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Sermon- Pentecost 10, 20 July
2008
+In the Name…
“The Son of Man will send
his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin
and all evildoers” (Matthew 13:41).
You would have had to live
in a cave for the last several years, or been in a Rip Van Winkle type
of sleep not to have been aware that the Church has been plagued with
much false teaching which disrupts, confuses, and misleads the people
in the pews. In many ways, we have been on the forefront of concern
and action against false teaching at The Good Shepherd for many years
and during the rectorships of a number of my predecessors.
We love the Lord, the Church,
and have embraced the faith once delivered to the saints which is why
we make responses when strange teachings appear. We respond because
we care.
Prior to the arrival of the
‘79 BCP, a priest’s sacred vow at his ordination was a promise “to
banish and drive away from the Church all strange and erroneous doctrines
contrary to God’s word” and for him to do this “with all faithful
diligence.”
I have tried to do this and
remind you that you and I do it together as a community of believers
because we as baptized members of the Body of Christ want to protect
the Body of Christ from anything that may harm her witness and integrity.
I love the prayer in the Baptismal Rite (which I will pray this morning
for Annette Marie that she “shall not be ashamed to confess the faith
of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under his banner, against
sin, the world, and the devil; and to continue Christ’s faithful soldier
and servant unto her life’s end.” We certainly don’t relish the
doing of this, but it is our baptismal calling, and we must do it when
teachings are promulgated that undermine the revealed religion of historic
Christianity, when we discern evil’s insidious ways, and when the
Church opens her sails to the Zeitgeist (the spirit of the age), rather
than to the wind of the Holy Spirit that leads the Church into all truth.
We are stewards of a sacred deposit, a holy Tradition that endures in
and for all times and all challenges, and brings life and meaning to
all men and women whom God wills to be saved. Men and women who seek
to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
The caveat that I make today
for us in our baptismal calling, and to myself in response to Prayer
Book’s call for the clergy to be messengers, watchmen, and stewards
is that we do not cause harm to others and the Body of Christ in our
soldiering.
As Bishop of the Armed Forces
for the ACA/TAC, I serve as an official Endorser for the Department
of Defense. I often remind myself of that title for that particular
department of our federal government – Department of Defense, not
Department of Offence. I realize that there may be some here this morning
who do think that there’s been too much offense in the last several
years by the Department of Defense with the President as Commander in
Chief, and that touches upon the whole issue of Just War Theory and
other related ethical and moral issues.
But I speak of the Department
of Defense because in a way that is a critical element of the Church’s
work. One of her departments is a defense department of which all her
members are members.
But as we are defenders of
biblical faith, Catholic truth, and Apostolic order, we must pray for
the grace not to do harm to others or the Body of Christ. We may be
“right” in what we believe because it is according to scripture
and tradition, but we dare not be self-righteous, smug, condescending,
and Pharisaical. St. Paul says that we are to speak the truth in love.
He teaches in Galatians us that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control. He writes the following in Philippians: “Whatever
is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence,
if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
And I have more and more been led by the Holy Spirit to pray the words
of Jesus for others whose thinking and action is regretable – “Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
This is going sound like I
am tooting my own horn, but I share it only as something for which God
has been given me His grace, and as a reminder of what needs to be constant
in my actions for Christ. David O’Reilly, religion writer for the
Philadelphia Inquirer, once said to me, “Did you know that your enemies
like you?” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Well, I have
talked to clergy in the Diocese of PA who passionately disagree with
your theological positions, but they all say that they like you and
respect you.”
Now that’s not going to get
me into heaven, but it was nice to hear; and I can only hope that their
liking of me and the respect they have for me will be fodder for some
critical theological reflection to occur, especially in light of the
implosion of the bishop who has been “leading” the Diocese. The
Cursillo renewal movement in the Church directs its people, “Be a
friend, make a friend, and bring the friend to Christ.” We are to
shine with the love and peace of Christ to others who do not know Him
or who have lost their way or who have fallen or been led into a trap
of Satan’s devising. He is the Prince of lies and the Master of deception,
and his ways are so often cunning and subtle as He preys upon on the
weak points and vulnerabilities of our human character.
In the Gospel today, Jesus
speaks about weeds being sown in the good field (which is the Church).
He says that the weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who
sowed them is the devil – meaning that within the church there are
and have been throughout her history wolves in sheep’s clothing, impostors,
and men in positions of teaching, pasturing, and leadership who were
not called by God to serve, or may have traded their loyalty to God
to loyalty to themselves.
The Apostles asked Jesus if
they could strive to root such people out. The clear answer from Jesus
was “No,” because “….lest in gathering the weeds you root up
the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest;
and at harvest time I will tell the reapers (the angels), Gather the
weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat
into my barn.”
Does their need to be discipline
and accountability for those who flout the Church’s teaching, who
mislead and confuse, and who cause scandal? Of course. And there are
means and mechanisms both ecclesiastical and civil to do this; but in
the day to day defense of the Gospel and Apostolic teaching, we are
to be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves. We are to pour ourselves
into faithfulness to the Gospel and Apostolic teaching- cloaked in humility,
running the race set before us - looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter
of our faith. We are to take the log out of our own eyes rather than
being focused and consumed to remove the specks from others’ eyes.
I hope that you see my point.
Jesus was certainly not afraid
or hesitant to say what needed to be said when people’s souls were
at risk. He did call the Pharisees, “Hypocrites, blind guides, and
white-washed tombs full of dead men’s bones,” but He was and is
God Incarnate. We need to restrain ourselves from firing away with harsh
judgments that are more a hindrance than help to someone. God
calls us to speak the truth in love and pray for those who are caught
in the sticky web of deceit and rebellion.
We heard this morning from
the Book of Wisdom: “Thou who art sovereign in strength, dost judge
with mildness, and with great forbearance thou dost govern us; for thou
hast power to act whenever thou dost choose. Through such works thou
hast taught thy people that the righteous man must be kind, and thou
hast filled thy sons with good hope, because thou givest repentance.”
Oh, to think of the mercy,
patience, kindness, and forgiveness of the Lord that you and I have
known and received. Yes, it is so wonderfully true as we recited in
today’s portion of the Psalter, “But thou, O Lord God, art full
of compassion and mercy, long-suffering, plenteous in goodness and truth.”
And then we all prayed, “O turn thee then unto me, and have mercy
upon me; give they strength unto thy servant, and help the son of thine
handmaid.”
+In the Name…
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