11
September 2001
Today is the tenth anniversary of
the attack on our country by operatives of Al Qaeda, the Muslim organization
dedicated to ruling the world under a united Caliphate with universal Sharia
Law. These people do not represent
all those who profess to be Muslims, but they apparently are not rejected, at
least publicly, by anything close to a majority of Muslims worldwide. There are many Muslims, whom the Al
Qaeda consider apostate who do reject their ideas. But, the vast majority of Muslims either accept the concepts
put forth by Al Qaeda or fear them enough not to publicly reject them.
We hear that we are not at war
with Islam. That apparently is
true. However, there is a very
significant portion of Islam that is at war with us. We need to understand this. We need to make an alliance with those Muslims Al Qaeda and
the like consider apostate and eliminate the threat from the others.
On 11 September 2001, the country
came together as one. You were
either with us or against us. Now,
that is no longer true. We are
more concerned about increasing the size of our government and increasing
citizen dependence to further the aims of government than we are with our
country’s survival.
Today you will hear of the murder
of over 3,000 of our citizens, you likely will have to work very hard to figure
out they were murdered by Al Qaeda warriors engaged in what they considered to
be a Holy War. Warriors who lived
here amongst us for at least six months, then turned on us. All were illegal aliens at the time of
the attack, having been legally allowed into this country then overstaying
their visas. Remember that when
our President refuses to allow deportation of illegal aliens, including his
aunt and uncle.
On 11 September 2001, there were heroes,
there were murder victims and there were murderers clothed as Holy
Warriors. Police officers,
firemen, military personnel and countless others “rode towards the sound of
gunfire” at the peril of their lives.
There were those who did their duty and died or were injured doing it. There were those who did not believe
the FAA’s directions on hijacking was sound; fought and did not allow their
aircraft to be used as a weapon.
There were heroes; these were Americans at their best.
Now, just like after 7 December
1941, we are at war. Too bad most
of us, particularly in the Executive Branch, have not noticed.
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 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 or our Deacon Striker.
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 Feasts, 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 today are found
on Page 206-207, with the Collect first:
The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than
we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve; Pour
down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our
conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy
to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our
Lord. Amen
Ryan Hopkins read the Epistle, which came from
Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, the Third Chapter beginning at the
Fourth Verse. Paul reminds us
through the Grace of God we can be able ministers of the new testament, on our
own we can be in the end no good.
If we are able to completely follow the Law, with good intent, we can
through that please God, but inasmuch as that is impossible we fall short. The letter of the Law, which cannot be
complied with is death. But
following the spirit of the Law gives life. That is Jesus’ message, for in the Law is death and in the
spirit life. For if there is glory
in administering the Law, how much more glory is there in the spirit of the
Law, which is Jesus’ message?
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uch trust have we
through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think
any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us
able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death,
written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel
could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance;
which glory was to be done away: how shall not the ministration of the spirit
be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more
doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
Deacon Striker Jack Arnold read
today’s Holy Gospel which started in the Seventh Chapter of the Gospel
according to St. Mark, beginning at the Thirty-First Verse. Jesus came in to
the coast of Decapolis[1]. The people brought unto him a deaf mute. Jesus examined the man, put his fingers
in his ears, touched his tongue and said “Ephphatha”[2],
that is, “Be opened.” What Jesus
did here for the deaf mute physically is what he does for each of us
spiritually. Through Jesus, we
hear the Word of God and are given the ability to speak it. Conversely, there are none so deaf as
those who will not hear and none so blind as those who will not see. It is up to each of us to choose if we
will remain blind, deaf and dumb or open our eyes to see, hear and speak the
Word of God. When we receive the
gift of sight, hearing and speech we embark on a new life of freedom.
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esus, departing from
the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst
of the coasts of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had
an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. And
he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he
spit, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith
unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened,
and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. And he charged
them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the
more a great deal they published it; and were beyond measure astonished,
saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the
dumb to speak.
Sermon
– Time and Action
Today’s sermon tied the Epistle and Gospel together
and is mainly contained in the forewords above. The Jews could or would not comply with the 613 Mosaic
Laws which brought them death.
Jesus gave us two laws only to comply with, which though simpler are
harder. Love God, Love your
neighbor like yourself. Think
about it, if you do those two things, you will find you need no other real
moral guidance. The problem is
just like the Jews, we cannot perfectly follow those either. But, happily for us, Jesus’ sacrifice on
our behalf accounts us as just before God. So, now that we know that, who do we tell about it? Do we let people know, or do we hide
our allegiance to the Lord?
If you hide your allegiance, you really have none.
Actions speak louder than words.
Bishop
Ogles’ message for today
Today’s work from Bishop Jerry is on the Holy Gospel
for this Sunday. It is very
interesting. I cannot commend it
to you enough.
Devotion for 11 September 2011 Anno Domini - 12th Sunday after Trinity
" 31 And
again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of
Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. 32 And
they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and
they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 33 And
he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he
spit, and touched his tongue; 34 And
looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35 And
straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and
he spake plain. 36 And he charged them that they
should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal
they published it; 37 And were beyond measure
astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to
hear, and the dumb to speak. (Mark 7:31-37)
Jesus has been traveling a
long and dusty trail from Sidon and Tyre along the coasts of the Mediterranean
Sea. He crosses over Jordan to the coast of Decapolis and the Sea of Galilee.
The Gospel of St Matthew describes the same scene in a parallel account.
"29And Jesus
departed from thence, and came nigh unto the Sea of Galilee; and went up into a
mountain, and sat down there. 30 And
great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind,
dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed
them: 31 Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when
they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the
blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel." (Matt 15:29-31)
Amazingly, the observers
recognized the power of God working THROUH Jesus, but did not recognize that
power IN and OF Jesus. "And there came a fear on all: and they
glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God
hath visited his people. (Luke 7:16) They accepted the prophetic
character of Christ but not His Divinity.
"And
they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and
they beseech him to put his hand upon him." It is natural that one who was deaf would also suffer from a
speech impediment. One physical defect often leads to another. Sin is like
that, too.
The adultery of David and
Bathsheba led to the even more serious sin of MURDER.
This young man had done no
sin to warrant such an affliction. The actions of Christ in His compassion to
heal him prove two points:
1)That it was NOT the will
of God that this young man should be afflicted and
2) it WAS the will of
God that he should be cured.
"….and they beseech
him to put his hand upon him." It is interesting that the
disciples presume to suggest HOW Jesus should heal this man. They asked Jesus
to put His hands upon him.
Apparently, they believed
the healing of Christ to be more the FORM than the PERSON of Christ. But
Christ will heal according to His will and not our own.
"And he took him
aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and
touched his tongue" Jesus led the man apart from the multitude
to heal Him. We do not know why He did so, but we do not NEED to know why. The
more important point is that He DID heal the man in His own way and not in the
way we would expect.
Even to bring us to Himself,
God must separate us from the greater multitudes for we are prone, in the face
of common superstitions and lack of courage, to continue in the mind of the
multitude instead of in the Mind of Christ.
How beautiful the day that
Christ took our hand and led us apart from the doubting multitudes and opened
our eyes, our ears, and our mouths to praise Him.
Bible scholars often attempt
to explain away the mystery of God when such mystery is not revealed in
Scripture.
Jesus has done likewise in
other settings: "And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man
unto him, and besought him to touch him. 23 And
he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town. (Mark
8:22-23)
If we are confined in
hospital after a serious illness and remain unconscious for a time, we do not
wake up healed completely and ask HOW we were healed. We simply rejoice in the
absence of pain and hurt.
"……..and put his
fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; 34 And
looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened."
Just as in is our most
serious affliction spiritually, Christ most often forgives the sin before
healing the body. Jesus always addresses the most serious affliction first.
(put his fingers into his
ears) Since the man's speech impediment resulted from His being deaf, Christ
heals his ears first.
(and he spit, and touched
his tongue) He next addresses the speech impediment. The very Fountain from
which the Word has it effulgence is the mouth of Christ. From that Fountain
comes healing, so He spat upon His finger and touched the man's disabled
tongue.
(And looking up to heaven)
from whence cometh my help…Christ is the Power of God, and He and the Father
are One. He will do no thing without the Will and Consent of the Father, so He
looks to heaven - as we should do as well in time of need. "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth
the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son
likewise." (John 5:19)
When we look upon the world
around us, strewn with the dirt and filth of man and cities of gloom and want,
what a contrast when, on a clear night, we look up into the pristine heavens
and observe Creation untouched by the hands of man, we are humbled by our lack
of merit and power. The stars, all conforming to the Law of God's Nature,
shining brilliantly in the very places God put them in the beginning. Heaven is
where we look for God and His Counsel.
Ephphrata! (Be
opened, in the Chaldaic). Just as the dead eyes of Lazarus immediately opened
at the voice of Christ, so the ears of this man were subject to the power of
God to obey and be opened.
"And
straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and
he spake plain." Though
this miracle is great, it is greater than might first appear. When a deaf
person suffers from speech impediments due to deafness, they must be taught how
to speak if that deafness is removed. But this man spoke immediately and
clearly. God does not do shoddy work. His works are perfect in every detail.
"And he charged them
that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a
great deal they published it" What possibility exist that a man who
could not hear or speak will keep silence about such ills being healed by a
loving God? The more Christ counseled them to tell no one, the greater
they praised Him in shouting it to the world.
Have you held your peace
after having Christ heal and forgive you when you were called by His Voice? How
could you? But, sadly, many do not speak of Him though they owe their beings to
Him.
"And were beyond
measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the
deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak." If your ears have been opened to the glory of Christ,
how could you restrain your tongue from praising Him everywhere?
The people proclaimed:
"He hath done all things well" This is an echo from the
Beginning of Genesis. All that God created and made, He saw that it was very
Good. He does ALL things well.
Have you heard the Voice of
Christ in the Gospels? Having heard, has the string of your tongue been loosed
to proclaim His glory to all you know? Or are you a closet Christian and a
secret child of God the Father?
Bishop
Dennis Campbell
Today’s Sunday Report
has a guest sermon by Bishop R. Dennis Campbell. As you may have noticed, we often publish Bishop Jerry and
Bishop Dennis sermons and notes.
This is because no one I have ever heard does as fine a job at expressing
biblical concepts in terms we can understand. Today is one of those times!
Jesus Doeth All Things Well
Mark
7:31-37
Twelfth
Sunday after Trinity
11
September 2011
There is an old Gospel
song written by Fanny Crosby that says:
"All
the way my Saviour leads me, what have to ask beside?
Can
I doubt His tender mercies, who through life has been my guide,
Heav'nly
peace, divinest comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell
For
I know what e're befall me, Jesus doeth all things well."
That last line is
based on our Gospel reading for today, and I have borrowed it as the title of
this sermon, "Jesus Doeth All Things Well."
In the Bible the words
are a little different. Found in Mark 7:37, they are "He hath done
all things well." These words express a happy conclusion of the
speakers. They also express a great deal of surprise, for Jesus has just
done some very odd things. For one thing He has just returned from the
coasts of Tyre and Sidon. These were Gentile areas, places good Jews
avoided. Yet Jesus went there, and, while there, He actually helped
Gentiles by exorcising a demon from the Syro-Phoenician woman's daughter.
Strange works from a Man Jews believed was supposed to lead them in a global
war to crush the Gentiles. Even in healing the man in our text, His
actions are a little odd. Every one knew He could cast out demons and
heal the sick with just a word. He didn't even have to be in physical
proximity to them, as is seen in the case of the Syro-Phoenician's
daughter. He could heal from afar as easily as from the side of the
sickbed. But when this man with an impediment in his speech and deaf ears
was brought to Him, Jesus put His fingers in the man's ears, spat, touched his
tongue, looked up to Heaven, and sighed. Only then did He say,
"Ephphatha," "be opened," and heal the man.
God's ways often seem
strange to us. It seemed strange to the Virgin Mary when the angel
announced that she would bear a son. It seemed strange to the Jews that a Man
who claimed to be the Messiah was born in a barn and grew up in Nazareth and
worked as a carpenter. They expected Him to be born in the palace, grow
up in wealth, and be trained for war. It seemed strange to the disciples
that He allowed Himself to be captured and nailed to a cross. And it
really seemed strange when He died. How could this be? How could
the Messiah die? But that was not as strange to them as His
resurrection. They were terrified when they saw Him (Lk.
24:37). And they were just as shocked at His ascension.
I confess that God's
ways often surprise me. I am surprised at the way He allows evil to run
free on this earth. I am amazed at the way the righteous and the innocent
suffer. I am surprised at the trials His people have to endure in this
life. I am surprised at the heresy and schism He allows in His
Church. I am surprised He doesn't show Himself in the sky and speak to us
in an audible voice, and fix our problems, and end our wars, and throw out the
politicians and rule the earth Himself, and throw out the clergy and rule the
Church Himself. Yes, I have read the Bible enough to know some of His
reasons for doing what He does, but His ways are still mysterious to me, and
such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for me; I cannot attain it,"
as our reading from Psalm139:5 states. Even the Apostle Paul felt this,
as he wrote in our reading for Evening Prayer last night;
"O the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past finding out. Who hath known the mind of the
Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?"
And yet, we, like
those who witnessed the healing of the man in today's Gospel Lesson, must
confess, "He hath done all things well." Who among us here
today does not see that it is only by the grace of God that we have been
preserved in our lives and brought to this place to worship Him today?
Who cannot agree that it is only by the grace of God that we have been turned
and preserved from sin and evil to love and serve Him? Who cannot say
that by His life and death, His resurrection and ascension, those things that
seemed at first so strange and unGod like to us, are the very means of our
forgiveness and reconciliation to God? Who among us cannot say that the
times He led us through what Psalm 84:6 calls, "the vale of misery,"
have been the very means by which He drew us closer to His side, and
strengthened us in the faith? And even in the vale of misery who has not
found that the pools are filled with the waters of His comfort? Who here
does not see that, though we have not always understood His ways, or even liked
them, we are what we are, and we are where we are because of Him, and in all
His dealings with us, "He hath done all things well"?
I keep reminding you,
and I pray you will not grow weary of it, that the time of Trinity is a time of
application; a time to reflect on the way the great doctrines of the Bible
apply to us in every day life. Many great doctrines are brought to our
attention this morning; the doctrine of the Providence of God, the doctrines of
His attributes of unchanging faithfulness, and His steadfast and everlasting
love, of the Incarnation and the atonement. There are others, but the
application is this; trust Him. "He hath done all
things well," will He not continue the same tomorrow and for all
eternity? Will He not keep His promises to us, everyone of them, and
everyone of us, just as faithfully and just as fully in the future as He has in
the past? Does God sleep? Has His arm grown weary? Has He
become weak? Is He not, as we prayed together in the Collect for the
Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, "more ready to hear than we to pray"
and "wont to give more than either we desire or deserve?"
O God who doeth all
things well, "Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us
those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things
which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus
Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
--
tR.
Dennis Campbell
Bishop
of Diocese of Virginia
Rector,
Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
Powhatan,
Virginia
[1] Decapolis - ten
cities=deka, ten, and polis, a city, a district on the east and south-east of
the Sea of Galilee containing "ten cities, " which were chiefly
inhabited by Greeks. It included a portion of Bashan and Gilead, and is
mentioned three times in the New Testament (Matt. 4: 25; Mark 5: 20; 7: 31).
These cities were Scythopolis, i. e., "city of the Scythians",
(ancient Bethshean, the only one of the ten cities on the west of Jordan),
Hippos, Gadara, Pella (to which the Christians fled just before the destruction
of Jerusalem), Philadelphia (ancient Rabbath-ammon), Gerasa, Dion, Canatha,
Raphana, and Damascus. When the Romans conquered Syria (B. C. 65) they rebuilt,
and endowed with certain privileges, these "ten cities, " and the
province connected with them they called "Decapolis. "
[2]
Ephphatha the Greek
form of a Syro-Chaldaic or Aramaic word, meaning "Be opened", uttered
by Christ when healing the man who was deaf and dumb (Mark 7: 34). It is one of
the characteristics of Mark that he uses the very Aramaic words which fell from
our Lord's lips. (See 3: 17; 5: 41; 7: 11; 14: 36; 15: 34. )
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