Verse of the Day

Sunday, December 29, 2019

Holy Innocents - First Sunday after Chirstmas


Sermon - Rev Hap Arnold
Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California
At this Christmastide, we have been concentrating on the joy of the Christ’s coming to earth; rightly so!  But, in our liturgical calendar, the days go on.  Right after Christmas, we celebrate Boxing Day in the Anglican tradition, but more than that 26 December brings us the recollection of Saint Steven Deacon and Martyr; he was killed under the direction of Saul of Tarsus, the same person who with God’s Grace and Help became Saint Paul.  The following day, 27 December, recalls Saint John, the longest lived of the Apostles whose writing gives so much to the theology of the New Testament.  That brings us to today, 28 December, when we recall The Holy Innocents, whose deaths are connected with Jesus’ birth.   

An odd combination of days and thoughts for those who do not choose to think or delve deeply into a subject upon which their eternal lives are dependent.   Most people, if they go to church, are Creastors, that is people who attend church on Christmas and Easter.  This is certainly better than not at all, but one wonders why the two major events of the Christian year do not inspire them to more in depth consideration of what is, after all, the instructions for the remainder of their life here on earth and eternity.  As ministers, I guess most of us wonder why we cannot get the message across.  Still other people, members of churches, come every Sunday, so long as it is convenient.  That is certainly better yet, but their knowledge falls short of the information available in the Bible.  While the Book of Common Prayer is a wonder, it only provides propers for the Sundays and Holy Days, the subject matter is limited to the 52 high points if you make every Sunday!  Often parishes overlook inconvenient days, such as Holy Innocents, or even worse the Circumcision.  They only fall on a Sunday every seven years and who will know, anyway?

So, precisely what is The Holy Innocents?  Why is it important?  Start with the Gospel we just heard from Saint Matthew:

Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men(Matt 2)

Herod was certainly not a nice fellow, he ordered his own sons killed in another incident and in fact, one of his own sons was among those who were murdered in this event. Macrobius (c. 395-423), writes in his Saturnalia:  "When he [emperor Augustus] heard that among the boys in Syria under two years old whom Herod, king of the Jews, had ordered to kill, his own son was also killed, he said: it is better to be Herod's pig, than his son." Even being among Herod’s own family was not a sure guarantee of safety, based on his penchant to murder people, even those of his own blood.

Based on the number of people in the area, probably around 1,000, it seems likely that 20 or less children lost their lives in this event.  Worldwide?  It was a minor hiccup; if it was you or your child, the casualties were terrible. The killing of an innocent child, a baby is among the most terrible and heinous of crimes. Christ says that it is better to have a millstone hanged around your neck and be cast into the sea, than to harm one of these precious gifts of God. 

I would not like to be among those who murder little children at the Last Judgment, especially those who run and operate abortion clinics. I cannot pretend to know what God will or will not say or judge of these folks, only that I will not want to be in their position when that day arrives.

So, what do we take from this?  Well, first there is the historical fact part.  Matthew wanted to document what happened.  Fair enough.

Why did Herod sacrifice the children?  “For the greater good.”  In this case, his greater good.  He did not want this “Messiah” to mess up his gig.  He was making a great living out of keeping the Jews under control for the Romans, the last thing he needed was to have some Messiah mess things up. He did not want the Jews to experience the Freedom the “Messiah” would bring; in this case, Jesus would free us from death. Herod was jealous of the title of the “Messiah” and figured incorrectly that Jesus would be competing with him for ruling of the land of Israel. He could or would not grasp Christ was not sent to the land of Israel.  He came to prepare us for not just life here, but the world to come.  For eternity.

If we let Him, He will rule our hearts with absolute justice.

“For the greater good[1]” is a concept oft used to justify doing terrible things so that someone else can benefit.  Normally the person(s) benefiting in the end are those doing the sacrificing, not being sacrificed.  Important difference.

Can you see the similarity between the Holy Innocents being sacrificed for Herod’s greater good and the children being thrown to Molech?  In the case of Molech, parents threw their first born into the fires of hell to gain earthly riches.  Herod directed the murder of children so he could continue his criminal enterprise without interference by a Messiah.

Now, think of the children being murdered in the womb, torn apart while alive, dismembered, then thrown in the dumpster so that their parents won’t be inconvenienced or punished with a child. 

At the very least, if one does not want their child, they should at least put them up for adoption to give a family who does want a child a chance at loving the child, they could or would not love. But, alas, think, if one does not want a child, they shouldn’t partake in the act that would create the child in the first place! This is why there is an order to the prayer book. First comes Baptism, then Confirmation, then Marriage, then the Birth of a Child and so on till finally the Burial of the Dead. The point is, there is a certain order to life as God has ordained for the successful and fruitful multiplication of this earth, and if anybody performs this order out of sequence, the results could be catastrophic.

Abortion – Holy Innocents – Molech 

What is the difference?

A while ago in the On Point section of the AOC Sunday Report, Rev Bryan Dabney provided a quote from James Kennedy, an American theologian, teacher and author:

We have been made for eternity! Yet though such a belief exists in every ancient religion from the Egyptians to the Persian to the Assyrian and Babylonian, the Chinese and the Hindu, everywhere it has waited for Jesus Christ to give to it a certitude nothing else could grant.[2]

While Christ has been present since He made the world, so has evil.  As elements of Truth, that is the Christ of God, come out in every religion, so do elements of evil and the Devil.  As Christ waxes strong, the Devil of necessity wanes.  If we let our faith in Christ wane and our country deviates from the firm foundation upon which it was founded, the Devil gains strength and becomes bolder. The solution to counter Satan is to increase our strength in Christ and embolden others around us to do the same, then for our little part, Satan’s hold will diminish.

So, let’s quickly talk about the propers.  In the Collect, we find ourselves asking to emulate children in their simple steadfast faith even unto death.  For only by simple faith in our Lord can we enter into heaven.  Faith as of children, accepting our Lord for what He is, not what we want to make Him.  For He is the Maker, not us!

When John talks about the 144,000, they are, symbolic or actual, the essence of the children who have gone before us.  Simple faith and without fault at the Father’s Throne.

The Gospel, a straight forward historical rendition, shows how important it is to act on God’s instruction.  Had Joseph not taken Mary and Baby Jesus into Egypt, the story would have ended right there.  But, Joseph acted and the story played out.  As Matthew pointed out, this is not the first time children were lost and in numbers.  It was important that Jesus not be among them.

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


[1] It happens to be one of the favored slogans of the German National Socialist Party, much better known by its contraction Nazi.  They slew millions “for the greater good.”
[2] D. James Kennedy - Why I Believe, p.65

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Fourth Sunday in Advent


Sermon - Rev Jack Arnold
Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California
Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above. 

The Fourth Sunday in Advent
The Collect.

O
 LORD, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, world without end.  Amen.

The Collect for the First Sunday in Advent is on Page 90:

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.

As is oft the case, today’s propers all tie together to reinforce a point and build our understanding of what God wants and expects from each of us.  The Collect asks for God’s help for us to accept His Help and do it His Way.  We are asking for this because of our natural infirmities. By natural infirmities, I mean our sins. Our natural infirmities do in fact hinder us from running the race that is set before us, that is to make it through the trials of this world and life and onto eternal life with our Lord. They are a big stumbling block that we ourselves cannot overcome without significant help. Luckily for us we have significant help available in the form of the Holy Ghost.

This is a thought that is constantly resonating throughout the Collects and not only them but all of Scriptures. That is because it is a constant truth that without the help of the Lord, we are but doomed to fail to follow Him.   It is oft supposed Christians are dour souls, with no sense of happiness or humor.  Perhaps this thought comes from those who have heard from others what the Bible says, but have never actually taken the time to read it and understood it. For if they understood it then they would not be thinking that we are dour at all!  Reading the Bible as a whole proves this often popular train of thought to be patently false. That may have been the way the Puritans thought, but then again, the Puritans were not holding to the consistent truth of the Bible. After all God commands us to make a “joyful” noise unto the Lord! Not, a dour, grumbling and solemn noise, but an exceedingly JOYFUL noise unto the Lord! There is nothing in the Bible that says you cannot have fun whilst worshipping our Lord; in fact that is the preferred way to worship Him! If we enjoy worshipping the Lord, then we are most apt to do more of our best to follow Him, if we are enjoying ourselves whilst doing so!

After all, the one said to be the most dour of all, Paul, tells us to be happy. In his Epistle he mentioned rejoicing in the Lord always. Not just happy, but to REJOICE.  REJOICE in the Lord ALWAYS and AGAIN I say REJOICE!  How much more fun can you have?  At the same time though Paul cautions us to be moderate in everything we do, no excesses, an even keel.  Work hard, but maintain a time and space for our family, honor our country, and above all honor God.  Maintain an even balance between work and play so to speak and moderation in both areas.  However, that is nowhere near being dour; just being happy, but a cautious people. After all, if we eat too much, we end up paying the price for the gluttony. So, too, do we pay both spiritually and physically for exceeding moderation in all things. Paul is not trying to stop us from having fun, he is trying to help us to have fun safely and in an enjoyable manner, where we can be able to use our full faculties as God intended. He goes on to tell us if we think we need something, simply ask God for it!  Speaking of God, John recounts John the Baptist’s role in preparing the way for Jesus.  The Pharisees trouble with the simplicity of his message.  They were looking for something more complex, less straightforward, something more like themselves. We have heard this often about the Pharisees; what they are looking for is something that people tend to look for instead of following God’s actual message. For it is easier to get around this sort of message than God’s very simple and straight forward one. 

They were not willing to accept the change in the status quo; the New Testament would break their role in finding ways around the commandments Jesus gave.  There is no way around the two commandments, namely of loving God with all our heart, soul and mind, and loving our neighbors as ourselves! Without those, we are just pitiful, weak, sinful beings! But, if we embrace those commandments, we start to shed our old man image, and put on a newer, shinier and better image. We then become, Man 2.0, quite the upgrade from the first version! 

The Pharisees were a case of no play, all work and led a rather unbalanced life.  The opposite of what Saint Paul suggests we do. They neither held to rejoicing in the Lord always, nor did they hold to moderation in all things. We are told to balance ourselves with play besides work, to make us into a happier people who will rejoice in God’s commandments and will do His Work without complaint.  There is a reason we have Sunday as a day to Worship our Lord, not only do we worship Him then but we get some much needed rest. And we do need rest, some of us more than others to function properly for Him during the rest of the week. We will be happier in the end if we do it His Way instead of our way as we are so wont to do, which is in our nature. The whole of Scriptures is about us fighting against our nature so we will be closer to what God intended us to be; a happy and holy people, living together in harmony.  This goes back to what the collect says, we ask He would come into our hearts and help us to work towards that harmony, to help us run the great race set before us.

If the world would do what God asked, our lives would be so much better, we would all be living together in happiness. Peace on earth will not be possible until the world accepts Him into their hearts. This is the perfect season for those who haven’t yet, to accept Him, to acknowledge Him at His first true appearance amongst us, at His Birth. Up until the end of our time here on earth, there is always time to accept Him, but do not wait until it is too late to do so! People can accept Him any at any time, but sooner rather than later is preferable. It is better to accept Him right away rather than wait until it is too late. That is why we much keep spreading and preaching the Gospel to all peoples and nations to fulfill the Great Commission.

Jesus also tells us to put our trust in the Lord, then not to worry.  He knows how counterproductive, indeed, how destructive worry can be in our lives.  We know it not only cannot, but will not do good, we know it will only hurt our cause; yet we do it.  Is this not a proof positive of how much we need His Help?  How hard is it to Trust in God and Dread Naught?  Very!  Extremely difficult as a matter of fact. Worry can be a really powerful negative emotion.  We need to fight this emotion as nothing good comes from excessive worrying.  The best cure to worry is to pray for God for guidance and to act upon that guidance.  Even though it is very hard to trust somebody you can’t see physically, you must trust your spiritual sense and follow Him anyway!  Knowing you will see Him physically one day is one of our great rewards. This greatly eases at least my worries and should ease yours as well. 

When Saint John is recording the actions of John the Baptist, he tells us that when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? They got an answer they neither expected nor really understood, he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias … I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; he it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. They had no clue what he was talking about.  All they could see was what they expected, a king of this world.  Yet, John the Baptist knew the kingdom was not of this world, for the King was no of this World, but the Eternal King of Eternity.  John the Baptist later says He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)  This is true of us, also.  We must let Jesus permeate us and become the dominant force in us.  But, it does not happen in the twinkling of the eye. Jack Lewis tells us, We are doing well enough if the slow process of being more in Christ and less in ourselves has made a decent beginning in a long life (it will be completed only in the next world). Jack Lewis suggests you try his plan; I pray ‘Lord, show me just so much (neither more nor less) about myself as I need for doing thy will now.’

The world is extremely complex; it is full of problems, temptations and difficulties.  It is full of obstacles for us, yet all Christianity offers is a few simple solutions.  We often hear there are no simple answers to complex questions.  Actually, that is not true.  There are simple answers to complex problems, they are the only ones which can and will work.  The problem is they are not the answers people want.  Most people do not want to know what they are supposed to do, lest they have to do it.  They want to be told what they want to do is at least okay, even though it is clearly not okay. But we need to know what we are doing is actually “Okay”, not what Joe on the corner claims is Okay. To do that, we have to read the Scriptures and listen to what God says is Okay, because He really does know the best in this matter for us. 

Once again, when you think about being a Christian, think a bit about these quotes from GK Chesterton:

·      Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.
·      The word good has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man. 
·      The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people. 
·      Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions. 
·      A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.

 G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

We are called to a new and different life, we ask the Lord to both lead us and follow us, to keep us always.  Our goal is to do the Lord’s will, not to avoid 613 laws.  To do what is right and be humble.

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

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Third Sunday in Advent


Sermon - Rev Jack Arnold
Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California
Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above. 

The Third Sunday in Advent
The Collect.


O
 LORD Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee; Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

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.

In the Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent, we are referred to as the ministers and stewards (caretakers) of the mysteries of God: the Scriptures and His Word. We ask for help in getting the hearts of the disobedient, which is us, by the wisdom of the just, which is God and the Holy Spirit, to turn and look to the Kingdom of God for answers and not this world. We are in a way like John the Baptist who prepared the way for Christ’s coming by preaching and preparing the path for Christ to begin his ministry. By preaching the Word, we are likewise preparing the World for His Return, by getting their hearts ready by being guided by the Holy Spirit and spreading the Good News across the globe. 

The collect gets to the heart of the matter directly. It says that in order for us to follow God, we need our disobedient hearts to shift focus to that of being just, in order to be ready to follow Him. This world will not help us follow Him nor will their solutions help us to follow him.  When we look to the world for solutions, we find the solutions of this world.  This world, ruled by the Prince of this world, the Prince of Air, the devil himself!  But Only His Solutions will help us to follow Him. We will only prosper if we follow His Solutions, that is God’s solutions. What will people think when we reject worldly solutions to worldly problems.  There is an answer for that, conveniently following the Collect.

In the Epistle, Paul tells us not fear what others think of us, but rather be concerned about what God thinks of what we are doing and what direction in which He wants us to go.  Rather than spend the mental energy on being concerned with what others think, let us use that same mental energy to do our best for God, our family and our country. We can get a lot more done for God this way and it will be better for our hearts, souls and minds if we think this way. Worry does not solve any problems; but it can create problems if we let it. So, let us not worry about the opinions of man, but of God instead. We will profit spiritually this way.

This is a very hard concept for many people to act on, including myself. However, it is something that each and every one of us should be working towards. What God thinks of us is a more important standard to hold ourselves to than what the people in this world think of us. We are to look to heaven for the answers to our worldly problems, not to this world. The world’s solutions have been tried and found wanting, but heaven’s solutions are never wanting. The only failure is that of their implementation which is on us and not on God. We just need to have the willpower, which can get from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to implement these solutions around us.

Rather than fear man, we must fear God, and do what He wants us to do. We must concern ourselves with God’s opinion rather than Man’s opinion.  Then perhaps maybe, some in this world will see what we are doing for Him and come to know Him and join Him. We will never know how much and impact we have on others around us. That is why we must be mindful of how we act around others. It is on us to be good ambassadors of Christ and to make good and lasting positive impressions on everyone we encounter. It is very much like how we are to act when traveling for work. We are called to be good representatives of the company and our conduct reflects very much on the company we work for, or in this case, God.  So, let us be the best representatives of God we can be. Some people will not be receptive of course, so we must shake the dust off our boots and leave. Some will be receptive and even those that aren’t, in time, might be open to hearing God’s message.  We aren’t called to force God’s message on others, but to offer it if they wish to hear it. Otherwise, we must do our part to be polite and kind to others, believers and other sorts of believers/non-believers, be it at work, school or home. Following God’s ways, we will be a much happier people. 

We will never get anywhere if we follow the ways of this world. As in John 1:11-13 He came unto His own and His Own received him not.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

If we are born of God, then it is Him to whom we must return and not man. As the verse from John points out, even Jesus came to us and we refused him; how can we expect any better treatment from man, than that given God Himself, who came down for us?  We should not be surprised when our fellow men treat us like dirt. We know ourselves how depraved we can be without the guiding light of the Holy Spirit in us. 

But the next part of the verse tells us what we will get if we join with him. He gave us the power to become the Sons of God, as we are His adopted children. He is giving us our eternal inheritance, if we will but follow Him. We are going to get an absolutely wonderful reward, if we do our very best to follow Him.  There is a distinct difference between saying you are doing your best and actually doing your best. 

The treatment we receive in this world will pale in comparison to the treatment God will give us in the next world if we but do our very best to follow Him. He has given us the power to become the Sons of God; we are God’s adopted children. This is a power greater than any in this world not of God’s Hands. This is a power that cannot be taken from us, as we are tightly in God’s Hand. The enemy cannot pluck us out of God’s grasp, once we have willingly joined ourselves to God through the help of the Holy Ghost. We need the unifying spirit of the Holy Ghost to help us understand the concepts of Scripture; not only to understand them, but to follow them. With the help of the Holy Ghost, we can understand what we are to do; more than that, we will be able to apply the concepts we learn from Scripture to our everyday lives.

In the Gospel, Christ asks the crowd of what they expected to see?  Some great big flashy sign He was going to overthrow the Romans and unite the Jews to conquer the world?  That was what they expected, but not what He came for! He says more than a prophet and that is true. Jesus is more than a prophet, He is the Son of God who came to die for our sins that we might not perish but have everlasting life.  He did not come to rule the world, for it would be only a temporal state.  He came for far more than that; to prepare our hearts for eternity and change us from unjust to just creatures, worthy of God’s creation and His Hands. As John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Christ’s preaching, Christ came to prepare our way to join our Father in Heaven. Without this preparation, we would not have the wonderful gift of eternal life.

His sacrifice was the physical and spiritual action which paved the road for our ascent to heaven. He came to mold and to shape us from being roughly made to something very valuable. He came to transform us from death to being truly alive. 

Life is a continual process of learning in every aspect of our lives, not least of these aspects is our spiritual growth and development.  The Japanese have a word for this, introduced into their industry by the American engineer W. Edwards Deming, Kaizen (改善), that is to say continuous improvement.  Never perfect, but always endeavoring to improve.  Day by day.  Our goal is to make the next day better than the last. This is how we must continually develop as Christians.

To care for the mysteries of God properly, we must continue to learn in our spiritual lives; if we do this, we will keep growing more and more every day.  Reading Scripture is one way to further our spiritual development, as well as helping others without thought for ourselves. We have to undergo our spiritual rebirth before we can help to transform others and to serve others.  To accomplish this, we need to have the mental state that only the Holy Ghost can give us. We must keep trying our best to improve and learn from the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit and to trust in God and dread naught.

As He came to change us for the better, Paul and the Collect remind us to do the same for others.   We have to keep trying to do our best to help our friends and family to be better, all the while doing our best to be the best Christians and humans we can be. All the while shining the light of Christ into the darkness of this world as His ambassadors. We know not what seeds we plant when we perform such actions and in a future time they may bear fruit. We must not try and rush the work of the Holy Spirit, who works on God’s time and not that of our own time. All good things will happen in due course. If we do our part by planting the seed, the Holy Ghost will nurture and develop this seed to bear fruit. We must put our hearts and minds together and think about what God wants us to do in the end, rather than what we want to do. Put God first and all will be well, is what can be taken from today’s collects and lessons, ultimately.  We must be willing do to this; then we can be properly caring for the mysteries of God.

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

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Second Sunday in Advent


Sermon - Rev Jack Arnold
Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California
Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above. 

The Second Sunday in Advent
The Collect.

B
LESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

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.

The Collect and the Epistle and the Gospel all tell us we are to learn from Scripture and to place our hope and trust in God, not man. They tell us God provided Scripture so that we might learn from the history of old believers in the Old and New testament. As the saying goes, if we do not learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. It is the same with Scripture; for much of Scripture is history.

Scriptures have been given to us as a tool for learning so we might become wiser through the Holy Spirit, whose guidance as we read and study Scripture will allow us to come to a fuller understanding of the meaning it should have in our daily lives. The key concept is learning, learning by growing closer to the concepts found in Scripture and finding out how to learn from the mistakes we have made.  Scriptures are here for our personal and spiritual development. We need the Scriptures to grow and learn as men and women of God. The guidance of the Holy Spirit is necessary for us implement the concepts found in Scripture in our day to day lives.

If we try to live our lives, or for that matter write our sermons, without the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we will be for naught. We have to understand what we are preaching; to live what we are preaching, in order for our faith to have any meaning.  Then we also have to live what we preach, other wise we become hypocrites. There are too many preachers out there who preach a nice message; but ultimately they do not live the message they preach. 

If we do not have understanding or act upon our preaching, how can we ask others to follow God, when we ourselves are not?  We must strive to avoid hypocrisy, to live a geniune life following His commandments He has set for us and to be a beacon to guide others to Him. We are not an icon or image of Him, but merely pathfinders, and once we find the path, we guide others to Him. We do not posess any special powers as ministers of the Lord, except as we have the Holy Ghost within us, directing us. And that special power is not of our own to claim, but He who sent Him. We are merely being allowed to have Him within us and we should not boast of any deeds done with His Inspiration, but must simply point back to the source who sent Him. We cannot claim any credit on our own for the power He has bestowed upon us to perform great good works for Him.  He works not only in ministers, but in each and every member of the church.  For, each of us is an emissary of Christ to the world. 

He gives each of us in His Church special talents, so members of the Church may use these talents in conjunction with one another to bring people to Christ. As in a professional workplace, each member of the Church has a special talent, used in conjunction with other people with each of their own talents, can be used together to bring people to Christ. If we all work together, with the help of the Holy Ghost, there is not much beyond our capability. We cannot do this mission alone, we need to depend on each other and work together to strenghen the Church and carry out the Great Comission. We become an unstoppable spiritual force, with the Holy Ghost within each and every one of us, working for the glory of the Father here on Earth. For the Church is a team, each and everyone in it, the clergy and the lay people all having the common goals of spreading the Gospel to those who are in need of it and tending to those who need help. This is all done by reading and applying the precepts of Scripture with the help of the Holy Ghost.

We must act upon the words of Scripture and the sermons we hear, so our faith will be manifest to all of those watching us.  We will make mistakes and sin, as we are imperfect beings; if we admit our wrongdoings to God, and come back to Him, all shall be forgiven and we shall have another fresh slate, on which to start anew. 

In the Epistle, Paul tells us Scripture was written so we might have hope, even in times of darkness.  Times like these with unbelievers in high places doing their best to defile and ridicule our faith can try our souls.  We must treat others as Christ taught us, with respect and humility, no matter our personal feelings/opinion on them and how they conduct their lives. If we are kind to them, we may plant a seed in their lives for the better, causing perhaps a change for the better in them. We do not know what impact our actions may have in the future; we can only hope they may influence an individual for the better. It may not be until way later that we find out what measurable impact we may have had on these peoples lives. It takes a while for seeds to germinate and grow into  large and wondrous trees, it is the same with the seeds we plant spiritually. We have no idea what our actions will inspire others to do. That is also why we need to be extremely careful in how our actions influence others. We want to be a positive influence, rather than a negative one. 

This is where applying the love thy neighbor as thyself concept plays a big part. For if we follow Christ’s Summary of the Law, then our actions are more likely to cause a positive impact on others around us, rather than if we follow ourselves instead of the Holy Ghost, whereas we are more likely to cause a negative impact to others around us.

Turning to the Gospel, Saint Luke describes the signs of the Second Coming and how we are to prepare for it.  We are not to be caught unaware of the signs; if we read the signs, then we shall be prepared to meet our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  At the same time remember Christ’s words in Matthew 24:36 - But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.  This means every day we have to be active in our faith, and not brain and faith dead like so many around us today. We have to be spritually aware of our spiritual surroundings, much as a good and safe driver/motorcyclist must be aware of the cars around him and possible hazards in the road at all times.

We have to use the tools given to us by God; Scripture, our faith and our friends in the faith to combat the evils of this world.  They are given to us for learning the faith and for defending the faith from the multiple assaults of the wicked one. We must do our best to make this world the best place we can.  If we study, digest and use Scripture in faith, we will have hope in these times of darkness; we will go forth and spread Good News, which will give us satisfaction and hope for people; therefore renewing our spirit and vigor and the knowledge that in the end we will triumph, will fill our hungry spirits. It will renew our sense of purpose and redirect our focus outward instead of inward.

Our hungry spirits can only be satisified by God’s Goodness and His Word and His Love, of which He has infinite capacity; nobody is stealing anybody else’s share, as God has more than plenty to go around for all of us!  In fact, the more of God’s Love you take, the more there is for others!  So we must concentrate then on sharing the Gospel and God’s love, so others might finally find true happiness, as we find ours, in serving the Lord for the rest of our days. We also have to concentrate on living a genuine Christian life and not a shallow Christian life; showing the way to Christ for others to see and follow.

The common theme through the Collect, Epistle and Gospel is that if we have hope and trust in God, we must dread naught, and carry on, empowered through them in our daily lives here on Earth until we are called to our heavenly home.   These are actions we must take; not mere thoughts or words, actual actions!

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

Sunday, December 1, 2019

First Sunday in Advent


Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and Action
Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California
Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together because, as is always the case, there is a unifying message in the Scripture for this Sunday. 

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.

Today’s Collect, like almost all of them, starts out asking God’s Grace, His Help, His intervention to allow us to turn our backs on evil and our own desires that we might make His Desire our desire. This theme is constant through ought most of the collects for the simple reason that it is truth.  And it is the truth that without God’s intervention in our lives through the help of the Holy Ghost we are doomed to fail. If you will understand how short we fall in our “natural” desire, you will understand to cast off the works of darkness and don the armour of light, we must turn to Christ, who came to visit us, born in a simple and humble inn in Bethlehem.  As His manner of birth, we must be humble as well, not boastful and proud like the rich[1], but meek and lowly, to embrace light and cast off the works of darkness.  We have to let go of our pride in order to be humble and be able to cast off the works of darkness. Though He came in a rather humble manner, He shall return in a glorious and majestic manner, a rather stark contrast to His original incarnation, leaving no doubt who has come to lead us.   Consider also that when Jesus came into this world, He knew precisely and exactly how He would leave and the pain and suffering it would entail.  There was no way to justify in His mind that while there would be 99 percent casualties, it would not be Him.  He knew exactly what would happen, yet He came anyway.  He came for us.  He came that we might not have just eternal existence, but eternal life and freedom.

The whole point of the Collect, Epistle and Gospel is that we must embrace light and reject the darkness. We do this by allowing the Holy Ghost into our hearts, to shine the light in our hearts and expel the darkness. It is a true and bright light which will cleanse our hearts of the inner darkness and will send the darkness scattering like insects. Only then can we truly don the armor of light. We need to train our brains and minds and souls in this way, so that we can act for Christ. This constant battle will occur for the rest of our lives until we are called home to join our friends and family who have gone before and Christ and His Father. We have been called to do these things, as sons and daughters of God, but only with a conscious effort on our part to accept Him and more importantly to listen to Him, can we do these things. To do these things we have to live it. Not just say we are living it, but physically perform the actions needed to live it. 

This brings us straight to the Epistle. Paul tells us we need to live the life we aspire to.  He wastes little time on the don’ts which the Jews were famous for getting around, but goes right to the dos; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. By going through the dos, Paul is saying we need to let in the light and allow the Holy Spirit to expel the darkness. We cannot hope to accomplish any of the dos if we do not have the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Following God requires that we reject the dark and cling to the light. The light of the Holy Spirit will burn away the darkness in our souls, if we will but let Him. 

Paul cautions us to not borrow for what we do not need that we might owe others nothing but our love.  To know the difference between want and need.  This is sound advice sorely needed in this country these days. If we do, we are ensuring that we will not have a worldly obligation to any who might hold that over us to influence our path away from that Christ set out for us. We ideally owe no man anything but that of our love.  Paul asks us to love our neighbors, by love he means to take care for them as we would for ourselves or our own close relations.  Not necessarily to “give” them money, but to help them to attain self-sufficiency that they might prosper both in soul and body.  

This takes us right into the Gospel according to Saint Matthew.  We must not be for God in speech only, but in deed.  When Jesus came into this world, He came knowing the true purpose of His coming, He came knowing how He would leave, He came knowing the cost at which our souls would be accounted at perfect. He knew what He had to do to save our souls for eternity.  His whole ministry, including his death and resurrection, can be best summed up in one word; action. He consistently backed up His Message with actions and not just words. This is a pattern for us to follow as believers; we are called not just to say good words, but back those good words up with actions.  The story of Palm Sunday is the same as that of the Nativity.   For on Palm Sunday, there was joy in the crowd at the arrival of the Savior, much as there was in the stable at the arrival of the Child Jesus.  Yet, many in the very same crowd who cried “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday were there early on Good Friday.  For what did they cry then?

“Crucify Him, Crucify Him!”

Pilate asked for them to cry for mercy, they cried for vengeance on their Lord and Savior!

A swift 180° turn from “Hosanna to the Son of David.”  How quick are men to turn upon a good thing. As Charles Spurgeon said "It is an astounding thing and a proof of human depravity that men do not themselves seek salvation. They even deny the necessity of it and would sooner run away than be partakers of it."  This is due to our natural inclination to choose the fruit of death rather than the bread of life, which comes from the Baker of Life, Jesus Christ. 

The Bread of Life is Christ’s sacrifice for us, and every time we partake of it in Holy Communion and listening to the Gospel and the Epistle, we must always remember the cost of our freedom from death. This Bread did not come to us without a cost namely His Death and resurrection.  It also comes with conditions, namely that we profess Christ as Our Saviour and to put Him first in our lives, love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and love our neighbors as ourselves. We have heard this before in the Summary of the Law. This is what the Law of God condenses down to, and this is what all laws we set forth must be based upon, for there is no other rational or foundational base so great and solid as Christ. He must be the Chief Cornerstone in our lives, if our lives are to have any meaning. There are those who He is not chief in, and they are those who may vainly profess His name with their lips, but not in their actions. This is a great sorrow for them. They have not kept the Word of God in their hearts, though they may shallowly profess it with their lips. It is action, not diction, that counts!

We must not be like them.  We must put on the great Armour of Light and so reject our former lives of sin and vanity. We must switch from our old selfish lives to a new unselfish, Christ filled life.  It is something we always struggle with, but God never gives up on us. We can be comforted by the assurance He will never give up on us. We just have to never give up on Him and do our very best to follow what He says. As long as we repent from our sin and turn back to God in our private prayers and devotion, he will wipe our slate clean. I know I have a hard time keeping on the straight and narrow path, so I am glad He left the Scriptures to guide us.

Through following His Word and Instructions, we shall be given a greater reward than anything existent on the Earth; past, present or future, that gift of immortal life, life for all eternity, that will outlast this physical world. To don the armour of light is not merely putting it on, you must utilize the helmet, the buckler and sword (Scriptures and Christ’s teachings).  You need the whole complement of weaponry to go into combat with the Prince of Darkness in this fallen world. And you not only need the complement of weaponry, but we need to train with these weapons. The best way is to be reading Scriptures regularly and discussing the meaning of it with your fellow believers. This way you can ingrain the Scriptures in your heart and be ready to do battle with those who follow the Prince of this World.

Make no mistake, we are engaged in a World War with the Prince of Air, the Prince of This World, for the souls of men, starting with our own, a World War which has been going on since the beginning of time. But we know the ending is in our favor for certain, for the Book of Revelation tells us so.

As individuals we may not experience victory here on earth. We may struggle with problems in this world and our own, our whole lifespan on this planet. We may not see and savor that victory here on earth; but we know in the end He will be victorious as we know the Savior.  We will win, for we are on His Side.

Cast off the dull worn robes of darkness, which lack luster, give no warmth, protect not from the heat, and put on the shining glorious armour of light.  So kitted up, we walk in light, not in darkness where we may stumble and fall.   Unlike moths, for us light is life, not the destruction of darkness.

Come, put on the Armor of Light and go forth to destroy that last enemy, death!

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


[1] It is not that worldly wealth is, in and of itself, bad, but rather the attitude it can bring, one of self-worth beyond that which is correct.  Wealth often brings to us a “better than thou” attitude, which soon turns to “Holier than thou.”  The kind of thing that was referred to when Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”  Mark 10.25