Homily by Fr. R Christopher Heying
It is not about
how we come but how we will leave.
The truth of the matter is that all of us—priests and laity alike—come this morning before God to whom all hearts open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid and know all too well that we have erred and strayed from God’s ways like lost sheep following too much the devices and desires of our hearts.
You and I gather this morning before a holy and righteous God who knows that we have each sinned, we have each fallen short of the glory of God, that holiness to which we are called. By God’s own call to us, you and I gather this morning before God who knows that our slate is neither blank nor clean.
Bishop Terwilliger, sometime bishop suffragan of Dallas, put it this way:
“One should compare oneself to Jesus Christ. And if he comes up poorly, he should go to confession. If he comes up well, he should go to a psychiatrist.”
And so we gather this morning before a holy God, knowing that not only that all generally have sinned but also that you and I, by what we have done and by what we have failed to do, have sinned and that there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
One author put it this: “At some time or other, a man must stop running from himself and his God—possibly because there is no other place to run to” (Barclay, Hebrews, quoting Kermit Eby in “The God in You”).
So right now in this very place, the living and active Word of God comes, comes and addresses us collectively and individually. Sharper than any two-edged sword, the Word pierces until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow, and we are left entirely unable to hide, and we find ourselves exposed and naked before an all-seeing, all-knowing , all-holy eye of God.
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” and “through [the Word] all things were made.”
Let there be light and there was light. Let us make man in our image and in our own likeness.”
This Word has absolute authority and power. So Isaiah is able to say, “So is my word that goes forth from my mouth; it will not return to me empty; but it will accomplish that which I have purposed, and prosper in that for which I sent it.”
While in our sins, you and I now laid bare and naked before this Word could face utter devastation, except that the Word, in whom there is life, becomes flesh and dwells among us and we have seen his glory, full of grace and truth.
The Word cuts us to the quick and knows full well that we are not good and just need to get a little bit better but that our sins have rightly convicted and condemned us and we need to be saved.
This Word of God, in whom there is life, becomes flesh and dwells among us to be rejected and crucified, dead and buried, yet even so this Word from the mouth of God returns not empty but accomplishes that which is purposed—so that it is not trapped in death but bursts forth from the grave, rising from the dead, passing through the heavens, now to be present with the Father and ever living to make intercession for us.
This is why Jesus is not merely a good man among men, not simply a teacher among teachers. This is why Jesus is not only an exemplar par excellence.
But is our one and only true priest, the very point, place, and person where God touches us and we touch God.
So it is not how we came here this morning. Not about finding out what we already knew, that we didn’t arrive here with a blank slate but stand as sinners before a holy God.
It is not about how we came but how we leave.
How will we go forth from this place?
Will we accept the invitation to come? to come without fear? to come with assurance, even with boldness, to come before the throne of grace and there, to receive all the mercy, to find all the grace that God longs to bestow upon us, to give to us, to place within us, complete forgiveness and real life.
We come before God’s word convicted and condemned.
But will we leave because of God’s word converted and consecrated?
God’s word is sharper than any two-edged sword. But God’s word becomes flesh and dwells right here among us, full of grace and truth, and to all who receive him, who believe in his name he gives power to become children of God, to receive one blessing after another, to receive life eternal.