PRIVILEGE & RESPONSIBILITY

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON SEPTEMBER 3, 2006

Deut 4:7 "For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?

I have been asking what Labor Day means to people. Some said the end of summer. Others said workers rights. Many years ago unions won both in this country and other nations, the right for workers to only work eight hours a day.

How ironical now, it seems, when so much of our leisure time is filled with activity, and when many people have to work hours of overtime to afford our modern lifestyle.

When we think of worker's rights, it seems that these days everybody has rights, especially all sorts of minorities. And often rights without responsibility.

Rights without responsibility.

A good thing about living in San Diego - a city with a military presence - is that we who live here can understand that rights do involve responsibilities. We know that the privilege of living in a free democracy means vigilance, and that we all have responsibilities as citizens. There is no such thing as a free democracy without vigilance and responsibilities.

In a way this is the point that Jesus is making in the gospel today. The privilege of being God's people has its responsibilities. The dispute between Our Lord and the Pharisees concerning traditions leads to Jesus' accusation that they were hypocrites. That is: the keeping of the intricacies of the law and its traditions had overshadowed the spirit of the law. It is a charge that all Christians need to heed. Those of us who value liturgy particularly. Because with Anglo Catholics sometimes the detail of liturgy is more important than other things.

In the context of our readings today there is a deeper concern. This is revealed in Deuteronomy 4:1-9. Here we see Moses laying down the law and the people were to hold fast to the law. It was part of the deal that came from the Exodus: God had freed them from slavery, he blessed them and gave them the Promised Land. They were his people. This was a privilege not accorded to any other nation. In return all they had to do was to keep the law. The law which bound them to God and his life. As Moses said: "what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?"

And we are God’s people of the new covenant. Don't we know it to be true for ourselves - that the Lord is near to us whenever we call upon him?

It is a wonderful text. And it is also a marvelous post script to John 6, which we have been hearing over the last month in our Sunday gospel readings.

For these words of Moses were taken up by that pre-eminent theologian of the Eucharist, St. Thomas Aquinas, in his reflections for the feast of Corpus Christi.

St. Thomas Aquinas showed how we Christians of the New Covenant can apply the words of Moses even more joyfully than Israel did. St. Thomas Aquinas showed how for the church this declaration of Moses has a new depth of meaning.

For what great nation is there that has its God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us.

Moses declared to the people that if they kept the law they would live. In John 6 Jesus says that in the Eucharist we not only encounter his life, but by it we live forever. God now dwells with his people through the Eucharist. Thus he puts himself into our hands and into our hearts where the Lord is meant to reside.

What great nation is there that has a God so near to it?

Even in the tabernacle on the High Altar. He is there - and we always know where we can find him. He is there waiting for us……whenever we call upon him. Deut 4:7 reminds us that the God, whom we know is waiting for us in the great mystery we call the Blessed Sacrament, the most holy sacrament. What great nation is there indeed!

The accusation of hypocrisy that is often leveled at Christians must never prevent us from seeing the privilege of being Christians has obligations and responsibilities. For Anglo- Catholics this is primarily the Eucharist - which is our responsibility and obligation, as well as our privilege.

Today's gospel reminds us that the law became a burden once it was no longer lived out from within, but became external obligations. Originally the Israelites saw in the presence of God not a burden but the source of their pride and joy. So for Christians the Eucharist and its celebration on Sunday is not an obligation, because it is the source of our pride and joy - and our very life. It is a gift which lights up our whole week. "What great nation is there that has a God so near to it?" Because of the Eucharist the true law of God dwells within us. It is the inner direction of our lives, fashioned by the will of God. It comes from Him who is our life, and is sustained and fed and nurtured by our participation in Holy Communion. For there, as Jesus said, we receive his very life.

Just as the religion of Israel was rooted in history, so too is Christianity the religion of the New Covenant. The Lord Jesus is God's intervention in time and space and specific in place: Bethlehem, Nazareth, Jerusalem, Calvary - and now within his church, and in the Eucharist. The God who blessed Israel with his presence now dwells within us and with us. And now he seeks the redemption and sanctification of the world, through men and women caught up in that world and sustained by the Eucharist.

Privilege and responsibility together indeed!

"What great nation is there that has a God so near to it us as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him."