By the Grace of God
Fr. James Cloud
St. Jude’s Anglican Church
8-27-2006
The readings today include some very important points in our spiritual walks as Christians. Many churches proclaim, in the spiritual sense, go ahead and play with the boiling water on the stove if you want, stick your hand deep inside. If that is what God has planned for your life, I must be tolerant and accept whatever you feel God wants you to do. This idea is not only deeply entrenched within the realm of moral relativism; it is plainly absurd and can be instantly recognized as an error in thought.
Many Christians resemble the Pharisee in the readings today which said before God at the temple, “I am glad I am not like these other sinners.” Others resemble the publican, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Christ tells us that the one who is humble in his or her conscience before a righteous God will understand we have erred in thought, word and deed. How can the pharisaical Christian comprehend sin if they believe it either doesn’t reside within them or becomes just a catch-phrase or by-word within their life or their church?
St. Paul said, “I am the least of the Apostles” because he persecuted Christ’s Church. He was a party to the stoning of St. Stephen in the book of Acts. He imprisoned and brutalized Christians in the name of God willingly and with conviction. Let us now think of it this way. What if the same moral relativist’s ideas were applied to St. Paul’s situation? Upon observing Saul of Tarsus (St. Paul) beating and imprisoning Christians, the moral relativist would have said, “Well, if God has this planned for Saul’s life, who are we to stand in the way of it? We must be tolerant of his ideas because he’s doing it in the name of God and still is a good Jew, caring for the poor and destitute as well as these acts.”
Now let us hear what Christ Himself said to Saul of Tarsus for these sinful acts. In Acts 9:1-9 we read:
1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" 5"Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. 6"Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do." 7The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. 8Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. 9For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.
Was Christ a bigot or hatemonger for correcting Saul’s actions? Was God being unjust by demanding that Saul live up to certain standards and expectations in his personal life so that Saul’s life could be transformed into the spiritual powerhouse that was St. Paul?
God is in the business of transforming people’s lives. Not allowing them to stay stagnant in their walks of faith. He challenges us to live holy lives daily. He corrects those he loves. He even tells us to correct error in the church, and not to blindly accept every wind of doctrine that blows from the four corners of the earth. In 2 Timothy 4:1-5 we read:
“1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”
And in 2 Peter 2 we read:
“ 1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8(for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.
Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; 11yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. 12But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
13They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. 14With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! 15They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22Of them the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit,’ and, ‘A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.’”
We must be mindful of sin and errors in matters of faith and doctrine. The next question that is waiting to be asked is whether doctrine matters at all or if just doing good deeds will get you into the Kingdom of Heaven. As I mentioned last Sunday there are a few things I am highly dogmatic on. This is one such area.
In Ephesians 2:1-10 we read:
“1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature, objects of wrath. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
And elsewhere in 1 Timothy 1:5-11 we read:
“5The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6Some have wandered away from these and turned to meaningless talk. 7They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.
8We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.”
If there is no sin and we can earn our way into heaven, St. Paul was totally delusional and without merit in anything he said or taught. On the other hand, if St. Paul was indeed the man I know he was, sin is a very real component in our lives and it is a component that needs the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to be done away with so that we may have right relationship with Him. If we say sin and truth is relative or make excuses for sin we shame our Lord and His sacrifice upon the Cross of Calvary and are without forgiveness; for if we do not confess our sins or acknowledge our faults and amend our ways, we are no better than the Pharisee praying the temple. The scripture even says those who claim to be sinless are liars.
Christ said it was the publican who was justified, not the self-important, self-righteous, and over-inflated windbag standing next to him. In our liturgy we acknowledge our faults by thought, word and deed. The next phase is acknowledging the false sin of being a “bigot” or “hatemonger,” as the heretics claim, from the true sins of tolerance, silence and sitting idly by as the devil drives Christ’s church to the brink of destruction. We accept the person, but as Christians we can never accept the sin. Christ did not accept Saul’s sin of imprisonment and brutalization of Christians. God obliterated the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for the sin of homosexuality. The men wanted to rape and “sodomize” the angels of the Most High! God destroyed the world in Noah’s day with the universal flood due to the rampant violence and sin that corrupted the very landscape of the earth at that time.
If God did not spare them in times past for sins, what makes us think that somehow God has changed in 2006, to be more of a teddy bear God with no teeth or bite. Scripture says very plainly in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ (God) is the same yesterday, today and forever.” God does not change. God has not become a big hippie in the sky accepting and excusing sinful acts or doctrines within His church. God judges! God reigns Supreme! No thought or act of mankind will ever change the nature of our Lord in Heaven!
When we think we should make God into our image, we blaspheme the Almighty. When we think God has indeed become a great big teddy bear or a spiritual “yes man” to the whims of humanity, we are walking the wide and broad path that leads to the very pit of Hell! We must ask God to make us into His image. That means seeking to be holy as He is holy. That means not excusing sin within the church or our own lives. That means getting on our knees and praying as the publican did, “forgive me, a sinner.” AMEN.
