TENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Readings:
Key Verses (using the World English Bible):
1 Cor. 12:5-7: “There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all.”
Luke 19:41-42: “When [Jesus] came near [Jerusalem], he… wept over it, saying ‘If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”
Reflection
The second stage of our spiritual journey during this season is the illumination of our passions. What does this mean? Here’s how Reverend David G. Phillips describes it in his article:
“Illumination is the stage characterized by the infilling of our souls with grace, divine light. It is the inflow of the Holy Spirit and how the Spirit is manifested in our souls. It is the recovery of the inner [human being], a call to the resurrection life, to rise to new life in the Spirit, and to seek the vision of God.”
Thus the cycle of seven passions starts over, but this time we look at how the Holy Spirit works with each one of our passions to bring us closer to what God wants us to be. Rev. Phillips notes that references to the Spirit are especially abundant during the next seven Sundays. And so today we turn to the illumination of pride.
We read in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians of all the different kinds of gifts that the Spirit grants the faithful: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracle-working, prophecy, spirit-discerning, speaking in tongues, and interpreting tongues. But Paul makes it clear that the Spirit decides who gets what, “distributing to each one separately as he desires.” As we learned at the start of this season, God loved and chose us first, not the other way around. And seven weeks ago, in the purgation of pride, we learned that we must humbly wait until God exalts us in due time. Today, the lesson is that we must accept whatever gift God desires to bless us with. The emphasis, then, is on God’s grace, and our total dependence on it.
But even here, we must be careful. The Gospel warns us of a subtle danger, but only if we know how to look for it. The scene is Palm Sunday, after Jesus has been welcomed into Jerusalem as Son of David and Messiah. Why are we reading about Palm Sunday again four months after we celebrated it? That may be the first clue that we have to dig deeper below the surface. Jesus approaches the Temple, weeps over what he finds there, and then drives out “those who bought and sold in it”, accusing them of having turned God’s house of prayer into a “den of robbers.” How can this apply to pride, and specifically to the illumination of pride?
Allegorically, the Temple represents our body. Paul reminds his readers: “Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God?” (1 Cor. 6:19). Even Jesus refers to his body as a temple. The Temple money-changers were robbing God’s creation. They profited from animal sacrifice, currency exchange, and even people’s God-given spiritual desire, as if these were their own to exploit and benefit from. Do we too become “thieves of grace”—as Rev. Phillips puts it—if we take pride in the gifts of the Spirit as if they were our own? Because “you are not your own…” Paul warns us (1 Cor. 6:19).
We are not our own. As we mature in our spirituality, we realize more and more that we belong to something far greater than ourselves. Whatever we have, or receive, comes to us only by the grace of God—but not in a way that robs our inner temple of free will, self-worth, or inner power. “To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all,” the Epistle reminds us. God empowers us so that we can empower others. May we use God’s gifts and blessings wisely—and selflessly—so that, when God comes to visit our temple, God will weep for joy, and we will have peace.
Prayer of the Day
Let your merciful ears, O Lord,
be open to the prayers of your humble servants;
and, so that they may obtain their petitions,
make them to ask such things as shall please you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
—Collect #2 for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity, from the 5th-century Gelasian Sacramentary; also found in the Book of Common Prayer, 1662
Almighty and merciful God,
grant that we, amid the murkiness of this life,
may neither drown in misleading ignorance,
nor learn to sin through our precipitous will;
but rather, in your kindness,
bestow the fulfillment of your desired mercy
upon those whose confident hope and devotion you favor;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
—Collect #1 for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity in the 5th-century Gelasian Sacramentary, adapted translation from Latin by Joseph A. Soltero
Hymn: “O love that casts out fear”
(Words: Horatius Bonar, 1808-1899; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2015
Tune: ‘Moseley’, by Henry Thomas Smart, 1813-1879)
O love that casts out fear,
O love that casts out sin,
Tarry no more without,
But come and dwell within.
True sunlight of the soul,
Surround us as we go.
So shall our way be safe,
Our feet no straying know.
Great love of God, come in!
Wellspring of heav’nly peace,
O Living Water, come!
Spring up, and never cease.
Love of the living God,
Of Father and of Son,
Love of the Holy Ghost,
Come, fill each needy one.
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