RCL Proper 17A
30 July 2023
Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral
New Westminster BC
Preparing a sermon feels sometimes like a dream. In dreams we experience the coming together of what seem to be unconnected images and feelings. We have a sense that there is meaning in this coming together, but we’re not always sure. We have to ponder the profundities, to gaze into the depths of these images and feelings in the hopes of discovering what our dreams may be telling us.
For a preacher the unconnected images and feelings may come not just from dreams but from various experiences in our daily lives. For whatever reason things that are not obviously connected find their connection as we look closely at the scriptural text that has drawn our attention. Let me give you two examples.
· I was on Facebook looking at some videos when I was directed to an interview with Stephen Fry, the British actor, writer and commentator. He’s well known for his strong views about religion. The interviewer asked him what he would do if, after death, he came face to face with God. Fry responded, ‘I would ask him, what’s all this about childhood cancers? What kind of world is this?’ As the parent of a child born with a cleft lip and palate, I can relate to the question.
· I was putting out the trash and re-cycling on late Wednesday afternoon. When I looked down, there was a colony of tiny ants clearing moving from one place to another. There was a long line of ants linking the two places, less than a metre apart. I could see the beginning and the end of their journey. I could watch individuals and the group. I watched a wasp hover over the swarm perhaps hunting for food. I could intervene to block their journey or to re-direct it. I could chase the wasp away. But I just watched.
I hope you’ll bear with me before I connect what seem to be unconnected things.
Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome is one of the most important explorations of the meaning of the good news of God in Jesus Christ ever written. It was the letter to the Romans that inspired Martin Luther’s challenge to the prevailing teachings of Rome in the sixteenth century. It was hearing a reading from the letter to the Romans that caused a disheartened Anglican priest by the name of John Wesley to begin a renewal movement within the Church of England that eventually gave rise to the Methodist movement when the leadership of the Church of England made clear their displeasure with its enthusiastic worship and commitment to the education of the working classes.
In the section whose conclusion we heard this morning, Paul reminds the Romans that “ . . . the consequence of (their faith in Christ) is life of peace and confidence”. [1] He assures them that “(although) sin does not cease to exist and even to dishearten those redeemed by Christ, its authority is broken, and believers are exhorted . . . to allow the fruit of righteousness to manifest itself in earthly life through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit”. [2]
How does he reassure the Romans? First, he reminds them of God’s sovereignty. Just as I watched the ants on my driveway, God, who is beyond time and space, watches the evolution of the universe with the potential to intervene, influence or interdict. We have probably all heard the familiar verse: “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8.28) Some Christians have interpreted this verse and those that follow to mean that God has predetermined all that happens to us. They will go so far as to say that some people are predestined for salvation while others will not be so fortunate.
But I believe this interpretation betrays the fundamental conviction of Paul and of the Gospel itself. God has made us in God’s image. That image is love, the choice we make each and every day, in each and every occasion of our day, to seek the good of the other, whether human or non-human, even if it means at our cost. This is the love made known to us in creation, the love made known to us in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, the love made known to us in God’s Spirit who works in us, through us and for us. Love is possible even when the world we live in is not perfect, when sin seems to have gained the upper hand, when we do not understand why bad things happen to good people.
Even though we are made in God’s image, growing into God’s likeness, living as images of Christ in the day-to-day of this universe that is still evolving into its final form over the millennia of celestial time, this requires that we are free to choose. Loving is always a choice we make and loving as God loves is not something we can be forced to do.
We love our friends, but friendships do not always last. We love our families, but we all know that families are complex and our bonds can wax and wane. We love our romantic partners, but passion can overwhelm our better nature and sometimes burns away.
But loving as God loves, what in the New Testament is called agape, is the constant and unfailing commitment to live in such a way as to build up one another so that we can all attain the full stature of Christ, to become fully the persons God has created us to become. Loving like God means taking the risk that, by respecting the freedom of others, things may not turn out as we wish them to be.
We live in a world where the bad choices of others create ripples and waves and occasional tsunamis that can rock and even swamp our life boats. In such a world we continue to be troubled by the reality of sin and the unfairness we witness every day. But, as we grow into loving as God loves, we realize that the real question is not ‘Why do bad things happen to good people?’ but ‘What do good people do when bad things happen?’ We are not pawns moved on a celestial chessboard by an uncaring hand. We are co-workers with God in the work of repairing and renewing God’s creation. We are not powerless.
Yet we take courage. We have been created to love. We have been given the gift of free will so that we may choose to love. We know that some of the imperfections and evils we endure are the product of the bad choices we and others have made. Stephen Fry’s anger at the suffering of the innocent and the evil at work in our world is both understandable and justifiable. Paul wanted to know why God created a world in which such things happen and permits such things to continue. We want to know as well. Like many saints over the ages, we may wish to raise our fist to heaven and say, ‘If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so many enemies!’
Yet we endure the imperfections and evils that cannot be explained because we dare to hope that there is a Lover who can see both the beginning and ending of our journeys and who, through Christ and in the Spirit, shows us the path of life abundant, even in a world such as ours. From such a Lover nothing can ever separate us, leaving us free to demand answers, leaving us free to love even when the answers are just beyond our grasp.
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