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Saturday, August 03, 2024

Happy Weeping


Sermon for the tenth Sunday after Trinity 

Again,
It has been a week 
that has challenged 
any sense
of being positive 
about being human.

We have seen the Christian faith
mocked at the Olympics 
followed by people telling us
that it wasn't intended 
to be
despite direct evidence 
to the contrary 
from those involved.

We have seen the blasphemy 
of little girls being stabbed
while enjoying a dance class
followed by riots.

We are outraged
and we weep
and feel impotent.

All this just gets to you
once in a while, 
doesn't it?

[PAUSE]

We see Our Lord 
weeping over Jerusalem.

He keeps because 
He knows what is going to happen 
and cannot change it.

It is at this point 
the voices cry:

"Then He cannot be God,
for God can do anything!"

They make a point.

How can God weep
if He is unaffected 
by emotions?

How can He fail
to prevent the fall of Jerusalem 
if He can see it coming?

[PAUSE]

What we see here is
another reason why Our Lord 
became a human being.

Our Salvation 
depends upon
the Our Lord
taking Human Nature
up into His Divine Nature.

The gap between 
being human 
and being Divine 
is infinite.

So God bridges the gap
Himself 
by taking what it is to be human
into the divine person 
of Jesus.

In so doing,
Our Lord sanctifies
all aspects 
of what it is to be human.

He weeps
because weep.

He is tempted 
because we are tempted.

He is scared
because we get scared.

The person of 
Our Lord Jesus Christ 
is affected by what we do
because He has our nature.

But more than that.

[PAUSE]

We have free will.

We make our decisions freely
and God forces us to do nothing
because God is Love
and Love does not insist
on its own way.

But God makes His decisions 
from Eternity.

This means 
that He sees 
past, present and future 
all at once.

He responds to 
our decisions 
- even the ones 
we haven't made yet -
from Eternity.

But God will not
change our decisions 
in order to make 
His will happen.

It means
we have a hand in
our own salvation 
because we have a hand
in our creation
and, indeed,
all of Creation itself.

[PAUSE]

We cannot change
the decisions of others
even if those decisions lead
to blasphemy and to murder,
but we can still stand against them.

If we have a hand in Creation
then we have a duty 
to play that hand well,
and to call out evil when we see it.

Our Lord calls out evil
when he sees it trying to block
the way to God in the temple 
through manipulating 
the money changers
and the animal sellers.

So we should call out evil
when we see it.

Not that we should call people evil
for we are all creatures of God
and this good in His eyes,
but that we should not
be complacent when we see 
something wrong.

It means we have to pray
and learn how to confront evil
in a way that God would want us to.

But we should take comfort 
from feeling outraged,
from feeling impotent,
from feeling devastated 
because Our Lord
has sanctified these feelings for us.

It just remains for is
to acknowledge 
and do that which
is Godly,
filled with grace
and pointing towards joy.

For if God is with us
at our darkest,
then, by loving Him,
we shall be with Him
in His joy.



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