Thursday 4 February 2016

Sexagesima Sunday 31 Jan 2016 Sermon

Sexagesima Sunday 31.1.16 Perseverance

Both readings today tell us to persevere. Once we have put our hand to the plough we should not look back (Lk 9,62). If we have set out in following Our Lord, we should keep doing that until the last moment of our lives.

Last Sunday St Paul gave us the image of the athlete who runs to the finish (1 Co 9,24). Today he refers to his own history as a disciple of Christ, revealing the incredible intensity of his life. We cannot match such a record, but we can at least apply the same principle, and give all that we have to the cause.

And in today’s Gospel – the parable of the Sower – there is only group that gets through all the obstacles, and is still doing the Lord’s will some time later. Everyone else has dropped out.

As a test of love - to find out what sort of disciples we are - there has to be a time dimension. Anyone can say, I give myself to God, or, I love God. Anyone can look and sound impressive, but the only real test of such statements is - as the song says, Will you still love me tomorrow? Will you be there in one, ten, or fifty years time?

The only way we can prove our commitment is to stay committed! If we are anywhere but still with Our Lord, it must be we have abandoned our commitment. We have been tricked somehow; fallen for one of those old tricks the devil uses.

Either intimidated by the difficulty of the task; or seduced by the pleasures of the world.

We have to be in that final group that has resisted all temptations to turn this way or that, and kept on the straight line through to the Promised Land.

So we have to persevere. There are many who do not.

We could say there are two wrong approaches – to say that salvation is assured and no special action on our part is required.

And to say that salvation is beyond us, and nothing we can do will change that.

So for opposite reasons – that salvation is easy and salvation is hard – people do not strive as they should to reach the Promised Land.

Yet look at St Paul’s life, or that of any saint, and we see a great deal of energy expended in seeking their own salvation and that of others.

It takes energy to be saved. We do not earn our salvation by works. We understand that salvation is a free gift. But we also understand that to receive that free gift we have to do a certain amount of ‘work’.

A rich man comes into a town where everyone is unemployed. He could give them all money and that would be some help. But if he gives them all a job that is much more help.

However, in the second case, the people do have to work – they must do whatever the job requires.

This is how it works with us. Our good works, and prayers, have the effect of putting us in the right disposition to receive the grace God wants to give us.

So as regards salvation we are not over or under confident. It is not automatic; but neither is it out of our reach.

We just have to remember the urgency of the whole thing so we do not get distracted. This is the biggest project of our lives. The stakes are eternal.

Will we be there for Him tomorrow, ten, fifty, a thousand years? Yes, by His grace.

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