You been taking Lent seriously.
Not only have you been
fasting and praying
and giving alms,
you've also been
examining the way
that you live your life,
looking to conform better
to the way God wants us to live.
This is very commendable,
indeed this is the way
to work out your salvation
with fear and trembling
knowing that it is
the Spirit of God working in you.
But is it all necessary?
Surely Jesus loves us
for who we are,
doesn't He?
[PAUSE]
We know that Jesus loves us.
The Cross is
by far
the most explicit assurance
we can have of
the love of God for His children.
For God sent not His Son
into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world
through Him
might be saved.
So surely that means
it doesn't matter what we do,
we just have to be ourselves.
We just need to let Jesus save us,
save us as we are.
This might be true
if we are saved by Faith alone.
The act of believing in Jesus
would be enough
to guarantee that
we are put right before God.
If this is true
then it doesn't matter what we do,
whether we sin
or whether we don't,
because at the end of it
just believing in the Lord Jesus Christ
will be enough to justify us before God,
and save us.
This is certainly
something that we see
in the modern church.
You've clearly heard that phrase
that Jesus accepts us as we are
for who we are.
Apparently Jesus “gets us.”
[PAUSE]
You can see why this
doesn't quite work
if we listen to
the words of Saint Paul
to the Christians
in Thessalonica.
He tells us that we need
to walk and please God.
Of course,
we have to believe God
before we can please God,
but that's not enough.
We do actually
have to please Him.
What does that mean?
[PAUSE]
What pleases God
is love.
God loves us,
so He wants us
to progress to Him
using the free will
that He gives.
We have to progress in God
for that is what to love God
with all our heart, soul, mind
and strength means.
We have to want
true goodness in our lives.
We know that love is
an action not a feeling.
It makes sense
therefore
that we do love.
We have to become perfect.
But how are we
to become perfect in God?
How do we learn to do it?
[PAUSE]
Well, first we look to Christ.
This is where our justification begins.
It begins with faith in Christ
and is life long.
But here we are
2000 years distant
from the time when
Jesus is helping
the Canaanite woman.
Notice that He is including her
in His offer of salvation
by giving health to her daughter.
Our Lord’s offer of salvation
is inclusive,
it is open to
every single human being.
It is not enough
to believe the offer,
we need to take up that offer.
We are imprisoned
by Sin,
our own sin
and the sins of others.
Jesus has opened the door
of Sin’s prison house,
but in order to be free,
we must walk out the door.
This means we have
to learn to walk and to walk
towards the door.
However we are fallen
and this means that
not only do we have to
learn to walk again,
but we also have to
learn to see again.
To learn to do these things
requires assistance.
We need the help of those
who are already on their feet
and stumbling towards the door
of the prison house.
The Apostles are the first
to be able to do this
by virtue of their
eyewitness relationship
with Our Lord.
With the Apostles is built
the hospital in which each one of us
learns to walk and talk and see
and progress towards God.
This means that
the Church herself
has to show
every Christian how to live.
Every Christian needs
to live a life of holiness
in order that other people
may know holiness.
This is exactly what the
Church in Thessalonica is doing
because Saint Paul says that
the Thessalonians
have received of him
how we ought to walk
and to please God.
He hopes they would
abound more and more.
The Church of Thessalonica
is not a church which says
“Jesus accepts you for who you are,”
this is a church that says,
“Jesus offers you salvation:
keep his commandments
and receive it freely.”
[PAUSE]
A big deal is made
these days
about the Church needing
to be “inclusive.”
This is true.
The Church needs
to be able to accommodate
every single human being
no matter where they are
or what they have done
or who they believe themselves to be.
The Church must welcome
with open arms
those who wish to come
through the doors.
But the Church cannot
preach another Gospel
other than the one it has been given.
And this means it must preach
the Gospel that says “if ye love me,
keep my commandments.”
Progress in the Church,
progress in holiness,
is made by keeping
God’s commandments to love.
It means learning
to live a holy life.
It means we have to abstain
from fornication,
we have to possess
our vessel – our bodies –
in sanctification and honour
and not in the lusts of the flesh.
We have to live lives
that are holy
not like the people
who refuse God’s holiness
and live their lives outside the Church.
For God has not called us
unto uncleanness,
but unto holiness.
[PAUSE]
We live lives of holiness
when we seek out
good Christian living.
We begin with our faith
and see where it leads us.
It will lead us into loving God
and seeking our perfection in him.
It will lead us into seeing
our brothers and sisters around us
as people who deserve salvation
because of Christ's love for all of us.
This does not mean
that we browbeat our neighbour
or throw his sins in his face
in an air of
hypocritical moral superiority.
It means encouraging,
being gentle and accepting
the human condition is weak.
We do this best by setting
an example in our own lives
as do the Apostles and Saints.
It means living
our lives in holiness
as best as we can
in order to show our
brothers and sisters
that it is possible to live
holy lives and live to love God.
It means showing the world
what to do with Sin
when we repent of ours fully
and forgive others freely.
God will always honour
our efforts to come close to Him
for that is what the Sacraments do,
draw us closer through His Grace.
[PAUSE]
Your Lent will always be a struggle.
That's not a bad thing.
Your struggle to be holy
will be strengthened by God’s Grace.
We no longer live
for ourselves in the Church,
we live for other people
and for their good,
and we live for
the love of God.
Let us therefore walk
all the more closely
towards the door of the prison
so that we can see
the shining light of Christ
and be free.
The only way we can do this
is by showing others the way
to the door, too.
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