Trinity VII Fr. Forrest Burgett
Trinity Anglican Church Given 07/18/10
“For as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.” (Romans vi. 19.)
Our Old Testament lesson ties nicely into our text today. Hosea 14 starts with, “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.” It ends with, “For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein.” Hosea is writing in the 8th century B.C. The Jews were suffering the consequences of having their nation divided into Israel and Judah. The country has been guilty of what the King James Bible calls backsliding. It is an unfortunate description. It suggests they accidentally slipped in their purposeful efforts to follow God’s Law. In fact, the sins of which Israel had been guilty were not slips at all. They were a willful turning away from true service to God and toward the worship of Baal.
This may appear to be merely interesting history, but the first part of our text describes exactly what they did. They yielded their members servants to Baal and uncleanness. They allowed the culture around them to divert their worship of God and turn it into social practices dedicated to a false god with less stringent requirements. Hosea cries for them to return to the Lord their God and assures them that the ways of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them. This is not a statement, taken out of context, from some obscure corner of our bible. This statement is clearly part of the history of the Jews and verified by writings outside our Bible.
In spite of the history lesson, thoughts, such as those expressed by Hosea, are no more popular today than they were then. The emphasis today is on personal choice. Have you ever heard someone say, If God didn’t want us to use “free will” he wouldn’t have given it to us? There is no problem with exercising “free will”. God gave it to us when we were created in his image and we should use it. That does not mean we should use it unwisely. Cars have bumpers but it is still not a good idea to knock down the oak in the front yard with your new sports car. Like all of God’s gifts, we are to use them wisely and that means according to God’s established order.
Any action in contradiction to God’s established order is considered a sin. When we accept this world as God’s creation, we must also accept the moral code explained and revealed in his revelations to mankind. We may understand that moral code imperfectly, but we cannot change it. Outside of church, we don’t hear much about sin today. It implies a failure none of us want to admit. As a result, we don’t talk about it and we certainly don’t admit it. Instead we talk of “poor choices”. We like to imply that “poor choices” do not have the consequences of “sin”. But these “poor choices” is exactly what Hosea was talking about. These poor choices are not simply backsliding and accidently missing the mark. These poor choices are purposefully aimed in another direction and that is the point Hosea was making.
St. Paul makes the same point in our Epistle today and he is as direct as Hosea. Like Hosea, he talks about iniquity instead of sin but the difference does not buy us any wiggle room. Iniquity is simply a lack of righteousness. It is the failure to act justly, upright, virtuous and morally right. According to Hosea in our Old Testament lesson and St. Paul in our text today, righteousness leads us unto holiness. Righteousness does not allow us to wander aimlessly in the wilderness. The more we act justly, upright, virtuous and morally right, the more we appreciate and desire the order and goodness in God’s creation. Righteousness is extremely focused. It leads us to set aside our lives and dedicate our efforts to God’s purpose.
Individually, we are asked to dedicate every facet of our lives to righteousness to the point of holiness. That does not sound much like the personal choices we are all accustomed to making and that is precisely the point. The choices we make today determine where we are headed. Righteousness leads to holiness. Iniquity leads to iniquity.
When we emphasize righteousness and disdain iniquity, it is easy to think we are earning our salvation. That is not the message of Hosea – nor of Paul. We can never earn salvation. That is beyond the capabilities of mortal man. We lack the ability to save our selves but we are capable of guaranteeing eternal damnation if we continue to pit our will against God’s.
Take a close look at our world. The complexity, beauty and order in God’s creation remind us that this world is not the result of a freakish accident of chaos. It is designed. It has purpose and intent. It should be used as designed and in accordance with its purpose and intent. We must understand God’s purpose and intent if we are to live righteously in his world.
Paul and Hosea are giving us the same message. Yes we have God-given “free will” and we are not only allowed – we are required - to make choices in our lives. The consequences of those choices are not free. The people in Israel and Judah did not immediately decide to turn from God and take the easier path to Baal. It was not a single decision. It was a whole series of small, seemingly insignificant, decisions. Each one appeared to be innocuous when considered alone but led them farther from God. Hosea and Paul are telling us that if a decision isn’t leading to righteousness, it is leading to a lack thereof. We can ask ourselves, “What is the motivation for this particular decision?” If the answer is “convenience”, we should beware. If the answer is “everyone is doing it”, we are standing on the slippery slope.
Is righteousness and iniquity really involved in every decision we make? We recognize the order in God’s creation. We recognize purpose and intent although we do so imperfectly. That demands that we deal with each other and, with everything in His created world ethically. That is we must act justly, upright, virtuous and morally right in everything we do. To do otherwise is disobedience. To do otherwise dishonors God’s creation. The improper usage of the things God made is never morally right.
Hosea preached that people had become servants unto Baal and would be forsaken by God for their iniquity. Paul begged people to turn from their slavery to iniquity and yield their members servants to righteousness unto holiness. We need the same call today today. Our lives cannot be predicated exclusively on the desires and enjoyments of man. They must be based on service to God and that is the only criteria by which our efforts will be measured. We are either working towards God’s will or we are working away from it.
As we work together to spread God’s word and Christ’s example, we must encourage and comfort each other when we inevitably turn from the path of righteousness. We must not allow each other to follow iniquity unto iniquity. We must help each other return to the path of righteousness when we inevitably stray. That is the pattern shown by the endless mercy of Jesus Christ. If we are to be righteous, if we are to be holy, we must surrender to God, His Will and His created order. Only in this way can we have the mind of Christ. Only in this way can we give ourselves as fruitful servants to our Lord and Savior.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. (St. Matthew vi. 19,20)