Readings of the Day:
Sermon:
As you all know, I have been fortunate enough to live in many places and to be
part of worship at many different churches throughout this great country of ours.
As a result, I’ve also gotten to experience quite a wide range of preaching.
One church I was at had a person, who I will call Leonard (since I’ve never known a priest by that name), who was well known as an extraordinary preacher. This church was very proud to have this man because of his reputation and were not shy about saying so.
By the time I got to hear him, he had been at the church for many years. And so I hoped that in all that time his preaching would have done nothing but improve and be even richer than the expectations I had already been given.
But when I heard him preach, I was a little... underwhelmed. He appeared to ramble his ways through his sermons. Every now and then, there would be little kernels of truth in his words. But you really had to listen. And it was often hard to stay focused.
I wondered what was going on with Leonard's preaching. Was there something I was missing? Why was it he failed to live up to his reputation.
And then one day, a friend of mine told me about her first encounter with Leonard. Apparently, when they first met, he went on and on about his skill. About what he could do.
You see, Leonard had fallen into the trap of believing what other people told him about his abilities. He focused so much on what he was doing, that he forgot what it was really about. He forgot that his preaching had little to do with him and everything to do with what God was working in him. And it was forgetting that God was the source of his gift that he lost it.
In our readings today, we are called to not forget the truth that Leonard forgot. We are called upon to not boast of ourselves, but in the one who gave us these gifts, the abilities we have. We are called to dwell on Christ Jesus alone.
In the Gospel, Jesus has just sent out his disciples to prepare the way for him, just as we are called to help prepare the hearts and minds of those around us for Jesus to enter in now. And as the disciples go out and minister in Jesus’ name, they find they have incredible power. They find that when they use Jesus’ name, they have power even over demons.
One church I was at had a person, who I will call Leonard (since I’ve never known a priest by that name), who was well known as an extraordinary preacher. This church was very proud to have this man because of his reputation and were not shy about saying so.
By the time I got to hear him, he had been at the church for many years. And so I hoped that in all that time his preaching would have done nothing but improve and be even richer than the expectations I had already been given.
But when I heard him preach, I was a little... underwhelmed. He appeared to ramble his ways through his sermons. Every now and then, there would be little kernels of truth in his words. But you really had to listen. And it was often hard to stay focused.
I wondered what was going on with Leonard's preaching. Was there something I was missing? Why was it he failed to live up to his reputation.
And then one day, a friend of mine told me about her first encounter with Leonard. Apparently, when they first met, he went on and on about his skill. About what he could do.
You see, Leonard had fallen into the trap of believing what other people told him about his abilities. He focused so much on what he was doing, that he forgot what it was really about. He forgot that his preaching had little to do with him and everything to do with what God was working in him. And it was forgetting that God was the source of his gift that he lost it.
In our readings today, we are called to not forget the truth that Leonard forgot. We are called upon to not boast of ourselves, but in the one who gave us these gifts, the abilities we have. We are called to dwell on Christ Jesus alone.
In the Gospel, Jesus has just sent out his disciples to prepare the way for him, just as we are called to help prepare the hearts and minds of those around us for Jesus to enter in now. And as the disciples go out and minister in Jesus’ name, they find they have incredible power. They find that when they use Jesus’ name, they have power even over demons.
And they do what anyone else would do. They get excited by this newfound gift. They immediately want to go and tell their teacher “It worked! It worked!”
And Jesus knows that there is some danger in this excitement. The danger that they will focus so much on what they can do that they will lose sight on what is truly important. Mainly that they have a place in what Jesus is preparing. That they will receive the fruit of Christ’s death and resurrection.
Jesus wants to reign in the disciples before pride sets in and they forget where this gift comes from and what it really means, mainly the favor and blessing of God Himself. And Paul is trying to combat this same sort of pride in our reading from the letter to the Galatians.
As we have been hearing from Paul this past month, the Galatians have fallen into the trap of believing it is their own work through law that saves them. Not the saving grace that comes from Jesus Christ alone. And so Paul is trying to get them to take a step back, as Jesus did with his disciples, so that they realize the truth.
In our reading this morning, we learn specifically that it is in their circumcision, in their flesh, that the Galatians take pride in. And for this reason, Paul says to them, “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is not in ourselves, in our own actions, that we should boast, but only in the great work that Jesus has done for us and in us. It is not in ourselves we should have pride, but only in Christ Jesus, the one who came down and offered Himself freely for us, so that we might have freedom from sin and death.
It is easy for us, even today, to focus on what we are doing. To focus on our own accomplishments. Our own holiness. And it is too easy to forget where we got our gifts and abilities. Or why it was we were doing any of these things in the first place.
Because it is not about our own glory. It isn’t about our own pride. We do what we do to share the glory and life-giving love that we have received from our Lord Jesus Christ. It is through Him that we are able to accomplish any of our deeds. And it is for Him that we seek to do the work He has given us to do.
As God has been speaking to us throughout this season after Pentecost, we are called to make Jesus our center. Our focus. Our reason for doing and being. Because in the end, it is only through Him that we have our life. Our being. It is only His love that sustains us.
As we see today, it is only though Christ that we accomplish anything. So we are called to keep our focus on Jesus Christ, realizing it is through Him that we have any of the gifts we use to do His will. We are called to always remember this truth that God is our source and our strength. And we are called to always be thankful.