“God’s People Depend on His Mercy”
October 27, 2013
The 23rd Sunday of the Christian Season of Ordinary Time/Kingdomtide/Time of the Church
Jeremiah 14: 1 - 10; 19-22/Psalm 84: 1 - 7/ 2 Timothy 4: 6 - 8; 16 - 18/Luke 18: 9 - 14
His Excellency
The Most Reverend Ariel Cornelio P. Santos D.D.
Auxiliary Bishop and Locum Tenens
of the
Archdiocese of Manila
the
National Church in the Philippines
and the
Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
Ordinary Time is a time ordained by God for us to walk in His Kingdom and in the principles of His kingdom. It is also called Kingdomtide. We continue to learn lessons on being God’s people.
LET US CONTINUE OUR REFLECTION
WITH
CARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH
AND
VENERABLE PRIMATE
OF THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGH
THE WORD EXPOSED
Ordinary Time is a time ordained by God for us to walk in His Kingdom and in the principles of His kingdom. It is also called Kingdomtide. We continue to learn lessons on being God’s people.
Today, reflecting on the gospel, we are taught not to trust in ourselves but in God alone. It is not to look at others with contempt and with despise. The Pharisee, in the story, trusted in his own deeds and he looked down on the tax collector. The tax collector simply confessed his sin, beat his breast while he was praying in the temple. This is what we take after when we do the “Agnus Dei” and the “Lord have mercy.” We don’t actually beat our breast but we put our fist on our breast in the same tradition as the repentant tax collector.
The Bible say that there is none righteous – no, not one. Only God is righteous and He knows this that is why He wrote it in the New Testament. He also knows that no one can claim righteousness. He understands when somebody like a tax collector would beat his breast and ask for mercy acknowledging that he is not righteous and he depends on God for righteousness.
God opposes the proud because they don’t know the truth and they have to learn the truth. He gives grace to the humble because they are a step closer to the truth and to the kingdom of God. Our righteousness comes from God. God laid that down as the foundation. If we say otherwise, then we are speaking lies.
In today’s Daily Office, God said that He would silence the mouth of those who speak lies. Psalm 31:18 says, “Let the lying lips be dumb which speak arrogantly against the righteous with pride and contempt.” Is the tax collector righteous? The Congressman who benefited from ten billion pesos, righteous? Tax collectors were viewed before as the beneficiaries of the pork barrel system of the Roman government. God said, “He went from the temple justified and made righteous by God.” Does God lie? The tax collector was made righteous and that is the truth.
If we look at such people with contempt and we say, “You have no right to approach God,” then we are speaking lies and we don’t understand the truth. God said, “I desire compassion and not sacrifice because I also give mercy. I forgive and I expect forgiveness.” We cannot boast that we fast three times a week or however many times and we pay out tithes and give our offerings. What God wants is not our sacrifice. He first wants our mercy as He gives mercy.
God wants a relationship, not religion. What He wants us to do is ministry, not Church projects or activities. He wants us to be involved in is in the work of the Church, not Church work. He wants us to have knowledge of Him, not pietism; not a form of godliness. He wants us to be caring for the least of His brethren.
The Pharisee held on to a form of godliness, but he viewed others with contempt. Jesus said to the Pharisee who viewed others with contempt and who adhered to the law, “There is nothing wrong with tithing and fasting,” but He did say, “These things you should have done.” Jesus shows His stamp of approval on these things – tithing, fasting and praying – what we do in Church but without neglecting the weightier matters of the Law which are justice, mercy and righteousness. If we fast and pay our tithe, but we look at others with contempt, we insult the work of God and despise the brother for whom Christ died.
Our righteousness is given by God. Jeremiah 14: 22 says that, “All these things are the work of God." Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace, you have been saved through faith not of yourselves, not because you tithe, not because you fast and pray three times a day. It is the gift of God – not by works lest any man boast.” It is God’s doing. St. Paul says that by His doing, we are in Christ Jesus.
Contempt of others is denying the work of God in them and questioning His being God and His perfection. 2Corinthians5:16 says that we recognize no one according to the flesh because they are a new creation. Old things have passed away and new things have come, and this is the Lord’s doing. It is not according to the flesh anymore.
Was the tax collector sinful? Maybe, according to the flesh. Is he righteous? Definitely because he is a new creation! Your baptized brother is in Christ and he is a new creation. From now on, let us not recognize anyone according to the flesh. You can say all you want and I will believe you. You can say, “But this person is this and that. They did this to me. They are liars. They are swindlers, they are unjust. They are evil.” Maybe, according to the flesh, those were the old things that passed away. Now, do those things still stick their heads out and show some signs and symptoms of evil in the person? Maybe, but they are a new creation. You are a new creation and this is the truth!
What we see, according to flesh, is not true but a lie. All of us, each one of us, are a new creation – not by our doing but by His doing. We are in Christ Jesus and we are made righteous. We were not even born yet when He did that. It is His doing, and God’s work is perfect. If you look at the flesh, it is not perfect, but God is. God is not done with us. Even the process is perfect. Nobody can question the process; it is perfect! God knows what He is doing. It is the Lord’s doing!
Romans 14:1, "Accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment.” Don’t despise him; don’t look down on him. Verse 4 says he is God’s servant. The weakest among you, the least among you is Christ’s brother and God’s servant. We have no right to judge him because God is able to make him stand and overcome his weaknesses. He is still in process. He is still growing like you and me. Verse 7 says, “We are the Lord’s.” Nobody owns anybody else as to say, “You are this or that. You are unjust. You are a swindler. You are a liar.” You can’t say that of anybody because they are not our property. All of us are the Lord’s.
In Verse 10, St. Paul asks, “If that is so, then why do you regard your brother with contempt?” Verse 15 says, “Christ died for him.” We have no right to despise our brother for Christ died for him. We will be going against Christ and His work. Verse 19-20, “Therefore, pursue things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down God’s work for the sake of food, for your right, for your privilege, for your preference.” Our right takes a back seat. More important is our brother and the building up of our brother.
1Corinthians 8:13 says, “If food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again.” Is it my right to eat meat? Yes, but I will not do it in front of my brother if it is going to cause him to stumble. What is more important is the building up of a brother for whom Christ died and who is the work of God. When we judge and criticize our brother, we insult and destroy God’s handiwork.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are His workmanship.” We are His masterpiece and if we go against each other, we actually go against Him. When the Israelites rejected Samuel, God told him, “They did not reject you. They rejected Me.” When David sinned against Uriah by committing adultery with his wife and actually murdering Uriah, he sinned against God Himself, not against a brother.
What did Jesus say to Paul, then Saul, when he was persecuting the Church? “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? To the extent that you did this or did not do this to the least of My brethren, you did it to Me.” We are not offending each other, but we are offending God.
We neglect other matters of the Law. We reverence the Altar. We reverence the body and the blood of Christ. The bakers who bake the bread are supposed to be in reverential fear and attitude. When we receive communion, we have all reverence and rightly so. Even the church building, we respect. I ask you, “What do those things stand for and represent? What are they in existence for?” It is the real body of Christ.
The temple of God is more than just a building. We are God’s planting. We are God’s field. We are God’s building. We are the Body of Christ. If we reverence the body of Christ, we must also reverence the Body of Christ. You and I are the Body of Christ. We are to seek the edification and the building of that Body. This is what it says in 1Corinthians 14 for the purpose of spiritual gifts. It is not to build our own self, but to build the Body of Christ.
God is harsh against people who tear down and try to destroy His temple. He said, “Whoever destroys My temple, him I would destroy. It is My work.” In the Book of Ezra 6, there was a decree of King Darius, who represented God, and he said, “There is the command to build the temple of God. Anyone who violates the command, a timber will be taken from his house and he will impaled on it. His household will be cut-off and be a heap of refuse and ashes.” This is how harsh God is against lies and against those who oppose His work. In fact, if you read the verse in Matthew 12 that mentions the unpardonable or unforgiveable sin, it is actually talking about disrespecting the work of God. I won’t debate on that but to me, God’s mercy is everlasting. He is harsh when it comes to opposing the work of God.
Psalm 28:5 says, “Because they do not regard the works of the LORD nor the deeds of His hands, He will tear them down and not build them up.” God opposes the proud and He shames those who trust in themselves. There was this story of a couple of scientists. They arrogantly approached God and said, “We don’t need You anymore. We can make man on our own.” God said, “Oh, really? Show Me.” The scientists rolled up their sleeves and gathered some dust. God said, “Wait a minute, get your own dust. That is Mine!” They were silenced.
We speak arrogantly, not knowing that everything comes from God. We depend on His mercy. We are nothing apart from Him. This is why we ask for God’s mercy when we pray our Corporate Petition. In the New Testament reading, St. Paul was still encouraged because he said, “Even if everybody else deserted me, God's mercy is with me. That does not disappoint.” God remembers His covenant with us.
When we pray, let us pray like Moses with confidence. Twice Moses said this when God wanted to destroy the whole of Israel, “Remember Your covenant. If You don’t remember Your mercy to us, then, they will say of You that You started doing something. You started Your work and You failed to finish and they will laugh at Your work.” God cannot allow that to happen. God will never fail nor forsake us because we are His handiwork. Each of us is but we need to understand that and we need to depend on Him – not on our own merits and our own strength, but it is only, exclusively, in His mercy.
In the Book of Ezra, when the foundation of the second temple was being laid, the older people who saw the first temple were weeping. Commentaries on it said it was because they saw that the first temple was bigger. The Word of God said, “You may think that, but the glory of the latter temple will far exceed the glory of the former temple. Don’t look at the flesh. Don’t look at the structure of the building. Look at Me who does the work because I will glorify My glorious house.”
This is how much God loves us. He is committed to us, His workmanship. This is the way it is in God’s kingdom. We are His people; we are His workmanship. He has made us righteous and He has given us mercy. He has made a new creation. This is the truth and this is the way it is in the kingdom of God!
WITH
CARDINAL OF HOLY MOTHER CHURCH
AND
VENERABLE PRIMATE
OF THE PHILIPPINES
THROUGH
THROUGH
THE WORD EXPOSED
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