Trinity 9 – Temperance a fruit of the Spirit

1 Corinthians 10:1-13       St Luke 16:1-9

Good morning, Ascension Church! It is a great privilege to preach here this morning. For those of you who don’t know me; my name is Tristan Kamerbeek and I am a member of All Saints Amersfoort, I am in a discernment process to see if I am called to be a priest. As a part of this process, I preach at some occasions.

We are currently in Trinity season. Traditionally the focus in Trinity season is on Growth in holiness and sanctification. This week we have read about the unjust house manager and the Epistle to the Corinthians chapter 10. The theme traditionally for this Sunday is the virtue of temperance. Temperance is one of the fruits of the Spirit. In modern translations the word used for temperance is self-control. In this sermon we will look at temperance in two ways. One is for the things which are in this world, and one is for the things which are connected to God.

In the beginning of chapter ten Paul writes “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.”

Paul here is referring to Exodus 16 where the people of Israel stood up against Moses because there was no food. God gave quail in the evening and bread in the morning. There was a condition which God gave to His people, “take only what you need” and “No one is to keep any of it until morning”. But some didn’t obey this and took more and saved this until the next day. But the bread stank and maggots got into it. On the Sabbath day, the seventh day of the week they did not need to go out and gather food. On the sixth day they were to gather for two days. Still people went out the seventh day to search for food. Paul writes that this story of the Israelites is as an example to us. We see that the Israelites wanted more food, maybe more security that there was sufficient food. They wanted more than that they needed. This is part of gluttony. It is eating and drinking in excess, eating more than what you need.

Wealth is another part of the things which are in this world. According to a commentary of Calvin on our gospel reading the theme of this parable is that we ought to deal kindly and generously with our neighbours. The unjust house manager makes friends by cutting their debt. He shares with others, although he did it for his own gain he is still commended by the rich man. Temperance with regard to our wealth is also important. The parable in Luke 16 shows us this. In the part after we have read in our Gospel reading today; Jesus warns people that they cannot serve two masters. We cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot serve God while we are going after the riches of this world. Calvin addresses this also by saying that we should share our wealth with the poor.

Lust is the last of the three of the temperance for the things of this world. Paul writes to the Corinthians “Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did”. And “Now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted”. He follows this with consequences which happened to the Israelites; “in one day twenty-three thousand fell”, Paul seems to let us know in this passage that sexual immorality is something which is important and will be punished.  Paul tells us this as examples. St. John Chrysostom writes that these examples are given in order that we might “learn soberness”.

Both the Epistle and Gospel reading of today show that we should live in soberness, with temperance. We should only gather food in the amount that we need, we should only eat how much we need, we should share with the people who have less than we have, we should flee from idolatry and live a holy life after the example which Christ has set before us.

Now we come to the second part, the temperance for the things connected to God. When Paul writes about the spiritual food and drink, commentaries say he is talking about the Eucharist. The quail was the spiritual meat, the water from the Rock was the spiritual drink. That Rock was Christ according to St. Chrysostom. They were all under the cloud, and all passed through the Red Sea; and were all baptised by Moses. This is a figure of Christian baptism. Most of us here have also been baptised, and have therefore gone through the Red Sea as it were. We have been born again. We have all received grace and blessings from God. The Israelites received these things as well and still did rebel against God. There is a danger here for ourselves too. One danger is that we take Holy Communion lightly.  In the Book of Common Prayer it is made clear that before receiving Holy Communion we should earnestly repent of our sins, be in love and charity with our neighbours, intend to live a new life, following the commandments of God and walking from hence forth in His holy ways. This is a call to temperance in our life as a forerunner to receiving God’s spiritual blessings.

There is also the self-righteousness we can easily fall into. In Luke 15 we hear the parable of the lost son. Tim Keller wrote a book about this called the Prodigal Son in which he puts more emphasis on the elder son. He didn’t want to go into the feast when his brother returned, his response to his father was that he always did what the father wanted of him. During that time, he didn’t even get a young goat to celebrate with his friends. He thought he had deserved this because of his obedience to the father. There is a big lesson here for most of us. We all have had moments when we thought because we follow the Lord, we should get a reward. In a way we believe that our works can rescue us. But we can only be saved by grace through faith as Paul writes to the Ephesians. In the same epistle Paul writes that we should value others higher than ourselves. Calvin writes in his commentary on the Gospel reading for today that by charity we will obtain favour with God, and that God promised to be merciful to those who are merciful. Although people might be different, we should always welcome them, be kind to them. This is what Jesus taught us when he made the summary of the law. Love your neighbour as yourself.

We see in this parable that our self-righteousness needs to be changed. The elder son is not going into the party with his family because he feels that he did not receive something which he was entitled to. Temperance is also being humble. We should be humble, and not think that we are entitled to something because of our works.

“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall”.

Paul gives us a warning here that following Christ is not easy, we need to take up our cross in order to follow Him. And we will fall, we all fail sometimes. And it is at that moment that we might feel terrible and lost. And when we feel like that, we should remember what Jesus did for us. We can be sure that we are forgiven, when we repent of our sins and turn back to Him. He will receive us with open arms, we can turn our backs on Him, but He will not do the same! Calvin stresses this in his commentary on the epistle reading. We should not glory in our own progress, that we are satisfied with how things are. And Paul continues that “God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it”. This shows according to Calvin that there is always room for repentance. God is faithful just as Paul writes here. He is the Right Judge, His mercy is unfailing.

We have seen that Temperance is the theme of this week. We have seen that temperance can show itself in different aspects of our lives. We as Christians are called to be holy, to live a holy life. Temperance is one of the fruits of the spirit in which we can grow in holiness. We have an example which we can follow, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We have seen that Paul writes about the Eucharist and that this blessing is no guarantee for easy lives and that receiving these blessings is all part of grace. Today we can go to Holy Communion because of the sacrifice Jesus made for all of us to free us from death and our sins and to prepare for us a place with the Father.

Amen.