2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1 • Luke 7:11-16
Glory to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
This morning the Lord Jesus Christ raises up from the dead the only son of a widow.
The miracles of Christ are not spectacles to dazzle the crowds. What they are is signposts pointing out that the Kingdom of Heaven, the very presence of God, has broken in among the kingdoms of the earth.
And how is the Kingdom of Heaven manifest here? What do we see about it here?
A widow is without the financial support and protection of a husband. Now, with the death of her only son she is deprived of any financial support and protection. She has nobody at all. There’s no safety net. There is no insurance. She faces starvation or exploitation.
The Lord, seeing this woman, whom he made in his own image, has compassion on her and restores her son to her, so that she receives what she needs. To her son he restores the life he was meant for.
In scripture, Solomon says,
God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things that they might exist, and the generations of the world so they might be preserved. (Wisdom 1:13-15).
Here is how the Kingdom of Heaven is manifest here this morning. God the Word, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, calls this young man back from death to life. And we read that “great fear came upon all.” Why fear? Because this is something only God can do, and here he is among them as a Man. They exclaim, “God has visited His people!”
God has visited His people. Okay, now what? The curse of death has been undone right before our eyes. Okay! Now what?
Well, after church today, we’ll have some lunch, maybe a nap, and probably spend a little time scrolling Facebook or watching the TV. Then back to work or school on Monday, where we will forget that we ever had an encounter with the living God.
Does any of that sound familiar? Why even bring it up? Because it is possible to witness the resurrection power of Christ our God and to do nothing about it. To be unchanged by it.
The Kingdom of Heaven is manifest to you, precisely so that you may repent, so you might change the direction of your life, so you might stop existing in the same sad status quo, so that you might live up to your purpose.
In a few minutes we’ll sing, “Let us who mystically represent the cherubim, and sing the thrice-holy hymn to the life-creating Trinity, now lay aside all earthly cares, and receive the King of All, who comes invisibly upborne by the angelic hosts.”
And then we will receive into our own bodies the living, resurrected, deified body of Christ the resurrected God-man, for the remission of our sins and unto life everlasting.
The Kingdom of Heaven is come for you today. Today the Lord wants to get your attention and offer you hope. Don’t settle for life as usual. Don’t settle for what you are now.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things are made new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
We already know from experience that settling for the familiar is the way of regret. And yet, we stay where we are.
You know, not one of us here today wants to experience change. We want to be different, but we hate change. Change is hard. And that’s normal. But if we’re going to live in the Kingdom of Heaven, in this life and in the life to come, then change is coming. All things are made new.
And every change is a little death. What we were ends, and someone a little different carries on. “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him… It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me…” (Romans 6:8; Galatians 2:20).
In the lives of the saints we keep encountering these amazing warriors of faith, who did miracles, endured torments, and were made holy by the wonderworking grace of God. And when we read that, it is meant to move the needle just a bit on what we believe God can do here and now in us. I’m not raising the dead, I’m not converting the nations, I’m not praying all night. But I probably could be praying just one prayer rope before bed.
But where the examples of the saints and heroes of faith are meant to kindle in us a spark of hope and expectation that God wants to transform us, instead we often just feel sad and failed.
You know, the spirit of discouragement and distraction is not a minor thing. It is an attack, it’s an assault by the enemy of your soul. He is gambling that he can make you feel so sad or mediocre or guilty that you’ll shrug and give up on becoming holy.
But when we recognize to the demonic attacks of distraction, discouragement, despair, despondency, we are meant to respond with aggression: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12).
So, when you find yourself distant from any sense of awe and fear of God, don’t surrender and say “I really ought to do better.”
Instead, zoom in. Consciously, intentionally focus your attention on the fact of the living God who is beside you and in you, closer than your breath. “God has visited his people.” He’s raised the widow’s son from death to life. Can he awaken your cold soul and bring you to your feet to walk the way with him?
You know, the Lord sends you a sunrise every morning, and an evening at the end of every day, because we are creatures of rhythm. What we only ever do one time doesn’t have much effect on our life.
The apostle teaches us, “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:18), and “Pray at all times” (Ephesians 6:16). But to pray at all times, we need to pray at some particular time.
If you’ve been keeping track, you know I talk a lot about fasting, almsgiving, and daily prayer. That’s not because these are the goal or substance of life in Christ; it’s because these are weapons, they are tools, they are tactics in our spiritual warfare.
In ancient times, if you wanted to conquer a city, you’d send soldiers to storm the gates. You’d also send marines, the fighters who arrive by boat in the harbor, to take the city from within. And you’d send sappers, who dig under the walls to bring them down. All three methods, together, accomplish your goal of winning the city.
The Church’s experience is that fasting, prayer, and giving to the poor are methods proven to work in our struggle to uproot the sins and compulsions that entangle us, and to grow into the likeness of Christ. The goal is to be united to Christ in our present experience, in purity, mercy, peace-making, and all the other beatitudes we just sang about. If that’s who we want to be, then prayer, fasting, and serving are among the best tools and weapons we have to get us there.
Are you tired of fighting a defensive battle? Like an isolated fort under continuous attack by a powerful enemy. It’s time to take tbe battle to the enemy. To go on the offensive and take up arms against tbe enemy. The Kingdom suffers violence and the violent take it by force. Christ has planted his Church here, and the gates of hell will not stand against it.
* * *
Why are we called disciples? Because we have accepted a discipline.
“When we carry out our ‘religious duties,’ we are like people digging channels in a waterless land, in order that when at last the water comes, it may find them ready” (C.S. Lewis, in Reflections on the Psalms).
“Discipline is the channel in which our acts run srong and deep; where there is no direction, the deeds of men run shallow and wander and are wasted” (Ursula Le Guin, in The Farthest Shore).
Does your heart agree that you need a changed? Then I want to ask you to do something. I want to ask you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer, at least briefly, every single day. Spend just a little time with him.
Pour your heart out to him; he is listening. He cares about you and does not miss a thing you do, not a thought or a tear or a sigh.
Cry out to him every day. In the morning, in the evening, cry out to him, and don’t miss it.
You were made for Christ. You were made for the Kingdom of Heaven. You were made to walk with the Lord in the cool of the day in Paradise. Don’t settle for anything less. The smallest daily prayer: Start with this. Dedicate yourself to this as your strength allows, and see if things don’t change.
You remember when the Lord visited his friends in Bethany, Martha was busy cleaning, cooking, making everything ready, while her sister Mary simply sat at Jesus’s feet hearing what he said. And the Lord says, “Only one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” What you gain at the feet of Jesus will not be taken away.
Saint Luke the Surgeon wrote, “Make your heart a monastery. There sound the semantron [bell], there call your vigil, cense and whisper ceaseless prayers. God is next to you!”
Elder Porphyrios was a monk from Mount Athos who served for decades in Athens, and reposed in 1991. Elder Sophrony was a disciple of Saint Silouan who founded the monastery in Essex, England, and reposed in 1993. These are people of our own time, our contemporaries, who have just recently been added to the calendar of saints.
Saint Porphyrios once wrote to Saint Sophrony:
A certain person told me that you would like to have us meet; that you’ve invited me to come to England and if I cannot go there, you will come to Greece.
Since it is impossible for me to come, and I do not wish you to go to the great trouble of travelling here, and since Christians cannot be separated by distances, we could meet one another in prayer by saying, ‘Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me,’ on Sunday, 31st August, 1980, from 12:00 to 12:30 after midnight…
People at the monastery in Athens remember that Elder Porphyrios had asked them not to disturb him at a certain hour because he regularly had a spiritual meeting in prayer with Elder Sophrony. (Elder Porphyrios: Testimonies and Experiences, 2nd edition).
I have an alarm on my phone that goes off at 9 pm, when I’ve finished dinner, done with chores, and I’m probably reading a book. Now is when I have some time to light a candle, stand before the Lord, and spend a little time on just one thing.
Do you have a few minutes at 9:00 in the evening? Can you set a daily alarm to light your lamp, pick up your prayer rope, or your Psalter, or your prayer book – and join me? We can pray together from wherever we are.
Is 9:00 not a good time for you? Pick a time, day or night, and make that your time to begin. The Spirit of God is everywhere present and fills all things and every hour; come meet him.
This is not an obedience – it’s just an invitation. Let’s meet in prayer.
In fact, let’s put a time frame on it. Let’s try this for three months. Three months, see what happens. You won’t walk away from it unchanged. Our Lord who loves you and made you for his Kingdom, is calling. Answer the call and keep answering the call.
And when you fail to answer it? Make the sign of the cross and get up. If you fell off your bike as a child and scraped your knee, you got back on it the next day. In the end you weren’t the kid who fell off their bike; you were the one who learned how to ride.
Grace is God’s job. Our part is simply to be present. We just show up. So we come to the feet of Jesus. And what we receive there will not be taken away.
To the glory of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
