Dependent, yet Free
The Rev’d Stephen E. Stults
St. Barnabas Anglican Church
St. Barnabas Anglican Church
The Ninth Sunday after Trinity
July 28, 2013
“Grant us, O Lord, the spirit to think and do always such
things as are right; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without
thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus
Christ our Lord.” AMEN
If there were ever a more perfectly formed plea for grace to
live the Christian life, it would be difficult to phrase it any better than in
this prayer. This Collect for the 9th Sun. after Trinity, must have
been written by a very mature Christian mind, because it recognizes the true nature
of life on this earth. It grasps the reality that we need the right “spirit” to
help us do the things that we should do.
This prayer affirms that the nature of this world, at its core, is
spiritual and that we need the right spiritual orientation in order to behave
correctly. That is, God, the “ground of
being”, to quote the “progressive” German theologian Paul Tillich, can only be
approached on a spiritual basis. Or putting it more simply, St. Paul tells us
in Eph. 6:12:
“For
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.”
The real battleground of
this world is, and always will be, spiritual.
As St Paul tells us in
Romans, this concept is impossible for the carnal man to accept. Some people, because they have not responded
to the call of God in their soul, never recognize and thus accept this
reality. Sadly, they remain firmly
rooted in the material world and never realize the unlimited potentiality of
life in its true spiritual state.
We inhabitants of Earth are
the agents of change, however.
Influenced, subject to suggestion, and even sometimes swayed by the
“spirit” of things, we make things happen, for good or ill. Thus, the importance of praying for the “the spirit to think and do always
such things as are right cannot be underestimated. Notice the word used here is “think”, not
“feel”, not “dialogue”, nor “experience.”
We pray that we may “think” the right things, which is proceeded by
doing the right things. Thus, it is
very, very important what we think and that we know what we
think, especially in matters of faith.
It’s been said, “Right thinking leads to right believing, which leads to
right actions.”
This is why studying works such as the 39 Articles of
Religion is so important, so that we know what we believe and what we think
about our faith. That is why we urge you to attend the adult Bible Class so
graciously conducted by Fr. Heard. All of us need to know what you believe so
that we can frame (or adjust) our thinking accordingly. A prominent member of
our congregation has mentioned on several occasions: “We need to be a
congregation of catechists.” That is,
there are times we should be able to (1 Peter
3:15) and be ready
always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you…”[i]
Also, in the collect for the day, note this statement: “we
who cannot do any thing that is good without Thee.” Once again, the Christian
maturity of the writer’s mind recognizes the utter dependency of the Creature
upon the Creator, in order to bring forth any true good in the world. It is factual that we “cannot do any thing
that is good” without God.
It is this priest’s contention, that contrary to the world’s
viewpoint, the more dependent one is on God, the more powerful and free one
becomes. Obviously, not only does one
tap into an inexhaustible source of power, but one, over time, will surrender
the ego and all its assorted baggage. Then, the soul, stripped of such human
encumbrances as: pride, anger, vainglory, hate and vengeance, becomes a fit dwelling
place for the Holy Ghost. Sooner or
later, the fruit of the Spirit will manifest itself: love, joy, peace,
gentleness and contentment. Have you
ever noticed that some people draw you in with the peace and “settled-ness”
they have in Christ Jesus? What a goal for all of us! This peace, this sense of joyful stillness,
doesn’t happen overnight, nor does it occur easily, in most cases. Unfortunately,
like most things in this life, it’s a battle.
This may why Christ said in Mat 10:34 “Think not that I am come to send peace on
earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Jesus knew that He was
about to upset the whole world order to rearrange things on a cosmic
scale. Consider this: Pre-Christ, man was
in bondage to sin and death; post-Christ, man is free from the effects of sin
and is given, freely, the miracle of new life.
Do you believe this? Do you? Is
it a resounding, “hard shell” truth in your soul? This priest hopes so, so that when life’s ups and downs
inevitably occur, you may turn to your hope in Christ, your power in Christ,
and know, again, what is real and right and true.
One might say that Christianity
is a religion of movement, or better said, of growth. This concept of constant
growth may be why Our Lord consistently used agricultural examples in His
parables. An excellent example of this
is the Parable of the Sower, where Christ spoke of a sower spreading seed on
the earth. Or, in his discourse on faith, Jesus told us that if we had true
faith, even measured by the tiny mustard seed, we could command nature and it
would obey us. Our point, is that, in a
vibrant and living Christian life, one should see a growth, or a movement from
one state to another, in a positive way. For example, one may move from
sickness to health, from depression to joy, from spiritual “blah” to spiritual
vitality, and of course, from physical death to life everlasting. Then, in
heaven, we will continue to grow in grace, in the presence of the Lord, for all
eternity. Quite a glorious thought,
isn’t it?
This, our journey to
eternal life, our movement and our growth, is prefigured in the Epistle for the
Ninth Sunday in Trinity for the Holy Communion service, which is taken from 1st
Cor. X. In its reference to the fourteenth chapter of Exodus, it details the movement
of Israel through the Red Sea. St. Paul
tells us that they “were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and the
sea.” That is, under the promises of the
Old Covenant to Abraham, the people of Israel were being reborn, from the huge
mass of Hebrew slaves to the nation of Israel.
This happened as they passed through the Red Sea, out of Egypt towards
the Promised Land. They entered on one
side as slaves, they emerged on the other side as a free nation under God.
We know that our Christian
baptism works in similar fashion, but obviously with fundamental differences.
The methodology and symbolism is the same, as one passes under the water
(symbolized by sprinkling or pouring water on the head) and moves from
spiritual death to spiritual life. Now,
whereas the Israelites were baptized “into Moses” and the Old Covenant, we
Christians are baptized into the New Covenant of Jesus Christ.
What is miraculous about all of this is
God’s wonderful consistency throughout history.
He used water and the process of baptism (figuratively) with His ancient
people to lead them to new life then, and He uses water and the process of
baptism now as a sign and seal of our salvation through Jesus Christ.
Yet, guiding and undergirding all of the movement is the
right spirit, which animates all. We hope and pray for “the spirit to think and
do always such things as are right”, but that spirit must be rooted and
grounded in the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, for it to
have any chance of spiritual success. Absent the Holy Spirit, the natural
spirit of our fallen natures will come to the fore and will bear its bitter
fruit. Then, rather that our growth in holiness and godliness, we will
experience the opposite.
It doesn’t have to be that way…. Our lives, fueled by prayer,
fed by the Holy Sacrament of the altar, and constantly reinforced with the Holy
Word of God, can be something better. We
can have the growth and positive upward movement in the right spirit, always and
forever.
Thus, our faith is a religion of movement, of growth, powered
by the right spirit, the Blessed Holy Spirit. It should never be stagnant, but
should reflect the very nature of God Himself: limitless, boundless, and full
of the love and joy of life. My prayer
for you is that you perceive the ever-growing fruits of redemption within you
and are filled day by day, with the overflowing love of God.
Let us all petition God that we always have the right spirit
to think and to do what it right.
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