Your life is going somewhere. What you love, whom you obey, and what you expect from the future all march together. In Philippians 3, St. Paul writes with tears of those “whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” He is not writing to pagans outside the Church, but to Christians.
Fr. Steve Macias preaches on the two loves that war within every believer’s heart, and on the hope that settles the war: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” Drawing on St. Augustine, C. S. Lewis, St. Athanasius, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Irenaeus, he traces the road from appetite to glory.
Preacher: Fr. Steve Macias
Occasion: The Twenty-third Sunday after Trinity
Scripture: Philippians 3:17–21; St. Matthew 22:15–22
Four Things from This Passage
- Love is gravity. “My weight is my love,” says St. Augustine; wherever I am carried, my love carries me. Even good desires, a faithful marriage, faithful children, a peaceful home, meaningful work, can be bent toward the self. When the belly takes the throne, what we consume rules us, and the goods we desire are lost through the desires we obey.
- Habits forge chains, but grace breaks them. Who we become is not decided once, but forged link by link: the morning scroll, the daily comparison, the small indulgence repeated for years. Pleasures pursued for their own sake give diminishing returns and leave us glorying in our shame. Yet the God who forgives is stronger than our habits, our passions, and our past. Grace renews the will, and repentance means putting off what we were and taking up new habits.
- We are far too easily pleased. C. S. Lewis’s warning still stands. The Christian problem is not that we want too much joy, but that we expect too little, and so we settle for counterfeits: a screen in place of a spouse, the drive-thru in place of the feast, a follower in place of a friend. Christ, who turned water into wine and raised the dead, brings real joy into this life now.
- Our citizenship is in heaven. “Whose is this image and superscription?” Caesar’s image is on the coin, but God’s image is on you. That prior allegiance orders every earthly duty. Christ took our flesh to restore it; as St. Athanasius says, He was made man that we might be made God, not sharing the divine essence, but united to Christ by grace and made partakers of His life.
St. Athanasius pictures a portrait painted on a wooden panel, darkened, smeared, and split by the years until the face can hardly be recognized. The Artist does not throw away the wood. He comes Himself, and repaints the same image on the same panel. So Christ restores us: by His Word, by His sacraments, and by His Spirit.
So consider your loves. Ask what sits on the throne of your decisions, and pray that God would reorder your appetites. Confess, pray, give, worship, and come to the Table. Set your love on the King, and let the future He has promised govern what you practice today.
Join us for worship at Saint Paul’s Anglican Church, 101 N El Monte Ave., Los Altos, on Sundays at 10:30 AM, with a fellowship meal after the service. Plan your visit.
