Sermon by the Rev Dr. Jean A. M. Meade, Vicar, Mount Olivet Episcopal Church, New Orleans, Louisiana
Strive to enter by the narrow door.
Abram believed God, and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!
In our lessons today we are reminded of how God longs for us -- of how He made a covenant with Abraham in order to bring his blessing to the rebellious children of men – men whom He had made in His own image – male and female. The whole Old Testament teaches us how throughout the generations, he continued to call to the children of Abraham who were the inheritors of that covenant. He sent his prophets to speak His word, to call us to return to His ways and to faith in him. Yet Jerusalem -- here a symbol for all the people who know God – not for those who have never heard – always kills the prophets, we are told.
Finally the Holy One of God appears, Jesus of Nazareth, who did mighty works, healed the sick, and preached repentance and the coming of the Kingdom of God– in the gospel lesson the Pharisees come to warn Jesus that Herod, the ruler of Judea, wants to kill him.
The issue of who killed Jesus of Nazareth, so much bandied about in the media today – was it the Romans, was it the Jewish priests, was it the Pharisees, was it the ordinary people – begs the question posed throughout the whole Bible. Why do we all want to turn our back on God when God created us for himself and desires that we should love Him in return?
Go back to the beginnings of the story --Why in the world did Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit? Why disobey? They had plenty to eat!
Then on to their first two children – the first family. Why did Cain kill Abel? Jealousy? Envy?
That is a foreshadowing of how his own people killed Jesus their brother, the one who was acceptable to God. There’s something about our fallen human nature that hates to encounter true goodness and beauty.
We all hate to look at ourselves in the light of his goodness and truthfulness because we feel judged. As Shakespeare’s villain Iago said of Cassio in the play Othello, trying to justify to himself his malice against this man who had never harmed him in any way, “There’s a daily beauty in his life that makes me ugly.” The beauty and goodness of Jesus did make some love him and heed his message of repentance – but it also stirred up many, many people to hate him and wish to silence him, kill him – anything to get him out of the way and out of sight – “There’s a daily beauty in his life that makes me ugly.”
So how should we respond to Jesus today – which way do we go? If we find ourselves sometimes more like Herod, or the Pharisees (who perhaps do not so much want to warn Jesus as to get him to stop preaching and go “underground” so they won’t have to listen to him), do we need to despair, or just give up and wallow in our weaknesses and wickedness, admitting we are powerless against the devil who threatens to undo us?
No Indeed. The reason Jesus came to earth to live and die as one of us was out of love for us – out of love for the whole world – to call us to return to him. So how can we go about respond to him instead or ignoring, resisting, or defying him?
There are many ways to interpret the correct response to God’s call to us; but I think the lessons today, taken together, are telling us to do three things in response to God’s call to us in His son Jesus the Christ:
Strive, believe, and take shelter.
1. First Jesus tells us to strive to enter by the narrow door. We can try. To the extent that we do understand what the good is, that we do know what God requires of us – as the prophet Micah put it – to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God – we can strive.
We are able to do good works - to do the right thing for the right reason, to paraphrase TS Eliot’s warning about doing the right thing for the wrong reason – if we listen carefully to what Jesus is saying. St. Paul reminds us of the power of a good example as he says “join in imitating me …mark those who so live as you have an example in us.’ There are many saints – in the past and right here in Mount Olivet Church today who do imitate Paul, and Mary and Martha of Bethany, or and who are examples for the rest of us when we think – “what should I do and how should I do it.” Imitate one of them and soon you willl find your own true calling in God’s household.
But we realize that, since we have free will, we can also chose to do the wrong thing, we can justify an evil means because we claim a good end; we can rationalize our own weakness and selfishness. The devil is there to tempt us to turn aside from our noble resolution, to disrupt our spiritual discipline, or to indulge our baser passions or lust for power.
So what if we try and try to enter by the narrow door and still feel like a failure?? What should we do then? What is the next step when the inevitable failure comes?
2. The answer here is the second thing we can do. We can recommit ourselves to our faith in Jesus, the fulfillment of all the promises of God, from Abram on. This is where the words of Martin Luther’s great hymn we sang last week remind us “Were not the right man on our side, our striving would be losing”
It is our faith in Jesus, in his saving blood, in the efficacy of his sacrifice for our sins, once and for all upon the cross, that saves us from despair and hopelessness. Because just as God did for Abram he does for us –
Abram believed God, and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
St. Paul makes this explicit in Romans by quoting this passage to explain why we, who cannot ever keep the law perfectly, can nevertheless attain the righteousness of God and be counted worthy to inherit life eternal – FAITH. We are Abraham’s heirs if we have faith like his. Even in the darkest night of our souls, even in the face of overwhelming temptations or heart-rending disasters, we can hold fast to our faith. Believe God – believe that God loves you – believe that God has a purpose and plan for your life. Believe that Jesus loves you and died for your sins.
3. Then run – don’t walk -- to his sheltering wings!!! Like those little chicks running to hide under their mother hen’s wings that Jesus is speaking of, we will find He is waiting for us. The whole Bible is God’s love letter to us urging us to come home – to take Him up on His offer of refuge and safety and joy. We can make God our refuge because he is calling us, begging us to run to him, and lamenting every time we use our freedom to turn our backs and refuse to do so. The psalm says it, and Jesus reaffirms it in words that echo the psalmist:
In the day of trouble he shall keep me safe in his shelter
He shall hide me in the secrecy of his dwelling
And set me high upon a rock
We can run to him – just as we are – without one plea – except our faith in his saving blood. He wants to save us, he longs to shelter us – we are welcome in his house forever.
It is true we are judged and found wanting – no one is fully righteous on his or her own. But the good news is that we are welcomed as well. Jesus is calling us to forget our pride, our desire to be a self-made man or women, and come running to him like chickens to their mother. When danger and temptation threaten us, don’t try to withstand it alone – run to Jesus!!
But we have to go ourselves – of our own free will. Just as the people of God in Jerusalem refused to listen to the prophets, including Jesus – we can refuse the shelter He offers us. The door is too narrow for those who want to pride themselves on their own achievements; but it is just wide enough for scared chickens fleeing the hawk.
If we believe in God’s promises, and act on that faith, then we will not turn our backs on His Holy Son when He calls us to come – instead we will run to his sheltering arms, and abide in his shadow and God will count our faith, like Abraham’s, as righteousness.
Then we will sing with the Psalmist with all our hearts:
The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom then shall I fear.
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom then shall I be afraid?