The Collect for the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
Almighty and Everlasting God, give us the increase of faith, hope, and love; and that we may obtain those things which You promise, make us to love those things which You command; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle Galatians 5:16-24
16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
The Holy Gospel of St Luke 17:11-19
11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Bishop Ian’s Thoughts
Today’s Epistle Reading is from St Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians Chapter 5, Verses 16-14.
In this passage St Paul exhorts us to live our daily lives as those who walk (living in obedience to) by the Holy Spirit so as to not be led by the passions of the flesh which are contrary to the Character and Will of God and His Mighty Holy Spirit:
“16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
This passage of Scripture has given rise to much soul searching and self incrimination among Christians throughout all ages of history.
We are told that if we follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance we will not seek to intentionally gratify the desires of the flesh deliberately disregarding the the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To do so would be to label the Lord Jesus a fraud in respect of His Promise to deliver us from sin.
We pass from death to Life Eternal when we become Christians, by believing and accepting the Holy Gift of the Lord Jesus’ Righteousness, secured for us by His Mighty Work of Redemption on the Cross of Calvary.
Many Christians fail to realise that living as a Christian can be much more difficult than becoming a Christian. A person becomes a Christian by accepting the Gracious Gift of God by believing the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus.
Once we become Christians we seek to live our daily lives without sinning, as a mark of love and respect for the Lord Jesus. Unfortunately all of us have discovered that many times we fall flat on our faces and find that we have committed sin both intentionally and unintentionally.
The realisation that we have fallen back into sin brings us sadness and regret at having let the Lord Jesus down. This leads to feelings of hopelessness at having not been good enough to have maintained the standard that God requires.
If these feelings are not dealt with they can lead to spiritual depression and despondency.
Scripture must always be read and interpreted in the light of other scripture, and our Epistle Reading for today is no exception.
In his Epistle to the Roman Church St Paul declares in Chapter 3, Verse 23-24:
“23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
The Greek word for “fall short,” in verse 23, is the present continuous form of the verb “to fall” and literally means to “continually fall short.”
Having used this verb to describe the continuous nature of our falling short of God’s requirements, St Paul immediately declares that we are freely justified (and forgiven) for our sins through the Redemption that came by the Lord Jesus.
As the adopted children of God, we are clothed in the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus, and by the Solemn Promise of God none shall snatch us from His Hand. This Solemn Promise is recorded in the Holy Gospel of St John Chapter 10, Verses 27-29:
"27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. "
The key to understanding our Epistle Reading for today is to understand that the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus is infinitely superior to, and supersedes the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses was given as a declaration of God’s Holy Standard of Righteousness and to identify and condemn sin, in God’s people prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus, God's Holy Messiah.
Much of the Old Covenant (Old Testament) worship and service to God was focused on forgiveness of sins by the animal sacrifices carried out in the Jewish Temple.
This system of sacrifices to remove sin was a a temporary measure and had to be repeated year in, year out.
The coming of the Lord Jesus and the completion of His Mighty Work of Redemption rendered the sacrificial system of dealing with sin obsolete, as the Lord Jesus’ Perfect Sacrifice of Himself on the Cross, dealt with sin once and for all time.
We appropriate this Great Gift by Faith in the Lord Jesus and His Holy Gospel.
St Paul’s exhortation to walk by the Spirit is essential, as to continue living in the grievous sins which St Paul lists in verses 19-21 of our Epistle Reading, would be a great insult to God and a rejection of the Holy Gospel:
“19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Accepting the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus does not mean that we will never commit sin again. It means that once we are clothed with the Holy Righteousness of the Lord Jesus we will never be condemned by God for those sins.
The punishment for all our sins, past, present and future has been taken by the Lord Jesus. Our old sinful nature has been buried with Him. We have been raised from the dead and are saved from Judgement, by being clothed in His Holy Righteousness.
At the same time, we must never presume on the Grace of God and say to ourselves the Lord Jesus gave His life to pay for my sins, so I am now free to indulge in the passions of the flesh as I will. That is an insult and blasphemy (sinning against God), and it makes a mockery of the Lord Jesus’ Holy Life and Work.
We must trust in the Great Redemption that the Lord Jesus has graciously given to us and seek always to please Him by doing our best to avoid sin, and to seek to bring forth in our lives the fruits of the Spirit:
“22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
On every occasion that we fall short of God’s requirements, as St Paul's declaration in his letter to the Roman Church tells us we will, we must remind ourselves that we are forever clothed in Holy Righteousness of the Lord Jesus. Accordingly we must immediately confess our sin to God, praising Him for the gift of the Lord Jesus, and re-dedicate ourselves to the Lord Jesus’ service.
May God give us thankful hearts for the Great Gift of the the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus, and for His Precious Gift of being Clothed in His Holy Righteousness. May we always confess our sins to God and trust in His Gracious provision of the Holy Gospel of the Lord Jesus to deal with our sin, and raise us up in confidence to Eternal life as His adopted Children Amen.
Today’s Holy Gospel Reading is taken from the Holy Gospel of St Luke Chapter 17, Verses 11-19.
In this passage from the Gospel of St Luke we learn of the Lord Jesus’ encounter with ten lepers:
"11 Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him."
We are told that the Lord Jesus was travelling along the border of Galilee and Samaria. It would have been common for travellers along this route to encounter both Jews and Samaritans going about their daily business.
Leprosy was the worst, and most feared, disease in the Lord Jesus’ time, as it manifested itself in horrible disfiguration upon the sufferer, and it was a contagious disease.
In the Lord Jesus’ time lepers were outcasts and lived in colonies outside of the city limits. Lepers were required to avoid contact with the people who lived in towns and villages.
The group of lepers, in our passage, obviously knew of the Lord Jesus and His power to heal the most severely diseased people.
"They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
The lepers met the Lord Jesus as He was about to enter a village. We are told they stopped at a distance from the Lord Jesus and shouted “Jesus, Master have pity on us! This shouted request shows that the lepers had faith that the Lord Jesus could, and would, heal them:
The Lord Jesus, recognizing their faith, simply told them to go and show themselves to the Priests. As they turned and proceeded to show themselves to the Priests their leprosy was healed. Their faith, in the Lord Jesus’ Powerful Word, had facilitated their healing:
"14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed,"
Throughout the Old Testament era any healing of a disease whether natural, or by the intervention of a physician, or by direct action of God, required the recipient of the healing to present themselves to the Priests who would examine the person and publically declare that the disease was gone, and the person was therefore clean, and fit, to resume normal life within the community.
In our Holy Gospel Reading we are told that as the ten lepers went to show themselves to the Priests, one of ten saw that he had been cleansed and immediately knowing that the Lord Jesus had been the agent of healing, came back to the Lord Jesus, praising God and “threw himself” at the Lord Jesus’ feet and thanked Him:
"15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan."
The Lord Jesus then declared (for the benefit of those with Him):
"17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
It is interesting to note that St Luke informs us that the leper, who returned to give thanks for his healing, and who was described by the Lord Jesus as a “foreigner”, was a Samaritan. It is most probable that some of the remaining nine lepers were Jews.
In a previous Gospel Reading we looked at the Samaritans and their history in relation to the Jews. As in the Story of the Good Samaritan, and we see that those persons who were least expected to assist, or to give thanks, were in fact those that performed these acts.
This giving of thanks shows us that gratefulness is a vital point in receiving help from any person, but especially from God. Gratitude is a very important part of faith in God. We must never fail to thank God, in the Lord Jesus’ name, for all His gifts, such as health, family, home and our food and shelter.
If God grants our prayer request, for a specific outcome, such as the recovery of a family member or friend from illness, set aside a short time to praise and thank God for this Gift. Giving thanks to God, through the Lord Jesus, will strengthen our faith in God and deepen our relationship with Him.
May God bless this Reading from the Holy Gospel of St Luke to our hearts, and always give us the Grace to do those things that He commands, and so show forth our love and trust in The Lord Jesus Christ, His Only Begotten Son, our Holy Saviour.
Bishop Ian