LAY READER SERMON for 4th Sunday after Easter, 18 May 2025 Anno Domini, Church of the Redeemer (taken from texts for Evening Prayer)
The Collect
The Fourth Sunday after Easter
O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men; Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
There is but one unifying quality that unites law and grace – and that is the quality of love of which our Collect speaks. It is true, according to the Proverb, that love covers ALL sin. (Proverbs 10:12) Can one love a parent and intentional do anything that would bring hurt or shame upon them? I think not, and neither does one who loves, God intentionally do anything that would bring hurt or shame upon the name of the Lord – or even the creatures of His making.
God is Sovereign over His Creation and it is by His grace that salvation is all of His doing and none of ours. We must have the same love and heartfelt desire to keep the Law of God as did David the Psalmist: “O how Love I thy Law! It is my meditation all day.” Psalm 119:97 As the compass is fixed on magnetic north, so must our hearts be fixed on God and His Law in spite of mundane variations of worldly distractions.
Paul, in his 1st epistle to the Thessalonians, offers counsel of personal discipline to the believer. “And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.” (1 Thes 4:11) The work of the hands of the believer is not his own doing, but rather that of Christ working through and in his members. Concerning things of the world, we remain silent and undeterred by the wiles of the devil and his dark artifices. When the wedding trumpet sounds, the Bride of Christ will arise, both from the grave and from the living, to be with Christ forever – no longer subject to the sinful enticements of the world.
In our Gospel text from the Gospel of St. John 8, Christ declares Himself to be the Light of the world. To those hearts that are owned by the grace and love of Christ, there comes no smothering darkness to obscure the path, for Christ is Light itself. “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Some doubtful commentators have claimed a contradiction in God’s Word here as compared to the Gospel of St. Matthew 5:14. “14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and tglorify your Father which is in heaven.” Such an interpretation misses the beauty of our Lord’s teaching.
So, I ask you: how can Christ be the Light of the World and His disciples as well be the light of the world? Christ is our Sun of Righteousness by which all truth is revealed. He alone is that Light; however, we are lower lights whose beams reflect that Light of the World which Christ is. If any physical or spiritual consideration come between that Light Source and the believer, the light of life is obscured in darkness.
Jesus castigated the false understandings of the Pharisees. “Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me.” Vs 15-16
Christ judges by one standard – that of truth and righteousness. It was by the Word of the Father that Jesus vanquished the Devil in the Wilderness, and it is by the Word of God (of which Christ is the personification) that our Lord executes judgment. But has not the Lord commanded us to “judge not that ye be not judged?” The modern church makes this the banner above all other truths; however, they omit the sequell to this verse: “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
What do these last verses tell us from John 7? We are told that we are not credible to judge sin while we, at the same times, are made unclean with sin. We cannot judge another for adultery if we ourselves are adulterers. If we completely were disarmed to judge, how could we ever know the difference between sin and righteousness. There is only one true definition of sin – the transgression of the Law. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." (1 John 3:4) The modern church is made sterile to judge against sin owing to that misapplication of the law of judgment. In fact, our Lord commands us in more places than one to judge, but to judge with RIGHTEOUS judgment. “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” (see John 7:24 & 1 Corinthians 6:1-4)
What, then, is righteous judgment? It is judgment based on God’s Word and not rumor, or personal opinion based perhaps on jealous prejudice or evil intent. If God labels a certain behavior as a sin, we must agree with God in calling that behavior or lifestyle a sin. This has led to the swamping of the Ship of the Church. The Church, like the ship, is made to navigate the sea waters of the world. It carries valuable comfort to the sin-sick world. It operates perfectly well in the waters of the world but, when the waters of the sea get into the ship, it will sink to greater depths than the sea itself. If one can distinguish Gospel Truth from the false teaching of the modern church, you cannot but realize that the church has lost its ability to judge and condemn sin. Instead of spreading the Gospel truth to the world, it has accepted the deceitful values of the world in both truth, music and reverence in worship.
Friends and fellow believers, we are not of this world even while we are IN this world. Neither was Christ of this world and those of us who believe are in Christ. Our Lord has confirmed His Lordship and worth to redeem us of our sins by His being lifted up on the cross as the brazen serpent of the wilderness was lifted up in the congregation of the people. All of Israel who were bitten by the serpent (fer-de-lance), or Satan, would die lest they beheld the brazen serpent on the pole. Beholding that example of Christ on the cross brought life and healing then just as it does today.
Abraham looked forward in faith to that Cross at Calvary and was saved thereby. So, we of our age look back to the accomplished fact of Christ crucified and, by faith and grace, we, too, are saved.
