Fourth Sunday After Trinity, July 9th, 2017

Fourth Sunday after Trinity, July 9th, 2017

"Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful . . . .  ." (St. Luke 6:36)  

In the Sixth Chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke, we hear Our Blessed Saviour speak of difficult subjects such as:  "mercy;" and "forgiveness;" and "judging not;"  etc; etc; etc.  Now, when I say these are difficult concepts ..  . ..  trust me, I know from experience how difficult it is to "talk" about these concepts as opposed to, say, putting them into actual use.  It is difficult to show mercy and forgiveness to those who have done us wrong.  It is extremely difficult to forgive someone who, for all intents and purposes, does not even deserve our forgiveness.  But this whole business of "wronging others,"  . . . . and "doing the wrong thing,"  . .. .  and "hurting others by our actions" . . . .  .  none of these are a "new" concept,  they've been happening for a long, long time . . . .  . Well, since the beginning of mankind, basically.  Ever heard of Cain and Abel?  Human beings have been in the business of doing wrong to those around us for a long, long, long, long time.  Human beings have been hurting one another since  . .  ..  . well, . . . . .  since forever.   But if you continue reading through this passage of St. Luke, you'll find that Our Lord hit the proverbial nail right on the head because he gives the example of finding a "mote" in our brothers eye while all the time we have a "beam" in our own eye.   

I am convinced more than ever, especially in the age of social media that we live in, how easy it is to bypass the wrongs we have done by focusing on the wrongs others have done.  As long as I am fixated on the wrong you have committed against me, that's less time to fixate on the wrong I have done against someone else.  None of us like to think of ourselves as "bad people."  While, yes, there are some truly "bad people" in the world, I think that most of us are "good people" that make bad choices.  We make wrong decisions.  Let's face it, we sin.   And that's the whole point.  That's the obvious point that our Lord was making when He stated that we should not focus on the "mote" in our brother's eye when we fail to take out the "beam" in our own eye.  What did Our Lord say?  He said, "Thou Hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye."  (St. Luke 6:46)  Human beings are so busy searching for the faults in others that they don't see their own faults.  We would rather focus on the wrong that someone else did to us than to focus on what we did wrong.  Our Lord was making the point that first and foremost:  All of us have sinned.  All of us have done wrong to our brother.  All of us are guilty.  None of us is perfect.   And the second thing that Our Lord was pointing out is that if we are so busy looking for the faults in others, we do not have time to focus on our own fault, our own sins.  And God sent His Son into the world for ALL of us.  God sent His Son into the world to die on the Cross for ALL of us . . . . you and me.  All of us have benefited from that saving Cross on the hill at Calvary.  Let us spend less time searching for the faults in others.  This will allow us to have more time to focus on the things that we have done wrong in life.  And this will cause us to be even more grateful for the forgiveness that God is giving to us for the wrongs that we have done.  

St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church gathers together each and every Sunday morning at 9:30 AM.  We worship at the beautiful Chapel at Marquette Manor, located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.

Join us as we listen to the Word of God found in the King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Join us as we gather together as God's family and worship Our Blessed Saviour.  And, at Communion time, we come forward to receive His Precious Body and Blood so that we can be nourished for the journey ahead.