The Fourth Sunday After Easter

There is a very natural flow from last Sunday’s lessons into the lessons for this week. Last Sunday we read in our gospel lesson how Jesus prepared his disciples to bear with his departure from them at the time of his passion and death. This Sunday, Jesus foretells his second departure, which will be His Ascension. IN the first departure, there is cause for sadness, and Jesus acknowledges the sorrow which will result, promising the relief from sorrow which will come at the resurrection. This Sunday, Our Lord acknowledges that they will tend toward sorrow on the occasion of the Ascension, but in fact, their sorrow will be unfounded, for Christ’s Ascension is actually occasion for Joy, both in Christ’s glory and in the promise of the comforter which is the Holy Spirit.

Additionally, last Sunday, the lessons taught us to be wary of the patterns and motivations of the world. We were told not to embrace the ways of the world, and this Sunday we are shown the other side of the coin.

Dr. Melville Scott explains, “The previous Sunday emphasized the conflict between the Risen Christian and the world in which he is a “stranger and pilgrim.”  To-day we learn that unworldliness is no mere unreasoning opposition, but is a necessity for those who belong to a “Kingdom not of this world.”  We are the world’s nonconformists because we are God’s conformists, and because to love the world is to lack the love of the Father.  The Sunday of nonconformity is therefore fitly followed by a Sunday of conformity.”

In this way, the church reminds us that we do not passively wait for Christ’s return. We are engaged in the world with a very definite and substantial project. This project is articulated in our collect this morning: “Grant unto thy people, that they may love the things which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise;” The conformity which we pursue as citizens of the Kingdom of God is not mere external obedience. We desire the conformity of our affections and our wills, such that the things which God commands and the things which he promises become also our greatest desires.

St. Paul describes the distinction when he says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Conformation to the world is the exaltation of the flesh, conformity with the physical and temporal demands of this life. Transformation by the power of Christ renews the mind, such that the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, becomes our will. 

The notion of Christ-likeness involves this kind of shift. In the doctrine of the Incarnation of Christ we affirm two natures in Jesus – He was both fully God and fully Man. This means that there were two wills in Christ. In the fifth century there arose the Monophysite heresy which challenged this very idea. The Monophysites contended that Jesus was both God and man, but that he does not have a human will, rather he has one will which is the will of God. However, in the fourth Ecumenical Council, the Council of Chalcedon, held in the year 451, this heresy was rejected and the full humanity of Christ was affirmed. This Council stated that Christ, having two natures, has also two wills both a divine and a human. However, in Christ, the divine will is fully submitted to the human will, such that what Christ in his divinity wills, Christ in his humanity also wills.

Why is this important? As Christians, we believe that what Christ is by His very nature, we will become by grace. Christ’s nature united the divine and human wills. By grace, our wills are transformed to be united to the divine will. Our desires become also the desires of God and his commands becomes equal to our ambitions. The sanctified Christian’s will is entirely submitted to and aligned with the divine will. 

This is why the prayer book can assert that the will of God is perfect freedom. When we are hallowed and glorified, the commands of God, the service of His Kingdom and the worship of His Holy name will be nothing less the full expression of our desires. This is the life for which we were made. 

This also is why Jesus can say that his departure is expedient for His disciples. John Keble begins his poem for this Sunday in the church year by writing:

“My Saviour, can it ever be 
That I should gain by losing thee?” 

Truthfully, this is a great mystery, and one which must have startled the disciples. How can it possibly be for our benefit that Jesus would depart out of this world? For the disciples of Christ, the teaching and direction and life of Christ was a sure guide and template for them. All they needed was to follow Christ around, do what he told them, and act like He acted. How could they possibly benefit from the loss of this guide?

However, while Christ was here on this earth, and before the Holy Spirit came, the disciples followed Christ externally, but the renewal of their minds, by which their very wills and affections would be conformed to the will of God was not happening.

Jesus says, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you… Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.”

The spirit guides the people of God into the will of Christ from within. Their obedience is no longer external and formal. We are remade into the likeness of Christ by the work of the Spirit. 

Such is the great gift which St. James describes in our epistle lesson. The good and perfect gift from above, is the renewal of the Holy Ghost. “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of His will He gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.” We are remade by the work of God in us. 

It must be acknowledged that this perfection of our wills is not yet characteristic of us. We will almost certainly find that even now the commands of God are not nearly so lovely as they ought to be to us.

C. S. Lewis in his contemplation of Psalm 119 describes this phenomenon. When commenting on the Psalmists assertion that the commands of God are ““More to be desired are they than gold, yea than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb” Lewis says, “This was to me at first very mysterious. “Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery”—I can understand that a man can, and must, respect these “statutes”, and try to obey them, and assent to them in his heart. But it is very hard to find how they could be, so to speak, delicious, how they exhilarate. If this is difficult at any time, it is doubly so when obedience to either is opposed to some strong, and perhaps in itself innocent, desire.

A man held back by his unfortunate previous marriage to some lunatic or criminal who never dies from some woman whom he faithfully loves, or a hungry man left alone, without money, in a shop filled with the smell and sight of new bread, roasting coffee, or fresh strawberries—can these find the prohibition of adultery or of theft at all like honey? They may obey, they may still respect the “statute”. But surely it could be more aptly compared to the dentist’s forceps or the front line than to anything enjoyable and sweet.”

Lewis goes on to contemplate the various ways that such a command might be delightful, more than just a duty. In the end, it is only by the work of the spirit that the psalmists praise can be truly expressed. We may academically agree that the commands of God are true, but it is only the spirit that makes us to see them as sweeter than honey and the honey comb.

In both our epistle and gospel lessons, we are instructed to recall that God is our Father, and that his gifts to us are the gifts of a loving Father. More specifically, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the transformation of our hearts is the gift of our Father who is God. If our parental responsibility and activity is to be patterned after our Heavenly Father, there are two truths I would like to highlight. 

First, the training of our children in the truth and law of God is the greatest gift we can give as parents. Far above physical health, or an education, or opportunities in life, is the gift of a love for the things of God. This is the greatest gift that God our father gives to us, it is also the greatest gift that we as parents may give to our children. Let us not neglect this great gift in the pursuit of lesser gifts. Certainly, all parents also have a responsibility to provide for their children, to educate them etc etc, not the least because such things are also instructive in the law and will of God. However, our priority as parents must always be in the training of our children in the spiritual life which they have been given. 

And this truth is not limited to parental responsibility. This holds true also for gifts given to friends and even to ourselves. The recent popular ideas and articulations of self-love, would be greatly helped by a dose of this reality. If we recalled that the greatest act of self-love is to train ourselves to follow God’s commands, such ideas might actually be helpful to somebody.

However, this leads to the second point. We must recall that, as our collect points out, the ability to shape the wills and affections is something which only God can do. As parents, as churchmen, as Christians, we are responsible for choosing to follow God’s will. We must train our children in the law of God, encourage are brothers and sisters in Christ in the pattern of Christ, and build habits of righteousness in ourselves. But all of this will be for naught, if the grace of God does not work in the heart. 

Consequently, prayer is the primary recourse for the Christian. As parents we must pray for our children, as churchmen we must pray for the members of the body, and as Christians we must pray for the growth of grace in ourselves. It is useful to identify particular needs in each of these spheres. What do our kids need to grow in? What does our church, or a particular church family need? What is a struggle in our own life? Pray for specific needs, and that God would not only change behavior but also the will and affections. 

In this way, we wait upon the spirit of God to work among us. We trust in his provision and his will. Our ultimate desire must be in the words of Job,
“this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”