This casting out of sin, and accompanying acquisition of virtue is the goal of all the traditional Lenten disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The purpose of our acquisition of virtue is that it leads to our liberation or deliverance from our slavery to sin, into the spiritual freedom of the children of God. “By the finger of God” our devils are cast out, and God’s Kingdom comes upon us.

          This idea of liberation has been a popular focus of our society now for some time. It has found expression in all sorts of liberation movements, notably the “Womens Liberation movement” that began,, back in the sixties and early seventies, and Liberation theology that dates from about the same time. In these two movements, along with most of the other “rights” movements like, gay rights, native rights and so on the idea is that our freedom as individuals, our freedom to be ourselves, is painfully and unjustly restricted by traditions and social and institutional forms., both secular and spiritual. The idea is that if we could only be freed from all those forms of external oppression, then we could really express our true selves, and fulfill our potential as human beings. Then life would surely be worth living!

          At any rate, the Christian religion, through the message it teaches in Lent, calls us to look more deeply at this problem of oppression and liberation, not so much in the social context but in the personal context : The oppression and liberation of our souls. And we are encouraged to examine more closely the whole question of just what is the nature of our slavery, and how we can gain our freedom.

          In religious jargon, we say our slavery is to sin, and our freedom comes from a life of virtue which ultimately leads to the life of heaven. We are promised deliverance “from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”(Romans 8:21). But we should try not to get bogged down in the language we used rather we need to work on understanding the realities that language reflects. We need, for example, to remember that we are not talking about oppression and deliverance by powers outside ourselves,-- Sin and immorality are not, at heart, matters that we can blame on society, so society cannot supply the solutions. Fundamentally, these things are matters of the soul.

          The virtue of the soul is not a matter of free self-expression; it is a matter of humility and obedience. We do not become good by the free expression of our fallen nature, and our natural feelings and inclinations, our instincts, are certainly not guides to virtue. More often what we feel or want are our temptations. Nor do we become good simply by education. To be informed about the good, while necessary, is not enough. In the end we become good only by doing good., usually against our feelings and inclinations, usually against what we like to call “our better judgement”, and often without very much understanding the sense of it at all. We become good by doing good, over and over and over, until it becomes the habit, the very pattern of our lives even when it seems to make little sense to our rational minds. That is the whole point of religious discipline: we do these things not because they seem agreeable, or sensible, or make us feel good or because we can see the end result, but we do them in obedience.

          One of the best examples that I know of that demonstrates this principle of discipline comes from Judaism rather than Christianity. Some of you mayhave heard father Harris tell this story. He was involved the organization of the pastoral care program when the Chalmers Hospital first opened, and because of all the meetings involving all the clergy in the area, he came to know Rabbi David Spiro of the Fredericton synagogue quite well. One day while riding down in the elevator of the hospital together after a meeting, Father Harris asked him “Rabbi, why don’t Jews eat pork? Is it because pork carries trichinosis? Is it because pigs could not survive in the desert? What’s the reason behind this rule?” There was a period of silence as the elevator hummed on its way down to the lobby and finally Rabbi Spiro said, “The reason we do not eat pork.... is because God tells us not to.” We, like the Jews, must remember that we do what we do because we are obedient to God not because of any other reason.

          And so Christian living is all about the casting out of sin, and the acquisition of virtue, becoming more obedient. And Today’s Gospel tells us that it is the “finger of God”, the Word of God, that casts out our sins, and next Sunday’s Gospel tells us that it is the same Word of God, the “bread of Heaven,” which fills our empty souls with virtue. Sin is not what we happen to find disagreeable, or inconvenient, or disgusting, rather, sin is what the Word of God forbids. Virtue is not what we happen to find pleasant or nice, or pretty, virtue is what the Word of God demands. Real liberation then lies in our humble obedience to that Word.

          We need the grace of humility to see that our likes and dislikes are not the standard of good and evil. Nor is human judgement any final standard. It is the “finger of God,”- the Word of God --that casts out the devils and liberates the soul. Therefore, the Christian life must be a life lived in attentive obedience to that word

          In the Church’s Lenten message, humility and obedience, are the keys to liberation, and that message focuses in the humble obedience of Christ our Saviour, “that we should follow the example of his great humility.” In the garden of man’s innocence and folly, Satan tempted man and woman saying, ”You shall be like gods, knowing Good and Evil.” (Gen.3:5) In our prideful ambition, ignoring God’s command, we ate of that forbidden tree, in the mistaken belief that wewould be liberated. Our Lenten journey then is meant to be a step on the road between that ancient tree of human disobedience, and the tree of Christ’s obedience to the father on Calvary where he bought our freedom. This is the road to true liberation. Amen.