Sermon for Lent III by Gabriel Hopkins

Delivered by Gabriel Hopkins in the King’s College Chapel, March 23, 2025

+

“Then goeth he and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in,and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

Today, we seem to be increasingly bombarded by products, books, and other various things to help improve ourselves. Perhaps some dieting will do us good, perhaps some sort of affirmation rituals in the morning will fix us. Maybe a self-help book will be my salvation. But after that book, I don’t feel so good. Maybe a few more books will fix this malady, or even some meditation. Perhaps some new trendy vitamin mix or health product will fix me now. We are constantly sold the idea of perpetual novelty as a “solution” to whatever ailment supposedly besets us.

This is what the Gospel parable is about. It tells us of the insufficiency of these things, “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.” Luke 11:24. The unclean spirit had been purged from the man. And that is as far as secular self-improvement can go. For a time the man was free from its torment, but in time the evil spirit came back and found that nothing had taken residence in the man where he once dwelt. And so the spirit came back with some friends and took residence in him, so the man was even worse off than in the start. This is what happens with secular self-improvement. It can remove the evil spirits, it can make you “better” in a sense, but it can never fill the space left by the spirits, and welcomes new infirmities in. The gains can never be realized for long.

Saint Bruno, the great founder of the Carthusians, describes the state of the man that the evil spirit comes back to, “He finds it swept clean by evil brushes, and garnished with evil furnishings; evil brushes that sweep out the virtues, and leave the vices; evil brushes that scatter dust upon the floor, and do not sweep it out.” We must reverse our course. We must sweep out the vices and leave the virtues. Something must fill this void in us.

At the end of our epistle for today we are told what shall fill our void in order to better resist the evil spirits and sin: “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, And Christ shall give thee light” Ephesians 5:14. Without this light we will never find our rest. As Saint Augustine says, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” The secular self-improvement things are not bad in of themselves, but we will never rest until we rest in God. In the words of the collect, “stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty, to be our defence against all our enemies.” We clearly need the protection of the Lord. We have plenty of enemies, both physical and spiritual, fighting against us. Sometimes we even need protection from ourselves.

In order to accept this light of Christ, we must make a turn. A turn from sin to virtue. We must awake from our slumber. Arise from our self-induced death of being closed off to God’s love,and die a different death. Think about the cave of Plato. The strivings of the secular, the ideas of self-improvement, self-help, and the empty illusion of eternal “progress” are the shadows cast by the fire. They are mere images that deceive us into thinking we are improving and yet afterwards, as the gospel says, “the last state of that man is worse than the first.” We must be filled with the light of Christ. We must be filled with righteousness.

But being filled with the light of Christ, inviting Christ to dwell in us, is not for our own glory, gratification, or improvement. God forbid! Making our own selfish gain our highest end is foolishness. Yes, perhaps we may end up being glorified or improved by God through this, but our personal progress is a mere byproduct. This is all for the glory of God. Every time we are lifted up by God, when virtue is cultivated within us, it is only for the purpose that we may better worship Him. As St Paul writes in Galatians, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

By welcoming in the light of Christ, we no longer live for ourselves. We live for that which is greater. He who is Lord and Saviour of us all. I will not trick you and tell you this is all easy. We will fall, we will sin again. For a time, we may even regress to the man who is worse off than he was in the start. As it is written in the Gospel of John, “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” John 5:14. In Christ, we are made whole. In proverbs, it is written, “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” Proverbs 26:11.

Let us not proceed forth like the dog returning to its vomit. For that is what sin is. Vomit. It is something to be purged so we may recover. But invariably we will return eventually. We are fallen. For, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” 1 John 1:10. When we sin, we must repent immediately, and supplicate to the Lord for ourredemption. Let Christ wipe your vomit off of you and let him encompass you with a new, clean garment. A most beautiful garment of virtue and light. Arise from the dead, ready to die a new death, the death to sin.

Be awakened from your stupor in front of the shadows cast by the fire. Gather up supplies and get ready to brave the darkness of the cave. But worry not. Walk forwards with confidence that the light of the world shall illuminate your path and lead you to a life of righteousness, for as our Lord said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12. The path will get narrow, but with faith and repentance the journey will be completed.

Fill yourself with Christ. So that when you expel the evil spirit, he doesn’t come back with more of his friends. We must keep our faith until the end. Never cease from prayer and worship of God for as John Keble, that great leader of the Oxford movement said, “without this true Christian piety, your partial amendments for the world’s sake will not secure you from grievous relapses; will not free you from the sentence of those, who shall be found at the last day to have received the grace of God in vain.”

“Then goeth he and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in, and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”