SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Readings:
Key Verses (using the New Revised Standard Version):
Rom. 6:6: “We know that our old self was crucified with [Jesus] so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.”
Matt. 5:22: Jesus said, “If you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you [say ‘Raca’ to] a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool’, you will be liable to the hell of fire.’”
Reflection
After a couple of weeks of examining odd “passions”, such as vainglory and dejection, today we’re back on more familiar ground. Purging ourselves of wrath, or anger, is certainly more accessible to us intellectually. Anger-related crimes fill up newspapers and TV news reports worldwide. Anger management courses and techniques are widely available online or in the Self-Help section of your local bookstore. The Pixar movie Inside Out, which I referenced last week, depicts a simplified, yet accurate, caricature of Anger’s fiery nature. Most of us, at one time or another, have felt the overwhelming and consuming power of rage, where we may even scare ourselves at the thoughts that race through our mind, or perhaps even our own actions.
The danger of this passion is so strong that Jesus addresses it directly, by name, in today’s Gospel—no vague parables, as with pride and vainglory; no obscure verse, as with dejection last week. Jesus says plainly: “If you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool’, you will be liable to the hell of fire.”
What I find the most interesting about this warning is the second part, “if you insult a brother or sister.” What the NRSV translates as “insult” is, as the World English Bible footnotes, “an Aramaic insult, related to the word for ‘empty’ and conveying the idea of ‘empty-headedness’.” The exact meaning has been lost to time. But doesn’t that mirror the effects of anger? How many times do we forget what we’ve said in a fit of rage? We often become unaware of our insults. We “see red” and blind ourselves to the wounds we’re inflicting on another human being. And just because we may forget what we said to others in anger, that doesn’t mean it hurt them any less—in much the same way that forgetting the meaning of “Raca” doesn’t change how offensive it once was.
A few verses later, Jesus says something even more striking. If we’re in the middle of offering a gift at the altar, and then remember that a brother or sister has anything against us, we must leave the gift there and first seek reconciliation. Such is the importance of purging ourselves of anger that today, by extension, Jesus might actually kick us out of church, halfway through the service, just so we can talk things out with someone from whom we’ve become estranged. Forgiveness and reconciliation between human beings, in Jesus' eyes, take priority over devotion and prayer to God.
Purging ourselves of wrath is no easy task, but neither is our faith. Although “we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come”, as the Nicene Creed affirms, Paul would remind us that we are now living in a state of death—that is, Christ’s death, into which we have been baptized. It’s like our whole lives are taking place on one Holy Saturday, the Great Sabbath between Jesus’ death and resurrection, where we have died in agony, but have not yet risen to “the newness of life.” Whenever Good Friday’s painful and anger-stricken wounds surface in our bodies, we have to remember that our spirit is no longer there. We are being made alive to God in a different way, regenerating in the interim with the strength to carry on for one more day, when we will rise in this life to a new way of living, free from anything that keeps us bound away from God.
Prayer of the Day
O God,
you have prepared for them that love you
such good things as are yet unseen.
Pour into our hearts such love towards you,
that we, loving you in and above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
—Collect for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity, adapted by Joseph A. Soltero from the 5th-century Gelasian Sacramentary, the Sarum Missal, and the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
O God,
you dwell in holiness,
and you do not abandon the hearts of the faithful.
Deliver us from earthly desire and fleshly passion
so that, sin no longer reigning in us,
we may, with delivered minds,
serve only you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
—Collect #2 for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity in the 5th-century Gelasian Sacramentary, translated from Latin by Joseph A. Soltero
Hymn: “Baptized into your name most holy”
(Words: “Ich bin getauft auf deinem Namen”, Johann J. Rambach, 1734; translated to English by Catherine Winkworth, 1863; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2015, with 4th stanza adapted from The New Century Hymnal, 1995
Tune: ‘O dass ich tausend’, Kornelius H. Dretzel, 1731)
Baptized into your name most holy,
O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
I claim a place, though weak and lowly,
Among your seed, your chosen host.
Buried with Christ and dead to sin,
Your Spirit now shall live within.
My loving Father, now you take me
To be henceforth your child and heir.
My faithful Savior, now you make me
The fruit of all your sorrows share.
O Holy Ghost, you comfort me
When darkest clouds around I see.
My faithful God, you fail me never,
Your cov’nant surely will abide.
O cast me not away forever,
Should I transgress it on my side!
Though I have oft my soul defiled,
Forgive, restore, and guide your child.
All that I am and love most dearly,
Receive it now, O Lord, from me.
O let me make my vows sincerely,
And help me your own child to be!
Let nothing that I am or own
Serve any will but yours alone.
O never let my purpose falter,
O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
But keep me faithful to your altar,
Until you call me from my post.
To you alone I live or die
And praise you evermore on high.
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