Sermon July 17, 2016 Doing God's Will 8th Sunday after Trinity Matt 7:15-21

Lord, Lord!     Lord, Lord? 

What is your response?  What did you think or feel when I said that?  Well it was a statement and a question.  Jesus tells us that this is one of the ways that you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  At least that was one of the beliefs in Jesus’s time.  Perhaps we can conclude that there was a belief that if you said the right things i.e. prayed the right prayers in the right way and followed the proper ritual in worship you would assure yourself that you were going to enter the kingdom and be with God when you time on this earth had run its course.  I think people still believe that today. 

Now many people today don’t believe that you have to worship God to get your reward.  The number of people who attend church and even the number who believe in God is declining rapidly—at least in Canada.  However, more and more people believe that if they have the right kind of possession and marks of their success—the right kind of cloths, the right kind of home, the right kind of friends, driving the right kind of car and enrolling their kids in all the right schools and the right kind of programs after school they will have made it.  They will have their reward in this life—after all if there is no other life than on this earth that is what matters.

Jesus explodes this idolatry with a few words, “Not everyone who saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven”.  Words alone aren’t enough.  The question that arises is, if not words then what does it take?  Well, Jesus provides us the answer.  He doesn’t always do that directly but fortunately in this case he does, “Ye shall know them by their fruits”.  That lays it on the line doesn’t it.  The right words are important but words alone are not enough.  It is by the result of putting your words into action. 

That is all well and good but what kind of fruits are we talking about?  Again we are fortunate that he does tell us.  All we have to do is to do the will of the Heavenly Father—simple enough.  Well unfortunately people have been arguing over that ever since. 

One example of the arguments is the recent decision by our General Synod to change the marriage cannon to include same-sex relationships.   The vote was in favour of change in all three houses; laity, clergy and bishops.  After some confusion and some miscounted voted the needed two-thirds majority in all the houses was recorded.  Same sex blessing and marriage has been a divisive issue for many years now and will continue for the foreseeable future and would have been if the motion to change the marriage cannon had not received the necessary votes.

I am not here today to say the vote should have gone one way or another.  I believe that all who were voting at General Synod believed that they were following the will of our Heavenly Father.  The question is how do we respond to our fellow Anglicans in the difficult years ahead for the church?   I found the statement by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States, Michael Curry made before the vote to be very helpful.  I will quote from it:

Whatever you do, do it in the name of love…Whatever the specific legislative outcome, who knows what that is going to look like, but the way of loving—and I’m talking about God’s loving, not some secular idea—will lead us to the place we are all meant to be. I know that I find myself probably heading or closer to being in the right direction when I can say, "This is the best approximation of love that I can find at this moment."

Two of the things Jesus talked about in John 13-17, in his last discourse at the Last Supper; he talked about love over and over again. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.” He didn’t say that you agree with one another. He didn’t even really say if you like one another, but that you love one another.   And you know the other thing he talks about? The Spirit. He says, “There are many more things I could tell you, but you cannot handle them now, but when the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you into all truth.  I will not leave you comfortless, but I will send my Holy Spirit upon you to lead you.” 

There is a hymn which is fairly modern being written by Peter Scholtes in the 1960’s but which reflects in my mind the message of Jesus in today’s Gospel and the message by Michael Curry perfectly.   

We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity
May one day be restored

And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, By our love
Yes, they'll know we are Christians
By our love

We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
And together we'll spread the news
That God is in our land

We will work with each other
We will work side by side
We will work with each other
We will work side by side
And we'll guard each man's dignity
And save each man's pride

All praise to the Father
From whom all things come
And all praise to Christ Jesus His only son
And all praise to the Spirit
Who makes us one

And they'll know we are Christians
By our love, By our love
Yes, they'll know we are Christians
By our love