“All of you be subject to one another, and be
clothed with humility:
for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace
to the humble”
In the cycle of the Christian year, in the ancient lectionary
– that cycle of Epistle and Gospel which has served the Church for well over a
millennium and will survives in our Book of Common Prayer, the essential message
of Holy Scripture – God’s word to us – is set before us on an orderly and
supremely logical way. As we follow the lessons appointed for the Sundays and
great festivals, as we meditate upon them, as we open our minds and hearts to
understand the pattern and meaning of them, we are led step by step into an ever
deeper and clearer perception of Christian truth and the essentials of Christian
life.
In the first half of the year, from Advent to Trinity Sunday,
the cycle of Lessons sets before us in due succession those great works wherein
the mind and heart of God are manifest in Jesus Christ, those great works
whereby our redemption and reconciliation are accomplished, and we are called to
new life in the Spirit. All the teaching, all that revelation and illumination
is magnificently summed up in our adoring contemplation of God the Holy
Trinity. A door is opened in heaven and our souls are caught up in worship,
with angels and archangels. We “rise to adore the mystery of love”. Our
conversation is indeed in heaven. We are children of God and heirs of eternal
life.
The logic of the lectionary for this long season of Sundays
after Trinity is perhaps not so immediately apparent. But the logic is there,
and I think it is important that we understand it, because what is involved is a
pattern, or a spiritual system, a design for our sanctification, our growth in
holiness, our coming to maturity in Christian life. For half the year, we have
celebrated the manifestation of God’s love, and now, in this Trinity season, we
draw certain practical conclusions from all that. The basis, the starting-point
of this programme of practical spirituality is set out in the very first lesson
for the season, from the First Epistle of St. John:
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to
love one another.
You see, it is the manifestation of God’s love which is the
basis of Christian spiritual life. The starting-point is the divine love:
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his son to be the propitiation of our sins.
That is the basis and starting-point, and therefore the
lessons for the first few Sundays after Trinity concentrate upon various aspects
of the manifest love of God, and draw out the practical implications for us.
Thus, on the first Sunday, the theme is the self-giving charity of God; and the
necessity of emulating that as the ground of our spiritual life is practically
illuminated in the parable of Dives and Lazarus. Thus, on the second Sunday,
the theme is the infinite generosity of God’s charity, with the practical lesson
illustrated in the parable of the great supper and the reluctant guests. On this third
Sunday, the theme is the humility of God's charity, and that's what we must
think about especially this morning.
In the Gospel
lesson, the story begins with the publicans and sinners gathered around Jesus to
hear him. The publicans were the tax-collectors, and were not very highly
regarded, for various reasons. In the first place they were seen as
collaborationists, or lackeys of the foreign Roman overlords; but beyond that,
they were in a very dubious position morally: the Roman government farmed out
the tax-collection to local agents, and gave each a quota to raise as best he
could. The agent's own income would depend upon whatever extra he could
squeeze out of his unwilling victims. To speak of a publican was to speak
of the most despicable sinner imaginable - Not at all the sort of person with
whom a teacher of religion should associate!
That's what the
Pharisees and Scribes complained about - "murmured" about: "This man
receiveth sinners and eateth with them." These Scribes and Pharisees were
notoriously righteous; they were the scrupulous interpreters, and observers of
the law, and they thought that Jesus ought to pay attention to them, instead of
cavorting with unworthy publicans.
Jesus told them two
stories: the story of the lost sheep, and the story of the lost coin. And
the point of those stories is surely very simple: salvation is for those who
need salvation, for those who are lost: "joy shall be in heaven over one
sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons who need no
repentance." Certainly, the Scribes and Pharisees also needed
repentance and salvation, but they did not think so; they stood proudly upon
their worthiness, their righteousness as observers of the law. Their sin
did not consist in their keeping of the law, of course - the law is holy and
just and good - their sin consisted rather in the pride wherein they despised
the Publicans.
The lesson, then,
is this: the self-giving and infinitely generous charity of God cares for all
with watchful providence: and it is a humble charity, which descends and
condescends to the lowest: "God resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the
humble," says our Epistle. And once again, the manifest love of God,
now manifest in humility, is to be emulated: "All of you be subject to one
another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud and giveth
grace to the humble."
To put this in more
theological terms: what we have here is a lesson about the absolute priority of
God's grace in the work of salvation: grace which is not according to any human
merit or worthiness, but God's free and infinitely generous gift. And
therefore there is no place for human pride. As our Collect indicates,
even our desire to pray is God's grace. So pride, you see, is just a
vicious deceit; it is the work of the devil, who, "as a roaring lion, walketh
about seeking whom he may devour." Therefore, "be sober, be
vigilant."
The intent of these
lessons, and the lessons for the following Sundays, is to show how the virtues
and graces of Christian life are based upon and derived from the manifest
charity of God, God's free grace, the mystery of love; and thus, the lectionary
for the Trinity season offers us a systematic, logically ordered, biblical,
moral and spiritual theology. The character of this ancient Eucharistic
lectionary is often misunderstood and misconstrued. It's not and was never
intended to be a substitute for Bible reading and Bible study; that can be done
much more completely and thoroughly in other contexts: in the Daily Offices, in
Bible study groups, in private study, with the help of commentaries, and so on.
The Eucharistic
lectionary offers, instead, a systematic doctrinal, moral and spiritual
teaching, by way of Biblical texts; and none of the many recent alternative
lectionaries even begin to serve that purpose. It's an important - really,
a basic part of our Christian heritage, ancient and ecumenical, which it seems
to me we must receive thankfully, cherish devoutly, and ponder in our minds and
hearts week by week. May God's grace support us in that undertaking.
