Lent III

Lent III, 2007

The Collect

In the Name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost

As we move deeper into the Lenten season, we are brought into a deeper sense of our own sin. Lent is not a time for celebration, Lent is a time of repentance. Lent takes us down the dark paths of our own sin. And forces us to confront it.

It is at this time that we should be doing the most introspective and contemplative work on our selves.

But this work, is not complete if we try to set out to do it on our own power. We need someone who can hear our prayers. We need someone who can understand our sin and remind us that our sin is forgiven.

The Collect for this morning is the asking for just this kind of help.

We beseech thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of thy humble servants, and stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty, to be our defense against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The collects are read so very early on in the service, and are so brief at times, that we may fail to really and fully grasp what they are saying….what we are truly praying for, or what we are saying “Amen’ to.

As it is with all of the Collects we read in the Prayer Book, they are so masterfully written, that they always seem to know what we should be asking for…and are phrased so beautifully, that we don't dare improve on them.

Two things in this collect stand out. First, we are asking God to look upon our hearty desires and secondly, we are asking God to defend us against all our enemies.

In the original Latin version of this collect, “hearty desires”, or “desires of the heart” were called “vows”. They refer to the vows of our Baptism.

With this little piece of background, if we are to consider the change in words from hearty desires to vows, we could read this collect as asking God to stretch forth His mighty hand to defend us against those things that would cause us to forsake or abandon those vows we took at our baptism.

This changes our understanding of this Collect now, slightly, doesn’t it?

Now, what are the vows we take at baptism? Well, our parents, if we were baptized as infants, or we ourselves, if we were baptized as adults, “vow” to renounce the world the flesh and the Devil.

We also make vows in the positive sense. We vow to keep God’s Holy Commandments and we vow to walk in obedience to Him.

Part of our obedience to our Lord is daily repentance of our sins. The Lenten season calls us to repentance and contemplation in a most serious way.

We tell God of our sins and then we repent of them…then the Minister declares God’s forgiveness of those sins. We should take great care, therefore, to bring to mind all of our daily sins of thought, word, and deed, and then repent of them.

Why are we doing all of this though? Why is this season so necessary?

Wouldn’t it be so much easier to just say to God, we are sorry for our sins and then go on our way?….This might make it easier or more convenient, but would this really help our situation? Or better yet, would this type of behavior be becoming of us as Christians?

The life of the Christian is to be one of imitation….imitation of holiness, which means obedience to Christ.

But the Devil, the one whom we are to be defended from, does not want us to be imitators of our Lord.

Who is our greatest enemy: The Devil. And what is our greatest problem: Sin. And what is the purpose of the Lenten season: To kill our temptation to listen to the Devil and the mortification of sin.

If we are to be true Disciples of Christ, we must turn from both the Devil and from our own sin.

Many times we blame the Devil for the things that we do. “The Devil made me do it” is a well known saying. However, let’s face it, we do a pretty good job at sinning on our own, without his help.

Two weeks ago, we heard in the Gospel what the Devil tried to do to our Lord in the wilderness. After 40 days…and of course, when Jesus was at His weakest point, the Devil appears to Jesus and tries to tempt him.

Jesus’ response to him each time was to directly confront the Devil with the authority of the scriptures.

Each time, “it is written” is Jesus’ response. Jesus confounded the Devil’s plans each time by appealing to what God had written in the scriptures. The second time, the Devil even tries his hand at a little scripture quoting, himself….but of course twisting its meaning.

So one practice we should cultivate in combating the Devil and sin, is having a good working knowledge of the scriptures. We must search the scriptures daily to know what God has written for us to know, then, as Paul says, we must take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Knowing the scriptures is one of God’s ways to keep us protected from the Devil. For in them, we learn of the work of Jesus on the cross and his defeat of sin as well as the Devil and his power.

Last week, in the Gospel, Jesus is approached by a woman of Canaan. Her daughter is demon possessed. More of the devil’s work. He sends a demon to possess a young girl. The woman presses Jesus to exorcise her daughter’s demon. After her great display of faith and perseverance, Jesus grants her what she asks for and the daughter is once again made whole. The Devil is driven out.

So, another step on our way to holiness is to acknowledge our unworthiness and to ask God make us whole again. We must persevere in this. We must persevere in prayer and supplication to God, asking Him to free us from the influences of sin and the assaults of the Devil.

Each time we sin, we must turn to our Lord Christ and ask for forgiveness…..this should be a habit for us. In doing this, we draw nearer to Him.

This week, in the Gospel, Jesus casts out a devil who had stricken a man dumb. Jesus casts out the devil, and the man is set free. He is able to speak again.

Here the devil is driven out but Jesus warns us of indifference. The Devil does not give up on those whom he once had a hold of. If we neglect our duties to Christ, then the Devil can find a way back in. We must not make ourselves vulnerable.

When we do go through times of falling from Grace, we only open ourselves up to the Devil and sin. Therefore, we must take care to ask the Holy Spirit to guard our souls from the Devil’s entry.

This is also accomplished by prayer, but it is only accomplished by the Holy Spirit changing our hearts, and transforming us into new creatures.

After the weight of our sin is brought to our attention over and over during this Lenten season, and the constant fear of the Devil’s influence in our lives looms over us,….after all of this darkness and talk of sin, is there anything positive or uplifting about this time of penance? Is there light at the end of the tunnel? So to speak..

The answer is Yes.

The brief answer is our sins are forgiven in Christ Jesus.

Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, became sin for us, in order that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Our sin was imputed to Jesus on the cross, so we now have the freedom to live as we should. His righteousness is credited to us, so now we have an obligation to follow Him. Our sins have been nailed to the cross, so now we have the confidence that when we ask for our sins to be forgiven, each time, we have the assurance that they are.

The process we now go through is one of Sanctification. Sanctification is the process by which our very thoughts, words and deeds are conformed to those of Christ’s.

Sanctification means “to be set apart.” Or to be “made Holy.” But set apart from what? Set apart from our old man. Set apart from our old ways.

Only through the Holy Spirit, are we made inwardly holy. Only by the Holy Spirit can we please God, and walk in his Holy ways.

Therefore, let us take great care during Lent in particular, to cultivate these habits of Christian virtue.

During Lent, let us make use of the opportunity to grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus by making Bible reading a discipline of ours. Let us read it more often and with greater attention.

Secondly, let us prayerfully consider the depth of our sin, and the total need we have for God and His forgiving love.

Lastly, let us make great advances in our lives to walk worthy to be called Christians. This is our Sanctification. This can only be done by fully grasping the gospel of Jesus Christ, and having it penetrate to the very inner recesses of our hearts.

At 10:00 service, we will sing the hymn: O God, our help in ages past.

This hymn is perfectly chosen because in it we sing,

Under the Shadow of thy throne, Thy saints have dwelt secure;

Sufficient is thine arm alone, and our defense is sure.

Let us pray….