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Book of Common Prayer Sunday Eucharistic Lectionary Propers
Appointed for the Week of
The Eighth Sunday After Trinity
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THE COLLECT.
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O GOD whose never-failing providence ordereth all things both in heaven and earth:
We humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things,
and to give us those things which be profitable for us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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THE EPISTLE. Romans 8. 12.
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MY brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the manner of the flesh;
for if you live after the manner of the flesh, you will die;
but if through the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, you will live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For you have not received a spirit of servitude again unto fear;
you have received a spirit of sonship, in which we cry aloud, Abba, Father;
the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit, that we are children of God:
and if children, then heirs;
heirs of God, and fellow-heirs with Christ:
if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.
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THE GOSPEL. St Matthew 7. 15.
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JESUS said unto his disciples,
Beware of false prophets,
which come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits.
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit;
but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit;
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
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.
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Book of Common Prayer Sunday Eucharistic Lectionary Message
A Sermon for
The Eighth Sunday After Trinity
By: Fr. David Curry
(10th August, 2025, Christ Church, Windsor, NS)
“You have received a spirit of sonship”
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We are by grace to be what Christ is by nature – sons or children of God. That alone guides and directs our lives with God in Christ. Who and what we are inwardly is to be expressed outwardly in bringing forth good fruit not evil fruit, to use the imagery of the Gospel. What is that good fruit? Doing what belongs to who and what we are as the “children of God” who “have received a spirit of sonship, in which we cry aloud, Abba, Father.” Our life in Christ is very much about our being imago Trinitatis as well as imago Christi, our life as ordered like his to the Father in the eternal bond of the Spirit. We have received a spirit of sonship.
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Providence, “who from end to end/ strongly and sweetly movest,” as the poet George Herbert remarks, is the overarching idea. It “never-failingly ordereth all things both in heaven and earth.” God’s “never-failing” providence is the charity [that] “never faileth.” Our vocation is to write out the providence of God in our lives. For “only to Man thou hast made known thy wayes./ And put the penne alone into his hand,/And made him [us] Secretaries of thy praise.” Who we are as knowing and loving beings, and especially through what we know and learn through revelation, is to be lived out in our lives in and through all of the ups and downs of human experience.
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But alas, we are often mistaken about providence. It is not just how “everything’s going my way,” as the old song puts it, nor is it our endless illusions with progress, as if things are always and endlessly getting better in our techno-utopian exuberance. Neither fits with human experience. Our identity as “children and heirs of God, and fellow-heirs of Christ,” is predicated on the reality of suffering; we are “heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.” Our sanctification in seeking to bring forth the fruit of holy lives is always grounded in our justification through Christ’s saving work on the Cross. His suffering for us gives meaning to our suffering with and for him.
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