Sermon for the 10th Sunday after Trinity, 2021

“My house is the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.” With these words from our Gospel lesson, Jesus rendered judgment on the Jerusalem Temple when he entered the Holy City in the final week of his earthly ministry. As we learn in Mark’s account of our Lord’s cleansing of the Temple, Jesus’ righteous indignation led him to physically enact this judgment by overturning the tables of the money-changers who had set up shop in the Temple precincts. Likewise, in John’s Gospel, we get the detail that Jesus made a whip of cords that he used to drive out the money-changers and all their animals. This scene, perhaps more than any other, gives the lie to any notion of a sweet, gentle Jesus who simply went around saying nice things and loving people; rather, it demonstrates Jesus’ uncompromised zeal for his Father’s house, which would provoke such outrage from the chief priests and the scribes that Jesus’ fate on the cross was thereby sealed. The significance of this incident in all four Gospels’ account of the life of Jesus should make us stop and pause and consider why this incident provoked such emotion from Jesus, and consider what parallels we can draw to our present situation here today.

In this account of the cleansing of the Temple, Jesus was primarily outraged by the fact that part of the Temple precincts, meant to be a place where Gentiles could come and pray, was starting to look more like a market or a bazaar than a place of prayer. And while none of us gathered here this morning may be guilty of wanting to commercialize sacred space, we may, on further reflection, in fact be equally guilty as the chief priests and scribes in perverting the intended purpose of the church on account of our failure to root our own identity fully in Christ, whose desire was and still is that his house would be a house of prayer. And yet, as we will see, it is far too easy to resist and reject this calling. This morning we will walk through what I see as the most prominent deficient way of understanding the church today, which, like the money-changers and animal sellers operating in the Temple in Jesus’ day, threatens to distract us from the true work of what the Lord has called us to be, before considering what it means for us to live into this divine calling of being a “house of prayer.”

My main point this morning is this: while most of us presumably have little interest in replacing the back pews of our sanctuary with a place where we can sell doves and trade foreign currencies, we all too readily participate in the commodification of God’s worship when we view his church as a consumer good. Such a consumerist approach to the church emphasizes a “what’s in it for me” attitude and seeks an approach to faith and practice that promotes feelings of comfort, happiness, and psychological well-being. That the prevailing individualistic, consumerist ethos of our therapeutic society, imprinted upon each of us from birth, would make its way into the culture of American Chrisitanity is hardly surprising. And yet the many ways that this self-serving attitude towards the church can be seen shows the surprising extent to which its tentacles have infiltrated our souls.

We may, for instance, be guilty of treating the church as a commodity when we treat it as a voluntary society, a social club that exists primarily to help us network and find community. Now community is, of course, a very important part of the Christian life; one of our own values, after all, is “Together in Life,” and we earnestly desire to create a “thick” culture and a shared life where meaningful friendships can flourish. It is right and good to seek deep relationships with others. But if we simply left this value in isolation or in a place of preeminence, we would be no different from the Rotary Club, the PTA, the homeschool co-op, or any other number of very good organizations where like-minded people can find community and purpose. More problematically, approaching the church this way reduces our worship of the Almighty God to a self-serving means of meeting our relational needs. Our best couple friends move away, we have a fight or a falling out with another person in the parish, we can’t stomach the diverse views of the people around us and--poof--we’re off to the next church. Even more forebodingly, as Carl Trueman writes, “The days when Christians could be both respected by their society and faithful to their beliefs are drawing rapidly to a close. The terms of membership in civic society and in the church are becoming increasingly antithetical.” The costs of church membership, therefore, will increasingly be felt in our post-Christian society. Perhaps surprisingly, though, recovering a vision of the church as a house of prayer in fact provides for an even deeper community that transcends any superficial connections we might have with one another. Because we go to the altar together, we have a shared life in Christ, brothers and sisters in the Lord and co-heirs with Christ. In this way, then, we discover our deepest community when we prioritize following Christ, rather than making the relationships themselves our central pursuit. For, we will find, if we make our church into a social club, we have every reason to expect that, having failed to live up to our calling, Jesus will soon appear to overturn the tables in our midst. 

Or, perhaps, we find ourselves falling into a consumerist approach to the church when we see it as a vehicle for various social and political causes. In our present polarized times, it is all too tempting to find our identity in our political tribe, whether left or right. Politics has in fact become a substitute religion for many; political leaders from Obama to Trump have inspired levels of devotion often reserved for religious figures. In particular, we have seen how various political movements have aped a lot of the basic ideas of Christianity, redefining sin, redemption, and progress in their image. It is a sad reality that we often feel more kinship with non-believers of our own political party than we do with our brothers and sisters in Christ who have differing political beliefs. Brothers and sisters, it should not be so. To be sure, Christians can and should have political opinions and work for the advance of truth and justice in our world. But this activism in the world must flow from our shared life at the altar, from the pages of Scripture and the lives of the saints, rather than from the program of any one political figure, party, or philosophy. Treating the church as an arm of any secular political agenda, then, substitutes a false idol for Christ. If we make our church into a political action committee, we have every reason to expect that, having failed to live up to our true calling, Jesus will soon drive us out with a whip of cords.

Or, to take still another example, we may discover that we have a consumerist orientation to the church when we see it as just one optional piece of our own individual approach to spirituality. Those who study such things tell us that America is perhaps not secularizing so much as becoming a people who are “spiritual but not religious,” drawing on a variety of religious traditions but actually belonging to or submitting themselves to none of them. We see, therefore, growing interest in Eastern spirituality, meditation, astrology, traditional paganism, and so-called “wellness culture”; in each case, authority is found not in creeds or institutional hierarchies but in what “works” for people or gives them an inner sense of happiness and fulfillment. This spiritual pandemic infects Christians as well. According to The Wall Street Journal, nearly a third of self-identified Christians profess belief in reincarnation, of all things. (Fun fact, this is not actually a Christian belief.) Now while this “spiritual but not religious” approach to life may have some success in distracting from and overcoming what would otherwise be the meaninglessness of life, there is still nothing transcendent or authoritative in these things, as everything is centered on me, my needs, and my truth. Our natural individualism pushes back against the idea that the church might require us to believe, feel, or even do certain things. Nowhere is this pressure more acutely felt than with respect to the church’s traditional sexual ethics; many have walked away from orthodox forms of the faith, or from the faith altogether, because of a refusal to accept the church’s clear and unequivocal teaching on marriage as the lifelong union of one man and one woman, often out of a misplaced sense of what it means to love others. But, as St. Paul tells us, love “does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth” (1 Cor 13:6). Each of us wants to be our own popes, our own fact-checkers, the masters of our own minds and lives and hearts, and yet for the sake of our souls we dare not set ourselves as judges above God’s Word and God’s church. Of course, we want to avoid the opposite error of blind incredulity and naivete, we should always strive to love the Lord our God with all of our minds, and yet our distinctly American unwillingness to submit ourselves to any tradition or authority beyond ourselves, whatever that may be, undoubtedly retards our growth in humility and holiness and leaves us vulnerable to apostasy. And yet, counter-intuitively, it is in obedience and submission that we are freed of the weight of having to invent our own individual path of discipleship. Treating the church, with all of the practices and doctrines that derive from her apostolic identity and authority, as an optional ingredient in our spiritual diets robs us of the opportunity to find our identity in something so much bigger and so much richer than ourselves. If we make our church into an optional add-on to our spiritual lives, we have every reason to expect that, having failed to live up to our calling, we will wake up one day to discover that not one stone is left upon another.

What, then, is the church supposed to be? Jesus’ words in the Gospel reading point to the answer. When the Temple failed to be a “house of prayer,” as God had intended, it was destroyed in judgment; indeed, in A.D. 70, the Romans razed the Temple to the ground and not one stone was left upon another. But God’s vision of establishing upon the earth a “house of prayer” was not abandoned. As St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians, we Christians are, in Christ, being built together into “a holy temple in the Lord,” “a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph 2:21-22). The original Temple failed in its calling to be a house of prayer for all nations, but now we as the church have the immense privilege and high responsibility of taking on that same vocation. Thanks be to God, he has not left us without a Helper in this task. As this morning’s epistle reading tells us, also from St. Paul, from his first letter to the Corinthians, each of us has received “the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor 12:7). Indeed, all Christians receive spiritual gifts from God, and these gifts are all empowered by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of serving one another, building up the Church, and witnessing to the world. There are, as we see in this passage, a variety of spiritual gifts, but, as Paul goes on to explain, all gifts have a part to play in the work of the building up of the Church, the Body of Christ, the new Temple. That is to say, in our sacred calling of being “a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph 2:21), we have the presence of the indwelling, empowering Spirit who enables us to fulfill our vocation of offering right worship to our God. And what a gift this Spirit is! As our epistle tells us, even our ability to confess that “Jesus is Lord” is the work of the Spirit in us (1 Cor 12:3).

This, I suggest, is the context within which we should understand this morning’s collect: “Let thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” In this collect, we are praying that God would help us to pray those things which would be pleasing to him. We are, in other words, to pray that we would rightly use those spiritual gifts that have been bestowed on us. We are to pray that we would become a people who love Christ’s Church not as a means of propping up some other idol in our lives, but as the place where we find our true identity and vocation as people who, transformed by Word and Sacrament, extend God’s reign and rule to all corners of the earth. And, best of all, we can be confident that God will hear these prayers and that, in fact, he has already answered them in giving us his Spirit. So let us take heart: this work that God has begun, in building us together into “a holy temple in the Lord,” “a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph 2:21-22)--even “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt 16:18). Amen.

Sermon for the 9th Sunday after Trinity, 2021

Homily for Trinity 9, 2021

Fr. Tony Melton

Spiritual Pride and Reliance on God

During my sophomore year of college, I had two ankle reconstruction surgeries. They were pretty invasive, and I was immobile and medicated for several weeks. I had a history exam one day and the building was up the hill from my dormitory. I hadn’t ventured out much from my room yet. I was still in my soft, surgical cast. I was in a great amount of pain, and not very lucid, but I needed to take this test, so I grabbed my crutches and started off. My roommate didn’t think I should go by myself, but I insisted that I’d be fine. I made it down the stairs just fine. I dodged a huge puddle and a bunch of mud. It had just rained and the ground was soaked. I crossed the parking lot, and started up the hill on the sidewalk. To go up a hill on crutches, you really have to through your weight forward. If you don’t, you’ll fall back. Well, I feel flat on my butt, straight onto the wettest boggiest squishiest pile of sod. And its not like I could pop right back up and go. I struggled to get up, plopping up and down, so that I took that test with the wettest backside in history of Southwest Baptist University.

Our subject today is Spiritual Pride and the Need for Reliance on God. Our text is from our Epistle, 1 Corinthians 10, “Wherefore let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.”

This is an important topic for us to hear. There are more reasons than ever to think that we are able to stand on our own in this life. Modernity has given us great power over many aspects of our lives. But, we also come by this spirit of self-reliance honestly as Americans. The country was built by people with incredible work-ethic and sturdy boot-straps. This tremendous virtue of fortitude is not to be scoffed at. Yet, like all strengths and powers, it can make one independent of others and God if not held in check by humility.

This morning, we will examine our Propers for the themes Pride and Reliance, then we’ll probe into what pride looks like, then what reliance looks like.

Our theme for this morning comes most clearly from the Collect for the Week. “Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do anything that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is a very humble prayer. We admit that we cannot stand on our own. We are spiritual cripples. We rely on the Spirit to live according to God’s will because we cannot do anything that is good without God.

The Gospel gives us a picture of spiritual pride in the elder brother. The elder brother falls into wrath and envy at the slightest trial because he filled with pride. The younger brother did not see himself worthy to be called a son, yet he is received into the great love and favor of the father.

The Epistle is clearly focused on this theme. Early in the reading, Paul walks through the great, miraculous benefits that the Israelites received. They were all baptized through the waters of the Red Seas. They all ate the Manna and drank the water from the Rock. They had every benefit, every reason to stand on their own, yet they fell in the wilderness committing terrible sins against God. These things, he says, are written for our admonition, so that he who thinks he can stand on his own will be convinced that he can not stand without the Spirit.

Let’s circle back through the Propers and look more closely on what Pride looks like. What do we see in the Collect? Pride is thinking we can do good on our own. We do this whenever we try to do things on our own strength, or claim credit for things as if we accomplished them by our own strength. What do we see in the Gospel? Pride is when our identity is founded on our great obedience to God. We see this in the older brother.

Parents, when is your child on his best behavior? Isn’t it when their sibling is acting like a complete terd? “Mother, how may I be helpful? Father, am I being good?”

Young adults. We talked a lot this week about Identity and how those whose Identity is solidly in Christ do not have to prop up their identity with Careerism, or Politics, etc. Many people prop up their identity on what others think of them, or what they think God thinks of them. I am good boy or good girl…that prop can get kicked out from under you very easily. Either, you will slip up and your reputation will be damaged, and your identity will crumble. Or, someone else who is much less obedient than you will get accolades or promotion, and it will drive you crazy, like it did the older brother, and your propped up identity will crumble.

Our identity can only be founded, not on our great obedience to God, but on God’s great love for us. This never falters, and He loves us even when we are disobedient. Think about the parable. The father was waiting for the son, looking for him months after he had left. The father ran out to meet his wayward boy, and before the son was even able to make an apology, the father fell on his neck and hugged him, kissed him, and wiped away his filth with tears of joy. There is no need for pride. This is the God that we serve.

So pride is thinking we can do good on our own, that we are the solution, that we can stand on our own. Eventually, we will build an entire identity on the good that we think we have done. But, what does reliance look like?

First and foremost, we rely on Christ. We speak a lot here at CTK on living lives centered on Communion with God. We are a praying people. We strive for habitual recollection, a steady awareness that we find our true life in the presence of God, that apart from Him we are miserable sinners.

I’ve made mention before that I am eternally grateful for my Evangelical upbringing. One of things that the Baptists do so well is stress the need for Grace. But one of the great ironies of that tradition is that I can never once remember asking God for mercy. It just wasn’t a part of our practice. It wouldn’t have fit within that theology. Yet, we ask for God’s mercy every day because we are acutely aware that without His grace we will fall. The General Confession  in the Liturgy teaches that we have no health in us of our own virtue, and therefore to ask for God’s mercy and grace to keep us upright, which is to stand. We show our reliance on God when we continually ask for His mercy and grace.

We rely on God when we treat prayer as the most important part of our day. To enter a day without prayer is an act of pride. It is like me venturing up the hill without my roommate. Pride precedes…[the fall].

Another way we rely on God and not on ourselves is to petition God first when tragedy or misfortune strikes. I’ve been encouraged that people have been voicing needs on their cell group GroupMe. There has been an outpouring of prayer on behalf of the Tryons and Buteras. These are not just empty words. Prayer shows that God is the solution, not us. We do not rely on ourselves and what we can do, but what God can do.

I’ve mentioned to some of you about our friend, Matt, who just came for a visit. He will soon enter a Benedictine monastery, possibly for the rest of his life. As I was driving him to the airport for a tearful goodbye, I asked him again why he was entering the monastery. In my flesh, it felt like he was leaving us. Yet, his answer pierced my soul. He said, “I believe that God is calling me to a life of prayer for others, including the Melton family. In some way that I do not understand, I believe that this is how I can do the most good.” What faith. We show our reliance when we see our prayers as the most effective act of charity we can do, because it places God’s action right next to the human need. We rely on Christ and His action, not on ourselves.

Second, we rely on the Church, the Body of Christ. Sometimes, we speak against the “siloed life”, where people go it on their own. We are “Together in Life”. Alone, we fall. But the Body of Christ stands together. I’m sure I don’t have to persuade you of how important the fellowship of believers is to living a holy and happy life. But while living a live detached from the Church is practically disastrous, it is also theologically problematic. The Church is not simply a helpful organization that can assist you in your own individual faith. It is an essential organism, the Body of Christ. Each parish is an instance of this one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. To live independent of a parish is both personally prideful, since the assumption is that you can stand on your own, and theologically heretical, since it divorces one from the obvious commands of Scripture and the ordinary means of grace, which cause one to stand strong in the Faith.

This is why Cell Groups. This is why Fellowships. This is why Clergy Calls. This is why we are Together in Life. It is because we are unable to do anything that is good without God’s grace, which He gives through His Church, which He gives through the Sacraments and through the People around us. This is why we take the Eucharist. Our salvation is not a static thing. We don’t give our life to God once and then go our happy way. We give our life to God anew every week and seek His sustenance. Without it, we will faint. This is why we have godparents at the Baptism, who are typically not family members. God made the family, and the family is good! But the family is not the Church. Families falter, often. If we are vulnerable only with our families. If the only authority or accountability or teaching or spiritual nourishment comes from our family, then we are on sandy ground. There are only two things that God promises to establish forever. Not one letter of His Holy Word will pass away, and the gates of Hell will never prevail against His Church. This is why we say that Water is thicker than Blood. To rely on one’s family to the exclusion of the Body of Christ is an act of spiritual pride.

Finally, we rely on our training. Through participation in Christ through self-discipline, we become those who can stand in the day of temptation. When we fast, we become the kind of person who can say no to the desires of the flesh. We develop the virtues of chastity and temperance. When we tithe, we become the kind of person who can follow God’s call even if it means financial difficulty. We develop the virtue of Faith, and root out the vice of Greed.  When we pray, perhaps using the tool of Lectio Divina, we become the kind of person who is open to the Word of God and our world is defined by what God says and what God wants. We develop the virtue of Hope, and leave off the vice of anxiety.  When we give alms, we become the kind of person that values life, so that when life gets hard we don’t lose our mindfulness of the needs of others. We develop the virtue of charity. When we confess our sins to a brother, or sister, or a father, we become the kind of person who harbors no secret sin. We will not be of those that fall by that spiritual cancer.

This one is a tough one because all virtues can be a source of pride and self-reliance. God is remaking each and every one of us into the image and perfection of His Son, Jesus Christ. As we grow, we participate more in the act of standing. A child begins to walk by holding her parents hands above her head. As her leg muscles and coordination develop, she slowly starts to take over and walk on her own. There is some truth to this. As virtue grows in us by God’s grace, we are held up by habits of holiness. A tree that is mature enough to bear fruit will not easily be blown over. Yet, in this life, we will always rely on God to stand. Though we graduate in this body to standing quite well on our own, spiritually we are always in need of a brace. I would even argue that in the next life there is a reliance of the soul on God. Lucifer fell because of pride. He thought of his own goodness and beauty as coming from himself. He forgot that God is the fountainhead of all being, and that he is a creature whose life depends every moment on God’s choice to sustain him and God’s grace which causes him to stand.

And finally, we show our reliance on God by relying on the nourishment that He gives in Word and Sacrament. The very fact that you are here, in the heat, shows that you do not rely on that extra hour of sleep, or a slow morning, but on the Grace of God in the sacrament. So, beloved, come and eat. Think of your kneeling as a leaning upon His bosom, or a falling on His neck. Rely on the Lord your God who causes you to stand.

Sermon for the 8th Sunday after Trinity, 2021

Christ the King Homily

Trinity 8

7-25-2021

“My… what big eyes you have… My what big ears you have… My… what big teeth you have.” We all know these words from the children’s story, “Little Red Riding Hood”. It’s the story of a wolf that dressed up as the little girl’s grandmother in order to deceive her… trying to disguise who he really was so that he could eventually devour her.

As the story goes… Little Red Riding Hood began observing the features of her “disguised” grandmother… the Hair, the Big Eyes… the Big Ears… the Big Teeth. And with every statement she made… the wolf had words to dissuade her. “All the better to see you with my dear”… “all the better to hear you my dear”. Until finally… at last… he responds, “All the better to eat you with”… at which point he lunges at the girl and gobbles her up. All the signs pointed to falsehood but the words spoke otherwise. And because the girl entertained the wolf’s deception and ignored the signs… it ended in her destruction.

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This famous children’s story actually fits pretty well with the teaching of Christ in the Gospel Lesson today from Matthew chapter 7, which is at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Since we celebrate the Feast of St James today, we read different Propers pertaining to the life of James the Apostle. So, let me read this other Gospel Lesson for today (read Lesson).

After Jesus teaches about all that God desires of his people… and after He describes what righteousness in God truly is…and how much God cares for his children… He then offers a warning… a warning to be careful of those who teach otherwise. “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

Jesus speaks about wolves… about false teachers… who put on a disguise to entrap others. They say all the right things… they seem to look the part… but unless care is taken to look closely at the signs… they will devour you in the end. And… at the end of this passage Jesus offers a piece of advice. He says… “Not every one that saith unto me,

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“Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven… but he that doeth the will of my Father in Heaven.” In an expanded translation… Jesus was saying… “Just because someone calls me “Lord,” doesn’t mean that they are one of my children. And you shouldn’t listen to and follow anyone who simply says, “I believe in the Lord”… but rather you should take care that they confess my name AND follow me in their lives.”

That’s the context of this verse from Matthew Chapter 7 verse 21. But aside from the context of false teachers… this verse speaks to each and every one of us because we are all confessing Christians… and this verse ought to teach us something about our confession.

The King James Version reads… “Not every one that says Lord, Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” Other translations read “Many that say “Lord, Lord” shall not enter the kingdom of Heaven.” But the literal translation of the verse is… “No one that says “Lord Lord” shall enter into the kingdom… except he that does the will of my Father in heaven.” Notice how emphatically this literal translation moves away

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from feeling broad to being pretty direct and specific toward those who would confess Christ. … and it fits the context of Jesus’ warning against false teachers who confess… “Lord, Lord,” yet are not true followers.

You see… A confession of words is not enough. Recognizing or saying that Jesus is Lord is not enough... As St. James said in his Epistle(very likely a different James than the Son of Zebedee)… “Even the demons believe…. and tremble.” Jesus is saying that a mere outward and passive profession is worth nothing… Our confession must be supported by an active life of devotion. Again St. James tells us, “faith without works is dead.”

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So this begs a question of us…. Do our confessions and our actions coincide? Do we have harmony between what we say and what we do?

It’s like a story I read about a woman who was being tailgated by another stressed-out woman on a busy street. Suddenly… the light at

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the intersection just in front of them turned yellow. The first woman hit the brakes and quickly stopped at the crosswalk. The tailgating woman hit the roof – and her horn and began screaming in frustration. As she was still in mid-rant – alternately pounding the steering wheel and gesturing colorfully to the lady in front of her – she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer.

The officer ordered her to exit the car with her hands up and put handcuffs on her. He took her to the police station and placed her in a cell. After a couple of hours, the police captain approached the cell, opened the door and escorted the woman back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said, “I’m very sorry for my mistake, Mam. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn… using sign-language at the woman in front of you… and cursing up a blue streak. Then I noticed the ‘Choose Life’ license plate holder… the ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ bumper sticker… the ‘Follow Me to Sunday School’ window

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sign… and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car.”

I know many of us can relate to that story… We all have situations in which we find ourselves in a position of acting contrary to our profession. And Jesus’ words warn us to think about those times and our actions. ‘Not everyone that says Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But he that does the will of my Father in heaven”

It would be impossible for me to go through example after example for you this morning. But perhaps it’s in our marriages. We say “I love you” to our spouse… but do our actions follow up on that up…? As a wife or husband are you constantly learning how to better demonstrate love toward your spouse?..or are they just passive words?

Or how about our neighbors and co-workers?... Do we give to them of ourselves?...our time, our knowledge, our faith…? Or what about our children… We tell them that growth in the faith is central to their role as a Christian… Do they see that in the behavior that we

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model for ourselves? Can all of those in and around our lives see, by our actions that we confess, “Lord, Lord?”

These are things that we each need to examine within ourselves, and need to lean on the body of believers to help us with. This latter portion is where it gets really difficult but we are directed by Scripture to bear each other’s burdens. We are called to be together in life. Being together in life means we need to become transparent, and most of all practice a humble stance of vulnerability.

We are now 8 weeks into the Trinity season. And the teaching of the Church for these Sundays after Trinity is a very practical Christianity… setting always before us the practical demands of our life as professing 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? ….These are practical questions, and the Scripture lessons for this

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Trinity season speak to such questions in a profoundly practical way. But, of course, the answers are really practical for us, only in so much as we think seriously about their meaning… and relate that meaning to the concrete circumstances of our life, as individuals and as community of believers.

No one can really do that for us. 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, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to conform our lives to their teaching. Only if we do that, will they become genuinely practical teaching for us.

Do you know what God desires for you? Are you doing as you know God would have you do? Does what God says really matter to you so much that it influences what you think… how you think, what you say… AND what you do? Are you more concerned about God than you are about yourself? I mean…think about that for a minute… that was

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the original sin of Adam and Eve. They became more concerned about themselves than about God. They inverted God’s intent. God made man in His image to worship Him, to serve Him, and to do His will in order to glorify Himself. Man turned that upside down and since then as been creating idols in his own image trying to get those “gods” to do our will and bring glory to us. Jesus nailed it when He said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…” I mean, let’s just be real…we all struggle with this, and if we say that we don’t, we’re really just spiritually blind and or outright lying to ourselves. Have you ever had one of those moments as a married couple where you’re upset, your spouse is picking up on the signals, and asks what’s wrong, and you answer, “I’m fine” or “Nothing.” Now, I know that men are from mars and women are from Venus but we both have this in common…and we men are notoriously guilty of saying, “nothing” when something really is bothering us. ………………………………….Oftentimes, at the root of such behavior in marital relationships is this notion that I’m not being served by my spouse. He or she isn’t doing what I want him

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or her to do. Now, I’m not dismissing the obligation to care meaningfully for one another, and to love one another. We all vow to do that in a marriage and there are times when we fall short in living up to those vows. And Josh/Charlotte, this isn’t meant to scare you away from the wedding to come… as I am sure that this will never happen to you two wonderful love-birds…at least for the first 6 months.

When we take a good look, deep-down-inside, this original sin can be found actively at work trying to get what we want…trying to be the recipient of service rather than simply serving. And it’s so hurtful to us… and to those around us. When we invert this mindset, we uncover that it is in perpetual acts of selfless service to God and others that we actually find ultimate peace and fulfillment, demonstrate the love of Christ, and live in accordance with God’s will.

So ask yourself this….

Is there something… some obstacle… some belief… some worry or fear… that stops you from living out God’s will? Is there some sin…

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some behavior that just has a grip on you… that you know God does not approve of…that is preventing your deeds from aligning with your words?

In just a few minutes, as part of our liturgy, you will have an opportunity to confess what those are and seek God’s forgiveness…and you’ll have an opportunity to offer yourself, your soul and body, as a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice of thanksgiving to God through the offering of your tithe and through the Holy Eucharist. This in and of itself is one outward action that demonstrates your desire to live out your confession of word. But it doesn’t begin and end here. We are called to come and be strengthened by His Word and the Eucharist and to take it back out with us into the world in our deeds.

I encourage you to think about these types of things. Ponder them in your heart… and pray that you may be led into righteousness. Pray as we read in our Collect that God would “put away from you those things that are hurtful and give you those things that are profitable”…and then

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respond in faith by taking one step at a time… so that your confession in word is in harmony with your confession in deed.

Not everyone that says unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven… but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Sermon for 7th Sunday after Trinity, 2021

Homily for Trinity 7, 2021

Fr. Tony Melton

Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: and if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way; for divers of them came from far.  And his disciples answered him, From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?

I cannot remember the title of the movie, but I remember this scene when a man finally realizes that he is a miserably addicted drunk. He needs to dry out, for good, or he will lose his family and his life. So, he asks somebody who loves him, I think his son, to chain him to a tree, and to bring him food and water everyday, but to not let him free from the tree until a certain amount of time had past. At first, it went just fine. But then the withdrawals started, and he quickly became raving mad. Nothing in him kept him safe from reentering the pub and his drunkenness, except the chains that bound him to the tree. He howled at the sky, cursed at his son, begged and begged to be let free. But, his son rightly kept his father’s prior wish to remain bound to that tree. After a couple of weeks or so, the man started to return to sanity. He felt a clarity and peace that he had not felt before. His chains became a comfort to him because he recognized that they had saved him from himself.

Our topic this morning is religion. The word “religion” comes from the Latin word religare which means “to bind”. Like the drunk who chained himself to a tree, we bind ourselves to Christ in such ways that break our addictions to the World.

This is a needful topic. One of the fastest growing areas of research is the science behind addiction, and I’m sorry to say that it is not primarily being utilized to keep people away from addiction. Rather, it is being used to make apps, games, food, and even work more addictive. The World is an expert at getting us to be addicted to things, and we are all way more addicted than we might think.

Our text for this morning is our Gospel proper from Mark 8, the feeding of the 4,000 in the wilderness. Read typologically, it is the story of the Church who has bound themselves to Jesus in discipline and who is satisfied by Him in the wilderness of life. First, we will look at the Collect for this morning, then an exposition of Mark 8, and then an application to our lives as addicts in need of Christ.

Our Collect his morning is one of my favorites. “LORD of all power and might, who art the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

“Increase in us true religion…” As I mentioned, religion means “to bind”. It comes from the Latin word religare, or ligare. You can here the root “lig” as in ligament in the word religion. A ligament binds bone to bone, Religion binds us in heart and will to God, practically, in ways that restrict our freedom. The idea is appropriate for this Sunday, as our Epistle from Romans 8 makes clear that we are freed from sin in order to be made a servant to God. A priest’s collar is a reference to the slave shackle worn around the neck by Roman slaves. We sing in the Lorica that we “bind unto ourselves the Name of the Trinity” in Baptism. Baptism binds us sacramentally to Jesus. Our Faith binds us to Christ. We also bind ourselves to Christ through Discipline. We also bind ourselves to Christ in the Eucharist. We are religious because we recognize that we must be bound if we will survive, like the drunk on the tree.

Alright, let’s look at the text. First, a brief overview of Mark 8. There is a great multitude that has followed Jesus into the wilderness. We learn later in the passage that they’ve been with him for three days, and there is no food for them to eat. The Meltons are road-trippers. We love to throw the kids in the car and go to the beach or back to Missouri. A lot of time in the car. If there is one thing that I can rely on, it is that all the humans in the car are very attuned to their current state of hunger or fullness. I have never had the experience of driving for a long, long distance, skipping a meal or two, asking my kids, “Children, are you hungry?” and them saying, “Gee whiz, dad, you know, now that you mention it, I really am famished. I hadn’t even noticed my stomach roaring until you just mentioned it!” That is not the way things go, for them or for anyone. The first moment that we  feel the slightest space in our tummy, we sound off, “I’m hungry.” My family’s hunger alarm is more reliable than the sensors on my car. And yet, a multitude of people who apparently have no food of their own follow Jesus into the wilderness. They could have easily seen that there was no camel pulling a wagon of bread for them. There was no food. Either they didn’t notice because they were so fixated on Jesus, or they did notice and didn’t even whine about it because they were so bound to Christ that wherever He went, they would follow.

Next in the story, Jesus notices that they are starving and tells his disciples to feed them. “Jesus called his disciples unto him, and saith unto them, I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: and if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way; for divers of them came from far.” Jesus notices their need. He moves to fix it. They didn’t need to whine. Going back to our Collect, they had such a love for their Messiah that they bound themselves to him religiously, so He nourished them with all Goodness.

It is significant that Jesus told his disciples the problem, as if He wanted them to fix it. They obviously felt like He was telling them to fix it because they respond with, “From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?” “It’s impossible, Jesus!” Jesus asks what the disciples have for food. They reply, “Seven loaves of bread.” Obviously insufficient to feed 4,000 men, not to mention the women and children.

Then the text says that He took the bread, gave thanks, and brake it, and gave it to his disciples. The Gospel writers are using a form here that was used at the Last Supper and in the Communion liturgy. This is an obvious reference to the Eucharist. As the story goes, the seven loaves were miraculously multiplied and several thousand people were fed in the wilderness.

If we read this passage typologically, we see why it is chosen for this Sunday where we ask God to increase in us true religion and nourish us with all goodness. What do we see in the example of the people who followed Jesus far passed the point of comfort and safety? The Church is to follow Jesus past the point of earthly provision. We are to follow Him into the wilderness, where all things that we use to prop up our own existence run out, and our only hope is the sustenance and consolation that He gives. When we leave our comforts and convenience and all the things that artificial prop up our sense of Self, it is a kind of wilderness. Spiritual discipline is taking a step into the wilderness with Jesus.

The second thing we learn from reading the passage typologically is that the Church, like the multitude, should be so fixated on Christ that only He tends to their needs. We all fall into the mode of being hyper aware of what we think we need in this life, when what we really need is Christ. He can tend to our hungers, hurts, and hopes far better than we can. What do we hear? He had compassion on the multitude. He saw them. We don’t have to whine in the backseat. He knows. We just have to keep our eyes on Him.

Jesus asks the disciples to fix the problem so that they would ask Jesus for help. It was a test. They respond, “From whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?” They failed the test. They should have known that no mere man was with them in the wilderness. In this passage, bread represents the answer to people’s deepest needs. The disciples rightly recognized that they do not have enough to make a dent in the great need of the people. The seven loaves represent what God’s people have to satisfy their great need and the needs of the world. The bread that we offer Christ is like the seven loaves from the disciples. It, too, represents the insufficiency of what we possess that might satisfy our existential angst and our need for consolation and sustenance. Our possessions, our statuses, our pleasures, they are insufficient to sustain us. Though we are addicted to them, they cannot satisfy. A person without faith would have hoarded it the seven loaves. But, the disciples gave it to Christ. A meager offering of bread. Almost less than bread. The wafers we place on the Table as our Offering are a perfect image of our ability to satisfy ourselves and the needs of others. Everything that can prop up our sense of Self is as papery as that wafer, and as small as the seven loaves which the disciples brought to satisfy those who follow Christ. Yet, with Christ, even our meager offerings are enough to satisfy all men. He feeds the world through what the Church brings to Him. He is the one who satisfies, and He multiplies the bread of the Church to do it. A typological reading of Mark 8.

Lately, we’ve been focusing on religion. It is a focus for this time of the year. We don’t typically preach on Fasting, Vices, and a Rule of Life during Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, etc. But, during Trinitytide we seek to enter into greater Union with the Triune God. How do we do that, practically? Many of the answers would fall into the category of religion. So, we schedule our Clergy Check-In Calls during this part of Trinity. We are trying to help you build out a good Rule of Life that you bind yourself to in order to bind yourself more fully to God. We’ve been training you on Fasting and other spiritual disciplines. This is in line with our petition this morning that God would “Increase in us true religion.”

Some people have a strong reaction to these things. “This is legalism!” The drunk—was he a legalist or a realist? Here is the reality…we are all addicted to the World. Our only hope is to bind ourselves to Christ religiously. Some people fit their religion into a safe, comfortable space. These people are miles away from that point of reliance or even danger that if Jesus doesn’t come through, they are doomed. Christ is found in the Wilderness. Some people pretend that they are “spiritual” but not religious. This is ignoring the nature of our spiritual disease. It is like the drunk pretending that he can get sober by thinking good thoughts. Christ feeds those that bind themselves to Him by discipline. The people in the Gospel could simply follow Jesus. We must walk in His steps, and most of the time, Jesus was either walking into the wilderness or to a Cross.

This is why we take so seriously a Rule of Life. This is why it is so important to establish rhythms of Feasting and Fasting. If we only feast and dwell in the cities, then the line between our gifts and God’s provisions becomes blurred. What is propping up my life? What is making me feel okay? Is it pleasure, likes and clicks, respect from our peers, our image, youth, sugar, caffeine, money, stimulation?  We fast from these things to ensure that we are not addicted to them. We fast from them so that when we offer up our meager gifts upon the altar, we are under no illusions that they are enough to satisfy us.

We are the people in the wilderness who have bound themselves to Christ in ways that deny normal human logic. We are a people that pushes past our ability to prop up our own existence. We ignore our discomfort because we fixate on Christ. At the last cell group meeting, we learned that the Church fasts on Fridays. This means that on Sunday, they have pursued Christ into the Wilderness for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: three days. We are hungry. Through our Faith, our Religion, we bind ourselves to Christ and nothing else. We aim to be free from attachments so that we can be more perfectly attached to Christ. We aim to be free from sin so that we can more fully serve Jesus. On this third day in the wilderness of self discipline, Jesus looks upon his Church and says, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat: and if I send them away fasting to their own houses, they will faint by the way; for divers of them came from afar. Verily, some have travelled from Cumming, Buckhead, Canton, Acworth, and, lo, even Jasper.” So he commanded the people to sit down on the green grass: and he took the seven loaves, and gave thanks, and brake, and gave to his disciples to set before them; and they did set them before the people.  So they did eat, and were filled, they were satisfied.  And he sent them away.

What are you addicted to? What is propping you up artificially? You who are bound to Jesus by baptism, when He leads you out into the wilderness, for what will you whine first? Would it be food? Fast from food. Would it be your phone? Fast from your phone. Would it be the validation you receive from people? Sell your fancy clothes. Your car? Go put a dent in it. Would you miss your entertainment? Cancel it for a month. Unplug the console. Your morning cup of Joe? Cut it out for a time. In the wilderness, would you miss the comfort of your marriage bed? You know St. Paul says you should fast from that from time to time, right?

Imagine what the Church could be if we were as fixated on Jesus as the people in the wilderness. Imagine what nourishment Jesus would give His people if they bound themselves to Him far passed the limit of what is safe, tidy, manageable, convenient, and optimistic. We are a religious people. We bind ourselves to God by following Jesus through acts of discipline. We walk his steps. We do his deeds. We fast because he fasted. He follow him to wedding feast. We follow him in the wilderness. We pray his prayers. We think his thoughts. We eat His food, and upon His food do we prop up our life, our sense of Self. We are addicted to nothing except Christ. He is our only fixation. The only thing we can’t live without, and the only thing that can satisfy men in the wilderness is Jesus. Brothers and sisters, let us be a people that can walk with Jesus is feasting and in fasting, in the city and in the wilderness. Let us bind ourselves to Christ that his food is our only hope. Amen.

Sermon for 6th Sunday after Trinity, 2021

           Our sermon text today is from the appointed Gospel, but I would first like to comment on today’s Epistle from Romans chapter 6. This year, the season of Trinity lasts from May 30th (Trinity Sunday) all the way to November 28th (the First Sunday in Advent). We may be tempted to spiritually “coast” over the next 5 months, and then get more serious about our spiritual life as Christmas approaches. As we learned last week, however, that would mean giving in to the sin of acedia. I will suggest one way to counter this. In the previous Sundays, the Epistle Readings were from the Apostles John and Peter. Beginning today, however, and for the rest of Trinitytide the Epistle Readings will be from some of the most important passages from the Apostle Paul. These will be read in their canonical order. We will hear passages from Romans, I Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. What if we made the Pauline Epistles the focus of our personal Bible study over the next five months as one way to resist acedia? If we did this, each Sunday Epistle would already be familiar to us, allowing us to think more deeply about its meaning and application. We may also come to understand why, when the Church Fathers referred simply to “the Apostle” everyone knew which one they meant.

            You may want to turn in your service booklets to today’s Gospel – Matthew chapter 5, verses 20-26.  This passage is part of the well-known Sermon on the Mount. For many of us, no portion of Jesus’ teaching is as familiar as the Sermon on the Mount. It begins with the comforting words of the Beatitudes and then the familiar images of Christians as the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  What immediately follows, though, is one of the most shocking passages in Scripture – verse 20 – and this is where we begin: “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Upon hearing this, the disciples’ mouths would surely have dropped open. No one was more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees.  They were such experts in the law they were referred to as “those who sit on Moses’ seat.”[1] They were not only meticulous in keeping all 613 precepts of the Old Testament, but also the oral law and traditions based on those written precepts, which Saint Mark refers to as “the tradition of the elders.”[2] You could resent their conceit, but there was no arguing they lived exceptionally virtuous lives as understood by most people. And yet Jesus says, “You will not enter heaven, unless you are more righteous than they.” How is this possible for us? Is it possible? We will find the answer in the rest of the passage. We will see, first, true righteousness is internal, and second, it is relational.

            First, true righteousness, the kind that exceeds that of the Pharisees, is internal. Verses 21 and the first part of 22: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you…” With that phrase, Jesus is signaling that He, as the greater-than-Moses in their very midst, is about to tell them the true meaning of the 6th Commandment: “Thou shalt not kill.” Notice the three statements that follow. First - “Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” Second - “and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council.” Third - “but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” We see 2 sets of escalations in this verse. First, note 3 words:  “angry”, “Raca”, and “fool.” You see an escalation in a person’s feelings and actions. We move from mere anger, to calling someone “Raca” – a term of insult meaning “empty-headed,” to saying “You fool.” The word we translate “fool” includes the idea of a wicked and godless person.  The escalation here is from anger, to insults, to condemnation. For the second set of escalations, note the words “judgment,” “council,” and “hell-fire.” This is an escalation in the consequences for engaging in anger, insults, and condemnation. We move from “judgment” – a local tribunal of 7 judges, to “the council” – the 71 members of the Sanhedrin who ruled on more serious matters, to “hell-fire.”[3]  The escalation here is from the local court, to the district court, and finally to the court of God.

Jesus has shifted the deeper meaning of “Thou shalt not kill” from an external behavior (don’t take innocent life) to an interior disposition of the heart. You have heard that is was said by them, “Do not murder,” but I say unto you, “Do not be angry.” The truest and deepest meaning of “Thou shalt not kill” is that the many inner, emotional preludes to murder, no matter how small or subtle, must be avoided as much as the external act of murder. Your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees.

            Jesus applies this principle of interior righteousness in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. You have heard that is was said by them “Do not commit adultery,” but I say unto you, “Do not lust.” You have heard that is was said by them “Love your neighbor but hate your enemy,” but I say unto you, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” This is why, when we recite the 10 Commandments, we follow each and every one with “Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.”[4] In summary, true righteousness, the only kind that can exceed that of the Pharisees’, is interior – our feelings, thoughts, and words should always reflect perfect charity.

            Second, true righteousness is also relational. There are 2 parts to this: our relationships with each other, and with God. First, our relationships with one another. Verses 23 and 24 begin with “therefore.”  We are about the see the results of what Jesus just said about the internal nature of true righteousness. “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” Note the word “brother.” It occurs 4 times in verses 22-24. Our relationships with each other are an essential part of the kind of righteousness that Jesus requires. These verses are often misunderstood. We think they mean that if I have something against you, I should leave my gift at the altar and seek reconciliation, but the text doesn’t say that. It says if I think you have something against me, I should stop what I am doing and seek reconciliation with you without delay. It doesn’t matter who started it, who is in the right, or whose turn it is to do make the next move. There are practical and spiritual consequences if I refuse my responsibility. Jesus illustrates this in verses 25 and 26 with the imagery of being taken to debtor’s court for failing to reconcile with one’s accuser. Jesus is telling His disciples to interrupt their worship to tend to relationship. “First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” True worship is not possible without healthy community. Together in life must precede participation in liturgy.

            The second relational component of true righteousness is a right relationship with God. For the Pharisees, or anyone attempting to live a good life apart from God’s grace, the source of righteousness is merely adhering to the external forms of religion. You are a good person if you do these things, and refrain from those things. Even making an effort counts, doesn’t it? For the Christian, though, our righteousness is because we are in Christ. I am the vine, you are the branches.[5] If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[6]  Is righteousness a trait I possess, or a Person who dwells in me? Is my righteousness a what, or a who? Here is how Anglican theologian E. L. Mascall puts it: “…The Christian should be defined not in terms of what he himself does, but of what God has made him to be. Being a Christian is an ontological fact, resulting from an act of God.”[7] Our Christian conduct then, is not the source of our righteousness, but its expression.

            We have seen that the righteousness Jesus speaks of is first internal – a disposition of our hearts by God’s grace which leads to right conduct. Second, this righteousness is relational in two directions. First, we will have right relationships with each other which require us to actively seek reconciliation when needed. He who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.[8] Second, we will have a right relationship with God, for only then can He work His righteousness in and through us. “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”[9] The stakes couldn’t be any higher. Jesus tells us, “You cannot have true righteousness unless you have me. But once you have me, you have the kingdom of heaven.”

            It is astonishing that we have the actual words of a former Pharisee whose life was transformed when he came to understand the real meaning of righteousness:  “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ.”[10]  

[1] Matt. 23:2.

[2] Mk. 7:3b; Raymond Brown, et al., ed. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990), pg. 641. 

[3] J. R. Dummelow, ed. A Commentary on the Holy Bible (1938), pg. 642.

[4] The Book of Common Prayer, pp. 68, 69.

[5] Jn. 15:5. 

[6] 2 Cor. 5:17, RSV.

[7] E. L. Mascall, Christ, the Christian, and the Church (1946), pg. 77.

[8] I Jn. 4:20b.

[9] Matt. 5:20b.

[10] Phil. 3:8b, 9a, ESV.

Sermon for 5th Sunday after Trinity, 2021

Homily for Trinity 5, 2021

Fr. Tony Melton

Theme: Acedia is the denial of Communion with God.

Purpose: To instruct the church about the sin of Acedia and to exhort them to attentiveness to the life that God provides in His Son, Jesus.

There is an evil that one Anglican writer says is the perennial sin of the modern Church. This evil infects every parish, it attacks every person. It has enormous effect on the divorce rate, the suicide rate, and the instances of depression in the Church. At certain times, the name of this evil was a part of common speech. The reason it has been able to spread so far and so deep is that we no longer know what to call it. And when you don’t call a sin by its name, it will grow under the protection of another name. The name of the evil is Acedia. 

This week, we continue in this first part of Trinitytide with our preaching on the vices. Having walked through our redemption in Jesus from Christmas to Ascension, Trinity begins a season where our soul is brought into further union with Jesus. In order to have further union with Christ, our souls must be purged from sin and vice. This week, our Prayer Book directs us to purge ourselves from the sin of Acedia.

First, we will name the sin. Define it, observe it, learn its nuances and patterns. Then we will see how our Propers speak concerning it. What is its opposite virtue? How do we combat it? What cures are there for this disease? I’ll close with the Collect so that you might pray diligently this week against Acedia using the words of our Prayer Book.

First, what is Acedia? Acedia can be defined in many ways. Acedia is a rejection of the soul’s good through lack of care. It is what prevents us from praying when we know that Communion with God is on the other side of Prayer. The most common word for it is “sloth.” The monks called it the “noon day demon.” Spiritual laziness. A better definition joins together sloth and dejection. We fall into the sin of Acedia when we ignore the multitude of reasons in God’s green earth for being happy and active for our own soul’s Good. In Dante’s Inferno, there is a special swamp reserved for the “accidiosus.” Wedged in the slime, they say: “We had been sullen in the sweet air that’s gladdened by the sun; we bore the mist of sluggishness in us: now we are bitter in the blackened mud.” This passage ties together well what Paget describes as the three elements of Acedia: gloom, sloth, and irritation.

A good way to imagine the way this sin looks is the Netflix binge. It doesn’t matter the show, it could be Friends, or Lost, or (God forbid) Gilmore Girls. But when you watch 2 seasons in 7 days, you eat terribly, you don’t sleep as much as you should, the dishes stack up, you don’t brush your teeth, and you’re cranky. It begins with sloth, it produces gloom, and it ends with irritation. And it steals away the desire to do anything that would actually be good for your body. It results in apathy. That’s a decent picture of Acedia.

What causes Acedia in our hearts? We fall into the sin of Acedia when we are possessed by earthly cares. Like the workaholic, our soul, from lack of nourishment, begins to crave that which does not satisfy, it grows lazy, it grows bitter, it gets cranky, it gets busy, overwhelmed, joy flees, depression invades, we think to pray, but we don’t feel like it, too much to do, and so we get used to a life continuously occupied with the business of the day, day after day, and we can’t get through the day without our glass of wine, or the Gilmore Girls. We grow depressed because we are unsatisfied. We grow bitter because we cannot actually control our possessions, our family, our country. We complain about our car, our President, the weather, oscillating between working ourselves to death and then slumping on the couch and turning off our brains. And though we are consumed with cares, our lives are defined by a deep lack of care, or apathy towards our soul’s Good, and we do not pray. Acedia.

Our modern society, with the amount of things that we possess and the ability to occupy so much of our time through our technology, has crowded out the activities that have nourished the souls of the saints for millennia, so that we can go through an entire week without offering up an Our Father. This week we began our Clergy Check-In Calls. One of the goals is to work with each parishioner to at least begin their day with some prayer. One of the ideas is to send out a text reminder at 7:30am for those that want it. This way of bookending a busy day with prayer is a way of breaking the cycle of busyness and entertainment. We are working ourselves to death and we are amusing ourselves to death, and all of this keeps us from praying ourselves into life in and with God.   

This morning during Mattins, we heard the morning prayer readings for this Sunday. They are from Ecclesiastes 2 and Matthew 19. Solomon says, “I will deny myself nothing. I will pursue all ends. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity. So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me.” Matthew 19 is about the rich young ruler, who is told to sell all his things and follow Jesus. The text says, “When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” Both men consumed themselves with the cares of this world, both ended in despair and sorrow. In the case of the rich young ruler, he chose the comfort of his possessions over a life lived with God. A slothful distain for the soul’s good because of an inordinate pursuit of earthly cares resulting in a bitter and dejected attitude. Acedia. 

In our Gospel, Peter is the opposite the rich young ruler. Jesus said, “Follow me.” Peter forsook all and went. He was not consumed with earthly cares. He saw God Incarnate and assumed the opposite posture of an accidious man. He bowed down and said, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Notice that both Peter and the rich young man are sorrowful, but what a different sorrow they have. This is what Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” The young man chose riches and felt sorrow of the impenitent. Peter left two boatfuls of fish and adopted the sorrow that lead to repentance.

What does this mean for us? We must a church who prays. We say that we are centered on Communion; that is one of our core values. Centered on Communion is referring to the Holy Communion, but also to that orientation of all life where we walk with God in communion. To be centered on Communion is to see growth in prayer and contemplation as priorities. Prayer involves work, but it is not busy. It is the quiet joy that descends on us in our humility and obedience when God blesses us with His presence, when He affirms us and calls us.

And let us not stop at Peter as our example and contrast with the rich young ruler. The sacred heart of Jesus is always our example, as well as our solution. Jesus lives perpetually in the life of God, forsaking all that does not satisfy, He sought out a quiet place to pray, though He lived in constant communion with God during his years of service. I hope that these four people: Peter & Jesus, Solomon & the Rich Young Ruler—provide for us a good picture of Acedia and its opposite. Humility and Obedience will lead us out of Acedia.

If the Gospel illustrates the attitude and action that is contrary to the sin of Acedia (humility “Depart from me, O Lord” and obedience “Follow me.”), the Epistle, likewise, exhorts us to live quiet and joyful lives within God’s blessing.  “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.” When we neglect the quiet joy of the Lord and ignore the manifold gifts that He offers us for the good of our soul, we have failed to live within His blessing.

The world has a whole different way of blessing than God does. We can choose to surround ourselves with the World’s blessings or God’s blessing. One will produce Acedia and the other a spiritual attentiveness that produces joy. To get very practical, what do you decorate your home? Is it a poster of the Beatles or is it an icon of Christ? Does your music lead you into worship of Jesus Christ or the god of Youth and Self-Expression? We can remind ourselves constantly of God’s blessing by surrounding us with tangible things that reflect the life of God. A prayer corner, prayer beads in your car, placing your Prayer Book next to your coffee pot. Those that went to the Family Retreat spent time painting prayers to be put in their house. Like, “Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” near your bathroom sink. These are all things that can snap us out of our accidious funk, and lead us into that centered, holy place where God is present with us, we live in His blessing, and not overly attached to the shallow things of the world.

The whole emphasis on a Rule of Life that we are discussing on our Clergy Check-In Calls is really a strategy for combatting Acedia. Just like we do with our physical health, we plan little kick starts of Prayer so that we don’t devolve into spiritual apathy.

I’ll close with an exposition of the Collect. “Grant, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness.” Joyful service. Godly quietness. The Collect seems to predicate these on a peaceable ordering of the world. Let me ask you a question: Would you say that the world is peaceably ordered? Where did your mind just go? Did you think of Washington? The White House? The Supreme Court? The Middle East? Your house? Your in-laws’ house? Work? What is the center of your world, because where your mind went when I asked, “Is the World peaceably ordered,” is probably near the center of your world. I invite you to place this Table as the center of your world. Around this Altar, we ascend into heaven. All life flows from that Altar. All time revolves around that Altar. All life is either a preparation for or a recession from that Altar. God answers this Collect every time every time the Eucharist is celebrated. Is there anything in the world that is more peaceably ordered than the Table of God? It is here that we can live perpetually in joyful service and godly quietness. It is a distain for that Table that is the root of Acedia. 

Therefore, I invite you to the Table of God. The center of the world that He so peaceably orders. The fountain of nourishment to our souls. If you attend to the health of your soul, come. If you need comfort, come. If you need strength, come. If you want a hearty desire to pray, ingest it. If you long to be closer to God, imbibe Him. Whatever you lack, ask of God and He will gladly give it to you from His Table. Shake off the sloth and despondency of Acedia and center your world on the Altar of the Living God who governs all things peaceably for the joy and quietude of our souls. Amen.