SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 2020
 
COLLECT
Lord God, let your continual pity cleanse and defend your Church we humbly pray; and because it cannot continue in safety without your aid, always preserve and protect it by your help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
 
LESSONS
Ephesians 3 : 13 - 21
 
I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
 
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
 
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
 
 
DIVINE DIMENSIONS - IMMEASURABLE
Our minds are locked into dimensions. Everything is a matter of size, proportions, mass, extension, area. We are constitutionally compelled to observe all things, visible and invisible by measure. That which is infinite is beyond our grasp. Our perception inevitably balks at limits and boundaries, and even if we attempt in our minds to leap over these restrictions toward a notion of the infinite we can only think in terms of successive stages, portions, degrees. Extension is irrelevant to infinitude, to the concept of unceasing endlessness because it cannot be curbed, cut short. Infinity rolls on continuously - width, length, height, depth. We are out of breath and our minds are befuddled by a reality we cannot assess or contain. The immensity of God in his being and attributes is immeasurable. All our concepts concerning the deity are practically diminishing of his unspeakable dimensions. The Lord is indescribably great. No mental telescope can detect the margins of his substance or essence. It is salutary to admit that he is beyond calculation or confinement. What a wonder it is to enter the realm of prayer as Paul does for the saints. Prayer has the motivating incentive of pressing on to the farthest limits of possibility for the Lord we call upon is the God of the impossible.
 
But is it a wonder that Paul kneels before God? Surely not. Our God is beyond our human capacity to know him fully. We are constrained to bow before him - incomprehensible, but through Jesus Christ the Word, knowable, and increasingly so.
 
Paul points to a God of Personhood who relates to us intimately in his radiant glory and rich goodness as Triune. The Father who adopts his elect as family grants them identity as his children. Great earthly families traditionally exhibit pride in their remarkable exploits, status, accumulation of honors, traditions and, in consequence of these, they glory in their famous names emblazoned upon their escutcheon.  Believers in Christ belong to the greatest family of all that encompasses the redeemed citizens of heaven and those who will join them from earth when their home going eventually occurs. Both segments of the people of God bear the most noble family crest of all through the privilege of special grace that links them with the Son of God with whom, in the mind of God, they have been associated before time was, “Chosen in Christ”.
 
Glorious and inestimable riches are available to this family; the wealth of God’s mercy and provision, wide and always, but particularly the wealth of the human spirit (inner being) as bestowed by the Holy Spirit. The bounty of God is liberally poured out upon us on earth prior to our gaining of our full inheritance in heaven, “the future state”. No benefit could be greater than the indwelling of Christ in our hearts. There are no quotas of blessing in the heavenly resident of our souls. He brings the fullness of God into our possession; He is the inexpressible favor granted to us by the Father. The Three-in-One closeting with us and caring for us.
 
Everything in this brief passage from the apostle proclaims boundlessness - the love of God that settles upon us and surges through us, that grounds us in the firm foundation of eternal affection and compassion; the mighty power that assures all the people of God that they are at the centre and surrounded by the love of Christ that cannot be gauged in its all-round, inexhaustible volume - experienced but never arriving at a point of expiration, a full supply that will never run dry, ever flowing, ever increasing, known in its beneficent nature and effects but surpassing our ability to sum up its length and strength. We are integrated into the sphere of divine love, an ocean of cherishing and endearment we do not have the means to survey.
 
And so grace is extolled to such an extreme extent to encourage us to request and expect great things in the cause of the kingdom, far beyond what we might ask or imagine. “Thou art coming to a king, large petitions with thee bring.”
 
I ask great things,
 Expect great things,
  Shall receive great things.
From The Valley of Vision, A collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, Arthur Bennett, Banner of Truth - a superb compilation of uplifting and invigorating meditations.
 
Luke 7 : 11 - 17
 
Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out - the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”
 
Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
 
They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
 
Jesus entered a village called Nain (Pleasantville). Even the most pleasant locale or happy, vibrant home cannot exclude the coming of death, and sadness cannot be prevented from touching any human life.
 
As Jesus approached the gate of the attractive little town with its aspect of pleasing countryside the grim reality of death was closely encountered. It invades every environment and disturbs every heart. It knows no barriers and penetrates every defense and attempt at denial. We cannot hide from it.
 
Every funeral is a sorrowful occasion, even if only as a reminder of our own tenuous grip on life and our certain mortality.
 
The grieving party that Jesus providentially met was especially piteous. A widow was weeping over her only son. A large crowd was with her to extend silent comfort, but a stricken heart feels cold, empty, and distant from surroundings and onlookers, enveloped in the void of deep personal loss.
 
The Savior of the world looked tenderly upon the distraught lady before him and “his heart went out to her”.  The God-man expressed both human and divine tenderness together. His word of comfort availed. “Don’t cry.” It was followed by Jesus omnipotent command over the power of death. “Young man, I say to you, get up!”
 
The man sat up and was wonderfully restored to his mother.
 
In this poignant incident divine omnipotence was allied to gentle mercy. The sweet strength of God was so beautifully exhibited so that we might not hesitate to call upon him in trouble or distress.
 
His power is proven and our plight may be eased.
 
RJS

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY, 2020
 
COLLECT
Guard your Church, O Lord, with your perpetual mercy; and because in our frailty we cannot stand without your support, keep us always from all that may harm us; and lead us to all that is profitable for our salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
LESSONS
Joshua 24 : 14 -24
“Now fear the Lord and and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away your gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River, and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
 
Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve others gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our fathers up and out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.”
 
Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord. He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you, after he has been good to you.”
 
But the people said to Joshua, “No! We will serve the Lord.”
 
Then Joshua said, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the Lord.”
 
“Yes, we are witnesses,” they replied.
 
“Now then,” said Joshua, “throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.
 
And the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”
 
On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he drew up for them decrees and laws.
 
Matthew 6 : 24 – 34
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one, and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. 1You cannot serve both God and Money.
 
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
 
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even 2Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ Or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
 
1Certainly to be devoted to the increase of wealth. . . rules  out that devotion to God which alone is the ground of human integrity or wholeness. (H. Melinsky).
 
2Here the point is that the king was proverbial for magnificence. But not even that magnificence can compare to the way the flowers are clothed. One points to the basic unit; Solomon’s clothes could not compare to that of even one of the flowers. (Leon Morris).

LOYALTY TO GOD: WE WILL SERVE THE LORD

The fundamental condition of human nature is weakness. We are created for dependence upon the Lord - totally; he is to be our strength and our complete reliance is to be upon him. Our frailty as mere creatures is huge in every way. Physically we can only survive within very limited and congenial conditions that are moderated for our comfort. We have a well defined, confined range of adaptability and functional capacity. Under the force of various pressures and weights our bone structure is brittle and subject to fracture, and the flesh that envelopes our various vital organs and inner parts is very soft and tender. How vulnerable we happen to be. Humans can only prove to be strong in comparison with each other.
 
As a race we are all highly exposed to threatening dangers and hazards that can snuff us out in a moment and each of us eventually falls victim to the summons of death - brief life, earthly extinction. The best minds are ultimately delicate given the enormous strains and uncertainties in life that can be brought to bear, and the most resilient constitutions can eventually crack and collapse. In ourselves, under honest scrutiny, we are by nature extremely feeble. Most crucially, as a result of our breach with our Maker and Sustainer, we are fatally flawed and defective in a moral way, being also volitionally erratic, and subject to being easily swayed and unpredictable. It is only outlandish hubris that can cause us to be boastful and self-reliant. Written across our character in bold letters is the devastating description of the content of our hearts, “wickedness and inconstancy”.
 
It is our inconstancy, even as believers, that is addressed in our Scripture lessons for the day. With our speech we make great assertions and utter very solemn vows, but in fact our inner attitudes and outward behavior fall dismally low beneath the talk of the tongue, that instrument of falsehood and deception. It is even possible for we Christians to be unaware of the gravity of conceited, casual, insincere speech before God, and even directly in communication with him.

Joshua gives Israel opportunity to assess its genuineness of professed allegiance to its gracious liberator and deliverer. “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.” In reply Israel recites the benefits it received in covenant with the Lord, but Joshua knows the tendencies of the people to still cling to foreign gods they have discovered beyond the River and also currently adopted in the land they have by grace inherited. He declares their inability to cast these gods away. He knows that in spite of their profession of loyalty to God they remain untrue, and by intimating that in their hearts that they are wavering, he deftly touches on their inconstancy by posing an unavoidable decision: “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves. . .” Choices are determined by desires. The will of sinful man is not the arbiter of our deepest desires but their captive. Hence Joshua’s verdict on Israel’s verbal superficiality, “You are not able to serve the Lord.” The holiness of God, the claims and prerogatives of God do not appeal to the Israelites. Their false declaration acknowledges him but in their desires they abandon him.
 
Former idols of the heart may still beckon to us and stick to us annoyingly, and we can be tempted to cling to them and fall in line with their seductive suggestions - the acquisitions and ambitions fostered by the gods of gratification and worldly greatness are alluring, and may even take on a pronounced religious guise. We may wrongly perceive that “he is our God”, but he may simply be the figment of our own self-serving imagination and wants. Idols that are fabricated in the misled mind are, of all fancies, most dangerous. The Lord must teach us about ourselves as well as about himself. We must match together in a state of holiness. Serving the Lord is a costly, painful dying to self. We are not able, as Joshua recognized, to serve the Lord but by his grace and enabling alone.
 
The Lord Jesus is, of course, fully acquainted with our divided loyalties and inconsistencies, but he warns us that no one can really serve two masters, exercise a duality of devotion, or adhere to a plurality of allegiances. He specifically instances the ancient and yet very modern god, Mammon, a name which is now accurately rendered as Money. The pursuit of wealth and wellbeing for our own sakes and satisfaction is exceptionally perilous. Riches are not sinful in themselves. The moral issue to consider is how affluence is gained and as to how it is dispersed, but in our fallen state riches can cultivate many evils; failure in probity and rectitude, greed, arrogance, presumptuousness, social superiority, and that most fatal flaw of lack of reliance upon God.
​
Our secret interior idols are simply expressions of the inclinations of the heart. Pursuit of our own preferences and proposed glamorous and gratifying results is the essence of idolatry. The goals and gains of our self-will are images of our own selves usurping the sovereignty and supply of the Lord. Our hearts are the chapels of our own ungodly desires and devotion. We neglect the comforts and commands of the word of God, his speech of endearment and demand. We repel his companionship and wise control.
 
The words of the Lord Jesus are powerfully striking and convicting, and they bring us to our knees in penitence and prayer:
 
“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one. And you shall love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
 

RJS

The New Testament in Its World Workbook: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christian by Nicholas Thomas Wright & Michael Bird

For this person, the Bishop's Blockbuster has not the slightest appeal. Background information concerning the New Testament only has "saving value" if it is clearly in support of the New Testament Gospel. Apart from this the acquisition of historical and cultural knowledge is a time-consuming and futile pursuit.

Background knowledge, as advantageous as it may be under right circumstances, will not deliver the soul of sinful man, though it might fascinate the human mind, and swell the sense of superiority of readers over the common laity. If the principal author errs in that most vital area of justification by faith alone, and the nature of the atonement, the above volume will merely load the human brain with heavy verbiage and lighten the wallet of hard-earned cash.

Holy Scripture carries the message of divine redemption quite adequately and accurately on its own. It is sufficient for the communication of a complete salvation. The simplicity of the "way of salvation" is its cardinal quality as to its comprehension and magnificent charm. The Old Testament lays the basis for the Gospel and the New Testament explicates the welcome message to the full.

The cultural contexts of the various documents that comprise the Bible are of great assistance to our appreciation of the Word of God only when the Word is gratefully received in faith and humility. If the facts of historical events and cultural features are taught by those who dispute the teaching of Holy Writ in its primary assertions the scholarship, however elegant and exhaustive, is greatly diminished in its usefulness and spiritual benefit, and many, more modest publications than the above, abound for the education of sincere believers.

No culture at any time determines the content of the Gospel. We cannot be sure, even, of which strands of culture had any determining affect/effect upon the writers of Scripture, and in what sense they regarded and interpreted contemporary philosophy, literature and ideology, or what nature of nuance they employed from any vocabulary available to them.

N. T. Wright has already stolen the heart and essence of the gospel from those eagerly enquiring about it (Justification and Atonement). Atonement and justification are the keys to the kingdom and N.T. Wright has cast them away.

N.T. Wright's claim for his specialist expertise as being necessary for our accurate comprehension of the Bible's message has already stolen the Scriptures from those seeking to know the Word of God. The people of God must now rely upon a new priestly caste of professional scholars who alone are wise to the secrets of divine revelation and capable of conveying them to us.

N.T. Wright shadows the lines of Scripture with his proud, emphatically pedagogic "second digit" (it wags), repeating necessary terms as and because they arise, but distorting the meaning at many significant points.

N.T. Wright has promoted first century Gentile thought above the authority of the Old Testament. "The Scripture is that wherewith God draws us unto him. The Scriptures sprang out of God (expectation), and flow unto Christ (fulfillment), and were given to lead us to Christ (completion). Thou must therefore go along by the Scriptures as by a line, until thou come at Christ, which is thy way's end and resting-place." Scripture is sufficient in its role of conducting us safely to the Lord Jesus. --- William Tyndale

N.T. Wright has greatly reduced the personal spiritual intensity of intimacy with our Savior God to be enjoyed fully by the children of God as they trace the mystery of saving grace extended toward them individually through the eternal and infinite love of the Lord. (1 John 1: 1-4).

If most of us did not unduly defer to fame, success, and opaque scholarship we would have to concede that N.T. Wright is not a safe guide to eternal salvation and there has to be the issue of his intellectual resources which, sadly and inevitably, compromise our way to life in and with God.

This latest hefty tome is not the treasure it purports to be in all the recent hype. We hope its publishers, in the interests of the environment, printed it entirely on recycled paper, possibly reclaimed from previous NTW publications. However, its weight and dimensions would qualify it to serve as a handy doorstop, or even more suitably as a means of keeping a stout cathedral door ajar for the convenience of guests who may wish to enter the building.

With chirpy Michael F. Bird as his co-contributor it may be wondered if antipodean Anglican Reformational theology is about to crumble.


By Roger Salter
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
September 18, 2020

FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY, 2020

THE COLLECT
Almighty and everlasting God, grant that by your help we may grow in faith, hope and love; and so that we may obtain what you promise, make us also to love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
LESSONS
2 Kings 5 : 9 - 16
So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman was angry and went away saying, “Behold I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel. Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.” But he said , “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will receive none.” And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
 
Galatians 5 : 16 - 24
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. But those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
 
Luke 17 : 11 - 19
On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance, and lifted up their voices, saying. “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.

THEY WERE CLEANSED

In popular terms many skin ailments in the Bible were defined as leprosy. Various infections and diseases happened to cause the embarrassment and alienation of victims, and members of society were naturally afraid of close contact. Social distancing is an ancient policy for the preservation of sound health. Lepers were considered vile and unclean by the public which shunned them mercilessly.
 
Naaman, a successful military strategist and commander, was shamed by an ugly skin disorder that could well have brought him disrespect and exclusion from the social circles to which he felt entitled. News of Elisha’s miraculous healing power brought him to the prophet’s door. He came in grand style worthy of his eminence that would surely impress the man of God and elicit a famous display of deferential and ceremonial healing. Elisha was not having it. Any worthy approach to his Lord required genuine humility, and a mere messenger was despatched to greet the proud Syrian victor of recent success.
 
Instructed to bathe in the Jordan, “Wash and be clean”, Naaman concluded that such compliance was beneath his dignity and refused to comply. So much was at stake that Naaman’s servants persuaded him to obey the prophet, and dipping himself seven times in Israel’s waters the choosy leader of his army emerged clean. The experience of divine power through the command of the prophet, to whom he did not wish to defer, brought the arrogant Syrian to the point of reverence toward’s Israel’s God. He became convinced of the uniqueness and sovereignty of God. What followed, we can only hope, was a walk with God and the conversion of some of his men.
 
Walking to Jerusalem through terrain where Jews and Gentiles would cross paths Jesus was encountered by ten lepers, who, shouting from a safe distance cried, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”. Jesus advised them to register with the priests as cleansed men. As they went they were healed. In the act of going they became knowing of the miracle that instantly restored them. It was a glorious discovery of the help of the Lord. Only one individual stopped to take stock of the situation, and gratitude overwhelmed his soul. He turned back, extolling God for his generous mercy, and fell joyfully and humbly at the feet of the Savior. Among the ten his praise and thankfulness were exceptional. And he was doubly despised; first as a leper, and then as a contemptible outsider - “Now he was a Samaritan” of whom nothing worthy was expected. The grace of the Lord Jesus is astonishing and immeasurable.
 
Paul addressed the Galatians with the description of the worst infection possible - the leprosy of the human soul. Its vile symptoms are enumerated by the apostle in shocking and convicting candor. His warning is that the uncured disease of sin definitely excludes the unrepentant, unregenerate from the wellbeing and blessedness of the kingdom of God. An internal cleansing and purification is necessary and its evidence is detected as the fruit of the Spirit, the marks of which he delineates for us. Our moral vileness, discerned in our uneasy conscience, is purified by the blood of Jesus shed on our behalf. A Substitute has borne the consequences of our many offenses. We are accepted and forgiven by God, and no longer under the condemnation of the law. And the Holy Spirit renews and refines our desires from here on.            
 
Naaman’s servants put him in mind of “the great word” spoken by Israel’s prophet. It was the remedy for his annoying plight. The people of God are now entrusted with the great word of the gospel, the only cure for the deadly pandemic of inborn sin that manifests itself in so many tragic and deadly ways in human life. By nature man is so often too proud to be reliant upon the merciful word of God, yield to the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust him for cleansing and cure. Our sinful ego must stoop before the Lord in faith and humility and trust the Redeemer who holds forth the only satisfactory remedy for the plague of human hearts.
 
It is spiritually and eternally fatal to repudiate the invitation of divine grace and forfeit life in the favor of God and everlasting communion with him. At this moment there is still opportunity for we lepers to cry out to the Lord Jesus himself, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us”. Martin Luther opines that faith and humility  are indissolubly united as one in the penitent heart.
 
RJS