to look honestly right in the face of the worst the world has to offer, and then it assures us that God is going to take care of all that. So we have full faith in him who is "the same yesterday, today, and forever."  From cover to cover the Bible is a book of hope and the Book of the God of Hope.

That is exactly what we celebrate in Holy Communion. The Holy Communion is Christ’s great reminder to us that he comes to save us. So I want to take a few minutes to make some applications concerning Holy Communion.

The Lord’s Supper assumes unusual significance on this day. We remember that when on Maundy Thursday our Lord sat at the table, and the Apostles with him, he said: “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for I tell you I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” He took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said: “Take this, and divide it among yourselves; for I tell you that from now on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

The Church has never forgotten that as her Lord said goodbye in the Upper Room, he looked down through the centuries to the moment when he would be reunited with his beloved people at his Second Coming. The thought of his return must have been uppermost in his mind that night, for all four Gospel accounts of the Institution of the Lord's Supper bring home some reference to the final return of Christ to the comfort of his people. St. Paul wrote that by eating and drinking “you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” It was inevitable that the last banquet of the Son of God on earth should be connected with the Messianic Banquet in heaven. The first liturgical prayer the worshiping Church addressed to Christ after his Ascension was “Maranatha,“ that is “Come, Lord Jesus!“

In the earliest liturgies the celebrant says, ”May Grace come and this world pass away.” The word “Grace” means the Lord Jesus himself. It is not some impersonal attribute of God. It is Christ himself. The congregation responds, “Hosanna to the God of David.” Then the celebrant says: “If any be holy, let him come; if any be not, let him repent. Maranatha!” (That is, come quickly, Lord!) ”If any is a baptized believer, let him come to the Holy Communion with his Lord. If not, let him first become a Christian and be baptized. The Lord is coming, here in the Holy Sacrament and again at the end of the world.”

Through the ages the Church has always connected the invisible coming in the Holy Communion with the visible coming in Glory, the Supper in the Upper Room with the Great Marriage Supper in heaven, the coming to his Bride in the Holy Sacrament with the coming of the Bridegroom to take her home to be with him forever. The Lord’s Supper bridges the time between our Lord’s days on earth and his final return in glory. At his Table, time and eternity meet. Our thoughts move between two high points as we partake of this meal, the Last Supper on earth and the first and eternal supper in the Kingdom of God. Just where along the way between these two points we happen to commune with our Lord in the Holy Sacrament is of no consequence. It doesn't really make any difference because we know that Jesus came and he is coming, and that we are his Bride and we eat with him. Every celebration of the Lord’s Supper is a repetition of the first celebration and an anticipation of the last celebration.

The Lord’s Supper is Bread for travelers, the food we need to strengthen us on the way through this world to the Kingdom of God, the sustaining, strengthening food on the way from time to eternity, from here to there. We eat it just like the Israelites did that first Passover, girded and ready, ready to leave because they were sure that the Lord was coming to destroy Pharaoh and all his armies, and they had to be prepared to leave when he led them out. Elijah found food under the juniper tree, “ate and drank and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.” So we too come up to this mountain, eat and drink food prepared by God in the Holy Sacrament, and are strengthened on our journey to the Mount of God.

In the celebration of Holy Communion we lift our hearts far above this poor earth to the throne of Jesus, who died and lives forever. Yes, Christ will come to us according to his promise. He is present in heaven, and before him all angels and saints sing praises. We lift our hearts unto the Lord and join the heavenly choir in the hymn that came to us from heaven: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of the angelic hosts! Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.” We sing that every Sunday. We find ourselves, you see, when we worship here on the earth in this unlikely place, we find ourselves joined with the saints and angels in heaven. The Lord Jesus comes in his Word of promise, communes with us, unites himself with us, lives in and with us. And then he will come to take us home. Yes, he will come! That is the firm assurance of Christ himself. Even now his Presence is not a matter of distance but only of seeing what the eyes of faith know. Our physical eyes cannot see him, but he present with us. We may think Jesus is far away from us because we can't see him, but he is very near to us to feed us his own body and blood.

So the faithful pilgrims celebrate the Lord’s death. So they keep alive and strengthen the hope that is in them. So they join the saints of all ages in the prayer of unshakable hope, “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! Maranatha!” and we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Stooping to Reign

St. Matthew 21:1-11

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Advent 2007

Introduction

We usually think of someone rising to power, being elevated to a position of authority. Jesus said he came to be servant of all, humbled himself, took on the form of a servant, and became obedient to death on the cross. Think of his birth, of his life (no place to lay his head), of his death. It is the same now on Palm Sunday. He was crowned King of Jerusalem on this day and killed a few days later. Celebrate coronation of Christ.

I. The Strength Test

A. Some people measure strength by how many people they can push around, bad mouth, be in-your-face to. When I was in 5th & 6th grades Mrs. Payne & Mrs. Moore impressed on us that the proper way for boys to show real strength was by being polite. That is not the way of the world—The Gentiles lord it over others, but the one who is greatest is servant of all.

B. Does a father show his strength by beating up his children? Will that make them appreciate his strength? Does a husband show his strength to his wife by always making her do what he wants? Does a minister show his authority by ruling the church with an iron fist? This is the way of the police state.

C. The true measure of strength is restraint—use strength to serve, encourage, save, and bless. Jesus didn’t need to grasp, seize with strength, kingship. He was secure in his royalty and so He was happy and comfortable stooping to bless—humbling himself for the most menial tasks for the benefit of sinners.

II. The Power Test

A. Strength and power are not the same. Think of Jesus calming the storm on sea—the storm had strength, but Jesus had power—He spoke and it was done. Jesus showed His power by evoking praises from the crowds even though he came into the city in plain clothes seated on a  donkey that he commandeered. He didn’t even own His own donkey.

B. Jesus showed power to Pharisees with rocks (Lk. 19:40)—not by hitting them with rocks, but by saying that He was such a great and powerful king that He even ruled over creation. There has never been any other king like that.

III. The Truth Test

A. It may not look like it, but Jesus really is king over all the world. He doesn’t come with weapons and armies, jails and electric chairs. But the truth is that He is the only real King.

B. We see the truth of his royalty in His birth—angels’ song—in healing the sick, commanding the storm, casting out demons, cleansing the temple. But we see it most of all in His mighty resurrection.

C. Jesus has made us kings and queens—we are not trying to be, not fighting off others who threaten to take away our crowns and thrones. We are not in danger of losing them if we show weakness by serving. We must enjoy reigning by serving.

The Mystery of Christmas

St. John 1:1-14

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Christmas 2007

The job of the preacher isn’t to explain everything in the Bible so that you understand it all, but instead to explain to you what the Bible says. Much of what the Bible says doesn’t make sense to us because we aren’t able to understand it. Our minds are small, limited, bound by the limits of creation. The Bible is the revelation of God, One who is immense, unlimited, the unbounded creator.

The preacher isn’t the representative of the people whose responsibility it is to make everything clear to the people. He is the representative of God whose responsibility it is to tell you about God. It doesn’t really matter whether you understand or not. It only matters that you believe what God says.

In the Bible mysteries are not things no one knows; things no one has any experience of. Mysteries are rather those things we would have no knowledge of unless God is pleased to tell us about, but even when he tells us they are far beyond our ability to comprehend.

It is my responsibility as the preacher to tell you that the Bible teaches that on the night we call Christmas the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity—another doctrine we cannot comprehend—took on human flesh, and was both fully God and fully man. Words can never explain how this can be, and our minds can never completely understand what this means. My responsibility is not to explain it to you, in the sense of explaining away the mystery, but to tell you that this is something God has revealed to us as true, that we have the privilege of believing for our salvation, but that to us as creatures will forever remain incomprehensible.

God in human flesh. The boundless God, limited by the bonds of human flesh to be in more than one place or one time at once. But that is what God says, and that is our salvation to believe.

I am here to tell you about something that is beyond all of us to understand, and we are misguided if our primary attempt is to understand rather than simply to believe and to worship.

My experience as a child is the same as my experience now. My earliest recollection as a child was sitting in the kitchen with my mother as she taught me to memorize John 1:1—In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was the life of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. The meaning was a mystery then, and I am not sure I understand it any better now. But I do believe and rejoice in the truth of it.

This is the greatest of all mysteries. All others—walking on water, raising the dead, feeding five thousand, cleansing lepers—all pale into nothing before this one. If it is true that God is so great as to overcome all the God-created barriers of time and space so that the infinite God could take on all the limitations of human flesh, and still be fully God without making the human person less than human, then nothing is beyond the power and ability of God. Human words written in a book can certainly be the very Word of God without error, and hell-deserving sinners can find themselves at last enjoying the pleasures of heaven forevermore.

We draw near to the stable of Bethlehem. We look over the side of the manger and see a baby like any other baby. But this baby is the eternal God come for our salvation. How it can be I do not know, but know it I do.

The existence of all the world hangs on the mystery of this night, as does the existence of your soul. Since God has humbled himself to a manger, let us bow before him in worship with the angels, shepherds, and wise men.

God Sent Forth His Son

Galatians 4:1-7

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Christmas 2007

When the world had learned that all human efforts, philosophies, and ideas were to no avail to cure the disease of sin, God sent forth his Son. This day is really not the Sunday after Christmas but the Sunday after Christmas Day, for the great Christmas truth is still before us. We are in the middle of the 12 days of Christmas. We now learn the truth of the Incarnation as it affects our relation to God.

St. Paul says, “Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” He is always the same, as Infant, as King, at Easter, at the Ascension, or at his Last Coming— the Crucified. As we stand at the Manger, we see the Cross looming behind it. In the tender hands of the Babe we see the wounds of the Crucifixion.

Why did Christ become a little child and endure so many difficulties? The Epistle opens with a picture from everyday life. A rich man, a king, dies and leaves his whole estate to a minor son. As long as the heir is still a child, he has no right to administer the property, but he remains under obedience of his guardian and tutor. There is visible difference from a slave. He must ask for everything and be thankful for all that is done for him. But as soon as he has reached manhood, he becomes lord and ruler. Here St. Paul compares the Old Law with the New Law. Under the Old Covenant, the people were already heirs of the promised redemption, but they remained minors, without the right to administer the benefits of salvation, for they were still servants in God’s eyes. At the coming of Christ all this was changed. “When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Through Christ’s birth we were made children of God. We are no longer servants as in the Old Testament. Instead we are the beloved children. For this Child willed to become a child that we might know we are the children of God.

I. The Son of God

A. The Truth of the Incarnation. “God sent forth his Son.” This Son was pre-existent. He was before he was sent. He was divine, for he was with God before he was sent from God. “Born of a woman.” He was human. “Born under the Law.” He accepted the position of those he came to save. He came to share not only our humanity but our slavery. Our condition was that all mankind were sinners, and because of our sin God had confined all mankind in a position of slavery under the Law. Christ took upon himself the form and position of a slave in his relation toward God, even though this relation had been caused by sin. God’s children had become merely slaves, so Christ took upon himself the form of a slave. Though he was free of sin, he accepted the low estate to which sin had brought us.

B. The human race was then in its minority. This was true also of the Jews. Though they were heirs of God, they were still treated as children and expected to obey as slaves. Their position was preparatory, “until the date set by the father.” They were not yet capable of freedom but were under “guardians and trustees.” They were learning elementary lessons, and lessons pertaining to life in this world, “the elemental spirits of the universe,” and lessons very hard and burdensome, for they were “slaves.”

II. The Children of God

A. Christ humbled himself to our condition and assumed our relation toward God, but only in order that he might change this relation by “redeeming those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” This new relationship to God came by the Incarnation of the Lord from heaven. Christ came and took our human flesh and human nature, and through him we are adopted into the family of God.

B. This is not merely a change in name only. With our new position as children of God we are given the power to gain a new disposition. With our new relation is given the power to acquire a new kinship with God. “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,” to enable us to realize and act out our adoption. It is not because we are spiritual that we are made sons, but because we are sons, we receive the assistance of the Spirit. As many as are led by the Spirit become children of God in the fullest meaning of the word and shall in due time, as heirs of God, enter into perfect communion with God in heaven. This is the final goal of the Incarnation. Union and communion with God the Father through Christ his Son by the power of the Holy Spirit.

III. Eating with God's Son

The thoughts of your hearts are revealed by your attitude toward the Child born in Bethlehem. You make your thoughts clear today by your appearance at the Lord’s Table. By eating and drinking his body and blood you declare: “I believe that for me he gave his body into death, for me he shed his blood, that I may have forgiveness, life, and blessedness.”

But you must not think that you have met all requirements by professing your faith in his salvation. Are we to be just ornaments? By coming to this table you also promise to serve Christ in his Kingdom. We can render him no service directly, for he needs nothing. We have been baptized. Whom have we brought to Holy Baptism? We have been confirmed in the faith by constant instruction. Whom have we instructed or brought to be taught? We are united with our Lord in the Holy Communion. Whom have we helped to restore to their Communion? We have the sign of the holy Cross on our forehead from Holy Baptism. How far have we driven that Cross into our social relationships, our business, our school life? How far have we carried it into our community, impressed it on our relationships, stamped it into our lives?

Into his face we look, as we kneel before him in Holy Communion, and pray: “Lord Jesus, I have resolved afresh to be Your follower and servant. Fill me with Your Spirit and make me a better follower, a better servant.”

The Blessing of Obedience

St. Luke 2:51-52

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Epiphany 2007

Introduction

We celebrate the baptism of Jesus on the first Sunday after Epiphany. Baptism is the time when receive our Christian name—it means a new heart, a new disposition—it means we live like a Christian, with the character of a Christian.

I. Jesus Obeyed His Parents

A. Jesus was prepared at home. The boy Jesus had been well taught. Long before he sat in the midst of the doctors, he must have learned at Mary’s knee.

B. Duty to His Parents. This devotion to His heavenly Father was not inconsistent with his duty to his earthly parents, for he “came to Nazareth and was obedient to them.” This applies not merely to his actual childhood but to his whole Nazareth life. Child, boy, and man, he submitted His will, time, and work to his parents’ instructions. He showed his love to God by obeying parents.

C. You show your love to God by the way you treat your parents.

II. Jesus Increased in Wisdom

A. Jesus grew in wisdom because he obeyed his parents. He spent thirty years in private to prepare for three years in public. The best preparation for the future is the present. He did not despise their instructions.

B. We may even learn the needed lesson that it is quite possible to be good even in a bad situation, and that our surroundings are often part of our discipline.

C. If you don’t obey your parents you will grow up to be a fool.

III. Jesus Reminds Us To Obey

A. The Holy Gospel shows us how our Lord willingly assumed the duties imposed on him as the Savior from sin, and that in doing so He was obeying His parents. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of him—in remembrance of his obedience. Let it remind you, Christ says, “To think of Me, of My love for you that prompted Me to give My body and shed My blood for you on the Cross. Let it remind you of My work and My Person, of all about Me, also of My wholehearted devotion to obey my Father.”

B. We are so prone to forget our high calling and blessed responsibility. So the Lord calls us to His Table and says: “Do this in remembrance of Me, your Savior and Redeemer. This is to remind you not to forget that you belong to Me. I have bought you with a price. You belong not to yourself, not to the world. You are My blood-bought property. You are bound to serve Me.”

He said to his followers: “As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you.” He insists that his work on earth is as much ours as the Father’s work was his. Therefore he expects of his followers the same devotion to the Father’s business that characterized his whole life. When we celebrate the Holy Communion in remembrance of our Lord, we are to be reminded also of his wholehearted devotion to the Father’s business.

Remember how fully and completely he gave himself to the work for which he was sent. He said: “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” His very existence was to do that for which his Father had sent him into the world. He said: “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.” Again: “I must work the works of him who sent me.” At the end of his life he could say: “I glorified Thee on earth, having accomplished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.”

C. We need to be reminded that our Lord expects of all his followers this same devotion to the Father’s work. As you come today and joyously confess your happy conviction that the Lord Jesus has purchased you with his body and blood to serve him, ask yourself what you are doing for him. God has something for you to do. He wants you to obey him and your parents.

God's Protection

St. Luke 11:14-20

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Lent 2007

The connection between these verses and those which immediately precede them, is striking and instructive. In the preceding verses, our Lord Jesus Christ had been speaking of the power and importance of prayer. He not only gave his disciples the pattern prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer, but he also illustrated it with the parable of the midnight visitor who refuses to leave until his friend gets out of bed and loans him some bread. If you have already embarrassed your wife by knocking on your neighbor’s door in the middle of the night, you might as well stand there and pester him until he gets up and gives you the bread. Now, is God reluctant to give us what we ask for? Not at all, but the point of the parable is that we must be serious in asking—serious enough to keep banging on the door until God gives us what we ask. In these verses before us, he delivers a man from a devil that prevented him from speaking. The miracle is evidently intended to throw fresh light on the lesson. The same Savior who encourages us to pray, is the Savior who destroys Satan’s power over our bodies, and restores our tongues to their proper use.

I. The Variety of Ways in Which Satan Exhibits His Desire To Injure Us

We read of a mute devil. Sometimes in the Gospel we are told of an “unclean” devil. Sometimes we are told of a raging and violent devil. Here we are told of one under whose influence the unhappy person possessed by him became “mute.” Many are the devices of Satan. It is foolish to suppose that he always works in the same manner. The common mark of all his operations: he delights to inflict injury and do harm.

There is something very instructive in the case before us. Do we suppose, because bodily possession by Satan is not so glaringly obvious in our day as it once was, that the great enemy is less active in doing mischief than he used to be?—If we think so we have much to learn.—Do we suppose that there is no such thing as the influence of a “mute” devil in the present day? If we do, we had better think again.—What shall we say of those who never speak to God, who never use their tongues in prayer and praise, who never employ the tongue which is a man’s “glory,” in the praise of God who made it? What shall we say, in a word, of those who can speak to every one but God?—What can we say but that Satan has robbed them of the truest and best use of a tongue? What ought we to say but that they are possessed with a “dumb devil?” The prayerless man is dead while he lives. His body rebels against the God who made it. The “dumb devil” is not yet extinct.

Let us watch and pray that we may never be given over to the influence of a dumb spirit. Thanks be to God, that same Jesus still lives, who can make the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak! To him let us flee for help. In him let us abide. It is not enough to avoid open rebellion, and to keep clear of glaring sins. It is not enough to be moral, and proper, and respectable in our lives. All this is negative goodness, and nothing more. Is there anything positive about our religion? Do we yield our bodies as instruments of righteousness to God? (Rom. 6:13) Having eyes, do we see God’s kingdom? Having ears, do we hear Christ’s voice? Having a tongue, do we use it for God’s praise? The number of people who are deaf and dumb before God is far greater than many suppose.

II. The Amazing Power Of Prejudice Over The Hearts Of Unconverted Men

We read, that when our Lord cast out the dumb spirit, there were some who said, “He casts out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils.” They could not deny the miracle. They then refused to allow that it was done by divine power. The work before their eyes was plain and indisputable. They then attempted to discredit the character of him who did it, and to besmirch his reputation by saying that he was in league with the devil.

The state of mind here described is a most terrible disease, and one uncommon. There is no lack of those who are determined to see no good in the Church, and to believe all sorts of evil about the Church. They seem resolved to believe that whatever a Christian does must be wrong, and whatever he says must be false!—If he does right at any time, it must be from corrupt motives! If he speaks truth, it must be with sinister views! If he does good works, it is from selfish interest! If he casts out devils, it is through the prince of demons!—Such prejudice may even be found in churches. They are the worst headaches of the ministers of Christ. No wonder that St. Paul said, “Pray that we may be delivered from unreasonable as well as wicked men.” (2 Thess. 3:2.)

Let us strive to be of fair, and honest in our judgment of people and things in religion. Let us be ready to give up old and cherished opinions the moment that any one can show us a “more excellent way.” The honest and good heart is a great treasure, (Luke 8:15.) while a prejudiced spirit is the jaundice of the soul. From such a spirit may we pray to be delivered!

III. The Great Evil Of Religious Divisions

This is a truth which our Lord impresses on us in the answer he gives to his prejudiced enemies. He shows the folly of their charge that he cast out devils by the power of Satan. He quotes the proverb that “a house divided against itself falls.” He infers the absurdity of the idea that Satan would cast out Satan, or the devil casting out his own agents. And in so doing, he teaches Christians a lesson which they have been mournfully slow to learn in every age of the church. That lesson is the sin and folly of divisions.

Religious divisions of some kind there must always be so long as people believe false doctrine. What communion can there be between light and darkness? How can two walk together except they be agreed? What unity can there be where there is not unity of the Spirit? Division and separation from those who adhere to false and unscriptural doctrine is a duty and not a sin.

But there are divisions of a very different kind, which are deeply to be deplored. Such, for example, are divisions between those who agree on main points—divisions about matters not needful to salvation—divisions about forms and ceremonies, and ecclesiastical arrangements upon which Scripture is silent. Divisions of this kind are to be avoided and discouraged by all faithful Christians. The existence of them is a melancholy proof of the fallen state of man, and the corruption of his understanding as well as his will. They bring scandal on religion, and weakness on the Church. “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation.”

Years ago when we were living in Israel, our landlady, who was Jewish, wanted to know what kind of Christians we were since I didn’t wear a funny hat like so many of the various churches represented in Jerusalem. She was obviously confused and bewildered by all the divisions among Christians. Her confusion, and disappointment, reached its peak at Christmas, when we didn’t bother to have a Christmas tree in the apartment. She had assured her five-year-old son that he would finally get to see a Christmas tree. It was if they had won the national lottery to have Christians renting the apartment. We apologized and explained that we had no ornaments to decorate the tree, to which she replied that she would have bought the ornaments for her son’s sake. She thought we weren’t very Christian if we didn’t even have a Christmas tree.

What are the best remedies against needless divisions? A humble spirit, a readiness to make concessions, and an enlightened acquaintance with holy Scripture. We must learn to distinguish between things in religion which are essential, and things which are not essential—things which are necessary to salvation, and things which are not—things which are of first rate importance, and things which are of second rate importance. On the one class of things we must be stiff and unbending as the oak tree: “If any man preach any other Gospel than that which we have preached, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:8.)—On the other we may be yielding and compliant as the willow, “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Cor. 9:22). To draw such nice distinctions requires no small practical wisdom. But such wisdom is to be had for the asking. “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” (James 1:5). When Christians keep up needless divisions they show themselves more foolish than Satan himself.

The point of all this is stated by our Lord in vs. 23 when he says, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” The question Jesus puts to us individually, and as a church is, “Are we gathering with him, or are we scattering?” May God bless our efforts here for gathering people to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Prevailing Prayer

I Thessalonians 4:1-8; St. Matthew 15:21-28

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Lent 2007

The prayer of King Solomon at the dedication of the Temple highlighted the kind of prayer that would solicit a favorable response from God. In 1 Kings 8:38 Solomon said: “whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men), that they may fear You all the days that they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.”

It has been said that prayer moves the hand that moves the world. But the one praying must be moved first in order for his prayer to be moving to God. A young lad once found a discarded pack of cigarettes. He went to a nearby field and lit one up. Although he didn’t much like the taste, it did make him feel “cool” and “grown up,” so he puffed away. To his horror and dismay, he suddenly saw his father approaching rapidly and he quickly tried to hide the cigarette behind his back. Desperate to divert his father’s attention he pointed to a billboard advertising the circus. “Can we go, dad? Please, let’s go when it comes to town.” To this his father quietly replied, “Son, never make a petition while at the same time trying to hide a smoldering disobedience.”

Only those who know the plague of their own heart and repent of it before the One to Whom all hearts are open will prevail in prayer. The Gospel lesson for this Second Sunday in Lent is about this kind of prevailing prayer. To many, our Lord’s manner in speaking to the Syro-Phoenician woman presents a problem. It seems so unlike the gracious and kind Person we read about in the Scriptures. The clue that may help us to unravel this mystery can be found in the fact that she was a pagan. The prayers of the heathen are not founded upon a realization of who they are in the light of Whom they are addressing. For God to answer this kind of prayer would be futile as no future change was in view. The woman’s daughter would then be freed of the demonic resident only to be filled with more later as she continued to participate in their pagan rituals.

Our Lord’s statements were designed to create in this woman an awareness of her own need to turn away from the paganism that had rendered her little more than a household dog under the Divine Master’s Table and had, no doubt, brought about the demonic possession of her daughter in the first place. It would be the realization of her own unworthiness that would move the heart of the One Who moved the world.

Many commentators have pointed out that St. Matthew’s recording of the event may be divided neatly into four sections by the repetition of the words “He answered.” Firstly, her urgent appeal for the healing of her daughter was met with an answer of silence. Verse 23 says, “But he answered her not a word.” The condition of the heart of the petitioner was not yet known and thus any answer from our Lord at this point would have been premature. There are times when a silent response from God causes us to look deeper within ourselves to ascertain whether our approach or our attitude is acceptable. Self-examination in the light of unanswered prayer is often the best tool in discerning between and a true heart and a false one.

Then there is our Lord’s answer in reply to the request of the disciples to send her away. Now, I cannot help but compare their request with the kind of statements made to those whose prayers are not immediately answered. In both cases, God’s prolonged silence is interpreted as negative. Instead of allowing the inner work of God’s Holy Spirit in the life of the individual to take its course, they jump the gun and begin to look for ways to quickly fix the situation or at least make sense out of it so that they can comfortably fit it in their “God box.”

But our Lord’s reply to the insensitive disciples gives us an indication why he remained silent. “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of Israel.” In order for the woman to re-evaluate the foundation upon which she based her petition, she had to be reminded of her lost state. She was not a member of the chosen people neither is there any indication in the text that she had made any attempt to change her pagan status. St. Matthew simply called her a woman of Canaan and, as we have already seen, any reply to a non believer’s prayer would be futile as the most important issue, their lost state, had not been addressed much less reversed.

His third answer brings the test full circle. The words, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs,” immediately bring into stark relief the woman’s present position. She was not a child seated at God’s Table in God’s Kingdom. The statement is directed at the very heart of her spiritual condition and the underlying question “What are you going to do about this?” is revealed. You see, unbelievers cannot expect to partake of the Bread of believers. . . in fact, St. Paul strictly forbade it in 1 Corinthians 11 warning that those who did so brought damnation upon themselves. Did the woman understand this? That was Christ’s question. Do we understand this - especially in the light of recent events in which the non biblical thoughts and practices of post-enlightenment society have invaded the Church.

Her reply indicates that the inner work of the Spirit had driven the Lord’s Word deep into her soul and that the seed had found fertile soil. The tree of faith came bursting to the surface with the moving words, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their Master’s Table.”

“I am unworthy, Lord, I know. . . my sinful ways have erected a wall of separation between us. . . I recognize that because of this I am no more than a household pet beneath Your Divine Table. . . yet Your mercy extends even thus far. . . raise me up from the floor if You are willing.”

Our Lord’s final answer shows that faith had done its work in the woman’s life. “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be as you desire.” The foundation upon which her prayer was founded proved to be true and her petition was thus granted. She knew the plague of her own heart. . . she knew who she was in the light of who he was. . . she acknowledged that fact, confessed her unworthiness and pressed on to lay hold of his mercy given purely by grace.

Now, there are many lessons to learn from this triumphant story. For one, this woman truly loved her daughter. It was love that drove her to her knees to prevail in intercessory prayer. Brethren, do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ enough to prevail in prayer for them as she did for her daughter? Also, her faith was remarkable. She was willing to break with her own beliefs and ways and, no doubt her family and friends, to receive a favorable reply from the Lord. Are you willing to set aside your own traditions, perhaps your family and friends, your history, your desires, your dreams, your ambitions and your likes and dislikes for the sake of truth?

The most obvious lesson is, of course, her perseverance in prayer despite a very discouraging reception. Archbishop Trench once pointed out that “whereas the paralytic broke through outward obstacles (Mark 2:4) and blind Bartimaeus through opposition raised by his fellow-men (Mark 10:48), this woman of Canaan overcame apparent hindrances from Christ himself. Hers was the spirit of wrestling Jacob: 'I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me.'”

And then finally, there is her deep humility in admitting that she was in need of nothing more nor less than pure mercy and grace. The writers of the Prayer Book have rightly woven her words into our service of Holy Communion: “We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Thy Table.” Coming before the Throne of an Almighty and Holy God demands a spirit of self-abasement and thus we too must remember who we are in the light of who he is when we come to solicit his intervention. Know the plague of your own heart, before you spread out your hands to heaven so that your prayers may be heard and favorably answered.

The Necessity of Christ's Ascension

St. Luke 24:49

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Ascension 2007

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

You may be too young to remember pop beads—the plastic multi-color beads that could be snapped together to make bracelets or necklaces of any length. They could be all one color or completely random depending on your whim. There was no “right way” to connect them. Children’s stacking toys were completely different. The set we had was made up of round cups, each one slightly smaller than the one before so that they could be stacked like a pyramid, or one could be inserted in another to make one box. But to stack or insert them correctly they had to be in the correct order. Our boys just thought the stacking cups were one more thing to set up so it could be kicked down.

Now the various parts of God’s work of salvation are like those cups. Some people think the Bible is like random pop beads—just separate things that happen with no connection whatever—and the mark of a good Bible teacher or preacher is to come up with new and creative ways to connect them. But the Bible is really more like the stacking cups. The Bible tells us about God’s great acts of salvation that are all accomplished by Jesus Christ, and they all come to their climax in the work of Christ on the Cross when he cries out, “It is finished!” Each one builds on the other, but they also all fit together so that Christ’s work of salvation is really only one thing—like all the stacking cups that can be collapsed and fit inside each other to make one cup.

As we are moving through the Church Year we came last Thursday to the celebration of the Ascension of Christ—that he truly, physically, literally, and without benefit of a space suit and breathing apparatus left the ground and slowly disappeared through the clouds and went into heaven. That was his victory procession as he re-entered heaven to the shouts and cheers of angels and redeemed sinners, sat down on his throne, and was crowned rightful king of all creation. That is the climax, the pinnacle of all the stacking toys, but it is really all of a piece with every other act of salvation.

Are we redeemed by the incarnation and birth of Christ? Well, of course we are, but would the incarnation save us if Jesus had not lived a perfect life and died a sinless life? Of course not! But would the death of Christ for our sins been effective if he had not risen from the dead; if he had remained under the power and influence of death, and if, in fact, his grave and bones had been really excavated outside Jerusalem as was reported in the news a few weeks ago? Of course not! And would there be any salvation for us if, after a few more years of life, he died as an old man somewhere in France with his wife, Mary Magdalene, and children gathered around him, as was asserted in the book and movie, The Da Vinci Code? Of course not! His birth, miracles, death, and resurrection would all be fruitless and worthless without the crowning achievement of his mighty ascension.

Many Christians, because in their worship they do not say the creed, never even mention or think of Christ’s ascension as being important to their Christian life. But the very opposite is the case. Without the ascension there would be no Christian life, and it is well worth our time to remind ourselves that Jesus ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. Having won the victory, he is now enthroned in the place of power and authority from which he lavishes his blessings on his Church.

There can be no salvation for you and me unless he is truly the reigning King. If this part of our faith is not also a literal fact of history, then our faith is in vain, we are still in our sins, and as St. Paul says, “We are of all men the most miserable.” If there is no ascension then let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.

The belief that Jesus at the end of a long and productive life went back to heaven where he is now seated on his throne is not just an odd piece of theological lumber that we stack in the woodshed just in case we need it to patch something up, but that we could safely dispense with if we weren’t such traditionalists. If Jesus did not ascend into the heavens, then the whole house of Christianity will come tumbling down. This is the one plank that holds it all together. The ascension is God’s stamp of approval, if you will, on all the work that Christ did on earth. It was God’s final, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

One very important fact to remember, one that also has huge practical implications for us, is that when Jesus ascended into heaven he took our humanity through the gate, and now in our nature he rules over all. To put it another way, where he leads, we will follow. It would never be possible for us to get to heaven, much less force open the gates, in our own strength. But now that Jesus has taken us, so to speak, into the heavenlies, our place is assured forever.

God is worthy of our worship, and the Ascension is the proof of God’s power: it reveals his glory to us. Therefore, worship, joy, praise, and blessing should be our first response to God.

In celebrating Jesus’ Ascension we aren’t merely celebrating a historical event that’s dead in the past: like our celebration of the Declaration of Independence, our historical celebration of Jesus’ Ascension is an ongoing reality for us. In celebrating the Ascension, we do more than just gaze up into heaven: we enter into the heavenly places. When we respond to Jesus Christ with worship, praise, joy, and blessing, we are seated in the heavenly places with Jesus Christ.

What did the disciples do after gazing up into heaven? They started there, as they should have, but they didn’t stay there. They were not to spend the rest of their lives gazing into heaven. There’s a reason why the Acts of the Apostles is called the Acts of the Apostles: if it had been called the Gazing of the Apostles, there may not have been much to write about! There was something for them to do, after they have gazed up into heaven and worshiped.

The same Lord whom they worshiped in his Ascension now had to be worshiped by faithful obedience to all that he had commanded them to do. The same Lord who ascended told them to go and do something: to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then to preach the Good News to the world. After having seen the vision of Christ and worshiping him, they were to go out and fulfill the Great Commission, to go and preach the Good News that Jesus Christ has died on the Cross for your sins, that he rose again with the power of God, that he has ascended into heaven where he reigns over heaven and earth and is preparing a place for you in heaven, and that therefore you must be baptized and faithfully obey all that he has commanded you if you want to be his disciple.

After gazing up into heaven, therefore, they obeyed Jesus Christ, first by going to Jerusalem and waiting for the Holy Spirit, and then by going and turning the world upside down for Jesus Christ, the Ascended One.

So what we are to do after gazing up into heaven? The same thing the apostles did. We, like Christ, have work to do here on earth. Luke begins Acts by telling Theophilus that in his Gospel he wrote about all that Jesus Christ began to do and to teach. His implication is that the book of Acts, and our lives, are the rest of what Jesus Christ does.

Jesus Christ has ascended (and we have ascended with him), and we do his work here on earth because we are his body on earth. We are the Body of Christ, and we are the Bride of Christ, truly united to him and seated with him in the heavenlies. When Jesus ascended, he sat down at the right hand of the Father. Why? Because he has begun his rule as the King of kings. Being truly united to him and being his Body here on earth, we are to live out this rule and bring others into it. This is exactly what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer: thy kingdom come, by thy will being done by us on earth as it is in heaven and by faithfully feeding on Jesus Christ our daily Bread.

When Jesus Christ ascended, he ascended that he might intercede for us as our High Priest. Being united to Jesus, and being his priests who minister with him, we have our priestly work of prayer. We are to pray as he prayed, and so he left us his Prayer, which we are to pray every day. And we are to live in prayer, a life of prayer, filled with prayer, in which even our work becomes a prayer offered to God.

Finally, Jesus ascended into heaven so that he could send the Holy Spirit to do his holy will through us. Only if Jesus goes to the Father, and only if he sends the Holy Spirit, will we be able to do his will on earth as it is in heaven. When Jesus sends his Holy Spirit to us, and we do the holy will of the Father as Jesus did, we show that he is our King, and we show that his kingdom has come and that King Jesus is ruling in our lives. Having the Holy Spirit, we live as his dedicated, worshiping disciples, gazing up into heaven. And having the Holy Spirit, we are transformed from the sniveling, cowardly disciples who are holed up in the upper room for fear of the Jews to those heroes of the Acts of the Apostles who continue to do and teach what Jesus began, turning the world upside down in the process!

In the Ascension, our Lord Jesus Christ ascends that we might ascend with him. And so we gaze into heaven, loving God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, loving him for who he is and what he has done.

And after we have gazed, we return to earth to have him do his holy will through us, as we love our neighbor as ourselves.

In the Ascension, our heavenly and earthly missions of worship and work become one, for in the Ascension all the stacking cups fit together, and heaven and earth have kissed.

Be Merciful

St. Luke 6:36

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Trinity Season 2007

Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

This portion of the Sermon on the Mount is probably the most difficult in all of Scripture. Being merciful to enemies has never been my strongest attribute, and it is always the point in my life where my sin is most likely to justify itself and say. “Well, they had it coming. They deserved it. They shouldn't have been so mean and nasty if they didn't want to receive that in return.” Notice that Jesus is not talking about simply being passive toward those who do bad things to us—simply not retaliating—but he says we are required to be positively good to them. “Be merciful,” he says. Your enemy is anyone who doesn’t like what you do or think, not somebody that you have a major conflict with. Your enemy may be the person sitting next to you in the chair this morning. It is always natural to want to win. I love winning. I hate losing. Losing is for losers, and I'm not a loser. Marianne couldn't play an innocent card game for years because the very first time we tried to play cards after we got married, she just trounced me royally, and I couldn't stand the idea of playing her because she was such a great card shark. I had to calm down, and it took me years to be able to graciously lose to my wife. She always wins. I can't say “sometimes graciously lose” because I always lose when we play cards. But it is natural to want to defeat the enemy. But the whole point of this passage is that we should be like God, and loving his enemies is exactly what God is like. It sounds ridiculous to love your enemy, but that is exactly what God is like. God doesn’t act in a way that is reasonable to us. He does something entirely stupid, we think. He loves his enemies, and incredibly he tells us to do the same thing. This isn’t the way we tend to relate to each other—children to each other, husbands to their wives, even members of the Church, and maybe I should say especially members of the Church. We are afraid of each other rather than loving each other. So when Jesus says, “Be merciful,” those two words encapsulate everything that is so unreasonable about Christianity and about the Gospel.

I. The Gospel Doesn’t Make Sense

It is absolutely ridiculous to do what Jesus says here, to be merciful, because people will take advantage of you. You can't be merciful to other people because people are sinners, they are always looking for an edge, and they will take advantage of you. I remember on one of my trips to Israel when I had a group of students from the seminary where was teaching in there for a month, we had a bus driver who was a Muslim. We had a tour guide; I was just the sponsor, we went to sites that I had been to many times before on my various trips to Israel so sometimes when all the students went with the guide into a synagogue or archaeological dig, I would stay on the bus and chat with the Muslim bus driver. We had some very interesting conversations. The most interesting one was when he said that the reason he could not be a Christian is that Christianity is so unreasonable. It didn't make sense. And the one thing he drew attention to that didn't make sense most of all about Christianity was that you are supposed to love your enemies. Though he wasn't quoting Luke 6, it is this piece of Christianity that he found most ridiculous, most unreasonable. The reason why, in his opinion, Christianity would finally lose and Islam would win out is that Islam is a religion of power, not of forgiveness.

Jesus says, “Be merciful.” Think about what has happened in your life when you haven’t done what Jesus said. Have things gotten better? Has your life turned out to be somehow magically wonderful because you were not merciful? When we follow our own opinion of what seems right when someone does evil to us, Jesus says we are like the blind leading the blind. We think we are going in the right direction, but we both—that is, ourselves and the person we are leading—end up in  the ditch. We are afraid people will run over us, take advantage of us, abuse the goodness and mercy we show, and we can be assured that they will. Jesus still says, “Be merciful.” He does not say this because he didn't know that people would take advantage of us when we do. We take advantage of him when he shows mercy. But are we willing to live in terms of that dog-eat-dog view of life, and lose the joy and freedom of the grace of God? What Jesus is saying is “Yes, all the rest of the world may do that. But what will happen to you, what rot will take place in your soul if you go along with them, if you go over to their side and live in that same dog-eat-dog way of life? Be merciful. God has not treated you in that way, giving you the just punishment you so richly deserve, but rather has freely forgiven you of all your sins.” So let us show that God is our Father by the family likeness of being merciful to those who sin against us.

II. The Gospel is the Only Thing That Makes Sense

The world gives you credit for defeating your enemies. When you go to school, and you study the history of the world, what are you most often studying? The history of who won and who lost. History books are written by the winners. We don't go to the losers in various conflicts and say, “You tell us what happened.” Maybe they do write their own book, but it is not a state-sponsored, approved book. The approved history of the world is written by the winners. Only God gives you credit for loving your enemies.

Loving your enemies confuses them, Jesus says. But most of all it changes them. There was a husband who said he couldn’t love his wife even though the Bible says, “Love your wife.” He said, “I can't love her. She's so unlovable. I just can't obey what the Bible says.” Then the counselor said to him, well, the Bible says “Love your neighbor.” “Well, you just don't understand how terrible my wife is. She just isn't as nice as my neighbor. I wish my neighbor could teach my wife a few things about being nice, but so far, she just hasn't learned anything. I just can't love my wife.” The minister counseling this husband wouldn't let him off because Jesus won't let any of us off. So the counselor wisely said,  “The Bible says to love your enemies.” So you see, my dear friends, the Gospel is the only thing that makes sense because it teaches us to be like God. Loving your enemies is the only thing that doesn't keep the conflict going. If you retaliate in kind, which is what makes sense to us, that just perpetuates the conflict, whatever it is. The love of God transforms enemies, changes their dispositions, and converts them into friends.

III. The Gospel Makes Us Act Like God

So the Gospel is really the only thing that does make sense because the Gospel makes us act like God. God is kind to the unthankful and evil—including us. We tend not to want to think of ourselves as being the unthankful and evil part of society. Those people that are unthankful and evil live over there someplace. They are not nice, respectable people like we are. But you see, God found us in our sinfulness. That is the Gospel. God loved us when we didn't love him. That is the Gospel. God came to us when we were enemies of Jesus Christ and transformed us. That is the good news. When we understand what God has done for us it will change our thinking and behavior toward others. If God has so loved us, then so we ought to love them as well.

Every single Lord's Day we have a picture of this right in front of us. You have the Eucharist every single Lord's Day, which is a picture of God’s gift to you and to me. So it is my extreme pleasure to be able to invite you to come now and partake of this gift of God's love. This is the picture of Christ coming into the world, laying down his life for his enemies.

Fishing with a Pro

St. Luke 5:1-10

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Trinity Season 2007

Introduction

I never really did any fishing until I was 30 years old after we moved back from Israel and I never owned a rod and reel until then. The father of one of my friends took us fishing one time when I was about 10 years old. He called us elevator fishermen because we kept lifting the pole to see if there was a fish on the hook. We didn’t catch any fish because we didn’t leave the bait in the water long enough for a fish to find it. We just wanted to make sure the fish hadn't stolen our bait.

When I first started trying to learn how to fish I checked a lot of books out of the library, but I still didn’t catch any fish. Then a student at the seminary where I was teaching had pity on me and took me fishing with him so that I could learn from him. He wasn't a pro, in the sense that anyone was paying him like the fishermen you see on television, but he was certainly a pro to me. He always called me “Black Cat” because I still didn’t catch any fish. Early one morning he and I had just started fishing when a small bass hit my lure. I jumped back so hard to set the hook that I almost fell out of the boat. When he saw how small the fish was that I finally pulled out of the lake, he said, "If you get that excited over a little fish like that, what will you do when a real fish hits your line?"

Jesus never went fishing, but He presumed to tell professionals how to do their job. So what we read about in this Gospel lesson is that the so-called professionals, Peter, James, and John, and the others who made their living fishing, went fishing with the real pro, who had never been fishing in his life. So the first thing I want to draw your attention to is Jesus and fishing.

I. Jesus and Fishing

This is a very good fishing story. It could make a very interesting Saturday afternoon TV show in the off season when there are no football, basketball, or baseball games on. Sportsmen run through the channels on the off season looking for something to watch when they don't want to go out and cut their lawn, they stop on fishing shows. The disciples had been fishing all night and had not caught a thing. Imagine surprise when this rank novice whom they hardly knew, this fellow named Jesus, walked up on the shore and said, "Hey, fellows, have you caught anything?" They, of course, had to say, "No, we've been fishing all night, and we haven't caught a thing." And this novice says to them, "Well, do it my way." Now they didn't really know this fellow. Jesus had been rarely seen moving around the fringes of the crowds, but they were not even his disciples yet. Imagine what was going through their minds when Jesus after finishing his lesson from Peter's boat on the shore because the crowds were pushing so much on them on them, turned to Peter and said, "Push out into the water, and let's go fishing." Peter said, "No, Jesus, you don't know what you're talking about. We're the professionals here. We've been fishing all night long, and we haven't caught anything. We're tired. we've just finished cleaning our nets, and we're ready to go home and sleep. But imagine the bigger supply when they actually caught fish, more fish than they had ever caught in their lives. Now, of course, they weren't fishing with a rod and reel, going for single fish. They were fishing with big dragnets, and they brought in a huge haul of fish.

Jesus would be the best fishing guide in the world because he made the fish, and he knows where they like to hide and what they like to eat. Some people wanted to make him king when they saw him feed 5,000 men (probably more like 15,000 people in all) with five loaves and two fish, when they saw him heal the sick and raise the dead. Many would also love to trivialize him by making him nothing more than a glorified fishing guide

What is the point of this story? Did Luke just run out of material and decide to stick the story in here to keep the interest up so that people would keep reading until he could figure out what the main point was. Is it just an interesting diversion? No, the point is there is a connection between the physical and spiritual world because same God made both and God rules over both. He uses the physical to teach us about spiritual things, which is exactly what Jesus does in this story. So secondly we want to look at this connection between the physical and the spiritual worlds.

II. Physical and Spiritual

Since God created the physical world it is a reflection of the spiritual world and of God himself. Some might say that fishing has nothing to do with spiritual truth except maybe that you have the solitude of several hours in a boat or sitting on a bank, and it allows one to meditate on God while you are not catching any fish. There is, they say, no connection between catching fish and spiritual or theological truth.

But you see, this story pulls back the curtain just a little to let us see that there certainly is a direct connection between the physical world and the spiritual world. We like to keep things in neat compartments. We like to keep our lives set up with these neat little sections—fishing here, school here, business over there, and religion separate from all of them. We don't want religion messing up any of the rest of our life. This story destroys all that, wipes away all those neat compartments that we like to set up. Jesus tells us that there is a direct connection between fishing and growing a church, for one thing. There is a connection between fishing, according to Jesus, and lots of other things as well. But Jesus says here, "You think this is a big deal, to catch all these fish. Well, henceforth, I will make you fishers of men. If you learn your lesson from this fishing outing that we've been on, Peter, then you will know how to succeed in growing the church. Because our natural tendency is to keep neat compartments and not see the connections, we need the Holy Spirit to open our eyes, change our minds, awaken our spiritual sense, so that God's creation will help us understand God's Word. Fishing will help us learn how to grow the Church. We need to ask God to remove the blindness so that we will be able to make the connection between the physical world and what God expects to learn from it about our spiritual duties and privileges. So then let us come specifically in the third place to fish and people.

III. Fish And People

You see, the disciples thought that Jesus was just taking them on a fishing trip. They thought, "O.K. The sermon is over, Church is out, and now we get to go back to doing what we are used to. We know about fishing, and Jesus tells us to push out into the lake." They had no idea there was any more to this than a simple effort to catch fish because they had been fruitless all night long in their attempts to catch fish. Of course, they thought it was pretty silly to try again. They were the professionals, so to follow Jesus instructions and try again was foolish. "We'll teach this ignorant fellow something. We'll go out here and show him that we really know what we're talking about. Peter says, "O.K. Jesus, whatever you say. At your word, we'll let the nets down again."

But Jesus took them fishing because he wanted to teach them something else. He was not really concerned about proving to them that he really knew about fishing. He wanted to teach them something else. He had been in charge of the night before. Jesus not only created the fish and created the Sea of Galilee, he created the sun and the moon and made the difference between the day and the night. Jesus knows everything about this. He wanted to teach them that the physical world helps us to understand the spiritual; that they should always obey him because he knows what he's talking about; and that catching fish teaches us about bringing sinners to salvation. He wanted them to know that when they pushed out from the bank and let down the nets, they were going fishing with the real pro.

Jesus, you see, is not teaching us to trick people into Christianity because as I said a moment ago, they weren’t fishing with lures at all. Using lures is a kind of evil way to fish, if you will, because you trick the fish. It's not like a good old virtuous dragnet where you just grab all of them and bring them into the kingdom. He wasn’t teaching them about techniques unless what he had in mind was a dragnet (Mt 13:47-50) and that building a church is like going out and just dragging everybody in. That is, by the way, what I think he was teaching them. What he was really teaching them was that they had failed following their ideas and using their own strength and wisdom. Jesus was there to teach them who the real pro was when it comes, not to fishing but to building the Church. A fishing trip is not successful unless you catch fish and lots of them. I can remember times that I went fishing that I came home maybe with one or two. I had spent all that time, all that gasoline to get to the lake, all my energy rowing the boat around, though I did have a little electric motor that I used on the small lake that I was fishing on--all that time casting the lures out, and I had come back with two measly fish. I could have saved all that money and time and gone to the grocery store and bought fish for a whole lot less than that. No, a fishing trip is not successful unless you catch fish and lots of them. Jesus is saying here to Peter and the other disciples, "You think this catch is big--your two boats are about to sink, and your nets are about to burst from all the fish in them. You think this is a big catch? You haven't seen anything. Just wait until I show you what it is to catch men. Just wait until you see the catch of sinners you are going to bring in!"

Now, we're still waiting here at St. Barnabas for such a big haul to come in. I'm not sure we'd be able to handle them if everyone in Bellville picked up the Bellville Times and saw our ad with our meeting times and all decided to come on the same Sunday. I don't know what we'd do with them. We'd have to move outside, I supposed. But you see, Jesus is telling us that in the whole scheme of things, the crowds will come into his Church. That happened on the Day of Pentecost and on days afterward. That happened in the history of the Church with the conversion of heathen Europe, of heathen Africa, of heathen China, of heathen America, of heathen South America, and on and on we could go. The huge dragnet has brought many people into the Church. We still have the Church today that is full of some rough fish. They're not exactly all the pristine fish we might like to have. Maybe if we are honest, we'd have to say that we're part of the rough fish as well. We can't brag too much about ourselves. Jesus still has a lot of work to do on us. But let us continue to thank God that his goal, his plan for the world, is the conversion of the world, to bring men and women and children into his Church, to catch fish. So let us continue to pray to God that he will use us as fishers of men, that he will make us successful in our work of taking the Gospel to our neighbors.

Love's Lament

St. Luke 19:41-48, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Trinity Season 2007

In his moving book, To End All Wars, Captain Ernest Gordon, a survivor of the Japanese Prisoner of War death camps in Thailand, told a story of how the Gospel command to love one’s enemies became a reality to him and his men near the end of the war. They had come across some wounded Japanese soldiers abandoned by their own and left without medical care. He wrote: “Without a word, most of the officers in my section unbuckled their packs, took out part of their ration and a rag or two, and, with water canteens in their hands went over to the Japanese train to help them.”

Their guards tried to prevent them, saying that the wounded were no good. Even an allied officer from another section reprimanded them. “Don’t you realize that those are the enemy?” he said. When Captain Gordon reminded the man about the parable of the Good Samaritan, the officer protested angrily, “But that’s different! That’s in the Bible. These are the swine who’ve starved us and beaten us. They’ve murdered our comrades. These are our enemies.”

Tragically, the Allied Officer’s words reflect the thoughts of many Christians today. That is different. That is the Bible. This is reality. In our Gospel lesson for today, we read, “Now as (Jesus) drew near, he saw the city and wept over it.” It is possible that the very familiarity of the passage has taken the punch out of this simple statement, but let us reflect on it for but a moment.

Within a few days, this very same city would turn on the One whose eyes were now flooded with tears for them, and he knew that. They would falsely accuse him, they would falsely try him, they would mercilessly beat him, they would hand him over to their despised overlords and demand the death sentence by crucifixion. Oh, what hatred; what savage brutality. And yet, as he hung on the cross overlooking that same city, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

But that is different. That is the Bible. This is reality.

As our Lord stood overlooking Jerusalem, his tears seemed strangely out of place, even at the time. Around him, the crowds were rejoicing. “Blessed is the King Who comes in the Name of the Lord! Peace in Heaven and glory in the highest!” The praise and worship team was going wild; everyone was happy, happy, happy all the day, while our Lord stood weeping. These were not the tears of the patriot who contemplates his nation’s future collapse. These were tears of the One whose words and actions demonstrate most clearly the true meaning of love; these were tears that flowed from a heart yearning for the salvation of all mankind, even those who would revile, persecute and say all kinds of evil against him.

The Gospel passage provides us with three poignant portraits of love in action. The first is love’s lament expressed in grief; the second, love's lament expressed in judgment; and the third, love’s lament expressed in teaching.

I. Grief

As our Lord reached that point in the road where the glory of the Holy City suddenly broke into full view and he gave way to his deep emotional anguish, he stated, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

The occasion for this statement of mourning was the spiritual ignorance of our Lord’s own people. Jerusalem, true to its name, might have known God’s peace and enjoyed his gracious favor and protection. As it was, the inhabitants were resting in the peace of a false security, vainly imagining (like their forefathers) that because of the Temple of the Lord in their midst they were immune from danger (cf. Jeremiah 7:4-15). As a consequence, there could be only one issue as far as Jerusalem was concerned: not peace but war. So the Lord foresaw and foretold the awful fate which was to overtake the unprepared and unrepentant city.

The prophetic words of our Lord in verses 43 and 44 were realized forty years later when the Roman armies under Vespasian and his son Titus besieged Jerusalem and finally laid it to waste in A.D. 70. Through unbelief and hardness of heart, the city missed their opportunity—their time of visitation—and were destroyed. Our Lord often visited his people with salvation throughout the Old Testament and likewise today he continues to extend his hand in a gesture of merciful reconciliation. But when that grace is rejected and his Word discarded, then judgment is inevitable.

II. Judgment

In the narrative regarding the cleansing of the Temple, the contrast between our weeping and mourning Lord and our indignant and violent Lord is almost jarring to us. But when we realize that the sad spiritual condition of the city was directly linked to the ungodly religiosity of the priesthood, then we begin to understand. “The state of affairs in Jerusalem reflected only too clearly the true moral and spiritual condition of the (whole) nation and showed how ripe it was for judgment. God’s (Own) house of prayer had become a robber’s den. Animals were being sold—at shamelessly high prices—for the Temple sacrifices. Gentile coinage was being converted into Jewish currency—at an exorbitant rate of exchange—for the Temple taxes.”

But here is a lesson to be learned. The state of the world will always reflect the state of the Church. If the Church deals corruptly, so will the world and we should not be surprised if we are later overcome by the same world we seem so eager to emulate. Our Lord not only spoke words of prophetic judgment over his stubborn people, but he also acted out that prophecy in the cleansing of the Temple. This was his solemn warning to the Temple authorities of the need for repentance and reform. Should the warning pass unheeded, the Temple, which no longer served its original purpose, would be cleansed permanently.

When the Church dares to make God’s house of prayer into a house of Man’s philosophies—when the Church dares to cast aside his infallible Word and embrace the fallible words of the world—when the Church dares to replace his holy law with man-made rules, either promiscuously permissive or legalistically prescriptive—then he will remove his Lampstand from her midst, leave her house desolate and write “Ichabod”—the glory has departed—over her doors. At such a time as this we, too, should be as angry as our Lord.

III. Teaching

However, the passage does not end on a note of gloom and doom, but rather on a note of hope. Our Lord continued to teach daily in the Temple. Unlike many in the modern Church who have given up on the world and have retreated into their holy huddles to await the rapture, our Lord stood in the very midst of the same people who would shortly cry out for his death and he lovingly taught them the Scriptures. His love did not end with words—his love was demonstrated in the most amazing, courageous and selfless manner.

Even in the face of the murderous plots against him, he showed them what the Temple really ought to have been—a place where the ignorant could find Truth—a place where the unadulterated Word of the Lord would sound forth to all God’s people, and then, through them, to the world.

As Captain Gordon washed the wounds of his enemies, he marveled at how he and his fellow POWs had been changed by the Gospel of Christ. A few months earlier, these same men would have gladly joined in the destruction of their captors, but in their mutual suffering they had experienced, what he called, “a moment of grace” and he wrote, “God had broken through the barriers of our prejudice and had given us the will to obey his command, ‘Thou shalt love’.”

He recalled the words of Jesus. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”

But that is different. That is the Bible. This is reality.

Reason breaks through. “We have to be practical because we live in a practical world. It doesn’t pay to love—particularly your enemy.” But Faith replies, “True. One need but to look at the Cross to see this demonstrated. (It doesn’t pay to love—it costs us dearly—particularly if we choose to love our enemy.) But—there is no other way to love.” Love sheds tears over the doom of our enemies—love angrily reprimands those who should know better for leading the world further away from the Truth—love teaches even in the face of hostility and rejection.

God did not choose to take the easy way. He could have removed sinners from his creation with one word. However, he chose to send his Son in the form of a Man right into the midst of his enemies to pay for our crimes on the cross even while we were still his enemies.

Can we then—we who have been found by this loving God—we who have been called to imitate him and to walk even as he walked—can we not in turn find our brothers and sisters through this same kind of love—calling for them to imitate us and to walk even as we walk? Do we stand looking at the world, weeping for them as they blunder along in their lost state? Do we grieve over their eternal destiny enough to confront them with the Truth? Do we hold the Church accountable for her distortion of the Word? Do we use our god-given gifts for the benefit of all? Do we love as our Lord loved? Is Love’s Lament heard in our prayers for a lost and dying world?

We are about to come to Love’s Table to partake of that which ultimately demonstrates God’s kind of love. Here we see once more the tears flowing for a world he loved so much he was willing to die for it—here we hear once more the words, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”—here we receive the command to love—love one another, even as I have loved you—love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

The Law of Praying

St. Luke 18:9-14, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Trinity Season 2007

The Anglican maxim Lex Orandi Lex Credendi (the Law of Praying is the Law of Believing) teaches us that our true beliefs are reflected most clearly in the manner in which we pray. Take for instance the story of a young boy saying his bedtime prayers with his mother. “Lord, bless Mommy and Daddy, and God, GIVE ME A NEW BICYCLE!!!” His mother gently reminded him that God was not deaf, to which he replied, “I know, Mom, but Grandma’s in the next room, and she’s hard of hearing!” The little boy’s prayer revealed exactly where his faith lay.

The prayers of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in our Gospel lesson for today also tell us much about the faith of these two men. Both men went to the Temple in very much the same way we come to church. As such, their story does have some bearing upon our lives too.

There are basically three things we need to take notice of in this parable: First, why these two men went to the Temple; second, what they did once they were there; and third, how they returned home afterwards.

I. Why They Went

That both of them intended to go to the Temple is made clear in verse 10: “Two men went up to the Temple to pray.” There was nothing accidental about their geographical location.

Thus, although they were vastly different from each other coming from backgrounds and vocations which were poles apart, they were united in their intention. However, the first was a man we would all assume to find in a place of prayer on a regular basis. He was a religious man and was, consequently, a praying kind of person. As such, it was fitting for him to go to the Temple to give expression to that which he believed.

The second man was on the other end of the scale, so to speak. He was a man of the world—a man who had publicly placed his faith in money. His chosen lifestyle had branded him an outcast in the eyes of everyone in decent society. His choice of profession put him in league with those who oppressed his own people and it was widely known that many tax collectors took more than necessary to line their own pockets. Biblical faith did not gel with his type of life and he no doubt did not frequent the Temple precincts except perhaps for Circumcisions, Bar Mitzvahs, Weddings and Funerals. And you thought Anglicans started that tradition! And yet, there he stood in the Temple and like the Pharisee, he had come to pray.

Now, perhaps this is not so strange, as all men do pray at one time or another and on one or other level. Prayer is a common and universal instinct on the part of man. There is a sense in which prayer is natural to man, because he has been made by God for communion with Himself; and prayer is an act of communion with God. This is seen most clearly when danger threatens or when disaster strikes. God is often called upon or blamed at such times. “There are no atheists in foxholes.”

In many ways, we are rendered complete when we pray, as it is in prayer that we are most closely walking with God. As our Creator takes us by the hand to lead us through life, He gives us a most amazing gift—the opportunity to ask for His assistance at any step along the way. We were not made to live by our own steam—we are dependent beings and to cease in prayer is ultimately to cease in being fully human.

II. What They Did

So, here we have two men in the Temple praying. But their prayers are as different as they are. The Pharisee is, of course, immediately nailed in most commentaries, but let’s examine his prayer for a moment to see if there is any glimpse of our own hearts here. The opening sentence of his prayer could arguably demonstrate a grateful heart. “God, I thank You that I am not like other men.” The Pharisee recognized that there was a difference between himself and others and apparently attributed that difference to God. Surely we all should be thankful that God in His grace has made us different and is continuing to make us different, not only from other people, but indeed from what we used to be.

But the underlying attitude of the Pharisees’ prayer is revealed in the use of the personal pronoun “I.” “I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.” In other words, I thank you God that I have arrived—everyone else does it wrong—I do it right. But to limit this attitude to the sect of the Pharisees is to miss the boat entirely. In many ways, by doing so, we fall into the same error as they did. “God, I thank You that I am not like this Pharisee.” But if we are honest, we see that this smug and arrogant attitude has plagued the Church of Jesus Christ since its inception. St. Paul had to counsel the church in Rome, in Ephesus, and in Corinth against ethnic, financial, or theological pride and spiritual elitism and snobbery.

Today, especially since the Reformation, we have to do the same. Although few would actually pray a prayer like this word for word, our practice does betray us. Many live lives in which they thank God that they are not like others. “God, I thank you that I am not like other men—I thank you that I do it right.” We simply must remind each other constantly that we are a sinful people saved by God’s grace alone and that if He had not mercifully granted that we actually do things right from time to time, we too would be in error. Indeed, we should never reach the point where we would consider ourselves above the possibility of error.

This thought should produce a humility in us so that we are slow to pronounce judgment upon those who are not like we are. In many ways, the Pharisee’s assessment of the tax-collector was not far off the mark. From what we learn about the tax-collector in his own prayer, he may have even agreed with the Pharisee. But it was not the judgment in itself that was wrong—it was the attitude behind the judgment. “I have it right—I do it right,” the Pharisee said, “And that makes me better than other men.”

The error lies in an attitude of self-righteousness in which our acceptability to God is based on being the one who actually “gets it right.” There’s no sense of personal failure—no sense of unworthiness—no penitence—no petition for help in living a righteous life—nothing like that. Make no mistake, those elements may be present even in prayers of this nature, but ultimately the life of the self-righteous prayer will reflect an attempt, whether subtle or blatant, to parade his “rightness” before God and man alike. The personal pronoun “I” will creep in at one point or another.

Then there is the prayer of our less likely candidate—the tax-collector. This man no doubt didn’t know the first thing about prayer. Perhaps somewhere in his past he had been taught “Now I lay me down to sleep”, but his general lack of participation in religious matters later in his life ruled out any possibility of theological correctness.

Yet, even in his theological ignorance this man knew that he was not where he ought to be before God. He realized that he had not only fallen short of his own ideals, but also of the glory of God. There is no presumption or pretence in his prayer and although it is a simple, one-sentence petition, his words speak volumes. “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” Everything about this man speaks humility—his posture, his action, his words. His honesty is alarming to us—his simple sincerity, disarming—because his prayer exposes our own desire to plead some sort of merit, be it ever so small.

This man knew he could not trust in himself. He knew that he stood justly condemned—he also seems to have known that he could not presume upon God’s merciful and gracious character. Thus he simply acknowledged his unworthiness and cried out for mercy.

III. The Result

Our Lord tells us that the Pharisee went home unchanged. He was still self-righteous, self-confident, self-absorbed, and self-opinionated. Everyone else was still wrong in his opinion and he was still proud that all things were so clear to him. Is there perhaps a small possibility that this could be you and me?

On the other hand, the tax collector—our unlikely candidate—went home totally changed—he had been justified by God. He had come burdened down with grief and sorrow over his sin and had left forgiven and released. The two men were still very different, but whereas the initial division between them was based on background, vocation, lifestyle, and so on, the differences now lay elsewhere. Their prayers had revealed an inner reality previously hidden from view. The one had spoken many words with his lips, whereas the other had spoken few words from a broken and contrite heart. Their true beliefs were reflected most clearly in the manner in which they had prayed.

We all came to church today to pray. In that we are all the same. But how will we leave church today? Will we go home justified by God or will we continue to justify ourselves? Let us never forget that it is by the grace of God alone that we are what we are.

And so, as we come humbly to receive the gracious gift of the Body and Blood of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, let us beseech the One to Whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from Whom no secrets are hid, to reveal to us our own inner most beliefs. And as we receive the tokens of His love for us, let us cry out with our brother the tax collector, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”

More Than You Can Ask or Imagine

St. Mark 7:24-37

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Trinity Season 2007

St. Paul ends his discussion of the greatness of God’s grace in the Gospel with this ascription of praise: “Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph. 3:20). In the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican we learned that we are not sufficient of ourselves. Today we learn that God is more than sufficient to give us more than we could ask or imagine. The Epistle declares: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our sufficiency is from God.” The Gospel tells us that the crumbs he gave to the Gentile woman were better than the steak we provide for ourselves. “He has done all things well, He even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.”

As we hear the holy Gospel we stand in spirit at the baptismal font—we, the Gentiles, the dogs under the table, we are in that Gospel. We, the dumb and deaf, we are the ones who have been invited to come and be cleansed at the baptismal font. The Bread of the world falls from the table and fills our longing souls. So at the conclusion of this worship service, we shall come to Christ's table and receive not the crumbs but, lo and behold, Christ himself in the bread and the wine. The Physician of souls puts His fingers into our ears and upon our tongues to heal us. We become banqueters, hearers, speakers, enlightened for heaven. All the blessings of the Gospel are showered are upon us. But in order to appreciate those great blessings of the Gospel, we need first of all to think about our great poverty.

I. Our Great Poverty

We don't look as though we are particularly in poverty here this morning, even though we don't have a grand cathedral to worship in. But that is not the point that Jesus is making. It is not our external wealth that Jesus is talking about. It is our spiritual poverty that we all suffer from. The outward need is sad—the need of money, the need of clothes and what are called the necessities of life—but the real necessities of life are our inward needs, and to lack those is the deepest poverty of all. We can, you see, have plenty to eat, plenty to wear, a wonderful place to live, and then as it has been said in former days, simply be fattened up for the fires of Hell. The Lord Jesus Christ desires us to be fat in our souls that we would partake of his Gospel and be truly wealthy.

The Gentile woman knew and accepted her own poverty. She did not try to act like she was really wealthy, but she came to Jesus begging like the beggar she knew she was. Jesus was correct in saying to her she had no right to ask him for anything, and she was reduced to the impolite whining of a dog at the dinner table. Now, if you invited guests over to your house for dinner and you had a wonderful spread, candles on the table, decorations and all the rest, you would think it highly offensive to have your dinner-table conversation with your special guest interrupted by your dog whining over at the side or maybe even coming up to the guest and putting his paw up in the guest's lap and begging for what is on the table. Not only would you find it highly offensive, but I'm sure that you would take the dog into the back room and close the door. You would make the dog stay in the outer darkness while you have your wonderful banquet with your friends. You see, that was the condition this Gentile woman was in. As a Gentile, this woman had no more claim on Jesus than a pet dog has on your dinner guests. You would be quick to ban that dog from your dinner guests. The depth of her poverty was such that she would not have been surprised to be ordered from the table and put outside. She comes to Jesus and says, “Give me the crumbs that fall from the table,” and she would not have been surprised or offended, I daresay, if Jesus had said, “No, you go to the other room, and I'm going to close the door on you. Quit begging at the table.” She accepts her position, and Jesus says, “I've not seen such great faith, even in Israel.”

The second person in this Gospel, the deaf and dumb man could not even ask for help. At least the Gentile woman could ask for help, but the deaf and dumb man could not ask for help, he was so poor physically and spiritually. And he could not even hear and make the appropriate response if Jesus had happened to ask him if he wanted any help. He was entirely dependent on his friends, and had no ability to help himself. That man is like all of the spiritually poor who are deaf to the voice of conscience, to the call of God’s Spirit, God’s Gospel, and God’s Son. By nature, left to ourselves, in our sins, we all are deaf. By nature we all are also mute, that is, unable and even unwilling to cry out to God and ask for help. We are also, by nature, in our sins, opposed to prayer, confession, and praise. Far from coming and confessing our sins openly and honestly, we justify ourselves. We say, “I'm not any worse than anybody else. I don't need to confess anything. I don't need to humble myself and come before God and ask for his pleasure, his forgiveness.” No, we are silent to God, we are silent for God and about God. We have no desire or ability to communicate with God. By nature we are closed and shut in, with nothing open in all our spiritual nature, and living in dreary isolation towards God and man. Communion and fellowship are cut off by sin and must be restored by Jesus.

If we were to stop with that and go home, you'd say, “Well, that was a terrible way to spend the morning, being told how poor and spiritually unable I am. I don't think I'll go back to that church again.” So I want to turn now to Christ's great wealth. You see, the Lord Jesus doesn't leave us there. He doesn't come to beat us up to make us feel bad as if there was something virtuous about going away with your tail between your legs. No, the Lord Jesus comes and gives us His great wealth.

II. Christ’s Great Wealth

St. Paul says, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Phi1 4:19). That is the point of the Gospel, to lead us always and in everything to give glory to God. None of the glory belongs to us. If we look only at ourselves, we only see our great poverty. We only see that we are the poor dogs under the table who should be thrown out. But all the glory be to God, he has invited us to the rich feast of the Gospel banquet.

When the Gentile woman declared her satisfaction with the crumbs from the table, Jesus gave her far more than she could have ever expected or imagined. Had he refused her completely, she would have had no reason to complain. She could only say, “Well, I didn't really expect anything. He didn't owe me anything. I go away with the same thing I came with.” But you see, Jesus gives her more than she could imagine or ask. Had he given her less than she asked for, she would have had no reason to object. But Jesus treated her not as a child sitting at the table—for that would have been better than she could expect; she might have hoped that he would let her be the child sitting at the table and not the dog under the table—but Jesus makes her the honored guest.

For the deaf man Christ removes all the impediments to the enjoyment of life and of God. He takes the man aside to direct his attention completely and solely to himself. Then he touches the place of need, the deaf ear and the silent tongue. This man had no request, at least none that he could express. He couldn't ask for anything. He couldn't even hear that it was Jesus who was there. He wasn't even sure who this was who was manipulating his ears and his tongue. Christ shows the greatness of his grace by acting upon one who does not ask, who cannot ask.

We learn from these two miracles that Christ’s grace is proportionate to our needs, and not merely to our prayers. His grace seeks us even when we do not seek him. Christ's grace gives where it was not asked; it knocks where no door has been opened. How much more, then, will grace give when we ask, when we seek, and when we knock! As the multitude said, “He has done all things well.”

In Ephesians 3 and Philippians 4, after St. Paul has described the wealth of God’s grace in salvation, he breaks out in praise to God: “Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” And then he says, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.” So, what are you supposed to do with that?

The only proper response for us to make when we know the wealth of God’s grace to us is to ascribe glory to him in his church. We, who were heathen dogs by birth, are invited—no, not invite; the Lord Jesus Christ commands us to come in and partake of the Lord's Supper. We are commanded to come to Christ’s table to receive not crumbs, but the very Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God our Father, who has not withheld from us his own dear Son, will with him freely give us all things.

So, what is your need today? What are your desires today? Have you been taught in the Gospel to bring your needs and desires to God? Jesus shows us here in the way he treats these two people in the Gospel and by the way he instructs his apostle, Paul, to tell us in the epistle. We learn that Christ desires to give us what we need and what we want. And so the Lord Jesus Christ fills all our needs in his holy Gospel. Let us then respond in gratitude by coming to this Holy Eucharist and partaking of the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A Parable of the Gospel

St. Luke 10:23-37

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Trinity Season 2007

Someone once said that your life is the first Bible non-Christians will ever read—unfortunately, it may also be the last. Throughout the Gospels, our Lord called people to active and obedient faith. His message declared that if we are to know God at all, and especially if we are to grow in that knowledge, we must do what He has told us in His Word—we must put into habitual practice that which we learn in the Scriptures.

The object, however, of our habitual and obedient practice is not a code of ethics or a set of rules or even a holy order. The object of our habitual and obedient practice is a living Person, God Himself. The essence of the Gospel is not an external law, but an internal relationship with God through Christ. As such, God Himself is the ultimate standard for life in His Kingdom and He is the One to Whom we all are accountable. This is the reason why our Lord asked His followers, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’ and not do the things which I say?” (St. Luke 6:46).

In our Gospel lesson for today, an expert in the law approached our Lord to put Him to the test. Now, we need to remember that these lawyers were focused in on abstract theology, not practical theology, and his question was no doubt raised in order to stir up debate. He secretly hoped to entangle our Lord in sophisticated words, phrases, and speculations and to expose the Galilean Carpenter’s naiveté with his brilliant intellectual arguments. He had probably rehearsed many counter responses to an anticipated reply, but apparently not the reply he got.

I. Who Is The Main Character?

The central figure in the parable is not the Samaritan. He is simply one of the three characters in the story who have the opportunity to display neighborliness as Jesus defines it. The defining character—the one to whom the other three respond by being non-neighbor or neighbor—is the man who fell among thieves. The actual Christ-figure in the story, therefore, is a loser, yet another down-and-outer who, by just lying there in his lostness and proximity to death (“practically dead,” is the way Jesus describes him), is in fact the closest thing to Jesus in the parable.

That runs counter, of course, to the better part of two thousand years’ worth of interpretation. This parable, like so many of Jesus’ most telling ones, has been egregiously misnamed. It is not primarily about the Samaritan but about the man on the ground (just as the Prodigal Son is not about a boy’s sins but about his father’s forgiveness, and just as the Laborers in the Vineyard is not about the workers but about the beneficent vineyard-owner). This means, incidentally, that Good Samaritan Hospitals have been likewise misnamed. It is the suffering, dying patients in such institutions who look most like Jesus in his redeeming work. Accordingly, it would have been much less misleading to have named them Man-Who-Fell-Among-Thieves Hospitals.

What I am most concerned to skewer at this point is precisely the mischief caused by the misnaming of this parable. Calling it the Good Samaritan inevitably sets up its hearers to take it as a story whose hero offers them a good example for imitation. I am, of course, aware of the fact that Jesus ends the parable precisely on the note of imitation: “You, too, go and do likewise.” But the common, good-works interpretation of the imitation to which Jesus invites us all too easily gives the Gospel a fast shuffle. True enough, we are called to imitation. But imitation of what, exactly? Is it not the following of Jesus? And is not that following of him far more than just a matter of doing kind acts? Is it not the following of him into the only mystery that can save the world, namely, his passion, death, and resurrection? Is it not the taking up of his cross?

Therefore, if you want to say that the parable of the Good Samaritan tells us to imitate the Samaritan in his identifying with and sharing of the passion and near-death of the man who fell among thieves—if you want to read his selfless actions as so many ways in which he took the outcastness and lostness of the Christ-figure on the ground into his own outcast and losing life—then I will let you have imitation as one of the main themes of the parable. But please note that such an interpretation is not at all what people generally have in mind when the subject of imitating the Good Samaritan is broached to them. What their minds instantly go to is something quite different, something that is utterly destructive of the notion of a grace that works only by death and resurrection. Because what they imagine themselves called upon to imitate is not a mystery of lostness and death, but the performance of good works.

The main character, then, is not the Samaritan, though his actions are commendable, but the dying man by the side of the road.

What is wrong with saying that the Samaritan is the main character? Quite simply, it blows the Good News right out of the water. For if the world could have been saved by providing good examples to which we could respond with appropriately good works, it would have been saved an hour and twenty minutes after Moses came down from Mt. Sinai. “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe” (Gal. 3:21-22). Do you see the problem? Salvation is not some fortunate state to which we can lift ourselves by our own bootstraps after meditating on good examples. It is an utterly new creation into which we are brought by our death in Jesus’ death and our resurrection in his resurrection. It comes not out of our own efforts, however well-inspired or successfully pursued, but out of the shipwreck of all human effort whatsoever. And therefore if there is any ministering to be imitated in the Good Samaritan’s example, it is the ministry to Jesus in his passion, as that passion is to be found in the least of his brethren, namely, in the hungry, the thirsty, the outcast, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned in whom he dwells and through whom he invites us to become his neighbors in death and resurrection.

II. What Is This Parable About?

Neither the Samaritan nor Jesus is an example of some broader, saving truth about the power of human niceness. Jesus is an example of nothing of the sort. He is the incarnation of the unique, saving mystery of death and resurrection. We do not move from him to some deeper reality called “love” or “goodness” that will finally do the trick and make the world go round. No human virtues, however exalted or diligently practiced, will ever save us. Love, as we so regularly mismanage it, is the largest single factor in making our personal worlds go down the drain, and goodness is the mainspring of all the really great evils of the world. Rather, we move from the disasters of our loving and the bankruptcies of our goodness into the passion of Jesus where alone we can be saved. Niceness has nothing to do with the price of our salvation.

Scripture has concluded—locked up—all under sin. The consequences of our sinfulness cannot be broken by good examples, even if we could follow them. Quite the contrary, the Gospel says clearly that we can be saved only by bad examples: by the stupid example of a Samaritan who spends his livelihood on a loser, and by the horrible example of a Savior who, in an excruciating death, lays down his life for his friends. That is the model for our behavior. On to the parable, then, for a look at its details through fresh eyes.

“A certain man,” Jesus says, “went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.” Consider first the physical remarkability of the journey. It is downhill all the way. Jerusalem stands 2,500 feet above the level of the Mediterranean and Jericho lies 825 feet below it. That’s a drop of the better part of three-fifths of a mile and it takes the man in question down into increasingly depressing territory. Without making too much of it, I am disposed to take Jesus’ postulation of such a descent as a parable in itself of his own downhill journey to his passion and death, and thus into the lastness, lostness, etc., that he now sees as the heart of his saving work. And as if to underscore the allusion, he adds a whole string of details that mark the man as a loser par excellence: “he fell among thieves who stripped him and beat him up and went away, leaving him half dead.” The man who fell among thieves is the authentic Christ-figure in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

“By chance,” Jesus continues, “a certain priest was going down that road and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.” So too, Jesus says, did a Levite when he came to the place. Note the nature of these first two candidates for the possible role of neighbor to the unfortunate who is this parable’s surrogate for the Messiah. These two official representatives of atonement as understood by the religious authorities of Jesus’ day find themselves unable or unwilling to see a wounded loser as having any claim on their attention or any relevance to their work. In short, they think of themselves as winners. They have all their vocational ducks in a row and they see no point in allowing either their lives or their spiritual, moral, or physical plans for the season to be ruined by attention to some outcast. How like the reaction Jesus himself received! He came to his own country and his own people did not receive him (John 1:11). He was despised and rejected (Isa. 53:3) for dying as a common criminal.

He himself, in other words, was as unrecognizable a Christ-figure as the man who fell among thieves. Admittedly, it was eventually claimed of him that on the third day he rose from the dead. But rising from the dead was a totally insufficient apology for the abysmally bad messianic taste he had shown by dying in the first place. Real Messiahs don’t die.

Finally, though, Jesus brings on the Good Samaritan. Note once again the nature of the character introduced as the man of the hour: he is an outcast come to deal with an outcast, a loser come to minister to another loser. The man who fell among thieves presumably was a Jew; therefore, if either the priest or the Levite had bothered to make his acquaintance, they would have recognized him as one of their own. But since the shipwreck of his life had made him unrecognizable to them, he might as well not have been a Jew at all. He, like Jesus, seemed only reproachable. They could not bring themselves to go forth out of their safe theological and psychological camp to meet him and bear his reproach (Heb. 13:13).

But the Samaritan, already under reproach himself (cf. John 4:9), has no such problem. Instead, he goes to the man on the ground—the surrogate for the Savior—and he involves himself in his passion. He binds up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine—all acts of kindness, to be sure, but also acts that any normal person would find inconveniencing, distasteful, and depriving, not to mention expensive of both time and resources. Moreover, he puts the man on his own animal, thus effectively dying to his own comfort and to whatever prospects he may have had of accomplishing his journey in good time. Next, he brings him to an inn and takes care of him for the whole night, further interrupting his own progress and frustrating his traveling man’s dearest wish, namely, an early, quiet bed after a hard day on the road. And as if all that weren’t enough, he gets up in the morning, goes down to the front desk, and books the mugging victim in for an indefinite stay, all expenses paid—room, meals, doctors, nurses, medicines, health club, and limo if needed and no questions asked. To sum it up, he lays down a very good approximation of his life for someone who isn’t even his friend, simply because he, as an outcast, finally has found someone who lives in his own neighborhood, namely, the place where the discards of respectable religiosity are burned outside the camp (again, Heb. 13:11-13)—the dump, in other words, to which are consigned the last, the lost, the least, the little, and the dead.

And having said all that, Jesus invites the lawyer to answer his own question. “Which one of these three,” he asks, “seems to you to have been a neighbor to the one who fell among thieves?” It is a setup, of course, and the lawyer gives the only possible reply: “He who showed kindness to him”—which leads Jesus to the punch line of the parable, “You go and do the same.”

As I said, I take that to be light-years away from an exhortation to general human niceness. Jesus’ whole parable, especially with its piling up of detail after detail of extreme, even irrational, behavior on the part of the Samaritan, points not to meritorious exercises of good will but to the sharing of the passion as the main thrust of the story. What is to be imitated in the Samaritan’s action is not his moral uprightness in doing good deeds but his spiritual insight into the truly bizarre working of the mystery of redemption. The lawyer is told by Jesus, in effect, to stop trying to live and to be willing to die, to be willing to be lost rather than to be found—to be, in short, a neighbor to the One who, in the least of his brethren, is already neighbor to the whole world of losers.

III. What Should We Do?

Christianity is not a philosophical exercise—it is an obedient lifestyle intimately connected with life on the ground level in the pursuit of being an image of Christ, a witness to Him, an ambassador of His Kingdom. Christianity is living what God has revealed to us in His Word.

We are once more about to partake of the greatest image of obedient living, our Lord’s obedience unto death. Let us remember then that St. Paul tells us that we are to imitate the humble mind of the One Who was obedient even unto death on the cross. The Scriptures do not tell us that God convened a heavenly council to debate the intricate complexities of man’s rebellion and sin. Rather we are told that God did something about it—He sent his only begotten Son into the world to die in our stead. So, today, as we feast upon the life giving Body and Blood of this obedient Son, let us beseech His Majesty to grant that we too might live Christianity, not just think or talk about it—that we might put into habitual practice that which we learn in the Scriptures—that we might go from here and do likewise.

A Sick Woman Healed

St. Mark 5:21-34

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

Trinity Season 2007

The main subject of these verses is the miraculous healing of a sick woman. Great is our Lord’s experience in cases of disease! Great is his sympathy with his sick and ailing members! The gods of the heathen are generally represented as terrible and mighty in battle, delighting in bloodshed, the strong man’s patrons, and the warrior’s friends. The Savior of the Christian is always set before us as gentle, and easy to be entreated, the healer of the broken hearted, the refuge of the weak and helpless, the comforter of the distressed, the sick man’s best friend. And is not this just the Savior that human nature needs? The world is full of pain and trouble. The weak on earth are far more numerous than the strong.

But that is not all that we are to notice here. This woman has been bleeding for 12 years, and as we have learned in our studies in Sunday School, according to the Old Testament laws she was unclean. This meant that anyone who touched her would become unclean until they went through the long process of ritual cleansing. That is to say, according to the old way of life under the curse of sin, uncleanness is transferred simply by coming into contact with something or someone who is unclean. Those laws of uncleanness were symbolic of death that has come upon the whole world as a result of sin. But this story shows us that since the coming of Jesus Christ it is not uncleanness caused by death that is transferable, but the exact opposite.

When this woman touches Jesus it is life, not death, that is transferred. Jesus has cleansed the world and all that it contains by the radical evolution caused by his life, death, and resurrection.

Then as if to make that point very clear the Gospels tell us that Jesus performed this miracle on his way to a man’s home to raise his daughter from the dead. That is, it does no good for Jesus to spend a few months healing sick people if he is only going to leave them to die eventually. What kind of good news is that? No, Jesus has real good news—that he has come to conquer death—and so he heals a sick woman on his way to reversing the real terror—death itself.

I. What misery sin has brought into the world

We read of one who had had a most painful disease “for twelve years.” She had “suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better, but rather grew worse.” Means of every kind had been tried in vain. Medical skill had proved unable to cure. Twelve long weary years had been spent in battling with disease, and relief seemed no nearer than at first. “Hope deferred” might well “make her heart sick.” (Prov. 13:12)

How amazing it is that we do not hate sin more than we do! Sin is the cause of all the pain and disease in the world. God did not create man to be an ailing and suffering creature. It was sin, and nothing but sin, which brought in all the ills that flesh is heir to. It is sin to which we owe every racking pain, and every loathsome infirmity, and every humbling weakness to which our poor bodies are liable. Let us keep this ever in mind. Let us hate sin with a godly hatred.

II. How different are the feelings with which people draw near to Christ

We are told in these verses that “many people followed” Jesus, “and thronged him.” But we are only told of one person who “came in the press behind,” and touched Him and was healed. Many followed Jesus from curiosity, and derived no benefit from Him

One, and only one, followed under a deep sense of her need, and of our Savior’s power to relieve her, and that one received a mighty blessing.

We see the same thing going on continually in the Church at the present day. Multitudes go to places of worship; and fill pews. Hundreds come up to the Lord’s table, and receive the bread and wine. But of all these worshippers and communicants, how few really obtain anything from Christ! Fashion, custom, form, habit, or the love of excitement are the true motives of the vast majority. There are but few here and there who touch Christ by faith, and go home “in peace.” These may seem hard sayings. But they are unhappily too true!

III. How immediate and instantaneous was the cure which this woman received

No sooner did she touch our Lord’s clothes than she was healed. The thing that she had sought in vain for twelve years, was done in a moment. The cure that many physicians could not effect, was wrought in an instant of time. “She felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.”

We need not doubt that we are meant to see here a picture of the relief that the Gospel confers on souls. The experience of many a weary conscience has been exactly like that of this woman with her disease. Many have spent sorrowful years in search of peace with God, and failed to find it. They have gone to earthly remedies and obtained no relief. They have wearied themselves going from seminar to seminar, and church to church, and have felt after all “no better, but rather worse.”

But at last they have found rest. And where have they found it? In the same place this woman found hers, in Jesus Christ. They have ceased from their own works. They have quit looking to their own efforts for relief. They have come to Christ Himself, as humble sinners, and committed themselves to His mercy. At once the burden has fallen from off their shoulders. Heaviness is turned to joy, and anxiety to peace. One touch of real faith can do more for the soul than a hundred self-imposed routines. One look at Jesus is better than years of sack-cloth and ashes. May we never forget this to our dying day!

IV. It is good for Christians to confess before men the benefit they receive from Christ

We see that this woman was not allowed to go home, when cured, without her cure being noticed. Our Lord inquired who had touched Him, and looked around to see who had done this. No doubt He knew perfectly the name and history of the woman. He did not need anyone to tell Him. But He desired to teach her, and all around Him, that healed souls should make public acknowledgment of mercies received.

There is a lesson here which all true Christians would do well to remember. We are not to be ashamed to confess Christ before others, and to let them know what He has done for our souls. If we have found peace through His blood, and been renewed by His Spirit, we must not shrink from acknowledging it, whenever it is proper. It is not necessary to blow a trumpet in the streets, and force our experience on everyone’s notice. All that is required is a willingness to acknowledge Christ as our Master, without flinching from the ridicule or persecution which by so doing we may bring on ourselves.

V. How precious a grace is faith

“Daughter,” says our Lord to the woman who was healed, “your faith has made you whole: go in peace.”

Of all the Christian graces, none is so frequently mentioned in the New Testament as faith, and none is so highly commended. No other grace brings such glory to Christ. Hope brings an eager expectation of good things to come. Love brings a warm and willing heart. Faith brings an empty hand, receives everything, and can give nothing in return. No other grace is so important to the Christian’s own soul. By faith we begin. By faith we live. By faith we stand. We walk by faith and not by sight. By faith we overcome. By faith we have peace. By faith we enter into rest. No other grace should be the subject of so much self-inquiry. We should often ask ourselves, Do I really believe? Is my faith true, genuine, and the gift of God?

May we never rest till we can give a satisfactory answer to these questions! Christ has not changed since the day when this woman was healed. He is still gracious and still mighty to save. There is but one thing needful if we want salvation. That one thing is the hand of faith. Let a person only “touch” Jesus, and he shall be made whole.

We . . . You Also

Ephesians 1:11-14

by The Rt. Rev. Daniel R. Morse

2006

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will: that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:11-14

Clearly one cannot deal with the entire statement in these verses on one occasion; but before we consider the separate statements it is good to deal with the statement as a whole. It is only as we are clear about the general theme, and grasp it, that we can truly appreciate and enjoy the particulars. Here we are looking at the end of the sentence which, as we have seen, starts at the beginning of verse 3 and runs on to the end of verse 14. Obviously it does not finish at verse 10, because the Apostle goes on to say “In whom also.” The “whom” refers to someone already mentioned and the “also” tells us of something additional.

The Apostle is unfolding, let us remember, God’s eternal purpose. That is stated in the tenth verse. The world is interested in politics and in the headlines in the newspapers; but here we are looking at something beyond all that, something that is unfolding and will continue to unfold, whatever may be happening in the world. It is not that what happens in the world has no importance, but that the plan of God is bigger and more important. God’s plan and its out-working is also certain, while the world’s plans are very uncertain. The Apostle has told us that God by the Holy Spirit has given us “wisdom” and “prudence” without which the plan of God remain dark and remote. But once we become enlightened everything becomes clear to us, for we see that God is working out his plan, and that we and our whole eternal destiny are involved in it. Having told us that the plan is the restoration of harmony, the Apostle goes on to tell us how God is working it out. That is the theme which he now takes up in verse 11.

The very fact that Paul was writing this letter to a non-Jewish church in Ephesus was proof that the plan was working. It was an amazing fact that such a man as Saul of Tarsus, a “Hebrew of the Hebrews,” should be writing a letter to Gentile Christians. He is doing so because it is a part of the unfolding of God’s plan. The illustration that the world has seen so far of God’s plan to re-make all things is the Christian Church, and that is the theme of Ephesians.

Paul cannot say these things without being astonished and amazed at them. He was not merely interested in these things intellectually; he was a preacher, an evangelist, a pastor. He cannot regard these things in a merely detached objective manner. So when he says “We have obtained an inheritance” he is so amazed at the fact that he seems to wonder how it has happened to us, and he gives us the only possible explanation, which is, that it is “according to the counsel of God’s own will.”

Take note, first, of two phrases, one at the beginning of verse 11 and the other at the beginning of verse 13. “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance,” and “In whom you also”. In these two phrases Paul shows us the beginning of the carrying out of God’s plan.

The “We” is in contrast to the “You also”—We and You. It is quite clear that the “You” in verse 13 is a reference to the Gentiles, the Ephesians and the various other churches to whom this letter was probably sent. The “We” here is a reference to the Jews. He says, “That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ.” It emphasizes the fact that chronologically Jews believed in Christ before Gentiles began to do so. Our Lord told his apostles that they were to be his witnesses “both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Historically it is the case that the Jews were the first Christians.

The Apostle emphasizes the “We” and the “You”—We Jews, You Gentiles—because of the astounding fact that they have been brought together, they have “been made one” in Christ. This, as I have already suggested, is not only the theme of this particular Epistle, it is the theme of the whole of the New Testament and particularly of the New Testament Epistles. This is seen most explicitly in the second chapter. Paul repeats it many times and is never tired of doing so. In the third chapter he says that the dispensation had been committed to him to reveal the truth “which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed”. God had now revealed “unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body” (vv. 2-6).

This had produced a revolution in his life. We know what a narrow, bigoted Jewish nationalist he had been, and how he prided himself on his nationality. It made him intolerant, and the Gentiles were to him but dogs, outsiders. But now he is “the Apostle of the Gentiles.” And in this Epistle to the Ephesian Gentiles, he must emphasize this marvelous thing God has brought to pass. God’s plan is already in operation; he is a part of it, and they are a part of it!

We must get rid of all racial and national ideas. It is the spiritual seed in Abraham and Christ that counts in God’s sight. There is a new nation consisting of God’s people; Christians are God’s people. God’s purpose was to use the Jews temporarily; but now he has something bigger and greater, including both Jews and Gentiles.

God’s way of restoring harmony and unity is to produce Christians, and therefore Paul tells us certain things about the Christian. He gives us a perfect picture of Christianity and, as I understand it, he tells us five things concerning it.

We are told first that what makes us Christians is that we are “in Christ.” There is no hope of unity apart from Christianity. Secondly, there are certain things that are true of us as Christians because we are “in Christ.” Thirdly, Paul gives us an explanation of the way in which we enter into these blessings. Fourthly, he shows us the guarantee of the fact that we have these blessings, and the fact that we shall never lose them. Fifthly, the Apostle stresses that the ultimate object of all things is the glory of God (vv. 12, 14).

The first thing, then, is that what reconciles Jew and Gentile—and the only thing that reconciles them—is that they should become Christians, “in Christ.” To be a Christian means to be in a new relationship to Christ, it means to be “in Christ.” It does not mean that you have been born in a particular country, or that your parents or grandparents were Christians. Christianity means being “in Christ.” In other words, God reconciles people by bringing them into a new relationship. All troubles in the world, between nations, between individuals, stem from a failure at some point in the realm of relationships.

There never will be a more perfect illustration of all this than this extraordinary picture of Jew and Gentile. The Jew prided himself on being one of God’s people, and that the divine law had been given to his nation. They did not stop to ask whether they kept the law; that did not matter, the important thing was to possess the law. The Gentiles had never had the law; they were not given the law. The Jews despised all others as dogs who were outside the commonwealth of Israel, “without God in the world.”

But this kind of attitude was not confined to the Jews. It was equally true of Gentiles, for example, the Greeks. The Greeks had a great heritage of learning, and there had been an astounding flowering period when the outstanding Greek philosophers – Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle and others – had looked into the problems of life and elaborated their theories Utopia. The Jews and all other races were to them Barbarians. So the Greek prided himself on his superiority.

Thus Jews and Greeks clashed and fought. There was this division of mankind, this “middle wall of partition” between them. We used to talk about “curtains”—iron curtain and bamboo curtain—but they are in reality walls which have been built carefully by both sides. Each one is repairing the wall on his side. This is true of the life of the world today with all its clashes and divisions and unhappiness.

What was it that brought Paul and the Ephesians together? What was it that made Jew and Gentile bow together on their knees to God and pray in one spirit? Christ is the answer. Christ came and lived and taught and died, and rose again for Jew and Gentile alike, for the Jew had not kept the law any more than the Gentile, and was condemned by the very law of which he boasted. When Paul, the Jew, saw the true meaning of the law and its spiritual character, and especially the meaning of the Cross, he saw that “the whole world was lying guilty before God,” that “there is none righteous, no, not one.” “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:9-23). The Jew is not superior to the Greek, the Greek is not superior to the Jew. They are all together groveling in the dust in utter failure, and sinners in the sight of a holy God. They are made one in condemnation and in sin. The pride is taken out of both, they are crushed to the ground. There is nothing that one can boast of as against the other; they are all equally hopeless.

But then the Gospel goes on to tell them that both can be redeemed and reconciled to God and to one another by the blood of Christ. It is only because Christ has made himself responsible for their guilt and failure, and has died for them, that they can have this reconciliation; and they both receive it in exactly the same way. It is not the law that brings anyone into it; it is not philosophy that does so; it is Christ who brings both in. They are equal at every point. Both alike also need strength and power to lead this new life into which they have been brought; so they are given the same Holy Spirit. Christ is in them and they are in Christ. It is all “in him.”

The second matter we have to consider is what becomes true of us as Christians because we are “in Christ.” Paul states this in a most interesting manner by saying, “in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.”

In the fourteenth verse the Apostle definitely and explicitly speaks about an inheritance—“Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.” Jews and Gentiles are made one, not only because they have their sins forgiven in the same way, but also because they inherit the same heritage. Were we to grasp this we would not only be the happiest people on the face of the earth, we would also “rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.”

Ultimately it means seeing God. It means being with Christ and enjoying his glory. It means reigning with Christ: if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him. The kingdom of God and of his Christ is here; and nothing can destroy it. And we who are “in Christ” are in it, and shall spend eternity in God’s kingdom with Jesus.

The nations fight because they want to spread their empires, or to take a piece of land. The same is true of individuals. It is so because of their sense of values. People fight over money, over position, over popularity, over anything. It results from their possessiveness, selfishness, greed. Those are the only things they care about and value; and as long as they look at things in that way they will continue to fight and quarrel about them, no matter how educated and “advanced” they may be. If it will suit their purposes to adopt Christian principles they will do so; nations have often used Christianity to spread empires! But that is not Christianity.

The essence of the Christian position is that the inheritance is “incorruptible and undefiled and that fades not away, reserved in heaven” by God, for them who are in Christ Jesus. One who has that heritage sits very lightly in this life and its affairs. He has “set his affection on things above, not on things on the earth,” and he knows that all others who have done so are fellow heirs with him. The only harmony this world will ever know is the harmony that is produced in and through men and women who in Christ have set their affection on the things above. “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance; in whom you also. . . .”

As John Newton says—

Fading is the worldling’s pleasure,

All his boasted pomp and show;

Solid joys and lasting treasure

None but Zion’s children know.