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The Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost
Almighty and everlasting God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 25)
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The Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): Ecclesiasticus 18:19-37
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Ecclesiasticus 18:19-37
✛
Sirach: "The Church Book"
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A wise man will fear in every thing, and in the day of sinning he will beware of offence: but a fool will not observe time.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Book of Ecclesiasticus, otherwise known as the Book of Sirach, is to be distinguished from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the ancient Hebrew Canon of the Old Testament. Ecclesiasticus, or Sirach, is found among the deuterocanonical books of the Greek Old Testament used by the early church, part of what is also called the Apocrypha. While puritans and other anti-traditional Protestants excluded the Apocrypha from church use, Anglicans/Episcopalians, along with the Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Lutherans, include these books with their scriptures and frequently read them in church liturgies. We are now in a nearly month-long cycle of reading Ecclesiasticus this year at Evening Prayer.
“Ecclesiasticus” as a title meant “The Church Book.” The reason the Book of Sirach (its older name) became known as Ecclesiasticus is because the early Church made extensive use of it to teach and catechize the faithful in the business of living. Today’s passages from Chapter 19, for example, counsel prudence by the servants of God in a sinful and often dangerous world. Let us reflect on some of tonight’s reading.
When you are full and rich, do not forget the day of poverty and hunger. Every state of life is by the grace of God. In other words, the wise servant of God needs to know the art of living in both abundance and need, as Saint Paul did.
When you pray, prepare yourself, for you are entering into the presence of your Maker and Redeemer, even into a conversation with Him. “Be not as one that tempteth the Lord.”
Do not make rash vows or promises that you do not keep. Follow through on them and do them. You will be held to account, not only by those you disappoint, but by God who will hold you to them in the Day of Judgment!
Be sure you judge yourself, lest you be judged. Do not go about freely judging others, “and the day of visitation (your own reckoning) you will find mercy.”
Don’t indulge your appetites all the time. Learn to restrain them, and become practiced in self-discipline in body and soul. This is not only a good thing in and of itself leading to health and wholeness; it is a safe way to live. For “if thou give thy soul the desires that please her, she will make thee a laughingstock to thine enemies that malign thee”!
Some of the advice in Ecclesiasticus is very humorous, especially when it describes what happens to us in our folly and foolishness – arrogance, laziness, drunkenness, gluttony, greed, envy, evil-speaking, slander, and so on. No wonder the early Church made use of it. We neglect it to our impoverishment.
All the advice in Ecclesiasticus can be summarized as the practical explication of one great sentence which is itself a cardinal biblical doctrine often misunderstood because of the word, Fear. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
We need to understand that fear of the Lord includes within itself faith, hope, reverence, awe and love. Furthermore, what the scriptures counsel concerning the attainment of godly wisdom is very similar to what the great Socrates counsels with regard to knowledge in general. We can never become knowledgeable (much less wise), said the great teacher, unless we realize our ignorance and how little we know. Without that moment of realization, which the wise student of life will renew every day, we are in fact unteachable.
The same principle of constant intellectual humility applies in the spiritual realm. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom says the Psalm; “a good understanding have all they that do thereafter…” (Ps 111:10) This is the sum and substance of all the wonderful teaching and practical wisdom of Sirach, the great Church Book. We do well to let it teach us too.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
