Fr. Sean’s Trinity X Sermon

Have you ever done anything embarrassing out of complete ignorance? This can easily happen when you are visiting another culture. If you do not know the customs of the place, then you can inadvertently do something which can cause your own embarrassment, or worse scandal. 

After high-school, I visited Madagascar for a few months, and while there I got to go on a back-country trip with the missionary I had been assisting. We went to the south central part of the island, which was very remote. It required a 10-hr car ride to the main river in the south and a 6 hour boat ride up the river to reach these tiny villages where we would be staying for a few days, my host teaching the local pastors and Christians.

On the last night there was a big feast, and a cow was slaughtered and cooked up for the village. I got to eat dinner that night in a larger hut with five older men who were the kings of the local tribes. The meat and rice was laid out on a central table and we each were given a large banana leaf as a plate—I was very hungry and ate quickly. After I was done, I sat back on the floor, content, but the host caught my eye and beckoned me to keep eating. I politely said no thank you, but then the missionary I was with said, "Sean, you better keep eating. It is extremely rude to stop eating before the kings finish." And so then I had to slowly keep eating far beyond what I had intended...

These are the sort of experiences that we often joke about now—cultural mishaps that occur through ignorance. But they can be irritating and sometimes have serious consequences, especially when one's ignorance offends someone else. If you have ever experienced this frustration, you know what I mean. Kids, if you have never traveled and experienced this, you might know what I am talking about if you have ever visited a friend’s house and you did something normal for your family but that was against the rules in your friend's house. For example, not taking your shoes off at the door or how to clean up after dinner. 

We all have had this experience of 'getting into trouble' because we were ignorant. And it is extremely frustrating because we should not be responsible for what we did not know!

I bring this up because ignorance is actually a large theme within the bible, but we often conflate our experiences of ignorant actions (like offending Malagasy kings!) with the episodes in Holy Scripture. But there are many types of ignorance. In the Gospel today, Jesus cries over the city of Jerusalem because they are ignorant of their future destruction.

When Jesus was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

And in the Epistle today, Paul teaches the Corinthians about spiritual gifts because they had been ignorant and followed pagan gods. "Brethren: concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led." St. Paul talks very strongly to them because he wants to save them from their ignorance. 

But stepping back, we might ask, how can they be responsible for what they did not know? Or in the Gospel account: how can Jerusalem be held responsible for what they did not know? 

In both passages, ignorance is a vice, a moral failure. Kids, one of the most frustrating things as a child is to be punished for something you didn't even know, right? Well, this does not change when you grow up--the adults in this room will also tell you that they do not like being blamed for something they did not know! 

The danger of interpreting these passages is assuming that ignorance means the same thing in both cases. In English, ignorance can mean the lack of knowledge--of truly not knowing through lack of information. Technically, that is nescience. 

But one can also be willfully ignorant. This would be the case of willfully not learning a culture or expectations or being aware that others might be different from you! We are not talking about just plain ignorance–like condemning a child for not knowing the plot of a story before he has even learned how to read. No, this is a wilful ignorance–like receiving a great gift and yet never opening the present or opening it and putting it in the shed, wilfully ignoring the gift. The Corinthians, Paul asserts, are ignorant of spiritual gifts . . . of their vocation as Christians, really. There is a danger having been giving these great gifts of not only misusing them, but also abusing them so that the church ends up in utter confusion. Likewise, in the Gospel, Jesus asserts that Israel is ignorant of impending judgment and of his visitation. But again, this is not just passive ignorance, as Luke shows, because Jesus’ declaration is followed by his cleansing of the Temple, showing where this rot of ignorance has come from. Willful ignorance leads to judgement which can lead to destruction if one's heart (like some of Israel) has been hardened.

This is why God is seen throughout the narrative of Holy Scriptures trying to wake people out of their ignorance. Only after repeated times and purposeful neglect does God then allow people to continue in their ignorance. This is what the Bible calls the hardening of the heart. In Exodus, Pharaoh is a great example of this. He refuses to accept the power of YWH and six times he hardens his heart, refusing to heed the signs of Moses. But the seventh time, it says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart--meaning that he allowed Pharaoh to persist in his ignorance.

God does not act harshly—he acts justly. And his justice is merciful. As we have seen in our study of Leviticus, the Law has an entire section devoted to purification from actions done out of ignorance. Leviticus 4 prescribes the ways to enter back into union with God despite ignorance.

And this holds true in the Epistle where Paul shows the Corinthians that God has given his Spirit to us. Just like the Corinthians, we must be attentive to what we know and what we might not know. What we know: each and every one of us has been given the gifts of the holy Spirit at our baptisms and also that the truths of the faith have been given to us. We must listen and heed the voice of the Holy Spirit. We hear the Spirit through our conscience, the Holy Scriptures, the liturgy, and other members.

And from the Gospel, we must accept that each and every one of us will face our own Day of Visitation. Yes, in the Gospel that meant AD 70 and the destruction of Jerusalem, but each and every one of us have a day of visitation—our own death. I am amazed how easily it is to avoid the fact that each and every one of us will die. And at our death we face judgement—and yet many go through their lives with a wilful ignorance, avoiding the universal fact of death. Then something might happen which brings the fact close—death of a close friend or some dire illness. The reality must be faced. 

So what now? We in the twenty-first century know quite well that judgment came. Despite the fury of his persecutors, Jesus conquered death and ascended into heaven. Jerusalem was indeed destroyed and later rebuilt. Well, the way Luke sets up the characters in his Gospel in such contrast begs a sincere question: where do we stand? If we are serious about engaging the text as more than just a historical narrative but the living Word of God, then we must let the Gospel affect our lives.

The Apostle John records Jesus' statement: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." Though his audience misunderstands the meaning, we know that Jesus is referring to his own body. And in fact, Jesus' actions in Luke confirm this statement: he claims himself as the cornerstone. At his death, the curtain to the Holy of Holies rips in half, signifying that the presence of God has left the Temple. The temple of God is now Jesus, it is His Body, the Church. We are also promised a New Jerusalem, the image of a recreated world in which we will live in perfect love and harmony.

In Israel, we learn about ourselves and of God. So, when Jesus wept over certain Jews' ignorance of their day of visitation, we need to ask ourselves: In what way are we ignorant of the day of our visitation? It is a simple question, one which we often avoid in our modern society: what will we do when death comes? Will we plead ignorance?

The Apostle Paul in the Epistle today has an answer: by no means! He explicitly says, "concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." We must cling to the promises of Jesus. Paul shows that it is the movement of the Holy Spirit that will direct us towards Jesus Christ. The Spirit works in us so that we may say Jesus is Lord. It is true, we are all given different gifts, and we might serve in different ways, but it is through the Holy Spirit that we are led to claim Jesus as our Lord. We must not shy away from these gifts but devote ourselves to nurture and grow the gift as the Spirit wills. To do this, we only need to ask. The Collect from this week which summarizes: Let thy merciful ears, O lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Therefore, to grow in our gifts which have already been given to us at baptism, pray and ask the Lord that he works in you, so that on the day of your visitation, you may not be ignorant. If you are unsure of your own gifts, seek out consul from the clergy and listen to your good friends and family. Then we can diligently seek after the Lord, using the gifts he has given us and not persist in willful ignorance.