postID: 6936; title: The Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
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The Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Grant us, O Lord, we pray thee, to trust in thee with all our heart; seeing that, as thou dost alway resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so thou dost not forsake those who make their boast of thy mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 18)
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The Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): Romans 13:8-14
A Sermon by
Fr. Spurlock
on
Romans 13:8-14
✛
Confounding Vice by Cultivating Virtue
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The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
[Romans 13:12]
Our Director of Music, John Scott, and our assisting priest, Joel Daniels and your Curate, Michael Spurlock all profess to be Christians and they all go to church a lot. Now let’s say that Michael Spurlock does bad things. Bad, bad Michael! Joel Daniels doesn’t do bad things, but he doesn’t do good things either. We don’t know what to say about Joel. And let’s say that John Scott does good things. Well done, John.
Now, let’s say that Michael, Joel, and John play soccer. When they play, Michael is always committing fouls, incurring red cards, and being ejected from the game. He is a lousy soccer player. Joel just stands on the field. He never commits a foul, but he never scores any goals either. We don’t know what Joel’s doing out there, but it doesn’t look anything like soccer. John is a first-rate striker, plays by the rules, rarely commits fouls, and scores lots of goals. He is an excellent soccer player.
Now, let’s try this another way. Michael is a sinner. He is a great cultivator of all the vices. He thinks God is a killjoy, all those rules, no fun. Michael wants to do what Michael wants to do. And he does it, not minding the consequences to himself or the harm he causes to other people. He puts on a quite a show of being free and he thinks he’s living it up, but he is lost to God and to his fellow man, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Yes, Michael goes to church a lot, but he is a great hypocrite because he unsays with his life what he prays with his lips.
Joel might like to love God, but he is more afraid of making God angry. He’s not so sure that God isn’t out to get him and is paralyzed by this fear. Joel is tempted to sin and he does sin, by omission more than commission, but all that does is to intensify his fear. His life is formed towards avoiding punishment so that his only recourse is to work that much harder at not sinning lest he arouse God’s wrath. Joel tries with all his might to resist temptation and to not sin and it takes all his strength of body and soul, leaving nothing, no strength or will to love or to do good. He goes to church a lot too, but, he feels guilty if he doesn’t.
The paradox is that John is a sinner too, but he loves God with such a good love that his desires tend toward a different sort. By actively cultivating the virtues, the vices that Michael cultivates, are confounded in John, they can’t find any purchase in his life. They tempt John, but he resists them, firm in his faith. On those occasions when he is tempted and does sin, he humbles himself, repents, turning back to the Lord, trusting in his mercy and love. John loves God and seeks his will. These are good things that keep John free and safe. His love for God and the love that he feels from God help him to thrive and to be free. Though God always seems near to John, he is frequent at worship because in holy places he feels that God is especially near to him.
Now, whether you believe it or not, I am not as bad as all that. And Joel is much more disposed to loving God and doing good than I suggested, and poor John, I have set the bar very high for him. But you should all know that I was using hyperbole to make a point that there is a great difference between doing bad, not doing bad, and doing good. You see, there is no benefit to us claiming the title Christian, if our lives are given over to doing bad. Neither is it enough for us to claim the title Christian, if our lives are given over to nothing more than not doing bad. Rather the glory of being Christian comes from growing and progressing towards doing good.
Parents of children know this. Parents spend an inordinate amount of time barking hundreds of variations on the theme of don’t-do-that. If that is all a child ever heard from her parents, you can imagine how stifled and discouraged she might become. Afraid that anything and maybe everything she did was a potential violation of the rules. And so the only appropriate action seems to be inaction– to do nothing. On the other hand, if parents never said those sorts of things, children might come to great harm or to not learn how to live well, and to live well with others. So, a good parent at once watches and warns in an effort to act for the well-being of their child, but also knows to encourage much more than to discourage. Good parents teach their children to not just avoid wrong, but to do good.
And so it should be in the church. When the church is at its unhealthiest it teaches that you can do whatever you want and that there are no boundaries in the Christian life. When it is only slightly less unhealthy it consumes itself with sin and with the avoidance of sin. But, thou shalt not can’t be the sum total of the Christian life and if that’s all the church is doing its settling for half measures, and it’s not even the best half. “Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?’ As you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.” When the church is at its healthiest it encourages us at once to avoid sin both committed and omitted, and to do good instead. “Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?’ And the King will answer them, ‘As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’” Matt 24.34-46
After this service, stop by our baptismal font over by the chantry chapel. When the service is over it will be opened to reveal the wooden panels. On them you will see depictions of the virtues. And at the top of each panel you will find, written in Latin, the name of each virtue. Likewise, at the bottom, you will find, also in Latin, the vices, only the vices are written backwards. On one hand this is a visual device to show that the vices are reversals, opposing qualities, or perversions of the virtues. But, I rather like to think that the reason they are depicted the way they are is to teach us that the virtues actually confound and confuse the vices. And it teaches all of us who suffer temptation and sometimes give in to it, that the best remedy is not just to avoid the vices, but rather to cultivate the virtues.
To further strengthen that point, the virtues and the vices sit atop the baptismal font. The language of baptism includes rejection of Satan, dying to sin, and being cleansed from it. But it also includes, acceptance of Jesus, rebirth, and rising to new life in Jesus Christ. The Christian life would be no life at all if it only consisted of the former. But then again, it would do us no good to accept Jesus without rejecting Satan. Just as it does little good to sweep our souls clean of vices without making an effort to cultivate virtues.
Jesus once told his disciples about a demon who was cast out of a man. The demon wandered in the desert seeking some place to rest but could not find one. So the demon says to itself, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes to find the soul of the man swept, empty, and tidied up, it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there; such that the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Matt 12.43-46
The Lord told that story to the end that I have spoken to you today. It is a very good and holy thing to cast off the works of darkness, to sweep our spiritual houses clean. But left dormant and empty, the soul becomes a convenient dwelling place for any old thing that might choose to take up residence. Best to sweep it clean, and then set about filling it up with all goodness: prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance, faith hope, and the greatest of these, love. That makes for a full house, and a full life. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
