All Is Possible For God
Sunday 14th September, 1986
At every Liturgy as we come to that part of it which only God can fulfil: the offering not only of our bodies and souls but of the death and resurrection of Christ unto the salvation of the world, we begin with the words, 'Let us lay aside all the cares of this life'. In this context it is so clear, so powerfully clear that we are not called to let go of all the concerns of the world which God has so loved that He gave His Only-begotten Son that the world might be saved; but we are called to let go of everything which is our small, human concern in order to enter into that concern which is God's, into that love and compassion which are God's, and indeed, into that way of fulfilling, of making real the love and compassion which were and remain forever Christ's.
Today we read two passages of the Gospel (St. Matthew XIX: 16–26 4 St. Luke IV:16–22), A young man wanted, longed for eternal life as we all long for it; and what had he to offer for it? What was there that could prevent him from entering it? What he thought he had, the key which in his mind opened the doors of Heaven for Him were his virtues, his faithfulness to the commandments. And indeed, one who was so faithful had already put the hand to the plough. But what hindered him was his wealth; he was rich in earthly things, he had possessions and he had a care for them. And to the extent to which he was deeply rooted in the earth, he was not free to go on that pilgrimage which leads one from the earth to Heaven, from an earthly created condition to partaking in the very nature of God by becoming a disciple of Christ and communing to all that Christ was and is forever, both as man and as God.
And we are told in the passage of St. Luke's Gospel which we read that Christ came to proclaim the Kingdom to those who were destitute of all, to heal the sick in heart, to give sight to the blind, to preach newness of life for those who were bruised and in whose life there was no hope.
We must learn from both passages on the one hand to be faithful to that way which God has given us to make ourselves clean, to make ourselves free and not to become slaves of these commandments, but to make them into a preparation: for a complete surrender to God in the awareness that we also are blind, we also are destitute of things eternal, that we also need the miracle of God, because no one can grow into the fullness of the stature of Christ otherwise than by the power of God.
This is why, concluding the first passage which we heard, when the Apostles say, 'But who then can be saved?', the answer of Christ is, 'This is not possible for men but all things are possible for God'.
Let us therefore not only listen to these words of the Liturgy 'Let us lay aside all the cares of this life», not only for one moment concentrate enough on what happens here to forget what happens outside of this church, but learn day after day to free ourselves from everything that prevents us from being capable of so uniting ourselves to the mind and the heart and the will of God, that our concern for the world should be an expression of the divine concern and that in it we should meet the Living God in love and in surrender. Amen.