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Ninth Sunday after Trinity article

Here’s Roger Salter’s article from this past Sunday’s bulletin. It’s based on the Collect for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity, which I have included first:

A RIGHTGOODWILL
(Collect for the Ninth Sunday after Trinity)

Perhaps the shortest sermon ever published (it was included humorously in an anthology of sermons in the 1980?s) was that spoken by John Ruskin in his early childhood: “Little children! Be Good!”. That brief injunction could engender endless debate. It could be simply the recognition that we are obliged to be good without addressing the “how”, or it might also imply the assumption that we are capable of being good and ought to get on with it. Was Ruskin?s concise address moralistic or evangelical in tone? The little chap was brought up in an evangelical household but his later teaching, together with the constitution for the St. George?s Guild, evinced his belief that human goodness was the result of noble moral effort well within the capacity of human nature, perhaps with some assistance from God. Ruskin?s homily points to the great divide that separates professors of the Christian faith. All conclude that believers are meant to be good. The issue controverted is as to whether our goodness is natural and self-generated, with more or less help from God where necessary, or whether our goodness is supernatural in origin and imparted as a gift of divine grace. The obligation to be good is undisputed, but the capability is debated strenuously.