Tenth Sunday after Trinity

The Propers for today are found on Page 203-204, with the Collect first:

The Tenth Sunday after Trinity.

The Collect.

L

ET thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Dru Arnold read the Epistle, which came from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, the Twelfth Chapter beginning at the First Verse. Paul starts off by telling us that no man who “speaketh by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.”  He goes on to say, “Now there are diversities of gifts, but by the same Spirit.” “…it is the same God which worketh all in all.”  Every one is gifted in one manner or another by God, the question really is not do you have a gift from God, but will you use it?  Our gifts are so different in their character that we sometimes fail to recognize them for what they are, gifts from God, meant to be used, not ignored.

C

oncerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.  Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

Deacon Striker Jack Arnold read today’s Holy Gospel started in the Nineteenth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. Luke, beginning at the Forty-First Verse.

The Gospel tell of Jesus’ time in the temple wherein he sees the people selling their wares having made the temple a den of thieves rather than a house of prayer and cast them out.  He also predicts the fall of the temple saying it shall be laid “even with the ground, … they shall not leave one stone upon another,” because the people of the temple had rejected Jesus.  The message to those who accept Jesus and his teaching is clear, their temple shall not fall.  The message to those who will not hear his message will never be heard, let alone clear, their first indication of a problem will be when their temple falls.

Often people take this Gospel to preclude jumble sales at church.  It does not preclude that.  It does literally preclude cheating people at those jumble sales!  You must understand that the “perfect” sacrificial offerings to God the temple hawkers were selling were perfectly defective “sacrificial lambs” which would be recycled over and over.  Those buying were likely for the most part honest in their attempt to offer unto God that due Him, yet their effort was being diverted and redirected by those “in charge”, the priests and hawkers.  In their very successful effort to make money they were defrauding the people and insulting God in His own House.  It should also be pointed out that a church should be a place of worship.  It may be a Prophet Center, but not a Profit Center[1].  If the building needs constant commercial enterprise, then perhaps the emphasis is on the wrong center.  A church should be funded for its needs by its members and its wants should come much later, if not in fact unheeded.  A church is about Him, not about IT.

A

nd when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple.

Sermon – Time and Action

Today’s sermon tied the Epistle and Gospel together and is mainly contained in the forewords above. 

Consider the words from the Collect, wherein we ask God to give us … be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please thee …

Once again, this Collect is kind of a follow-on to last week’s Collect.  First, we ask God to hear our prayers, this is funny in that He always listens intently to us when we pray and we very seldom listen to Him when He answers.  Nonetheless, we ask His help to ask for those things we need, not those things we want and are bad for us.

While our needs must be fulfilled, there is nothing wrong with wanting, just so long as you want things that are good for you.  Once again, we are asking God to help us to want the right things.

Paul reminds us that we each have differing talents, but if we use them to the Glory of God, without concern for who gets the credit, all will be well.  Do what you can, not what you feel like.  If you will but read the Bible, what God wants you to do will be clear.  If you do your best to do His Will all will be well with you.  Death is a pretty hollow threat if you do your duty.  The people of Jerusalem would not have been in the pickle they got in when 70AD came along, had they only done what God wanted.  But, it was too hard for them.  In 70AD, what had been so hard seemed pretty easy compared to the fix they were in, but by then it was too late.  By that time they were left with only “There are none so poor as cannot purchase a noble death.”  But, for most of them by that time they had no will.  It left when they failed to follow God’s will.

When Luke wrote of the sales in the temple, he had a point.  The point was not to preclude jumble sales at church.  He was not abhorring the sales, but the cheating in the name of God.   This Gospel does literally preclude cheating people at those jumble sales!  You must understand the temple hawkers were selling perfect defective “sacrificial lambs” which would be recycled over and over[2].  In their very successful effort to make money they were defrauding the people and insulting God in His own House.  It should also be pointed out that a church should be a place of worship.  It may be a Prophet Center, but not a Profit Center.  If the building needs constant commercial enterprise, then perhaps the emphasis is on the wrong center.  A church should be funded for its needs by its members and its wants should come much later, if not in fact unheeded.  A church is about Him, not about IT.

Do what you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it.  That is duty.  It does not matter how you “feel” about black or white.  Black is black; White is white.  Do your duty. Work as hard as you can, do the best you can, trust in the Lord.  By the way, cheat no one.  If you follow that, you won’t need to be told, “Particularly in God’s House.”

Be of God - Live of God  - Act of God.

Bishop Ogles’ Sermon

We are oft fortunate to get copies of Bishop Jerry’s sermon notes.  Today is one of those Sundays.  Today’s sermon starts off with the collect.  It will give you a lot to consider in your heart.

Sermon Notes

Tenth Sunday after Trinity

12 August 2012, Anno Domini

The Tenth Sunday after Trinity.

The Collect.

L

ET thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

       34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. 37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. (Matt 23:34-39)

            We often believe, wrongfully, that God condemns us for our sins, but He does not. It is our sins, themselves, that condemn us. God watches our foolish ways often with a sorrowful heart – if we ONLY KNEW the harm we are doing to others… to ourselves….and to the loving and pure heart of God – by our mindless sinning! One of the greatest sorrows known to the human heart (a heart that is numb compared to that of God) is that of unrequited love. To love another with a love that is unto death, and then to have that object of our greatest affection treat our expressions of love with disdain and rejection is painful beyond explanation. But there are always many reasons that our love for another could be rightfully unrequited, because we humans are not perfect. There may have been a thoughtless word or gesture we made at some moment of greatest hurt to the other party of which we took no notice, or a thousand other reasons; but God is perfect and blameless of every human flaw. He loves with a perfect love, and He has done all things to deserve our own undivided love. We are NEVER justified in trampling upon the love and sacrifice of God for us.

            God, in the beginning of Creation, made a beautiful Garden at Eden and placed man in the most opulent existence imaginable. Knowing that man would be most joyful if he was unmindful of the deathly knowledge of sin, God gave to man, out of a deep love for His crowning creation, one command only.  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Gen 2:16-17) God gave this command out of love and not malice for He knew the man would become knowledgeable of sin and subject to the penalty of it if he (man) disobeyed. The weak character of man was such that he could scarcely keep even ONE commandment, much less TEN. He disobeyed, fell from grace, and opened wide the gates of Hell for all of his progeny down until our own day.

It is interesting to note that God did not give the commandment to Eve but to Adam. It is apparent from Eve's discourse at the ill-fated Tree that Adam had been her teacher of all that God had said to him. Adam ate, and Adam died. He brought upon all creation relentless sin and death. God did not cause Adam to die – Adam's disobedience caused Adam to die (and all of us as well)! We are guilty as charged and responsible for our condemnation. Insofar as we are engineers of our own sinfulness, we are, as the poet, Mr. Henley has said in INVICTUS, "the master of our fate, and the captain of our souls." If, however, we seek a more worthy Captain, Master, and Bishop of our souls, we need to turn them over to One who cares more for our souls than we can care for them ourselves. That Captain, Master, and Bishop would be the Lord Jesus Christ who died for the sins He did not commit in order to save us from dying from those sins we DID commit.

            In the Gospel lesson at hand, Christ has been pronouncing `woes' on the Scribes and Pharisees. Inherent in His woes are warnings to modern religionists and professional clergymen. One of the woes issued by Christ is of sufficient threat to those lovers of filthy lucre that they have seen to it that verse 14 of this chapter in Matthew has omitted from modern Bible versions based on the corrupted manuscript evidence. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. (Matt 23:14) What could possibly offend the masters of the fleece in this verse that would prompt them to relegate it to a mere footnote in the NIV, ESV, and other modern versions? Perhaps it might be the STEALING of widow's houses, or the long and elegant prayers designed more for the ears of men than those of God?

            Jesus continues His pronouncement of prophecy and condemnation to a people for whom He has come to die in redemption of their sins if only they will believe God. 34 Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city.  Christ draws a line of delineation between the Scribes whom He has sent to the Jews and those who claim the title in name only. Those Scribes and Pharisees to whom He is speaking are imposters – written in large relief! Experience has shown that having a seminary degree does not necessarily qualify a man as being sent by God (though properly received can be a tremendous benefit); nor does the absence of such a degree disqualify, necessarily, a man as being called by God (else the Apostles would be imposters – all except Paul) Rather than being emissaries of God, these imposters are those who murder His emissaries and persecute His true Scribes.

            35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Christ is the Word (John 1:1). He is Alpha to Omega in the Greek alphabet – and, so, everything in between those first and last letters. But Christ is also the first and last letter of every other alphabet, including, again, everything in between. We see this demonstrated here in the reference to the first and last prophets mentioned by Christ – Abel to Zacharias (from A to Z in the English alphabet). He is the Word of God dressed in the vocabulary of every nation, tribe, and tongue. The false ministers of that day, who predominated in the chairs of authority, were pronounced guilty of all the righteous blood shed upon the earth. How can this be? These men murdered the prophets of God. Those who do not belong to God do not receive the imputed righteousness rendered to those who are His chosen seed; therefore, only those prophets truly sent by God, and their blood, could be considered righteous. These, the Scribes and Pharisees killed. These were matters of current fact.

            Christ prepares to deliver a sorrowful prophecy of events that would soon transpire involving Jerusalem and the Jews. 36 Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. Christ will now issue a verdict, decided by their own wickedness, that shall be passed upon them in the very generation standing around Christ; but before pronouncing the sorrowful events to come, Jesus again expresses, in deep groaning's, His profound love and care for the Jews and Jerusalem – a love that is rejected and turned back in hate and malice.  37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! How Christ would have delighted in the people and leaders of Jerusalem flocking to Him and under His loving wings for protection and preservation (there is no other sure means of protection and preservation), but they refused. Not only did they refuse His invitation, but they also killed the messengers sent by God!

As soon as the embers cooled after the Mount Saint Helens volcanic eruption of 1980, the forest rangers went in to assess the damage to the natural environment. All vegetation stood in ashes. One of the rangers saw a mother partridge burned to a crisp. Her wings were spread wide. The ranger, with disappointed pity, kicked the dead bird aside. As he did so, the rangers noticed several healthy baby birds run from under their dead mother's wings. That is only a small illustration of the love God has for us – and the unrequited love Christ had for Jerusalem and her people. He even wept over the city prior to His last entry.  Jesus was well aware of the death He would suffer at the hands of the Jews (by His own volition); and He also knew that His Father would certainly bring a deserving judgment against the city, or apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.  It saddened the heart of Christ to contemplate this judgment that would come.

38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. Not only your Temple, but all of your Holy City! In 70 AD the Roman General Titus developed and encircling land blockade of Jerusalem and erected siege walls and engines against her walls. To reject the salvation of God (Jesus) is tantamount to exposing oneself to all the evils of Hell. All who do so will be left desolate for desolation is all that exists apart from God Almighty. Can you imagine the sorrow in the heart of Christ in saying to those whom He loved dearly, "your house is left unto you desolate?"

39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. These men had heard these words pronounced just days earlier; and they shall hear the same once more on the return of Christ in glory. They will not hear these words the second time as detractors and proud malefactors, but in the kneeling position of contrition and worship – and from their own mouths: Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil 2:9-11) He who comes in the Name of the Lord comes in the Person of the Lord. If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that thou mayest fear this glorious and fearful name, THE Lord THY GOD (Deut 28:58) Reader, do you also go in the Name of the Lord? Yes, you do if you are CALLED Christian and are committed to the title. Are you called Christian?

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 Tenth Sunday after Trinity:

God and Prayer

Psalm 145, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, Luke 19:41-47

Tenth Sunday after Trinity

August 12, 2012

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Bishop J. C. Ryle wrote that the habit of prayer is one of the surest marks of a true Christian.  Certainly prayer is one of the means by which God draws us into Himself, and He has ordained that His blessings are released, in part, through prayer.  It is no surprise, then, that we should talk about prayer often in the Church, as we do on this Tenth Sunday after Trinity.

The Collect for this day is a prayer about prayer.  It asks God to hear our prayers, and to shape our being in such a way that we will pray for the things that please God.  This is very similar to the Collect for the Fourth Sunday after Easter in which we asked God to enable us to love the things He commands and desire the things He promises.  Surely this is the heart of prayer and the heart's desire of every true Christian.  Today's reading from 1 Corinthians shows that our prayers must be guided by the Holy Spirit, otherwise we are tempted to ask for things that do not edify, and even abuse the gifts of God.  How does the Holy spirit guide our prayers?  He teaches us to pray Biblically, that is, in accordance with what God reveals about His will and purpose in the Bible.  In other words, the Spirit leads us to ask God to help us love the things He commands, and desire the things He promises.  It was not in our reading today, but verse 31 leads us to seek the best things from God, meaning the more excellent way of love.  The Gospel, from Luke 19, shows the danger of neglecting Biblical prayer.  Jerusalem, meaning the Jews, had not prayed for the things that give real peace.  They did not love the things God commanded or want the things God promised to give.  They did not pray for the things that please God, like real faith or real holiness.  Nor did they pray to be close to God, to be enabled to love Him above all else, and to find their joy and meaning in life in Him and His service.  They sought peace and prosperity of the flesh, not of the soul, and they turned the House of Prayer into a house of thievery, and Jesus wept.

Psalm 145 is a proclamation of praise for the wonderful grace and power of God, and it is wonderfully relevant to those who pray.   If God were not graceful, full of grace, He would be unwilling to answer prayer, and if He were not powerful He would be unable to answer.  So the message of this Psalm is vitally connected to the other passages we have read today, and to the request we have taken to God in the Collect.

Psalm 145. Exaltabo te, Deus.

I

 WILL magnify thee, O God, my King; * and I will praise thy Name for ever and ever.

 2 Every day will I give thanks unto thee; * and praise thy Name for ever and ever.

3 Great is the Lord, and marvellous worthy to be praised; * there is no end of his greatness.

4 One generation shall praise thy works unto another, * and declare thy power.

5 As for me, I will be talking of thy worship, * thy glory, thy praise, and wondrous works;

6 So that men shall speak of the might of thy marvellous acts; * and I will also tell of thy greatness.

7 The memorial of thine abundant kindness shall be showed; * and men shall sing of thy righteousness.

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful; * long-suffering, and of great goodness.

9 The Lord is loving unto every man; * and his mercy is over all his works.

10 All thy works praise thee, O Lord; * and thy saints give thanks unto thee.

11 They show the glory of thy kingdom, * and talk of thy power;

12 That thy power, thy glory, and mightiness of thy kingdom, * might be known unto men.

13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, * and thy dominion endureth throughout all ages.

14 The Lord upholdeth all such as fall, * and lifteth up all those that are down.

15 The eyes of all wait upon thee, O Lord; * and thou givest them their meat in due season.

16 Thou openest thine hand,*and fillest all things living with plenteousness.

17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways, * and holy in all his works.

18 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him; * yea, all such as call upon him faithfully.

19 He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him; * he also will hear their cry, and will help them.

20 The Lord preserveth all them that love him; * but scattereth abroad all the ungodly.

21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord;*and let all flesh give thanks unto his holy Name for ever and ever.

Psalms 145-150 close of the book of Psalms with six hymns of praise. The trials and troubles of earth, which are so prevalent in the rest of the book, have no place in these Psalms.  From here to the end of the book we are caught up in the adoration of the great God who delivers us from the world and takes us at last to His Home in Heaven.  St. Augustine noted this, as did Matthew Henry, Charles Spurgeon, and an Anglican minister I know only as S. Conway, who wrote that, in these Psalms, "We have left the region of sighs and tears and piteous entreaties, and are, as one says, in the Beulaah land, where the sun shineth night and day."

Psalm 145 has two primary points.  First, God is gracious. God intends good things for His people.  He intends better things for you than you are able to ask or think..  This idea permeates the Psalm, and is expressed in the words of verses 8 and 9;  "The Lord is gracious and merciful; long-suffering, and of great goodness.  The Lord is loving unto every man; and His mercy is over all His works."  The second point is the faith response of those who dwell in the grace of God.  This idea also permeates the entire Psalm and it is concretely stated in the very first verse of the Psalm, "I will magnify thee, O God my King, and I will praise thy Name forever and ever."

"The Lord is gracious."   This is not a dry, intellectual statement of doctrine.  This is the expression of God's life-orientation and the disposition of His being toward you..  You are unworthy of God through your manifold sins, but where sin abounds grace abounds even more, and the grace of God is greater than all your sin.  In grace God receives you as an  honoured guest in His House.  In grace He forgives your sins and treats you as though you are righteous.  In grace He gives you all good things, even His own self, His joy and being and blessedness and immortality.  He gives these unto you freely, without cost to you, though at terrible cost to Himself.   In grace you become a partaker of God.  I did not say you become a god, or become part of God, or ever have any essence of divinity in yourself.  But you are priviliged to see and enjoy God's perfect being now and forever.  And in some way, the image of God in which you were created, but which has been destroyed by sin, is being restored in you.  One day it will be fully restored so that you will no longer  be subject to sin and temptation, or live in doubts or fears, or be subject to disease and death, or live in a place of sorrow, as the earth is now.  You will be as God intends you to be, and you will dwell in a land of perfect peace and joy in God.

                                    

It is grace that brought you into God. In grace He came to seek and to save that which was lost, you.  In grace He bore your sins on the cross.  In grace He made you able to believe His Gospel, and in grace He is re-making your soul so that you can begin to desire the things of God and to love Him more and more.  In grace He continues to love you, though you are still very far from being perfect.  In grace He will take you into His Mansion of Mansions where He has prepared a place for you, and in grace you will be at home in Heaven for a forever of forevers.

This is what God wants for you.  This is that good that He is doing for you that is exceeding abundantly above all that you are able to ask or think, but which He has promised to those who love Him and trust Him in faith

And so we come to another of the major points of Psalm 145, and of the entire Bible, which is the faith response to God's grace.  The Psalm begins and ends with bold statements of faith.  "I will magnify thee, O God, my King."  "My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh give thanks unto His holy Name, for ever and ever."

Biblical faith is more than just believing a few doctrines about Jesus.  Biblical faith is the Christian's total response to the grace of God.  It is the life-attitude and the life-orientation of those who have received the grace of God.  Faith is the life-attitude-orientation of living in the the grace of God; of intentionally dwelling and existing in the unmerited, unearned love of God. 

This kind of faith is naturally producing changes in you.  Since you have received the grace of God, you have begun to value what God values and love what God loves.  You have begun to be able to mourn over the self-destructive life-styles of people who do not live in His grace.  You mourn for them because you know they are self-destructive, and because you long to see them become whole and clean and free by the grace of God too.  You have started to become a person of peace, a peacemaker.  This means that you try very hard not to be a source of strife yourself, and that you attempt to wage the peace of God in this strife-filled world.  You have started to live a more righteous and holy life.  Things like Church, Christian fellowship, the Bible, morality, and the sacraments, have started to claim your interest, and some of the things that once seemed so important to you have begun to be less important, boring, and, even detestable compared to the things of God.  You are not the same old you any more.  You are a new being, a new creature, created in Christ Jesus by His grace.  And. most of all, you have begun to really love God.  I am not talking about a silly emotionalism.  I am talking about a desire for God above all else.  Your life desire and purpose is to magnify God as your God and King.  All of this is what the Bible means by the word, "faith."  This is what we seek when we pray;

The Tenth Sunday after Trinity.

The Collect.

L

ET thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of thy humble servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

---

[1] A fine set of very apropos terms I first heard from Bishop Dennis Campbell in 2011.

[2] The concept of being truthful in the efforts we make to spread The Word is not a separate subject by any means, but would take more time to talk about than we have time for here.  Suffice it to say that we must take every care to spread The Truth and not what our audience, whoever that may be, would like to hear.  When we bring our “sacrifice” to the “temple” we needs make certain it is in fact as perfect as we can make it.  This is so hard that one of the recurring themes of the Collects is asking for guidance to ask for the right things.