To be preached at St. John's, Lancaster 2 Jun 2013
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| Elijah at Mount Carmel |
I Kings18:20-40
Psalm96
Galatians 1:1-12
Luke 7:1-10
The Roman Army has always impressed me. I remember in my fifth grade history book in Mrs. Rarrick’s room, there was a picture of Roman soldiers on the Danube frontier. I thought it was really cool. As I grew older and began to amass knowledge which was very interesting, and even formative, but would never get me a job, I read more and more about these men: how they fought, how they were organized, what they thought, what motivated them, and the amazing tales of their heroism found in Livy and Tacitus and Plutarch. In a very real way, they became the men I sought to emulate. Rebecca and I passed the stories on to our children. It was said of Washington and Jefferson that they grew up with the distinct feeling that they were not far removed in time or space from the great men of Rome. It was so in our family. When he was younger, I really think Tristan believed that Scipio Africanus and Cincinnatus helped Little Grandpa and Uncle Jake defeat the combined armies and navies of Imperial Japan. After he came home a wounded warrior, Tristan told me that when he realized that he had been shot, it was a story from the legions of Republican Rome which filled his mind and dictated his actions.
And so it comes as no surprise to me that a Roman Centurion, sort of a cross between a company commander and a sergeant major, is singled out by our Lord as an example of great faith. As a seasoned warrior, he knew that if he told a soldier to complete a mission, that the soldier would do it, or die trying. It made perfect sense to him that if Jesus gave an order, it would be carried out with equal efficiency. His profession pre-disposed him to faith in the Lord. He is an easy man to like, and to respect. He really is a great example of the kind of faith we all might do well to emulate.
But inspiring stories are just that if we don’t act on them in our lives. The Centurion believed that Jesus had the authority and power of God, and he acted in accordance with that knowledge. Do you have such belief today? Is Jesus Christ your Liege Lord, your God and King, the Captain of your salvation? Or is he just another good man and a memorable teacher from whom you can hope to learn a few things and find some vague comfort in difficult times? We are taught by the Faith received from Apostles and Prophets and from our Lord Himself that the Bible is the Holy Spirit inspired and superintended account of who Jesus is and what he did. We are taught that the Bible contains all things necessary to our salvation, and that no belief is to be required unless it is clearly based on the warrant of Scripture. We are taught by the Bible itself that the accounts and teachings of the Bible are given to us that we might learn from the experiences of those who came before us. It is in the Bible that we come face to face with God and his Son Jesus.
The first lesson today speaks of a time much like our own. The faith of many had been severely watered down because many people mixed the teachings of non-Jewish faith groups with the true worship commanded by God in his dealings with Moses. A significant number of people who claimed to be good children of Israel had become what we might call “Cafeteria Believers.” After all, there was much to be learned from the emphasis on life cycles and the natural studies of the pagan followers of Baal, a local fertility deity. And if their sexual mores and their concept of family was different than that of the Jews, well, it was their culture, and they were for the most part pretty good neighbors. And to boot, many Jews had intermarried with the families of these foreigners, and being pig headed about one’s faith made for real problems at family get togethers. Better all around to just live and let live. Religion after all was such a personal thing. Enter Elijah the prophet of God, “that troubler of Israel.” Elijah said to the people, “If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, follow him.” The Bible continues, “The people did not answer him a word.” Then followed that incredible and terrible contest between the prophet of God and the prophets of Baal. As our first lesson today makes abundantly clear, God acted on that day to declare his sovereign power to all and to call his people to repentance. And then, in the portion of the text omitted by the folks who crafted the current lectionary, “Elijah said into them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.” I’ve been to that place at the north end of the valley of Armageddon and seen the statue of Elijah, flaming sword in hand, which stands before the little Franciscan Church. It is a sobering place to be. Because it still reminds believers that following God faithfully is a life and death matter. It determines how we live in this world, and where we will spend eternity in the next. There is no more allowance made for cafeteria religion today than there was in the reign of King Ahab. The faith of the Centurion, the faith of the Church, may grow weak and falter from time to time, but its object and teachings can never be willfully changed for any reason without exciting the ire of a loving and jealous God.
But how are we to know? What is right and what is wrong? Or as Pontius Pilate asked the Master, “What is truth?” St. Paul in today’s second lesson answers that question unequivocally. “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” He continues, “Even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed.” Paul states the Gospel clearly in the Bible, as does Moses, and Isaiah, and Hosea, and Peter, and John, and a host of others, including Jesus. We have no right to change it or what it teaches. The Articles of Religion are clear that neither the church nor anyone in it has the authority to proclaim any message contrary to Holy Scripture. “As Paul says in our second lesson, “If anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed.” Cafeteria religion is still a life and death matter, because it takes our eyes off of God and substitutes what we in any given culture might like to believe, what seems fair or helpful to us, for the truth that God the Father has revealed in his Son Jesus the Christ.
And so if a bishop says to you that a person who the Bible says was demon possessed was merely practicing another spiritual path, honor them for the position they fill, but reject their teaching. If a priest tells you that even though they cannot find any allowance in Scripture for the decision they have made, but that their experience convinces them that it is the right thing to do, respect the orders they bear, but reject their teaching and their example. If a spirit, or a feeling, or an angel should appear to you as you consider God’s will in your life, and suggests that you do something contrary to the clear teachings of the Bible, let that spirit be accursed. There are those today who in Paul’s words “are confusing you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ.” “God is the same yesterday, today and forever.” What he revealed to us in the Bible and in the historic teachings of our Holy Mother the Church remains unchanged. The Centurion knew this, and he trusted Jesus because his studies of the Jewish faith had led him to the conclusion that Jesus bore the authority of the Father. We know Jesus primarily as he comes to us in the Scriptures. We understand the Scriptures as we encounter them in worship, that is within the preaching and sacramental ministry of the Church.
At the end of the day, we must all realize that we are responsible to know what the Bible says as it is received by the Church, one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. No one person or denomination can run ahead of the entire church and proclaim private revelations as truth. We are not given that authority. Rather we are called to proclaim the faith received, not a different gospel. And so today, let us resist the seductive call of “cafeteria religion.” It is as deadly today as it was nearly three thousand years ago. We can not make things up as we go, or we will one day find ourselves among those who are accursed. Rather let us follow that righteous Roman Centurion of whom it was said, “He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us.” It was he of whom Jesus said “Not even in Israel have I found such faith.” None of us will ever understand everything about the Bible, and my experience has been that at every reading God shows me some new thing and calls me to act upon it in my life. But there is a huge difference between that person who honestly seeks to know the will of God as revealed in the Bible, which is that Gospel of which Paul speaks, and that person who makes their religion up as they go based on their own notions of culture and their own feelings. There is such a thing as objective truth, and to say that “One truth is as true or as good as another” is contrary to the faith of Jesus Christ.
St Paul said, “If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” We cannot have it both ways. There is freedom of religion in our country, and that is a good thing. But I cannot make up my own religion and call it Christianity. God does not give us that option. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy ghost. AMEN.
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