I believe the heresy of our age is dualism. One year in Honduras a young doctor told me about her 6-year-old son’s hard question: After a Good Friday service one year he asked his mother, “What if the Jews had not killed Jesus?” It’s a question we all ask from time to time, if there were no death there could not have been a resurrection, and St. Paul is very clear in I Corinthians 15:17-19: If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. Of course that begs the next hard question: We say that the act of crucifying the Son of God was the ultimate in depravity and sin, and that in taking that sin upon Himself Jesus took the sin of the world and redeemed creation for God. Then if those who crucified Jesus accomplished God’s purposes, did they sin or not? Indeed, this strikes at the very heart of the Gospel, and the answer shows that the Gospel is very good news!

In today’s Gospel lesson, Judas has just left the upper room where Jesus and His disciples are celebrating the Passover meal, to betray Him to the Jewish authorities. As soon as he leaves Jesus breaks out into praise: “Now is the son of man glorified, and in Him God is glorified….” How is this treachery glorifying to God? Is Judas really His beloved disciple who, in betraying Him, assists Him in ways the other disciples would not? No, Judas and the Jews were motivated by pride, jealousy and rage against the One who has come to do ultimate good. Humanity intuits this goodness and rejects it. What Judas and the Jews did was the depths of depravity, and we share in it whenever we do something that is motivated by the same things. But even though our motives are sinful and our intent is evil and our actions unloving and unwise, God in His sovereign power uses even this to work His purposes and our good; like Paul said, “His power is made perfect in our weakness.” (II Corinthians 12:9) Our sin is not an impediment to God’s love and grace, but an opportunity! Herein is the glory! Our actions may turn the path of human history but ultimately we cannot stop the love of God or foil His purposes for creation!

Jesus says, “Where I am going you cannot come.” So true! We are unable to turn evil into good. He has done for us what we cannot do! So, if our sin gives Him the opportunity to work redemption, shall we sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1) As Paul says, “God forbid!” God’s grace does not redefine evil as good, it transforms the effects of evil to serve His purpose. If we intentionally continue do work evil it merely set us against God rather than with Him, and if we have been redeemed by Christ on the cross, this is the ultimate in self-contradiction!

Jesus anticipates Paul’s arguments by giving the disciples the impossible commandment:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you….” On Saturday mornings I make pancakes. I mix all the ingredients together and I heat up the griddle. And then I take the batter to the hot griddle and say, “Now, become pancakes!” No, it takes the heat of the griddle to make them pancakes, and they have no power to get themselves out of the bowl and onto the griddle. In the same way, Jesus looks at the disciples and says, ”Love one another as I have loved you.” In other words, “Let your love always so transcend human brokenness that it redeems it for good.” But we can’t do it. Oh, sometimes we do, but usually we don’t. Our expression of divine love itself is broken and incomplete; how then, will men know that we are His disciples? Because this, too, is part of the very weakness that makes perfect His strength. When by His power we do love one another as He loved us, it is an unmistakable sign that the Kingdom Jesus came to bring lives in us. And when we fail and our weakness is evident, and God works His purposes through our weakness and we glorify Him because of it, then the world will also know whose we are.

And so, good or ill, what we do serves God’s purposes. We do not exist in a dualism where the possibility exists for evil to ultimately overcome good. Evil cannot overcome good whereas the very nature of good always overcomes evil in the long run. This is what Christ effected and demonstrated by rising from the dead. This is the good news of the Gospel.

We live out this good news by trusting in the divine process of transformation. Over the summer we falconers’ birds drop and re-grow all their feathers. I never think my bird is not dropping feathers fast enough, but my lovely wife who knows me well reminds me: “Honey, you fret like this every April and May, and you always take your bird out in September. Why do you get upset?” It is easy to get anxious because good does not seem to win the battle. It is harder to keep one’s composure, trust, and let God transform evil purposes into good effect. Yet this capacity to hold the tension, to wait for the morning, is essential to the process of transformation.

It’s tempting to wonder if the growth we so long for at Christopher’s will indeed come. We fret and wonder and ponder. Now to the extent that that gets us to do what we need to do, that is good. But beyond that it serves only to render us tools against our will rather than with it, nothing more. He WILL accomplish His purposes for St. Christopher’s. It’s alright to do things we have never done before. Our mistakes are as much a tool in the divine hand as our successes. Therefore, relax into the process. Confidently go about writing SOP’s, creating an attitude of mutual care in your different ministry groups, and calling forth new leadership. Yes, you need to learn from your mistakes, but even that process is a grace. Christ has already overcome all the deaths we might accidentally or even intentionally deal His work.

How often we ask, “What is the will of God for my life now? How should I best proceed?” Here is the answer: Do what you know to do: Be diligent in prayer, study and action for the Kingdom. Be regular at worship. Immerse yourself in ministry that employs your gifts and expresses your passion. Submit your questions humbly to Christians you trust for advice and direction. And then do something, it may be wrong, but it’s better than nothing. If it is right it will flourish, if it is wrong you will be corrected. It will be OK!

The other day a trusted friend was talking about something painful that had happened. He asserted that it was clearly the work of our ancient enemy and not the will of God. Something in me brought me up short. The crucifixion was the work of our ancient enemy, but it served to work the will of God. Clearly we do not exist in a dualism. No, as C. S. Lewis said, “Everything is raw material,” and as Fr. Rohr said, “it’s always about you!” God’s purposes for us have less to do with accomplishment than with transformation, transformation of us into His people, and then as a natural consequence of our transformation, the transformation of the world. This process is the work the Holy Spirit, it can be trusted implicitly. And this is truly good news!

Fr. Paul Moore+