The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.
The Collect.
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EEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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ND we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
What are those things that profit us and ground us firmly in the salvation of God offered in Jesus Christ? If you could name JUST ONE quality, what would it be? Do you possess those things which are profitable to your salvation? Would it be perfect obedience to the law of God, or courageousness in living, or possessing a thousand good gifts of the Spirit? What is the ONE blessing that bears fruit in all things and upon which all things depend for your salvation? Which ONE quality describes the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost most fully?
KEEP, we beseech thee O Lord, thy church with thy perpetual mercy. If the LORD keeps us in mercy, then perhaps mercy might be that one quality, but it is NOT! It is God’s mercy that grants us salvation, but that mercy rests upon an even greater principle. For what cause would God keep us with His perpetual mercy. May I suggest that it is LOVE whereby God is governed in His keeping, mercy, and grace! As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:9-13) Love appears no less than eight times in the four verses above. It is the essence of God’s nature to His people.
Herein lies a sobering question: What one thing can you carry with you when you depart this life? Is it wealth, social status, popularity, political power, good works? No none of these will accompany you beyond Jordan Waters. Then what? It is simply LOVE! And this is not JUST love, but Love in Christ Jesus: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39) Did you notice that LOVE will survive EVEN DEATH?
……because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall This Collect emphasizes the need of the whole church for God’s guidance as well as the need of the individual man whose frailty and hopelessness without that guidance and help would render him doomed. The Collect was first uttered at a time when the Roman Empire was being invaded by barbarians from the north and which threatened even the Church itself. This Collect points to God as our Shepherd in guiding us in all times and circumstances.
…..keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful The Good Shepherd stands watch over His flock to protect it from the wolves, lions, and thieves. His first concern is to protect His flock from hurt or injury just as the rule of the good physician is to ‘first do no harm.’ He has given us a powerful protection in His Word itself. If we commit those words to heart, we shall never be deceived by wolves in sheep’s clothing. If we hide these in our hearts, we shall not sin against God. Man without God is in a ruined state already; therefore, man must have God to keep him and lead him where he ought to go.
We have petitioned for help and protection, and that is the desire of our Lord to perform. But we next ask another important consideration: ….and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation. Those ‘all things profitable’ are founded on that beautiful love chapter of the New Testament – 1 Corinthians 13. Our Shepherd will not only protect us where we are presently, but lead into greater and better pasturelands and fountains of water. As He keeps the lone sheep on the lonely mountain, so He keeps the whole flock – the Church – inviolate. He is the Good Shepherd that KEEPS and LEADS His people and Church. Just as a magnet knows only those metals of like nature to attract, so the Good Shepherd His Sheep. And just as the ore of a like metal is attracted to the magnet, so the people of God are pulled and led by the Good Shepherd whose nature they must share in Love.
The Gospel
Matthew 6:24-34
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O man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
The Sermon itself
We see throughout the Holy Bible that we are presented a choice between two realities:
There are but two families upon the earth:
1. The family God
2. The family of the damned
There were Two Trees in the Garden:
1. The Tree of Life representing Jesus Christ
2. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil representing Law which cannot save us
There are but two paths, one of which we all shall travel:
1. The straight and narrow ¶ “Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” (Matt 7:14)
2. The Broad Way filled with people and going down to destruction Matt 7:13 “Enter ye in at the strait1 gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:”
And now, the Lord has pointed out two Masters, only one of which we can claim as our own:
1. God whose yoke is light and easy to be born (Matt 11:28 -30) Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Take my yoke upon you,1 and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
2. And the way of Mammon (worldly riches): Matt 13:22 – He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
3. We do not like either of these choices, we want a third way that does not exist. We ask ourselves, in moments of greed and weakness: “Could I not claim this bit of unearned wealth and still be gracious unto God?” The answer of course is always no. Any thing ill-gotten cannot satisfy a Holy God.
But we must go into the matter still further than that: Anything gotten outside the will of God cannot please Him – honestly acquired or otherwise.
The determinate principle is our motive in the getting and using of our possessions, and the manner with which we view them.
Let us examine verses 25-32 with a view of gleaning the deeper meaning our Lord conveys therein:
· Christ is telling us that there are two ways with which to view the future.
· He certainly does not mean that we should not exercise due foresight in providing for our family, our professions, our education, our food, etc.
· Foresight aids us in our daily walk with the Lord.
· We have our Bible study plans, our General Conventions, our Morning/Evening Worship, Our Holy Communion Service, our family budgets – all these things are results of careful planning and foresight. They free our minds of worry and undue concern so that we can concentrate our thoughts on Christ – morning, noonday, and evening.
· But neither does He mean that we should view the future in fear and foreboding.
· Foresight and foreboding are two very different things. Each opposed to the other:
· The more a man looks forward in the exercise of foresight, the less he does so in the exercise of foreboding.
· And the more he is tortured by anxious thoughts about a possible future, the less clear vision has he of a likely future, and the less power to influence it.
When Christ here, therefore, enjoins the abstinence from thought for our life and for the future, it is not for the sake of getting away from the pressure of a very unpleasant command that we say, He does not mean to prevent the exercise of wise and provident foresight and preparation for what is to come.
The idea is, therefore, that here it is forbidden for a Christian, not the careful preparation for what is likely to come, not the foresight of the storm and taking in sail while yet there is time, but we are herein counseled against the constant occupation and distraction of the heart with gazing forward, and fearing and being weakened thereby; or to come back to words already used, foresight is commanded, and, therefore, foreboding is forbidden
Why does Christ tell us these things regarding our love for Mammon?
‘Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?’ (vss 25)
LIFE! The object of our faith in Christ is not the material riches He will bestow upon us, but LIFE itself – and that eternal.
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HE thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)
When we are born into this world, we must depend upon our mothers and fathers to provide our every need. In fact, they gave us life as ministers of the Creator God.
As children of our parents, we inherit all that our parents have – a nice home, good and fresh meals, clothes to cover our nakedness, careful protection – all come- not through our labors, but as a result of to whom we belong as children.
Without our parents to love and care for us when we are young, what prospect would we have for the future? The worries of all our necessities do not belong to the child, but the parent.
So likewise with the Christian. He allows God to do his worrying and accepts the life offered through the Redeeming Blood of Christ. That is our means to life, and our assurance of the future life in Eternity.
Seek first to be born into the Kingdom of God (just as you were all born into loving, caring families here on earth) and all your necessities will be provided – ALL!
Just as your good parents know what things you have need of, so does the Heavenly Father know your needs and desires.
No one in this church has parents who will not provide food and clothing to them. Because of the bond of love a parent has for his/her children, just so much more love does the Father in Heaven have for you.
Not only does the Father love you with an unending Love, but He is one who is able to enforce that Love through the gifts of His Heart to you who love Him.
And why do we love Him?
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HERE is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:18-19)
Who is your God? Mammon or God the Father?
Do you love the things of this world: parties, fashions, money, romance………anything… more than you Father in Heaven?
Do you spend more time thinking on the vain and material than you do about the one who created you
Serious questions for a serious matter……..
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E sober; be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast1 in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect,1stablish, strengthen, settle you. (1 Peter 5:8-10)
He will promise you the world, but in the end, destroy your soul.
Turn to God each waking moment, for it is who is able
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HEREFORE he is able also to save them to the uttermost1 that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)
Mammon or God?
Which is it in your life?
