Sermon Notes - Fourth Sunday after Trinity - Can the blind lead the blind? - Anglican Orthodox Church Worldwide - 2 July 2023, Anno Domini (In the Year of our Lord)

Fourth Sunday after Trinity.

The Collect.

 

O

 GOD, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Collect

       O GOD, the protector of all that trust in thee. We see, not only in this prayer, but in scripture itself, a thing condemned by the world but practiced by God. God profiles and discriminates in his dealings with His people. Those who do not trust in God may not claim the privilege of His protection. He seeks those who have the faith to trust in Him under any and all circumstances of life. Remember that there are only two families and classes among all the people of the earth - past, present, and future - the family of God, and the family of the Prince of Darkness. There is NO MIDDLE GROUND! Trust is all important. We all tend to place our trust in SOMETHING - our friends, our job, our wealth, or our own hand. But trust misplaced is trust abandoned. 

 

        Trust is so important to God that He places it in the very center verse of Holy Scripture:  It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes. (Psalm 118:9) The national motto of our United States is In God we Trust. We consider it of such importance that we place it on every coin minted by our government. Sadly, the motto is dead without the real trust that should back both our money and our motto.

        When the storms and billows build upon the seas of your life, you may take courage in the Psalmists words of encouragement and strength: If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. (Psalm 139:9-10) 

 

        If we have made our election in Christ sure, we may rely upon the promises found in Isaiah: Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. (Isaiah 43:1-2) . . . without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Apart from God there is NOTHING! There was only a void where the earth now stands, and even the void was created by the Word of God. There is NO LIFE apart from His loving provision. So there can be NO STRENGTH apart from God. He is the PRIME MOVER and SUSTAINER of all things. And can there be holiness apart from God. None whatsoever, for there are none righteous - no not ONE! There can be no holy thought, no holy ground, apart from a Holy God to provide it.

        

Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy  God's mercy is as abundant as a gushing fountain. We can never reach a point when we believe we have had enough. It continually flows forth and bathes us in its resplendent waters of light. If we magnify our Lord, He will magnify His mercies upon us. . . . that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal. 

 

        Do we not pray to get through the fires of life un-scorched? In the burning building, as in the world of smoke and mirrors, we desperately seek the way that leads to safety. We may grope and stumble until the fires consume us because we have no Guide in the fires. But we do have a strong Guide and Ruler who is our King and Sovereign. His eyes are forever on His own. He will go through the fires with us, sheltering us with His wings, and bring us, unscathed, to safety. But we must keep our hand, and our trust, in Him during the danger. Those things of the world may cause us to break hold of Christ and wonder into places that lead us to perish. Can we cast aside the false glitter and dim lights of this world and keep our focus fixed on that Light that never fails. If we are able to persevere to the last, we shall be saved to enjoy the splendor of Heaven. How can our saving mercies be granted on behalf of One who has already gained the Kingdom of His Father? How is Christ profited by our grant of mercy? Grant this, O heavenly Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. The very dying desire of Christ was that we might be saved. His ordeal of torture and earth was all for us. He purchased our salvation with His atoning death if we will only place our trust in that mighty Salvation! It is for the sake of His Son that God the Father will admit us into His Heaven as pure and righteous sons of God. Have you placed your absolute trust in Him, Friend?

 

A

ND he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?    (Luke 6:39)

 

            One of God’s greatest gifts to mankind is the gift of sight. He has created our ability to see by His first act of Creation – the blessing of LIGHT. “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.” Genesis 1:2-3 But the gift of vision is not limited to physical vision – there is a greater vision, by far, that is spiritual. This latter vision is often enhanced when a believer is deprived of his physical sight. We all remember Fanny Crosby who wrote thousands of hymns many of which alluded to seeing her Savior ‘face to face.’

 

            In developing my expositional sermons, I often attempt to extrude the fullness of each verse of the text in question; however, this text today from the Gospel of St. Luke 6:36-42 is so packed with truth and beauty that I have elected to expound upon the single verse that forms the text for this sermon.

 

Just as the physical eye can reveal marvelous beauty in God’s Creation, so can the spiritual reveal even greater beauty in that which exists beyond the physical Creation in the realms of our Triune God beyond the Gates of Splendor. In as attempt to explain this beauty, John the Revelator falls short of adequate human vocabulary to describe it. 

 

            There are often threats and dangers in life that actually reveal a hidden beauty that results by the passing of such threats: 

 

Through the darkness of the midnight the observer often catches the radiance of a stream of light. It is a meteor. And what is a meteor? From the vast depths of space, flying with tremendous force, come fragments, perhaps of exploded planets, hurtling through space, and ready to strike with tremendous force, as sometimes they have done, destroying anything that stood in their way, and burying themselves deeply in the soil. These meteorites, coming within the limits of the atmosphere, and driven with such terrific speed, are ignited by friction, flash out their brightness amid the gloom of night, and in most instances, unless they are very large, they are entirely consumed before they reach the earth. So, the meteorite becomes a meteor; and the stone flying through the atmosphere, instead of smiting the earth illuminates the sky. And there are troubles, and trials, and dangers which seem sometimes to threaten to crush us, and destroy us, which only light up the heavens with new glory and flash brightness on our pilgrim way. 

 

The blind eyes of the spirit, however, are far more egregious than those of the physical body. The Light of God is an invisible beam to such blind eyes. “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6:22-23) In the case cited above by our Lord Jesus Christ, it is that ‘spiritual blindness to which He makes reference.

 

Now we consider the audience to whom Christ addresses our selected verse today: in its most profound application, He was addressing the religious leaders of the day whose pretentions of righteousness were based on false and judgmental claims. In a broader application, His counsel applies to us all. We have all been blind to truth. The more we learn and study the dark mysteries of biblical truth, the greater becomes our vision to distinguish truth from the false. In the reverent study of God’s Word, we are assuming a greater garment of the Mind of God and His Will for our lives. Knowing truth, we can readily discern error and falsehood – a decidedly critical characteristic in a day in which evil is called good, and good is called evil. “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” We see examples of this ‘Woe’ at every turn – in society, in politics, in education, and, regrettable, even in the churches of America. In mainline churches of America, the very abominable sins to which the Scriptures make certain reference are being embraced from the pulpits as being Holy. 

 

“14 But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judæa flee to the mountains.” (Mark 13:14) May I suggest we already see that abomination of Leviticus 18:22 standing in the pulpits and Holy places of American churches – ‘Blind leaders of the blind!’ Have we completely disregarded Holy Scripture as our rule and compass of life? I am afraid that American churches have already fallen into the ditch along with their congregations who blindly follow.

 

When we encounter Christians who have been deceived by their false prophets and phony churches, what should be our reaction? If we have studied the word of God in love and reverence, and understood His clear will to expose error wherever it raises its ugly tentacles, we must let the blind use our spiritual eyes to expose the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

 

Each day of our lives is composed of alternating periods of light and darkness. This is a natural blessing in the physical world that allows daily light for labor, and nocturnal shadows for rest and sleep. But the spiritual world in which we, as believers, must fervently desire to abide is forever illuminated by the Light of Christ. We may, from time to time, experience moments of spiritual darkness, however, we must no linger in such periods. If we do, our spiritual eyes will slowly lose their appreciation for the light and we will become as dwellers of the dark world of the lost. 

 

While a young boy, my father took me to a very special natural wonder near Sweetwater, Tennessee, the Lost Sea. After a descent of two or three hundred feet beneath the surface, we arrived at a very large underground body of water. This was the Lost Sea which had been kept in smothering darkness for centuries, and perhaps, millennia. 

The Lost Sea is America’s largest underground lake and Registered National Landmark. Upon boarding a small glass-bottomed vessel, we were escorted out over the deep of the Sea whose depth has never been able of fathoming. The Sea is teeming with fish that follow the vessel as it navigates the waters. But these fish are quite strange. They are snow white in color and are all blind – not because they have no eyes, but because their scales have grown over the globes of their eyes. The position of the eyes are clearly observed from the bulge the scales form over the eyes. Trout and bass are easily identified in this condition. 

 

            Since there has been no sunlight on those waters for eons of time, the fish have lost their color and luster. The scales have grown over their eyes because they have lived too long in darkness. They have no need of vision in a dark place.

 

            I believe those blind fish illustrate the condition of a nation that has known God but, owing to an extended period of darkness, have lost their ability to see. I am afraid our beloved America is thus illustrated. We have allowed the darkness of false teaching and wicked indoctrination to blind our eyes so that we can not longer discern light = we are blinded to truth and reason.

 

            If those fish could be removed from the Lost Sea and taken to the surface, I do not know if they could ever again be made to see by the skills of the surgeon; however, spiritual blindness is capable of restoration to sight by the resplendent light of the Holy Spirit. I pray, this coming Independence Day, that the Godly vision of America as set forth by her providentially guided Founding Fathers can again be restored by the grace and mercy of an omnipotent Father to a nation bearing the fruits of His blessings.

 

For Our Country.                                                                    BCP 36

A

LMIGHTY God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage; We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favour and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honourable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.