Sermon for the 9th Sunday after Trinity, 2021

Homily for Trinity 9, 2021

Fr. Tony Melton

Spiritual Pride and Reliance on God

During my sophomore year of college, I had two ankle reconstruction surgeries. They were pretty invasive, and I was immobile and medicated for several weeks. I had a history exam one day and the building was up the hill from my dormitory. I hadn’t ventured out much from my room yet. I was still in my soft, surgical cast. I was in a great amount of pain, and not very lucid, but I needed to take this test, so I grabbed my crutches and started off. My roommate didn’t think I should go by myself, but I insisted that I’d be fine. I made it down the stairs just fine. I dodged a huge puddle and a bunch of mud. It had just rained and the ground was soaked. I crossed the parking lot, and started up the hill on the sidewalk. To go up a hill on crutches, you really have to through your weight forward. If you don’t, you’ll fall back. Well, I feel flat on my butt, straight onto the wettest boggiest squishiest pile of sod. And its not like I could pop right back up and go. I struggled to get up, plopping up and down, so that I took that test with the wettest backside in history of Southwest Baptist University.

Our subject today is Spiritual Pride and the Need for Reliance on God. Our text is from our Epistle, 1 Corinthians 10, “Wherefore let him that thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.”

This is an important topic for us to hear. There are more reasons than ever to think that we are able to stand on our own in this life. Modernity has given us great power over many aspects of our lives. But, we also come by this spirit of self-reliance honestly as Americans. The country was built by people with incredible work-ethic and sturdy boot-straps. This tremendous virtue of fortitude is not to be scoffed at. Yet, like all strengths and powers, it can make one independent of others and God if not held in check by humility.

This morning, we will examine our Propers for the themes Pride and Reliance, then we’ll probe into what pride looks like, then what reliance looks like.

Our theme for this morning comes most clearly from the Collect for the Week. “Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do anything that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is a very humble prayer. We admit that we cannot stand on our own. We are spiritual cripples. We rely on the Spirit to live according to God’s will because we cannot do anything that is good without God.

The Gospel gives us a picture of spiritual pride in the elder brother. The elder brother falls into wrath and envy at the slightest trial because he filled with pride. The younger brother did not see himself worthy to be called a son, yet he is received into the great love and favor of the father.

The Epistle is clearly focused on this theme. Early in the reading, Paul walks through the great, miraculous benefits that the Israelites received. They were all baptized through the waters of the Red Seas. They all ate the Manna and drank the water from the Rock. They had every benefit, every reason to stand on their own, yet they fell in the wilderness committing terrible sins against God. These things, he says, are written for our admonition, so that he who thinks he can stand on his own will be convinced that he can not stand without the Spirit.

Let’s circle back through the Propers and look more closely on what Pride looks like. What do we see in the Collect? Pride is thinking we can do good on our own. We do this whenever we try to do things on our own strength, or claim credit for things as if we accomplished them by our own strength. What do we see in the Gospel? Pride is when our identity is founded on our great obedience to God. We see this in the older brother.

Parents, when is your child on his best behavior? Isn’t it when their sibling is acting like a complete terd? “Mother, how may I be helpful? Father, am I being good?”

Young adults. We talked a lot this week about Identity and how those whose Identity is solidly in Christ do not have to prop up their identity with Careerism, or Politics, etc. Many people prop up their identity on what others think of them, or what they think God thinks of them. I am good boy or good girl…that prop can get kicked out from under you very easily. Either, you will slip up and your reputation will be damaged, and your identity will crumble. Or, someone else who is much less obedient than you will get accolades or promotion, and it will drive you crazy, like it did the older brother, and your propped up identity will crumble.

Our identity can only be founded, not on our great obedience to God, but on God’s great love for us. This never falters, and He loves us even when we are disobedient. Think about the parable. The father was waiting for the son, looking for him months after he had left. The father ran out to meet his wayward boy, and before the son was even able to make an apology, the father fell on his neck and hugged him, kissed him, and wiped away his filth with tears of joy. There is no need for pride. This is the God that we serve.

So pride is thinking we can do good on our own, that we are the solution, that we can stand on our own. Eventually, we will build an entire identity on the good that we think we have done. But, what does reliance look like?

First and foremost, we rely on Christ. We speak a lot here at CTK on living lives centered on Communion with God. We are a praying people. We strive for habitual recollection, a steady awareness that we find our true life in the presence of God, that apart from Him we are miserable sinners.

I’ve made mention before that I am eternally grateful for my Evangelical upbringing. One of things that the Baptists do so well is stress the need for Grace. But one of the great ironies of that tradition is that I can never once remember asking God for mercy. It just wasn’t a part of our practice. It wouldn’t have fit within that theology. Yet, we ask for God’s mercy every day because we are acutely aware that without His grace we will fall. The General Confession  in the Liturgy teaches that we have no health in us of our own virtue, and therefore to ask for God’s mercy and grace to keep us upright, which is to stand. We show our reliance on God when we continually ask for His mercy and grace.

We rely on God when we treat prayer as the most important part of our day. To enter a day without prayer is an act of pride. It is like me venturing up the hill without my roommate. Pride precedes…[the fall].

Another way we rely on God and not on ourselves is to petition God first when tragedy or misfortune strikes. I’ve been encouraged that people have been voicing needs on their cell group GroupMe. There has been an outpouring of prayer on behalf of the Tryons and Buteras. These are not just empty words. Prayer shows that God is the solution, not us. We do not rely on ourselves and what we can do, but what God can do.

I’ve mentioned to some of you about our friend, Matt, who just came for a visit. He will soon enter a Benedictine monastery, possibly for the rest of his life. As I was driving him to the airport for a tearful goodbye, I asked him again why he was entering the monastery. In my flesh, it felt like he was leaving us. Yet, his answer pierced my soul. He said, “I believe that God is calling me to a life of prayer for others, including the Melton family. In some way that I do not understand, I believe that this is how I can do the most good.” What faith. We show our reliance when we see our prayers as the most effective act of charity we can do, because it places God’s action right next to the human need. We rely on Christ and His action, not on ourselves.

Second, we rely on the Church, the Body of Christ. Sometimes, we speak against the “siloed life”, where people go it on their own. We are “Together in Life”. Alone, we fall. But the Body of Christ stands together. I’m sure I don’t have to persuade you of how important the fellowship of believers is to living a holy and happy life. But while living a live detached from the Church is practically disastrous, it is also theologically problematic. The Church is not simply a helpful organization that can assist you in your own individual faith. It is an essential organism, the Body of Christ. Each parish is an instance of this one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. To live independent of a parish is both personally prideful, since the assumption is that you can stand on your own, and theologically heretical, since it divorces one from the obvious commands of Scripture and the ordinary means of grace, which cause one to stand strong in the Faith.

This is why Cell Groups. This is why Fellowships. This is why Clergy Calls. This is why we are Together in Life. It is because we are unable to do anything that is good without God’s grace, which He gives through His Church, which He gives through the Sacraments and through the People around us. This is why we take the Eucharist. Our salvation is not a static thing. We don’t give our life to God once and then go our happy way. We give our life to God anew every week and seek His sustenance. Without it, we will faint. This is why we have godparents at the Baptism, who are typically not family members. God made the family, and the family is good! But the family is not the Church. Families falter, often. If we are vulnerable only with our families. If the only authority or accountability or teaching or spiritual nourishment comes from our family, then we are on sandy ground. There are only two things that God promises to establish forever. Not one letter of His Holy Word will pass away, and the gates of Hell will never prevail against His Church. This is why we say that Water is thicker than Blood. To rely on one’s family to the exclusion of the Body of Christ is an act of spiritual pride.

Finally, we rely on our training. Through participation in Christ through self-discipline, we become those who can stand in the day of temptation. When we fast, we become the kind of person who can say no to the desires of the flesh. We develop the virtues of chastity and temperance. When we tithe, we become the kind of person who can follow God’s call even if it means financial difficulty. We develop the virtue of Faith, and root out the vice of Greed.  When we pray, perhaps using the tool of Lectio Divina, we become the kind of person who is open to the Word of God and our world is defined by what God says and what God wants. We develop the virtue of Hope, and leave off the vice of anxiety.  When we give alms, we become the kind of person that values life, so that when life gets hard we don’t lose our mindfulness of the needs of others. We develop the virtue of charity. When we confess our sins to a brother, or sister, or a father, we become the kind of person who harbors no secret sin. We will not be of those that fall by that spiritual cancer.

This one is a tough one because all virtues can be a source of pride and self-reliance. God is remaking each and every one of us into the image and perfection of His Son, Jesus Christ. As we grow, we participate more in the act of standing. A child begins to walk by holding her parents hands above her head. As her leg muscles and coordination develop, she slowly starts to take over and walk on her own. There is some truth to this. As virtue grows in us by God’s grace, we are held up by habits of holiness. A tree that is mature enough to bear fruit will not easily be blown over. Yet, in this life, we will always rely on God to stand. Though we graduate in this body to standing quite well on our own, spiritually we are always in need of a brace. I would even argue that in the next life there is a reliance of the soul on God. Lucifer fell because of pride. He thought of his own goodness and beauty as coming from himself. He forgot that God is the fountainhead of all being, and that he is a creature whose life depends every moment on God’s choice to sustain him and God’s grace which causes him to stand.

And finally, we show our reliance on God by relying on the nourishment that He gives in Word and Sacrament. The very fact that you are here, in the heat, shows that you do not rely on that extra hour of sleep, or a slow morning, but on the Grace of God in the sacrament. So, beloved, come and eat. Think of your kneeling as a leaning upon His bosom, or a falling on His neck. Rely on the Lord your God who causes you to stand.