The Rev. Canon James T. Payne: Sermon for Trinity X
The account in the Gospels of Jesus’ last entry into Jerusalem before His crucifixion is truly poignant as we see His sorrow and concern for those who dwelt there, unaware of the coming destruction. The Rev. Canon James T. Payne of St. Thomas of Canterbury REC in Houston, Texas looks at this account and applies it to our own day, as this portion of his sermon for Trinity X shows:
Those who think that God somehow owes them financial success or who use the church for financial gain are themselves financially are like those who bought and sold in the temple. They are missing the hour of their visitation.
Christ alone is the source of peace. Christ comes to us in the proclamation of the Word, in water of Baptism and in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. He is the One who brings reconciliation between the sinner and God. It is Christ and Christ alone who gives the peace that passes all understanding.
To every person who lives, Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit says: “this is your day, the day of your visitation”, as it is written, “Behold, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.”
Scripture also says “Behold I stand at the door and knock” This is the moment in which Christ is coming to you in His Gospel, knocking at the heart’s door. He promises to dwell in the hearts of all who will let Him in. For our Lord has cleansed the temple. When Jesus drove out the moneychangers and those who bought and sold in the temple, it was a sign of what He was about to do on the cross of Calvary. For there on the cross Jesus Himself experienced the righteous anger of God against the world’s sin and drove it out in the temple of His body. Jesus made Himself unclean in our place. He took all of the greed and the self-righteousness and the callousness and every other sin and made it His own. St. Paul writes that He who knew no sin became as sin for us.
Jesus had said of His body, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Though the temple in Jerusalem remains destroyed, Jesus could not remain in the grave. He is now bodily raised in everlasting glory and honor, the new and eternal dwelling place of God for you. Jesus is the true temple. Christ is your temple. The risen body of Christ is full of holiness and righteousness and cleansing. When we are baptized into Him, those things are also ours. We, the whole Church, are now the body of Christ. And therefore each of us individually, and the whole Church collectively are the temple of Christ’s Spirit, who dwells in us through faith by grace. We are safe from divine judgment because Christ has paid the price for us.
“If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace!” This is one of the saddest passages of the bible ! To reject the time of divine visitation is to reject God’s offering of his only Son, Jesus Christ, offered up for the forgiveness of sins, for our peace, for our rest, for restoration and reconciliation to the Father.
And indeed this is a danger in our own time and in our own churches: that we may indeed reject the time of divine visitation for our own souls. May we, both individually and in our churches, not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by rejecting the offering of the Son.
