O GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant, that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Today is the Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, and we are reminded by the Church in our collect of the importance of our dependence on God - for we are not able to please Him without the gift of his grace and lovingkindness. We are reminded in this prayer that is intended to distill the Church’s teaching on the Gospel and the Epistle that we need more than our own efforts. Our being well-pleasing to God is a gift from Him. Our righteousness is, as the prophet Isaiah states, “as filthy rags”. St. Paul, in the Epistle, describes the Ephesians’ state before God’s work in their hearts through Jesus Christ.
As I have said on a few occasions, one’s actions are an indication of one's character - it is not necessarily propositions; one may be orthodox in belief formally but walk, that is, behave in action, contrary to one’s profession. St. Paul mentions the traits of “other Gentiles” which the Ephesians must avoid. If we put these expressions together - St. Paul, here, is depicting a downward path of evil which begins with obstinacy toward God. Blindness or hardness of heart leads to a spiritual ignorance, followed by a darkening of their understanding, then these factors confirm an alienation from the life of God. The course of mankind in this paradigm, without God’s intervention, goes from bad to worse, whereby alienation from God leads to callousness whereby they are eager to practice and live in all sorts of sinful behaviors - so contrary to God’s design and will.
So, the trajectory of man left to himself can be summarized as John Stott so aptly describes in this way: “hardness of heart leads first to darkness of mind, then to deadness of soul under the judgment of God and finally to recklessness of life.”
The second part of the collect prays that the Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts. Beloved, we are reminded of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Christian. The third person of the Holy Trinity - present in Israel in the pillar and the cloud, present in Israel’s worship in the Tabernacle and Temple, the third person of the Trinity who moved the Prophets to teach the people of God, animated prophets, priests, and kings, is now the inheritance of every follower of Jesus. Our collect speaks to the reign of the Holy Spirit in our lives - directing and ruling, expressing dominion over the life of the Christian.
St. Paul, in the middle of the Epistle, describes what the direction and rule of the Holy Spirit looks like. For St. Paul says they had put off the old man and put on the new. They had turned, repented, from their old ways of rebellion and embraced a new life in Jesus Christ through faith. They had been converted and were now in the process of being recreated. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, for he directs men and women to Jesus and moves them to turn from their sins. The Holy Spirit is also active in the day-to-day life of the Christian as the Christian is conformed ever so gradually into the likeness of Christ.
Notice here what St. Paul commends to them. Here, St. Paul says they are to speak truthfully one to another. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth; while the devil is called the father of lies. The Ephesians here are also instructed not to give place to the devil by allowing anger to control them.
Even when angry for all the right reasons, righteous anger at true injustice like that which characterized our Lord, it must not be allowed to linger. The Ephesians are reminded here that they are to behave in contrast to the devil, who steals, kills and destroys mankind. The Ephesians, who may have stolen in the past, should work to earn a living so as to be generous toward those who are in need. Satan would have us abuse others with our words; while the Lord would have us use words in a way that honors him. Taking every opportunity to pronounce blessing on one another, speaking kindness rather than criticism.
St. Paul also warns the Ephesians of the grave offense of “grieving of the Holy Spirit.” In other parts of the New Testament there are some similar instructions. In I Thessalonians 5, St. Paul warns them not to quench the Spirit. St. Luke in Acts 7 speaks of “resisting the Holy Spirit.” But our Epistle is the only instance in the New Testament that uses the language of grieving the Holy Spirit. Commentators connect this instruction in our Epistle to Isaiah 63:10, where we read of the Israelites grieving the Spirit when they resist God’s purposes for them. Grieving the Holy Spirit, in a corporate sense, is to resist what God intends to do in and through his people.
Using the framework of resisting God’s purposes is helpful as we see the common thread between the instructions not to grieve the Holy Spirit and a definitive illustration of grieving the Holy Spirit - God’s people resist God’s purposes for them in the miracle on the Sabbath in our Gospel. St. Matthew tells a story of a group of friends who brought unto Jesus a man who was sick of the palsy - that is, he was paralyzed. He had to be brought to Jesus because the sick man was completely unable to do anything for himself. This is a picture of our own spiritual condition, of which our collect speaks in the first sentence.
Jesus sees their faith - the commitment of the friends to bring the man to Jesus, the paralyzed is brought in agreement with their advocacy - and he tells the man to be of good cheer, for his sins are forgiven.
They come seeking one thing from Jesus - physical healing, and then receive a declaration of the forgiveness of sins. It may have perplexed them for a few moments, but they had little time to consider it, as we have a scene of the internal dialogue in which the Pharisees, our text tells us, say within themselves, this man blasphemeth. They acknowledged rightly that only God could forgive sins but they discerned wrongly - and by this they grieved the Holy Spirit - erring in their conviction that Jesus of Nazareth was not God Incarnate. Jesus knew their thoughts - he said - why do you think evil in your hearts? What is easier to say - “arise and walk or your sins be forgiven”? For man, they are both just as easy to say; for God, they are both just as easy to do.
Jesus proves that his words as a man can accomplish only that which God can do, and he condescends to let them see the physical restoration of the man. We read that Jesus tells the man to get up, take up the bed, and go home. In such a matter-of-fact tone, we read that the man got up and went home in obedience to Jesus. Notice the response of the multitudes in the final sentence in the Gospel - they “saw it, they marvelled and glorified God, who had given such power unto men.” Perhaps they recognized in Jesus the beginning of God’s kingdom on earth; the kingdom of David’s Son, the Son of Man, who would save his people from their sins. Some of the earliest commentators, like Jerome and Hilary, saw in the phrase “such power unto men.” as the Authority that the church claimed in Jesus name as alluded to in Matthew Chapter 16 and 18. The power given to the Apostles to bind and to loose - to declare forgiveness of sins to the penitent in the Church.
So on the Sabbath, the day of true rest and restoration, a man receives forgiveness of sins and the healing of his body. His friends received encouragement that God hears their prayers and responds to their faith, acknowledging that faith is God’s gift anyway. The multitudes celebrate, on the Sabbath, indeed, glorify God that the Lord has given such power to forgive sins, to heal illness unto the Son of Man, Jesus Christ. The only ones who did not receive God’s intended rest were those folks who were seeking to find fault with what Jesus was doing. They were seeking to divide God’s people; they were eager for the sinners to get their due. Always showing more mercy for their animals, more eager to protect their property than for God to heal and transform people on the great day of rest. This is an illustration of the grieving of the Holy Spirit.
In our Epistle, St. Paul follows up the commandment not to grieve the Holy Spirit with negative and positive commandments related to proper behavior of God’s redeemed people.
Brothers and sisters, we should notice the very personal language - one does not grieve a thing; one grieves a person. We can’t expect God’s blessing when we disregard the person of the Holy Spirit. St. Paul tells us that we should avoid all things that divide and injure the Body of Christ, the Church. Jesus Christ the Ascended Head is at the right hand of the Father. His body, through His innumerable members, remains here on earth. Notice the sins to be avoided and the virtues to be embraced are concerned with the unity of the Church and sustaining Her mission, primarily with either facilitating the health of the Body or undercutting her vitality. We are to practice loving truthfulness rather than falsehood; we are to be generous rather than stealing.
Our language should encourage the faith of others rather than be full of all the corrosive words that characterize this fallen world. Indeed, all our actions should build up the Body of Christ into what God intends. So, brothers and sisters, let us weigh our thoughts, our words, our actions by the commandment to not grieve the Spirit, and let us, instead, submit to the righteous rule of Our Lord so that His “Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts.” Amen.
