“God’s People Follow Their Lord”
June 30, 2013
The 6th Sunday of the Christian Season of Ordinary Time/Kingdomtide/Time of the Church
1 Kings 19: 15 - 16; 19 – 21/Psalm 16/Galatians 5: 1; 13 – 25/Luke 9: 51 – 62
His Eminence
The Most Reverend Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines D.D.
Archbishop of Manila
and
Primate
of the
National Church in the Philippines
and
the Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
This is the day the Lord has made! It was made for His people to focus and to bring praise, thanks, and honor unto Him. Today, that is the focus of our celebration. It is a time to thank God for His faithfulness. Time to thank God for His love, His covenant, and His commitment. How that He and His greatness overcomes our weaknesses, our failures, and our rebellion. This is the greatness of God. On His day, we acknowledge and we exalt Him.
Today, Janie and I celebrate and thank God for fifty years of marriage. It is not our fault; it is His. He is the One who has given us the grace, the patience, the endurance to be able to conquer and to overcome. Is it all smooth? No. Is it all joyful? No. There are the ups and the down, but the stability and the faithfulness is that which requires Christians to be what God intends them to be.
We live in a world today where people ran away from their differences and their conflicts. We have become a weak people. We cannot handle something that is different than what we are. When someone offends us, we want to kill them. We want revenge; we want to get even rather than forgiving, restoring, and bringing forth that which God has given to us.
God is love. He is not made up of love; He does not have a heart of love; He is love. His kingdom is love. If we are going to walk in His kingdom, we must walk in love. We are in the Sixth Week of Kingdomtide. The challenge that comes to us is to bring forth the love that God has given to us. Scriptures tell us that as we have received, so we are to give – the same manner that which God has given to us. In the same way He has bestowed upon us, we are to bestow upon others.
Elisha, anointed by Elijah to take his position of prophet, went back to his home. He kissed his mother and father; he took the cattle that he was using to plow the fields. He cooked for them and gave them to the people in the village. He burned all of his bridges. There would be no reason for him to go back. He made certain that he would not fail. He made certain that he would not be tempted and go back and come back to what he was before. His commitment was a commitment of finality.
In the story of Elijah and Elisha, when it was basically the time for Elijah to go, Elisha would keep telling Elijah, “You just stay here.” Elisha would say, “No, where you go I will go.” He burned his bridges. He did not hold back even in the midst of conflicts and differences; he held firm. He had an anointing which was double that of Elijah because of that type of commitment.
We think that this is not possible for us today. We live in a different time and things are so different that we must take care of ourselves. We must defend ourselves. We must protect ourselves otherwise we will be destroyed.
In Galatians today, we are told that we were given freedom from Christ. It is in that freedom and only in that freedom that we can live a life of love. There are things that we put upon ourselves and we put upon by others that put us back into the category of the law. The law destroys freedom. The law takes away the ability to walk in love because you are regimented. You are regulated and restricted by law.
In love, sometimes there are the times that you have to be flexible. I am reminded of the time when Jesus was faced with a man who had been crippled for a long period of time. It was Sabbath day. You are not supposed to do any work on a Sabbath according to the law, but Jesus healed him. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were angry, “You can’t do this. This is the Sabbath. It is wrong.”
In one case, Jesus responded, “If your ox falls in the ditch on a Sabbath, will you not get him out of the ditch?” Is it wrong to be so regulated that you cannot be flexible in a moment of need? We are warned not to bite and devour each other because in so doing, we will destroy ourselves. This talks about love and compassion.
I wrote down a few words about love. Freedom - this is love. We do not require everyone to be one way. There is a freedom, a flexibility to bring out the character that God has given to you. It brings us to fullness and completeness when that freedom is at its maximum.
Serving – this is love. It is not demanding others to serve, but serving them in whatever capacity that is possible. This is a word that demonstrates or explains love. It is led by the Spirit, not by feelings. Feelings will destroy us; feelings will pull us aside. They are there for a purpose, but they are not there to control us. They are there to enhance life and to help us understand circumstances.
Love is also commitment – a commitment that does not waver any time. Maybe in the midst of it are times of discipline, times of correction, but it does not waver. It is still there. In the writing of Paul to the Corinth, he was addressing a man who was in grossed sin. He had been disciplined, but Paul warned the people, “Forgive him and love him. Don’t let him carry this all alone because it could destroy him. You must forgive him. You must love him. You must walk in that forgiveness and in that love.”
Faithfulness is love. Regardless of what may take place, faithfulness is there. It is always there regardless of what is going on. Regardless of our feelings and maybe even regardless of my hurt – loyalty.
These are terms that described love. It is not sweet, gooey; not everything pleasant. It is not the candy, the flowers, but the character of man given to us by God because we were created in His image and likeness.
For some reason, Christianity has lost sight of this character that God gave us. We do not see it practiced; we do not see it lived out. We become very much the world that is defensive, self-centered; protecting our own; building our own and taking care of our own rather than building the Kingdom, that which God has given us to build.
We have become a culture of divorce. Divorce is not necessarily legal, as far as the marriage is concerned, but we leave each other so easily because someone offended us or someone did this or that to us. This is not love. Love stands solid even in the midst of the conflict; even in the midst of the pain. It does not destroy because this is God. God restores. God rebuilds, not destroy.
This should be our character. In a relationship, there are times when you have to smile when you don’t feel like smiling. There are times when you have to girth your teeth or bite your tongue because something is not what you like or what you expect. You stand firm and you handle things well.
In our relationship, in Janie and mine’s, I would tell you that there have been a lot of times when she had to be very patient. There are a lot of times when there were pains, sorrows, and disappointments, but she did not run away. Was she guilty of anything? She will tell you, “No,” but I am not going to touch that. I don’t want to have a problem later. There is always the conflict. We are human beings. We make mistakes; we fail; but God restores and this is what love is all about.
This is what this period of time is given to us; assigned to us by the Church Fathers: practice who you are. Know who you are. Live it! We are not used to it. This is what God requires of us. He has freed us from sin so that we can be love. He has taken away the sin. He has given to us a new hope.
In the gospel today, Jesus set His face towards Jerusalem. He offended other people because He was so determined. He was going to finish the course. He was going to be what He was going to be. It did not matter what other people thought. It did not matter what other people were wanting Him to do. He set His goals and He would not waver from them.
This is love. Know where you are going. You don’t have to be rude and crude in it, but yet at the same time, you know where you are going and rid yourself of the personal securities that make you comfortable. It is when we reach out to others and we are willing to express ourselves to others that we find ourselves in a joy, in peace, and a confidence.
I would like to compare briefly the law and that which God has given to us in new life. Many of us do not understand the differences between them. In the law, the initiative that which brings us into the law is circumcision. It is that which man does. It is that which he gives. It is his punishment of the flesh. If it is of the flesh, it really does not reach down into the soul. This was what law was.
Circumcision was the initiative. Then, you had to perfectly fulfill or obey the whole law. Even if you failed in one, you were guilty of all of it. This was law. It was justification by the law. If you could fulfill the law, then you were justified. If you failed in one, your justification was gone.
There was a continued bondage to sin – always thinking sin; always afraid of sin. Sin is always being presented in your face, in your character, in your ability. We think, “I can’t do this because I am sin.” It was here that it became common that we would say, “The flesh was sin, so therefore if the flesh was sin, I could do nothing about being righteous.” This was the law and it was dependent upon flesh. All of it was flesh. It was what humanity was. It did not work and it alienated man from Christ because it was self-centered. “It was what I could do. It was what I was accomplishing. It was what I was failing.”
It looked nowhere beyond self. It was that which was demanded of us. It never set us free from the power of sin because sin was greater than what our flesh was. Life in the Spirit is different. Life in the Spirit is initiated by baptism. What happens in baptism? Christ regenerates us. It is not the flesh; it is the Spirit; therefore, it is the very essence of what we are; the very center of our lives that now becomes our controlling factor. It is not the flesh.
In our obedience to Christ, we grow in perfection. There is this ability to grow, to change from glory to glory into His image and into His likeness. Because of Christ, we are justified by grace, not by fulfilling every law. God righteousness becomes ours.
2Corinthians says, “He who knew no sin became sin in our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” This is Spirit; the love of God; the compassion of God. It has very little to do with the flesh; it has everything to do with what Christ has done for us. In this, we are liberated from sin. He took care of the sin problem. No longer is that sin problem mastering or controlling us.
We are still sinful; we still make mistakes; but it does not come out of a heart or a foundation of sin. It comes out of the flesh where we have avoided or for a moment, turned away from what He has given to us. We failed, but the beauty also is that when we confess, He forgives because we have already been given His righteousness.
We have this liberation – this liberty from sin. We no longer have to be afraid of sin. We no longer have to be under its control or its concern because Christ has taken away its power and He has given to us new life. There is a dependence upon the Spirit and an access to the glorified human nature of Christ. We change from glory to glory into the image of Christ.
This is the growth in the Spirit. This is what happens because of Christ. We need to renew our minds to what God has given to us. We need to recognize who we are in Him. In this, we have union with Christ and the grace of God. This is the beauty of God.
Legalism destroys or hinders love. You cannot have love in legalism because in love, you are going to have to be able to be flexible. You are going to have to bend at times. In legalism, there is no bending but judgmental. The love that God has given to us is that which His kingdom is built upon.
In the Confession of Sin that we use on a regular basis, in the Absolution it says, “For the sake of the blood of the cross of His Son Jesus Christ, He had laid not your sins to your charge but have forgiven you all that is past.” When we confess, He forgives ALL that is past. He helps us change. He helps us move forward and move into new life.
In our political campaigns, you will notice that many times, the opposition to a certain candidate will go back into this past – sometimes twenty years or thirty years ago. They will find a mistake back there and they will bring it forward and they will throw it against him. This is totally contrary to Christianity. We say it in our prayers for forgiveness, in confession. Every time we pray, God has forgiven us ALL that is past.
Proverbs 12:31 says that in the ways of righteousness, there is life; but the ways of remembering wrongs are unto death. It is amazing how we keep the wrongs as a bondage and as a slavery when Christ has freed us from these things so that we could go on. As long as the wrongs are there, we can never grow. We can never advance. We can never change because it is slavery, a bondage, an imprisonment. Christ destroys this.
We, as the Church, must learn to live in the love that God has given to us. Today, we celebrate the great love of God. Love that is loyal; love that is commitment; love that is faithful; love that does not change. This is what love is.
Some say, “When we got married, we are in love. Now, we are not in love anymore.” This cannot be. You were never in love because love does not change. Love is consistent. If something comes in the midst of it, you have to know that something happened. “I slipped, I fell, because now, I don’t see and feel that love any longer.” God never changes. He never fails and He never forsakes.
This is the beauty of love. We are to walk in that love. We are to follow the Lord. He is our example. I believe that the biggest message that He gives to us was given on the cross. Even though the people had turned against Him, people perhaps He has fed, people maybe He had healed, some of them raised from the dead, and yet they turned against Him and they crucified Him.
As Christ hang on that cross, He turned to the Father and said to Him, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.” He functioned in love. He came for a purpose to set man free. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him might become sons of God.” Christ knew that this was His purpose. He wasn’t going to let anything change it or to cause it to be taken away from Him.
It is a challenge for us. Can we live in that forgiveness? Can we live in wiping away the past and moving forward into the future? Into a life and into a plan that God has prepared for us which is far greater than where we are now? We have to throw off the old. We are told in Scriptures, “Take off the old garments and put on the new because the new gives us the ability to move forward.”
We are God’s people. Therefore, we are commissioned, empowered, equipped to live out His life. We think we can’t do it. We can! All we need is to take the steps of faith. God will fulfill them in our lives if we trust Him.
The challenge for us today is to walk in that love. To walk in that which He has given to us. As He has forgiven us, we forgive others. As He restores us, we work toward restoration of others. As He loves us, so we love others.
As we are on the Sixth week of Kingdomtide, may this be the foundation of our lives. May it be the thoughts that we think. May it be the actions that we take. Sometimes, yes, we may have to bite our tongue. Sometimes, we may have to smile when we don’t feel like smiling. Sometimes, we may just to have to hide in a corner for a moment until we can get control but love will be our home. It should be that which guides us and leads us because this is the character and what God is. He is love and we have been created in His image and likeness.
The world has changed us. We have adapted the system of man. Now, it is time to put that aside and begin to live the love of God. May we be thankful this day. May we celebrate what God’s gift is to us. He has given us love. He has restored us. He has given us righteousness and holiness. He has taken away the sin and the iniquity. No longer are they our character. Our character now is love and we need to walk in who we are, showing the world, “This is the work of Christ in my life.”
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