LOVE OUTPOURED
A Homily on the Sixth Sunday After Trinity
The Rev. Deacon Timothy Wilson
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The Collect:
O God, who hast prepared for them that love thee such good things as pass
man’s understanding; Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving
thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can
desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
There’s a big difference, and I think you’ll agree with me, between admiring God and
loving Him. We all admire His omnipotence. He is the Almighty God. We acknowledge
and need His Wisdom, and we all fear His judgment, and rightly so. But only His grace
teaches sinners to love Him. That is why the Church places on our lips this beautiful
Collect today.
You see, the framers of this Collect understood something important…that love for God
cannot be manufactured within us; it will never be a product of our own self-discipline or
moral improvement…not by intellectual pursuit, and most certainly not even by straight
A+s in Seminary. I remember my parents tried to tell me, more times than I like to recall,
saying, “Timothy, son, you need to realize that your head and heart are going to have to
come together, and that’s a long distance.” It would befuddle me to no end.
St. John tells us, “We love Him, because He first loved us.” Love is God’s gift.
Listen again to the beginning of this prayer, O God, who hast prepared for them that
love thee such good things as pass man's understanding… Immediately our eyes
are lifted beyond this passing world…God is already preparing an inheritance beyond
imagination. Our human language strains to describe it. St. Paul writes in the Epistle for
today in Romans 6 that through Christ we have died and risen in Him. Our destiny is no
longer bounded by death, but by resurrection.
It’s interesting to me that the Collect doesn’t merely speak of heaven as a place…it
speaks of promise, for God Himself is our inheritance, and every promise finds its
fulfillment in Christ; every blessing comes through union with Christ; every hope rests
upon Christ.
Are you following what I’m getting at? Beloved, the greatest gift God prepares is not just
freedom from suffering…hear me…it’s everlasting communion with His Son.
This is why St. Paul can speak so confidently in Romans. Baptism isn’t just a religious
ceremony; it isn’t merely our “profession of faith”… it is incorporation into Christ’s
death and resurrection. “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death”…the
very Life of a Christian begins not with self…not with self-proclamations, not with self-
improvements, no matter how noble the “Christian” intentions, no, but with participation
in Christ Jesus Himself.
The old Adam dies the horrible death of crucifixion. The dominion of sin is broken…My
friends, don’t let your ears gloss over these words that we hear often, because that’s
what it takes for the New Creation to begin, for us to be newly created.
So, it’s not better behavior or improved and renewed self-will that the Collect is asking
for, but transformed affections. “Pour into our hearts such love toward thee”
Notice the imagery…love is poured. We’ve had several baptisms recently. So, this
imagery should not escape you. Love descends; it’s given. The heart is the vessel, and
the Holy Ghost is the one who fills it.
You see, this is what my younger self kept misunderstanding…Grace always precedes
obedience.
This truth is at the center of Christian theology…God does not wait until we love Him
before blessing us; He blesses us so that we may love Him.
St. Matthew’s Gospel reveals precisely why such divine love is necessary. Our Lord
announces a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. The
Pharisees believed righteousness consisted primarily in external conformity. But Jesus
reaches into the hidden chambers of the heart.
“You have heard…thou shalt not kill.” Then Christ continues, “But I say unto you, that
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.”
The commandment was never only about murder; it was always about love. Hatred is
murder in seed form. Just as contempt is violence in embryo. Bitterness already wounds
the image of God in another person. So, Christ uncovers the heart, because only He
can heal the heart.
The Law is there to expose, but then comes Christ to transform. And that is why the
Collect is so fitting. We don’t just ask God to restrain our sinful actions… We ask Him to
reorder our loves.
St. Augustine famously observed that the Christian life is fundamentally about rightly
ordered love. Sin disorders love. We love ourselves above God. We love earthly
pleasures and treasures above heavenly joys. We love temporary comforts above
eternal glory.
Grace restores the proper order. We begin to love God above all things. Hear what I
just said? Hear the wording? Above all things, not among all things. Above. Christ
doesn’t ask for first place among many competing allegiances. He claims absolute
Lordship.
The Gospel reminds us that reconciliation with our brother is inseparable from
reconciliation with God. If we bring our gift to the altar while harboring hatred, Christ
commands us to seek peace first.
The altar becomes the meeting place of divine love and human reconciliation. This has
always been one of the Church’s most searching examinations before Holy
Communion.
Do I cherish hatred? Have I refused forgiveness? Am I clinging to pride?
The altar calls us to lay these burdens down. Not because reconciliation earns grace,
but because grace produces reconciliation. The Christian life is never only vertical. It’s
always cruciform. The vertical beam reaches toward God; the horizontal beam
embraces our neighbor. Both meet in Christ crucified.
This transformation of love is beautifully captured by C. S. Lewis writing in his book The
Four Loves, “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will
certainly be wrung and possibly be broken."
Lewis is not glorifying emotional pain; he’s recognizing that genuine love always
requires self-giving, and God Himself has demonstrated this.
The Father’s love sent the Son. The Son’s love embraced the cross. And the Holy
Ghost pours that same love into the hearts of believers.
So, my friends, Christian love is cruciform. It bears burdens, forgives injuries, seeks
reconciliation. It sacrifices itself for others. Above all, it mirrors Christ.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey once wrote, “The glory of God is
the living Christ, and the glory of Christ is a man made fully alive in Him.” That, beloved,
is exactly the promise toward which the Collect is directing our gaze this morning.
God is not just making better people; He’s conforming us to His Son. He’s preparing us
for glory, and making us participants in the divine life through union with Christ.
This is also why the Collect speaks of promises that exceed all that we can desire…
Our human desire is too small..
We ask for comfort… God gives us Christ. We ask for strength…God gives us His Spirit.
We ask for blessings… God gives us Himself.
Our desires must be enlarged by grace until they rest only in Him. And where do we
behold this promise most clearly…at His holy Table. Here He gathers His baptized
people and feeds those united to His death; gives Himself as heavenly food, and pours
into our hearts, by the Holy Spirit, the body and blood of the Saviour.
We come not because our love is perfect. We come confessing that our hearts are often
divided, and so asking Him to pour His love into us. He strengthens our love because
His love is first given, and we begin to taste the “good things which pass man’s
understanding”.
This table isn’t yet The Marriage Supper of the Lamb, but it is a blessed foretaste, which
trains our hearts to desire that everlasting feast where faith shall become sight, and our
hope possession, and love perfected forever. And we will behold Him face to face who
loved and gave Himself for us.
To Him, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end.
Amen.
