Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

This guide is drawn from the Scriptures the Church appoints for the day.

Opening Prayer

ALMIGHTY God, who declarest thy power chiefly in showing mercy, open now our ears and our hearts as we come to thy holy Word. Grant that we may not read as men who have already understood, but as those who wait upon thee to teach us. Take from us every thought that would set us up as judges of our neighbor, and give us instead the plain honesty that asks for grace. Let thy Holy Spirit be our interpreter, that what we hear this day may be laid up in us and bear fruit in a quiet and obedient life. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Texts Before Us

We stand in the long green season after Trinity, when the Church walks slowly through the ordinary business of being saved. The readings this Sunday all move in one direction, and it is downward before it is upward. A people confesses that everything good in them was worked by another. A nation remembers that it was not its own strength that kept it from drowning. An apostle names himself the least of his order. A man in the temple will not lift up his eyes. In each of them the ground gives way, and mercy is found underneath. Come to these texts prepared to be lowered before you are lifted.

Reading and Reflection

Old Testament Lesson · Isa. 26:12-16, 19

12 Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. 13 O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. 14 They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. 15 Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. 16 Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

Isaiah prays in the middle of a nation’s trouble, and the first thing he says about peace is that God ordains it. Then comes the astonishing clause, that God has wrought all our works in us. Israel’s obedience is not offered as a claim upon God; it is confessed as God’s own doing. The prophet also admits that his people sought the Lord chiefly when the chastening was upon them, which is an honest thing for a nation to say aloud. And at the end the promise runs straight past the grave, where dust is told to awake and sing.

1. Isaiah confesses that God has wrought all our works in us. What does that confession do to the way we ordinarily speak about our own faithfulness?
2. The prophet grants that his people poured out prayer under chastening. Where have you seen affliction accomplish what comfort could not?

The Psalm · Psalm 124; 125

IF the Lord himself had not been on our side, now may Israel say; * if the Lord himself had not been on our side, when men rose up against us; 2 They had swallowed us up alive; * when they were so wrathfully displeased at us. 3 Yea, the waters had drowned us, * and the stream had gone over our soul. 4 The deep waters of the proud * had gone even over our soul. 5 But praised be the Lord, * who hath not given us over for a prey unto their teeth. 6 Our soul is escaped even as a bird out of the snare of the fowler; * the snare is broken, and we are delivered. 7 Our help standeth in the Name of the Lord, * who hath made heaven and earth. THEY that put their trust in the Lord shall be even as the mount Sion, * which may not be removed, but standeth fast for ever. 2 The hills stand about Jerusalem; * even so standeth the Lord round about his people, from this time forth for evermore. 3 For the sceptre of the ungodly shall not abide upon the lot of the righteous; * lest the righteous put their hand unto wickedness. 4 Do well, O Lord, * unto those that are good and true of heart. 5 As for such as turn back unto their own wickedness, * the Lord shall lead them forth with the evil doers; but peace shall be upon Israel.

These two psalms were sung by pilgrims climbing toward Jerusalem, and they carry the memory of a near disaster. The first is all water: floods, streams, deep waters gone over the soul. Israel does not say that it swam well. It says the snare was broken. The second psalm turns from the escape to the settled ground, the mount that may not be removed, the hills standing about the city as the Lord stands about his people. Deliverance remembered becomes stability trusted, and the help stands in the Name of the Lord.

1. The psalmist says the snare is broken and we are delivered, rather than that Israel escaped by its own quickness. What difference does that wording make to the way a congregation gives thanks?
2. The second psalm points to the hills around Jerusalem, something a pilgrim could see with his own eyes. What visible or ordinary thing has served you that way?

Epistle · 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

MOREOVER, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

Paul is handing on something he did not invent. The words delivered and received are the language of a chain: Christ died for our sins, was buried, rose the third day, and was seen. The gospel is news before it is teaching, and it arrives with witnesses whom the Corinthians could still go and question. Then Paul turns to himself, and the man who persecuted the Church can account for his standing on no other ground than grace. He labored more than all the rest, and in the same breath says that it was not he.

1. Paul lists the witnesses by name and notes that most of them were still living. Why might he think that detail belonged inside the gospel itself?
2. Paul says he labored more than all the rest, and then says it was not he. How do those two statements sit together without one canceling the other?

Gospel · St. Luke 18:9-14

AND he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

Luke tells us at the outset for whom the parable is meant, and it is not meant for scoundrels. It is for those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. The Pharisee’s inventory is accurate. He does fast, he does tithe, and he truly is not an extortioner. What ruins the prayer is the comparison lodged inside it, for he prays with himself. The publican brings no record and asks for the one thing no record can secure. He goes home justified, which is a verdict spoken over a man, not a total he has reached.

1. Our Lord grants that the Pharisee’s list is true. What, then, has gone wrong in that prayer?
2. The publican is declared justified before he has amended anything. What does that ordering protect in the Christian life?

Connecting the Texts

Set side by side, these four say one thing from four directions: the good in us was put there, and the standing we have was given. Isaiah confesses it of Israel’s works. The psalms confess it of Israel’s survival. Paul confesses it of an apostle’s labors. Our Lord shows it in a man who has nothing to bring but his sin. The Collect gathers them all when it says that God declares his almighty power chiefly in showing mercy, and then asks for such a measure of grace that we may run the way of his commandments. The running is real. It follows the verdict and never buys it.

For the Coming Week

One might take the publican’s prayer exactly as it stands, God be merciful to me a sinner, and say it slowly at some fixed hour of the day, adding nothing to it. Consider also keeping a quiet watch over the comparisons that rise in the mind when we look at other people, not in order to scold ourselves for them, but simply to notice how readily they come and how little they are asked for. And there is an old practice of praying the Collect of the day every morning until Saturday, which lets one sentence do its work slowly. This week’s Collect asks for a measure of grace sufficient for the running, which is a modest and honest thing to want.

Closing Prayer

O GOD of all mercy, we thank thee for the Word we have heard together, and for the patience thou hast shown in teaching us. Grant that what has been opened to us in this hour may not be left behind in this room, but may go with us into the week and shape the way we deal with one another. Keep us from every proud comparison, and number us among those who ask simply for thy mercy and receive it. Preserve us in thy peace until we are gathered again. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen.