Earthly Road, Heavenly Walk

How do we submit ourselves to the Lord? How do we humble ourselves before Him?

On Ash Wednesday we learned from the story of the Publican and the Pharisee that those who humble themselves to the Lord, turning from their own self righteousness, are justified, are sanctified in His Holy Name. But Humility cannot just come through our confessions. It must also come by giving our lives completely to the Lord, by realizing that through Christ, we find the power of salvation. There, we are the redeemed Children of God, children who find that all their needs are provided for when we trust in Him.

God wants us to submit to Him, and there we will know that, through His power, we will have the strength to overcome in all that we are and all that we do, come whatever may amidst this world.

Therefore trust in the Lord and the power of His might, knowing, as David had, that He gives unto us all salvation and sanctification, redemption and strength, restoring us in His great love through His divine grace.

Readings:

Psalm 35 Deuteronomy 7:12-16 Titus 2:1-15 John 1:35-42

Sermon:

Plead my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me. Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help. Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me: say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt. Psalm 35:1-4

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.

For those who humble themselves…

For those who humble themselves before the Lord God Almighty with a pure heart there is strength, and protection that, for those who believe on His name, offers the power of salvation.

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Where does our righteousness flow from?

In the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector we hear harsh words from Christ to the self righteousness of the Pharisee, but doesn’t God want us to live a good and pure life free of sin?

Yes, he does, but He does not want us to do so, believing that somehow we have earned or merited our own salvation. Only through humble hearts turned to the Lord can our works of righteousness be viewed as right in the eyes of the Lord, realizing that it is through Him that we have the power to do all good things.

In the Season of Lent we are called upon to give up something, to perhaps even deprive ourselves of a worldly luxury and draw closer to God, there it must be with a contrite heart, understanding the faith we have and sacrifice of Christ, realizing in all that we are and all that we have God grants to our needs.

Readings:

Psalm 130 Jonah 3-4:11 Hebrews 12:1-14 Luke 18:9-14

Sermon:

In today’s gospel reading Our Lord sets up a classic confrontation between two great Biblical characters, the self-righteous Pharisee and the self-despising tax collector. We are accustomed to viewing the Pharisee as the villain of the story, and Jesus does have harsh words for this spiritual showoff. Indeed, this parable has become so ingrained in our culture that to call someone a Pharisee is synonymous with hypocrite, one of the worst insults that can be hurled at a person.

In Jesus’s day, however, Pharisees were seen as heroic figures, the counter-cultural rebels who tried to live holy and perfect lives according to the ancient Law that God had given to Moses, and which had been neglected to Israel’s peril far too many times in her history. Tax collectors, on the hand, never popular even today, were despised as the lowest of the low, collaborators with an oppressive Roman government who profited from the sufferings of their fellow countrymen. So it would only seem natural for the Pharisee in the story to puff out his chest a little and thank God that he was not like that lowlife traitor.

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