Homily for
Quinquagesima
The Last Sunday after the Epiphany
The Last Sunday after the Epiphany
Sunday 26 February 2017
The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
A Parish of the Diocese of Bethlehem and The Episcopal Church
Readings:
Third of Three-Part Preaching Series anticipating the coming Fast of Lent in Preparation for Easter...
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Lent is now but a few days away. Two Sundays ago, we spoke of
the mercy of God that draws us into the awareness that we can respond to the
call to repentance without fear. Last Sunday we pondered on the law of God
and how this Word of God shows us our need for God. Today we consider
forgiveness.
The Prayer Book provides us with a wonderful resource with which to
ponder forgiveness and live into it. It is the Exhortation. I have
spoken of this with you in the past. At times, I have even read the whole
of it to you. I am not going to do that today. Instead I am going
to focus on certain portions. But I encourage you to look at it and read
it yourself, perhaps even at this Mass in a moment of silence such as when the
Altar is being prepared or you are about to approach the Blessed Sacrament.
If you take nothing else from the Exhortation, remember this.
The call to forgiveness that comes out of the call to repentance is not only
directed towards God but to our neighbors also. The Exhortation calls us
to consider the commandments of God and thus examine our hearts both upward and
outward in order that we might know our sins against God and one another,
things done and left undone. That awareness then drives us to God in
search of forgiveness unmerited and to one another with the goal of giving
forgiveness even when it has not been sought.
The Exhortation is not alone in this. The Mass itself calls
us to this every time we draw near to the Altar. At some point, either at
the beginning of the Mass or following the Creed, we confess our sins and
receive absolution. At that portion of the Mass where we transition from
responding to the Word of God to the celebration of the Sacrament, we are
called to receive and to share the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a reason why our current Prayer Book changed the timing of
the sharing of this peace. Many of you will recall that this used to
happen right before the distribution of Communion, as it still does among our
Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. The answer to the question of why we
moved it is found in the Exhortation and in the Gospel of St. Matthew.
Each remind us that Jesus has said plainly to us that before we present our
gifts at the Altar, we should be at peace with our brothers and sisters, our
neighbors. And if we are not, Jesus says, we should first go and make
peace, and then offer our gifts.
This peace in the liturgy is not a ritual act void of
meaning. It most certainly is not a chance to greet and catch up with
those around you. In the sharing of the peace of Christ, by our sharing
we are saying both "if I have trespassed against you, please forgive
me" and "any offense from you to me I now forgive you." We
do this as a people who by this time in the Mass have been forgiven by God who
expects us to forgive as we have been forgiven, an expectation that we embrace
and affirm every time we pray the prayer Jesus taught us.
So important is this sharing of the peace that if it cannot be exchanged
we should not proceed in the Mass until by the help of the Holy Spirit we have
given and received that peace.
At times this may be difficult to hear, especially when we have
been lured into a comfort with what might be called "righteous anger"
in which the tempter bids us believe that we are justified in holding a grudge
and not extending the sign of peace and forgiveness. Let me remind you
that forgiveness is one of the hardest parts of living, both asking for it and
giving it. The Exhortation reminds us Episcopalians that we as Anglicans
have never rejected private confession. In those moments where we face
difficulty in granting or receiving forgiveness, the availability of a priest
to hear the emotions of the heart and the confession of the soul provide is a
gift. These moments drive us to a real and tangible word of God's mercy
and grace. The absolution becomes as real as bread and wine. Christ
is present in that place, opening his heart to us and drawing us to embrace his
heart.
Finally, the Exhortation speaks of the worthy offering of our gifts
at the Altar and the right partaking in the sacred mysteries that are the Body
and Blood of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. We may be tempted to
think that by virtue of receiving absolution and giving and receiving the peace
of Christ that we are now worthy to offer and to partake. The moment we
are so tempted we need to go back and repeat everything. I say that my
friends because even when we are right with God and neighbor, especially then, we
need to remember that it is precisely when we are keenly aware that we are not
worthy to receive Christ that we are the most worthy and fully prepared to
receive this gift of grace. Here, and always, a grace and mercy to which
we have a right and a worthiness to receive, are no longer grace and mercy.
Father
Timothy
Alleman
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