The Unchanging Church: February 2013

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Second Sunday in Lent

Prayer of Sir Francis Drake – Shared by Bishop Jerry Ogles

On the afternoon of the day the English fleet sailed forth to meet the invincible Spanish Armada, Admiral of the Fleet Sir Francis Drake offered this prayer up to God for his men and himself. Note the tenor and charity of it:

ost merciful and loving Father, we beseech thee most humbly, even with all our hearts, to pour out upon our enemies with a bountiful hand whatsoever things thou knowest may do them good; and chiefly a sound and uncorrupt mind, wherethrough they may know thee and seek thee in true charity, with their whole hearts, and love us thy children, for thy sake. Let not their hating of us turn to their harm, neither let us in any wise hurt them. Seeing that we cannot do them good for want of ability, Lord, we desire their amendment, and not their punishment. Separate them not from us by punishing them, but join and knit them to us by thy favourable dealing with them. And seeing we be all ordained to be citizens of the one everlasting city, let us begin to enter in that way here already by mutual love, which may bring us right forth hither; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Miraculously, the out-gunned and inferior British fleet was victorious over a naval force of unquestioned superiority. The forces of nature (and of nature's God) combined to deal a decisive defeat to the would-be invaders of England. Perhaps the only difference in the outcome was due to the prayer of Sir Francis Drake. What think ye?

Propers

The Propers for today are found on Page 127-128, with the Collect first:

The Second Sunday in Lent.

The Collect.

LMIGHTY God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And due to the rubric, the Collect for the Day is followed by the Collect for Ash Wednesday, which is found on Page 124:

The first day of Lent, commonly called
Ash Wednesday.

The Collect.

LMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

¶ This Collect is to be said every day in Lent, after the Collect appointed for the day, until Palm Sunday.

Dru Arnold read the Epistle for today, which came from the Fourth Chapter of Paul’s First letter to the Thessalonians beginning at the First Verse. Apparently the Corinthians were not the only church founded in a Red Light District. In this letter Paul is telling the people to refrain from random sex and get married. Paul is starting into the beginning of his New Man concept. We are called to be as God wants us to be, not as we would be without His guidance and help. God does this, not that we would miss fun, but rather that we would enjoy happiness.

E beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.

Hap Arnold read this morning’s Gospel which comes from the Gospel of Saint Matthew, the Fifteenth Chapter, beginning at the Twenty-First Verse.

ESUS went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

This story surfaces again in the Book of Common Prayer in the Prayer of Humble Access, in the Book of Common Prayer, Page 82:

E do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

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.

Consider these words from the Collect:

… we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul …

In the Collect, we acknowledge to God that we cannot direct our own lives, if we listen to our “inner self” we are without guidance. Consider the airplane flying, it orders its movements according to Polaris, the Pole Star of True North. If a pilot flies guided by his “inner self” he soon knows only where he is: at the controls, and little else. Like the pilot who needs to know where the True North is so he can orient himself, we need God’s guidance to move towards our goal of eternal life with Him. It should also be noted that our life here will be a lot more pleasant if we stay on course. Recently, I read something of Rev Rick Reid’s which said at the end of our lives, the words will be “Thy will be done.” The question is will it be us saying it or God? We need to listen to God and do His Will. His guidance will bring us on a path to success in our lives, if we listen to His guidance. We have to initiate the contact/relationship with Him. He does not do it on His own. He waits for an opening into our hearts. We have to let him into our hearts in order to let him guide us. If we do not do this, then how can we expect to have Him guide us, if we are not open and ready to receive Him and His Guidance? We have to be willing and ready in order to receive His Guidance, than we have to act upon the information His Guidance gives us.

Thus, when Paul tell us to keep our bodies under control of our minds and our minds to be guided by God only, he helps move us on course. We are to be true and honest in all our dealings, both physical and fiscal and to live our faith. For only by living our faith can we demonstrate that we in fact have faith. For professed faith with no actions when you are able to act is not real. You must actualize what you claim to believe. One must convert their stated beliefs into their actions, in order for their belief/faith to have any reasonable meaning. Without actions, the faith that one believes is not truly real, if it is not acted upon. If you claim to believe one way and act another, you are by definition a hypocrite. We are called to be as God wants us to be, not as we would be without His guidance and help. God does this, not that we would miss fun, but rather that we would enjoy happiness.

Matthew gives us a fine example of faith that demonstrates how we must be guided by our faith in our Lord. The woman who cries unto Jesus is a Gentile, just like us. Just like us she longs for His Mercy. In her case, she asks only for the mercy rejected by others, the crumbs of the Master’s Table[1]. This is the essence of our faith, we are not worth to dine at His Table, no more than dogs are meet to dine at our table. Yet, what is left over is more than enough for us. And we are content with that, knowing what miserable creatures we are. And, even more important, even knowing whawt miserable creatures we are, Jesus offers to share His Table with us. He is not content for us to grovel for His crumbs. If he offers his love for us, surely we should love Him back, by acting upon our faith? If we do not act for Him, then we do not truly believe in Him. In order to truly believe, you must act upon the faith that you have.

It is also important to understand that if one loves God, He still has the exact same amount of love available for any other person or group. His love is infinite, even if it wasn’t love multiplies in use!

Recognize how poorly you do with your guidance, accept His Guidance, stay on course and accept the fruits of that action.

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, and like always, it will give you a lot to consider in your heart.

Sermon Notes

The Second Sunday in Lent

24 February 2013, Anno Domini

The Second Sunday in Lent.

The Collect.

And due to the rubric, the Collect for the Day is followed by the Collect for Ash Wednesday, which is found on Page 124:

The first day of Lent, commonly called
Ash Wednesday.

The Collect.

¶ This Collect is to be said every day in Lent, after the Collect appointed for the day, until Palm Sunday.

One great acknowledgment that stands out in today's Collect for the 2^nd Sunday in Lent is this: Since our father Adam partook of the ill-natured tree in the midst of the Garden, Man must still find himself constantly relying upon that OTHER Tree in the midst of the Garden at Eden which he rejected – the Tree of Life. Because of that rejection, we are full of sin and incapable of helping ourselves. We even return to, stop and listen to, and partake of the ill-fated fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It is only the Mercy and Grace offered by the Tree of Life that keeps us from constantly appealing to the serpent of the other tree. This Collect originates in the Gregorian Sacramentary. For a fuller study and brief meditation on the Collects, I recommend The Collects of Thomas Cranmer, by C. Frederick Barbee and Paul F.M. Zahl. (Erdmans, 1999)

21 Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 23 But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. 24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. 26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. 27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. 28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. (Matt 15:21-28)

Jesus has just been confronted by the scribes and Pharisees (blind leaders of the blind) who have come to Him with a petty complaint involving hand-washing. These men ruled their charges by red-tape and the jot and tittle of the law, and not out of love. There is one cardinal principle is preaching that may be the most neglected, not only by the former Pharisees, but the contemporary ones as well. That principle is clearly elucidated in 1 Peter 5:2. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3. Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 4 And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. (1 Peter 5:2-4) So Jesus, wearied of the harassment from the mean fellows, resorts to the far reaching coastline of Tyre and Sidon (Phoenicia on the Mediterranean) for a time of peace and quiet. There is also a certain woman in His thoughts that needs to see Him and is awaiting His arrival there. This dear soul has no idea that the Son of David will travel to her distant home, but the Son of David knows, and He comes.

The beauty and comfort of God's providential care for us, even while we were yet strangers, knows no limits on time and distance. Perhaps, ere you came to Christ, you, too, were a great distance away among a people of Godless character; yet, Christ was aware of your plight and His Holy Spirit, swift as a Dove, came to you and answered your great need. He knew you LONG before you knew Him – even while you were yet in your mother's womb where He MADE you! Such a wonderful visit of Christ the great Healer and Physician was beyond the realm of possibility in the imagination of the Syro-Phoenician woman. Yet, there was something in her heart that made her believe that God would provide. Already, she had more faith as a Gentile than the Jewish rulers had as the lost sheep of Israel. The reassuring thing about faith in God is this: We need not understand the ways and means of God's answering our prayers, but only to know that He certainly WILL! The ear of faith, to, is very keen to hear every whispered detail of the Way of the Lord's Coming whether it be on the road from Galilee, or from Jerusalem. The direction is not so important, but the fact that He will come after all. There is a parallel account of this event in the Gospel of St Mark 7:24-30.

We look in upon Jesus immediately after His confrontation over hand-washing with the Pharisees: 21 Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. Please do not argue that Christ knew not whom He would meet at His destination for I will not believe it. Christ always knew whom He would meet and whom He would heal in every case. He knew a woman of Samaria would come to Jacob's Well at the noonday hour long before the woman experienced her thirst. So He waited there while the disciples went for bread. You may be the most incorrigible and egregious of sinners, judged so by infidel and Christian alike, but Christ may have already established a point in time when He will seek you out in a land far removed from the familiar people of God. This woman may not be an egregious sinner. In fact, I believe that she is a good and faithful mother to the treasure of her bosom, but she has not yet met Christ – and that meeting will make all the difference in her life. Now He is coming. The news is whispered about the villages and among travelers along the dusty roads. His fame has even reached the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and the woman has heard with bated breath. HOPE is the dominant quality that informs her germinating faith in a Figure see has yet to meet. The Gospel of St Mark tells us that Jesus went into a house to rest near the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, but "could not be hid." (7:24) No truer statement can be uttered about Jesus – He cannot be hidden from the searching eye, for all that seek Him shall fid Him. (Luke 11:9 et al) There is a Syro-Phoenican woman that is seeking, and she shall find Him at all costs. This is always the cause that brings us to Christ – NEED! Many need, but fail to satisfy that need in coming to Him.

22 And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. There are three important points to be made in this one statement: 1) The woman did not casually call out for help as if her need, or her expectation, was minor. She CRIED out because her NEED, motivated by a mother's love for a dear little girl, was GREAT! "my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil" . 2) She named no great need in her cry – only a request for mercy. If she has mercy from Christ, she has all else of her need. 3) She recognized Jesus as the Messiah. That is the meaning of her expression "O Lord, thou Son of David." She did not call Him `a' son of David, but the prophesied Son of David. When we go to Christ in prayer, do we fully realize He is? This woman KNEW before ever she met Christ. She knew out of NEED and FAITH. Perhaps feeling herself so much so unworthy as the publican who came with the Pharisee to the Temple that day and would not approach so near, she called from a distance unto Christ. Actually, our first call to Christ is always from a distance, for we call out of our bondage and need. It is just as the hymnist, William Sleeper, has written in the hymn we sang today:

Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night, 

Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come; 

Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light,

 Jesus, I come to Thee; 

Out of my sickness, into Thy health, 

Out of my want and into Thy wealth, 

Out of my sin and into Thyself, 

Jesus, I come to Thee.

23 But he answered her not a word. Was Jesus being unkind to this precious mother? Of course he was not! Jesus showed nothing but the deepest compassion for others in need. Jesus does not answer for two reasons: 1) He desires to allow the woman's faith to increase, by and by, through her persistence. If we pray ceaselessly and, yet, have not gotten an answer, do we cease to call upon the Lord? God would have us pray with persistence. As we pray continually, our eyes are opened more and more to the Mind of God – our prayers thereby become more and more in accord with His own Will to grant. Do you recall in our previous studies how those who are closest to Christ often prevent those who need Him most from coming? And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. Do we value our comfort and leisure so highly that we forbid others who have a great need from coming to the source of that comfort we have? Are we too cozy in our little buildings of stone walls and high spires? The salt that is not often shaken will harden so that it cannot be dispensed from the shaker.

24 But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Every Word of Christ is with power yet this is one of those `BUTS' which deserve heeding. This woman is from the Canaanite race of Gentiles that the Jews despise. Christ is drawing out of a deep well, the refreshing waters of faith this woman has. He does it not only for her own benefit, but for the benefit of his Jewish disciples to learn of compassion. He is saying to the poor mother, "Look, I know you have a need, but I am not sent to any other than the lost sheep of Israel. If you become a child of the Promised Seed, you, too, shall be in the fold of Israel." The statement of Jesus is looked upon with particular interest by His disciples. Jesus is slowly drawing the woman closer to Himself, and to His Love-Brimmed Heart. 25 Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. Yes, we see that the Love of Jesus does draw her nearer, don't we? She finally is not afraid to worship the Savior of her soul. She asked for the deepest desire of her heart, and that desire derives from a love that is inexpressible for her daughter.

Please note thoughtfully the kind and loving response of Jesus to the woman: 26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. At first glimpse, this may sound a bit harsh to such a loving mother, but it is laden with love. The word Jesus uses here to describe her relationship to the children of God (Israel) is not the term for the cursed and hated dog of the ghettos, but the Greek word, kunarion, pronounced `koo-nar'-ee-on', meaning `puppy' or `pet-dog.' The puppy dog is a pet and is fed by the children by secretly dropping crumbs of food down to them. Perhaps we, as children of God, fail too often to drop these crumbs of the Bread of Life down to those who are starving for love and nourishment. Jesus, from eternity past, has loved this woman and her little daughter; but He needs to show her the manner in which she must come to Him. 27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. These words were evoked by Christ for the benefit of those standing nearby. He already knew these words were written in the red blood of love on the woman's heart for her daughter. Had she not needed a healing for her daughter, she may never have sought Christ out.

28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. What has Jesus told the woman? He has told her (in other words): "Woman, you have known who I am. You have come seeking me out of a faith born of love. You have persisted in your prayers, so much so, that YOUR will is precisely the Will of God. It is by THAT latter Will that your faith has healed your daughter. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. God is Light, and His Finger travels with Light Speed. There was no lingering spirit-possession of the daughter – not at all. She was healed that very hour (moment).

So what valuable lessons have we learned from this most blessed mother of ancient Phoenicia?

1. Love will call us into a higher place – even to a seeking after God.

2. We must seek the Lord diligently even in places that are perceived unlikely such as the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.

3. We must call out in earnest to Christ not holding back.

4. We must clearly state our need in prayer.

5. We must be persistent in prayer even if we only hear silence at first from the Throne of God.

6. We must not only petition, but listen for the Will of God to be

7. We must worship God even while we are pleading our cause as did the distraught mother.

8. We must give evidence of our Faith to both God and man.

Have we exercised this example in prayer? Put it to the test. God is faithful always to answer if our wills are consistent with His Own.

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:

Keep

Psalm 86, 142, 1 Kings 8:35-43, Colossians 3:8-17 

Second Sunday in Lent 

February 24, 2013  

There is a beautiful old word that was a favourite of Christians in past generations. It is not used very often today, I hope that is not because people no longer believe in it. The word is "Providence." Providence is the activity of the Provider. It refers to God providing for our needs. From Him we receive our creation, preservation, all the blessings of this life, and all the means of grace. All things needful for happiness in this life, and the next come to us freely as gifts from God. Providence also refers to God's direction and protection of us. It refers to His guiding our lives toward His intended goal. Under His Providential guidance, as St. Paul wrote in Romans 8:28; "all things work together for good to those who love God."

  Providence is one of the many doctrines addressed in today's Scriptures and Collects. Instead of "Providence," the Collect uses the word, "keep," and, it seems to me that it uses it in the sense of the Old Testament Hebrew word that is often translated as both guard and keep. It refers to God to guarding and protecting us, both physically and spiritually. I think there is another meaning to the word, "keep," and that is to fence. So to ask God to keep us is to ask Him to build a fence around us that will keep us in the place where we ought to stay, and out of the places we should not go.

  As we looked at the reading in 1 Kings 8, I saw Solomon asking God to keep Israel out of places she should not go. That prayer is coupled with another petition, repeated several times in the chapter, a prayer for forgiveness, a prayer that when Israel does sin, does stray into those places she should not go, God will have mercy upon her, cause her to turn to Him and seek Him in His holy Temple, and bring her back to faith and to God. "Hear Thou in Heaven," Solomon prayed, "and forgive the sin of Thy people."

  Looking at the reading in Colossians 3, I see a prayer about keeping us in the place where we should always be. The passage expounds and explains the meaning of two earlier verses, not officially included in the Lectionary, but which I read today because they are integral to understanding and practicing the message of Colossians 3. They are verses 9 and 10 which tell us we have put off the old and put on the new. The old refers to the unGodly thoughts and actions identified in verses 5 and 8, things like fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, anger, wrath malice, blasphemy, and filthy communication. These are not the only unGodly things we are to put off, if we are Christians, but they are certainly some of them, and we are to take them off and throw them away like ragged, maggot infested garments. We are to throw them in the trash, and not allow them to characterise our lives anymore. In fact, these things are so wicked that we are not even to give the appearance of endorsing them. In their places we are to put on the pure, new, and holy garments of the righteousness of Christ. So, instead of fornication, we are to put on chastity. Instead of inordinate affection, which is a burning desire to have something, it could be a boat, a horse, or a lifestyle of self indulgence and luxury, we are to put on self control, moderation, self discipline, and even a certain amount of self denial, in the realisation that even good things are not always expedient.  

Please don't misunderstand me here. I am not saying we should not enjoy the fruits of our labours. We should enjoy them. God wants us to enjoy them. I am saying that having wealth and possessions and pleasures is like living with lions, there is an element of danger in them. There is always the chance that they will consume you.

  Paul goes on to exhort us to put on, that is to dress in and have as our defining characteristics, things like mercy. You know what mercy is. Mercy is what you want from God on the day you stand before Him and He reviews all your sins. Let mercy characterise us here and now. You know what kindness is, it is what you want God to have when you see that you cannot atone for your own sins, or make yourself acceptable to Him. You know what forbearance is, it's what you want us to have when you say or do something foolish or inappropriate, or even mean. Be kind to one another. Let forbearance characterize you.  

Look at the way Paul contrasts the old things with the new. The old is characterised by fornication; the new by charity, love. The old is given to covetousness, the new is given to longsuffering. The old is given to wrath and malice, the new is given to kindness, forbearance, and forgiveness. The old is given to filthy communication, the new speaks in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in the heart. The old is controlled by inordinate affections and covetousness, the new, and for this we will go back to the very first verse of the chapter, for it is the main point of this whole passage; the new seeks those things which are above. It has set its affections on the things of God, not of earth (Col. 3:1-2). It lives in a state of continually mortifying, or crucifying sinful desires, and living for Christ in this life.  

I'm trying to say today, that these things of Godliness, things like forbearance, kindness, forgiveness, and love need to become habits in our lives. They need to become the habitual ways we respond to situations and people in life. That won't happen unless we intentionally cultivate them. We must train these things into ourselves until they become habit. And then we must continually reinforce that training day in and day out for the rest of our lives. Otherwise we will slip back into the old, unGodly habits of anger, inordinate affections, and filthy communications. These old habits are natural to us. they are like weeds in a garden, they grow naturally, and we have to fight them to control them. It is Godliness that is foreign to us. Like flowers and vegetables, Godliness must be planted and nurtured, or it won't grow. We all know it just takes a couple of weeks of neglect to turn a beautiful garden into a weed bed. Let us not neglect to cultivate Godliness in us.  

Today, pondering the doctrine of the Providence of God, we are asking Him to use His power for our benefit. We're asking Him to keep us from all things that hurt body and soul, which also means to keep us in those things that aid and heal us. The words of Psalm 86:11 express this prayer well. Let us close with theme.

each me thy way, O Lord, and I will walk in thy truth. O knit my heart unto thee, that I may fear thy name.

+Dennis Campbell

Bishop, Anglican Orthodox Church Diocese of Virginia

Rector, Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church

Powhatan, Virginia

www.HolyTrinityAnglicanOrthodoxChurch.org

www.lifeinthescriptures.blogspot.com

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 Second Sunday in Lent

In I Corinthians 6:9-20, the apostle Paul reminded the Christians at Corinth of their sordid past when he penned the following: Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? He then went on to set forth those sins which they once took pleasure in doing one of which was the sin of idolatry. In another epistle, the apostle commended the Thessalonian brethren for their exemplary conduct in that they had turned to God from idols (I Thessalonians 1:1-10). The tenets of our faith dictate that having more than one God is sinful, and that worshiping graven images is forbidden. Just as Israel’s covenant with the LORD specifically barred them from fashioning images for the purpose of worship, so we Christians must also abide by this restriction as well. Consider the following verses from Exodus, I am the LORD thy God... thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image... thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them... (20:2a, 3-4a, 5a).

Consider also the words of the prophet Isaiah (44:9-10, 14-17) on this subject: They that make a graven image are all of them vanity... Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?... He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak... Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baked bread; yea, he maketh a god and worshippeth it; he maketh a graven image, and falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire: and the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou are my god.

In his first epistle to the Corinthians (10:19-21), St. Paul equated idolatry with worthlessness, and paganism with demonism when he wrote, What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and the table of devils.... It should be noted that in the apostle’s day, the prohibition against idolatry included the worship of the emperor as a living god. Thus the behavior for which the apostle applauded the Thessalonians— on account of their patent rejection of all idolatry in favor of the worship of the one, true and living God— can be juxtaposed to those of the Corinthian church who needed a reminder that they too must turn from worshipping idols.

Alas, though initially rejected by early Christians in the first and second centuries A.D., by the fifth century idolatry was once again popular but this time within the precincts of the body of Christ. Dr. Jesse Hurlbut once noted that, “while the triumph of Christianity resulted in much that was good, inevitably the alliance of the [Roman] state and the church also brought in its train many evils... As a result... we do not see Christianity transforming the world to its own ideal, but the world dominating the church (Story of the Christian Church pp. 62-63) .”

And so the paganism of the Ancient World, which was thought displaced by the Christian church, soon reappeared as a corporate member of it. The Rev. E.M. Bounds once observed concerning this sort of behavior, “When the church itself, the bride of Christ, is seduced from her purity [by Satan], she degenerates into worldly ritualism... The Devil is a hydra-headed monster who is multifaceted in his plans and wisdom as well as in atrocities. His supreme effort is to gain control of the church, not to destroy its organization, but to pervert its divine purpose (Guide to Spiritual Warfare p.41-42).”

Now consider our adversary’s handiwork within the fold Christ. In 431 A.D., the Council of Ephesus officially gave the title of “Mother of God” to the Virgin Mary. This very title had once belonged to the goddess Cybele whom the Greeks called “Meter Theon” or “mother of the gods”. It should be noted that Ephesus was once the seat of worship for Diana, or Artemis, who was also a mother goddess. The Temple of Diana of Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World. Now while it is true that the council did not mean to convey a pagan understanding of Mary— only that she was the bearer of God in the flesh— still the irony of that event is inescapable. For in the very city where the apostle Paul (Acts 19:26), hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands, a church council had unwittingly supplied future church leaders with the proverbial “green light” to advocate that very aspect of paganism which the apostle had so forthrightly condemned some four centuries before.

But there is more, for one of the seven churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation (2:18-29) was the church at Thyatira which, as the Rev. Matthew Henry explained, “...allowed [a spirit of wicked teaching named Jezebel] to seduce the people of that city. [This spirit and its charges] attempted to draw the servants of God into fornication and to offer sacrifices to idols.” The warning by our Lord of this coming acceptance of idolatry should have been “a fire bell in the night” as it ought to have stirred the faithful leadership of the church into action against this sort of behavior. Sadly, by the fifth century, there was not much interest in keeping pagan practices out of the church as very many within the body of Christ were merely unconverted pagans masking themselves as Christians.

In our contemporary world, idolatry has become more sophisticated. The widespread cults of personality in religion have taken center-stage in the hearts of the naive. These “so-to-speak” preachers have put aside the notion of God’s coming judgment for sin and the need for repentance in favor of a false universalism. They teach only about God’s love and omit his desire for justice. They lure their prey into their dairy stalls— which they call churches— to be milked of their hard earned wages, while at the same time feeding them a gospel devoid of the whole truth of God and rendering them fit for the slaughterhouse of Hell when they die. An attendant teaching of these wolves in sheep’s clothing includes the false gospel of prosperity: where God will make every “so-to-speak” true believer materially rich, and physically well. And such carries with it the equally false notion that if you do not receive such blessings, then you do not possess the proper level of faith to empower God to work in your life. What a kick in the teeth to an otherwise faithful believer who is struggling with financial or health problems. Imagine telling a person in those circumstances that they are not measuring up to God because they are ill, or in debt, or facing any number of difficulties. They might as well take the advice of Job’s wife to, curse God and die (Job 2:9).

Then there are those outside of the church who hold up a variety of secular figures as their gods and goddesses. They hang on every word they say, and they buy their sponsored products as if they were talismans. The pagans of the Ancient World idolized the strong, the powerful, the outwardly beautiful and the rich, and nothing in man’s character over the millennia has changed one iota. Modern idolaters also have their own temples much as the ancients had theirs. Consider any of the various domed stadiums and open-air coliseums where they cheer their demigods utilizing both the liturgical as well as the extemporaneous forms of praise. They have set up within their hearts votive altars for the objects of their worship. They even mark their bodies up with their signs and symbols which indicates not their mere support of those things, but of their ownership by them. In the future the Antichrist will require all who might buy or sell to possess his mark in their foreheads or in their right hand (Revelation 13:16-17). It seems the unregenerated are being prepped today for that future event. Indeed, all these things are ample evidence for their condemnation before a holy and righteous God should the unregenerate not repent and be forgiven of this terrible sin. For if one does take the mark of the Beast, there will be no repentance (Revelation 14:9-11).

But it would be erroneous to believe that the venues for idolatry are limited only to the secular realm, or to those of the various religious cults. Sadly, there are otherwise faithful Christians who have succumbed to a rather insidious form of idolatry which is in their midst, and yet is seemingly invisible to them. Their idols are found in the ever-increasing number of “sanctinasiums” where the profane rhythms of the world are presented in a manner hardly distinguishable from a secular concert. Their idols are self-worship, self-glorification, and self- aggrandizement. They are all about feeling their faith; so if they do not feel something— if their senses are not motivated— then they believe they have not worshipped.

But Christian worship is supposed to be about focusing on God and not on ourselves. We are supposed to come before God with reverence and holiness. We are supposed to come before him confessing our sins and seeking his pardon. We are supposed to come into his presence with thanksgiving and praise; not in clamor or in irreverence, but in all holiness. As the apostle Paul observed, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance [self-control] against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another (Galatians 5:22-26).

Our job as Christians has always been to witness to such persons as our Lord gives us leave to do. We ought to warn them of the consequences of their idolatry. God has given us his word written for our edification that we might be recipients of his grace rather than subjects of his wrath, and we in turn are obliged to share that knowledge with others. The Bible tells us that we are to give worship to no person, thing or ideal other than the Godhead. We have been warned throughout the pages of Scripture that those who do will have their hearts darkened and their reservation confirmed in that eternal lake of fire where all who are estranged from God will have their final and everlasting abode. Christians be warned! Flee from all idolatry. Flee from those churches who preach an acceptance of those things which will bring you into condemnation. Avoid the traditions of men both old and new that are in opposition to the expressed will of God. Stick to the word of God and keep away from any thing or any person that would be exalted above the Godhead, or would displace him in your heart and life. Be warned my brethren, stay away from idols!

Let us pray,

ather God, instill in each of us the desire to read thy most holy word and inwardly digest the same; that in so doing, we will adhere to its teachings and witness such to others regarding its truths; for this we ask in the name of thy Son our Saviour, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Have a blessed week, Bryan+ Have a blessed week,

Bryan+

Lent

Lent is a time for Christians to study, contemplate their sinfulness, repent, ask God's forgiveness, and realize the infinite sacrifice God made on their behalf. It is to be a time of quiet contemplation, but not a time of despair, since it culminates in the commemoration of the resurrection.

What about fasting, self-denial and all that stuff?

Jesus told us that if we fast we are not to make a show of it, like hypocrites do. A fast is different from a hunger strike: a fast should be a personal act of devotion to God, while a hunger strike is a public act most often used to shine a spotlight on injustice. A fast is also different from anorexia nervosa: it should be disciplined diet, not total abstention from food. During a religious fast, you still eat, you just abstain from certain foodstuffs. Traditionally, people have fasted by eliminating luxury items from their diets, such as meats. A fast can consist of eating whatever you want, but drinking only water. The whole idea is to help you concentrate on God. That works for some people. For lots of others, it is a distraction from what should be done Lent – PREPARATION.

More positively, you can “fast” or re-direct in other areas beyond food, you can commit to a something that can benefit the church, such cutting back in an entertainment area, using that time for Bible study and donating the savings to the church. That brings us to – Mite Boxes!

Mite Boxes

If you read this report at all, you know the Anglican Orthodox Church (AOC), and this parish in particular, is not about money. Not that money is not useful, but the parish has plenty. Any extra we get, we send it to the AOC to use for their mission work. The AOC works on a very slim budget, they aren’t about money either. The AOC is about the Great Commission; to go forth and spread The Word of the Lord:

18And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, ‘…19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Mt. 28:19-20)

You may not realize it, but the AOC has national church affiliates in 22 countries around the world, that does take a little money. Not great quantities of money, but some and as a church, we would be dirt poor, if we had dirt.

So, that is where the Mite Boxes come in. Ash Wednesday is 13 February 2012; Easter Sunday is 31 March 2013. That period is Lent. Often thought of as a time for fasting, it is more importantly a time to channel your attention towards God. A time to let your heart open to the Holy Ghost that you might come closer to God and perhaps do His Work more effectively.

So, to exercise this concept, we are asking you to cut back. We know the economy is not really great and you are probably cutting back already. So, cut back a bit more. Take part of your savings every day and put it in the Mite Box. If you did not cut back on a given day, dig into your wallet or purse and cut out a bit of cash for the Mite Box anyway. Every day, except Sundays. Sundays are the Lord’s Day and a day of celebration. They are not part of Lent. By Easter Sunday, you will have a full Mite Box. Bring it to church, this church, another church, that is best. If you cannot find a church to actually go to on Easter, you probably aren’t looking hard enough, but pull the money out and send us a check, payable to the Anglican Orthodox Church and we will send it on.

One box for each member of the family. A little bit, just a mite, every day. Every day, miss none. Every day, every body in the family can do just a little bit. When you drop your daily contribution in, think, “Did I do what I could today for the Lord? Did I fall short or meet the standard? Can I do better tomorrow? Will I?” It should be a time of reflection. It will be if you do it.

By the way, what is a Mite Box? Named after the smallest of Roman coins, a normal wage of the time being 10 mites per hour, of which two were donated by the widow, in Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-4, it is normally a small cardboard box, say 3 inches each dimension, a cube piggy bank so to speak. If you don’t have one, call, email or write. We have a pile of them.

Don’t miss this opportunity to contribute to the Lord’s Work and make your life better at the same time.

[1] Sound familiar? Check out the Prayer of Humble Access, Holy Communion, BCP Page 82.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday in Lent

This report covers both Ash Wednesday[1] and the First Sunday in Lent[2].

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday services were held in the evening on schedule. We did the Penitential Office and quite enjoyed the peaceful experience. As expected we had three in attendance.

In addition, to the Penitential Office, we read the propers which are found on pages 124 and 125 in the Book of Common Prayer:

LENTEN SEASON

The first day of Lent, commonly called

Ash Wednesday.

The Collect.

¶ This Collect is to be said every day in Lent, after the Collect appointed for the day, until Palm Sunday.

For the Epistle. Joel ii. 12.

URN ye even to me, saith the LORD, with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repent- eth him of the evil. Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?

The Gospel. St. Matthew vi. 16.

HEN fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

¶ The same Collect, Epistle, and Gospel shall serve for every day after, unto the next Sunday, except upon the Feast of St. Matthias.

Bishop Jerry Ogles on Ash Wednesday

JC Ryle, one of the greatest and most biblically centered bishops of the Church of England, seems to have properly identified a growing influence of spiritual-dumbing down of the church beginning well before even the Oxford Movement culprits entered the stage. He wrote in Holiness:

I cannot withhold my conviction that the professing Church of the nineteenth century is as much damaged by laxity and indistinctness about matters of doctrine within, as it is by skeptics and unbelievers without. Myriads of professing Christians nowadays seem utterly unable to distinguish things that differ. Like people afflicted with colour-blindness, they are incapable of discerning what is true and what is false, what is sound and what is unsound. If a preacher of religion is only clever and eloquent and earnest, they appear to think he is all right, however strange and heterogeneous his sermons may be. They are destitute of spiritual sense, apparently, and cannot detect error. Popery or Protestantism, an atonement or no atonement, a personal Holy Ghost or no Holy Ghost, future punishment or no future punishment, High Church or Low Church or Broad Church, Trinitarianism, Arianism, or Unitarianism, nothing comes amiss to them: they can swallow it all, if they cannot digest it! Carried away by a fancied liberality and charity, they seem to think everybody is right and nobody is wrong, every clergyman is sound and none are unsound, everybody is going to be saved and nobody going to be lost. Their religion is made up of negatives; and the only positive thing about them is that they dislike distinctness and think all extreme and decided and positive views are very naughty and very wrong!

Everything that Bishop Ryle wrote, he backed up with biblical principles.

When I hear of the justification for application of ashes, for example, today, I hear only well-conceived and intellectual opinions of the church tradition. True biblical tradition cannot stand alone, but must be supported by God's Word. Why do we not hear those who defend Ashes applied to the little spot on the forehead as being justified by Christ? If I saw such references, it would cause me to consider that I may have misinterpreted the very Words of Jesus; however, no one who supports ashes on the forehead as a sign of Lenten Fast have addressed the very cogent and clear admonition of Christ in Matthew, Chapter 6! 16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. (Matt 6:16-18 (KJV) What does Christ mean by "they disfigure their faces?" What does He mean when He says that people who do so desire that men know that they fast? What does our Lord mean when He says that the proper way to fast would be to anoint our heads as if going on a pleasant visit; and what does He mean when He says that we should wash our faces before fasting? Is He appealing for the use of water-proof ashes? Ridiculous in the extreme! Oh, and by the way, how can we keep our fast secret when we go out in society at large wearing a smudge of ashes on our faces? What am I missing here, pray tell? Do we have eyes to see, and see not; ears to hear and hear not?

Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine, first Chaplain to the US Military Academy, third Chaplain of the US Senate, and first Bishop of the great State of Ohio wrote in His "Oxford Movement Compared" - written contemporaneous with the Oxford Movement and Tractarians:

The doctrine of Justification by Faith was the master-principle of the Reformation. " Therefore by a contrary way (said the chief Theologians of the Council) he that will establish the body of the Catholic doctrine (in other words, he that would re-instate Indulgences, Penances, Purgatory, the opus operatum of the Sacraments, the authority of the Priest's absolutions, the Sacrifice of the Mass, &c.) must overthrow the heresy of Justification by faith only."* In all this, there was the soundest view of the relation of cause and effect. And therefore have we no question, that now, while Oxford Divinity is fast developing its real character, indivers ramifications of overt Romanism, and exhibiting the strongest tendencies to do so, more and more; the only explanation needed is to be found in its entire defection from the Scriptural doctrine of how a sinner can be "just with God;" and the only antidote required is the clear understanding, the faithful teaching, the full carrying out of that same great doctrine, so mighty in the war of the Reformation, so feared and hated and libelled in the Councils of the Church of Rome, Justification, by the Imputed Righteousness of Christ, through the alone agency of a living faith.

He goes on to add:

They compass sea and land to make one proselyte. They creep in everywhere, like the Egyptian frogs, and leave no stone unturned, in the palace or the workhouse, to promote their cause, (b) It has been furthered immensely by the proceedings of the Ritualistic party in the Church of England. That energetic and active body has been vilifying the Reformation and sneering at Protestantism for many years, with only too much success. It has corrupted, leavened, blinded, and poisoned the minds of many Churchmen by incessant misrepresentation. It has gradually familiarized people with every distinctive doctrine and practice of Romanism-the real presence-the mass-auricular confession and priestly absolution-the sacerdotal character of the ministry-the monastic system-and a histrionic, sensuous, showy style of public worship-and the natural result is, that many simple people see no mighty harm in downright genuine Popery! Last, but not least, the spurious liberality of the ay we live in helps on the Romeward tendency. It is fashionable now to say that all sects should be equal-that the State should have nothing to do with religion-that all creeds should be regarded with equal favour and respect-and that there is a substratum of common truth at the bottom of all kinds of religion, whether Buddhism, Mohammedanism, or Christianity! The consequence is that myriads of ignorant folk begin to think there is nothing peculiarly dangerous in the tenets of Papists any more than in the tenets of Methodists, Independents, Presbyterians, or Baptists-and that we ought to let Romanism alone and never expose its unscriptural and Christ-dishonouring character.

Are simply to give up on Scripture and follow the traditions of man? As for me, as long as I stand, I will stand on God's Holy Word.

An Ashless Ash Wednesday for Anglicans

http://theheritageanglicannetwork.blogspot.com/

In the sixteenth century the English Reformers abolished the imposition of ashes on the heads of parishioners on Ash Wednesday due to the superstitious beliefs that had become associated with the practice. The practice was too closely tied the Medieval doctrines of attrition, auricular confession, contrition, priestly absolution, and penance.

The imposition of ashes was not reintroduced into the Church of England and her daughter churches until the nineteenth century and then by the Ritualists. It was one of the errors in doctrine, practice, and ritual the Romeward Movement revived to make the Anglican Church more like the Roman Catholic Church in the hopes they would help to affect a reunion between the Church of England and the Church of Rome.

The 1979 Book of Common Prayer popularized the practice in the Episcopal Church in the closing decades of the twentieth century.

The following articles on Ashes, Ash Wednesday, Fasting, and Lent are taken from A Protestant Dictionary, which was published under the auspices of the Protestant Reformation Society in 1904, and was compiled for Evangelicals in the Church of England and the Church of Ireland.

Ashes Used for sprinkling persons by the Romish Church. Before use, the ashes are dedicated previously by a special prayer offered by a bishop. In that prayer, invocation is made to God "that whosoever shall sprinkle themselves with these ashes for the redemption of their sins may obtain health of body and protection of soul."

Ash-Wednesday A mediaeval title given to the first day of Lent. It had formerly two names: (1) "Caput jejunii," the "head of the fast," and (2) "Dies cinerum." The forty days of Lent, being appointed in memory of our Lord’s fast in the wilderness as a season of abstinence, date from the Wednesday of the first week, because it was never the custom to fast on Sundays, and in this way the full number of forty is made up. The name of "Ash Wednesday" was given in reference to an ancient discipline, described by Gratian, according to which penitents had to appear before the Bishop and Clergy clothed in sack cloth. The seven penitential Psalms were then sung, after which ashes were thrown upon them, and they covered their heads with sackcloth. The Church of England, however, has in no way retained or sanctioned those superstitions. By the Scriptures appointed to be read and the prayers to be used, she has rather exhibited the true ideal of a fast. The old title of Ash-Wednesday is only employed as an alternative for the " first day of Lent," because before the Reformation it was "commonly so called." The revival of such practices is therefore entirely foreign to her prescribed ritual and is illegal.

Fasting There is no command to fast in the New Testament. In the Sermon on the Mount our Lord, speaking to Jews who were then accustomed to fast, says : "When thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash thy face ; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly (Matt. vi. 17, 18). Under the Old Testament there was but one fast distinctly enjoined namely, "the fast" on the great day of atonement (Lev. xvi. 29-31), which is referred to in Acts xxvii. 9. Other fasts were, however, enjoined on special occasions by the direction of the civil or religious authorities (e.g. Jer, xxxvi. 9). After the destruction of the Jewish State fasts became more numerous (Zech. vii. 5). But when the Lord was inquired of concerning those fasts, the answer given by the prophet Zechariah showed that those fasts were neither enjoined nor forbidden, and that persons were at liberty to make use of such days or not, according as they found fasting beneficial or otherwise to themselves; such acts not being regarded as in themselves meritorious in the sight of God (Zech. vii. 5/.). The Lord, by the mouth of Isaiah (ch. Iviii. 5-7), asks, " Is it such a fast that I have chosen ? a day for a man to afflict his soul ? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him ? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the Lord ? Is not this the fast that I have chosen ? to loose the bands of wickedness ; to undo the heavy burdens? . . . Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house ? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him ; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh ? "

Our Lord' s teaching concerning the times most suitable for fasting is set forth in the following passage: " Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bride groom is with them ? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast" (Matt. ix. 15), which passage has been explained by the Church of England in her Homily of Fasting, Part II., as follows: "Ye shall note, that so long as God revealeth His mercy unto us, and giveth us of His benefits, either spiritual or corporal, we are said to be with the Bridegroom at the marriage. . . . But the marriage is said then to be ended, and the Bridegroom to be gone, when Almighty God smiteth us with affliction, and seenieth to leave us in the midst of a number of adversities. So God sometimes striketh private men privately with sundry adversities, as trouble of mind, loss of friends, loss of goods, long and dangerous sicknesses, & c. Then it is a fit time for that man to humble himself to Almighty God by fasting, and to mourn and bewail his sins with a sorrowful heart. . . . Again, when God shall afflict a whole region or country with wars, with famine, with pestilence . . . and such other calamities, then is it time for all states and sorts of people . . . to humble themselves by fasting, and bewail their sinful living before God."

The principle here laid down can be exemplified from Scripture histories. David fasted when his child was sick (2 Sam. xii. 16) ; Esther, with her maidens, fasted ere she went in to Ahasuerus (Esth. iv. 16) ; Ezra fasted at the river of Ahava (Ezra viii. 21); Daniel set himself to seek the Lord by prayer and fasting (Dan. ix. 3). Christ said of certain demons, "This kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting" (Mark ix. 29), but the oldest MSS. omit the words "and fasting." (See R.V. and marginal note on Matt. xvii. 21.) And prior to the solemn ordination of elders, Paul and Barnabas "prayed with fasting" (Acts xiv. 23).

Our Lord Himself fasted forty days and forty nights, but during that time He did not experience the pangs of hunger. The Gospels which record the Temptation, all call attention to that fact. St. Matthew says, " He was afterward an hungered " (Matt. iv. 2). St. Mark does not mention the fasting (Mark i. 12, 13). St. Luke says of those days, "And when they were ended, He afterward hungered." The forty days appear, therefore, to have been spent in rapt ecstasy and contemplation. The actual temptation occurred at the close of that period.

Fasting, therefore, appears to be of value only when employed for the purpose of giving oneself up to continuous prayer, while abstinence from special kinds of food is nowhere enjoined or recommended in Scripture, although Daniel, in his penitential sorrow of three weeks, abstained from all pleasant food (Dan. x. 2, 3). St. Paul alludes to the "commanding to abstain from meats" as a mark of the apostasy (1 Tim. iv. 3), and a sign of weak faith in persons who attached importance to such trifling matters. " The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost " (Rom. xiv. 17, and the whole of that chapter). In fine, when fasting is employed in order to be able to spend the time in prayer, it may be recommended ; but abstinence from food as a means of punishing the body and laying up " merit " is to be strongly condemned. An abstinence from certain food may be useful for "bodily exercise" or discipline "bodily exercise profiteth a little," or "for a little while " (1 Tim. iv. 8) such exercise has occasionally been useful, but is not to be regarded as really a spiritual work.

The prohibition to eat meat on fast days, prescribed by the statute 2 & 3 Edward VI., c. 19, which may be alluded to in " the Tables and Rules " attached to the Book of Common Prayer which mentions " the Fasts, and Days of Abstinence to be observed in the year," is further dwelt on in the Homily on Fasting, Part II., which states that the statute of Edward VI. referred to, was framed for political reasons. It was " in consideration of the maintaining of fisher-towns bordering upon the seas, and for the increase of fishermen, of whom do spring mariners to go upon the sea, to the furnishing of the navy of the realm. . . . Such laws of princes and other magistrates are not made to put holiness in one kind of meat and drink more than another, to make one day more holy than another, but are grounded merely upon policy," namely, as afterwards explained, for the increase and support of the English navy, and "for the sooner reducing of victuals to a more moderate price, to the better sustenance of the poor." [C. H. H. W.]

Lent The word is derived either from the A.S. lencten (spring), or from the Dutch lenten (to make mild), the severity of winter being then relaxed. Lent is a period of forty days in the spring, immediately before Easter, prescribed as a time of fasting. The Greek and Latin names for Lent simply indicate the number of its days. Lent is asserted to have been of early, and even of Apostolic origin, but, had the latter been the case, some allusion would have been made to it in the New Testament. But in the New Testament there is no fast prescribed, nor even a positive exhortation to fasting (see FASTING). Our Lord s declaration in the A.V. concerning the boy possessed with an unclean spirit, is often quoted that "this kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting" (Matt. xvii. 21; Mark ix. 29). All the best MSS., however, omit the entire verse in the account in St. Matthew, and the word " fasting " in that of St. Mark (see R.Y.). The same omission is made by the R.V. on MS. authority with regard to the word "fasting" in two other verses, viz., Acts x. 30 ; 1 Cor. vii. 5. That the oldest MSS. should agree in omitting all reference to fasting in four passages in the New Testament, where fasting was supposed to be mentioned, is highly suggestive of interpolations made in the sacred text to suit the ideas of a non-Apostolic Age.

The forty days of Lent are often said to have been instituted as a fast in memory of our Lord's "fast" of a similar period in the wilderness. But the Lord passed that period in a state of exalted spiritual meditation or ecstasy, for St. Matthew distinctly states that Christ’s hunger was subsequent to the forty days, "When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred" (Matt. iv. 2). Lent had originally no real connection with the forty days fast in the desert. Lent seems to have been first established by a Pope, about AD 130, to be a tithe of the year (thirty-six days only), and was for centuries confined to that period. When the additional four days were added is not certain, probably not till the time of Pope Gregory II., who died in 731.

Our Lord, in Matt. ix. 15, indicated that the providential circumstances of life were the true guide as to seasons of fasting. Cassian, a disciple of Chrysostom in the fifth century, contrasting the Primitive Church with that of his own day, said, " It ought to be known that the observance of the forty days had no existence so long as the perfection of that Primitive Church remained inviolate." Lent helped in later times to increase the power of the priests. For in the Roman and Eastern Churches dispensations which permit the eating of meat on fast days may be obtained for a money payment, and fines are levied on those who break the Church law by eating meat on such days without a dispensation.

Lent

Lent is coming up, it starts this coming Wednesday, called Ash Wednesday. So, what does the word Lent mean? It has an obscure origin, and is probably a corruption of Lencten, or a similar term in ancient Anglo, Saxon, and Germanic languages, all of which referred to spring, new life, and hope. Although it is generally considered to be a time of mourning and repentance, it is more than that, it is like death, a time of new life and hope because by means of the death of Christ, we receive new life.

Many avoid Lent and Holy Week because they think it isn’t a happy and uplifting time—but to be honest, neither is most of life. Sometimes we come to church all scrubbed up, dressed nicely, with smiles on our faces, and when people ask how we are, we reply that everything is fine and we even boast how wonderful things are—but is it? Life is not always uplifting, or wonderful, or pleasant, or joyous. To claim it is, is to miss the whole point of the incarnation! God became flesh in Jesus Christ. Jesus faced temptation, He suffered hunger and thirst, He suffered the agony of crucifixion. Jesus our God did not face these things so that we would be exempt from them, He faced these things so that we would have dignity in them, He faced these things that in Him we might have triumph.

The forty days commemorate the significant "forty" periods in Scripture (although forty is not always significant), including the forty years the Jews wandered in the desert after they had been rescued by God from Egypt, and which did not end until they repented. Jonah preached to Nineveh that God's judgment would come on them in forty days. During that time the people repented and thus were spared God's judgment. Jesus was tested by the Devil in the desert for forty days before He began His public ministry, announcing salvation to the repentant and judgment to those who continued to rebel against God. Jesus prophesied that God's judgment would come against Israel for rejecting Him as Messiah within the time of His own generation (Matt. 24; Luke 21; Mark 13). Within forty years of His death, burial, and resurrection, Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple was so ravaged that "not one stone [was] left here upon another" (Matt. 24:2). The Jewish Christians, however, escaped this judgment of God by fleeing to Pella before the final Roman siege, just as Jesus had warned them to do (Matt. 24:16-21).

Lent is a time for Christians to contemplate their sinfulness, repent, ask God's forgiveness, and realize the infinite sacrifice God made on their behalf. It is to be a time of quiet contemplation, but not a time of despair, since it culminates in the commemoration of the resurrection. Traditionally, those who are joining the church spend this period in special instruction regarding Christian doctrine, practice, and responsibility. Historically, prospective members ("catechumens") did not participate in the Lord's Supper portion of the Sunday services until they were received into full membership on the Sunday of the Resurrection of Our Lord. For them, this first experience of Ash Wednesday and Lent has special significance as God's eternal plan of salvation is applied to them personally.

Jesus told us that if we fast we are not to make a show of it, like hypocrites do. A fast is different from a hunger strike: a fast is a personal act of devotion to God, while a hunger strike is a public act most often used to shine a spotlight on injustice. A fast is also different from anorexia nervosa: it is disciplined diet, not total abstention from food. During a religious fast, you still eat, you just abstain from certain foodstuffs. Traditionally, people have fasted by eliminating luxury items from their diets, such as meats. A fast can consist of eating whatever you want, but drinking only water.

More positively, you can fast in other areas beyond food, you can commit to a something that can benefit the church, such cutting back in an entertainment area, using that time for Bible study and donating the savings to the church.

On Palm Sunday, there were crowds who cheered Jesus as the King, but where were all those fair-weather friends when Jesus prayed in agony on Gethsemane, and where were they when He hung upon the cross? Let us be bold to join Him, fasting in the wilderness for forty days during Lent; let us be bold to pray with Him in the garden on Maundy Thursday, let us fearlessly stand at the foot of His cross on Good Friday, so that we may witness His Resurrection and His Ascension, and join in His triumphant reign.

Mite Boxes

So, that is where the Mite Boxes come in. Ash Wednesday is 22 February 2012; Easter Sunday is 8 April 2012. That period is Lent. Often thought of as a time for fasting, it is more importantly a time to channel your attention towards God. A time to let your heart open to the Holy Ghost that you might come closer to God and perhaps do His Work more effectively.

Don’t miss this opportunity to contribute to the Lord’s Work and make your life better at the same time.

First Sunday in Lent

Sunday Report

Today was the First Sunday in Lent. Sunrise temperature on Mount Olympus was a lovely 42°F under bright blue skies. By the time church started, the temperature had climbed to 54°F. The nice weather brought the usual three people to church.

Propers

The Propers for today are found on Page 125-127, with the Collect first:

The First Sunday in Lent.

The Collect.

LORD who for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights; Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit we may ever obey thy godly motions in righteousness, and true holiness, to thy honour and glory, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

And due to the rubric, the Collect for the Day is followed by the Collect for Ash Wednesday, which is found on Page 124:

The first day of Lent, commonly called
Ash Wednesday.

The Collect.

¶ This Collect is to be said every day in Lent, after the Collect appointed for the day, until Palm Sunday.

Dru Arnold read the Epistle for today, which came from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, starting at the First Verse of the Sixth Chapter. In what at first appears to be an incomprehensible single sentence, Paul asks us to be worthy of the grace that God has given us. He tells the people when they needed him, he was there. They need to be there for those around them. They must not frustrate God’s work by showing up late, or not at all. Those around us are watching our actions in the time of testing. We have been given eternal salvation by Jesus’ sacrifice, the understanding of the Gospel by the Holy Ghost. We are at this time dying here on earth, yet progressing towards eternal life in the next world, in Jesus’ world with His help. While we may never be wealthy here on earth, our actions can make our fellow Christians wealthy in spirit beyond measure.

If you claim to be a Christian, you know what is right. If you are a Christian, you do what is right, you don’t take a vote to see what the right course of action might be. Right does not change with public opinion and we must do the right thing. It is our actions that count, in good times or bad. We are Christ’s ambassadors to this world, unfortunately we do not have diplomatic immunity.

E then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain; (for he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation;) giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

Hap Arnold read this morning’s Holy Gospel which comes from the Gospel of Saint Matthew, starting at the First Verse of the Fourth Chapter. This portion of the Gospel tells the story of the temptation of Christ. In many respects, it shows how little the devil understands of Christ, and through Him, of us. If you understand how little the devil really offers you and how much Christ offers, the temptation is ever so much less. The devil is often referred to as the deceiver or dissimulator. His forte is deception, he seems one thing, is another. Offers what he has no intention or ability to deliver. Ignores the inevitable result of accepting his proffered help or inside track.

He clearly knows Jesus is the Son of God. There is no doubt in his mind. So, having understood that, consider what he offers Jesus in temptation.

Remember, Jesus has fasted 40 days OF HIS OWN CHOICE; he who has no real power asks Jesus to turn stone into bread to show His Power. This to the Son of He who delivered manna daily to the Jews in the wilderness for 40 years.

Cast thyself down and let angels catch thee; this to He who walked on water.

Up to the mountain lookout – Here is it all yours if you worship me. This to He who as it says in Psalm 95:

In his hand are all the corners of the earth; * and the strength of the hills is his also.

The sea is his, and he made it; * and his hands prepared the dry land.

O come, let us worship and fall down, * and kneel before

the Lord our Maker.

For he is the Lord our God; * and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

The devil promised Jesus nothing that was his to give, nothing that would help Jesus in the real world beyond the Shadowlands. He never does. The devil is all about shortcuts. Remember, if the shortcut was the best way, it would not be a shortcut

Like the temptation of Jesus, the devil never delivers what we need, only what we may want short term. Remember as little as the devil understands of Christ, so he understands little of us. He will never offer you real help. Remember that and the temptation is ever so much less.

This morning’s Gospel comes from the Gospel of Saint Matthew, starting at the First Verse of the Fourth Chapter. This portion of the Gospel tells the story of the temptation of Christ. In many respects, it shows how little the devil understands of Christ, and through Him, of us. If you understand how little the devil really offers you and how much Christ offers, the temptation is ever so much less.

HEN was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

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.

Consider these words from the Collect:

… Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit we may ever obey thy godly motions in righteousness, and true holiness, to thy honour and glory …

In the Collect, we ask God to help us to subdue our natural evil tendencies so that we can live life here His way and honour His wishes so we can be truly happy. Without His help, we end up with what we want, not what we need. We are asking him to help us fight our human nature and follow His divine nature, we are attempting to replace our nature with that of God’s. It will be a long and difficult road that we must travel, doing this, but we are going to be much happier in the long run if we at least try. Do or do not, there is no try, Yoda is quoted as saying, and I have found it applicable here and in my own life.

Want and Need; two words, used interchangeably in both our speech and thought that do not mean the same thing. Think about that!

Following the thought of the Collect, Paul asks us to be worthy of the grace God has given us. He tells the people when they needed him, he was there. They need to be there for those around them. They must not frustrate God’s work by showing up late, or not at all. We are outnumbered fiercely in this world, by the enemies of God. We are like the men in the Battle of Ia Drang (also related to being Paul’s message, the sacrifice of Kenneth Ogles and his fellow men in the Vietnam theatre, as well as those in WWI, WWII and before, and now.), fiercely outnumbered by the enemy, they did not just sit on their hands and wait for the enemy to come. They did something about it, they took action, otherwise they were going to be overrun by the North Vietnamese. Like them, we cannot just sit and wait, else we will be overrun by the Forces of Satan.

Those around us are watching our actions in the time of testing. We have been given eternal salvation by Jesus’ sacrifice, the understanding of the Gospel by the Holy Ghost. We are at this time dying here on earth, yet progressing towards eternal life in the next world, in Jesus’ world with His help. While we may never be wealthy here on earth, our actions can make our fellow Christians wealthy in spirit beyond measure.

If you claim to be a Christian, you know what is right. If you are a Christian, you do what is right, you don’t take a vote to see what the right course of action might be. Right does not change with public opinion and we must do the right thing. The truth does not change, as it is the constant that never changes. God is the Truth, The Word and the Life of this universe. It is our actions that count, in good times or bad. We are Christ’s ambassadors to this world; unfortunately we do not have diplomatic immunity.

When the devil attempted to tempt Christ, he shows how little he knows of Him. If we emulate our Lord, it shows how little the devil will be able to tempt us with his deceit.

Consider how little the devil really offers you and how much Christ offers, the temptation is ever so much less. The devil is often referred to as the deceiver or dissimulator. His forte is deception, he seems one thing, is another. He offers what he has no intention or ability to deliver. He ignores the inevitable result of accepting his proffered help or inside track.

He clearly knows Jesus is the Son of God. There is no doubt in his mind. So, having understood that, consider what he offers Jesus in temptation.

Remember, Jesus has fasted 40 days OF HIS OWN CHOICE; now comes the devil daring Him to show His Power by turning the stone into bread. This to the Son of He who delivered manna daily to the Jews in the wilderness for 40 years.

Cast thyself down and let angels catch thee; this to He who walked on water.

Up to the mountain lookout – Here is it all yours if you worship me. This to He who as it says in Psalm 95:

In his hand are all the corners of the earth; * and the strength of the hills is his also.

The sea is his, and he made it; * and his hands prepared the dry land.

O come, let us worship and fall down, * and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For he is the Lord our God; * and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

The temptation of Jesus is no different than his attempt to tempt us! The devil never delivers what we need, only what we, in our imperfect want. Remember as little as the devil understands of Christ, the same way, as we are in God, so he understands little of us. He will never offer you real help. Remember that and the temptation is ever so much less.

Or, as my grandfather said, “Keep your eye on the donut, not on the hole”

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God

Sermon - Rev Ken Howes - Ken is a Lutheran who should be in the AOC! This sermon was posted on the AOC Message Board and has been recommended by many of our member, including, but not limited to, Bishop Jerry. So, because this is his first guest sermon, Ken gets to go first!

This Sunday is one of the great penitential Sundays of the church year. The Gospel text is the story of Christ's temptation at the hands of the devil. The devil offered him first physical necessities, then a chance for Jesus to show off His power and divinity, then rule over the world. For us as preachers and teachers of the Church, this is a particular day of reflection.

The whole point of Christ's going into the desert was to be tempted by the devil, and to withstand it. You and I are very bad at withstanding temptations. Even as Christians we succumb to the devil's temptations with horrifying frequency. Any time we take the easy, comfortable way that evades the uncomfortable demands of our Lord, we turn the stones to bread, as He would not.

The dreadful temptation for Christians is that of pride in our supposed goodness, manifested in various forms of boastfulness that amount to throwing ourselves off the Temple roof to be caught by angels. It can manifest itself in gaudy showmanship, either of the Roman sort or of the Church Growth sort. Traditional Protestants, be they Lutherans, Anglicans or Reformed, don't usually fall into that one. We stick to those things that the Church has always done since ancient times, so far as they have Scriptural warrant, rejecting errors both ancient and modern.

But we have our own pitfalls. We can become so proud of our scholarship, the way we have studied the Bible so much and mastered the doctrines of our traditions, that we stop really hearing God speaking in His Word. We can go beyond a condemnation of false doctrine or sinful conduct--which God commands us to do--to a condemnation of persons, which God has commanded us not to do.

We can become so proud of the purity of our church services, whether those in the Lutheran service books, those in the Book of Common Prayer, or those prescribed by the various Reformed churches, that we, instead of earnest reproval of the errors of Church Growth services or Roman masses for the benefit of our brothers in those churches, engage in an ungodly mockery of what goes on in such churches. I have rather unkindly mimicked the preaching style of Arminian evangelical preachers on numerous occasions. I will not do that any more, because it is wrong. It is right to correct their theological errors; it is not right to make fun of things that they have said in well-meaning but erroneous sermons.

When we don a purple stole, the penitence that inheres in this season of Lent, and notably on this Invocavit Sunday has to begin with us. If the pastor will not repent of his sins, how will his flock repent of theirs?

The last of the temptations in the wilderness was the offer of the kingdoms of the world. How many people, including Christians--including Christian churchmen--have turned away from a right practice in order to enjoy power, admiration, and glory? How has "purple fever" hurt not only the "official" Anglican churches but the traditional ones as well? How many Lutheran pastors have diluted their doctrine in order to be well-liked and become district or even synodical presidents?

What sacrifices of doctrinal purity and even of simple ethics have Catholic priests and bishops made in order to become archbishops, cardinals and popes? The popes just before the beginning of the Reformation were regularly gaining that office by bribery at the conclaves. Many, once in those various offices, used the offerings of pious Catholics not for the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments but for their own power and luxury?

What heresies have evangelical preachers gone into as they elevated themselves to pulpits for which they were not prepared, in order to keep the offerings coming? Prosperity gospel; social gospel (both the liberal kind and the conservative kind--neither is better than the other, as either involves distortion of God's Word to serve one's political beliefs); denials of the Trinity; teachings of immediate grace; claims to be "anointed" (are they really saying they are the Mashiach, the Christos?); claims to be prophets.

We will not likely engage in those heresies--but how easy it is for otherwise orthodox churchmen to fall into heresies! Andreas Osiander was a leading reformer. His brother was and remained another prominent reformer, and his nephew and grandnephew were orthodox theologians in the following generations. His brother-in-law was none other than ++Cranmer. But when he went to bring the Reformation to East Prussia, where the Teutonic Knights ruled, he tempered his theology to what would be favorably received by the Knights and especially by their Grand Master. That theology became full of errors, bordering on heresy. A great education and a great family did not keep him safe from the temptation of the favor of the Grand Master, which he indeed gained. It was another generation until the Reformation in East Prussia recovered from his errors.

No, we Christian churchmen have not done nearly as well in the wilderness, confronted with the devil's temptations, as our Lord did. In this season, we do well to remember the admonition of the prophet Joel:

And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

Let us turn to our Lord in true repentance of our own sins, as we prepare to teach others of repentance, and hear His Word speak, that we may speak it truly in our pulpits and classrooms. We cannot feed His sheep with His Word, till we ourselves are fed with it. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. That means us.

May God bless us with His Holy Spirit in our preaching and teaching in this Lenten season.

Ken Howes

Bishop Ogles’ Sermon

The First Sunday in Lent.

The Collect.

The first day of Lent, commonly called
Ash Wednesday.

The Collect.

¶ This Collect is to be said every day in Lent, after the Collect appointed for the day, until Palm Sunday.

1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. 5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. 8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. 11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. (Matt 4:1-11 )

The Collect for today aptly points out the cardinal principle of Lent – a time to abstain from the material blessings to which we have become so accustomed in order to focus on that Passover sacrifice which Christ made of us on Good Friday. A staff officer to General Robert E. Lee once asked, "General, how oft ought a man to fast from eating?" to which General Lee responded, "If a man will but fast from his sins, he may eat what he pleases." Simple enough, but who is able to keep that fast from sins? The Collect reveals not only that we should fast from time to time, but also it informs that our fast is personal and not public. Holiness is a personal quality and not one of which we should boast. Once we begin to boast to others of what we forego during fast, we have lost whatever blessing God would grant and have opted for the reward of a good opinion from our fellows. I urge each of us to read the Gospel for Morning Prayer today from Matthew 6:1-16 for a deeper understanding of Christ's counsel on fasting and the means by which we are to keep our fast secret as we do our personal prayers. In this way, we will avoid the sin of the Pharisee in boasting of his better worth than the publican at the Temple.

So now is the time to enter upon the Lenten Season with earnest. Is it a time of sorrow and remorse? Yes, it is such a time. But it is also a time of deep love and joy that you are so much loved that a Personage so great as the only Begotten Son of God loves you so much as to die such a horrible and humiliating death for you. As the Epistle for today reads: "….behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation;) giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things" (2 Cor 6:2b-10) Do we even imagine what riches are made available to us through the privileges merited for us by Christ?

Being covenanted as infants into the Kingdom of Heaven through Baptism, many of us may not recall that work of grace performed on our behalf; however, did we not seal those promises and that grace at the time of our Confirmation? In the years of our lives before Confirmation (or even adult baptism) did we not grow in, as did Jesus from twelve years of age, wisdom and favor with God? And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. (Luke 2:52)

Today's Gospel from St Matthew IV: 1-11 contains some cardinal truths that should aid us in keeping a Christian witness as well as in overcoming temptation.

1) We must remember that Christ was forever sinless though subject to temptation just as you or I. Could Jesus have sinned? Of course, Jesus COULD have sinned, had He succumbed to temptation, else there could have been NO temptation to sin. But Jesus did not sin, though tempted in every way as you and I are tempted. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. (Heb 4:15) So how did Christ OVERCOME temptation? This we shall learn from today's text. If you have read it thoughtfully, you will already have discovered the Approach Christ took to temptation.

2) We should note, secondly, that, though Christ was forever without sin, His ministry did not begin until the moment of His Baptism in Jordan Waters. Following John's Baptism of Christ, confirmed and attested by the Voice of God and the Holy Ghost, there was a great CHANGE in the direction of His life. This was the point in time that the ministry of Christ began in earnest. The Holy Trinity, it will be acknowledge, was present at the Baptism of Christ just as with your own. Baptism and confirmation in the Gospel of Christ should result in a change of our behaviors. Has it done in your life?

3) We must, thirdly, observe that the same Holy Spirit that witnessed the Baptism and glorious recognition of God of Christ was the same which drove Christ into the wilderness (a place of private fasting). Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil The day that we agreed, with our eyes open, to follow Christ was a wonderful day in our lives and one which was worthy of celebration, was it not? At that hour, did not the Holy Spirit attest to us in our heart of the greatness of our calling in Christ? But, that same Spirit will, at times, drive us into the Wilderness of our Christian walk. Like Job, we shall undergo want and testing. If we falter not, we shall overcome to the joy of the angels in Heaven.

4) Can we agree that the Wilderness of life can be a place of great want. When our souls and our flesh are in great want, we are made our weakest. When is it that Satan considers the moment most opportune to tempt us? At our moments of weakness. So he tempted Christ when He was in want of bread and water. You will note that Satan did not approach Christ at the beginning, or at the middle of His forty days and nights, but at the end of that period when Christ would have been most susceptible to temptation. So Satan deals with us. 2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3 And when the tempter came to him….." Satan knows you. He watches day and night. He knows your moments of weakness, and he strikes at those moments whether it be moments of great loneliness, sickness, financial loss, or even success and opulence. He cannot read your heart as does God, but he has witnessed your actions. He will always come to you in the Wilderness as well as on the high mountain.

5) Fifthly, we must note that Satan loves to initiate his temptation with a question. "Yea, hath God said…" (Gen 3:1) Absolute truths have never been Satan's strongholds, but if he can only create doubt and question, then he knows he is on fertile ground to turn our hearts from righteousness. As Satan approaches Christ, he opens his deleterious argument with a cunning question: "If thou be the Son of God." There was no question in Satan's mind as to whom he was speaking, but the "if" is uttered to tempt the pride of Jesus. "IF" you are the Son of God, PROVE IT! Pride is the devil's axe handle. So Satan loves to create doubt and question. When you have served God faithfully, and the storms of life descend, and thunder booms down from Heaven in response to your prayers, do you not wonder, "Does God really care for me? If so, why do I suffer, as did Job, these terrors?" When you ask the question, you are simply falling for Satan's trap.

6) Please observe with me how Christ handles the temptation of Satan: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Christ is literally famished for hunger. Bread would be such a delight at this moment, but not at the terrible cost Satan would exact. So Christ is tempted three times during this confrontation. What is the common thread that runs through all three responses of Christ? IT IS WRITTEN! When this nine-tailed fox confronts you with a question, where can you find the answer for his question? In God's Word – IT IS WRITTEN! This was the response of Christ in all three temptations of the Adversary. When men and society tempt us to compromise on lifestyles and values, where do we find the answer for our retort? The Bible! It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. No we do not live by bread alone, but the Bread of Heaven! We cannot pick and choose which counsel of God to obey. We must obey ALL of God's counsel! We live "…by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Any questions Mr. High Churchman? Any questions, Higher Critics? Any questions, revisers of God's Word (NIV, NASB, ESV, TEB, etc)? But couldn't we accommodate those two men who wish to be in a "meaningful relationship?" What saith God's Holy Word throughout both Old and New Testament – it is abomination before the Lord! So what of abortion for the sake of saving a young unwed mother a lot of grief? What of God's counsel against adultery, or murder? Shall we obey God or man?

7) It must be known by the people of God that Satan not only twists Scripture, but also quotes it accurately at times with a twisted meaning. 5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Please note the correct quote of Psalms 91:11-12. How many devils have we in the pulpit today doing the devil's service by misapplication of Scripture via the name-it-and-claim-it so-called gospel? In this particular instance, Satan is tempting, not only Christ, but God the Father as well. Have you ever tempted God" "O, Lord, if you are truly there, please give me this one desire of my heart." Does this prayer not tempt God to prove Himself. If we pray in such a manner, it is likely that God will, indeed, prove Himself; but in a way that we would rather He not do. 7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Even the Son of God did not tempt the Father, and neither should we!

8) In the next passages, in the final temptation, we learn that Satan will promise ANYTHING – even that which he is unable to deliver – to cause us to sin. 8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. If we lose our souls to the devil, does it even matter if we inherit the kingdoms of this world, and even if Satan cannot deliver them? For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matt 16:26 (KJV) There is no quicker, or surer, way to lose your soul than to bend the knee to Satan. With the loss of soul goes all other possessions (including kingdoms). 10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve

9) What did we learn from this last temptation of Christ is the Wilderness Fast? Even good friends, such as the disciple Peter, may act and speak the devil's part. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. (Matthew 16:23) Our very best friends are capable of tempting us as Satan does. Whether spoken by friend or foe, we must rebuke the devil's temptations with the Word of God. We learn also from this last temptation that the Christian is sanctified, by and by, by the Word of God. He grows stronger in the face of temptation. The devil values his time highly for he is anxious to find other souls to lead astray. If we constantly rebuke him with the Word of God, he will finally give up this moment of temptation and come to us less often to tempt us. . 11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. The devil will leave off tempting those who stand staunchly by the Word of God. Then what? God will comfort us in the joy of our faith.

So we have learned from Christ today that there is a time given over for private (wilderness) fasting. The Wilderness is just as much of God as is the Green Pastures. We learn further that the devil will always come to us in our times of stress and need. We learned that he loves to cause doubt and question in our hearts. We learned that we are defenseless before Satan unless we resort to that mighty Sword of the Lord – His Word. And finally we learned that every time we resist temptation, we grow stronger – so much so that each succeeding temptation becomes less of temptation to us, and the devil will tempt us less as a result. How about you, friends, are you very often tempted, or have you discovered that temptations come less often when you rebuke the devil to his face with God's Word?

Bishop Dennis Campbell’s Sermon

True Holiness

Psalm 50, Isaiah 58, Matthew 6:1-18

First Sunday in Lent

February 17, 2013

One of the wonderful things about having a lectionary is that it takes us through the Bible every year, and it does so in a way that combines our daily readings with the readings, prayers and sermons on Sundays. And this cycle of prayer and worship is purposeful and assures that we will be led into the great doctrines of the faith, and the great principles of the Christian life in an orderly and understandable fashion every year. I promise that if you pray the prayers and read the daily Bible passages, and attend the worship and the sermons on Sunday, you will grow in the knowledge of the content, meaning, and application of the Bible. I also promise that the more years you do this, the deeper your understanding will grow, and the greater your faith will grow, for faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

There is, of course, a caveat. It must be done with the intention of seeking and obeying God. It must be done in faith. In the time of the prophet Isaiah, about 740 B.C., the Jews, who only enjoyed peace and prosperity because God had delivered their ancestors from slavery in Egypt, brought them safely into the Promised Land, and preserved their peace and freedom, had drifted into a casual and mechanical observance of the Old Testament means of grace. I say their observance was "casual," because very few of them were serious about knowing or loving God. They went to "prayers," they read the Scriptures, they offered the sacrifices, they kept the feast days, and they even fasted, but their hearts were not in these things. They had become merely the rituals that identified and unified them as a nation. I say their observance was "mechanical" because they believed that observing them guaranteed God would bless them with continued peace and prosperity. If you put the gear lever of a running automobile in "Drive" and push the gas pedal, it will move forward. That is the mechanical view the Jews had of prayer, and worship.

So when their enemies suddenly became powerful enough to threaten them, they faced a spiritual crisis, as well as a national security crisis. In their minds, they were the good people. They kept the ceremonial worship laws of the Old Testament, therefore, God owed them peace and prosperity. But here were these heathen nations, who never even heard of the worship laws, rising up against them and threatening to overpower them. How could God allow that? Hadn't they done everything God expected of them?

In a word, no. The Psalm for this morning says God had stopped accepting their sacrifices (Ps. 50:9). Why? Because they were not offered with the right understanding. They thought they were feeding God and giving gifts to Him. But God says He already owns the animals: he does not need to have them sacrificed to Him by the Jews. If we look at Psalm, 51:17 we see God telling Israel the real sacrifices He desires are a humble spirit and contrite heart. I am reminded here of Samuel's words to Saul, "to obey is better than sacrifice." In other words, God wants our hearts to enthrone Him above all things. Our hearts, our loving obedience, are the real sacrifices He wants. Devotion to Him in such a way that we become what Romans 12:1 calls, "living sacrifices" is the sacrifice that is acceptable unto God. The other sacrifices are expressions of our living sacrifice, not replacements for it.

In Isaiah 58 God addresses the insincerity of worship and life that prevailed in the days of Isaiah. He recognises their daily devotions and national religiousness. "They seek Me daily," He says, "and delight to know My ways as a nation" (Is. 58:2). But look what He says in verse 4. "Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist." He is saying they are using their religion as an offensive weapon. They fast in an effort to get God to enable them to cheat in business, and to harm people they don't like. They have attempted to use prayer as a magic spell to cause God to do their will. Listen, please, this is important. It is a good thing to pray for the downfall of evil. It is good to pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." It is good to ask God to "beat down Satan under our feet." To do so is a prayer of love, asking God to deliver all people from oppression, violence and strife. Let us pray for this every day. But that is not what Israel was doing here. Israel was praying that God would do evil things to people for them. Rather than combat evil, they wanted Him to join it, just on their side.

I doubt anyone hearing or reading this sermon prays for personal revenge or success in wickedness. I do think there is another application to this passage of Scripture that could apply to us. I refer to the practice of doing Christian things, like praying and reading the Bible, yet not applying ourselves to Christian living. I refer to hiding from our responsibilities in life by pretending to apply ourselves to holiness. You have heard the saying that someone is so Heavenly minded he is no earthly good. I think it is possible to be that way, and to be so intentionally. There is a story line that has many variations in details, but always the same point. It tells of a minister who works diligently on his sermons, studies his Greek and Hebrew, memorises Bible passages, ensures that he understands every point of doctrine correctly, and spends hours each day in the Bible. Yet, while doing these good things, he neglects his church and home, so his congregation and family fall apart. In other words, his faith has become disconnected from his life. Like the gurus of some of the other religions, he is trying to retire from life. Instead of going to a mountain in Tibet, he retires to his study, but the same principle motivates him and the monk. He fails to love and support his wife. He fails to guide and teach his children. So they grow emotionally distant from him, and even angry at him. One day, the children grow up and leave physically as they left emotionally years earlier. One day he notices that his wife is just a person who lives in the same building, as though they were strangers in the same motel. The spiritual climate of the church declines, because the people are not taught that doctrine and life are as vitally connected in the Church as oxygen and blood in the body. And the minister, call him The Reverend Good N. Tentions, begins to realise he should have spent more time in the family room and less time in the study, and more time showing the Christian life to his congregation by example and less time writing scholarly papers about it. In other words, he should have put more of his faith to use in life.

This story is very flexible. We can take Reverend Good N. Tentions out and replace him with Mr. I. M. Bossy, a hard driving supervisor at work who neglects church and family to make more money. Or Mrs. Sue Per Christian, who is always bragging her prayer life or arguing about doctrine. Whatever name gets placed in the story, I pray it will not be yours, or mine.

+Dennis Campbell

Bishop, Anglican Orthodox Church Diocese of Virginia

Rector, Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church

Powhatan, Virginia

www.HolyTrinityAnglicanOrthodoxChurch.org

www.lifeinthescriptures.blogspot.com

Rev Bryan Dabney of Saint John’s Sunday Sermon

Sermon for First Sunday in Lent

In the Gospel for today we find our Lord being tempted by our adversary in the wilderness. The Synoptic Gospels have this account in some form with St. Mark’s account (1:12-13) having the fewest details, while St. Luke’s (4:1-13) contains the most. St. Matthew’s account falls in between (4:1-11) the others and is closer in content to St. Luke than to St. Mark. It should be understood at the outset that each gospel writer was given of the Holy Ghost to record only those items which they were to inscribe and this accounts for their variations.

But that has not deterred the various critics of Scripture from pitting the gospel writers against each other in hopes of convincing as many souls as they can that God’s word is nothing more than a vague and contradictory religious text. For if they can win the “conversation” on the origins of Scripture— that they are nothing but the specious impressions of a group of closed-minded individuals from long ago— then they can offer other more “rational” or “appealing” interpretations of the Bible to suit their particular lifestyle choices and beliefs. Of course, our adversary, the devil, is behind these so-to-speak “learned scholars” because he is in the business of casting doubt on God’s word. One need only consider his subtle question to Eve: Yea, hath God said... (Genesis 3:1).

The Rev. E. M. Bounds offers us a telling description of the devil’s efforts to tempt different people in different times: “The devil’s assault on Christ is in striking contrast to his temptation [of] Eve [or that of Job]. Satan cast no suspicion on God’s goodness...He caused no terrific consuming sorrow as he did [for Job]. Instead, everything was friendly, sympathetic and inviting.” If the devil is anything, he is slick. He knew that he was dealing with the only begotten Son of the Father. He likely wanted to see just what the Son would do now that he was clothed in a mortal body. At what he thought would be the weakest moment, Satan sought to blemish the Lamb of God and thus prevent him from serving as that holy and acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the world.

The three temptations of Christ in the wilderness proved to Satan that he would not be an easy mark. Now let us examine each temptation in turn. Once again, we will turn to the Rev. E. M. Bounds for his observations on this subject. Bounds said that the conflict in the wilderness revolved around three points:

1. Fleshly

2. Presumptuous

3. Worldly.

In the first, Bounds noted that the devil approached our Lord, “with an air of concern. How innocent is [his] suggestion that Jesus use his power to relieve his hunger! What could be more permissible than to use his spiritual power for physical purposes? Whenever faith is used to serve the natural, the source is always evil...The devil’s main business— to materialize religion, to get man to live for bread alone, to make earth bigger than heaven, to make time more intriguing than eternity... It is a struggle between God’s religion and the devil’s religion.” And our Lord’s response was straight out of the Scriptures , It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Deuteronomy 8:3).

In the second temptation, Satan sought a display of godly power. He was expressing the mean view of unregenerated men who might have said, “I mean, if you are the Christ why not show me something of your abilities like tempting God to help you if you cast yourself from a building?” Bounds noted that, “Satan used all the methods of sensational and abnormal religious practices. He tempted Jesus to take the shortcut by which the principles of genuine faith are set aside and superficial substitutes are brought in to make faith more attractive and popular. Presumption seeks to take man-devised methods, which are easy, sentimental and material instead of God’s lowly way of godly sorrow, strict self-denial and prayerful surrender.” God did not intend for Satan to chalk up an easy victory in the wilderness over his Christ. And God the Son did not succumb in his mortal flesh for note his reply again from Deuteronomy (6:16), It is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

The third temptation of Christ is the one which every unregenerate person desiring power would blindly accept. Satan is the god of this world (II Corinthians 4:4) and he offers its power and pleasures to whom he wills with one important proviso. Examine St. Luke 4:5-7, And the devil taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And...said unto him, all this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will give it. If thou wilt worship me, all shall be thine. Bounds said of this temptation, “the world with its kingdoms and its glory... are the rewards for devotion to Satan and worship of the devil... How [he had] massed all of his forces! Religion invoked. The world and the flesh conspired under Satan’s power, to tempt the Son of God.” But our Lord did not fail. His response was plain, simple and scriptural (Deuteronomy 6:13), Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. At that moment, Satan left him and angels came and ministered unto him.

Thankfully, our Lord Jesus Christ overcame the world, the flesh and the devil, and so this event was set forth within the scriptures for not only our eternal good, but to give glory to the Godhead because he cannot be triumphed over by the evil one. The devil sought to impugn the word of God in his encounters with Eve, and Job. Still, winning against mortals is one thing; but there has not been, nor ever will there be, a victory by Satan over the Godhead.

So what should we take away from our gospel lesson today? Since our Lord is a conqueror, we are as well through faith in his blood. St. Paul reminds us concerning the temptations we face in this life that, There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (I Corinthians 10:13). The temptations of our Lord highlight the current spiritual war we are involved in every moment of every hour of every day; and until our Lord returns for us, his church, we will have to face many trials and temptations perpetrated by our adversary. What we can count on, as Christians, is the strong arm of the LORD to sustain us and help us through those times for as our Lord Jesus said to close the Gospel of St. Matthew, and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world(St. Matthew 28:20).

Let us pray,

ATHER God, assist us in this our spiritual warfare; that we being so guided and governed by the Holy Ghost, will avoid the temptation and snare of sin and claim that victory which thy Son claimed not only in the wilderness but at the cross; for this we ask in his name, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Have a blessed week,

Bryan+

[1] Ash Wednesday - The first day of Lent;

[2] Lent - A fast of forty days, beginning with Ash Wednesday and continuing till Easter, observed by some Christian churches as commemorative of the fast of our Savior. [1913 Webster] a period of 40 weekdays from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday [syn: {Lententide}]

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