Beware of Covetousness: A Mediation on Luke 12 for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost

And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness:

for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

And he spake a parable unto them, saying,

The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:

And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do,

because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater;

and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods

laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee:

then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

 

Covetousness is a particularly dangerous evil, not only because it functions like idolatry in that the affections of man become fixated on creatures rather than the Creator, but because it distorts the mind into believing that temporal things outlast or have higher value than eternal things.  The life within man is eternal, and is accountable to the Eternal God from whom and to whom all things belong.  Jesus’ parable in Luke 13 makes the strong point that a soul whose focus is on the accumulation of temporal things without faithful service toward God, is a soul destined for calamity—a stripping away of everything that they thought had value, and the revelation that their poverty in eternal things was damnable.  Solomon made a similar observation in his writings when he noted that all the labors of man, when weighed in terms of material production are vanities without eternal consequence, and St. Paul would write much later to the Colossians that we must put our minds on things above, where Christ is, so that we might mortify the fleshly and temporal things which draw us away from God.  Covetousness is a disease of mind and soul, blinding the eyes, deafening the ears, and dulling the hearts of those who embrace it against the truth of their own existence.

 

Though not unique to our time, covetousness is rife in modernity.  Who among us has not thought to lay up treasure for future enjoyment?  Entire cottage industries have sprung up to facilitate ease in retirement, where a person might work many years to make as much material wealth as possible, place it in the right investment vehicles, and then perhaps like the fabled Dread Pirate Roberts, live out the remainder of their life like a king in Patagonia.  Advertisements abound for this investing house over that, for this methodology over another, for one billionaire’s book over someone else’s.  And like so many sins, the predators and purveyors of these schemes tend to enrich themselves on the greed of their clients, making investment fund managers and financial services titans some of the wealthiest in the history of the world.  All the while, we sell one house to build or buy another one bigger, to accumulate more sophisticated vehicles, toys, clothes, and vacation resort packages.  We add to our wine cabinets ever more exotic selections, and ensure our bars have increasingly expensive liquors.  We genetically engineer frivolous pets, then spend fortunes on them, funding for them veterinarian health care more extravagant than that available to over half the world’s human population.  All the while, we look forward to that day when we might sigh contentedly, Soul, thou hast much goods

laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

 

Of course, there’s no evil in material things by themselves.  A $100,000 truck is no more or less evil than a $200,000 sports car, or a $5M private jet.  Boats or recreational vehicles or vacation homes or five-star resorts are not evil in themselves, and neither are retirement accounts, mutual funds, or annuities.  The material world around us was made good, and the material things we assemble into various products or services are not in themselves evil, because we cannot undo the good work of our Creator.  Our hearts, on the other hand, being fallen and corrupt, tend to focus on material things in evil ways, where our own moral agency leads us to do evil with the materials we have at hand.  Our covetousness cannot change wood or stone or carbon fiber into anything morally different than the fundamental laws of physics they were composed from, as we can neither create nor destroy matter and energy.  What we can do is change ourselves by pursuing in disordered passion the elements of the creation, to disregard and disdain the Creator who formed both it and us.  It is our covetousness that causes us to see our transient financial pursuits as more important than the Eternal Word of the Living God, the eternal souls which surround us as our neighbors, and even the eternal destiny toward which we and all people inexorably press.  It is not the material world which is evil, but our own minds which are not conformed to the Mind of Christ, that reveal our evil in the way we use it.

 

Yet it is Christ who comes to rescue us from such calamitous evil.  As the Word of God Incarnate, Jesus comes to us that we might have the idols of our fallen minds dethroned, and our eyes opened to the true value of eternal things over the temporal.  It is Jesus who passed through His own created world without disordered passions for the material things around Him, and used those material things to teach His disciples enduring truth.  Knowing that life and ease in this world is nothing compared to fellowship with the One in whom all things consist, He guided all people toward a life which death could not overcome.  Even as evil mobs, political and religious leaders, and traitors within His own disciples conspired to murder Him through treachery and deceit, He went to His Cross willingly and lovingly that He might lay down His life for the world.  In so doing, our Lord became the sacrifice for our sins of covetousness, that His grace might abound to twisted and fallen creatures like us.  And in His rising, He became for us the life we could not gain for ourselves, the riches we could not gather, and the reunion with our Maker we could not earn.  Jesus not only taught us the path of life, warning us of the deadly consequences of putting our faith and hope in material things, but became for us the path of life, that every covetous person who would repent and put their faith in Him, might find grace and eternal life rather than condemnation.

 

It is Christ, the Logos of the Father, who comes to us by the power of His Holy Spirit, to transform our hearts and lift our minds toward Him, that we might live in Him by grace through faith here and now, and forever more.  Hear the Word of Christ call to your mind and soul that they may be daily harmonized with the Mind of Christ.  In that grace and truth, mortify the disordered passions which arise in you that would draw you away from the One who loves and saves you, that your mind and body may be conformed to Christ the Eternal Word.  Rise up each day in the Word of the Lord by faith, and rest each night in the grace which comes through faith and repentance in Him, until that Last Day when the evils which deceive us are forever imprisoned far from us, and our transformation which is begun in this world shall be complete in the world to come.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

Ask, Seek, Knock: A Meditation on Luke 11 for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place,

 when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him,

Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

 

And he said unto them, When ye pray, say,

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

Give us day by day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

…

And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you;

seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth;

and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?

or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children:

 how much more shall your heavenly Father

give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

 

In Luke 11, the disciples sensed a deficiency in themselves which they asked Jesus to fill by teaching them to pray.  Matthew records some additional details on this same encounter, but what is clear is Jesus’ immediate response to their request.  He taught them to make holy the Name of the Lord, and to recognize Him as their true Father; to pray for His Kingdom and will to be present among them; to receive their daily needs of body and soul; to receive forgiveness as freely as they would offer it to others; to be delivered from the paths of temptation and the wiles of the evil one.  These elements of prayer were wrapped up in His teaching that God, being good and the giver of all good gifts, far outshines any echoes of generosity exchanged between fallen men, even in the most tender of human relationships.  Jesus, in answering the disciples’ prayer that He would teach them to pray, answered their prayer with even more than they asked for:  not only did He give them a model for how to approach the King of the Universe with the burdens of their hearts, but He showed them how much their King loved them, and desired to do good for them.  The invitation to ask, to seek, and to knock would always be answered by God in ways far beyond even the best and most pious anticipations of mortals.

 

We might think it odd today that anyone would ask Jesus to teach them to pray, but it is, I think, a natural desire of every fallen heart to find a lost communion with their Maker, even when they have no idea how to do so.  Everything that exists has its origin, sustenance, and fulfillment in the God who created heaven and earth—all things, seen and unseen—and at some very deep level yearns for a compassionate connection with Him.  In the fall of man we distorted that connection by our own rebellion, and God has been at work restoring it ever since, ultimately in the life, death, and resurrection of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  In the simplicity of the disciples’ request that Jesus teach them to pray, there is a window into the whole human condition; a plaintive and desperate search for reconciliation with God, which God alone can give to them.  The disciples knew that they lacked something in their relationship with God, and they knew in at least some rudimentary way at this stage of their journey, that Jesus was the one who could fill that deficit.  On the other side of Easter and the blessing of Pentecost, they would come to know that fulfillment in ways that outpaced their every expectation.

 

It can be easy to rattle off the Lord’s Prayer without even considering the words we have spoken, or the God to whom we speak them.  The prayer Jesus taught His disciples was not a talisman or magic device to be used to adorn walls, or chanted repetitiously in some ancient ritual.  The Prayer was not intended to manipulate God to our fallen will, but to teach the disciples that God’s disposition toward them was already one of love and grace for Jesus’ sake, and that they should be transformed in that love and grace to reflect Him.  Most certainly, God’s Name is holy everywhere, at all times, throughout all creation—but the disciples are called to hallow that Name among themselves; God’s Kingdom has always reigned, and it shall come according to God’s good will and timing—but the disciples are taught to ask for that Kingdom to be present and manifest among them right there, right now; the will of God will always be done, and there is no force in all creation which can stop Him—but the disciples are lead to actively live in that will, to be part of that will, and to have their own wills conformed to His will, on earth as are the hosts of heaven; it is God who always provides the source of life to all His creatures—but the disciples are taught to seek in faith the nourishment of their souls from Him who alone gives them life; it is God alone who can forgive the sins of fallen man—but the disciples are led to take the forgiveness they are given, and give it to others as freely as they have received it from their Savior; God is never the author of temptation, nor is the evil one ever victor over Him—but the disciples are taught to find their guidance and victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil through Christ alone.  This model of prayer is pure Gospel, leading the penitent and humble heart by faith to receive in grace all the good gifts our loving God has prepared for us through His Son.

 

We should not be surprised, either by the depth of riches Jesus provided to His disciples through His teaching on prayer, nor by the way fallen people have misused or ignored it over the centuries.  As in Jesus’ day when He walked around Judea with His disciples, or in our day when He walks among His disciples in every land, He continues to teach every willing heart and lead every broken sinner back to fellowship with their Maker.  Jesus alone could make the satisfaction necessary to restore that broken fellowship each and every soul longs to receive, and only in Jesus is the longing of every heart to commune with God made whole.  Jesus alone has stood between us and the judgment we so rightly deserve, and Jesus alone has risen victorious over every foe of mankind.  Only Jesus has received the totality of the Kingdom of God from His Father, and only Jesus is the Eternal Word of the Father speaking forgiveness, life, and salvation to all who will put their trust in Him.  Only Jesus is both the teacher and the fulfiller of prayer to God, so that everyone who askes of Him shall receive, all who seek of Him shall find, making His Father’s Kingdom an open portal to all who knock upon the doors in faith and repentance.  Every generation has much to learn from Jesus their Savior, not least the answer to our heart’s travail in learning how to pray.

 

Hear the Word of the Lord Jesus come to you today, that you might learn more deeply of the love which seeks, saves, and leads you into that divine fellowship for which you were made.  Hear the words of Jesus’ echo through your own heart, mind, and mouth as you pray the prayer He has taught His people, that your own soul might be enlivened by Him, and His Words become your words.  Then by grace through faith, risen and restored and free, become the instrument of His Words to all around you.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

One Thing to Seek: A Meditation on Psalm 27 for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes,

came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear:

though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after;

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion:

in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me;

he shall set me up upon a rock.

And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me:

therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy;

I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice:

have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face;

my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.

Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger:

thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.

When my father and my mother forsake me,

then the Lord will take me up.

Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.

 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies:

for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart:

wait, I say, on the Lord.

 

King David, living roughly 1000 years before the time of Jesus’ Incarnation, had certainly seen his share of enemies.  As a child, he stood before the massing armies of Philistia to defeat their champion Goliath in mortal combat; as a young man, after King Saul lost his mind and his anointing from God, he was pursued by palace intrigue and nearly murdered multiple times; having fought for his country, his leaders attacked him as a threat to their ambitions, leading him into exile; pursued by evil political forces, he lived as a refugee in the deserts; after ascending to the throne, he fought almost constantly to secure the nation of Israel against every rising enemy; and near the end of his life, his various sons vied for the throne before he established Solomon as his heir.  Yet throughout his life of war and hardship, of service to God and His people, of virtuous success and calamitous vice, his heart was rooted in God his Savior.  He was a man of faith and repentance, of courage and conviction, and one who knew from whence his hope must come.

 

David’s life and hope are instructive for every generation, and not just to kings.  It is important to note that David’s anointing was particular to him for his time and his work, and not every person is anointed by God to be a warrior king, nor to be the foreshadowing and forefather of the great Messiah.  Yet the faith of David is pertinent to all souls in every time and every place, because every person will find themselves surrounded by enemies at some point in their lives.  Indeed, the enemies of mankind, those who pursue the destruction and desecration of life in a suicidal rebellion against the Author of Life, are near at hand no matter where a person goes in this world.  It was true in the time of David, just at it was in the time of Abraham and Moses before him, and in the times of the Prophets and Apostles which came after him.  David, like each person who is born into this fallen world, is created and appointed by God for their time and their place, and each person will be beset by enemies of their Creator until their time in this world is done.  As soon as life is conceived, death lurks at the door of the womb, and the agents of death will not relent in their pursuit until each life ended, either sooner or later.  Death, empowered by the sinful nature inherited by each fallen person, and weaponized by the devil to terrify every fallen soul, will pursue and overtake us all.  It is an enemy we cannot escape, one which surrounds us everywhere we go.

 

In this world, though all people are hunted by death, not all embrace it as an ally.  In our day and age, there are those who think death is a good tool of control for their enemies, for the securing of their own temporary comfort, or the establishment of political empire.  There are those who use it to murder children and prevent the responsibilities of parenthood; those who unleash evil criminals onto the streets to torment and destroy the lives of others; those who foment riots and insurrections to forward political ambitions; those who poison the earth and whole communities to eek out a few dollars more profit; those who promote assassinations and fire bombings and beatings of the defenseless and the shoving of unsuspecting travelers onto the railways of oncoming subway trains; those who burn churches which declare ancient truth against contemporary lies, who destroy the reputations and livelihoods of honest workers, those who corrupt the morals of children, and destroy the foundations of civilization.  These forces have been with us ever since we unleashed them on the world through our fall into sin, and they will be harassing us until the Last Day.  Until then, God has given us a choice as to how we will meet them:  either in His strength and glory by grace through faith in Christ alone, or in the fear and turpitude of our own weak bodies and minds.

 

Like David, the Word and Spirit of the Lord come to each of us in our times and places, and call us to seek our Savior first above all things.  God knows that the enemies we have acquired by our own sin, we cannot defeat—so He has defeated them for us.  It is Christ alone who has descended from heavenly glory to take our human nature into His divinity, to be surrounded and hounded and murdered in our place, that He might take the sins of the whole world upon Himself and make satisfaction for us.  It is Christ alone who has gained the victory over sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil by rising from the dead, breathing upon His people a peace which can only come through His forgiveness and grace.  Jesus alone is the Word of Life which swallows up death, which if any man will hold by faith, even if he die, he will live forever in Him.  Jesus alone is the One who stands with us when we are surrounded by the countless enemies of life, shepherding us through the valley of the shadow of death, where we need fear no evil.  Jesus is the one who strengthens our hands and feet for the duty of service we are called to give according to our vocations, and steels our minds with courage to meet any foe.  Jesus Christ, the Lord of Hosts, Victor over every enemy of man, is the One whose face we are called to seek, and the One to whom our hearts respond, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.

 

If the enemies of life have surrounded you, be of good cheer:  your Savior is close to you, to lead and to guide you, and to give you the victory He has won for you through His Cross.  He has faced all your enemies and vanquished them, that at His visage and before His Word every knee shall bow and every mouth shall confess that Jesus is truly Lord of all.  His life has become your life, His suffering your suffering, His resurrection your resurrection, His strength and compassion and mercy and forgiveness, all yours.  By grace through faith in Jesus alone, your head shall be lifted over every craven enemy of life, and you shall dwell secure in Him no matter where your steps take you in this life and the next.  With David we wait upon the Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, and in Him we rejoice, for:

 

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

 

Amen.

 

Love that Lives: A Meditation on Luke 10 for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost

And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying,

Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,

 and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind;

and thy neighbour as thyself.

And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right:

this do, and thou shalt live.

 

The opening verses to the parable of the Good Samaritan help set the stage for why Jesus offered it.  Confronted by a lawyer (a religious scholar who worked with the Pharisees, basing their studies on 1500 years of Torah and Traditions at the time,) Jesus was being tested by the academics of His day.  And far from being just an academic debate, the Pharisees and Lawyers were trying to discredit Jesus in the eyes of both the common people, and the Roman authorities.  Their game was to ask questions in such a way that any normal answer would create division and animosity, which they could then use to accuse Jesus of something that one faction or another would use against Him.  Jesus turned their game back around on them in this instance by suggesting the Lawyer give his reading from the Law of Moses, which would have been in his proverbial wheel house.  When Jesus affirmed the Lawyer’s answer that full and total love of God and neighbor were sufficient for eternal life, the Lawyer immediately recognized his jeopardy.  The love of God might be hard to pin down practically, or obscured by philosophical arguments, but the love of neighbor was practical and visible, and he needed a way out—so he asked Jesus who qualified as his neighbor that he must love.

 

Once again, Jesus set the Lawyer up to answer his own question from the perspective of the Law.  The story of the Good Samaritan is less about the characters described (an unlucky traveler, murderous thieves, unmoved priests and Levites, the compassionate foreigner from Samaria, etc.,) and more about showing the Lawyer the answer to his question, “Who is my neighbor?”  Having squirmed when Jesus told him do this, and you will live, the Lawyer was then presented with the clear principle of action:  his neighbor was anyone in need, who he had power, resources, and opportunity to aid.  Even the Lawyer had to admit that the Samaritan traveler was the one who loved his neighbor, because he tended to the wounded man’s need from his own resources and opportunity.  The Levite and the priest, perhaps consumed with the idea that their religious service was a higher priority than physical tending of a wounded man on the side of the road, showed their failure to keep the Mosaic Law.  Only the Samaritan demonstrated love for their neighbor, because he rightly perceived the duty of love in the need of those around him.  Jesus left the Lawyer exposed and judged by his own words when He commanded the Lawyer to go and do likewise.  Whatever linguistic trap the Lawyer had devised for Jesus was now snapped shut on himself, as the demands of the Law showed him just how far from eternal life he really was.

 

This is instructive for us today, both for the purpose of revealing the true nature of the Law’s demands upon us, and our miserable failure to keep it.  Love demands of us everything, from the deepest recesses of our minds and souls, to every word and deed we either do or refrain from doing.  The totality of love we are called to have for God, that it is our duty as His creatures to love Him with all the strength of our every faculty at all times and all places, is something we are incapable of doing in our fallen state.  We might deceive ourselves into thinking we’ve done this well enough, perhaps loving God with most of our minds some of the time, and who can climb into our minds to know the difference?  If we just make the right social media posts, say the right things and wear the right clothes, go to the right places at the right times, people will just assume we’re holy on the inside—or maybe we’ll just fool those around us into thinking we’re holier than they are.  Since only God can truly see our hearts and minds, our self-delusion seems safe from outside critique, at least until Judgment Day—but our duty to love our neighbors is much more difficult to hide.  The practical wounds of people around us need practical bandaging, just as real thirst and hunger and exposure to the elements need real water, food, and shelter.  Broken consciences need real forgiveness and wounded spirits need real healing.  Our neighbors around us have real and present needs that call us to actually do something to help them.  Love is not a passive or purely philosophical concept, but a living, breathing, moving, acting thing in those who posses it, and this is the demand of the Law to love our neighbors as ourselves.

 

Like the Lawyer, we must find ourselves stripped bare by the Law if we attempt to justify ourselves with it.  There is no fallen man, woman, or child who has perfectly loved God and their neighbor, and thus fulfilled the Law.  And what is more, our failures to physically manifest love toward our neighbors according to their needs is just a dim reflection of our much greater failure to love God above all things with all the powers of our being.  Jesus’ Word is absolutely true:  if we perfectly love, we will live.  But we do not do these things, and thus we find ourselves in confession and contrition each day before the holy Law of God, begging of Him to have mercy on us.  And thanks be to God, that Jesus becomes this mercy toward us.  Where our love is broken, selfish, and failing, Jesus’ love is total, complete, and selfless.  Jesus’ love is not just a philosophical idea or mushy sentiment, but true love in action which comes to meet our most desperate need.  Jesus’ love moved Him to take our flesh upon Himself, that He might live, die, and rise again for us.  Jesus’ love was one of action, placing Himself under the wrath we deserve, so that we might receive the grace we need.  Jesus’ love cost Him everything, so that He might offer to us the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation from every evil both inside and outside of us.

 

What the Law commands of us is good, and we are right to strive for it with all the powers we are given.  We are right to work in every moment of our lives to love God above all things, and to find love’s duty in the needs of our neighbors.  Yet we are not called to find our justification there, as we know that only Jesus’ love given to us can rescue us from this body of sin and death.  While the Law is always good, it cannot save sinful creatures who are unable to keep it perfectly.  It is our Savior alone who has done all things well, who has accomplished what we cannot, and gives His gifts to us by grace that we might live in Him by faith.  Hear Him as He calls to you today, His love reaching across the chasm of your sin to reconcile you to the Father, and enliven you with His Holy Spirit, that you might live forever in Him.  Then lift your eyes to see your neighbors who need Jesus just as much as you do, and share with them the medicine of immortality which alone saves us all.  Amen.

 

We Reap What We Sow: A Meditation on Galatians 6 for the 4th Sunday after Pentecost

Be not deceived; God is not mocked:

for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;

but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

And let us not be weary in well doing:

for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men,

especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

 

St. Paul’s concluding thoughts at the end of his letter to the church in Galatia cannot be taken apart from his opening and main themes throughout the epistle, and thus we know that he is not encouraging anyone to save themselves by their works.  Justification before God is always and only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and Paul is clear that anyone who thinks that they may justify themselves by returning to the Law of Moses, is cut off from the saving grace of Jesus.  When Paul says that all people will reap what they sow—either from works of unbelief to gratify fleshly lust, or from works of faith in harmony with the Word and Spirit of Jesus—he means that our life in Christ is not just an abstract concept, but a living reality.  True and saving faith is always found producing the good works of the Spirit which conform to the Word of God, while unbelief is always found producing selfish works which rebel against the Word of God.  A life in this world lived in the Word and Spirit of God is a life that endures beyond physical death into eternal hope and glory, while a life spent living to one’s self will find in death a door to eternal suffering and judgment.  In this, St. Paul and St. James would agree—the presumption of faith without good works is a dead thing that saves no one.

 

This is a particularly poignant message for the church to remember, and for the world to hear.  Our age is awash in selfish ambition, and each decade over the last century has seen advances in science, technology, industry, entertainment, and politics that revolve around self-gratification.  Our science and technology feed our insatiable desire for comfort and avoidance of the consequences of our lifestyles; our industry revolves around self-interest, and our entertainment is an exercise in distraction, debauchery, and escapism; our politics cater to narratives of personal grievance and to pursuits of power for one person or group over another.  As the fear of God has diminished in the public sphere, it has been replaced with man as the measure of all things, bringing to full flower a rotten ideology in which makes of each person their own god, biting and devouring one another in their insatiable appetites.  We ought not flinch in our thinking regarding such things, as it is an inescapable Law of both God and Nature that individuals and societies will reap what they sow.  God is not mocked, and those who reject Him do so at their own peril, trading His grace for His judgment.  If man makes himself the measure of all things, he will find himself falling woefully short of the goodness, righteousness, glory, and virtue of his Creator.  In this the fruit of a rotten tree becomes indicative of the fate of the tree, left in the end with nothing but fire to consume it from the earth.

 

Yet there is a better path.  While fallen man cannot by his own power, resources, or wit manage to save himself, it is God who comes to seek and to save man.  This is the good news of the Gospel which St. Paul elsewhere articulated, that while we were yet sinners—while still trying to make ourselves into twisted versions of impotent gods, satisfying our own lusts, and earning nothing but wrath from our Creator—Christ Jesus died for us.  Jesus did not give His life as a ransom for a world that did not need saving, but in selfless love gave His life for a world which could be saved no other way.  The Gospel is not exclusionary because Christians think they are better than everyone else, but because any biblically faithful Christian knows that apart from Jesus there is no hope in the world at all.  Only the Word and Spirit of Jesus offer true forgiveness, life, and salvation which raise us up into new creations.  It is this Word and Spirit which gives us a new birth, a new nature, in harmony with our Eternal God and King.  This is a life which reflects the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth, marked with faith in His Word and repentance for our failures.  The life of the Spirit differs as much from the life of the flesh as day differs from night, but it is a difference which originates from a reborn heart and mind.

 

In this way we remember of ourselves that it is not the fruit which bears the tree, but the tree which bears the fruit:  we are either born from above by the Spirit of the living God through faith, or we are dead in our trespasses and sins through rebellion.  The fruit of our works will provide the seeds of what we plant in this world, and those seeds will either grow up to a bountiful harvest of goodness and righteousness, or into a poisonous, ruinous yield.  Either way, the harvest of our works is related back to the nature of the fruit, which is tied to the nature of the tree… which is either rooted in Jesus, or something else.  We will reap what we sow, whether it is born of faith and grace, or unbelief and judgment, leaving the faithful to give all glory to God for the good He has graciously worked through them, and the self-idolatrous to concede the glory of God even as He judges them in righteousness according to the quality of their works.  This is why the Christian ought to focus less on the harvest of their works, the quality of their fruit, or the judgment which is coming upon the wicked, because what really matters is whether or not each person has been reborn in Jesus as a new creation, alive and sustained by grace through faith.  With our eyes on Jesus, our ears hearing His Word, our hearts and minds trusting and believing in Him, He will continue to reform us into His image, and to bring forth through us those works of faith which are pleasing to Him.

 

Here rests the Christian in the blessing and grace of Jesus’ Vicarious Atonement for the sins of the world, in His power working through the faithful that they might have new life in His Name, and that at the end of time a harvest will be reaped according to that same unconquerable grace.  The Christian does not seek to justify himself by his works, but knows that God will work through him by grace through faith to produce the good works ordained for him from before the foundation of the world.  And where the Christian finds fault in himself and his works, where unbelief brings forth rebellion and sin, there the Christian falls down in faith and repentance, seeking the promise of forgiveness found only in Jesus’ most holy blood, shed for him.  And there, as always, the Gospel of Jesus reclaims and enlivens every soul which puts their trust in Him, that they might rise up in service once again, and unto ages of ages without end.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.