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The Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost
Lord, we pray thee that thy grace may always precede and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 23)
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The Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): Psalms 111:4; I Corinthians 4:9-16
A Sermon by
Fr. Spurlock
on
Psalms 111:4; I Corinthians 4:9-16
✛
The Man of Triumph
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The merciful and gracious Lord hath so done his marvelous works, that they ought to be had in remembrance.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
It was the practice in ancient Rome to honor its military heroes through the ritual of the Triumph. The Triumph being a kind of liturgy for the man who was hailed as king for the day. When a commander returned victorious from battle in foreign lands, he entered the city at the head of a long procession. He was dressed in the regalia of victory, a gold and purple toga, his boots and face were reddened like the depictions of Jupiter, on his head a crown of laurels, all proclaiming that he was vir triumphalis, the man of victory. Behind him processed material and living booty; the spoils of war, brought home in tribute to the Empire. There were the soldiers of his army, gold and silver statuary, dancers, musicians, captives, slaves, and at the very end came the most pitiable lot. These were the prisoners who were set aside to be ridiculed by the populus, then taken to the arena and publicly exhibited then executed for the crowd’s amusement. And all of this was done in celebration of human accomplishment. The man of triumph and his marvelous works.
Perhaps this is the image Paul has in mind when he writes to the church in Corinth, the church that he had brought to faith in Christ by his preaching of Christ and through his gentle instruction of them as a Father teaching his children. But now the Father has been called away and learns that his children have strayed from his teaching. He writes them a letter and asks them questions. “What do you possess that was not given to you? And if all that you have is a gift, then why do you boast?”
The preacher of Ecclesiastes says that “what was will be again, that there is nothing new under the sun” so that the problem Paul confronts in Corinth is still to be found in the church today; a disproportional pride in our own accomplishments. The Corinthians were living as men of triumph, boasting of and trusting in their own spiritual accomplishments. And Paul takes them to task for this. “You Corinthians have put yourself at the head of the Triumph, but I think God has made us apostles. We are the last act of the show, like men condemned to death in the arena, we are a spectacle to the world.” In the Roman triumph, you could see that there is a stark contrast between the victor at the front and the condemned at the back. And Paul is drawing just that kind of contrast between the spiritual lives that the Corinthians have fallen into and the spiritual life of an apostle of Christ.
The Corinthians, by their boasting, Paul says, seem to have everything they desire already. They have built their own kingdom and entered into it at the head of their own triumph. And in the way that only Paul can do he writes, “I wish that were indeed true, so that you might share it with me.” You all seem so very sensible, while I am just a fool. I am so weak, but you have power. You are honored, but I stand in disgrace. Even to this day, I Paul, wander from place to place, worn out with working for Christ’s sake. I am beaten, cursed, ridiculed, persecuted. Oh, how I wish I could share in your kingdom, the one you have made for yourselves.
At this point in his letter Paul drops the irony and becomes sincere. An apostle, when cursed by others, blesses. When persecuted, submits. When slandered, he makes peace. An apostle does not boast in anything apart from Jesus Christ.
Here is an image close to home. Not thirty minutes ago you all stood witness to a kind of triumph. You’ve seen it often enough. It begins with a gathering in that ambulatory where a captive offers a prayer. The musicians pipe the tune and a cohort sets off, all bound together in a single purpose; to give honor to the man of triumph. Each one processing, in some way, held captive, won over, enslaved, or bought at the price of blood. Bringing up the rear and wearing the various marks of his captivity, is an apostle. Often ridiculed and sometimes maligned, a spectacle for the universe, even for angels and men. And at the head of this band, every time and for all time, the one, true and only man of triumph.
Now, I want to say a word to our boys, especially to those who are to receive their surplices tonight. Early in the church’s history there arose a ritual in which a young man who was entering minor orders in the church, received two things. The first was the tonsure; his head was shaved. In those days one could distinguish the free from the slave by this token. The young man voluntarily submitted to this shearing as a sign of his own captivity to Christ. The second thing he received was his surplice, and it was given with these words: “May the Lord clothe thee with the new man, who was created in righteousness and true holiness after the image of God.” In some small way, in receiving this surplice tonight, you are submitting to this covering. And before you do, I ask you to behold the new man.
What kind of hero is this that we follow behind in procession? Does he wear his best stuff, a gilt robe, the gold and purple toga? I see a man stripped and adorned with the marks of the lash. Does his head bear a garland of laurel? No, I do see a prickly crown bunched upon his head. Ah, now here’s a similarity: our man is reddened from head to toe. But not red put on, but red poured out. What manner of victor is this that rides fixed to the beam in our every triumph? It is none other than the crucified Lord of heaven and earth. The empty, the humbled, the obedient one, who came down from heaven dragging it with him bringing it as a gift to us. Who brought our Father’s love flooding into a world drowning in its own vainglory.
What do you possess that was not given to you? Saint Augustine took up Paul’s question saying that he had tried to convince himself that it was man’s will to be saved that saved him, but in the end he came to know that it was God’s grace that won the day. We know God, not because we marched off and found him and brought him back with us, but because he willingly revealed himself to us in flesh and blood. We are not saved because we mastered our own destinies. Like the Corinthians we must accept the humbling truth that our salvation is a gift won for us by another. So what are we to do?
By gathering here tonight we are doing what Paul counseled the Corinthians to do; to remember. “The merciful and gracious Lord hath so done his marvelous works, that they ought to be had in remembrance. He sent redemption unto his people; he hath commanded his covenant for ever; holy and reverend is his Name.” When we remember what we have done and then remember what God has done, pride is ruled out. God has remembered us, he has fulfilled the promises of salvation made to our forefathers, to Abraham and his seed forever. He has fulfilled them in the man of triumph, his own son given for us. And so it is that we remember that our souls are owed to Jesus. All that is left is the hope we might walk behind him all the days of our life…. and our thanks.
