Sermon for The Eighth Sunday after Trinity
“By their fruits ye shall know them”
Actions reveal intentions and purposes. Nothing could seem more obvious and more necessary to modern freedom. But is what is revealed good or evil? Are we good or bad? Is it simply fated? The Gospel is very clear that there is often a discrepancy between what is and what seems to be, between appearance and reality. Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing, not to mention “ravening wolves” in shepherd’s cloaks! Such warnings are not just with respect to others but also ourselves. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” In a way, it is what we constantly pray in the Lord’s Prayer: “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Margaret Visser’s 2002 Massey Lecture series was entitled “Beyond Fate”. In it she speaks of modern freedom as freedom from constraint and argues for the ways in which that freedom is increasingly circumscribed in contemporary culture, noting the different metaphors that speak about the forms of the inevitable, to what is somehow fated in our world and day. In the face of the various determinisms that are inherently fatalistic, we need a deeper understanding that sees human freedom as found within the order of creation and the divine will; beyond fate, perhaps, but certainly under Providence. As St. Paul suggests in his Letter to the Romans, human freedom has to do with our spiritual identity as “the children of God” in Christ and through union with him in his sufferings and glory. Who we are is very much about what we are called to be, hence the necessary correlation between the inward and the outward aspects of our lives.
Fate and destiny are not always or necessarily negative terms, terms that limit or determine human action, making us unfree. The recent movie, “Slum Dog Millionaire,” set in an Indian and Muslim context, graphically illustrates the theme of destiny in the touching and disturbing story of Jamal and Latika, a destiny that is worked out through hardship and suffering and certainly not without its dark side of great evil and corruption, cruelty and death. Central to the movie is the sense of destiny, of fate, but in a way that is more positive and not simply negative, not merely fatalistic.
A different word belongs to our meditations today. It is signaled in the Collect: “O God, whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth.” Providence. What do we mean by it? How does it relate to our sense of personal identity and freedom? Is it the same as fate and destiny? Or does the term itself imply something more?
