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Pentecost 15  (ECUSA):
FACING THE CRISIS

[Summary of a sermon preached by The Revd Dr Peter Toon at the services on the Sunday following the TRAGIC EVENTS of September 11, 2001 at St Andrew’s Church (Episcopal) Farmer’s Branch, Texas.]
 

We have heard many vivid descriptions of the terrible atrocities  which befell the USA on September 11. I shall not add to them. We have heard many opinions – considered and instant -- as to the cause and the meaning of these disasters in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. I shall not add to them.

 What I shall seek to do is to offer you from the appointed Collect for this day, Pentecost 15,  comfort and guidance from heaven.

 O GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee, mercifully grant thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the same Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 This is an ancient Collect and is fitted for use at most times and in most places.  However, I believe that it is especially fitting today and this week as we live within a time of major national crisis, seeking to know what we can think, feel, do and pray  for the best.

 When our emotions are all churned up, when our thinking is confused, and when we are not sure what to say and how to pray, we need guidance. This Collect comes as a gift from heaven to guide us. Let us receive it with gratitude and use it to the blessing of many.

 Let us be  very honest with ourselves.  As we feel pain, sorrow, anger and bewilderment, let us admit that we are in real danger of committing sin against God and our neighbors – in thought, word and intention.  That is thinking, speaking and acting in ways that do not conform to the binding Commandments to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

 In this situation of spiritual and moral danger, the Collect begins by reminding us that in normal times, not to mention especially demanding times, we need help, divine help, to steady our nerve and to guide our thoughts, feelings and intentions aright.  Thus the words: WITHOUT THEE, WE CANNOT PLEASE THEE.

 And we are reminded that such help for Christian believers comes in the gift of the indwelling Holy Ghost who is sent by the Father and the Son  – MERCIFULLY GRANT THAT THY HOLY SPIRIT. 

 By the design of God the Father, the Holy Ghost comes to dwell in the very center of our being – the heart (and in biblical terms the heart includes the mind, the emotions, and the will).  Why does He comes? --  TO DIRECT AND RULE OUR HEARTS IN ALL THINGS.

 “All things” means what it says. The Lord Jesus Christ desires that his disciples conform to his will for them in all things – not most or some things but ALL both internally and externally.

 From the testimony of Holy Scripture and the experience of the saints through history, we know that the Holy Ghost acts in the closest association with the risen Lord Jesus Christ and thus He directs and rules our hearts according to the will, word and purposes of the same Lord Jesus Christ. 

 Thus we need to recall that to benefit from the presence of gift of the Holy Ghost within us we need to be diligent in the reading and meditating upon the words of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, may I suggest, for example, that this week, we read daily the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 – 7 as we pray and use this Collect?

 To close. In the world, and in the USA, baptized Christian believers are called by the Lord Jesus Christ to be “the salt of the earth’ and the “light of the world.”  In this crisis of the nation, where there is great sorrow and anger, we can only fulfill our Christian vocation to be salt and light of the world,  if we allow the Holy Ghost to direct and rule our hearts in all things according to the will of the Lord Jesus Christ.

 The Revd Dr Peter Toon  September 16, 2001