A
Reflection for VIII Pentecost All Saints’ Church, Southern
Shores, N.C. July 30, 2017 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector
Genesis 29:15-28 Psalm
128 Romans 8:26-39 Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
SIMUL JUSTUS ET
PECCATOR
There
is a 1939 W.C. Fields movie called “You Can’t Cheat An Honest
Man” which has Fields’ character, Larson E. Whipsnade, the owner
of a disreputable circus, declare, “As my dear old grandfather
Litvak said (just before they swung the trap), he said "You
can't cheat an honest man. Never give a sucker an even break or
smarten up a chump."
My father, who was a
big Fields’ fan, and worried that I might be too gullible, used to
quote the first part of that line as he would warn me “if something
seems too good to be true, it is.” The problem with being a
Christian is that swindlers assume you are not too bright, and you
will fall for anything. The other problem with being a Christian is
that we are a combination of saint and sinner at the same time or, as
Luther says, “Simul Justus et Peccator”.
In
the Hebrew Testament story for today, the Jacob saga continues with
Jacob, the swindler, liar, cheat, and all around no good excuse of a
human being trying to save himself from the vengeance of those people
to whom he lied, cheated, and swindled. He arrives at a cousin’s
tent and falls in love with his cousin’s daughter named Rachel. Her
father, Laban, sees how Jacob is smitten with Rachel and wonders what
to do with this guest and decides a way to get some work out of him.
Notice how he starts off: “Because you are my kinsman, should you
therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?”
Laban knows that
Jacob is not an honest man and can be easily cheated. He also knows
that Jacob’s love for Rachel has turned Jacob into a potential
chump. He knows that if Jacob is a “hired hand” the daughters
would be out of reach, and Jacob wants to stay in the running for
Rachel’s hand. Laban figures that this way he can free help from
Jacob for just room and board. The plan succeeds so well that, when
it is time to pay Jacob off with Rachel, Laban knows that there is no
need to “smarten the chump” and there is time for one more
swindle. The wedding feast takes place as the bride is veiled, as was
the custom. The glasses of wine flow freely, and Jacob is three
sheets to the wind and wakes up the next morning snuggling next to
Rachel’s older sister instead of Rachel. Laban says, “The rules
of the house did not specify which daughter, but since I am such a
good guy, just work for me for seven more years and we will call it
even”. The con man has been conned, the cheater cheated, and the
swindler swindled. We don’t know how much Rachel knew about the
arrangement, but what will happen later in the Jacob mythic saga is
that Rachel will be just as manipulative as her sister, and this
manipulative gene will be passed on to all of Jacob’s children. The
sins that we do will have consequences.
Yet
as lousy as they are, these are the people that God will use to bring
God’s love to all the world. Doesn’t that sound too good to be
true - that people who are sinners can be people who God uses to give
blessings? In the Gospel, Jesus tells of things that seem too good to
be true in the Kingdom of the Heavens. Jesus says that the tiny
mustard seed grows into a tree in which the birds of the air nest. He
marvels at how a little bit of yeast leavens the whole lump. He says
that there may be hidden treasures in all of us that God alone sees
and treasures.
Many
times I have people come to me after they have been beating
themselves up, finding fault in their whole being. The more we talk,
the more we see that they have done some lousy thing by thought,
word, or deed. They are afraid that, if it were found out that they
had done or thought these things, people would hate them. Usually, if
it is just an offending thought, I pass on the words of a desert
father: “You can’t stop the birds of the air from flying over
your head, but you can stop them from nesting in your beard.” If it
is a deed that concerns them, then I suggest that they go through the
process of finding the person who they have harmed and ask
forgiveness, making amends and, if possible, working for
reconciliation.
This
is not an easy process. It’s hard and it hurts and sometimes it
involves weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth as the Gospel
tells us. When Jesus was preaching, he saw himself as participating
at the end of the age, the age where we think there is a difference
between heaven and earth. If we indeed pray that God’s will be done
on earth as it is in heaven, then it begins with us when we
participate in the granting of grace to each other and ourselves.
Jesus asked, “Do you understand these things?”, and they said
“Yes”, and Jesus said, “Therefore every scribe who has been
trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household
who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” Life
is short and we do not have much time”, as the end of our service
remind us.
We always arrive
back at Grace and Luther’s “Simul Justus et Peccator”. Luther
came up with that phrase to remind us that we are always in the need
of Grace, the unearned love of God because we are not always good.
Luther had spent all of his life trying to be perfectly “good” -
and failing. Then Luther saw God in a different way and kept coming
back to the Letter to the Romans where Paul, who had tried to be
perfect, found that he was given Grace rather than perfection and
proclaims that God’s Spirit groans within us to accept that loving
Grace into our lives:
What then are we to
say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who
did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he
not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge
against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It
is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right
hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from
the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we
are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God’s
breath sweeps through me
Still
breaking commands more than once
Yet
angels still sing through me.
No comments:
Post a Comment