Trinity XII

Let us pray:

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be alway acceptable unto thee, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

From the Epistle: “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” (II Cor. 3:6)

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

(Please be seated.)

Since Our Lord’s time, the Church has had to wrestle with what to do with the Law of Moses.

Jesus was often criticized for violating the Law of Moses: healing on the Sabbath, not requiring his disciples to observe the laws about fasting., and so forth.

On the other hand, Jesus himself said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:17-18)

Peter struggled with what to do with the laws concerning relations with Gentiles.

As an observant Jew, he could not eat with Gentiles or even enter their homes.

If you will recall, it took a direct intervention by God, in the form of a dream, to change his mind.

Of course, Saint Paul struggled mightily with this question.

He was constantly battling those who believed a man had to become a Jew, by circumcision, before he could become a Christian.

Paul took a very dim view of those who sought salvation by keeping the Law.

On the other hand, he wrote: “brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)

Saint Peter echoed this sentiment: “For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.” (1 Peter 2:15-16)

If you are a bit confused by this point, don’t feel bad, Christians been struggling with this issue since the beginning.

The early Church came to reasonable, if partial, resolution on this point.

In Acts 15 we find the account of the so-called Council of Jerusalem.

After long disputation between those who demanded circumcision on the one side, and Peter, Paul, and Barnabas, on the other, James, who apparently was what we would call the Archbishop of Jerusalem, announced the consensus of those present, saying:

“For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.” (Acts 15:28-29)

It is worth noting, James equates the formation of a consensus and the guidance of the Holy Ghost.”

This is a most important point, and one which gives us assurance that what we teach and learn is Spirit-led truth.

“Fornication,” here translates the Greek word, porneia, which means literally illicit sexual behavior of all kinds, and figuratively, idolatry, and may reasonably inferred to be include all violations of the moral aspects of the Law.

In essence, this decision differentiated between moral law and ceremonial law.

The moral law, which is binding on all men, was meant to identify those actions and attitudes which are inherently AZ/ “ sinful and therefore affect our relationship with God.

Of course, as Christians, we must view the Old Testament moral law through the lens of Jesus’ Summary of the Law, with the Law of Love the guiding principle for interpreting the Old Testament moral law.

For instance, Jesus once said, “I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Matthew 5:28)

The ceremonial law, (circumcision, dietary laws, laws of clean and unclean, and so forth,) was intended to make the Jews different, and hence keep them separate from their neighbors.

Paul argues the need for this separation has passed with the coming of the Kingdom, when he writes: “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.” (Colossians 3:11)

If the Church had left things as the Council of Jerusalem had decided them, with the Jewish Ceremonial code no longer in effect, but the moral law still binding, we would have had a most reasonable guide for Christian Conduct.

Unfortunately, human beings can never leave well enough alone.

We have a perverse desire to “improve” on what God has said (think about Eve who “improved” on God’s command not to eat of the tree by adding “or even touching it.”)

The decision of the Council of Jerusalem represents Jesus’ “strait and narrow path,” but it has proved very easy to fall off on one side or the other.

On the one hand, it is easy to fall of the path by relaxing or even ignoring the moral law.

The “Gnostics” went that way; they believed that the only thing which mattered was spiritual enlightenment, hence what we do with our bodies is irrelevant and the moral law was thus null and void.

(Their modern-day successors continue in this error, which is known as “antinomianism,” or more simply, “lawlessness.”)

Paul warned against this kind of error when he wrote: “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” (Romans 6:15)

On the other side, it is so easy to fall off the side of imposing some sort of ceremonial law on men.

This is known as “legalism.”

It is easy to see how this could happen.

To take one example, we consider Lenten disciplines.

Someone, somewhere, offered some good suggestions about keeping a Holy Lent.

Many people looked upon them approvingly and therefore adopted them.

So far, so good.

But then, in the normal human way of things, those suggestions turned into norms, and then the norms into laws.

It became a sin to eat meat, or even eggs in some places, in Lent, or even engage in marital relations, etc.

What is worse is in the past, Church and State were essentially two arms of the same entity.

What started out as some good suggestions became civil law with, in some cases, very harsh penalties; some people were tortured to death for eating a sausage in Lent!

What is worse these crazy laws were imposed on all people, whether they were believers, or not.

Another rather goofy example is clerical celibacy.

There is no Biblical warrant for it, and indeed in the Eastern Church married men (other than their bishops) have always been free to be ordained

Doubtless, somebody, somewhere had the idea celibate clergy had more time to devote to their flocks, which became a custom, and then a law, then a civil law you could be killed for violating, despite the fact many of the clergy had so-called “housekeepers,” who were often really concubines.

To be fair, on the Protestant side, we have teetotalism.

Once again, there is no Biblical warrant for it, indeed the Psalmist praises God for bringing forth “wine that maketh glad the heart of man.” (Psalm 104:15)

Someone, somewhere, noticed there were a lot of alcoholics, who often did bad things when they were drunk, so they suggested folks abstain from beverage alcohol, which became a norm, and then a law, at least in some sects.

Of course, this finally got tied up with the civil law, leading to Prohibition, which was a disaster for normal people and a boon to organized crime.

I have a bit of a catch in my spirit when I pray for “All Christian Rulers, “We beseech thee also, so to direct and dispose the hearts of all Christian Rulers, that they may truly and impartially administer justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of thy true religion, and virtue.”

If the prayer pertains to moral law, this is commendable; however, if it encompasses the type of legalism previously discussed, it raises significant concerns.

This leaves the obvious question of how we avoid falling off the good path?

What is ceremonial law? And what is moral Law?

Sometimes this is obvious; if you eat a burger in Lent, you aren’t going to Hell.

Of course, if you have made a vow to God not to eat burgers in Lent, that is another matter; you need to figure out how it happened, confess it to God, and ask forgiveness and strength to do better.

On the other hand, there are times when we should at least outwardly conform to some ceremonial laws out of love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

If I am having lunch with a brother who is observing a meatless Lent, out of love, I really shouldn’t tempt him by ordering a great big juicy delicious hamburger.

In the final analysis, this all really comes back to the Law of Love, which we must always observe: “THOU shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

We can never do anything immoral out of a proper love for God and our neighbor, so that’s covered.

Keep whatever parts of the ceremonial laws you feel called by God to observe, fast or don’t fast, drink or don’t drink, in love keeping in mind the conscience of your brother but never judge a brother for his having made different choices, and above all, never, ever try to impose your choices on him.

For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

Amen.

And now we ascribe unto Thee, O Lord, all might, majesty, power, and dominion, both now and forever. Amen.