Verse of the Day

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Thanksgiving Day and the First Sunday in Advent


Thanksgiving Day

Thursday brought us Thanksgiving Day; a day known primarily for the excess consumption of food in the company of all available family members.  Sometimes we forget the origin of the thanksgiving in Thanksgiving Day.  While we are, or certainly should be, grateful to God every day for the wonderful world, country and family He has given us, this is the day our country has set aside to give thanks to God.  Not thanks in general, but thanks to God.  If you look at other countries and other times, you cannot be but thankful to God we live here and now.  The list of things to be thankful to God is endless.  If nothing else, give thanks you are here now and able to praise Him.   Here is the start of our family list of things for which we are fortunate and give thanks for:

·      God's love for us;
·      Our great country;
·      Our families;
·      Our military who protect our freedom at great cost to themselves and their families;
·      Our friends (that would be each of you)
·      Our health;
·      Our earthly great fortune;

Surely your list is similar.
Thanksgiving Day
The Collect.
O
 MOST merciful Father, who hast blessed the labours of the husbandman in the returns of the fruits of the earth; We give thee humble and hearty thanks for this thy bounty; beseeching thee to continue thy loving-kindness to us, that our land may still yield her increase, to thy glory and our comfort; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ryn Hopkins read the Epistle for Thanksgiving Day, which uses one of our favorite phrases  “superfluity of naughtiness” and comes from the Epistle of St. James, the First Chapter, beginning at the Sixteenth Verse.  James counsels us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”  God is the perfect source of good.  What is good is of God.  Through His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, we have been given instructions on how to act.  Many of us have listened and claim to be followers of Christ.  But James warns us, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man be-holding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”  With so much about us, we need ask, what is it to do the work of the Lord?  The answer is simple, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Being able to fluently and glibly talk the talk is meaningless, if you will not walk the walk.  You have to fulfill with your body the promises you made with your mouth.

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o not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man be-holding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Deacon Striker Jack Arnold read the Thanksgiving Day Holy Gospel which came from the Sixth Chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew beginning at the Twenty-Fifth Verse.  Jesus tell us to “Trust in God and Dread Naught”.  He reminds us that by worrying, none of us can add even one cubit, or one second for that matter, to the span of our life here on earth.  In a very graphic example He points out that not even the raiment of Solomon, the most glorious of all kings, could approach the beauty of a lily, who toiled not at all. Do as God asks, put your faith in Him and all you need will come to you.  Understand, this means doing as He asks, not just sitting by and watching the world go by.  Note the words of James in the Epistle.

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esus said, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life? And why are ye anxious for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore be not anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Bishop Jerry Ogles Sermon Notes for Thanksgiving Day
20 November 2011 Anno Domini
St Andrews Anglican Orthodox Church

St. Andrews celebrates Thanksgiving the Sunday before, so we have Bishop Jerry’s great sermon notes shared with us what appears to be ahead of time!  Perhaps it is the miracle of an earlier timezone!

Prayer: O MOST merciful Father, who hast blessed the labours of the husbandman in the returns of the fruits of the earth; We give thee humble and hearty thanks for this thy bounty; beseeching thee to continue thy loving-kindness to us, that our land may still yield her increase, to thy glory and our comfort; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"33 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." (Matt 25:31-46)

We celebrate the Thanksgiving Holiday here at Church today.  But Thanksgiving, just like Christmas and Easter, is a day that we should observe every day of our lives. It is always appropriate and Godly to do our labors before the Lord with a spirit of Thanksgiving in all things. There are special way-markers of life upon which we may observe a more elevated and Communal Thanksgiving such as that observed by the Pilgrims at their first harvest in America. We have adopted, as a nation, that day to observe in returning thanks to God for our freedoms and the nation that He has given us for our enjoyment of those freedoms.

Our Gospel text today speaks of that moment in time at which time itself will be no more: It is beautifully expressed in that old Gospel hymn:

When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more,
And the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair;
When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore,
And the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there

The crucifixion of Christ divided all time into those times before, and those after, the coming of Christ. It is the signal event of all history. I had once said that it also divided eternity in half, but, on second though, I believe I was mistaken because infinity cannot be divided in half. Of course, we may label that expanse of eternity before Christ as Eternity Past and that after as Eternity Future. Eternity is a measure of which the human mind is incapable of conceiving.

Next Sunday is 1st Advent Sunday. Advent is the season in which we look to the Coming of Christ as a little child at Bethlehem. But Christ did not only come to us at Christmas – He has been coming to us from eons of Eternity past, and Eternity Future. For the Christian, Christ is forever filling us with His love, with His counsel, with His watchfulness, and even with His tears. He will never cease to come unto us for He abides with us to a greater and greater extent as we are sanctified in Him.

"When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:" Christ came in bodily form at that first Christmas long ago. He came as a little baby nursed by the loving Mary. But when Christ returns in bodily form the second time, He will come trailing the Armies of Heaven. (Rev 19) His great victory which has already been won at Calvary will be fully consummated and all His foes (including the devil and his followers) will be taken cast into the Lake of Fire. Who will the Lord find you following at that coming day? We are not neutral in the great war that is happening upon the earth. We are either WITH Christ, or we are AGAINST Him. We belong to one of two families – that of the Kingdom of God, or of Satan. Before coming to Christ, we already belong to that rebellious and dark angel. If we will belong to that Kingdom of God, we must make application to be naturalized and adopted into that citizenship.

"And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats." How does a shepherd divide his sheep from the goats?  Professor Broadus describes the approach with this observation: "The morning after reaching Palestine, when setting out from Ramleh, across the plain of Sharon, we saw a shepherd leading forth a flock of white sheep and black goats, all mingled as they followed him. Presently he turned aside into a little green valley, and stood facing the flock. When a sheep came up he tapped it with his long staff on the right side of the head, and it quickly moved off to his right; a goat he tapped on the other side, and it went to the left. Thus the Savior's image presented itself exactly before our eyes."
Is it ever a possibility that the Good Shepherd might mistake a lamb for a goat, or vice versa? See this: "I saw, at a certain spot, a great intermingled flock of sheep and goats. The goats were all perfectly black, the sheep were all beautifully white; and thus, even to my eye, and while I was looking from a distance, the distinction between the two kinds was strikingly obvious. If a separation of the two had been required, there would not have been the least possiblity of a mistake." (Morison, Suggestive Illustrations, 1879)
If we suffer division and hate here among races, we will not do so in heaven – for we shall not go there with such an attitude. If we cannot learn to love our brothers and sisters in Christ on this earth, we shall never have a second chance.
"And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." What a day of great joy to some, and such a devastation of misery for many. The sheep and the goats have continued together in the same flock for a very long time. Has not the Lord forewarned us of this: "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?  He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn."  (Matt 13:24-30) "In the rabbinic custom of the day, the right hand signified approbation and eminence: the left hand, rejection, and disapprobation. The right and left were emblematical of endless beatitude and endless misery among the Romans." - Adam Clarke's Commentary

Have you ever fed Christ? If not, how could you do it? Have you provided Him, at the cross perhaps, raiment to cover His nakedness? Would you have done if you could have? When you saw the Lord wandering as a stranger, did you give Him shelter? Or, when you saw Him thirsty with lips parched and tongue cleaving to the roof of His mouth, did you at least offer Him a drink? When you saw Him bleeding and beaten, did you go to His aid, or when He was falsely charged and in the prison of Pontius Pilate, did you at least visit Him to comfort Him? "For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me." Have you done any of these things for Christ? You should have done if you are His friend! Answer not without thinking, for it is likely that you have performed some of these services for the Lord: "Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?" Do you find yourselves attempting to answer such a question proffered by a hurting conscience? When have we lifted a finger to soothe the whelps of the whiplash on the back of our Lord? Or when did we apply a soothing balm to those jagged wounds made by the crown of thorns crushed down on His innocent brow? When did we stand up boldly and declare Him to be our Friend as He stood before the Judgment seat of Pilate? Would we have done?
"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." What a wonderful comfort. Lord, though unworthy, may I hear these words from your blessed mouth! Have you comforted a hurting child who could never hope to repay your kindness, or a widowed woman whose life has become hard a full of deprivation? Have you stopped by the wayside to assist a total stranger even though your time was pressing? Have you given of your own resources to build up the ruined ashes of another who is helpless to raise himself? If so, you have done for Christ.
"Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." The goats (false professors, hypocrites, and villains) on the left hand shall go into everlasting punishment (longer than 24 hours, or even 24 millennia) but the sheep on the right hand shall enjoy life eternal with Christ.

If the Curtain of Time falls this morning, where shall you be standing – as a stubborn, stiff-necked goat on the left hand (nearest the fire) or as a lamb on the right hand (nearest the gates of heaven)? The ball is in your court!

Advent Sunday
28 November 2011, 236th Birthday of the United States Navy Chaplain Corps[1]

Today was the First Sunday in Advent.  This is the first day of the new “liturgical year”[2], a New Year’s Day, so to speak.  It is also the first Santa Ana of the weather year, sunrise temperature was 57°F on Mount Olympus with bright blue skies and moderate winds of 5-15 knots.  The start of church brought a lovely 68°F, which warmed to a lovely 73°F under those same blue skies with no clouds at all.  The superb weather brought out 4 people for the service:

Gathering Song

Today, the propers for today can be found on Page 90-92:

The First Sunday in Advent
The Collect.

A
LMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

¶ This Collect is to be repeated every day, after the other Collects in Advent, until Christmas Day.

Ryan Hopkins read the Epistle for today, which comes from Paul’s letter to the Romans,  starting at the Eight Verse of the Thirteenth Chapter.  Paul tells us to be self sufficient, but love and care for one another, do not commit adultery, do not murder, steal or lie.  But more than that, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”  For, if you love your neighbor, you will do no ill to him.  “Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”  We need to do this today, because the time of “our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.”  We hear often “The end of the world is near.”  And it may well be.  But for each of us, this world’s end comes when we leave for the next.  Have we treated our fellow beings as Jesus commanded us in God’s name?  Because in the answer to that is hidden the key to our next life.

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we no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Deacon Striker Jack Arnold read today’s Holy Gospel which came from the Gospel  according to Saint Matthew, the Twenty-First Chapter, beginning at the First Verse.  It is the story  of Palm Sunday when Jesus came triumphant into Jerusalem.  Jesus sent “two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.”  This was done that the prophecy of years gone past might be fulfilled of a triumphant entry of the Messiah into Jerusalem.  The people expecting a Prince of this World, “spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.”   Rather than assuming the crown of this world, “Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”[3]

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hen they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.

Sermon – Time and Action
Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly  contained in the forewords above. 

As is oft the case, today’s propers are all tied together.  As is usual, they provide direction and call for action not just thoughts.  The collect asks God for His Grace to accept His Help to do what we are supposed to do, so that we might have the desired result, Eternal Life with Him. 

Paul exhorts us to love one another, for if we love one another we cannot do each other ill.  You cannot steal from one you love.  You can steal from one you say you love.  Saying and doing are not the same.  Paul calls on us to put on that armor of light, the feeling in our heart and soul, the Holy Ghost, that we might do what we are supposed to do.  To do our duty.  For duty is doing what you are supposed to do, without regard to the cost, without regard to what others think, without regard to the likely outcome.  To do what is to be done.

Consider the story of Palm Sunday that Saint Matthew relates. The period between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday is often referred to as Holy Week.  Most churchgoing people go to church on Palm Sunday, then to church on Easter Sunday. It’s a fairly uplifting time with not a lot of thinking. On Palm Sunday Jesus makes his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. On Easter Sunday there’s the joyous resurrection. What’s not to like about that?

Well, if you follow the whole story, not just the beginning and the end, you find Holy Week was a roller coaster, a series of ups and downs.  Some high, some low, a true nadir and zenith.  Luckily for us the best was saved for last.

Sunday was a day of triumph and fulfilled the anticipation of the Jews of a day for which they had waited four centuries.  The Messiah had finally come, at the time predicted by scripture.  They were certain that He would free them from the burdensome and cruel yoke of Roman rule.  The Jews would finally be on top of the power pyramid.  They would rule the world under Him!  Yet, that was not to be.  The day in the temple!  Holy Cow!  Here their savior was throwing people out of the temple, not throwing the Romans out of Jerusalem.  They were sad to learn He came not to rule this world, for that time was not yet come; He came to give them the key to eternal salvation.  He came to take them from this veil of tears to a state of perfect freedom.  They wanted someone to throw the Romans out and all God sent them was the key to eternal life.  What a disappointment!

Are we not so often like that?  Disappointed in the gift of elegant gold when we wanted costume jewelry.

Bishop Dennis Campbell’s Sermon
Bishop Dennis is a brilliant speaker, making biblical precepts perfectly understandable, even to me.  Oft he provides the text of his sermons and I take the utmost pleasure in passing them on:

Getting ready for Christmas
Romans 14:8-14
First Sunday in Advent
27 November 2011
                                         
I have called today's sermon, "Getting Ready for Christmas."  Advent is a time to prepare for Christmas, but, unlike shopping and decorations, Advent emphasises the spiritual aspect of Christmas.  If we are going to celebrate Christmas instead of just a winter holiday, then it is good to consider what we are doing, and why.  Advent helps us do this.  Even the name of the season, "Advent," tells us we are thinking about the arrival of the Saviour, the Light of the World, who came to save His people from their sins.
Advent does not simply look back to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem more than two-thousand years ago.  It also looks ahead to the Second Coming of Christ.  Thus, it reminds us that we live in anticipation of the Lord's Return, and to the completion of the Kingdom He began when He came in humility to sacrifice Himself for us.  It is the aspect of looking ahead to the Return of Christ that I want to dwell on today, and I want to begin with what watching for His Return does not mean.

Watching for Christ's Return does not mean attempting to make current events fit Matthew 24 as signs that His Return is near.   In the first place, that is not what Matthew 24 is about.  In the second place, there is vagueness in the Bible about when and how the Lord is coming back.  I think that vagueness is intentional.  I think the Lord wants to keep us on the alert, and if He were to tell us the year and the hour of His return, His people might become lax and complacent about being His people.  My parents used to give my sister and me tasks to do if they were going out. They would not tell us when they were coming back, but they expected the tasks to be done, or to find us busy doing them when they arrived.  I think the Lord has the same kind of thing in mind about His Coming; He expects to find us busy about the task of being His people, not sleeping on the job.  I think it is clear that watching for Christ's Return does not mean trying to guess when He will return, or who the antichrist is.  All of these things are favourite pass times of people waiting for Christ's Return, but I think they are misguided.

So what exactly does it mean to be watching for Christ's Return?  It is living in such a way that if the Lord were to return now He would find us living for Him.  It means living the kind of life He died to give to us.  It means we are busy about the task of being the Church and Kingdom of God.  In more Biblical terms, it means we are continuing in the faith once delivered to the saints.  This faith has two components; doctrine and practice.

Doctrine of course means the truths taught in the Bible, for it is in the Bible that we learn what we are to believe about God and what duties God requires of us.  So, when St. Paul wrote that the Scripture is profitable for doctrine, he did not mean it is one of several profitable sources.  He meant the Bible is the source of profitable doctrine.  If you use the word, "authoritative" in place of "profitable" you begin to see what Paul is trying to teach us in II Timothy 3.

There is a movement within the "Church" to do away with doctrine.  People, believing they are being led by the Holy Spirit, want to replace doctrine with sentiment and religious experiences.  They don't seem to realise that if other doctrines can be expelled from the faith, their doctrine of the Holy Spirit can also be expelled.  Nor do they seem to realise that expelling their doctrine of the Holy Spirit is inevitable once we start excising doctrines, or doing so also reveals the foundation of their beliefs, which is their own imaginations, not the Holy Spirit's leadership.  Watching for Christ's Return necessarily means continuing in the Apostles' doctrine; the doctrine Christ gave to the Apostles, which they committed to writing, and which God preserves for us in the Bible.   

The second part of the faith in which we are to continue, if we are truly watching for the Return of Christ, is what we often call, "Christian living."  By this I mean the obvious things of worship, fellowship, Christian love, and all the things we generally summarise in the term, "good works."  But there is more to Christian living than good works.  There is this thing of being transformed in our inner being so we become more like Christ and less like Satan.  It is the continuing process of becoming Godly in our essence.  I have a hard time putting this into words.  I think this is because the concept is bigger than our words can describe; which is why the Bible uses word pictures to communicate it to us, like new creature and following Christ.  I am trying to say that being a Christian is not just doing good; it is actually becoming good through the continuing work of the Holy Spirit in your inner being.  Though I have a hard time expressing this in concrete words, I think the concept is readily understood by any true Christian as an essential part of watching for Christ's Return, and of the Gospel message.  I think this is an important part of what Paul meant in Romans 13:14 by the words "put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ."

But something very important might happen before the Lord Returns to end the world.  He might return for you or me.  He might come to take us out of this world through death.  That might be the way the world ends for us.  And we need to be living life in such a way that we are always ready for His appearing, whether it is at the end of the world, or at the end of our lives.  Advent reminds us to live in readiness.  Thus we pray;

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LMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

--
+R. Dennis Campbell
Bishop of Diocese of Virginia
Rector, Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
Powhatan, Virginia


[1] For our Marine readers, it should be noted that it took the country just about two and a half weeks after the establishment of the Marine Corps to figure out they needed a Chaplain Corps to keep the Marines under some semblance of control.
[2] If you would like to know what the liturgical year is all about, there is an explanation near the end of this report.
[3] Sometimes quoted as a reason for the church not to have rummage sales, the sellers were thrown out as they were cheating the people, selling the one legged sparrow in the morning as a “perfect specimen of an unblemished dove” without fault for a sacrifice, then reselling the same sparrow in the afternoon.  They were indeed making the temple a den of thieves rather than a place of worship.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Sunday next before Advent - Commonly called Stir Up Sunday!


The propers for the Sunday next before Advent can be found on Page 225-226:

The Sunday next before Advent
The Collect.
S

TIR up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ryan Hopkins read the Epistle for today, which came from the Book of Jeremiah, the Twenty-Third Chapter, beginning at the Fifth Verse.  Foretelling the arrival of Jesus, Jeremiah prophesied, “I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”  He prophesied the New Covenant, moving reference of the Lord from Egypt to Israel and the return to one people of those driven out of their homeland across the world.

B
EHOLD, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

Deacon Striker Jack Arnold read the Holy Gospel for today which came from the  Gospel according to Saint John, the Sixth Chapter, beginning at the Fifth Verse.  John relates one of the feeding the masses in the wilderness events.  This event occurring long before there was a Thanksgiving Day, seems very appropriate for the weekend and also forshadows the arrival of the Christ at Christmas coming to feed our spiritual needs in the wilderness of this world.

With five thousand men with them looking for food in the wilderness, “One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down…”  Reminding us that if the Son of God gave thanks to God for His food, so ought we, “Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, ‘This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.’”

Compare to saving our souls and feeding the inner hunger we have for God’s love, feeding a mere 5,000 men is child’s play, but then Jesus said we should accept God and His love through Him as the children do.  So perhaps it really is child’s play.

W
HEN Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

Sermon – Time and Action
Today’s sermon tied the Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above. 

As is oft the case, today’s propers are all tied together.  As is usual, they call for action not just thoughts.  In fact the collect is among the most direct, asking God to stir our hearts that we might ACT in a manner which will result in good things!  Jeremiah prophesies the coming of Jesus out of the branch of David that He might unite God’s people as one under a New Covenant.  John tells us Jesus not only comes to fill our hunger, literal in that if we follow Him we will do much better here on earth than if we do not, and figurative only He can fill the hunger in our hearts for God.  Interestingly, He tells the disciples to “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.”  Think about that and take what it is offered before it is no longer on the menu!

Happy Anniversary! 
This is the 48th anniversary of the establishment of the Anglican Orthodox Church by Bishop Parker Dees, a man who put our Lord before himself.  Please see the following from Bishop Jerry:

Anglican Orthodox Church
PO Box 128
Statesville, N.C. 28687

DATE: 16 November 2011 Anno Domini
TO: Faithful Members and Friends of the AOC
SUBJECT: 48th Anniversary Letter

"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matt 16:18)

Contrary to the opinion of high churchmen, the Rock to which Christ referred was not to Peter as an individual, but to the faith in Christ which Peter demonstrated by his testimony. No man is the rock upon which the church is built for that Rock is none other than the Lord Jesu  s Christ Himself. The foundation of the Church is made sure by the apostolic faith and Doctrine of Christ as related through the preaching and teachings of Christ and His Apostles. There can be no Apostolic Succession where the Doctrines of Christ, as revealed to the Apostles, is not abundantly professed and clarified. If you wish to have the solid Rock for the Church, look not to man, but to Christ – "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;  And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;  And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." (1 Cor 10:1-4)

We have been blessed in the AOC to have such Apostolic Succession from our separation from the Protestant Episcopal Church (so-called) and founding as a separate Communion in the Reformed and Anglican Tradition. The courageous Bishop James Parker Dees fought apostasy and heresy in the Episcopal Church for many years before deciding that the Church was doomed to continue on the way of Baal. Upon leaving that body, Bishop Dees faced persecution from every quarter – political, social and spiritual. Though his last assignment as a priest had included service as Rector of a black Episcopal Church, he was charged as being a racist and a radical. Priests of the ECUSA paraded all night around his house with loudspeakers and banners for three nights in a row. Every word he had written or spoken was twisted and misconstrued by the media who acted as vassals of the larger church body.

Bishop Dees never relented, but continued on the straight course upon which the Lord had placed his feet. On November 16th in the Year of our Lord 1963, Bishop Dees founded the Anglican Orthodox Church. He took the church back to the formularies and faith of the Great English Reformation Church of Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer. From that day until this, the AOC has remained faithful to that biblical faith for which the English and Continental martyrs died.

As we move into the future years, let us remain faithful to that biblical faith until Christ returns and finds us laboring as faithful and devout servants.

In Christ Alone,

JERRY L. OGLES
Presiding Bishop

400th Anniversary of the Authorized Version of the Bible
The Authorized Version, commonly known as the King James Version, King James Bible or KJV, is an English translation of the Christian Bible by the Church of England begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. First printed by the King's Printer Robert Barker, this was the third official translation into English; the first having been the Great Bible commissioned by the Church of England in the reign of King Henry VIII, and the second was the Bishop's Bible of 1568. In January 1604, King James I of England convened the Hampton Court Conference where a new English version was conceived in response to the perceived problems of the earlier translations as detected by the Puritans, a faction within the Church of England.

James gave the translators instructions intended to guarantee that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and its beliefs about an ordained clergy.  The translation was done by 47 scholars, all of whom were members of the Church of England.  In common with most other translations of the period, the New Testament was translated from Greek, the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew text, while the Apocrypha were translated from the Greek and Latin. In the Book of Common Prayer (1662), the text of the Authorized Version replaced the text of the Great Bible – for Epistle and Gospel readings – and as such was authorized by Act of Parliament.  By the first half of the 18th century, the Authorized Version was effectively unchallenged as the English translation used in Anglican and Protestant churches. Over the course of the 18th century, the Authorized Version supplanted the Latin Vulgate as the standard version of scripture for English speaking scholars.

Anglican Orthodox Church
PO Box 128
Statesville, N.C. 28687

DATE: 19 November 2011 Anno Domini
TO: Faithful Members and Friends of the AOC
SUBJECT: Anniversary Letter of the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame." (Hosea 4:6-7)

It must be admitted by even the most complacent observer that America and her people  are no longer the bright and shining star of freedom and liberty once projected by the mere mention of her name. It is true that America remains a cut above most other nations of the world for hope and promise, yet she has fallen far below her previous standing as a beacon light of hope to which the whole world looked with admiration and longing. We have forgotten, among other things in our heritage, beauty and love – the two are inextricably joined at the heart. We have rejected the idyllic in the arts, and opted for the perverse. The graphic arts have degenerated over the past several decades from that which depicts the glory and beauty of God's Creation into that which distorts and disfigures all that is beautiful. The same is true of our music. If we can no longer compose to the standard of Bach, Vivaldi, Mendelsohn, Mozart, Handel, or Beethoven, why not retain this beauty in music until we are able to so compose. Instead, we have cast aside the beauty of melody and opted for the jumbled and unorganized notes of music which lowers the inspiration of the soul uses words that once would have been considered so disgusting that we would have landed in jail for uttering them.

America has been respected and looked up to over the years. As we began our descent into the abyss of vulgar tastes and perverse living, the world has watched and followed us there. Our media is quite powerful conveying our cultural failures to the rest of the planet. We have dumbed down our schools and institutes of higher learning believing that technical expertise can replace knowledge and spiritual advancement. How utterly profound has been our descent. We no longer know the meaning of an evening meal together with family. Fast foods, fast entertainment, decadent lifestyles, and foolish pursuits have occupied the hands that once built dreams and bridges.

The greatest decline has occurred in our souls and minds. The dull scrawlings we call art, the ear bursting racket we call music, and the dredges of society we call `movie star idols' have transformed our souls into dark and forbidding pits of despair. Those things of beauty which are classical because their value has increased in appreciation over the years rather than declined, are cast aside for rubbish. Shakespeare, Dostoyevski, Tolstoi, Cicero, Dickens, Longfellow, or Hawthorne are no longer read in our schools. Instead, our students read books such as "Bobby has two Daddies". Historical perspective is no longer taught except in ways that distort history to satisfy a political agenda.

And what of our language? It, too, has suffered shameful degradation. We have forgotten he old adage that "words have meaning and consequence." The dumbing-down of America has been a clever undertaking by those who love not liberty or freedom. They wish to control, not only the American people, but the populations of the world into lab dogs that would have made Pavlov proud  that we have fallen so easily to a people of `conditioned' response. I believe this process began with the most important element of our American society – the Church. We are graduating, and have been for a very long time, men who are biblically illiterate by the standards of the past. They have been conditioned to have a very low view of scriptuire and will accept any corruption of the word as long as it is label `bible version'. We have done so, with surprising success, by casting off the ancient landmarks and taking up the produce of the cattle stall as more valid than that text the Reformers called "commonly received." It amazes me that men for whom I initially feel to be of very high scholarship prove to have little wisdom, or scholarship, when it comes to the most important possession man can hold in his hands – the Holy Bible. Our King James Bible is the greatest accomplishment in translation beauty and accuracy of any to be produced byt the church. Those modern version, produced by corporations and which are under man's copyright, only contain bits and pieces of God's revealed Word. Within their so-called translational styles, they have embedded deadly [poisons that take away from the grace and beauty of God's Word. They take, primarily, two specious manuscripts which leave great gaps throughout their pages (in the originals) where long scriptural passages occur in the Received Text. These two manuscripts disagree in a great number of places even with each other, yet the modern mind can accept them more readily because they appear less harsh and require less backbone for their adherents in standing up for Christ and the Trinity. On the other hand, the Received Text is comprised of more than 90% of the manuscript evidence and all these agree together. I suppose "in the mouths of two witnesses shall the truth the truth be established" is no longer sound counsel of Christ since the two witnesses of the modern, copyrighted versions do not agree.

I have added to this long letter a very informative and scholarly article from an English Churchman. It was sent to me by Dru Arnold to whom I am very grateful for the sharing. If your attention span has not been hopelessly crippled, please read the below article:

The King of the Bibles
As the Queen prepares to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Version, Peter Mullen pours scorn on some of its modern rivals.
By Peter Mullen
7:06AM GMT 14 Nov 2011

We enjoyed a parish visit recently to St George's Chapel, Windsor: the Queen's Chapel. In there was a big sign saying, "Celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible". I must say, it was a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance. For at Choral Evensong, the lessons were both from some illiterate, godforsaken modern version. I knew we were in for trouble from the start when, in the Old Testament lesson, King Solomon addressed the Almighty as, "You God…" – as if the deity were some miscreant fourth-former in the back row. Of course it went from bad to worse.

On Wednesday, the Queen will attend a service of celebration at Westminster Abbey to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. The address will be given by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who earlier this year urged us to read the King James Bible in order to get a glimpse of what he called "the big picture". Perhaps this was meant to go with Dave's idea of "the big society"? This is a strange injunction, coming as it did from a man who has been in positions of power and influence in the church for decades. For in that time the same church hierarchy has ruthlessly suppressed the King James Bible, along with the Book of Common Prayer.

I can add a personal note on this subject. When I came to the City in 1998 I discovered that St Sepulchre's did not have a lectern Bible in the King James Version (KJV). So I asked St Paul's if they would lend me one of theirs.  They replied, "Oh yes, and you can keep it. We never use it at St Paul's, only when the Royal Family comes – awkward people like that." The King James Bible is a work of literary and spiritual genius. It is the religious register in English and its words and phrases have penetrated deeply into English literature. You cannot read 10 pages of Dickens or Arnold, George Eliot or the Brontës without coming across wholly integrated resonances of the King James Version. And, of course, English poetry is saturated with it. WH Auden said, as he witnessed the sidelining of the King James Bible: "It was our luck to have that translation made when English was at its strongest and most robust. Why spit on our luck?"

CH Sisson said that all we really know is what he called "the reluctant deposit on the mind's floor". That is to say, what you remember when you've forgotten everything else. For centuries, people of all walks of life have carried around with them echoes of the King James Version. So to throw it out as the church hierarchy has done amounts to a savage act of deprivation and, as this deprivation is of the Word of God in English, it is vicious iconoclasm. Sidelining the King James Version especially deprives our children and is therefore a notable case of child abuse.

There is no such thing as noble truth expressed in ignoble words. The choice of words determines what is being said. Therefore, we should choose the best.

"Strips of cloth" is no substitute for "swaddling clothes". And Mary was "with child" – we think of the Madonna and Child – and she had not "fallen pregnant" as it says in one of the modern versions. You cannot satisfactorily replace "through a glass darkly" with the crass literalism "puzzling reflections in a mirror" or "sounding brass and tinkling cymbal" with "noisy gong and clanging cymbal". The King James Bible was designed to be read aloud in churches. All the modern versions sound as if they have been written by tone-deaf people with tin ears and no rhythm.

What level of vacuity is reached when "Son of Belial" (i.e. the devil himself) is rendered by the New English Bible (NEB) as "a good-for-nothing"? As if the son of the devil is only a truant from the fourth form who has been stealing from the housemaster's orchard.

The real Bible says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." The NEB gives us instead, "The first step to find wisdom." But that is only the way in which babyish primary school teachers speak to their charges. The first step to find wisdom – and then, if you are ever so good little children, I'll show you the second step. This is infantilization. Sometimes the New Jerusalem Bible's (NJB) pedantry, this pseudo-scholarly fascination with all that is merely foreign and obscure, is just silly, as in "You, Yahweh examine me." But occasionally it is mindlessly un-poetic and banal, as in the substitution of "Acclaim Yahweh" for the mesmerizingly beautiful and timelessly familiar "make a joyful noise unto the Lord". But in one example of supreme idiocy the meaning becomes impenetrable: The King James Version says, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord …" In the New Jerusalem Bible this degenerates into tasteless obscurantism: "If you live in the shelter of Elyon and make your home in the shadow of Shaddai, you can say to Yahweh …" The Revised Standard Version (RSV) loves to parade the translators' acquaintance with the slightest nuances in the ancient languages but their utter ignorance of what will go into ordinary English. It renders the "giants" of Genesis as "nephilim" – to the confusion, one supposes, of elderly ladies everywhere. And the "two pence" that the Good Samaritan gave to the innkeeper as "two denarii" – lest we should imagine that the currency of the Roman Empire was the same as that of England, pre-decimalization.

The RSV makes a habit of iconoclasm, as for instance in its destruction of that very familiar phrase: "Arise, take up thy bed and walk." The RSV says, "Take up your pallet and go home." Because we must on no account be allowed to imagine that the poor paralytic slunk off carrying his four-poster, we have forced upon us the literalism pallet: and the result sounds like instructions to a sloppy painter.

The NEB also cannot tell the difference between speech that is poetic and metaphorical and speech that is literal and descriptive. That is why for "wolves in sheep's clothing" we are given instead the pantomime howler "men dressed up as sheep". We recall perhaps Ulysses' escape from the Cyclops or that pejorative expression "mutton dressed up as lamb". In the KJV men are "at meat" or they "sup"; but the RSV mentions a Pharisee who "asked Jesus to dine" – where, at The Garrick or White's? Likewise, his rebuke to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, "O fools and slow of heart" is emasculated to become "How dull you are!" How dull indeed. Can you imagine for one minute Our Lord Jesus Christ on the evening of his day of resurrection using such language? "How dull!"

The KJV's "pearl of great price" is exhibited in more of that infantilised Blue Peter language as "a pearl of very special value". And then the end of the world itself is described as if it were only an exceptionally hot afternoon at Goodwood: "My dear friends…" (that is the voice of the NEB's urbane, housetrained St Peter) "…do not be bewildered by the fiery ordeal that is coming upon you, as though it were something extraordinary." The end of the world not extraordinary?

There is a sort of discreet charm about the KJV's saying, "It ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women." This is marvellous. It seems to reach up the underclothes of words, as that other great admirer of biblical prose, Dylan Thomas, said. But the Jerusalem Bible was written in the era of sex education, so it can confidently come straight out with "ceased to have her monthly periods". And the KJV's "great whore of Babylon" seems to have lost what is left of her character when the New Jerusalem Bible refers to her only as "the famous prostitute". Who is this – Eskimo Nell?

With studied pedantry, the New Jerusalem Bible replaces "inn" with "living space" – I suppose because they imagined readers to be so literal-minded that we might think St Luke meant the Rose and Crown. A similar pedantry removes the KJV's lovely "coat of many colours" and offers us "a decorated tunic". The KJV translates Psalm 139: 16 – a beautiful poem in which the Psalmist declares that God knew him "while he was yet in his mother's womb – as thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect." This is allusive, evocative, tender. Unbelievably, the NJB gives us instead, "Your eyes could see my embryo" – as if God were a member of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority.

There is a pervading irreverence bordering on blasphemy. The translation of the Psalms in the Book of Common Prayer is by Miles Coverdale and he renders the Hebrew, "O let thine ears consider well …" The NJB gives this as "Listen attentively Yahweh". But is that the way to speak to God? What more is there to be said when we notice that the NJB renders "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity" as "Sheer futility. Everything is futile." That phrase will serve as the motto for all the modern translations: "Sheer futility".

How hypocritical and sordid of the church authorities relentlessly to suppress the KJV, only to take it out and gawp at it in an anniversary year, as if it were a museum piece and we were all blundering tourists. The proper place for the KJV is on the lectern in every parish church – to be read, marked, learnt and inwardly digested, week in, week out.

Rev Dr Peter Mullen
Rector of St Michael, Cornhill, and St Sepulchre in the City of London

Stir Up Sunday
Stir Up Sunday is an informal term in the Anglican Church for the last Sunday before the season of Advent. The term comes from the opening words of the collect for the day in the Book of Common Prayer:
S

STIR up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Through an association of ideas, the day subsequently became connected, especially in England, with the preparation of Christmas puddings in readiness for Christmas. Also,  though with no real religious significance, Stir Up Sunday is located just the right time of the year to make the fruit cakes, Christmas Puddings and the like to be consumed on Christmas.   In many English culture homes, the afternoon of Stir Up Sunday is dedicated to measuring, stirring and cooking the Christmas Pudding!

The Christmas pudding is an important part of the Christmas Day celebrations in the UK.  Christmas pudding is a round, rich and heavy pudding made from fruit, eggs, sugar, breadcrumbs, suet, spices, and alcohol such as brandy or rum. Many families have their favorite pudding recipe, which is often passed down through generations of family members.

Stir-up Sunday is traditionally the day for making your Christmas pudding; giving it a month to mature before eating it on Christmas day. Stir-up Sunday is on the 20th November this year.

According to tradition, everyone in the family (especially the children) takes a turn to stir the pudding and makes a wish while stirring. Traditionally, the pudding should be stirred from east to west in honour of the three Kings who travelled from the East to see Jesus; and it should also have 13 ingredients to represent Christ and his disciples.

It used to be common for people to put a coin in their Christmas pudding. This was supposed to bring wealth in the coming year to the person who found it.

Christmas puddings are popular in the UK, but many people now buy their puddings from their local supermarket.

In the Book of Common Prayer of 1662 and later, this collect is listed for "The Twenty-Fifth Sunday After Trinity", with accompanying rubric specifying that this collect "shall always be used upon the Sunday next before Advent". This reinforced the significance of this day as forming part of the preparation for the season of Advent. The rubric is necessary because the last Sunday before Advent does not always fall on the twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity: Trinity Sunday is a moveable feast and the Advent season is fixed, so the number of weeks in between varies from year to year. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer solves this dilemma by marking only 24 Sundays after Trinity and setting this Sunday apart as “Next before Advent.”