Not every one that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
The teaching of the Church for these Sundays after Trinity is always
a very practical Christianity, setting always before us the
practical demands of our life as Christians. How must we, as
Christians, live our life in this world? What must be our
attitudes? What must be the character of our relationships
with one another? What must be our hopes and expectations?
What must be our conduct in this or that situation?
Those are practical questions, and the Scripture lessons for this
Trinity season speak to such questions in a profoundly practical
way. But, of course, the answers are really practical for
us only in so far as we think seriously about their meaning, and
relate that meaning to the concrete circumstances of our life, as
individuals and as community. No one can really do that for
us. These lessons will be meaningful for us only
in so far as we give them our thoughtful and prayerful attention:
only in so far as we are ready to open our minds and hearts to
God's Word for us, here and now, in the practical
circumstances of our life.
As Jesus reminds us, in the Parable of the Sower, the word of God is
like seed, sown in our hearts. That seed must be cherished,
and nourished, and cultivated if it is to bring forth fruit.
It must not be starved by neglect, or choked by the weeds and thorns
and thistles of worldly busyness. So we should not just
hear these lessons in Church Sunday by Sunday: we must also
ponder them in our hearts day by day - think about them, and
pray about them, and try to conform our lives to their teaching.
Only if we can do that will they become genuinely practical teaching
for us.
Now, let's take a few minutes to think about the lessons appointed
for today, for this Eighth Sunday after Trinity. In the
Epistle lesson, from St. Paul's letter to the Romans, the Apostle
speaks of our divine sonship and our life in the Spirit. "For
as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."
But who are led by the Spirit of God? those who are
"debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the manner of the flesh":
that is to say those who are free from worldly conformities, and
live their life, and use this world for the glory of God. They
are led by the Spirit.
They are the sons of God. That is, of course, the very basis
and starting-point of our practical life as Christians. What
we could never do for ourselves, God does for us. "See,
beloved," says St. John, "what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God."
"What manner of love!" "Not the spirit of servitude," says
the Epistle, "not the spirit of servitude," of slavishness,
"but a spirit of sonship, in which we cry aloud, Abba, Father."
That is to say, we live not in the bondage of fear and constraint,
but in the free and willing obedience of God's household, as members
and heirs of the kingdom, who find our peace in his will.
We are children of God, and our Gospel lesson, from Jesus' Sermon on
the Mount, reminds us that we fulfill that calling by doing
the will of our Father. The lesson is really a very direct and
simple one:
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit.
The point is really very simple, we live as we do, and act as we do,
because of the kind of people we are. Saying Lord, Lord,
is not enough: we must be different people - led by the Spirit of
God, living in loving obedience to God's will.
The calendar of lessons for the Trinity season gives us, week by
week, practical guidance for living that way, as children of God,
and heirs of his kingdom. And we learn that it is only by the
gift of God's Spirit that such a life is possible. And so we
give ourselves to prayer - we place ourselves in the presence of
God, as in today's Collect:
O GOD, whose never-failing providence orders all things both in
heaven and earth: We humbly beseech thee to put away from us all
hurtful things, and to give us those things which be profitable
for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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