SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Readings:
*Today’s Epistle is moved down from Trinity 14, since its repeated references to “lust”, “lustfulness”, “desire”, and “the flesh” better fit today’s theme. As we saw, the Epistle originally assigned for today worked better with Trinity 14.
Key Verses (using the World English Bible):
Gal. 5:16, 23: “I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh… Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.”
Luke 7:14-15: “[Jesus] came near and touched the coffin… He said, ‘Young man, I tell you, arise!’ He who was dead sat up, and began to speak. And [Jesus] gave him to this mother.”
Reflection
This coming Wednesday, September 23rd, features the coincidence of Yom Kippur, the Jewish High Holy Day of Atonement, and Eid al-Adha, the Islamic Feast of the Sacrifice. On (more or less) the same day that Jews will fast for 25 hours in order to seek the forgiveness of sins and be sealed in the Book of Life, Muslims will recall Abraham’s willingness to offer up his son, Ishmael (not Isaac, in their tradition), as a sacrifice to God. Due to calendrical differences, these holy days will not coincide until 2046, so perhaps we might pause for a moment, and reflect on what message these two days have for us, even today.
The story of the Binding of Isaac—which Jews read last week on Rosh Hashanah—has always been a creepy story to me. God asks Abraham to kill his own son, and Abraham surprisingly and willingly goes with it! At the last minute, an angel stops him, and the “moral of the story” appears to be that this was just a test of his faith, and that God has put an end to human sacrifice. In the Qur’an, the son to be sacrificed is not named, leading Muslim scholars to posit that it was Ishmael, Abraham’s firstborn. As Jews claim descent from Abraham through Isaac, and Muslims through Ishmael, it’s natural that either side will showcase its own patriarch as a protagonist.
But does it really matter which child was almost sacrificed? That’s the question I asked myself this week as I read more reports about the ongoing European refugee crisis. Abraham’s children are still sacrificing themselves on the waters of the Mediterranean in order to escape “poverty, political instability and civil war in Africa and the Middle East”. And unfortunately for many, as the iconic and tragic picture of the drowned little boy shows, no angel came with rescue at the last minute. Yes, it is very disturbing to read a story in which a benevolent God asks a parent to ritually kill his own son. But isn’t it more disturbing to realize that we still live in a world where parents must risk their own lives, and their children’s, in order to seek a greater good? In order to seek freedom? Peace? Life?
And what does our own tradition have to say to us? On this Sunday, we meditate on the illumination of lust—that is, we seek the Spirit to shed deeper and more meaningful light on the passion of lust. This is exactly what Paul does in his list of “the deeds of the flesh”, which, you’ll note, goes way beyond the scope of what we usually think of as “lust”. Oh yes, the sexual component is there, but so are “hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envy, murders…” Don’t we see these evils behind the refugee crisis? Don’t we see the lusts for power, wealth, and control at work behind not only the situation in Europe, but also even in our own midst, for example in racial and economic inequalities? The Spirit forewarns us clearly through Paul: “those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.”
So how do we bring about God’s Kingdom on earth? What sins must we, collectively as a society, confess in order to seek forgiveness from God and each other? How do we seek atonement with God and each other? How can we be inscribed and sealed in a new chapter of God’s Book of Life? Those questions are both easy and hard to answer—easy because, intuitively, we know what has to stop in order to repair the world; but hard because how can we, individually, act on such a global scale? The Trinity Season calls us to start with ourselves, reminding us that “those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.” Definitely not an easy task! But we already know what happens after crucifixion. And so when we start there, we have the promise that, as with the young man in today’s Gospel, God will come near us and tell us—no, command us—to arise to new life.
G'mar hatima tova.
Eid mubarak.
Prayer of the Day
O Lord, we pray you,
let your continual pity cleanse and defend your Church;
and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help,
govern it evermore by your favor;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
—Collect #1 for Trinity 16 from the 5th-century Gelasian Sacramentary; found also in the Sarum Missal, and the Book of Common Prayer, 1662.
O Lord, we pray you,
grant to us, your faithful people,
such a mind that we,
running to please you in our need,
may also, in our desire,
become devoted to your majesty;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
—Collect #2 for Trinity 16 from the 5th-century Gelasian Sacramentary, translated and adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2015.
Hymn: “People of God, born again to a new life”
(Words: “Guds igenfødte, ny-levende sjæle”, in The Danish Hymnal, Hans Adolph Brorson, 1735; C.J. Brandt 1885; Thomas Laub, 1896; adaptive translation into English by Joseph A. Soltero, 2015
Tune: ‘Guds igenfødte’, melody by Ansbach, 1664; harmony by Freylinghausen, 1704)
People of God, born again to a new life,
Worship in spirit, in truth, and in song!
Gather together in Jesus, our true Life,
Freedom and peace to you ever belong.
Let us see who, with the loveliest phrases,
Seeks to perfect our melodious praises!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Dead as the stone were our wanting hearts hardened,
Blind to the grace flowing freely from you.
But by your strength, every weakness is pardoned,
And by your love, every life is made new.
May we discern Jesus’ voice by the Spirit;
Open our hearts to the word as we hear it.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Who will condemn now our Savior, Christ Jesus,
Through whom forever God heals and restores;
Through whom in mercy God comes down and frees us,
Raising us up to heav’n’s wide, open doors?
Faith always breaks through disconsolate feeling,
For from the foot of the cross comes our healing.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Never were songs from the angels so flawless—
Perfect the tune and the time that they keep—
As when they heard, to their jubilant solace:
“Jesus returns with the one missing sheep!”
Organ and harp, with their melodies blended,
Sound out the news that the searching has ended!
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Up then, you faithful, your anthems addressing,
You who rejoice in God’s infinite grace!
As we together delight in God’s blessing,
All of the world is in God’s warm embrace.
May we be thankful in our adoration:
All are God’s children and precious creation.
Alleluia! Alleluia!
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