This sermon was never preached to a congregation. I wrote it for practice for the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity 2021 and preached it over Zoom to a friend.

Old Testament: Exodus 18:13-26
New Testament: Matthew 7:1-14

It is often said that the gospels are like necklaces of pearls. Each pearl is an element of the life or teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, and the thread is the evangelist’s writing. The evangelist has many elements of great value, given as a gift, and arranges them into a beautiful gift of their own for us.

This evening’s New Testament reading is a good example of this literary style. It is unlikely that Jesus of Nazareth ever said these precise words in this precise order with no contextualising words or gestures, but rather what we have is a collection of some of Jesus’ more memorable sayings, that St. Matthew remembered, arranged, and recorded, and that we now receive as a gift.

I work in a gift shop. We sell several gifts which have words of Jesus printed on them under the heading “Inspirational Gifts.” Of the sayings that Matthew recalls, we have souvenirs bearing “ask and it shall be given to you,” but is seems that we sell the footprints poem or the starfish story far more easily than we would any of these other sayings of Jesus. Why then, if these things are not even sellable in Liverpool’s premier gift shop, does St. Matthew see fit to strand them on a necklace for us?

The answer is, as it so often is when we think of gifts and Christ, grace. Jesus gives us gifts which are participatory. All five of the gifts he offers us are commands. Is the gift something we get on the condition we do these things? By no means! The gift is the grace by which these things are possible!

The grace which means we are judged mercifully is the grace that calls us to judge others the same way, and indeed makes it ludicrous to judge others harshly. The precious grace by which we receive these pearls, is the grace which gives them such value that we can’t squander them. The grace by which we are made children of God makes us bold to ask for what we need. The grace which makes us one with our siblings makes treating ourselves with equality possible and necessary. The grace which is freely given even to we who would reject it means that the wide gate is still the easy one.

These gifts from Christ are calls to action. They are costly gifts, and they are valuable gifts. They aren’t particularly attractive if you want a nice cheery saying for your inspirational gift, but they are the most precious gifts in that they are the words of eternal life.