In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory to
the Father. We heard the words of the gospel,
and let's determine in our hearts that we will
hear these words with joy. And the last words
that we heard were, Be merciful as your Father
is merciful. Now my voice comes and goes. Please
excuse that. It'll go and come back. These words
are from the sixth chapter of Luke, and they
really parallel what's in the Sermon on the Mount,
also in Matthew. In Matthew, we heard this, it
was in June, and it's a familiar verses. The
Lord says, therefore do not worry, saying, what
shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what
shall we wear? For all these things your Heavenly
Father knows that you need. But seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all
these things shall be added to you. We know that
the Lord has given us talents. Each one of us
has gifts and competencies and abilities, and
we are given these talents to use. and we use
these if we seek first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness, and we use our talents, then
God grants the increase. And this is how he makes
sure that we have what we need. I was in a parish
once in a farming community, and this farmer
was telling me, he was a rancher, That he had
just bought, right before I got there, a $3 ,000
bull. And lightning struck it and killed it.
He was out $3 ,000. And he just prayed to God.
He said, Lord, I'm trying to do the best I can.
This is in your hands. You're going to have to
make it work. I'll do my part. You are just going
to have to. Grant the increase. And he says,
I have everything I need. My farm has paid off.
I have a good job. I do the day. I got some cattle.
I'm not as rich as I sometimes imagine I would
like to be. But I don't lack for anything. And
then he's just reminding himself to continue
to do what he does. And God grants the increase.
So the Lord says, seek first the kingdom of God.
He was telling me that's what he's doing. And
his righteousness, in which he understood that
whatever God has given me, if I use it rightly,
I'm seeking God's righteousness, and God grants
the increase. In Matthew, and then again, in
the verses that follow this verse, and we didn't
read them today, the Lord says, judge not. and
you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you
shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will
be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you.
Good measure, pressed down, shaken together,
running over, will be put into your bosom. For
with the same measure that you use, it will be
measured back to you. So this is... our practice
in which we seek first the kingdom of God and
we seek his righteousness through us. And what
does he ask us to do? This is the end of the
sermon. It's the end of the gospel text that
we heard today. It's the end of the sermon as
well. He says, therefore be merciful just as
your Father also is merciful. We are blessed
in this parish to be surrounded with brothers
and sisters who take these gospel words seriously,
who do seek the kingdom of God, who do seek his
righteousness, who are merciful, who do bless
us. And in this context in which we receive Can
we even keep up? Can we give our part, however
big or little that may be? But the bigger question
for us is can we do it beyond this parish where
we don't have the continuous reinforcement? Because
we are blessed here. And we are blessed for a
purpose that we carry this blessing in us and
carry it in the way that we are in the world.
If any rector of any experience has heard people
say, Father, I think the parish needs to do this,
some service project, or this, some activist
need, they typically are saying something that
they need to do, and they want the parish to
do it. But it's something that God is putting
in their heart, that they need to do, not everyone
else. So this is what we seek. We seek to do,
we seek the kingdom of God and to do his righteousness
and to be merciful one to another. So that's
the task that's within our power. The last judgment,
this was the encouraging news. When he said,
I was hungry and you fed me, he didn't say, and
you solved world hunger. You just did what was
in your power to do. And it's in our power to
be merciful one to another and to give thanks
to God for all things. Glory to Jesus Christ.