Fourth Sunday after
Trinity
D. G. Phillips
Holy Communion
LaHave,
Crousetown, Broad Cove – July 1
AD 2007
1 Peter 5:5f St.
Luke 15:1-11
I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us.
During Trinity season we are focusing on the
sanctification or the perfecting of our souls by Jesus Christ. We
are ascending by so many steps on a ladder Sunday by Sunday into the
life of God. We are seeking glory – the true glory that only God
can give us – the glory that we all secretly desire, I hope, and
believe will be ours.
Last week, we were told to humble ourselves under
the almighty hand of God that in due time He may exalt us.
Today, St. Paul does not discourage, but rather
encourages us further in this desire for glory in our Epistle
reading:
I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in us.
and,
The creature shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of
God.
When we were children, we were perhaps told fairy
tales by our parents, stories with characters who showed great
courage and valour, and we identified ourselves with them – wanting
to do something great, to be the prince or princess, the explorer,
or the warrior or guardian, or the wise person whose counsel is
sought. And we still get a charge, an encouragement, when we read
great books, or see in movies, characters doing noble acts.
We recognize this desire in those who are wanting
to lay their lives on the line for a noble cause – we see it in our
firefighters; or in those who serve in wars in hopes of bringing
peace and a better life to others; or in those who make great
sacrifices in the raising of their children; or in following
professions to help others; or in those who serve the public good in
a myriad of ways to uphold and foster a just society.
To be sons and daughters of the living God, is to
be free to do whatever we want, and to want to do only that which is
good. It is to be given such control of our heart, and soul, and
mind, and strength – that all that we are can be turned to the love
of God and of our neighbour. What liberty – to be made lords of
ourselves and then to turn all that we are to the good. This is the
true glory that is and shall be revealed in us.
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Yet there are many spoilers of that dream.
Today’s readings speak of one of those spoilers,
the second rung of that ladder of ascent, when God has begun to lift
us towards himself.
It is a corruption in the soul that comes in to
spoil the good that God would do in us – it is vainglory. It is
very small at first, but it comes upon us as a spoiler. John
Climacus describes it as like an ant – have you been battling a
little with ants this past month? Climacus says this: Vainglory is
like…the ant on the threshing floor, small and yet with designs
on all the fruit of one’s labour.
Imagine all of those fairy tales or tales of
great glory and adventure, if the hero, turned for one moment and
said – aren’t I great for what I’ve done? Suddenly, we would think
– oh, that’s not the character I admired, that I wanted to be like.
How did that creep in? The person has still done
all the same things, but all the virtues, the God given gifts
displayed in their life have somehow been undermined – and we are
repulsed.
This is one of the ways that vainglory can strike
us, though we are normally much better at hiding it. It is when
inwardly, we begin to take credit for the gifts showered upon us by
God – we fail to return the glory that is God’s to God, or we turn
these gifts over only to seek worldly ends. Nothing has changed
outwardly in what we have done, yet there is a corruption of our
souls inwardly, and a loss of all the good that has been
accomplished in us. Often we think of corruption in terms of some
scandalous act outwardly – yet this change of mind, change of
purpose is just as destructive to our soul’s health. What we do now
is done to further our glory, and we become like thieves of God’s
glory – it is a scandal, but it can be quite hidden. The works
themselves, though outwardly being the same, because they are not
done in faith, that is, for God, become in fact for us, sinful.
(Article XIII)
To come towards God, we need to look very
carefully at our motives, at why we do the things we do. Are we
quick to return the praise we receive to God – not necessarily
outwardly, but always inwardly? Do we mean it when we conclude the
Lord’s Prayer saying, For thine is the kingdom, the power,
and the glory, forever and ever. Amen?
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If we become vainglorious, we are always worried
about our position relative to others, and we judge our success by the world’s
standards. And we are immediately in a competition with everyone
else – because the world can only give so much glory.
One sign that vainglory has tainted our desire
for true glory is if we find ourselves always judging and condemning
other people, as Jesus warns us against in today’s Gospel. He says,
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn
not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be
forgiven: give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure,
pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give
into your bosom.
If we are really bothered when other people
around us do well, if we are overly critical of others – is that not
because we are trying to tear them down and so build ourselves up?
We feel our position of ascendancy being threatened.
When we are tempted to condemn or judge another, Jesus says, Thou
hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye.
In this case, the beam of vainglory.
Or as St. Paul says elsewhere,
Let us not be
desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
[Gal. 5:26]
Rather than condemning others, we are to look
with merciful eyes, as God looks upon each of us with merciful eyes,
and give praise (not flattery) for the good that we see in others,
and excusing their faults.
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To avoid the corruption of our desire for true
glory into vain glory – there are some strategies we can take:
Some of the saints stared at a skull – to
remember the shortness of life, to keep in perspective that all
flesh is grass so that we might turn our hearts to wisdom
(Ps 90). There is a tradition of paintings of Vanitas,
especially with the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries (see
bulletin cover).
We can also hold before our minds the Christian
heroes and the stories of their noble deeds – it is one reason we
celebrate the saints days throughout the year. It is interesting
that we have all of these saints days falling like a torrent on us –
celebrating the octave of St. Peter and St. Paul even before we
finish the octave of St. John the Baptist. Here are examples of
those who truly sought glory, not the glory of the world, but the
true glory that comes from God. Their lives were a giving up of all to the love
of God and their neighbour – lives of extraordinary courage,
patience, endurance in suffering, and finally execution by the
earthly powers that were supreme. And do we remember the names of
those who executed them? Well we could look them up in a book, but
we don’t name churches after them and celebrate their feast days.
We don’t read their writings to lead us to God, we don’t hope to
meet them some day, as we hope to meet St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John
the Baptist or… St. Mary.
Listen to St. Mary – she knew the difference
between vainglory and true glory. When God revealed His great plans to
her, she cried out:
My soul doth magnify not herself, but
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced not in herself, but in
God my Saviour
For he hath regarded the lowliness of his
handmaiden.
For behold from henceforth, all generations
shall call me blessed, in fact, most blessed among women
For He that is mighty hath magnified me – and
holy is His name.
She always return the glory to God.
And listen to Jesus, the perfect man and God,
that he spoke to the Father at the end of his earthly life (John 17):
These words spake
Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour
is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:…
I have glorified
thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to
do. Will we be able to say this to the Father on the day
of our death?
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was.…
And of us Jesus says to
the Father, in that same prayer,
and I am glorified
in them.…
And the glory which
thou gavest me I have given them;…
Father, I will that
they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they
may behold my glory.
We overcome the
temptation to vainglory, the corruption of true glory; we come to
know the true liberty of the children of God – not worrying a wit
what the world thinks of us, only when we keep before our eyes, the
world’s true glory – the glory that stands behind all of creation,
the glory revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. Then we will say with St. Paul,
I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be
revealed in (and unto) us.
Amen.
