Sermon preached at Our Lady of Walsingham and St Francis on the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity
Seek ye first...
You've got that tune going around your head now, haven’t you. Round and round it goes and try as you might, you won't get rid of it. It's called an earworm.
This is a wonderful earworm to have even if the tune is a bit twee. What is now in your head is the pattern for how to live your life.
If you have a decision to make, seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. It might not help you to decide whether to put the rubbish out or do the washing up, but if we start each day seeking first the Kingdom of God, then our day is already consecrated to the glory of God and the glory of God will take care of everything else.
The notion of glory is intimately bound up with worship. The Hebrew word for glory is kadosh and literally means impact. The glory of a glass of Ribena on the kitchen floor is lots of pieces; the glory of the floor made by the glass of Ribena is a stain that is going to take a lot to remove.
Already we begin to see that the glory that we encounter in our daily lives is not very positive.
The Galatians are being taught that in order to be a Christian you have to follow the old Jewish Law. The people teaching this are Christians who probably used to be Pharisees and who want their power back. They want to have an impact on those just coming to the Christian Fairh, and this impact is circumcision. This is their glory. How small it is. Thus St Paul says to the Galatians, "For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."
The glory of Our Lord is His Incarnation: this is His impact on Time and Space. It is this glory we mst seek first. In putting God first, we shew forth our worship of Him. In order to worship God, we must seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. In so doing, we get a promise. All that we need, what we desire most, will be given to us in God. God knows our needs, He can supply our needs and He wants to supply our needs. And we will have our needs met by seeking Him.
This is why Mass is one of the highest expressions of worship that there are. For here we seek God's very presence. The One who says "Seek ye first" is here for us to seek and to draw into ourselves. We may still worry about tomorrow but, by allowing that earworm to continue, we can be assured that, in our search, today will fall into place and tomorrow will as well. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Sufficient unto all eternity is God's love.
The glory of Our Lord is His Incarnation: this is His impact on Time and Space. It is this glory we mst seek first. In putting God first, we shew forth our worship of Him. In order to worship God, we must seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. In so doing, we get a promise. All that we need, what we desire most, will be given to us in God. God knows our needs, He can supply our needs and He wants to supply our needs. And we will have our needs met by seeking Him.
This is why Mass is one of the highest expressions of worship that there are. For here we seek God's very presence. The One who says "Seek ye first" is here for us to seek and to draw into ourselves. We may still worry about tomorrow but, by allowing that earworm to continue, we can be assured that, in our search, today will fall into place and tomorrow will as well. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Sufficient unto all eternity is God's love.
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