Anglican Catholic Passions

 

How dispassion done properly leads to compassion. 

Six of one and half a dozen of the other

Sermon for Passion Sunday

There are so many arguments 

going on these days, 

particularly on Social Media.

Everyone is convinced

that they are right

and they will not be

corrected by anyone.

If anything, 

online arguments 

make things worse.

[PAUSE]

What we see constantly 

is that whatever argument

someone gives,

their opponent will twist the words

or seek to invalidate them

by denying their value.

Online arguments 

are usually between people 

who are right

in their own eyes.

Worse still,

arguments like these 

between Christians

usually end up with the phrase,

"well, you're not really Christian then,

are you?"

Arguments between Christians

usually end up 

with one side grabbing Christ

and saying,

"look, we possess Him,

you are wrong and not really of Him."

And, rather than being grabbed,

Our Lord just passes through them, 

hides Himself 

and leaves the temple.

[PAUSE]

Here on Passion Sunday, 

we see Our Lord

facing a concerted argument

with the Pharisees

who are demanding 

His submission to their 

regulation of His ministry.

The Pharisees are always right:

they are supremely authoritative 

in the Law

and ensuring that others

are bound by that Law

despite breaking it themselves

with the excuse of 

their own self-justification.

They will not listen to Christ

because they are convinced 

that He cannot be Christ

because He does not agree with them.

To the outsider,

this looks like one of 

those online debates

with one group of authorities 

arguing with a maverick preacher.

As arguments go,

it looks like six of one

and half a dozen of the other.

Except that the maverick preacher

suddenly says something 

that the others find blasphemous 

and they try to stone Him.

But He disappears from view

and that's the end of the argument.

But the Church is always 

involved in arguments.

How can we be sure

that we aren't the Pharisees?

[PAUSE]

"He who that is of God

listens to God."

This must be the defining aspect

of any engagement that we have

as Christians in any debate.

The great Oecumenical Councils

look very much like

some of the online arguments. 

Passions run high,

there is shouting 

cursing, brawls, 

even, sad to say, murder.

We Christians cannot escape 

the fact the our founding councils

were not organised debates.

But it isn't the loud, angry debates themselves 

that have lasted.

It is the doctrine that has come forth

that has lasted 

and has been accepted 

by the Catholic Church

because the Church is of God 

and so it listens to God.

The fact that we know

that Christ is of the same substance 

as the Father

is because 

the Church listens to God.

It is after the noise of the debate

that the truth comes out

but only for those 

who are willing to challenge

their own position 

in the argument. 

It is only after the Resurrection 

that the self-righteous hypocrisy 

of the Pharisees is truly revealed.

They seek to win the debate

there and then

by playing the blasphemy card,

and picking up the stones.

The Church cannot seek

to win debates

when it seeks to win hearts

just as Christ seeks to win our hearts

and thus procure Our Salvation 

through His Cross.

The Church knows that

the same old arguments, 

the same old heresies

and the same old insults

will happen again and again.

But the Church, 

rather than seeking to end the debate

continues to listen to God

and pray for the Salvation of souls.

The true Church seeks not

the death of a sinner

because Her Master

seeks not the death of a sinner.

This is what marks the Church out

from other authorities:

its purpose must be Love:

leading people back to God

and giving them the nourishment 

of the Sacraments He instituted.

[PAUSE]

The Pharisees' debate 

ends definitively with the 

destruction of the temple.

But before then 

their argument is mortally wounded 

upon the Cross.

Their argument is self-serving

and ends in self-destruction.

Christ's argument is life-giving

and endures even death.

In an online debate 

listen not to the argument

but to what God is saying to you.

Arguments are usually 

six of one,

and half a dozen of the other.

But only Christ's teaching

preserved by the twelve apostles 

will be the Truth.