21st Sunday after Pentecost
Galatians 2: 16-20
St. Luke 6: 31-36
It is time to leave the barracks and join the battle.
God did not come into the world to preserve what He found: He came to change it. He did not establish His Church to reinforce the status quo: He established His Church to overturn the status quo and replace it with something better. As Christians, people who have accepted Christ and His Holy Spirit into our hearts and thus become “little Christ’s”, neither should we be satisfied with preserving what we have found here. As members of His Church – parts of His body, we should be His instruments of change, working to replace the status quo with something better. Are we doing this? Do we take His transformative message seriously? Or do we stand in the way of change, preferring comfort to righteousness and [preferring] a fallen love of self to the true love we were meant to nurture and share? If we think we are doing okay, then we aren’t paying attention: the hard facts speak otherwise. We have been hearing – and even spreading! – today’s Gospel throughout the world for almost two thousand years; we have been proclaiming it here in the Blackstone Valley for over 100 years. Most of us have been Christians our whole lives… has any of this made a difference?
You may think I am being too harsh, and there certainly is a sense in which the Gospel has affected each of our lives and especially that of our community of St. Michael. We are all nice people [pat self on back]. Each of us gives generously of our time and money to our families, our friends, and this parish. Our love for one another is a beautiful thing, and God blesses us for it. When leaky bell towers threatened to destroy this building, we decided to fix it; despite the cost. We agreed to spend $30,000 on much needed repairs and improved access. We have already raised a third of that, and I have no doubt that all of us will dig even deeper to raise the rest. This is what we do. This is who we are. When members of our community suffer a loss, such as the death of a family member, we come and pray for them and their departed loved one, and generally find any way to support them however we can. There is no end to the things that we would do – and have done! – for one another in times of need. We have even learned to forgive one another; something that is even harder than offering the shirt off our backs. I see this, and (as your pastor) I find great reassurance in it.
But is this enough? If we take Christ’s message today seriously (and as Christians we must!) then we also must accept the fact that – as much good as we have done – we have left the harder work undone. Listen to what our Lord asks: What grace is there in being good to people who are good to you? What grace is there in sacrificing for something that often sacrifices for you? What grace is there in giving when that giving is done to satisfy our pride [i.e. when there is an automatic return on the investment]? What grace is there when you give to satisfy the expectations of others [ibid]? When we love those who love us, it helps us sustain our families, friendships, and communities; just as when we lend to those who will pay us back, we are supporting our economy. Neither could function without these things, without this reciprocal giving. When we love those who love us and give in expectation of some sort of return, we are supporting the status quo. We are maintaining what we have been given.
But that is not what we were called to do. These are just the baby steps, the very beginning of the marathon were meant to run. [Remember] Our mission is transformational; our families, friendships, and especially our parish are not the ultimate objects of the transformation: the entire [groaning] creation is. We begin with these things [i.e. our families, friendships, and parish], but having submitted them to the logic of love, we are to move on [and apply this logic elsewhere]. These simple victories are supposed to propel us onward toward greater challenges. Our newly-cohesive, God-protected social units are to become the armies in Love’s revolution. It is wonderful that we have this charity and sacrifice among ourselves, the soldiers in this revolution; but if we stay in the barracks, it really amounts to nothing. We were given this love so that we would spread it, not so that we would hoard it amongst ourselves.
We must answer Christ’s challenge to leave the barracks. The time for taking the battle to the enemy is now. And despite the temptations to do otherwise, we must attack the forces of indifference, selfishness, hatred, and despair with the tools God has told us to use, not the ones that seem so handy and are so often used against us. We are to use not self-righteousness, but humility; not the preaching lips, but the open ear; not the pounding of fists, but the turned cheek; not bribery, but the unrequited gift; not passion, but passionlessness; not anger, but charity. We are to resist demonizing the enemy (no matter what his actions), and to see and respond to the image of God that remains (however distorted) within him. Like the Most High, we must be kind to “the unthankful and evil.”
This is what He has done for us. We thank Him for this and ask Him to strengthen us as we do the same in His name. It is God’s will that all be saved and brought into the eternal community of love. We are the agents of His will. We are the army of His victory. So take His love out into the melee’ and see how it truly conquers all.
