In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
Twice in the Gospel passage that was read today, Christ says “he that hath ears
to hear, let him hear,” and then “take heed how you hear,” that is, pay
attention, ask yourselves the question how you listen to the word of God. We
hear the word of God read in church year in, year out, we read it ourselves day
after day. What have we heard in this reading of the Gospels? We have met God
and we have believed in Him; we have met the Lord Jesus Christ and we have
called ourselves by His name, Christians. But what fruit have we borne? We know
God, we know that God is love, inexhaustible love, unfathomable depth of love,
the love on the cross, the love that gave itself to complete destruction,
without defence, in order to save us. But do we at all resemble the God in whom
we believe?
If we believe in love, and love is the ultimate, the universal value that gives
meaning to life, can we honestly say that we have heard this good, this saving
truth, not only with our ears, but with our hearts and minds as well? Heard it
with our hearts so as to be fired with love, heard it with our minds so as
constantly to ask ourselves whether our words, our actions, our whole lives are
an expression of love, or are they a denial of our whole faith? Because if our
love is not incarnate in our lives, our faith is nothing but words.
Before we sing the Creed we are invited to remember this: Let us love one
another that with one mind we may acknowledge Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If we
do not love each other attentively, thoughtfully, creatively, sacrificially when
necessary, joyfully, then the words we pronounce about the God in Trinity who is
love, we do not believe, we are only pretending.
Let us face this acute question with all seriousness, for an apostate is not
only the person who denies the existence of God, a heathen is not only the one
who brushes aside Christ as his God and Saviour. We can be the heretics, the
disrupters and tramplers of faith if our lives in no way bear witness that the
God of love has fired our souls with a new love, not of this earth, that He has
taught us to love in a way that cannot be learned in the world, that can only be
learned of God. Let us ask ourselves about this, and answer boldly, joyfully,
not with words, but with living, and that our lives will blossom, then what
Christ promised us will happen, He will bring us life, and life with abundance,
a fullness of life such as the world cannot give. Amen.
