On
Point
Someone asked, where do the quotes come
from? The answer is from the
people who uttered them. But, how
did you find them? Oh, that. Some from Bishop Jerry, many from Rev
Bryan Dabney, a few from other places, some from Rev Geordie Menzies-Grierson, but
overall mostly from Bryan. He
always has a few great ones to share. On to the On Point quotes –
On God
He who has God and everything else has no
more than he who has God only.
Jack
Lewis
The Weight of Glory
On
feeling
I think the thrill of the Pagan stories and
of romance may be due to the fact that they are mere beginnings—the first,
faint whisper of the wind from beyond the world—while Christianity is the thing
itself: and no thing, when you have really started on it, can have for you then
and there just the same thrill as the first hint. For example, the experience
of being married and bringing up a family cannot have the old bittersweet of
first falling in love. But it is futile (and, I think, wicked) to go on trying
to get the old thrill again: you must go forward and not backward. Any real
advance will in its turn be ushered in by a new thrill, different from the old:
doomed in its turn to disappear and to become in its turn a temptation to
retrogression. Delight is a bell that rings as you set your foot on the first
step of a new flight of stairs leading upwards. Once you have started climbing
you will notice only the hard work: it is when you have reached the landing and
catch sight of the new stair that you may expect the bell again. This is only
an idea, and may be all rot: but it seems to fit in pretty well with the
general law (thrills also must die to live) of autumn & spring, sleep and
waking, death and resurrection, and “Whosoever loseth his life, shall save it.”
Jack
Lewis
The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume
II
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of
himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?
Thomas
Jefferson
First Inaugural Address, 1801
Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the
greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the
people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.
Alexander
Hamilton
Federalist No. 1, 1787
When large numbers of people in this country continue not to find work,
when they don’t have enough to eat, when their money won’t buy the necessities
of life, when they can’t afford to travel because of high fuel prices, and when
they continue to lose their homes, they will become desperate. This desperation
will result in civil unrest. That will be the government’s reasoning for
declaring Martial Law.
Gary
D. Barnett
21st century American businessman and economic
commentator
The government turns every contingency into an excuse for enhancing
itself.
John
Adams
Founding Father and 2nd President of the United States
Veterans Day – Guest Editorial
Tomorrow,
11 November, is Veterans Day. It is
Monday. The Eleventh Hour of the
Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month.
Is not the first Monday in anything, it is not an occasion to sleep in
or barbeque. It was originally
Armistice Day, the day the Great War (World War I) ended. The armistice was signed on the
eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month ending the War to End
all Wars which took the lives of about 20 million people. We remembered that day until World War
II, a war which took the lives of about 70 million people, not including the 25
million killed by the Soviets internally.
In total, almost 100 million people lost their lives during the period
of this war.
Our
country has chosen this day, Armistice Day, to honor those who have served our
country. This is not the same as
Memorial Day, the last weekend in May, during which we honor those who have
given their lives for our country.
On
this day, we honor those who have and do serve our country: men and women who
have stepped forward when their country called; some even before the call. We honor those who have put their
country before themselves and families.
Sometimes
we forget the sacrifices made by the families. It is one thing to be in combat, forward deployed or on TDY
at Christmas. It is another to have
your son, daughter, husband or wife gone.
We
can both tell you from personal experience that it is a lot easier to go to war
than to send someone to war.
It
is easy to think the country is going to hell, in or out of the proverbial hand
basket and it may well be. Yet, so
far we have young people who step forward and fill the breech in the line. How long we know not, but still they
come forward. While they come we
are safe. When they stop, we fall.
Rev LTC Hap and Captain Dru Arnold, USAF Retired
Semper Fly!
A Veteran’s Day Message from Jerry L. Ogles, Presiding
Bishop:
Bishop’s Letter –
Veteran’s Day – 11th November 2013 Anno Domini
God and
soldier, we adore, in time of danger, not before.
The danger passed and all things righted, God
is forgotten and the soldier slighted.
- Rudyard Kipling
I
would venture to say that 98% of all men and women who are readers of this
letter are veterans. Of what war, you ask? Well, of every military conflict in
which you have participated for the Liberties of your beloved country, but also
of every soldierly engagement in which you have participated on the part of
righteousness and that perfect Law of Liberty made available only through Christ.
In a sense, the latter are never finally veterans for they are constant
belligerents of the war against evil and godlessness. On All Saints Day, we
honor the fallen veterans of the Righteous War of God. The bodies of many godly
saints lie in unmarked graves under jungle canopies, or have their bones
resting in state, dry and bare, on some desert dune. But today, we observe the
day on which we pay tribute to those veterans who have defended our political
rights and liberties as a free people.
Though “the poppies blow o’er Flanders Field, between the crosses row on row”
these are the veterans who have fallen in battle. What of those who stood to
the call of the bugle and laid their lives upon the altar of Freedom, yet
lived? Their sacrifice is no less noteworthy, for an offer made is no less
worthy if it is not required. My father spent many freezing nights in the snows
of Germany and Belgium in the Second World War. Having come through the great
depression, his character was reinforced by the hardship those times presented.
He lost many fine American and British comrades to hostile fire during that
War; but when he returned home, he was not plagued with any such affliction of
mind as Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome. In fact, that was not yet invented.
He turned out to be the same loving father he had been before his wartime
experiences but with a more touching compassion for humanity. So many others of
that ‘Last Great Generation” came home to a like disposition. They built
factories, cars, airplanes, highways, bridges, and institutions of higher
learning unexcelled in all of the world. Some of these gallant heroes still
remain among us. Almost without exception, they remain the proud but humble
specimens of the American man-at-arms. They followed the principle inscribed on
the walls of Suza (Shushan in the Farsi) in Persia by that first great,
benevolent Persian King, Cyrus: “I caused the strong not to strike the weak,
but lifted their unbecoming yokes and gave them their lands and their customs inviolate.”
In the trail of these heroes, follow hard on the veterans of the Korean
Conflict, of Vietnam, of the Persian Gulf, of Iraq and Afghanistan. Many left
their blood in the Gardens of Liberty by which our freedoms might be preserved
and fertilized. Many return home to silent welcomes – what a travesty – and
quietly resume the pieces of their lives which they abandoned to defend our
ideals and principles. If all were made wealthy by war, or rewarded richly for
their efforts, there would have been no sacrifice in answering the call. But a
grateful nation that is founded on biblical principles will not fail to forever
acknowledge and remember the soldiers of the nation who have preserved our
liberty in battle.
The life of a soldier is lonely since his duty requires him to travel far from
home and to mingle with strangers. Moreover, those whom he confronts at close
combat are mortal enemies. He travels lightly with his only belongings crammed
into a 72 pound pack, which he carries on his back, along with his weapons of
war. When at the march, his eyes are focused straight ahead and his steps are
uniform with those of his fellow soldiers. He obeys his commander’s orders
promptly and without question for lives depend upon such discipline. What shall
we learn from such soldiers to aid us in our Christian service?
“Thou
therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that
warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please
him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” (2 Tim 2:3-4)
Ah, so the Christian is called
to endure hardness as a soldier? Yes, by all means, he will suffer deprivation
and perhaps hunger. The Christian soldier has no discharge date, but perseveres
until the last call of the Bugle. He has no time for the fancy frills and
gossamer pleasures of the world. He must fill his place in the line of battle
at all times being ever watchful for demonstrations of the enemy to his front.
He is the forward vedette and sentinel of our defenses. Just as an American
officer is commissioned by the President of the United States, the Christian
soldier is commissioned by the King of Kings, and contends under a Royal
Charter. Just as an American, British, German, or Korean soldier fights to
defend the liberty of his country, so the Christian soldier fights to defend
that Perfect Law of Liberty made available by the shed blood of that Great
Captain of our Army – our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Christian soldier
studies the regulations and laws of Higher Headquarters and obeys to his utmost
ability. “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.” (James 1:25)
Have you enlisted, Friend? Our thanks to all American and allied veterans on
this Veterans Day of 2013 Anno Domini.
In Christ
during Trinity,
Jerry L.
Ogles
Presiding
Bishop – Veteran
238th
Birthday of the
United
States Marine Corps
No
better friend, no worse enemy
On 10 November 1775, Captain Samuel Nicholas formed two
battalions of Continental Marines at Tun’s Tavern in Philadelphia as naval
infantry in accordance with a resolution of the Continental Congress. They were to "be able to serve to
advantage by sea when required" and "that they be distinguished by
the names of the first & second battalions of American Marines."
No better friend: someone who will kill to protect you;
someone who will give their life for you; someone who will be right there in
your times of trouble and, thinking of you and your problems, will sacrifice so
that you might get through your problem.
No worst enemy: someone who will not hesitate to destroy
you even if that means destroying himself in the process; someone who will
chase you down to the ends of the earth to extract revenge; someone who will
cause you blood and tears and smile when it happens.
With a Marine as your friend, you have a person who will
kill to protect you. With a Marine as your enemy, you have a person who will
kill you. Pretty simple, huh?
The concept comes from the epitaph of Lucius Cornelius
Sulla, famous general and legendary dictator of ancient Rome:
"No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever
wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full."
Happy
238th Birthday, USMC!
Propers
Each Sunday there are Propers:
special prayers and readings from the Bible. There is a Collect for the Day; that is a single thought
prayer, most written either before the re-founding of the Church of England in
the 1540s or written by Bishop Thomas Cranmer, the first Archbishop of
Canterbury after the re-founding.
The Collect for the Day is to be
read on Sunday and during Morning and Evening Prayer until the next
Sunday. If you have a hard time
remembering, “Do I read the Collect from last Sunday or next Sunday during the
week?” Remember Sunday is the
first day of the week. There are
also two Bible readings, the Epistle and the Gospel. While they are “lessons”, they are not the First Lesson and
the Second Lesson, they are the Epistle and the Gospel. The Epistle is normally a reading from
one of the various Epistles, or letters, in the New Testament. The Gospel is a reading from one of the
Holy Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Collect is said by the minister as a prayer, the Epistle
can be read by either a designated reader (as we normally do in our church) or
by one of the ministers and the Holy Gospel, which during the service in our
church is read by an ordained minister.
The propers are the same each
year, except if a Red Letter Feast, that is one with propers in the prayerbook,
falls on a Sunday, then those propers are to be read instead, except in a White
Season, where it is put off. Red
Letter Feast, so called because in the Altar Prayerbooks the titles are in red,
are special days. Most of the Red
Letter Feasts are dedicated to early saints instrumental in the development of
the church, others to special events.
Some days are particularly special and the Collect for that day is to be
used for an octave (eight days) or an entire season, like Advent or Lent.
The propers for the Twenty-Third
Sunday after Trinity can be found on Page 223-224:
The
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity
The
Collect.
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LORD, we beseech thee, absolve thy people from their offences; that
through thy bountiful goodness we may all be delivered from the bands of those
sins, which by our frailty we have committed. Grant this, O heavenly Father,
for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.
Dru Arnold read the
Epistle for today which was written in the First Chapter of Saint Paul’s letter
to the Colossians, beginning at the Third Verse. Writing to the people of Colossus, Paul tells them that he
is constantly praying for them and exhorts them to do their very best to
actually fulfill the promises they have made to God, to Walk the Walk, not just
Talk the Talk; to study hard the Word and use the strength they will get from
God to act on the things they have learned and professed.
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e give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of
the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you
in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;
which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as
it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in
truth: as ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a
faithful minister of Christ; who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for
you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord
unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the
knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power,
unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the
Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints in light.
Hap Arnold read the Holy Gospel which came from the
Ninth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew beginning at the
Eighteenth Verse. While Jesus was
talking to some of the disciples of John the Baptist, one of the local
politicians whose daughter had just died came to Him with faith that He could
return her to life. As he was
leaving His meeting with the disciples to follow the politician, a woman who
had been ill for many years, reached out in faith to “touch His garment.” She knew He was the key to her life,
though she likely had no real understanding of just how. She had faith in Jesus. As she touched his garment, He turned
saying, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.” She was instantly healed. Like the Faithful Centurion[1]:
Truth set her free, faith made her whole. Jesus continued on to the
politician’s house and returned his daughter to the living. Consider that in none of these cases
did Jesus’ saving grace hinge on actions by the saved, but rather their faith
that Jesus would save them, then acting in accordance with that faith. It was not what they did, but what He
did that saved them. But, His
actions were in accord with their faith.
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hile Jesus spake these things
unto John’s disciples, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him,
saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and
she shall live. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.
And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years,
came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: for she said within
herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him
about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith
hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when
Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making
a noise, he said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth.
And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, he went in,
and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad
into all that land.
Sermon –
Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and Action
Today’s sermon brought
the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the
forewords above.
The Collect asks God to pardon
our offences, through His great mercy we will be delivered from all multitudes
of sins, by which our frail nature of ungodliness, we have committed these
sins. As Abraham Lincoln said in the famous Gettysburg address “That this
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom.” Only under God, can be reborn a new,
and as he said, our freedom will be reborn again. However, we first have to ask for our sins to be pardoned
and be delivered from our sins by Jesus Christ Our Lord and Our Heavenly
Father.
Through a sense of godliness, we
obtain that “new birth” of freedom. If everybody in this country followed that
simple advice, just think of how great our country would be. Look at Abraham
Lincoln for an example of a Godly man, one of the greatest Presidents ever
elected, who by following God and His Word, helped preserve the Union of this
wonderful nation.
In the Epistle, St. Paul tells
the Colossians if we are to be reborn through Christ into a “new birth of
freedom”, as Lincoln said, we must place our hope not on Earth, but in Our
Heavenly Father and his abode above. If we do this, the truth shall shine forth
through in our work, at home, in our daily lives and people shall see Christ
working through us for His purposes. If we follow what God asks, which is a
very common theme in the Bible, as it is in my sermons, we prosper and do well.
Which brings us to the point of
the Gospel, in which Christ heals a woman, who has such supreme faith in Christ
healing her, that if she but touches his cloak, she knows she will be healed. She
did not have a single doubt about Christ’s power to heal her, her faith was
solid. Christ was impressed by the
woman’s faith. If we had the faith
of this woman in Christ, imagine how we could impact the world around us. And,
I might add, what is stopping us?
The ruler whose daughter had died also shared this amazing faith in
Christ. He had zero doubt
whatsoever Christ would do these things.
The most important thing of all which was to raise his daughter from the
dead. Christ also recognizes this man’s faith and rewards with the girl’s
resurrection. Quite a surprise for
those who had just laughed and scorned him, basically telling him “That is
impossible, you can’t raise the girl from the dead.”
He proved them wrong. He gave a very practical demonstration
that much is denied men, but though God all things are possible. But, we need the faith of the woman,
the faith of the ruler and the faith of the centurion. We must follow Him and the plan that he
lays out for us. We have to be willing to listen and be ready to follow
Him. In time, we shall too have an
amazing reward, through our faith and we shall be in a “new birth of freedom”
from otherwise certain death. Like the Marines who proved many skeptics wrong
in World War I and II, with the grueling jungle battles against the Japanese
Army, seen by some as the elite army of Asia at the time, we too can do things
thought impossible, if we put our trust in Him, as I have aforementioned. Works
must follow faith however. We cannot have a full faith, unless we act to
demonstrate the faith.
Jesus’s miracles were all about
actions, not just in word, but in deed. He did both, as we must also. If we
only talk the talk, but do not walk our talk, then our words mean nothing. But
if we walk the walk also, then our words have more weight, more meaning, as we
become men and women of the Word. I say of the Word and not like the old
saying, he is a man of his word. For we want to become a Man/Woman of His Word,
not our word! If we go by His Word, then we can never go wrong. We always seem
to go on our word and that is where we get into trouble.
Following this theme of words and
action, on this Veteran’s Day, I realized God has used godly men to our prayers
for our freedom to be kept, by laying down their lives for ours. No greater
love could be found in the world, then those men who died in the Pacific and
the European theatres of World War II, in Vietnam, in the Gulf War, 1 and 2,
and Afghanistan, in World War I, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, the
Mexican-American War, the War of 1812 and finally the American Revolution.
Through a sense of godliness,
these men went to battle on our behalf, as Christ battled Satan on our
behalf. These men did not just go
into battle with the godliness, they prayed hard for them, they prayed for each
minute just to stay alive, especially in the hellholes of the Pacific. The danger they faced were far more
perilous than the ones we face today.
We overcame the enemy, not only because of our superior tactics, but we
had men ready and willing to take the enemy on and do our best to prevail, and
that followed God.
The Collect, Epistle and Gospel
tie together, laying out, detailing and reinforcing the same message,
ultimately. We have to have faith
in Christ and God, and be willing to accept the Holy Ghost into us, that
through Him, we may do good works on Earth and that we will receive our just
reward for doing what is right in the end.
Heaven is at the end of an
uphill trail. The easy downhill
trail does not lead to the summit.
The time is now, not tomorrow. The time has come, indeed. How will you ACT?
It is by our actions we are known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
Bishop Ogles’
Sermon
We are oft fortunate to
get copies of Bishop Jerry’s sermon notes. Today is one of those Sundays. Today’s sermon starts off with the collect, and like always,
it will give you a lot to consider in your heart.
Sermon Notes
Twenty-Fourth
Sunday after Trinity
10 November
2013, Anno Domini
The
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Trinity
The
Collect.
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O
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LORD, we beseech thee, absolve thy people from their offences; that
through thy bountiful goodness we may all be delivered from the bands of those
sins, which by our frailty we have committed. Grant this, O heavenly Father,
for the sake of Jesus Christ, our blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.
The Epistle
Colossians 1:3
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e give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of
the love which ye have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you
in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;
which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as
it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in
truth: as ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a
faithful minister of Christ; who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for
you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord
unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the
knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power,
unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness; giving thanks unto the
Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints in light.
The Gospel
Saint Matthew 9:18-26
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hile Jesus spake these things
unto John’s disciples, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him,
saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and
she shall live. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.
And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years,
came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: for she said within
herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him
about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of
good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made
whole from that hour. And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the
minstrels and the people making a noise, he said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth.
And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, he went in,
and took her by the hand, and the maid arose. And the fame hereof went abroad
into all that land.
One of the greatest barriers to faith in Christ is in knowing WHO Christ is.
Many today consider Him in the same sense as a genie who grants our
every wish, or as a good teacher of ethics and morals; but how many in the
modern churches truly know Jesus to be Lord and Savior in more than a mere
vocally expressed sense? He is our Lord and King. He is our Savior and
Redeemer…and He is God! This last part seems to be the hanging point for many
pseudo-religionists. Jesus is literally God the son and acts with the same power
and authority of the Father – for both are One with the Holy Ghost!
Our Prayer of Collect opens with the plea for an absolution of our sins and
redemption of our souls. “O LORD, we beseech thee, absolve thy people
from their offences; that through thy bountiful goodness we may all be
delivered from the bands of those sins.” Only One has authority to
absolve and forgive sins – that is God. Christ has set us free by absolution of
our sins and freedom to walk in His Way. The Collect readily admits that we are
frail and weak – unable to help ourselves as babes in our mother’s bosom: “which
by our frailty we have committed.” We are incapable of doing good
apart from the righteousness of Christ. And we petition these things for His
sake, and His sake alone. It is Christ who personally paid the penalty for our
redemption, and it is Christ for whose sakes we are reconciled to the Father.
In the Epistle of the day, we see that all-important requisite for serving God
and our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ – Love! We are to intercede for
one another just as those who bore the man stricken with the palsy to Christ on
a stretcher. We see in the Epistle, we see the salient points of people
who lover and serve God. As Christians we must conform to the following:
1)
We do not cease to pray,
2)
desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom
and spiritual understanding;
3)
walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,
4)
being fruitful in every good work,
5)
and increasing in the knowledge of God;
6)
strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power,
7)
unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness;
8)
giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in light.
My leading question would be: “Have we done these things? Have we lived
up to the standard of minimal faith expressed above?”
Now follows two very tender accounts of the Love of Christ that not
only heals spiritually in absolving our sins, but in absolving our diseased
bodies of sickness and death as well. Jesus has just been conversing with the
followers of John the Baptist and reveals to them that He is the promised
Bridegroom of the Church whom they seek, but unknowingly: “Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as
the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall
be taken from them, and then shall they fast.” (Matt 9:15) It is
unlikely that these disciples understood the meaning Jesus spoke to them until
much later. He had, on this same occasion, forgiven the man stricken with the
palsy of his sins, and sealed the miracle of forgiveness with His second
miracle of physical healing.
We now take up the text:
Quite often, the true worship of God is constrained by hard
circumstances. 18 “While he spake these things unto them, behold,
there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him.” This, we learn
from St. Mark 5:21-43) was the daughter of the chief of a synagogue named,
Jairus. Such a fellow would never have condescended to come and worship Christ
were there not a desperate personal need that compelled him to come to Christ.
Jairus had a precious little daughter of twelve years of age who lay dying on
her sick bed. It would seem that all hope for her recovery, short of a miracle,
had been abandoned. Jesus was noted as a miracle worker – and ONLY God can work
miracles! So Jairus, desperate for his daughter’s sake, comes and falls on the
knee to Jesus. We often are just like Jairus. We forget our vows and duties to
God until a serious circumstance arises. Then, we go to Him on bended knee
seeking solace and blessings. How much more fit as Christians would we be if we
remained in a state of Grace always before the Lord. If our petty pride
precludes our coming to Jesus in humble worship, perhaps the Lord will provide
a circumstance in our lives that overwhelms that petty pride and draws us unto
Himself.
Jairus forgoes all formality of a beautifully contrived prayer and goes
immediately to the heart of the matter: “My daughter is even now dead:
but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.”
Whatever pressing Jesus may have is of no concern to Jairus in his burning
need. His prayer to Jesus is not unlike the short, but pointed, prayer of Peter
when he began to seek beneath the waves of the sea, “Lord, save me!” These are
the most effectual prayers because they are offered without pretense or
showmanship. Jairus was convinced that his precious daughter would die without
Jesus coming and laying His hand upon her. His faith may even have doubted
somewhat at that miracle. He may have been weak in infant-like faith, but there
was no other hope but Jesus. Jesus would heal any lack of faith that may have
remained in the heart of Jairus because Jesus does not require more than a
little faith. I, too, have often prayed lacking full faith that Gods would
grant my petition. Sometimes, I have felt that He did not do so, but when I
look back on that time, I realized that His answer was much better than my
request. To Jesus, there is no more important business than saving the life of
a child. Without hesitation, He prepares to go with Jairus. 19 “And
Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.” There is
no question in my mind that Jesus was aware of a more pressing problem which
was about to present itself. He could easily have healed the young lass from a
distant, but did not do so. I believe He had a good reason not to do so. There
were many unbelievers at the bedside of the dear little girl who needed the
seed of faith to believe as Jairus had believed.
20 “And, behold, a woman, which was
diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the
hem of his garment.”
We are told more detail of this woman in the Gospel of St. Mark: “And a
certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered
many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing
bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the
press behind, and touched his garment.” (Mark 5:25-27) Clearly, this
woman, too, had only one hope of healing and that hope was Christ! She wasted
away all of her savings on physicians, but grew only worse. Now she will come
to the Great Physician who is able to heal body AND soul! How often do we,
friends, struggle helplessly with our problems until they grow to immense
proportion. Then we run to Christ for our solution! The woman had great
difficulty approaching Jesus for the press of the crowd so close to Him on all
sides. There were many who rubbed shoulders with Jesus that day, but only ONE
who touched Him with faith. Just claiming the name of Christian does not avail
to make us Christian unless we have the faith to match our convictions. 21 “For
she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.”
It is the touch of faith that heals and not the material garment itself.
22 “But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee
whole.” Here again, St Mark adds touching details that
Matthew omits: “And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up;
and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus,
immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him
about in the press, and said, Who touched my
clothes?” (Mark 5:29-30 (KJV) Jesus felt healing power being
transferred to another. His question, “Who
touched me?” is profound, for Christ KNEW who touched Him. So
many in the crowd had touched Jesus in the bustle of the street, but none with
the faith of this poor woman. We may call on Christ in vain if our faith is
dead, but if our faith is real – even if small – the touch will bear fruit.
Jesus gave comfort, not only to the body, but to the soul of the woman by
telling her that her faith had made her whole – whole in every sense of the
word. Not just whole in body, but whole in soul as well for Christ does not
work half-way miracles. “And the woman was made whole from that hour.”
23 “And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the
minstrels and the people making a noise.” I will advise the reader
that, having lived in Asia and the Middle East for much of my young life, I
have observed some strange custom there with which you may not be familiar.
There are paid mourners and musicians (to play and sing the sad dirge) who
attend the death of a loved one. The moan and cry out with sorrowful gestures –
often throwing dirt or sand upon their heads. But, remember, they care little
for the deceased for they are PAID for these services. They make their living
off the dead, and they know death; but Jesus knows LIFE! The precious little
girl had died. Many people, perhaps neighbors, paid mourners, and members of
the synagogue had arrived and were making much ado, as it turns out, about
nothing. Again, St Mark gives more detail: “While he yet spake,
there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy
daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? As soon as
Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue,
Be not afraid, only believe.” (Mark
5:35-36) Death is no barrier to faith. Jesus forever tells us not to fear. If
we only believe, all things are possible! “And he cometh to the house of
the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed
greatly. And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why
make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And
they laughed him to scorn.” (Mark 5:37-40) The ridiculing of faith is
not a phenomenon peculiar to our day. It has existed from time and eternity.
Truly, in the eyes of God, there is no death except of the wicked. I can only
imagine the grief of this poor father at his little daughter lying cold and
still upon her little bed. It breaks my heart to read of it, and it must have
profoundly affected poor Jairus, but he had Jesus with him who consoled and
counseled not to fear. Sleep is the state of all dearly departed in Christ, for
we do not awake from death, but from SLEEP. 24 “He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And
they laughed him to scorn.”
25 “But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her
by the hand, and the maid arose. 26 And the fame hereof went abroad into
all that land.” We might say that St Matthew is a ‘facts
only’ writer, for he omits some of the touching detail of St Mark: “And
he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha
cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I
say unto thee, arise. And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for
she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great
astonishment. And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and
commanded that something should be given her to eat.” (Mark 5:41-43) I
love that command, “Talith Cumi”!
Can you imagine the joy and tears of gratitude that flooded the eyes of Jairus
and the girl’s mother! There was no delay in the spark of life permeating the
body of the dead girl, penetrating the dead cell tissue and impacting her tiny
heart. There was immediate warmth and life. The blood promptly coursed through
her veins and she awoke for a most dreamy sleep. She got up and walked. Jesus
delights, especially, in the blessing of little children. He commanded food be
given her. He had given first the bread of life, now he commanded the bread of
the body be given. He overlooks nothing.
Jesus then gave a very strange command – one which He had given many times past
when He worked His miracles: “And he charged them straitly that no man
should know it.” (Mark 5:43). Think on this last comment a bit, my
friends. Here is an entire neighborhood who has witnessed the most amazing of
miracles. They knew, beyond doubt, that this darling little girl was dead. But
Christ restored her to life in the same manner in which he restored Lazarus.
All saw that she now lived. How do you suppose that these witnesses could ever
hold their tongues about such an amazing event? They could not! Jesus knew
that, too. When such a wonderful work is done in our hearts, or before our
eyes, how is it possible to keep such joyous news a secret. I believe Jesus is
saying to each of us, “I have forgiven, redeemed, and restored you who were
dead (Ephe 2:1) to life. How can you keep such glorious Gospel News a secret.
Your cup runneth over and you cannot conceal the overflow of joys. Do you
understand this feeling, Reader? If so, be not silent forever about the blessings
of God given to you.
Rev Bryan Dabney
of Saint John’s Sunday Sermon
We are fortunate to have Bryan’s Sunday Sermon. If you want people to come to The Truth, you have to speak
the truth, expouse the truth and live the truth. This is really a good piece and I commend it to your
careful reading.
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after
Trinity
Saint Jude’s Epistle is
not very long. In fact, it is one of the shortest books of the entire Bible. It
was written about 66 AD and was a general epistle to be read in all the
churches. Its principal message has to do with contending for the faith against
the rising apostasy which had manifested itself within the body of Christ. The
Holy Ghost had inspired the apostle to communicate the same to the churches so
that those who had accepted his calling would be preserved until our Lord’s
return.
So what did he mean by
the expression, contend for the faith (v.3)? Clearly God desires that all who
have been born again of the Holy Ghost are to be found working on our Lord’s behalf
until his coming again, and that encompasses a number of things. Our Lord gave
us the Great Commission which states, Go ye therefore, and teach all nations
(people or ethnic groups), baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
have commanded you... (St. Matthew 28:19-20). So let us now examine the
component parts of this charge.
First we must teach. Our
Christian witness is not only by word but by deed. Our actions speak louder
than our words because they are the visible manifestations of those words.
Often times we have heard people say things they do not mean, and fail to act
have they have said. That is hypocrisy. We will ruin our witness if we are
hypocrites. Most people are worn out with liars and prevaricators. They hear
enough from the political elites and those who dominate the media centers of
our society, and so when a supposed “Christian” comes to them with messages
that hardly match said person’s behavior, they will reject it. Our lives need
to match our words. It is not what a person once was, or what such a one once
did, but how said person lives today. Are they a forgiven person? Do they
confess their sins daily? Are they abstaining from every form and appearance of
evil (I Thessalonians 5:22)? You see, if such a person has not done so, then
said person’s witness will be considered without merit.
We are to also bring
people into the faith via the workings of the Holy Ghost. If our witness is
credible, those who have not been baptized will then seek to receive such.
Baptism is a sacrament. It is something one does following the acceptance of
the free gift of salvation. It is something that we do for our young as a
commitment to God. It should be understood that mere participation in any of
the sacraments does not contain any salvific quality. Salvation comes
beforehand. In the case of an infant, the extending to such the sacrament of
baptism reveals the decision of the parents to raise up their child in the love
and admonition of the Lord. Later, when that child reaches the age of eleven or
so, he or she will then confirm what their parents had vowed at their baptism.
Adults who are baptized will both affirm and receive the sacrament of baptism
at the same time.
Our Lord’s command is
that we baptize using the formula he set forth in the Great Commission, that
is, we baptize, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost or Holy Spirit. Some churches have gotten away from this important prescription.
They will baptize only in the name of Jesus: which is a denial of the very
nature of the Godhead. The Holy Trinity is a component part of an orthodox
Christian understanding. It cannot be easily set aside because it is affirmed
in Scripture. To deny or to dispense with this important biblical truth is to
endanger one’s everlasting soul. If God has put such in his word written, it is
then sacrosanct and not subject to rendition or revision by those to whom the
word has been given. As one Bible commentator noted in part, “God did not give
us his word for us to edit, but for the word to edit us.”
The issue of whether to
baptize an infant, or wait until he or she reaches a so-to-speak “age of
accountability”, is a personal choice with the former being something that our
church encourages parents to do for their young children. The Philippian jailer
and his household were baptized after his confession of faith. The apostles
Paul and Silas said only, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,
and thy house (Acts 16:31).That expression: thy house, refers to the component
parts of a household which included young children. If there were preconditions
and exclusions, the Holy Ghost would have made them known through the apostles’
teachings.
An attendant controversy
among Christians is the issue of the amount of water for baptism. Nowhere is it
ever expressed by either our Lord or the apostles on the precise amount of
water that is necessary for the mechanics of the sacrament to work. The word
“baptize” means to wash. One can wash with very modest amounts of water, or one
can inundate themselves with such. There should be no argument here; still,
some will deny that a person’s baptism is in effect all because of the
particular formula their church body has accepted. We ought not to permit such
“hair-splitting” to result in judgments that would prove divisive within the
body of Christ, especially where the word is silent or nonspecific. If a person
comes to us who has been baptized using the Trinitarian formula, then that
should be sufficient.
Our Lord commanded us to
teach those doctrines which have been set forth in Scripture. The particulars
of his teachings have been fleshed out in the apostolic epistles. The apostles
taught under the aegis of the gospel. Their teachings were the product of
inspiration, not imagination. And because they taught authoritatively by the
power of the holy Spirit of God, we ought to teach likewise those truths to
others as they were taught to us.
The Bible is full of
doctrinal points. The Nicene Creed expresses many of those beliefs that all
Christians should accept. The Ten Commandments and the ordinances within the
Law of Moses which govern moral behavior — and which were affirmed by our Lord,
as well as the apostles — are to be accepted and followed in our daily lives.
We are not to carve up God’s word into those things we will follow to the
exclusion of those things that we will not via our “cherry- picking” of
doctrines and teachings. Not all of the Law of Moses applies to us as
Christians. But we can know which ones apply via our readings of the apostles
and the gospel messages.
The apostle Jude noted
that Christians ought to show, compassion, making a difference (v.22). Matthew
Henry once wrote concerning this passage that, “We ought to do all we can to
rescue others out of the snare of the devil that they may be saved from, or
recovered, when entangled in dangerous errors or pernicious practices... This
must be done with compassion... We must distinguish between the weak and the
willful... “
We are to attempt to,
save [others] with fear, pulling them out of the fire (v.23). You do not want
your worst enemy to wind up in perdition. With that in mind, we ought to reach
in and pull them from their potential course by, if needs be, telling them
plainly about their ultimate destination if they do not change. St. Paul
reminds us that, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men (II
Corinthians 5:11a). Where ever you can, reach and grab those whose present,
known trajectory is headed toward destruction. Sometimes only a word is
sufficient, while at other times we must be more forceful without anger or
arrogance. We are not condemning so much as we are advising the wayward soul to
depart from iniquity. We are the warning sign, the flashing light on the road
that the bridge is out. We are the red flags, the lighthouse onshore warning of
the rocky coast just in front. We are the watchmen, the sentinel, the sentry
that guards against the approach of our adversary as we will call to our
fellows to prepare and be ready to join the great spiritual and physical battle
that is before us.
Contending for the faith
means praying for those around us and beseeching our good and gracious God to
be merciful unto them. Prayer is important because it is through the power of
prayer that we are empowered, lifted up, and re- energized for our duties as
ambassadors for Christ. Pray. Pray. Pray. Keep the fire of the Holy Ghost
ablaze in your hearts. Sometimes we are not wont to pray for those who have
abused or maligned us. Those are the very people who need our prayers. God
delights to hear your intercessory prayers and petitions. We know that only
through his will can they be turned from the power of evil which has overtaken
them. Keep up your praying even when you feel like God is not listening. We
ought not to think in such a manner as he is ever ready to hear our prayers if
we are right with him. He loves us and cares how we feel so lift your voices
and your hearts up to him not only for your own needs and desires, but for
those of others, more particularly those with whom you have issues.
As we have seen,
contending for the faith is more than merely doing a few things here and there;
it is real work on a consistent, daily basis. The Christian life is just that:
LIFE. That means every moment of every day we are in this sphere of mortal
existence we are to be living for Christ. Make that your commitment today that
you too will live your life daily in obedience to the will of God, and that you
would rejoice as you contend for the faith for that is what a good soldier of
our Lord will do.
Let us pray,
|
L
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ord, grant us the courage
to face the world every day and to live as you would have us to live in service
to thy dear Son, contending for the faith, praying in the Spirit and loving
others as ourselves; for these things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.
Have a blessed week, Bryan+
[1] The centurion at Capernaum
whose servant is ill: Matthew
Chapter 8 verses 5 to 13:
And when Jesus was entered
into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying,
Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And
Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and
said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak
the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority,
having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to
another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When
Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto
you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you,
That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom
shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast
believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame
hour.
See how this story matches that of the woman:
·
His servant was sick;
·
He knew Christ could help;
·
He was prepared to ask Christ for help;
·
He knew that Christ was in a position of power;
·
He didn't even have to be near the servant to help
The centurion wasn't someone who went to get
a doctor, or an itinerant herbalist. He went seeking a miracle, and that is
what his faith got him. This
centurion had faith, greater faith than Christ had ever found. Yet who was he?
He wasn't a scribe or Hebrew scholar. He wasn't a member of the local
synagogue. He was a member of the hated, oppressing, occupying army.
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