Connecticut
Shooting
There is good in the world, there
is evil. The good is lead by God,
the evil by the devil. In the end, if you believe this or not it changes
nothing in the world. God is still
there and so is the devil.
If you are not doing God’s work, you are working for the devil. As we find our country growing further
from God, be not surprised at the outcome.
Please take the time to read the
following letter from Bishop Jerry Ogles, our leader.
Dear
Friends and Family:
This church is appalled at the senseless and cruel shootings that
occurred in Newtown, Connecticut on this past Friday morning. Many innocent and
very young children were sent to their deaths at the hands of a crazed gunman,
not unlike the deaths of millions of unborn innocents murdered in abortion
mills across America.
There will once more follow a hue and cry for the ban of guns -
the possession of which is protected (for a Reason) by the Bill of Rights of
the US Constitution. It is a common ploy of those with a political agenda. A
gun in the hands of a righteous person poses no threat to anyone. But in the
hands of the lawless and maniacal, it, like an ax or a knife, is a deadly
device. Instead of blaming guns, or cars, or the surgeon's knife, for
unwarranted murders, why not admit that the deprivation of moral teaching to
the young in our schools and at all levels of society has resulted in
disastrous consequences? "Be not deceived, God is not mocked."
This is a sober warning from our God. Shall we heed it, or will we continue to
blame our wickedness on inanimate objects.
Please join with me in praying for the families of these innocent young
children who were so heartlessly murdered in their classrooms. I would hope
that these young ones were able to call upon the name of the Lord in their
fears and terrors, but where would they have learned His Name?
In Christ at Advent,
Jerry L. Ogles
+Jerry L. Ogles, DD, Presiding Bishop
Anglican
Orthodox Communion Worldwide & Chancellor, Faith Theological
Seminary
Article
from Irene Teas by Christian Adams - Evil is to Blame
Pay close attention to what gets
blamed for the Newtown school shooting. Evil is to blame for these horrific
murders and nothing else. Listen closely to the rhetoric over the coming weeks.
How often will evil be named as the cause of the horror?
Not often, I suspect.
Some dispute the existence of
conscious, deliberate, unseen evil. Perhaps that's why blame for the murderous
horror will fall elsewhere. Some consider the mention of evil in public
discourse to be unseemly. Belief in pure deliberate evil can be inconvenient,
because it includes other necessary beliefs.
Failing to name it evil lets evil
flourish. If the sight of planes slamming into the World Trade Center towers
wasn't enough to comfortably believe in evil, maybe the horror in Connecticut
will be.
Denial of conscious, deliberate
evil makes it easier to deny the existence of conscious and deliberate good. If
deliberate evil exists, then deliberate good must also. Otherwise human history
would be one long ruinous loop of Stalin's gulags and Pol Pot's murder
factories. Thankfully, those black times are broken up by goodness.
Evil seeks to destroy human life,
human dignity, and even civilizations. Goodness and light offer an alternative.
The sort of world we have is determined by what you and those around you
choose. A man in Connecticut accepted evil.
Conditions, rough upbringings, or
worldly objects are convenient explanations when evil manifests itself for all
to see. Find any news account today and inventory what is being blamed for the
mass killing of children.
But the systematic and deliberate
slaughter of innocents is not a new story. It happened once before, after the
arrival of an alternative way. It was also featured in the industrial scale eradication
of European Jewry.
Spare no child of light, and
usher in an age of darkness.
How vile that the evil in
Connecticut arrived in this season of light and season of lights. All of those
innocent smiles and joyous expectations destroyed by a black wretched thing.
We'll hear lots of bluster about
how to prevent more school house murders. Nearly all of it is meaningless. The
only way to prevent such horror is to choose to love your neighbor as yourself,
to respect the dignity of human life, and to follow familiar laws thousands of
years old.
Easier said than done, right? How
could the goodness in many prevent the evil in one?
A culture that values goodness is
a necessary prerequisite to discouraging evil. A culture of light and life
relegates evil to the diminishing margins. This is a story as old as time. A
culture of violence toward life and toward the dignity of every human
eventually produces violence toward life, period. What else would you expect to
happen?
The Romans were dumbfounded by
the strange stubborn Jewish sect that prayerfully martyred themselves to Roman
savagery. The intoxicated and bloodthirsty roars of the coliseum could not
overcome the transformational power of the new alternative. Rome crumbled while
the philosophy of those martyrs transformed the world.
That's the story of this
Christmas, and that's why the evil in Newtown must be called by its true name.
Propers
The Propers are found on Page
93-94, with the Collect first:
The Third Sunday in Advent
The
Collect.
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LORD Jesus Christ, who at thy first
coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee; Grant that the
ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready
thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable
people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy
Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
The propers for the First Sunday
in Advent can be found on Page 90-92:
The
First Sunday in Advent
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY
God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us
the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus
Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall
come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may
rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and
the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.
¶
This Collect is to be repeated every day, after the other Collects in Advent,
until Christmas Day.
Dru Arnold read the Epistle for today, which came
from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians,
starting at the First Verse of the Fourth Chapter.
Paul calls on those who would be the ministers of
Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God to be good and faithful stewards
leading their flock rather than commanding from the rear. He tells them not to be fearful of the
judgment of man. In fact, he tells
he is not concerned of the judgment of men, or even that of himself, but rather
that of God. God knows our hearts
and when He judges, He “will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and
will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have
praise of God.”
Let it be fully understood that when Paul writes of
ministers and stewards, he is talking of each of us, not just those who are
“ordained ministers.” We each must
be good and faithful stewards of the gifts God has entrusted to each of
us. We each must help those around
us benefit from the gifts which
are freely given.
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ET a man
so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries
of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful. But
with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s
judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. For I know nothing against myself;
yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore
judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to
light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the
hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.
Deacon Jack Arnold read the Gospel for today which came
from the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, the Eleventh Chapter, beginning at
the Second Verse. Now when John
the Baptist “had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his
disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for
another?” John was Jesus’ cousin
and the one who baptized Him and heard God say, THIS IS MY SON IN WHOM I AM
WELL PLEASED.” Yet, he and the
rest of the Jews of the time expected the Messiah to come into Jerusalem in
triumph, sit in the temple and rule, commanding, nay compelling the Romans to
leave. No doubt marveling at the
question, for it was asked of Him who had performed countless genuine miracles,
healing the blind, the deaf the lame, “Jesus answered and said unto them, Go
and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive
their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed
is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” As John’s disciples parted, Jesus talked to those about
him. He asked them concerning
John, “What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the
wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold,
they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what went ye out for to
see? A prophet?” He was counseling
them, trying to help them fully understand the implications of what was around
them. He was there! So, he explained that John was not
“just” a prophet, but the messenger of God, the man with the flag running
before the locomotive. He went on,
“For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy
face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.” Because Jesus came into this world, not to be the King of
the Present, but rather the King of that to Come.
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ow when John had
heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said
unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus
answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do
hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel
preached to them. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. And
as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What
went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what
went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear
soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet?
yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is
written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy
way before thee.
Sermon – Reverend Deacon Jack Arnold - Time
and Action
Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and
Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above.
The
Third Sunday in Advent
The
Collect.
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LORD Jesus Christ, who at thy first
coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee; Grant that the
ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready
thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable
people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy
Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.
The
First Sunday in Advent
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY
God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us
the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son
Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he
shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee
and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.
¶
This Collect is to be repeated every day, after the other Collects in Advent,
until Christmas Day.
In the Collect for the Third
Sunday in Advent, we are referred to as the ministers and stewards (caretakers)
of the mysteries of God, which are the Scriptures and His Word. We ask for help
in getting the hearts of the disobedient, by the wisdom of the just, to turn
and look to the Kingdom of God for answers and not this world. In view of the recent events in
Connecticut, how timely can this prayer be? When we look to the world for solutions, we find the solutions
of this world. This world, ruled
by the Prince of this world, the Prince of Air, the devil himself! But, what will people think when we
reject worldly solutions to worldly problems. There is an answer for that, conveniently following the
Collect.
In the Epistle, Paul says that we
must not fear of what others would think of us, but rather be concerned about
what God would think of what we are doing and what direction he wants us to go
in.
In the Gospel, Christ asks the
crowd of what they expected to see?
Some great big flashy sign He was going to overthrow the Romans and
unite the Jews to conquer the world?
No, He did not come to do this, for that would be only a temporary and
inf fact temporal thing to rule the world. He came for far more than that; to prepare our hearts for
eternity and change us from unjust to just creatures, worthy of God’s creation
and His Hands. He came to mould and to shape us from being roughly made to
something very valuable.
To be worthy of the charge and
care of His mysteries, we must willing to listen to Him and do whatever we need
to do to line ourselves up with what He wants for us, not what we want for
ourselves. We must think of
others, instead of thinking of ourselves all the time. I must confess that I am guilty of
this, but I am always working on trying to reverse this, as we must, in order
to walk with Him. We must be willing to never give up and persevere, and if we
follow this, we will keep getting better and better all of the time.
Life is a continual process of
learning in every aspect of our lives, not least of these aspects is our
spiritual growth and development.
The Japanese have a word for this, introduced into their industry by the
American engineer W. Edwards Deming, Kaizen (改善?)
that is to say continuous improvement.
Never perfect, but always endeavoring to improve. Day by day.
To care for the mysteries of God
properly, we must keep learning in our spiritual lives and if we do this, we
will keep growing more and more every day. Reading the Scriptures is one way to further our spiritual
development, as well as helping others without thought for ourselves. We must
keep doing a combination of these and similar things, if we expect to be able
to facilitate our spiritual growth and change the minds of the disobedient and
the unjust.
As He came to change us for the
better, Paul and the Collect remind us to do the same for the others. We often resist this change, when perhaps
we should not. We must put our hearts and minds together and think about what
God wants us to do in the end rather than what we want to do. Put God first and
all will be well, is what can be taken from today’s collects and lessons,
ultimately. We must be willing do to this, then we can be properly caring for
the mysteries of God.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
Bishop
Dennis Campbell’s Sermon
Bishop Dennis is a brilliant
speaker. He is able to take
biblical precepts and make them perfectly understandable, even to me. Oft he provides the text of his sermons
and I take the utmost pleasure in passing them on:
God Is Faithful
Psalm 99, Jeremiah 1:4-19, Luke 1:57
Third Sunday in Advent
December 16, 2012
On the first Sunday in Advent we looked at verses in Luke's Gospel
that tell of Zechariah in the Temple. Confronted with the message of God
through the angel Gabriel, he was told a son would be born to Elizabeth; a
miraculous child who would do wonderful things in the service of God. I said that
we miss the point of the story when we focus on the people, for it is what God
is doing that is the point of the story. I also said one of the things we see
in the passage is that God has a plan. Today's reading in Luke takes us to the
birth of Elizabeth's son; the fulfillment of God's promise to Zechariah. I want
to draw two points from the passage.
First, God's plan comes to pass. In more theological language we would
say there is an unseen hand that guides events and people, such that history is
actually the unfolding of the plan of God. Isaiah, the prophet of Advent, shows
the truth of this. In the fourteenth chapter he writes of the coming
destruction of Assyria. His words make it clear that Assyria's fall is not just
something God knows about because He knows the future; it is something that
will happen because God has purposed it. It will happen according to God's
plan. Isaiah 14:24 says, "The Lord of hosts hath sworn saying, Surely as I
have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it
stand." Again He says in Isaiah 46:9-10, "I am God, and there is none
like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the
things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all
my pleasure."
If what God plans comes to pass, we need to know what His plan is,
and how we fit into it. I think there is probably no passage in Scripture that
expresses this as well and succinctly as Ephesians 1:3-12. The heart of the
passage is verses 9 and 10, which, after stating that God made known to us the
mystery of His will, "according to his good pleasure which He hath
purposed in Himself," says, "That in the dispensation of the fullness
of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ." God's plan
is, and has always been, to gather all things together in Christ. This is the
purpose for which God created all things. This is the plan laid before the
foundation of the world. This is the purpose for which the Lamb of God was
slain.
We see God's plan unfolding in the Old Testament. He announced it in
the Garden. The Saviour will come. The devil will bruise His heel, but He will
bruise the devil's head. From the Garden God moved toward calling and
separating to Himself a people through whom the Saviour will be born. We see
God's plan unfolding in the call Abraham; "in thee shall all the families
of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:2). We see God's plan unfolding in the
rise of Israel, the Temple, the Law, and the prophets, all looking and pointing
ahead to "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world."
Isaiah gives some of the best known Old Testament pictures of it; "a
virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel"
(Is. 7:14). "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one
to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Is.
53:6). One of the fullest Old Testament statements is found in Isaiah 2:1-4:
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of
the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be
exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow into it. And many people
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the
house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in
his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many
people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more."
In the New Testament we see the birth and ministry of the Saviour. He
is the One whose day Abraham saw and rejoiced; the One of whom Moses wrote. He
is the One whose sacrifice accomplishes the redemption and purification of His
people. He is the One who ascended into Heaven, and will come again to judge
the quick and the dead, to bring into completion the new heaven and new earth.
When God is ready, He will bring to completion His plan. All who oppose Him
will be cast into the lake of fire. All the redeemed will be finally and fully
gathered together under Christ and in Christ forever. You and I fit into this
plan in one of two ways. We are either among those who oppose God, and whose
end is the lake of fire; or we are among those who are with God through faith,
whose end is to be in Him forever. Here is what makes the difference. Those in
Christ have trusted Christ to save them. They have seen their sin and their
unworthiness, yet believe Christ died to pay for their sins and to give them
forgiveness and peace with God forever.
The second point I want to draw from our reading in Luke is simply
this; God keeps His promises. Looking back at Luke 1:13 we see a promise, Elizabeth
will bear a son. In verses 15-17 we read that he, will be great in the eyes of
the Lord, filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb, will go before the Lord in
the spirit of Elijah, and will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord.
What do we find in Luke 1:57? "Now Elizabeth's full time came
that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son." In verses 60
and 63 his parents are emphatic, "he shall be called John." In verse
76 we read that he is the prophet of the Highest, who prepares the way of the
Lord. In verse 80 we see, "the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and
was in the deserts til the day of his showing unto Israel." God keeps His
promises.
Yet, as important as it is to see God keeping His promise to
Zechariah, it is even more important to see the birth of John as part of the
fulfillment of a far greater Promise; a Promise which fulfills all the promises
of God in the Bible. God promised a Saviour. God promised One would come who
would save His people from their sins, and who would complete the plan of
bringing all things together in God. The message of John is this; the Saviour
is Coming. God keeps His promises.
--
+Dennis
Campbell
Rev Bryan Dabney
of Saint John’s Sunday Sermon
We are fortunate to
have Bryan’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.
Sermon for the Third Sunday in Advent
John the Baptist was born into a priestly
family. He was a miracle child in that his conception and birth brought him to
parents well passed the age for such things. He was also a cousin of our Lord
through his mother’s side of the family (St. Luke 1:5-25, 39-45 and 57-80). Like
our Lord, John the Baptist’s early life is a closed book. We next hear about
him in the gospels in his role as the forerunner of whom the prophet Isaiah
spoke (see Isaiah 40:3-11) and which was fulfilled as noted in all four gospels
(see St. Matthew 3:1-12; St. Mark 1:1-6; St. Luke 3:10- 18; St. John 1:19-27),
for in these we are told of his calling to proclaim the coming of the Messiah
and to baptize those who came to him seeking remission of their sins.
Observe the manner of baptism and the
preconditions for it: water with repentance. The Jews had pools called mikvahs,
which they used for ritual bathing prior to entering the Temple precincts. And
so it was not uncommon for them to immerse themselves, either whole or in part
for religious purposes. Ergo, these baptisms performed by John the Baptist
would not have been viewed by the Jews as strange or foreign, but quite in line
with their faith. And we may safely deduce that hundreds, perhaps even
thousands of them were baptized by John as the Scriptures do not tell us how
long he had been preaching and baptizing prior to the coming of our Lord to
him.
John said his baptism was one unto repentance
which came about from those who heard him preach on the subject. Repent ye for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand (St. Matthew 3:2). But what does it mean to
repent? The biblical understanding of this word speaks of having a change of
mind. John, being filled with the Holy Spirit, had called on those around him
to turn from their wickedness, and to have a mind that sought after God because
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Very soon thereafter our Lord appeared on the
banks of the Jordan River seeking to be baptized of him (St. Matthew 3:13-17).
Only after that, did our Lord begin his ministry, preaching that very message
of John with this difference: for our Lord is the King of kings and Lord of
lords who had come to bring salvation to those who would believe on his name.
Unfortunately, many of today’s theologians
and seminarians have taken John the Baptist’s question in St. Matthew 11:1-6 as
proof of his uncertainty about our Lord. They have taken this position because
a sizable number of them doubt the divinity of Christ, the veracity of the
Bible, and, in some cases, the very existence of God. They also have selectively
forgotten those passages which affirm our Lord’s bona fides such as John’s
affirmation, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before me:
for he was before me (St. John 1:29-30). John the Baptist knew that Jesus of
Nazareth was the Messiah, and it is too bad that many of today’s pastors do
not.
John’s ministry began to decline the moment
he baptized our Lord, and lasted but briefly until his death at the hands of
Herod Antipas (St. John 3:22-36). Such was chronicled in St. Matthew’s gospel
(14:3-12) wherein we are informed that he suffered martyrdom for his criticism
of Herod’s adultery with his brother’s wife. But even as death took him, the
gates of heaven swung open wide to receive this great and humble man who was
sent by God to prepare the way for him whose goings forth have been from of
old, from everlasting (Micah 5:2b).
Our Lord paid tribute to John the Baptist
upon hearing of him being cast into prison saying, What went ye out into the
wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to
see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in
kings’ houses. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you,
and more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold I send
my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily,
I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of
heaven is greater than he (St. Matthew 11:7b-11).
God called John the Baptist to go before the
face of the Messiah and proclaim him openly before men, calling them to
repentance and to be baptized. Our Lord then built upon that message, and if we
are to learn from him, then we too must come to God with humble and contrite
hearts, seeking his pardon and receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
John did not have it easy. John did not have
a multitude of earthly resources to utilize in his efforts. He did not have a
mega-church building. He did not wear fine robes. He did not have a band of
musicians pounding out secular rhythms. He did not demand a tithe. He did not
make promises of healing that he could not perform. He did not have a custom
hair-do.
No, John’s message was plain, simple and
without dissembling. It was the unvarnished truth of God: Repent for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand. If we would be wise in the Lord, we will heed his
calling to do the same.
Let us pray,
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God, we thank thee for thy servant John the Baptist, whose ministry heralded
the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and grant us such a will that
we would from hence forth watch and pray for the coming of that great day when
we, and all thy saints, shall all meet in thine heavenly kingdom and rejoice
together in glory everlasting; and this we ask in the name of thine only
begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Have a
blessed week,
Bryan+
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