Good Zeal — Sermon by Rev. Canon Bryan Biba

Let us pray.

Lord, may my speech and my message not

be plausible words of human wisdom, but

a demonstration of the spirit and of

power. So that our faith may not rest in

the wisdom of men, but in the power of

the living God, Jesus Christ, the vine,

in whom we all live and move and have

our being.

Amen.

You may be seated.

As some of you know, I have a passion

for Duke basketball.

Basically, when the season starts in

November through the March Madness

tournament, pretty much all of my free

time in my personal life is taken up

with Duke basketball, watching games,

reading about it, listening to podcasts

about it.

Uh, some may say it's a vice. I think

it's a virtue.

But regardless of what do we categorize

it, it's certainly a passion. It's

something I care a lot about

until of course I don't care about it.

And usually right around the end of

March, beginning of April,

I flip a switch. This year it was during

the Elite 8 when Duke was ahead most of

the game at the statistical best team in

the entire country was heading to the

finals and then we lost in the last

second on a shot to Yukon of all teams.

And

in that moment my passion just

evaporated.

It was gone. I couldn't care less about

basketball. I didn't bother watching the

Final Four. I didn't watch the national

championship.

I don't care.

And isn't that true about so much of our

lives? We swing wildly back and forth

between fervent passion and apathy.

Why? We either care too much for

something or we don't care at all.

I think the internet and social media

has a lot to do with this. We are

overwhelmed

with endless causes and issues that we

should care about

as well as mindless hours of

mind-numbing garbage. And sometimes it's

hard to tell the difference between the

two of them.

These things waste our time. They numb

us to what's important.

It's often very difficult to know what

matters, what we should be passionate

about, and what we shouldn't care about.

Over time, we lose our capacity to care.

We become numb.

And the same dynamic, friends, is true

in our spiritual lives. We've all

probably had times in our life, we can

remember when we were passionate for

God, passionate for the scripture,

passionate for the Christian life, and

then for whatever reason through the

trials and tribulations of life, we get

busy, and then we don't really care as

much, and we swing wildly back and

forth, back and forth.

The Bible is very familiar with this

dynamic. Key to it is the word zeal. The

Greek word is zealous. It means to burn

hot. Zeal is a fiery passion for a cause

or a purpose. When someone has zeal,

they direct all of their energies and

all of their efforts to a singular goal.

Zeal is very powerful, friends. At its

best,

it can motivate deep faith and loving

care.

But at its worst,

zeal can consume us like a raging fire

and devastate everything in its path.

So, what sorts of things should we be

zealous about?

What sorts of things should we be

apathetic about?

And how can we tell the difference

between the two?

In our lesson from 1 Peter 3:13,

1 Peter 3:13

Peter says that we should be zealous for

what is good.

That for the Christian,

zealous for what is good. That kind of

zeal is paramount. That's what we should

care the most about.

Well, what does this look like in our

lives, in the Christian life? Peter

gives us a beautiful description in this

section beginning with verse 8. Listen

to what Peter says.

Finally, all of you

have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly

love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

When the church, when all of us are

zealous for what is good, we are

literally of one mind.

Peter is urging Christians to share what

St. Paul calls the mind of Christ.

How do we think?

Do we think as individuals or do we

think with the mind of Christ as one

body?

See, when we're thinking about things as

individuals, from our individual

perspective, then our zeal is focused on

our pet issues, on our personal agendas.

But when we think with the mind of

Christ,

we exhibit sympathy with one another. We

have love and affection for one another.

We have a tender heart towards one

another. We have a humble mind. We're

open to change, open to the perspectives

of others.

This means feeling for and feeling with

others.

putting the needs and opinions of others

before our own.

When we seek the mind of Christ

together,

good zeal means we can lay down the

particular axes that we grind and

instead seek the good of the other.

Paul continues in verse 9. He first lays

out a positive vision and now he has a

negative vision. Do not repay evil for

evil or reviling for reviling, but on

the contrary, bless.

For to this you were called that you may

obtain a blessing.

If we, the body of Christ, are zealous

for what is good,

we will not seek retribution.

We seek revenge when we're motivated by

our own private agendas.

We nurse grudges and hold on to hurts

and we keep a record of wrongs and we

look for an opportunity to get back at

those who hurt us.

But when we're zealous for what is good,

we pursue the mind of Christ and we are

freed to bless

with open hands,

seeking the good of the other rather

than holding on to our pains and hurts.

When we see

with true eyes, with the mind of Christ,

with the vision of Christ, with good

zeal, we see that our flourishing and

the flourishing of the other, our

neighbor, are bound up together. It's

not a zero sum game. God wants us all to

have life, abundant life, and we can do

it together.

Peter reinforces this point by quoting

from Psalm 34. This is an extended

quotation beginning at verse 10. For

whoever desires to love life and see

good days, raise your hand. Who wants to

love life and see good days? Let him

keep his tongue from evil and his lips

from speaking deceit. Let him turn away

from evil and do good. Let him seek

peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the

Lord are on the righteous and his ears

are open to their prayer, but the face

of the Lord is against those who do

evil.

Now, who is there to harm you if you are

zealous for what is good?

Both St. Peter and the Psalmist are

urging us

to actively seek peace. This is one of

the characteristics of good zeal. When

we're zealous for what is good, we want

to be at peace with one another. And so,

we take it upon ourselves to make peace.

Seeking peace often means practicing

self-control. If you were with me in

Sunday school, you heard a whole hour

about this.

We must learn to restrain ourselves, to

practice discipline, to keep our tongues

from evil and our lips from speaking

deceit, to turn away from evil and to do

good. In other words, friends, to keep

peace within community, we have to learn

how to restrain our zeal and redirect it

towards the good of the other.

Parents know all about this. This is

what parenting is.

We redesirect our zeal, the things that

we care about, the things we're

passionate about, and we aim it at the

good of the child,

even if it means sacrificing what we

care about.

Monks and nuns also know all about this.

When Christians live in intentional

community, they quickly learn that in

order to be of one mind and to be at

peace, it often means dying to self,

laying down the things that we care

about and seeking the good of the other.

I was reading, as I always do, the rule

of St. Benedict the other day, and at

the very end of the rule, Benedict has a

chapter on zeal. Listen to what he

writes.

Just as there is a wicked zeal of

bitterness which separates from God and

leads to hell,

so there is a good zeal which separates

us from evil and leads to God and

everlasting life.

This then is the good zeal which monks

read Christians must foster with fervent

love. They should each try to be the

first to show respect to the other.

supporting with the greatest patience

one another's weaknesses of body or

behavior and earnestly competing in

obedience to one another.

No one is to pursue what he judges

better for himself, but instead what he

judges better for someone else.

To their fellow monks they show pure

love of the brothers, to god-loving

fear. To their leaders unfeigned and

humble love. Let them prefer nothing

whatsoever

to the love of Christ.

Did you hear that friends? Prefer

nothing whatsoever

to the love of Christ. This echoes our

collect of the day.

Pour into our hearts such love towards

you that we loving you in all things and

above all things may obtain of your

promises.

Do you prefer nothing to the love of

Christ

or are there other things in your life

you prefer?

I'm sure many of you who know me well,

especially my wife, would say that uh in

February and March, I may prefer Duke

basketball to the love of Christ because

that's where I spend my time and my

energy.

But for each one of you, it's different.

There are things that you do. Some of

them are good things like fishing or

exercise

or a hobby. Some of them are bad things.

They're vices.

They're habits that destroy.

But we friends are called to be people

who prefer nothing to the love of

Christ.

Take a moment. Look around you. Look at

your neighbor. Each of you is sitting

next to someone. Look at them. Take a

look.

Ask yourself,

are you zealous for that person's good?

Do you seek

to outdo the other person in love?

That's the call of St. Benedict. That's

the call of St. Peter.

Are you willing to restrain your speech,

to lay down your agendas, to let go of

your opinions for the sake of that

person next to you?

This is how we Christians

become united in one mind and and pursue

peace. We we make Christ the priority

and we seek good zeal.

So now that we know what good zeal looks

like, the question is how do we do it?

How do we be zealous for what is good?

How do we prefer nothing to the love of

Christ? That brings us to our gospel

reading from John 15.

The answer simply, friends, is abide.

We abide in Christ.

We abide in his love. And as we remain

in Christ, as we make him our priority,

he bears the fruit of good zeal in us so

that we might bear spiritual fruit.

I'm the true vine. My father is the vine

dresser. Every branch in me that does

not bear fruit, he takes away. And every

branch that does bear fruit, he prunes

so that it may bear more fruit.

Friends, whatever we're zealous about,

that's what will bear fruit in our

lives.

This is Christ's goal. Christ's goal is

that we would bear good fruit and so

prove to be his disciples. You can't

bear good fruit without good zeal.

So we have to learn, friends, how to be

zealous for what is good. And the key

way we learn is through pruning.

Just as any good gardener knows, if a

productive branch on a tree is to

maintain its productivity, you have to

cut off what is dead.

And that's exactly what Christ does in

each one of us. He cuts off the dead

stuff in our lives so that we would love

what is good and pursue it and bear

fruit.

It's kind of a really fundamental lesson

in the Christian life. We hear about it

in the reading from First Peter, but

it's counterintuitive, so it's often

important to say, so I'm going to say it

again.

Trials and temptations are an essential

part of the Christian life because

that's how God prunes us. When we follow

Jesus, he leads us into trials and

temptations so that we would be refined

in the fire that we would truly desire

what he desires.

Suffering is one of the key tools God

uses to purify our zeal.

In fact, abiding is what makes the

difference between our suffering being

purposeful and meaningless. If we abide

in Christ amidst suffering, God uses

that suffering to refine us and

transform us. But if we do not abide,

then that suffering is of no use to us.

This is how God prunes us and refineses

us.

Because of our sinful nature, our zeal

is often misdirected and easily

corrupted by other passions. We get

angry. We get jealous. We get sad.

How many of you have begun to care about

something for the right reasons? And

then over time, as you're wounded and

hurt by the world, you begin to care

about the good thing for the wrong

reasons.

Our hearts harden. Our good zeal goes

bad. We become harsh and judgmental. We

become dogmatic and uncompromising.

If we're not careful, we will become

enslaved to our zeal.

But thanks be to God, God the Holy

Spirit is working to purify us and to

prune us as we suffer with him.

This friends is the transformative power

of trials.

Abiding.

As we abide in Christ

through prayer, through listening to his

word, by being in community, the Holy

Spirit burns up all the dead selfish

desires and attitudes in us so that we

might be consumed and utterly changed in

the fire.

Jesus continues in verse four, abide in

me and I in you. As the branch cannot

bear fruit by itself unless it abides in

the vine, neither can you unless you

abide in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it

is that bears much fruit. For apart from

me, you can do nothing.

Abide means to remain, to make your home

in, to rest there. Christ is calling

each one of us to make our home in him,

to rest in him, to remain in him, to

dwell in him.

Where do you dwell?

Think about it. All of us, I think, have

a triangle.

And every point of the triangle is a

place that we spend our time. Maybe one

point is our home. Maybe another point

is our work or our hobbies. Maybe

another point is church or maybe it's on

the boat. Could be all kinds of things.

But we often have this triangle and we

go from one thing to another. These days

for me it's Ace Hardware is one of the

points. I'm always there because I'm

working on a project, you know, but we

all have this triangle

and often we don't get outside the

triangle.

But what Jesus is calling us here to do

is to dwell and abide with him wherever

we are.

To remain with him at home, at work,

with our friends, with our family, at

the grocery store, at the hardware

store, wherever we are, our home is with

Jesus.

What would it look like for you to

remain in Christ wherever you are, no

matter the circumstances?

This passage, friends, teaches us an

important lesson

that our zeal is fueled by our abiding.

Whatever we abide in, that's what we'll

be zealous about. So, if we abide in

social media and in cable news, we're

going to care and be zealous about what

they tell us to care about.

If we abide in our worries and our

anxieties, then our fears will drive our

decision-making. If we abide in our

sadness and our shame, then we'll be

consumed by our grief and our sorrows.

If we abide in our hurts and our pains,

then we will hold on to grudges and

resentments and weaponize them against

others. And inevitably, when these

passions fail, we'll be consumed by

apathy

and be cynical.

But if we abide in Christ,

remaining in him in prayer, in his word,

then no matter where we are, no matter

what we face, God will use it to

sanctify us so that we would have good

zeal and bear good fruit.

This is the call and the command of

Jesus today. To prefer nothing

whatsoever to his love, to abide in him,

to make Christ in his gospel the

all-consuming passion of our lives.

But if each member of the church chooses

to remain instead in our own selfish

desires, then we will inevitably bite

and devour one another rather than being

consumed by Christ and his kingdom.

The good news, friends, is that being

zealous for what is good is not a good

work.

It's the fruit of abiding.

Whatever we abide in, we will be zealous

about.

And whatever we're zealous about, we'll

bear good fruit. If we're abiding in

Jesus, we will care and be zealous about

good things, and then we will bear good

fruit. If we abide in other stuff, well

then we'll care about the wrong things

and we'll bear all kinds of fruits that

are not of God.

And in time, by his grace,

we will become people who zealously love

what God loves in the way he loves.

Not divided, but united in the mind of

Christ.

Not stirring up strife, but pursuing

peace.

Not loving selfishly, but loving

self-sacrificially.

Letting go of the things of this world

and remaining in Christ the vine.

He is the source of our life. He is the

source of all goodness and love.

It's only through him that we can have

abundant life and good seal.

Let us pray.

Oh Holy Spirit, enkindle in us the fire

of your love,

consume us fully

so that we prefer nothing

to Christ and his love.

Burn up all the selfish desires and

disordered passions in us

so that we might be zealous for what is

good and bear much fruit.

Amen.