The propers for today are found
on Pages 105-106, with the Collect first:
The Circumcision of Christ.
[January 1.]
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY God, who madest thy blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the
law for man; Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts,
and all our members, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may
in all things obey thy blessed will; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.
The First Sunday
after Christmas Day.
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY
God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and
as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; Grant that we being regener- ate,
and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy
Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with
thee and the same Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
The Nativity of our Lord, or the Birthday of Christ,
commonly called Christmas Day.
[December 25.]
The
Collect.
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LMIGHTY
God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and
as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; Grant that we being regenerate,
and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy
Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee
and the same Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
¶ This Collect is to be said daily throughout the Octave.
Ryan Hopkins read the Epistle for today, which came from
Paul’s letter to the people of Philippia, starting at the Ninth Verse of the
Second Chapter. The portion of the letter used as today’s Epistle is relatively
short. God has sent His Son to
earth and given him a name above all others, Jesus[1]. Paul exhorts his fellow followers to
continue to follow the Lord, not only while he is watching them, but at all
times. God will give them the will
and ability to do good, but only if they do their best to follow Him.
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OD also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name
which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of
things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.
The Gospel for today came from the Gospel according
to Saint Luke, the Second Chapter,
beginning at the Fifteenth Verse. Today’s Gospel recounts the angels visit to
the shepherds who came into Bethlehem to pay homage to Jesus in the
manger. It also documents the
circumcision of Jesus, bringing Him under the Law. He who: Is, Was and always Will be, put Himself under the
Law, that He might fulfill the Law and be our salvation.
Our salvation from the Law came from the perfect
sacrifice one time for the sins of all mankind for all time. It could only come from one who was
perfect, to enter in to the Law, one had to be subject to the Law. Thus, Jesus submitted Himself unto the
Law that he might in the end have dominion over the Law.
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nd it came to pass, as the angels
were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us
now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the
Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and
Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made
known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they
that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the
shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they
had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. And when eight days were
accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS,
which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Sermon – Time
and Action
Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and
Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above.
Today we recall the circumcision of our Lord and
Savior. He is God, yet He is under
The Law. Not all those 613 laws
were those called Moral, that is to say the Ten Commandments, but there are
those which are moral and there are also laws of God or physics. God, the Ultimate Being, is subject to
the laws He made. While He can,
and does on the very special occasion, disregard them such as when the shadow
went backwards, for the most part He, too, is subject to The Laws[2]. Why? Because they were made for the general good of this
world. Without a system of order,
there is chaos. God is not
chaos. God never brings confusion.
God never tests, but when we are
tested by this world, He monitors the results. He brought the new covenant or new agreement to us through
His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Knowing we cannot ever be perfect, He gave us a way to be accounted as
perfect at the Judgment Day – One Sacrifice, Made One time, by One Man who was
God, for All Mankind for All Time.
Jesus is our light and our life.
Through Him all things are possible.
All salvation takes is the simple understanding of a
child or a shepherd. The simple
truth that is Christ. He was not
complex. His message was not
sophisticated. He is the way. The One Way!
This is the first day of the New Calendar Year. Remember also, it is the first day of
the remainder of your life here on earth, let it count for something. We live
in the present, the past will never come again and tomorrow never comes. Take
the right path starting right now!
Bishop
Ogles’ Sermon Notes
Bishop Jerry sent his sermon notes. As always, it is a very interesting and
enlightening read. I think that
you will find his exposition on the text of today’s propers meaningful. I know that it was very helpful to me.
Circumcision
of Christ
1 January 2012, Anno Domini
"Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past
Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called
the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in
Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the
middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity,
even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of
twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God
in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and
preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For
through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye
are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and
of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the
building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom
ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."
(Ephesians 2:11-22)
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY God, who madest thy blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the
law for man; Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts,
and all our members, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may
in all things obey thy blessed will; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.
Today, in accordance with the
western calendar, we observe the beginning of a New Year. This is not the
beginning of the year as mandated in Holy Scripture, for it begins at the
season of Spring the first day of the Hebrew month of Nisan. "And the LORD
spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be
unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to
you." (Ex 12:1-2) (see also Deut 16:1 for Abib which is now Nisan). This
month of Nisan was the month of the Passover (14th). It was the ecclesiastical
New Year in the Bible. It has been suggested as the month of Christ's birth
and, therefore we celebrate Christmas some nine months later.
We have been recently reading from the
Gospel of John and his Epistles about what John calls "in the
beginning." This beginning relates to the Space-Time-Matter continuum that
defines our understanding of the created universe. Any day of our lives,
however, is a new beginning. If we arbitrarily choose January 1st to be our
reference point for a New Year, so be it. Today is the first day of the rest of
our lives on earth not unlike every beginning day.
Christ was in the beginning of the
Creation of God, but He was also the Creation itself. Today we observe in the
Gospel text the Circumcision of Christ. This will formalize His legal reception
into the Household of Israel, and the putting off of sin. Just as our Lord
needed not to be baptized into newness of life (for He had eternal life in
Him), He neither needs the circumcision in the flesh for He was without sin;
but Christ will acknowledge and endure every stipulation of the law as an
example and enlightenment to us. His Creation of the world (John 1:1-3) was a
new beginning. His circumcision represents a new beginning, and His baptism
also reflects a new beginning. In reality, His baptism replaces the
circumcision for us. Our true life in eternity began at our baptism at which we
publicly proclaim, or have it proclaimed for us, our newness of life in Christ.
We now turn to today's Epistle from
Ephesians to get an understanding of what the new circumcision means in our own
lives and in Christ. In this epistle to the people of faith of Ephesus, Paul
refers to them as `saints.' This is consistent with the fact that none of us
can merit our salvation through our good works, but only by the unmerited grace
of God. After coming to Christ, we are washed clean of our sins and are
considered, on the merits of Christ, to be saints – not in the sense that we
are to be venerated as in the case of Rome – but considered righteous in the
eyes of God based on the Redemption made available in Christ.
How are we identified today as the
people of God? We were once
considered people of the Uncircumcision – the unwashed, the unbaptized, and the
unholy. We were strangers to God because He was unknown to us. How has that
status changed in Christ? "Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past
Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called
the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." We
were Gentiles in the past years because we were aliens to the commonwealth of
Israel. We were strangers to God
and not entitled to the covenants and promises made available to the people of
God (Israel). Being forlorn and without hope, our lives were impoverished by
ignorance, darkness, violence, and shame. Being without God in the world is
tantamount to being without God in eternity. How sad was our state!
"But now in
Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ." Thank God for this `BUT!'
The `buts' in scripture signify a reversal. "Now Naaman, captain of
the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable,
because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty
man in valour, but he was a leper." (2 Kings 5:1) Naaman was a fairly
nice, well-to-do gentleman BUT he had a problem. He had a deadly, odorous,
humilitating disease. Notice the contrary side of the coin in Christ. We were a
destitute, diseased and dying people. We had the deadly, odorous and
humiliating disease of sin, BUT Christ has made us whole! We are no longer
aliens and foreigners to the commonwealth of Israel, but are now brought nigh
by the blood of Christ! We have become naturalized citizens of the Household of
God through the process of adoption of sons and daughters. Those adopted into
God's family enjoy every privilege of the natural children and, in most cases,
far greater, for He has called us the true children of Isaac by way of God's
promise. Those who were considered the Household of Israel by accident of birth
and genealogy, and who rejected the Lord, are no longer the children of
promise. They yet have the privilege of returning to God by the reception of
His only Begotten Son as their Lord and Savior. This promise in Isaac is open
alike to all peoples.
"For he is our peace, who hath
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between
us." In the Temple was a stone wall that separated the court of the
Gentiles from the Holy Place. It was certain death to cross that wall. The real
wall that separated us from God was the wall of sin. Sin separates us from God
and from those, even, that we love. Christ is not our peacemaker, but peace
itself to us. He has not become our means of observance of the Passover, but
the Passover itself to us. He has not become our means of Rest (Sabbath) but
our Sabbath itself (for in Him we have
rest from our labors if it is He who works in us). For now there is no
dividing line between Jew or Gentile, male or female, bond or free – for all
are One in Christ Jesus.
"Having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make
in himself of twain one new man, so making peace." Christ has not annulled
any Commandments of God but those ordinances in the commandments of men that
enforced a division between the worldly Israel and the worldly Gentiles, making
them One in Christ if they be His in Spirit and in Truth. Christ fulfilled the
Laws of God and made them even more binding in love. The spiritual pride that
would divide across stone walls has been demolished by Christ to those who
receive Him. The stone tablets upon which the commandments of God were written
have been abolished – but not the Commandments themselves. They are, rather,
now written on the soft sinews of our hearts. The popular notion that the
Commandments of God were" nailed to the cross" is a seditious lie! It
is still a grievous sin to commit murder, adultery, bear false witness, to
covet, to steal, or to have other gods before God. How ridiculous to have it
preached that these Commandments are no longer binding. How can the believing
Jews and Gentiles be ONE new man? It is because all believers are One in Christ
Jesus. It was the ordinances of the commandments that were nailed to the cross.
"And that he might reconcile
both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And
came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were
nigh." There is no chosen people apart from those whom God has chosen and
who have chosen God in Christ! No matter the depravity and sins of a people, God
would have us carry the Gospel message to all alike. We may consider, as did
Jonah, a people to be too far from God for hope of redemption, but we are
quenching the efficacious influence of the Holy Ghost to draw His people from
every condition of life. We would surely have judged the old Paul (Saul) to be
without hope of salvation until his experience of the Damascus Road. We plant
the seed and allow the Holy Ghost to work its miracles under the dark soil of
the earth. God's Word is a life-bearing seed that can break through stone.
"For through him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father." The Holy Trinity is not divided
against Itself, but is One in purpose, will and action. If we are in Christ
(the Son), we have access to the throne of Grace of the Father by one Holy
Ghost. …and all three are ONE! And so are we One with God the father and God
the Holy Ghost if we are One with Christ!
"Now therefore ye are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household
of God." We have an increasing number of illegal aliens in our midst in
America today. These are not citizens because they have come to our shores
through ways other than the right way. We have many in our churches today who
are illegal residents in Israel. They have come for the wrong reasons and by
the wrong means. The only access to the kingdom is through Christ. He is our
sponsor and our means of adoption.
If we have come in any way other than through Christ, we shall not enjoy
the privileges of the promise!
"And are built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
corner stone." The prophets of the Old Testament, and the Apostles of the
New, are the foundation of our faith. We are an apostolic church in that we
adhere to the doctrinal apostolic succession of the Church. That is our
foundation, and the chief corner stone, like that represented above the Great
Pyramid at Giza on our one-dollar bill, from which all authority descends and
is maintained together in unity, is Jesus Christ!
"In whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are
builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." The Temple
is Christ – the same Temple which He told the Jews that if they destroyed, He
would rebuild in three days (which He did at His resurrection). He is both the
Temple and the Chief Corner Stone of the Temple. If we are in Christ, each of
us is a stone in that Temple. All of His precious stones added together
constitute the Temple of His Body. Some of us are quite irregular in shape, and
some are round, square, or jagged; but God has a precise place in the Temple
for our peculiar shapes and forms. All joined together, we constitute the One
Temple with Christ as our Head. Constructed together in Christ, we shall be a
fitting abode for God to abide with us through His Spirit.
There is a beautiful old Gospel song
written by Wm. O. Cushing and George Root, and sung most commonly by Burl Ives,
entitled `Jewels:'
When He cometh, When He commeth,
to take up His jewels
All His jewels, precious jewels…
His loved and His own
Like the stars of the morning
His bright crown adorning
They will shine in their beauty
Bright gems for His crown
He will gather, He will gather,
the gems for His kingdom
All the pure ones, all the bright ones
His loved and His own
Little children who love,
their Redeemer and Savior,
All the jewels, precious jewels
His loved and His own…
Bright gems for his crown
This
song seems to be inspired by the following verses:
"And they shall be mine,
saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare
them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." (Mal 3:17)
"And he shall send his
angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his
elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Matt 24:31)
"And the LORD their God shall
save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the
stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land." (Zech 9:16)
How comforting
to know that even stones are precious to God and such blessed stones as
we are!
Jerry
L. Ogles
+Jerry
L. Ogles, DD
Presiding
Bishop, Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
Chancellor,
Faith Theological Seminary
Bishop
Dennis Campbell’s Sunday Sermon
As is oft the case, we are honored to present Bishop Dennis’ Sunday sermon
presented to his parish. Dennis
has an excellent command of scripture and is able to present it in a manner
which is completely understandable to the rest of us.
A God Worth Praising
Psalm 101
First Sunday after
Christmas
1 January 2012
The sermons of 2011
were mostly drawn from the Epistle readings for Sundays. The sermons for 2010 came primarily
from the Gospel readings. This
year, God willing, I intend to concentrate on another rich and edifying portion
of the word of God, the book of Psalms, or, as it is known by Anglicans, "The
Psalter."
The Psalter was the
"Hymnal" of Israel, and continued as the primary source of song in
the Church for nearly two thousand years.
In it can be found prayers of hope, as well as expressions of despair;
joy as well as sadness, and anger as well as forgiveness. There is hardly a hope, fear, feeling,
or emotion known to man that is not expressed in the Psalter, and it is this
complete honesty before God that has endeared it to God's people for nearly
three thousand years.
Our Lectionary contains
morning and evening readings in the Psalter for every day of the year, taking
us through the Psalms several times each year. Yet I find many Christians do not understand the meaning or
see the relevance of the Psalms.
By God's grace, I hope to help us see both in the coming year.
And while we're preaching
and hearing sermons from the Psalter, I hope we will recover some of them as
part our own "hymnal." I
hope we will learn to sing the Psalms as expressions of our faith and hope in
God. I hope we will learn to love
them so much we will sing them in our cars and in our homes as well as in our
Church.
We are already doing
this in a small way. In Morning
Prayer, for example, we turn to page 9 of the Prayer Book and sing the
wonderful invitation to worship known as the Venite exultemus Domino, or
"Come let us exalt the Lord."
When we turn to page 459 of the Prayer Book we see we have been singing the first seven verses of
Psalm 95 coupled with verses 9 and 13 of Psalm 96. When we turn to page 15 and sing the Jubilate Deo we can
also turn to page 463 and see that we are singing Psalm 100. Our hymnal contains many references to
and quotes from the Psalter, and many of our hymns are based on a Psalm. Hymn 277 is based on Psalm 117. Hymn 278 is based on Psalm 100, and
hymn 282, which happens to be one of my favourites, "Praise my soul, the
King of Heaven," is based on Psalm 103.
I say these hymns are
based on the Psalms, because the words and word order of the Psalms are changed
to make them fit the rhyme and meter modern people expect in music. But the Psalms we actually sing
"word for word" such as Psalm 100 are not rearranged, they are sung
more closely to the way the Psalms were originally sung, in what we sometimes
call, "chanting." This
has two advantages. First it
allows us to actually sing the Psalms, rather than simply read them; the words
"chant" and "Psalm" both mean sing or song. Second, it allows us to sing them
without altering the words or word order of Scripture.
One of the frequent
themes of the Psalms is worship, or praise, and our Psalm for today exhorts us
to worship God in the very essence of our being. To praise the Lord means to give reverent respect to God, by
humbly kneeling before Him. It is
to recognise Him as our King and our God, to profess obedience to Him and to
recognise that He is infinitely worthy of our deepest love and highest
obedience. The picture
painted in the Psalm is very similar to that in Revelation 4, where, moved by
the glory of God, the creatures and the elders kneel before Him in reverence
that borders on fear, praying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honour," meaning, Christ is worthy to be glorified and honoured by
them.
Psalm 103 is about why
we worship God. While other Psalms
encourage worship because of the attributes of God, like His infinite power,
knowledge and goodness, Psalm 103 tells us about the actions of God for our
sake. I should say,
"action," rather than, "actions," for this Psalm is about
one thing, the forgiveness of sins.
All of His benefits referred to in the Psalm are references to and
symbols of forgiveness. He
"forgiveth all thy sin."
He is "full of compassion and mercy." "He hath not dealt with us after
our sins; nor rewarded us according to our wickedness." His mercy is as high as the heavens are
above the earth, and He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from
the west. He loves us as a father
loves His children and His mercy "endureth forever and ever." This is the message of the Psalm; this
is why we worship God.
We cannot read this Psalm
without our minds turning to a scene of a Man dying on a cross near the ancient
city of Jerusalem. He has done
nothing worthy of death. He has committed no crime. His entire life was about doing good to everyone. His teachings were simply that the Kingdom
of God is for all who will receive it by faith. There was no sedition, no heresy, no harm in Him. Even Pilate found no fault in Him. He died for one reason, to bear our
sins in Himself and to suffer the wrath of God for them in our places. He gave Himself on the cross, and in
Him "we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of
sins" (Col 1:14). As our
Epistle reading for this morning states it, He came "to redeem them that
were under the law."
It is no accident that
our thoughts turn to the cross when we read Psalm 103, for the sacrifice of
Christ is the means by which God forgives our sins. The cross is the means by which the forgiveness celebrated
in the Psalm is accomplished in reality.
As we look at the Psalms in the months ahead, we will see that there is
a Christological, a Christ centered aspect to them, in which they point us to
Christ and His work of redemption.
It is this aspect of the Psalms which is the real reason for giving them
such prominence in our daily readings and worship. I hope to help us see Christ in the Psalms, and, thus, help
us love the Psalms more.
--
tR. Dennis Campbell
Bishop of Diocese of
Virginia
Rector, Holy Trinity
Anglican Orthodox Church
Powhatan, Virginia
www.HolyTrinityAnglicanOrthodoxChurch.org
www.lifeinthescriptures.blogspot.com
New Years Wishes from Bishop John in India
Dear All,
We wish you a Happy and Peaceful
New Year-2012
Bishop John, Mrs.Rosy,
Lavanya, Sravanthi and John Leo, India.
[1]
The name Jesus,
savior, is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which was originally
Hoshea (Num. 13:8, 16), but changed by Moses into Jehoshua (Num. 13:16; 1 Chr.
7:27), or Joshua. After the Exile it assumed the form Jeshua, whence the Greek
form Jesus. It was given to our
Lord to denote the object of his mission, to save.
[2]
Yet, do not
misapprehend, we know but little of His Laws and the laws of the universe as He
made them. Our grasp of the space
time continuum is little beyond that possessed by those at Moses time. He is, was and always will be. We live in the present, remember the past and prepare for
what will be, the best we can.
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