Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany, Year C (February 23, 2025)
- Genesis 45:3-11, 15
- 1 Corinthians 15:35-38,42-50
- Luke 6:27-38
- Psalm 37:1-12, 41-42
“The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
There never was a gentler age. There never was a more noble, more moral, more intellectual, more peaceful, or more enlightened age. Which is not to say that this age is any of those things. It is simply to say that there is nothing new under the sun. Human nature is what it is. It is a nature driven by appetites and desires, by fear and anxiety, and by an internal conviction that for me to do well, for me to be successful someone else must fail. The anxieties of this current age take different forms, feeling the need to be affirmed in social media, being anxious about another global war, yet they are not new. And so it is that these old, ancient texts that we read this morning remain relevant and true because they speak to the fundamental nature and character of all of us.
This semester, I am teaching the first three chapters of Genesis and, six weeks in, we have only just finished reading closely the biblical text. It is a rich text that tells us so much about the nature and character of God and humanity. Even at our first creation, humans had appetites, our bodies needing sustaining and our intellects are always questioning and seeking answers. We desire.
God created us, all of humanity, in his image, but we are not identical with God. We reflect God, yet we are not God. God made us, as our catechism says, so “that we are free to make choices: to love, to create, to reason, and to live in harmony with creation and with God.” Our choices, however, are often guided by our material desires rather than what should be our spiritual goals.
So it is that the words of the psalmist and Jesus sound so out of keeping with our reality. “Do not fret yourself because of evildoers; do not be jealous of those who do wrong.” “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.” Such attitudes and actions run completely counter to the desires and instincts of our human nature. We want to see the wicked punished and punished hard! And in public! We want vengeance and we want it in high definition on the biggest screen available, with surround sound! We want that because, at our best, we know that we are not to be like them and yet we also see that they, the wicked, keep winning and it feels wrong and we want them to pay.
The message of the Bible, all of Scripture, is that God is just and that they, the wicked, will pay, they will have to face justice, before God. We have our role to play, but we do not bring about justice by giving in to our desires for penalties and punishments, because that only makes matters worse; it only makes us worse. “Do not fret yourself over the one who prospers, the one who succeeds in evil schemes. Refrain from anger, leave rage alone; do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.” The psalmist knows that when we give in to those desires, they will consume us.
Do not misunderstand what I am saying, what the Bible is saying: there is always a need to work for justice and to stand against wickedness. We do not achieve justice giving in to our instincts of anxiety, fear, and rage. These are all real, “natural,” if you will, reactions but we are called to respond in a better, healthier, and holier way. We do not achieve justice and fight wickedness by seeking vengeance, but by offering love. “…flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”
When God created us in his image, he also breathed into us his spirit. We are flesh and blood, yet we are also literally inspired by God. The psalmist and Jesus are calling us to follow the divine portion that is within us, to give over to God the business of judgment and instead to practice mercy and grace. We are flesh and blood and we are spirit, imperishable. In Christ and through Christ we are called to sow the perishable, the flesh and blood, so that the imperishable and holy may grow.
This past week, I read someone saying that in this sermon Jesus wasn’t turning the world upside down, he was resetting it to its proper order. That is the right way of thinking of it. What is “natural” is not evil, but it is corrupted. Our created nature, our God-given authority to have dominion over all creation, the take care of and guard this beautiful Garden, has been distorted to become dominance and destruction, misuse and abuse. Our divinely gifted authority has been transformed into tyranny, by greed and selfishness. We were created to be in loving and close relationships with one another and with God. Yet we find ourselves estranged not only from God and others, but sometimes even ourselves. The good news is that we do not have to remain in that condition!
God re-entered the world in the form of the human Jesus, not simply to call us to living a better life of loving and caring for others. Jesus came to restore the divine order, to bring humanity back into proper, right, and holy relationship with God and one another. The fruit and signs of this restoration and renewal is that even now our transformation has begun. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are born of the Spirit. We await our resurrection yet even now we are able and must begin to yield the fruit of the Spirit which is “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Gal. 5:22-23)
Amen.
