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
Dru Arnold 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 partly addressed in the forewords
above.
Consider the words from the Collect, wherein we ask
God … 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 …
We continually pray to God, asking Him for what WE
want. Yet, how oft do we listen to
Him when He responds? If we will
listen to Him and DO what He asks, He will give us more than we have need of,
more than we ask for, more than we can even desire. Yet, it requires us to listen to Him, then ACT on what we
are told. When we ask His forgiveness,
when He gives it, we need to accept it and live it; if we live in the past, we
never will benefit.
God gives us guidance through the Holy Ghost, if we
will but accept it. He gives us
the power to act in the spirit of The Law. The Law or actually 613 little laws turned out to be in of
itself a death sentence. The Jews
could or would not comply with the 613 Mosaic Laws, which brought them
death. Jesus gave us the summary
of The Law, which through Him would bring life, everlasting life and happiness
here on earth:
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HOU shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is
the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and
the Prophets.
Only two laws to comply with, which though simpler,
are harder:
1. Love
God
2. Love
your neighbor like yourself
3.
Think about it, if you do those two things, you will
find you need no other real moral guidance. If you understand the Big Picture, you know what to do on
your part of the Little Picture to make your world line up with His World. 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.
When Jesus opened the ears and mouth of the deaf
mute, He did for him what the Holy Ghost will do for us, if we will but let Him
open first our ears to hear, then our mouths to testify, communicate and
direct.
Actions speak louder than words.
Be of God - Live of God -
Act of God.
Bishop
Dennis Campbell’s Sunday Sermon
As
is oft the case, we are honored to present Bishop Dennis’ Sunday sermon
presented to his parish. Dennis
has a great sermon for the Twelfth Sunday
after Trinity:
God Knows You
Psalm 139, 2 Corinthians 3:1-9,
Mark 7:31-37
Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
August 26, 2012
When you hear words like
omniscient or omnipresent, you may think they are only for academic theologians
in seminary classrooms. In reality
they are inseparably connected to everyday Christian living, for they express
the deep essence of the nature and being of God.
Omniscience means God knows all
things, but Psalm 139 shows that it especially means God knows you.
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LORD, thou
hast searched me out, and known me. * Thou knowest my down-sitting, and mine
up-rising; thou understandest my thoughts long before.
2 Thou art about my path, and about my bed; *
and art acquainted with all my ways.
3 For lo, there is not a word in my tongue, *
but thou, O LORD, knowest it altogether.
4 Thou hast beset me behind and before,* and
laid thine hand upon me.
5 Such knowledge is too wonderful and
excellent for me; * I cannot attain unto it.
6 Whither shall I go then from thy Spirit? *
or whither shall I go then from thy presence?
7 If I climb up into heaven, thou art there;
* if I go down to hell, thou art there also.
8 If I take the wings of the morning, * and
remain in the uttermost parts of the sea;
9 Even there also shall thy hand lead me, *
and thy right hand shall hold me.
10 If I say, Peradventure the darkness shall
cover me; * then shall my night be turned to day.
11 Yea, the darkness is no darkness with
thee, but the night is as clear as the day; * the darkness and light to thee
are both alike.
12 For my reins are thine; * thou hast
covered me in my mother’s womb.
13 I will give thanks unto thee, for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made: * marvellous are thy works, and that my soul
knoweth right well.
14 My bones are not hid from thee, * though I
be made secretly, and fashioned beneath in the earth.
15 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being
imperfect; * and in thy book were all my members written;
16 Which day by day were fashioned, * when as
yet there was none of them.
17 How dear are thy counsels unto me, O God;*
O how great is the sum of them!
18 If I tell them, they are more in number
than the sand: * when I wake up, I am present with thee.
19 Wilt thou not slay the wicked, O God? *
Depart from me, ye blood-thirsty men.
20 For they speak unrighteously against
thee;*and thine enemies take thy Name in vain.
21 Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate
thee? * and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
22 Yea, I hate them right sore;*even as
though they were mine enemies.
23 Try me, O God, and seek the ground of my
heart; * prove me, and examine my thoughts.
24 Look well if there be any way of
wickedness in me; * and lead me in the way everlasting.
The very first verse says God has
searched you out. This does not
mean God went looking for you, for you are never out of His sight. It means He sees you with a searching,
knowing look. He searches you as
the Bereans searched the Scriptures when the Apostle Paul preached to them. He is examining you in minute detail,
and there is nothing about you that is hidden from His sight. He knows you. He knows the tiniest details of your
life; your "down-sitting" and your up-rising." What time did you go to bed on this
date two years ago? You don't
know, but God knows. What did you have for dinner on this date three years
ago? God knows. He knows all of your life. He knows what you will eat on this date
next year. He knows what you will
be doing a hundred years from now, a million years from now, and an eternity of
eternities from now. He knows your
words before you speak them. He
knows what you will do before you do it.
He knows your thoughts before you think them. He knows every structure in every cell of your body. Your bones are not hidden from
Him. They were written in His book "when as
yet there were none of them." He fashioned you as a builder builds a
house. That is why verse 13 says you are
"fearfully and wonderfully made."
If God knows you that well, He
knows your sins. He knows the
secret thoughts and desires of your heart, the secret sins you commit only in
thought, the unjustified rage, the selfishness, the antipathy toward Him, the
contempt of His commandments. To
Him all hearts are open, all desires known, and from Him no secrets are hid.
He also knows every hurt, every
sorrow, and every need you have, and He cares about you. I do not base my theology on hymns and
songs, and when I like one it is because it expresses some part of Biblical
truth in a succinct, easy to remember way. Such is the hymn by John Zundel, "There's a Wideness in
God's Mercy;"
There is no
place where earth's sorrows Are more felt than up in heav'n;
There is no
place where earth's failings have such kindly judgments giv'n
God knows your sorrows, and He
knows how to give good things to you. He alone knows how to comfort you, fill
your emptiness and heal your brokenness.
He can fill that hole in your being that you try to fill with toys and
activities and amusements. And He
can fill it better than those things because He is only piece of your puzzel
that fits in that place. Quoting
from John Zundel's hymn again;
There is welcome
for the sinner, And more graces for the good;
There is mercy
with the Saviour; There is healing in his blood.
Omnipresent means God is
everywhere, but Psalm 139 makes the point that God is with you. No matter where you are, how bad things
may appear to you, God has not and never will forsake you. Even in the shadow of death, "Thou
art with me."
"Thou art about my path, and about my bed, and art acquainted with
all my ways" (vs. 2) . If you could fly to Heaven, or plunge yourself into
the pit of hell, you would still be in the presence of God. If you fly through the sky with the
wings of the morning, or go to the deepest part of the sea, even if you
hide yourself absolute darkness,
you are as much in His presence as if you stood before His throne in Heaven,
and He sees you as clearly as you see yourself in the noonday sun. "Whither shall I go then from Thy
Spirit? or whither shall I go then from Thy presence?
Jonah God tried to go from God's
Spirit and from God's presence. He
ran from God for the same reason everyone runs from God, because he didn't want to do what God
wanted him to do. God wanted him to preach repentance to the Ninevites, but
that is just the letter of God's commandment. The spirit of God's commandment to Jonah was that God wanted
Jonah to love the Ninevites, to care about them, and to have compassion on
them. They were without God in
this world, and would go to eternity without God, unless they repented, and God
wanted Jonah to care about that.
On an even deeper level, God wanted Jonah to care about God. He wanted Jonah to love God with all
his being. He wanted Jonah to love
what God loves. He wanted love to
move Jonah to gladly do God's bidding.
But Jonah refused. Instead
of loving God, Jonah ran from Him.
He probably thought God was limited to the geographical area of Israel,
as though God had a territorry, like a salesman or a franchise, and getting out
of Israel would get him to a place where God could not reach him, could not
bother him. But God created the
heavens and the earth. He owns the
seas and all that in them is. He
can sink a boat or take it safely to harbour. He can even make a man live inside a fish for three days. If
you are running away from God, like Jonah, you can't get away. He is there wherever you go, wherever
you hide. He will always bother
you, until you love Him back.
Jacob thought God had deserted
him. Jacob tricked his father and
stole from his brother until his brother rose in anger against him, and Jacob
had to run for his life. In a
matter of minutes Jacob went from having everything he wanted to having nothing
at all. Alone in the desert,
without friends or family, without home
or money or food, feeling sorry for himself, but never admitting that he
was reaping what he had sown, he found that God was with him. God was there in the desert. And God was working to bring Jacob to
Himself, so that he would no longer be a liar and a thief and a con-man. God
wanted more for Jacob than just to be the head of a clan, or to have power and
money. That's what Jacob wanted,
and he planned and plotted against his father and against his brother and
against God to get what he wanted.
But God wanted more for him than mere pleasures and trinkets of the
world. God wanted Jacob to love
God. God wanted Jacob to value
what was really valuable, things like faith, and love, and hope and joy and
peace and holiness. God wanted to
give him God. And God is with you
even in the most desolate wilderness of
the soul. In fact, God
often drives us into the desert to get our attention, and to begin the process
of bringing us back to Him. It is
as though He makes us realise we have nothing and are nothing without Him, and
then we become ready to receive Him.
Seeing that God knows him, and
seeing that God is with him, King David closes his Psalm as he does so many
others, with words of faith in God.
"How dear are thy counsels unto me, O God." "Lead me in the way
everlasting." David has
learned to love what God loves, desire what God gives, and hate what God
hates. There is a wonderful
message in all of this. Our entire
existence is in God, and apart from God life has no meaning. That's why only God can fill the
emptiness of the soul that all of us feel when we try to fill it with other
things. But knowing God knows you,
and that you are always in His presence, is a fearful thing to those who live
in rebellion and sin. To such
people God's knowledge and presence is condemnation forever. The knowledge and presence of God are
comforting only to those who have come to Him in faith through Christ. And even their comfort is not found in
their own goodness, but in the forgiveness of their sins through the cross of
Christ.
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
[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. )
