The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

Anglican Orthodox Church Biennial Meeting – Statesville, North Carolina

If you have followed the calendar, you know this past week we traveled to Statesville, North Carolina for the biennial meeting of the Anglican Orthodox Church (AOC), Worldwide at its home base or General Headquarters (GHQ).  Hap has a hard time getting away from work and we have not been out of San Diego for more than four days since 2001.  But, this was an important trip.  We were looking forward to meeting people in person we had only corresponded with to date. 

Was the trip worth it?  Beyond a doubt!  The experience was incredible.  We met almost all the bishops, many ministers, their wives and some parish members from around this country and the world, not to mention the incredible organizational staff.  You may not be aware of the AOC history, but you should know a little about the organization.  The AOC is a Reformed Church in the finest protestant sense.  We are completely Bible centered; nothing can override Scripture.  At the same time, we have a clear dedication to the power of reason and a rich historical sense. 

While we were there, Jack was ordained a Deacon in the church.  This is a huge step in Jack’s life.  Earlier in the week, Jack presented a summary of the Manuscript Evidence Course on biblical translations that he will be handling under Bishop Jerry Ogles.  It was a wonderful presentation, about 45 minutes and kept the entire audience paying attention for the whole time.  Jack even got requests for a printed version of the talk.  If you would like to know why various versions of the Bible are more or less reliable than others, you might want to ask Jack for a copy of the talk or even take the course yourself.  I think you would be amazed at the information on the differing sources of the various biblical translations.  And, the presentation is imminently readable.  Jack can be found at jack@faithfulcenturion.org.

For those of you who know Jack well, you will not be surprised how well he interfaced with the other people.  The average age of the ministers is probably 68 or so, the bishops slightly younger, but not all that much.  Jack did a lot better than Hap in the shirt changeover from California Clericals to the traditional tab collar!  Back to California Collar soon!

During the same service Jack was ordained, Rev Eduardo Andres Dominguez Vilar of Galicia, Spain was consecrated as Bishop to be the Assistant Bishop for Spain and South America under Bishop Garth Neel of Canada.

The AOC has churches in 22 countries around the world, from a very few in Cuba to hundreds in the Philippines.  One of the most amazing is the Anglican Orthodox Church of India led by Reverend Doctor Joshua Raj, MD, DD, a Canadian Orthopedic Surgeon who spends a couple of months a year in India.  Bishop Ernest Jacob runs Faith Seminary, and oversees the Anglican Orthodox Church of Pakistan.  While the AOC in the United States operates on a shoestring budget, the overseas churches, each a national church on the Anglican model, operates on merely dust from the shoestrings.

The AOC has a very active presence in Pakistan!

The Pakistan AOC is very active, educating and expanding into the hearts of all the people under often very hostile conditions.

The Solomon Islands don’t dress quite the way we do, but their hearts are like ours; these people need our support.

Our own parish operates on a zero budget.  All funds we take in go to AOC worldwide in Statesville.  That organization is totally self-supporting.  All the money they get goes overseas to the churches in the field.  They even cover the wire transfer fees.  There is absolutely zero overhead.

This is the simplest of churches.  It is people dedicated to God, doing their very best to do His Will and spread His Word.  We are going to try to get a little bit on one country each week and talk about what is going on there.  If you have a few dollars you would like to contribute, make the check out to the Anglican Orthodox Church and we will send it in.  The average charity organization spends 75 percent of its budget on overhead; this is ZERO OVERHEAD.  It does not get any better.  You can help.

More on the Meeting

So, what else did we do in Statesville?  We met bishops, ministers, wives and other parish members.  You would be surprised at the sense of humor that the bishops, the ministers and everybody else had! We met the headquarters staff who make things actually work; Betty, her daughter Cinder, Paulette and Susan, not to mention Cinder’s sister Cheryl, a professional photographer who took a million photographs.  Oh yes and Cinder’s husband, a superb Chef who made us lunch every day.  Then, there was Craig who was the tireless van driver.  Speaking of tireless, the lovely Paulette and her wonderful husband Johnny got up to drive people to the Charlotte airport at 0330 on Saturday.   And, the summary would be woefully short without Rev Rick Reid, Minster of Saint Peter’s.  What people!

Bishop Jerry made everyone very welcome.  We are very fortunate to have him as the leader of the organization.  He is dedicated to God; knowledgeable; a leader, not a pointer; eloquent and beyond that, a true gentleman.

A few people deserve special recognition.   Actually, that is not true.  Every last person who attended deserves special recognition.  There was not one person there who we did not absolutely and totally enjoy.  The ladies and gentlemen of the GHQ were beyond words.  We wish each of you could have been in Statesville to meet everyone.

Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

The Propers for today are found on Page 214-215, with the Collect first:

The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity.

The Collect.

L

ORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Dru Arnold read the Epistle for today, which came from Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians beginning at the Fourth Verse of the First Chapter.   Paul tells the people of Corinth he thanks God they have been the beneficiaries of His Grace, that through Jesus they might have salvation, that through Jesus their sins would in the end be forgiven.  He also pointed out that if they would follow Christ in both their words and deeds, as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in them, through their actions, they would be “In every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge…”  For by acting on Christ’s words, we not only gain entry in to heaven, but are far more likely to prosper here on earth.  This prosperity is not the mega wealth sometimes associated with “prospering”, but rather the surplus of resources over our worldly desires and the true happiness that comes from loving and helping others.

I

 thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hap Arnold read today’s Holy Gospel came from the Twenty-Second Chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew beginning at the Thirty-Fourth Verse.  Pharisees who had heard how Jesus confounded the Sadducees, feeling they were superior to the Sadducees, came together to confound Him.  An expert in the law, of which Pharisees were very fond, asked Him a question, trying to trick Him, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”  Jesus answered, “Thou 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.” Thus, He provided the Summary of the Law we hear every Sunday.  The Pharisees made their earthly living by providing guidance on how to get around the 613 Mosaic Laws with as little inconvenience as possible.  They were astounded when Jesus boiled the intent of those laws down to two sentences.  They were much more comfortable getting around laws than complying with ones that might inconvenience them.

Apparently tiring of the game with the Pharisees and wishing to confound them instead, Jesus asked them, saying, “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is He?” They say unto him, “The son of David.”  For the scripture is clear that He should be of the House of David.  As God, Jesus has been from the beginning, so he queried them, “How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?”  Not grasping the concept that God was, is and always will be, they could not answer and “from that day forth” no one would “ask him any more questions.”

W

hen the Pharisees had heard that Jesus had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.  Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou 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. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

Sermon – Rev Deacon Jack Arnold – Time and Action

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

Consider the words of the Collect, “…grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only God …”

When you hear the word GRACE, what do you think of? 

·      Help;

·      Heavenly dispensation;

·      A gift freely granted;

·      The free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.

The word can be any of these, it comes from Middle English: via Old French from Latin gratia, from gratus ‘pleasing, thankful’ and is related to grateful.

In this case we are asking God’s help, for which He charges nothing, except our faith and loyalty to Him, to withstand the temptations of this world.  We ask for help to withstand what?  Actually, what we are looking for is help to not follow our own devices and desires.  We are asking for help to make His Will our will.  To help us to do what will make us happy. For we know that we ourselves will not do what His Will is on our own volition, but rather we must ask that God plant the seed of His Will on our hearts so that we will do it.

Paradoxically, we are asking for help to do not what we want, but what is best for us.  We are asking God’s Help to make us want to do what He wants us to do, so that not only will we have “fun”, but be happy!  For, being happy is far more important and helps our spiritual lives more than the temporary state of fun. Fun will only last a few moments, happiness will last forever. On the surface, it does not really seem all that reasonable, but here we are imperfect creatures with free will! The free will sometimes or rather most of the time seems more like a curse than a blessing, at least to me. For I feel that with it, I am more tempted to go the wrong way than the right way, but when I go the right way, it then comes to me that it is a blessing.

So, when Paul writes the people of Corinth, it is not just them, but us for whom he thanks God we have been the beneficiaries of His Grace, that through Jesus we might have salvation, that through Jesus our sins would in the end be forgiven.  We are not made perfect by Jesus.  That is a common misconception by non-Christians.  It would be convenient if we were made perfect.  And there would be no point behind Christianity if that we had been made perfect. Would we have to have a “New Testament” if we were molded into cookie cutter perfection? If we were made perfect, then there would be no strife in the word today I believe, and thus no reason to even have any of the parables that Jesus gave. While we are accounted as perfect before God in the final judgment, we are not perfect at all.  If anything, we are more conscious of our imperfection.  As a side point, none of us is perfect, none of us is better than others; however, some of us are clearly worse than others.

Which takes us to Paul’s next point; if we follow Christ in both out words and deeds, as the testimony of Christ is confirmed in them, through our actions, we will be “In every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge…”  For by acting on Christ’s words, we not only gain eternal salvation, but are far more likely to prosper here on earth.  This prosperity is not the mega wealth sometimes associated with “prospering”, but rather the surplus of resources over our worldly desires and the true happiness that comes from loving and helping others.  It will make us far more happy than say for instance people like Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, etc, that have far more money than even they know what to do with, and money cannot provide true happiness. Only God and Jesus can step in and fill that role, if we let him into our hearts.

But, not everyone is content to take Jesus at His Word.  After the Sadducees lost their round with Jesus, the Pharisees, feeling they were superior to the Sadducees, came together to trip Him up. However, as we know ourselves, one cannot trick God, and if you try, you will come out looking like a fool. An expert in the law, of which Pharisees were very fond, asked Him a question, trying to trick Him, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”  Jesus answered, “Thou 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.” Thus, He provided the Summary of the Law we hear every Holy Communion. 

The Pharisees made their earthly living by providing guidance on how to get around the 613 Mosaic Laws with as little inconvenience as possible.  They were astounded when Jesus boiled the intent of those laws down to two sentences.  They were much more comfortable getting around laws than complying with ones that might inconvenience them. They could be closely compared to Lawyers today as a matter of fact, in the striking amount of dishonesty that is in their profession (no offense to the good lawyers!).

Apparently tiring of the game with the Pharisees and wishing to confound them instead, Jesus asked them, saying, “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is He?” They say unto him, “The son of David.”  For the scripture is clear that He should be of the House of David.  As God, Jesus has been from the beginning, so he queried them, “How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?”  Not grasping the concept that God was, is and always will be, they could not answer and “from that day forth” no one would “ask him any more questions.” Like I mentioned earlier, the result of their attempt to trick the Son of God made them look like absolute fools.

There have always been and always will be people who want to pick nits with the intent of avoiding doing what should be done, thus making it seems acceptable to do what they want to do.  You can see people every day who fill the shoes of the Pharisees, insisting on complying with arcane and useless rules and regulations while studiously avoiding doing what God so clearly asks, that is to be a Christian and do as Christ asks us to do.  You can see this as the government attempts to supplement the rule of God with the rule of man. When a group of men believe that they have the right to control other humans with the rule of man and disregard the rule of God, you know that a society is in trouble. Ask Sodom, Gomorrah, Rome, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan how that worked out for them in the end. No country has ever fared well when it replaces God with the rule of Man. We are to be Christians, not “good”, to do what God asks, not Go with the Flow!  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, in His Grace, to lead us and follow us, to keep us always.  Our goal is to do the Lord’s will, not to avoid 613 laws or to replace him altogether.  To do what is right, no matter how hard that may be and be humble.

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

Bishop Ogles’ Sermon

Bishop Jerry is on travel today from the AOC meeting in Statesville.  No sermon, sorry!

Bishop Dennis Campbell’s Sunday Sermon

Bishop Dennis is on travel today from the AOC meeting in Statesville.  No sermon, sorry!

Rev Bryan Dabney of Saint John’s Sunday Sermon

We are fortunate to have Brian’s Sunday Sermon.  If you want people to come to The Truth, you have to speak the truth, expouse the truth and live the truth.    This is really a good piece and I commend it to your careful reading.

The Sermon - He That Keepeth His Commandments

In our epistle lesson, St. Paul penned the following: I thank my God always... for the grace... which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in every thing ye are enriched by him... so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord... (I Corinthians 1:4-8). Those who are regenerate, that is to say, born-again, are indwelt by the Spirit of God. It is by this indwelling that we are given spiritual gifts which God in his infinite wisdom saw fit to endow us for our work in his service. And because we are regenerated, we have become new creatures in Christ, seeking to do his will through our keeping of God's commandments.

In our gospel lesson, we find our Lord recalling the essence of the Law via his recitation of the summary of the same which is found at the beginning of our communion service (St. Matthew 22:37-40). And so it is good that from time to time all ministers of gospel ought to read from and preach on the Ten Commandments so that their congregations might hear those holy expectations which God has for his people. Let us now consider each these as found in Exodus 20:1-17.

As Christians, we are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and might (Deuteronomy 6:5). When we speak of loving God, we first have to recognize the reality of God. The First Commandment sets forth his existence. He alone is God, and we are to have no other gods before him. That has more to it than meets the eye. True enough, some will claim that they know God exists, but then they create other gods to worship such as their jobs, lifestyles, philosophies of life, sports teams, etc. And therein lies the problem because anything which one puts ahead of God is an idol or a false god. In keeping the First Commandment, we must not only accept that God is, we must accept his word, as it has been written in the plain language of the Holy Bible. And such is God's gift to us: that through his word, we might know of him and live our lives in obedience to his will. If one has other things which are more influential, which command greater respect and allegiance, then such a person is in violation of the First Commandment.

The Second Commandment prohibits the making and worshiping of graven images. While similar in tone to the previous commandment, it nevertheless condemns the formulation of any image of the divine for the purposes of worship. Remember what the children of Israel did with the golden calf (Exodus 32:1-6). They credited that idol with their deliverance out of the hands of pharaoh. And very many Christians, past and present, have broken this commandment as well. Even a cursory reading of this it makes it crystal clear that any statue, icon, image or impression which is held up and revered as God, is just as much an idol as any produced by the hands of a pagan or a profane person. These are hard words for many because they cling to a man-made tradition that originated shortly after the creation of the Christian faith. Said tradition requires its adherents to worship, venerate and adore those artifices of human construction so named above as though they were divine. The devil loves to subvert the word of God with the word of man acting in the place of God and represented as being from God.

The Third Commandment condemns the use of God's name in a vain or frivolous manner. God desires for us to call upon his name in our prayer time and in our private devotions. But what he does not want, neither does he countenance, are the ways his name has been trashed in our public discourse. To prove this point, have you noticed that there is hardly a movie or tv production today that does not violate this commandment? In fact, it is a rare event indeed to attend a gathering of our fellows and not hear someone uttering a curse which includes the name of God. If we love God, why then would we misuse his name and make it into a curse against others? How is our love for him who gave his only begotten Son to be crucified on our behalf revealed in that sort of behavior? Job's wife wanted him to curse God and die for well they knew that such was worthy of death. But Job did not sin with his lips against God (Job 2:9-10). And if we are regenerate, we will heed this commandment and not take the name of our God in vain.

The Fourth Commandment calls on each of us to keep holy the sabbath day. God desires that we should pause and reflect on the good which he has done for us. It is not a day to fulfill our lusts and worldly pursuits. Unfortunately, that is not what a growing number of people do today. Ambrose Bierce once penned in his profane dictionary the way the unregenerate treated this commandment when he quipped: "Work not on sabbath days at all, but go to see the teams play ball." How does such behavior honor God and increase our fellowship with him? If we are truly born-again, we will honor God by being present in his house on the Christian sabbath to worship him, and afterwards, to rest and consider all that he has done for us. Have you been clothed, fed, and sheltered, then give thanks to God because it all came from him. Keep his day holy.

The Fifth Commandment calls on each of us to honor our parents and includes the promise: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. God expects us to honor him as our heavenly Father, and as he has appointed our parents over us, we are to honor them as well. Godly obedience requires us to be respectful and honorable souls at all times remembering to whom we are accountable. Willing obedience is rewarded of God with long life and good health.

The literal rendering of the Sixth Commandment is: Thou shalt do no murder which prohibits the taking of human life without just cause. God made this clear to Noah when he said, Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man (Genesis 9: 6). Murder take many forms. Abortion is the systematic murder of the unborn in the womb. The womb is the place where life is formed and sustained. Abortion then makes this place of life's beginning to be the foyer of a tomb rather than the entryway to a productive life. Likewise, suicide, or self-murder, is, in most cases, beyond the sanction of God. Murder in every case, therefore, is man playing God, for God alone decides the time of our birth and our death. The regenerate person will respect the lives of others and will not take human life without a reasonable and proper justification. One may take the life of another in necessary self-defense, or in defense of others, or while participating in a just war against tyranny or aggression, or while acting in the capacity of authorized officer of the state in executing its lawful acts (Romans 13:1-10). We should bear in mind that even contemplating the death of an enemy is a violation of this commandment because murder first begins in the heart before it ever comes to pass in reality (St. Matthew 15:19).

The Seventh Commandment condemns all extramarital relationships and behaviors. God created the institution of marriage, and this commandment protects the marriage bed. Further, this commandment was given to protect the family and especially the children who are supposed to be the products of a godly union before him. The wails and cries of those, in our time, affected by the dissolution of marriages, as well as those who were born outside the bonds of marriage into fragmented households, must be deafening. And God, long ago, condemned adultery and fornication precisely because of the misery that such inflicts on all involved. God did not create marriage and families to have them destroyed by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. The family is supposed to be a place of refuge from the ills of this world; but it cannot be so when the specter of adultery looms large there.

The Eighth Commandment is simple enough: Thou shalt not steal. God gave us the concept of private property rights with this commandment. We are to work for the things we have and respect the right of others to have their things as well. St. Paul wrote on this subject saying, Let him who stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth (Ephesians 4:28).

The Ninth Commandment condemns bearing a false witness against your neighbor. Matthew Henry said that this commandment "forbids speaking falsely in any matter, lying, equivocating...devising and designing to deceive our neighbor [and to unjustly prejudice his reputation]." The busybody, the tale-bearer, the whisperer of ill deeds without warrant is roundly condemned here. The Scriptures say that all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire. God is deadly serious about the bearing of a false witness for it stirs up strife to no good purpose (Proverbs 6:16-19; Revelation 21:8).

The Tenth Commandment: Thou shalt not covet means that we ought not desire the goods, or the spouse, or the reputation etc. of another so much so that we would break any of the other commandments to acquire what our eyes have seen, or our heart desired which belonged to another.

In Leviticus 19:18, God commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves which goes hand in hand with latter portion of the Ten Commandments. When our Lord was asked which was the great commandment of the law, he responded saying, Thou 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 neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (St. Matthew 22:37-40).

There are some who look upon the Ten Commandments as the "Ten Suggestions." They cherry-pick the ones which they believe to be important while ignoring the ones which conflict with their lifestyles. This attitude gives them the sense of their own power over their lives, as if they did not have to answer for the evil imaginations of their hearts. They may even imagine themselves as "good people" in spite of their loose association with the Almighty. Yet when confronted with the truth of their own sinful natures, the unregenerate are helpless to explain themselves. They usually reject the notion of godly absolutes because if they accept them, they will have to admit their guilt and that is something many, in their state of blind pride, cannot do. But if they ever come to it, such will only be by the grace of God which convicts them in their hearts and compels them to confess their ills to him in the name of Jesus Christ.

The Ten Commandments are benchmarks which our Lord has set before us that we might know his pure and perfect will. We who have been regenerated by the Holy Ghost know that apart from his assistance, we could not hope to keep them. They are perfection and we are imperfection. They are absolute and we are ambivalent. They are ethereal and we are earthly. God has set his standard before us to teach us of our need for Christ (Galatians 3:24). And our Lord Jesus Christ expects us to abide by them, not of our own efforts; but through the power of the Holy Ghost the Comforter whom he has sent to guide us into all truth.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, let us keep to these commandments and when we falter in them to confess our sins to God in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. For we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world (I St. John 2:1-2). Do this and live.

Let us pray,

F

ather God, we beseech thee to assist us in the keeping of these thy Ten Commandments as well as all other aspects of thy moral law which we as Christians are expected to obey; for this we ask in the name of thine only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Amen.

Have a blessed week,  Bryan+