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.
+
In the long season of Trinity, the lectionary readings focus on the nature of the Christian life. At baptism, you are a new creation, and you are called to participate in the life of the Holy Trinity. Our participation in the Holy Trinity means that our lives should resemble the life of our Maker.
This undoubtedly has to do with morals, but it is also much more than just what to do or what not to do. In the summary of the Law read in Trinity XIII, we saw that following Jesus was not just about what we do on the outside with our bodies. A disciple of Jesus follows with his whole being (heart, soul, strength). This is why Jesus is so often talking about an all-encompassing kingdom of God, not just how to win friends and influence people. As baptized Christians we live in a new reality, and that new reality is the perfect love and holiness between the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. It demands our whole being and so we must devote the energy of all our soul, all of mind, and all our body to this new reality. The season of Trinity week by week explains what the nature of the Christian life is in different aspects.
Last week, Fr. Gene struck at the heart of matter. Using Paul’s words from his letters to the Philippians, Fr. Gene explained that the true nature of the Christian life is almost paradoxical. It is living either in fasting or feasting, being abased or abounding. We see this especially in 2 Cor 6 where Paul summarizes the Apostolic ministry. They have proved themselves “as deceivers, and [yet] true; As unknown, and [yet] well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and [yet] possessing all things.”
The nature of the Christian life is not a life in the middle ground, but a world of extremes, of being abased and abounding. The middle ground, really, is a world of distraction, where one never transcends oneself. Instead, one is inattentive to the world and to those around, irrational and irresponsible. And don’t think for an instant that this irrationality or irresponsibility equates to an exciting life. The middle ground is a life of selfish dullness. Listen to the words that Screwtape, C.S. Lewis’ depiction of a devil, wrote to his nephew devil:
“The Christians describe the Enemy as one “without whom Nothing is strong”. And Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them [. . .] It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts, Your affectionate uncle SCREWTAPE”
To be abased or to abound means that one must be attentive to ones life. Even a mundane moment can be an opportunity for humility or glory, the extremes of the Christian life.
If we take a look at the epistle for this week, we see a great example of this in the Apostle Paul. Paul warns the new Christians in Galatia that they do not need to be circumcised in order to follow Jesus. The Jews who are convincing them of this are effectively denying the power of the cross. Paul then sets out how he lives as a Christian. He writes: “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.” Do you see how Paul lives in the extremes? He is finding glory in one of the most humbling and abased object in human history, the cross. It is the glory of the cross which he desires, and it is that which shapes his entire life. The world, he says, is crucified to him–it is dead. All of its desires, and riches, and plans are dead to Paul. In addition, he is crucified to the world! He is nothing to the world, for he is seeking after a glory completely different than what the world offers. This is a living example of the nature of the Christian life. Abased and abounding.
So then, to be abased means one must transcend oneself. It is humility. You acknowledge your pride and replace it with self sacrificing love. Where one was inattentive or irrational or irresponsible, now one may focus on the other, submit to reason, and even responsibly live with ones self and neighbor. But all that is living in humility, living as one who has given ones self to something greater. It is living your life, Just as Paul did, as the life of Jesus.
To abound, however, also means to transcend oneself. We abound and glory in something else, not ourselves. We glory in the truth, goodness, and beauty of the Holy Trinity. We glory in the incarnation, the life of Christ, his death on the cross, and in his resurrection and ascension. We look outside of our own self in order truly live in holiness. And again, as we glory, we align our lives to the beautiful life of Christ.
When we feast, we do it because of the great goodness of creation, not because we are fulfilling the irrational passion of gluttony. When we love, we do it because of the beauty of another creature and because of the Love we have received from God, not because we are fulfilling the passion of pride. The life of a Christian involves ones entire being. It is your heart, soul, body, all connected, and these can’t split off one from other. Our response to the call of Jesus demands that all our desires, needs, actions, thoughts, etc, be pointed towards the Holy Trinity.
This background helps us approach the Gospel for this morning. Let us see how this life of abase and abound has to with our own possessions and money. Jesus is clearly working with extremes in his teaching on Mammon. No one can serve two masters. Notice that he immediately takes what we might think of as an issue of the body, of the physical, and turns it into an issue of the service. It is a matter of service and allegiance, to whom or to what your soul desires. It is a matter of idolatry, because any time we put an object or desire above our service to God, we are treating that thing as a god, as an idol.
What did Paul say? He glories in nothing save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto him, and he unto the world. This is exactly what Jesus means. When we approach the topic of money, we must talk about what we glorify. We are the wealthiest and most comfortable group of people in the history of the world, so we should takes these teachings seriously. Jesus warns that wealth is dangerous because it so easily corrupts our desires. What is even more scary is that you don’t even have to be wealthy in order to worship Mammon!
Jesus presses that it is not wealth that matters, God’s blessing matters. When we focus on God’s blessing, we can be freed from Mammon’s grasp and its incessant drive for more. Jesus is warning against much more than an anxiety of basic necessities. This is not just anxiety as concern, as putting a basic meal on the table, but the all-consuming anxiety of worldliness, of intentionally focusing only on material goods. It is what Jesus kindly admonished Martha for when she was so worried about what had to be cooked and served. Her service was not sinful, but the intentions of her heart were not focused on the Messiah who was in her own home.
Labor, obviously, is not bad, but even our labor (what we do with our bodies) must be pointed towards an end. Paul, for example, makes tents with Priscilla in order to fund his own journeys. He is so intent on the importance of labor, that he instructs the Thessalonians (2 Thess 3:10):
For when we were among you, this we taught among you, that if a man would not work, neither should he eat.
Instead, as we glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus, we learn how to freely give of our money and possessions, and how to use them well. We can receive in humility, and give while glorifying God. When we do lack material goods, or struggle to make ends meet, we can give thanks. Paul writes the Romans (5:3-5):
We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
As the Christian continues to live in humility and give glory to God for all that He has done for us, we gain a great freedom. No longer do we need to be anxious for the future worries. Jesus said:
Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek.
When we seek after the kingdom of God, Jesus promises that these things will be added, they will come as necessities. As we align our desires to the kingdom of God, we can even look at a simple flower in the field and be comforted by God’s love. We can watch the birds and glory in God’s care for His creation. What is more, when we seek the kingdom of God, our lives become wrapped up into the beautiful life of the Holy Trinity.
We learn in the end, that the nature of the Christian life, these two extremes of abase and abound, are found perfectly in the life of Christ. In fact, as our lives resemble his more and more, as our life is hid in Him, we learn that these extremes come together in a life of love. It is also the most free life–free from all-consuming worry, free from the slavery of possessions and greed, free from hatred and malice. In humility and glory we can say:
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.
+