The portion of the Book of Deuteronomy appointed for today is at the very end of the Sixth Chapter; . . . they are the words of Moses which conclude what he has said at the beginning of the Chapter.  So, in order for you to understand what is said at the end . . . you must hear what is said at the beginning.  . . . Moses has said to the assembled sons and daughters of Israel, newly freed from bondage in Egypt, … Moses has said, “Shama, O Israel, Adonai Elohim, Adonai eched.”  . . . “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one,” . . . “and [Moses continues] you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.  And these words which I command you this day [Moses says] . . . these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart . . . [so that, Moses concludes,] When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt . . . [and the Lord God Almighty loved us and] brought us out of Egypt . . . that he might bring us in and give us the land which he swore to give to our fathers . . . [and, so that we might remember His love and faithfulness, . . . He gave us all the Commandments; . . . and their meaning is that they express the heart of God, … so that we might know His love and faithfulness by living it.]’ ”

    And what God has spoken to the children of Israel by way of the prophet Moses, . . . today the Word of God has said the same thing to you.  So, where you read, for instance, on page 318 in The Book of Common Prayer that “Thou shalt not covet [anything that is your neighbor’s]” . . . keeping the Commandment does not involve convincing yourself you don’t want what your neighbor has, . . . that sort of thing only makes you want it more; . . . rather, keeping the Commandment is to remember that it is God’s ineffable love which has lavished upon your neighbor whatever good she has, . . . and to love God’s love . . . is how we keep the Commandment Thou shalt not covet . . . and all the other Commandments as well.

    And so, the Apostle writes in his First Epistle:

put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander . . . for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

“You have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”  . . . The children of Israel tasted the kindness of the Lord God Almighty when, with a mighty hand, He brought them out of slavery to Pharaoh and into the Land He had promised to Abraham.  You have tasted the kindness of the Lord when, with pierced hands and wounded side, the Incarnate Son of the Lord God Almighty broke the tyranny of sin and death upon the Cross . . . and on the third day brought you into life.  You have tasted the kindness of the Lord.  . . . Savor its sweetness.  Savor the sweetness of the Lord’s kindness and love your precious God from Whom it has come.  . . . And, loving God, make His kindness the perspective from which everything else is seen.  For Jesus has said to you today:

Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house are many rooms; . . . And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

    Jesus counsels us to not allow our hearts to be troubled.  This is because a troubled heart makes you vulnerable to sin.  Indeed, we are told in Psalm 37, “Do not fret yourself . . . Refrain from anger, leave rage alone; do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.”  And evil, we are told in Psalm 40, . . . evil makes us blind:  “innumerable troubles have crowded upon me [the Psalmist writes]; my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.”  And so, Jesus counsels us to not allow our hearts to be troubled, . . . because a troubled heart leads only to evil, in which we become all cramped up in the confining cell of self-preoccupation . . . so that the spaciousness -- the many rooms -- of God’s heart cannot be seen . . . and is soon forgotten.  The odor of the things which trouble us . . . overcomes our memory of how the Lord’s kindness tastes.  . . . Instead, the thing to do when troubles begin to crowd you, Jesus says; . . . the thing to do is to “believe in God.”

    The remedy for sin is to regard troubles with detachment; . . . to hold troubles at arm’s length and remember the taste of God’s kindness.  The remedy for sin is to love God’s love.  The remedy for sin is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your material, mental, and spiritual might.  . . . And if you can’t quite make that leap, Jesus says, . . . then the remedy for sin is also to believe in Him; . . . to believe in Jesus.  For, as we remember each Christmastide, the living Word of God became incarnate (became a living human being) by the power of the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary.  . . . Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary so that whoever has seen the Son of Mary; . . . whoever has contemplated the humanity of Jesus . . . has seen God!  . . . Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary in order to be the Way for each of us out of sin; . . . Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary so that each one of us might know the Way out of sin and into Truth and thereby come to Life.  . . . And that Way and Truth and Life is Jesus.

    So, you see, the glory of these great Fifty Days of Easter is that, having died with Jesus in the death of our Baptism, . . . Jesus, Who is risen, comes to us; . . . the risen Jesus comes to abide with us and imbue us with the Divine Life so that we might be immune to sin; . . . so that troubles might not infest our heart because of the vision we have of the spaciousness of God’s heart, . . . and because of the taste of His kindness which lingers in our own.  . . . And so, I want you to go from here today and live the rest of your days without fretting yourself; . . . I want you to live the rest of your days without any self-protective strategies.  I want you to come to God’s Altar and taste the Lord’s kindness . . . and, remembering that the risen and living Jesus abides with you, . . . I want you to go from here and live the kindness you have tasted; . . . I want you to go from here and do as Jesus does.  . . . For Christ is risen!  Alleluia!