SERMON FOR FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST:

WHAT LEADS ONE TO KILL:

ANGER

HATRED

DESPAIR

DRUNKENESS/DRUGS

CARELESSNESS

CRUELTY

After giving examples of the false piety of the Pharisees (the rigid
observance of the laws of tithes, the Sabbath observance, etc.) he
goes on to point out that there are similar examples to be found in
modern life. Here is a man who has a daily rule of life, special
times laid down for spiritual reading and other exercises of piety.
But listen to his conversation or see him when he has been injured
and you will soon see that he is malicious, vain, impossible with
his fellow man, ready to judge them at once without trail, slow to
forgive, etc. Or another case, a women who is the first to join pious
associations, aspires to the heights of sanctity, but who in her own
home life has little or no consideration for her husband or children,
careless about her obligations to her servants, proud, bad-tempered,
etc. Woe to you, he says to the Pharisees, and also to the Christians
who are unworthy of the name and religion they profess. Not merely
those who live in vice and abandon God, but also those who pretend
to serve him faithfully yet ignore the very foundations of that
service.