6th Sunday after Pentecost 12.7.20 Start again
It might seem that Christianity offers happiness in the next
life, but not much in this one!
In fact, though, we can find happiness in both – more in the
next life certainly, but a lot here as well.
The greatest happiness here on earth is not found in worldly
pursuits, but in finding ourselves free from the greatest scourge the human
race encounters – Sin.
Sin as the deliberate lack of regard for the will of
Almighty God. When we sin we cut off our link to all that is good and
lifegiving.
It is sin that has caused all the trouble in the universe,
including all that lands upon us.
It is not necessarily our own sin but just the fallout from
sin in general. I might be careful with matches but my neighbour might not, and
my house burns down.
Life is not meant to be as difficult as it actually is. If
we had obeyed God from the beginning none of these things would happen.
If we would repent at any time, we immediately start to
reclaim the order that should have been there all along.
We can always repent, as individuals and as the people of
God. And it is always effective.
Israel would always turn to repentance when they saw things
going against them. It always worked.
The epistle today (Romans 6) speaks of baptism as dying to
sin. When we go into the water we emerge cleansed from sin. It is the most
refreshing bath we will ever have.
We die with Christ and we rise with Him.
This is our first resurrection, emerging from the captivity
of sin.
Our second resurrection will be on the Last Day.
We need a moral resurrection before we can claim the
physical.
In various ways and times a person might come to faith,
repentance, and make a new start.
It can happen to a whole city or nation. We can recall the various
saints who had such success in bringing whole groups of people to this new life
of grace. (St Patrick in Ireland, St Francis Xavier in Asia, St Francis de
Sales, reclaiming Protestants, and many more).
To come to faith and/or repentance is a joyful moment and
one feels a real liberation, like a bird discovering flight.
It is all a matter of reading the signs, of really seeing
what is happening.
We enjoy earthly pleasures but it makes a great deal of
difference whether we enjoy them simply at the physical level, or we see them as
coming from God, and leading back to Him.
Always the challenge is to look somewhat higher than just
what is apparent to us.
The failure to look ‘upwards’ is the whole problem from
start to finish.
We still suffer because there is so much disorder around, but
we have an interior peace which enables us to perceive the divine presence all
around us.
So we can have hope for ourselves, and we can offer it to
others.
There really is a way out of all this - not suicide – but repentance!
Repentance, all at once, or even bit by bit, we can make
progress.
Even one less sin, or one less type of sin, is to be more
alive.
We have died to sin and will not return to it. We now have a
new way of life, from now on; a new happiness which we will know for this life,
and even more in the next.
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