Readings
for
29 September 2002
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's First Reading is from The Book of Ezekiel, beginning at the 18th Chapter and the 25th Verse (Ez 18:25-28):

        "Yet you say, `The way of the Lord is not just.' Hear now, O house of Israel: Is my way not just? Is it not your ways that are not just?  When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he shall die for it; for the iniquity which he has committed he shall die.  Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has committed and does what is lawful and right, he shall save his life.  Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions which he had committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

 Today's Song of Praise is taken from Psalm 25 (Ps 4-5, 8-9):

 R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.

Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.

R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.

Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
The sins of my youth and my frailties remember not;
in your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.

R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.

Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.

R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.

Today's Epistle is from the Letter of Paul to the Philippians, beginning at the 2nd Chapter, and the 1st Verse (Phil 2:1-11):

        So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy,  complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.   Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves.   Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.   Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,  who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.   And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.   Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name,  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

+ A Reading from the Gospel of Matthew, beginning at the 21st Chapter, and the 28th Verse (Mt 21:23,28-32):

       And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?"  And Jesus replied:  "What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, `Son, go and work in the vineyard today.'   And he answered, `I will not'; but afterward he repented and went.  And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, `I go, sir,' but did not go.  Which of the two did the will of his father?" They said, "The first." Jesus said to them, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.   For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him.

Sermon
for
29 September 2002
26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

        My great and good friend Jeff sent me a link early this week:

            http://matt1618.freeyellow.com/justif.html

 . . . which, while much too long to quote here, effectively demolishes the "sola scriptura" and "once saved..." arguments.  By a very nice coincidence, today's readings also speak to those points.

        Boiled down, I. Shawn McElhinney's argument is that Jesus trumps Paul (He's God, you know -- and Paul isn't).  The essay goes on to show that all of the Apostles, including Paul, teach the same Faith -- Peter, James, John and Paul.  Therefore, when we interpret Paul we have to interpret him in terms of what Jesus says.

        And Jesus says, right here in today's Gospel, that mere "mouth Christianity" -- saying "Yes, Lord" -- doesn't get you anywhere.  You need to get off your backside and actually go out an DO the will of the Father.  

    "Which of the two did the will of his father?" said Jesus, and points out that many tax collectors (IRS Agents of that time) and harlots had repented -- changed their minds and lives.  The first son, too, in the parable, at first says "I won't", then changes his mind and does what his father asked.  The second says "Yeah, sure, Pops," and does nothing.  

        In another place -- Matt.7:21 -- Jesus says: "Not every one who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father..." The command is to get up and do, not just "accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior".  That's the first step -- the leap of faith, but as James says -- Jas 2:26 -- "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead." -- clearly teaching what Jesus taught, as we should expect, that the good works are as necessary as the faith.

        In today's First Reading, the Prophet Ezekiel makes the same point that Paul does in Romans 6:23:  "...the wages of sin is death...".  But like Paul and the Church, he also says that there is salvation for the sinner by turning away from his iniquity.

        Ezekiel, like all the Hebrew prophets, is being very concrete here -- saying that by ceasing to do the wrong thing, and doing the right thing, we are saved from eternal death.  It is not by saying or believing that we are saved, but by doing what is right.

        Turned on its head, the argument is that, while we cannot work our way into heaven, we sure can work our way into the other place.  Works matter, as Jesus repeats over and over (see the arguments in the link, above) -- and doing good works is as important as avoiding bad ones.

        The Psalmist sings:

Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
Teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
For you are God my savior.

Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.

        "Paths of righteousness", in the Hebrew, is just that -- a physical path, the route one walks to do the right thing.  The things one does in this life, which the Lord will reward.  It is not a metaphorical thing, but a very concrete one;  it is not only "Right Belief" (in the Buddhist phrase), but also "Right Action".

        In today's Epistle, Paul talks about the kind of person -- the type of personality -- that we, as Christians, should be developing.  We are to be like Christ, who, although God, emptied Himself to become a slave, even unto dying on the cross for us.

        This, by the way, is the answer to the Mohammedan and Arian lies that Jesus cannot be God, because He prays to God, and obeys God.  How little insight they have into the true depths of God's love for us -- that He would make himself as we are, to save us from our follies.

        Note that He does all of this "for us" -- as Paul says:  "Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."  Jesus certainly looked to our interests, dying for our sins on the Cross, so that we might rise up with Him also.

        So what we are called to do is to be humble, as Jesus was humble; to have concern for others, and do for others, as Jesus did and does for us.  Let us pray then, that we may live up to that example . . . .

In the Name of the Father +
And of the Son +
And of the Holy Spirit +
Amen.

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