“Friend, go up higher.” Sermon Notes for 17th Sunday after Trinity, 12 October 2025, the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide (J.Ogles)
Prayer of Collect.
LORD, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O God, my Strength and my Redeemer. Amen
Both the Gospel and epistle text for this day reflect the grace and humility besought in our Prayer of Collect.
Today’s Collect reminds me of a fundamental principle of learning – there are others, but this one is applicable to today’s Collect. That principle is “repetition aids retention”. It was one of those laws with which I became intimately familiar and one which I employed to great effect in my career in the training and education of military aviators.
A maneuver often repeated will be remembered easily. A certain rule of meteorology, or of aerodynamics, often repeated and tested, will be retained over the lifetime of the military pilot. The Bible itself is a monument to this principle. We see the same principles of salvation, redemption, sanctification, etc., featured in multi-faceted accounts throughout the Holy Bible, and much to our profit. The same is true of the Collects which are, themselves, based on scriptural truths.
The salient point of all three of our readings (including the Prayer of Collect) centers on ‘HUMILITY.’ This is written large in both the epistle and the Gospel. It is an essential characteristic of the committed Christian, but one most often unheeded by both the laity and the clergy of our churches today. How many ministers boast of the number of souls ‘they’ have led to the Lord, or the great growth they have fostered in their churches much like the vanity of the Taj Mahal. Perhaps they have rejected the counsel of the Lord in Psalms 127:1 "Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."
Paul opens his Epistle (Ephesians 4) with an appeal to humility. He uses the term ‘prisoner’ metaphorically to demonstrate the spirit of humility; however, no one is truly a prisoner in Christ for He came to set the captives free. The office of the prisoner is to obey and follow the master of the prison house. We too, are now in a different kind of bondage – that of love which binds us in obedience and humility before Christ our Lord. Being one with Christ entails not only following Him, but loving Him and our brothers and sisters in Christ. This binds us together as One with Him, the Father, and the Holy Ghost. In every walk of life, the Christian must be aware that God is his Father and deport himself according to that likeness that a sibling has for the parent.
The Gospel text reminds us that God is forever calling us to a ‘higher’ place; but that calling is issued to the humble in spirit. The prideful heart assumes its own righteousness which is as “filthy rags” before God the Father. We shall not go up higher in such discordant apparel. It is nearly impossible for the prideful heart to recognize his own depravity while still in his pride “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6
We must remember, as members of the One Body of Christ, that good works are always pleasing to God, but certainly not the means whereby we are save. We are saved unto good works and not ‘BY’ good works. Salvation is a free gift of grace. Our works after salvation should reflect that imputed righteousness that is in Christ alone. There is no time of day, night, or Sabbath in which good works are not favorable to our Lord, but always lawful at all times in Christ.
Just as the chief Pharisee observed the every move of Christ at the supper described in Luke 14, so does the world observe the Christian believer with the eyes of an eagle. Every move is examined and critiqued. Any flaw is magnified seven times seventy in the eyes of the world who seek reasons for unbelief.
When our Lord put the question to his detractors, “Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?” They could not answer for to answer would incriminate them and justify Christ in the ears of the listeners.
I have lived many years on God’s green earth, and I have yet to observe a truly great man of God boast of his accomplishments for he gives all glory to God. A great leader never needs to boast of his accomplishments, either, for the world will note his unspoken accomplishments with greater respect.
God’s calls us to come up higher because the recipient of His grace must know that his place is the lowest among all the throngs surrounding him. It is when we have placed ourselves at the lowest point of righteousness that Christ will call us to come up higher. Even then, we must remember that the call was made by the discretion of Christ and not our own doing. Therefore, even when called to a higher place in Christ, we must remain humble a consider ourselves to be truly unworthy of the call. Au contrare, when we lift our chins high in pride, the Lord will consider us to be the lowest of the company. The Lord hates a prideful heart above the seven cardinal sins for pride leads to all the other sins contemplated.
The only time that we are worthy of our call in Christ is at the moment in which we realize that we are, in truth, comletely unworthy. That is the kind of heart that is malleable in the hands of the Potter of Souls.
“But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Our pride acts as the world’s gravity to pull us down; but humility responds to the magnetic pull from on High to draw us higher and higher unto the Narrow Way.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN
