Hear the words of the Collect for the First Sunday after Easter:

Almighty Father, who hast given Thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification; grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve Thee in pureness of living and truth.

May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be alway acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. We pray in the name of The Father, and of The Son, and of The Holy Ghost. Amen.

The events of Easter Sunday and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ challenges us to do something, although we do not always know what we are to do. It is the Collect for today that answers that fundamental question for all Christians. When asked what we are to do, this Collect answers that we are to:

… put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve Thee in pureness of living and truth.

If we then look at this section of the Collect, we see several things that we must examine. The first is the word ‘malice.’ This idea has as its base the concept of hate. Now hate is not a little bit worse than dislike. The difference between them is not only one of degree; it is on a whole new level. The difference between dislike and hate is in effect malice. Hate is passive to a large extent while malice is active and reaches out to do harm to the object of its hatred.

When I was growing up I thought I hated my father. I did things that I knew would irritate him. I knew that I would pay a price for these actions, but that did not matter so long as I could annoy him. The good news is that we reconciled many years ago, and I realized that I loved him and never hated him.

However, the point is the same. I maliciously taunted him. I took actions that were designed to act upon my supposed hatred. This is the same idea that terrorists have in inflicting as much damage as they possibly can on the object of their hatred. Malice does not count its own cost. It only looks at the effect it has on the object of its hatred. Is it any wonder that this is such an evil emotion?

The next word is ‘wickedness.’ Now while malice is active, wickedness is passive. It is a state of being. A person that does malicious acts is often described as wicked, not because of what they are doing, but because of what they have already done. Wickedness is a reflection of the evil that lies within the person, and of what they already are. Understandably ‘wickedness’ is something a Christian must give up.

These attributes are a part of what we are and the world we live in. So the next obvious question is, “How can we get them out of our lives?” The answer to that question is given to us in the first verse of the Epistle for today, 1^st John 5:4:

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ symbolizes this ‘birth of God’. Jesus faced all the maliciousness and wickedness that was in the world. These were the visible manifestations of all the evil that exists, and He overcame it all through The Cross. The world tried to kill Him, and thought it had succeeded, at least for three days anyway, but it failed to overcome the love of God for all mankind.

We see that the world kills through malice and hate, and that Jesus Christ saves us through His love. It is this love, which through our faith, can and does allow us to change our spirits, from the evil of the world that infests us, through that same love into the pureness of God. This is good news indeed.

This then leads us to the next word that we are to examine, ‘pureness.’ Just as wickedness is passive in an evil way, so is pureness passive in a holy way. It is a reflection of what we have become through the Grace of God. Now when we act it is from ‘pure’ motives. We see that our actions are good and that they have good results as well. This is in reality how we know that what we have done is a ‘good deed,’ when it has good results.

When we are trying to help someone, and our motives are pure, no matter what happens there is a good result. Whether they win the lotto or just get through another day, we are happy just the same. They may not be, and possibly should not be, happy, but we have done what is right and good.

We now come to the last word, ‘truth.’ This word is the foundation for the Collect for today, as well as for our passage through this life. Both concern the struggle to find truth. When we find the truth many things become clear.

One of those things is the reason why we are doing something. How many times have we wondered why we, or someone, else said, or did, something, that was not nice, and yet we, or they, said, “I was only trying to help.” Perhaps 1^st Peter 2:16 may be of assistance in this regard:

As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

We do not know, and will never really know, why people do the things they do, but God always does. He sees the truth of our motives and judges us accordingly. This is why we must ever seek the truth, as John 8:32 tells us:

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

The fact of being free does not mean that we will not be judged, for the fact of freedom only becomes evident after we are judged. A criminal who is not in jail is not free. They may be free for the moment to do what they like, but they cannot do everything they want to do because the police are actively looking for them. They are always afraid of discovery, regardless of the bravado they act with.

We face the same fact in our lives. Every action, and the reasons that supported  them, will be judged. The truth of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection, if we seek and hold to it, then will set us free from the condemnation we deserve.

All the sins that we take to The Cross are forgiven. All the sins that we do not take to The Cross are retained. Therefore, during the General Confession let us give all of our sins to God, even our favorite ones, so that Christ’s sacrifice of Good Friday will cover them, and through His Resurrection, we will be redeemed without sin.

This is truth. The only questions are, whether or not we will give up the maliciousness and wickedness that infests us? And, whether or not we will live in pureness of life in and by this truth and be set free from the penalty of sin?

I pray that we all will give up the first things and live by the second things.

Amen,

The Very Rev. Canon John Jacobs