On
Point
Someone asked, where do the quotes come
from? The answer is from the
people who uttered them. But, how
did you find them? Oh, that. Some from Bishop Jerry, many from Rev
Bryan Dabney, a few from other places, some from Rev Geordie Menzies-Grierson, but
overall mostly from Bryan. He
always has a few great ones to share. On to the On Point quotes –
‘Charity’
now means simply what used to be called ‘alms’—that is, giving to the poor.
Originally it had a much wider meaning. (You can see how it got the modern
sense. If a man has ‘charity’, giving to the poor is one of the most obvious
things he does, and so people came to talk as if that were the whole of
charity. In the same way, ‘rhyme’ is the most obvious thing about poetry, and
so people come to mean by ‘poetry’ simply rhyme and nothing more.) Charity
means ‘Love, in the Christian sense’. But love, in the Christian sense, does
not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will; that
state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to
have about other people.
Jack
Lewis
Mere Christianity
But speak thou the things which become sound
doctrine.
Saint
Paul
Letter to Titus 2:1
Repentance, then, is the great, immediate,
and pressing duty of all who hear the gospel.
Rev.
Charles Hodge
19th century American theologian
and author
The gospel will not cause peace and agreement
wherever it comes. We are not to think it strange if the gospel rends families
asunder and causes estrangement between near relations. It is sure to do so in
many cases because of the deep corruption of man's heart. So long as one man
believes and another remains unbelieving, so long as one is resolved to keep
his sins and another desirous to give them up, the result of the preaching of
the gospel must be division. For this the gospel is not to blame, but the heart
of man. There is a deep truth in all this which is constantly forgotten and
overlooked. Many talk vaguely about unity and harmony and peace in the church
of Christ as if they were things we ought always to expect and for the sake of
which everything ought to be sacrificed. Such persons would do well to remember
the words of our Lord [in St. Matthew 10:34- 38].
JC
Ryle
19th century Anglican bishop and
author
Our job is to give people not what they want,
but what we decide they ought to have.
Richard
Salent
20th century American media executive and former president of CBS
News
The Republicans do not know the uses of
victory.
L.
Bryan Dabney, Sr.
20th century lawyer and bibliophile
To know what is right and not do it is the
worst form of cowardice.
Confucius
6th and 5th century BC
Chinese scholar and author
The only reason for a government service is
precisely to provide financial support for an operation that is otherwise
unsustainable, or else there would be no point in the government’s involvement
at all.
Llewellyn
Rockwell, Jr.
20th and 21st century
chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute
Ingratitude is the basis of all evil.
Unknown
The principle of spending money to be paid by
posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a grand
scale.
Thomas
Jefferson
18th and 19th century American patriot and president
Propers
Each Sunday there are Propers:
special prayers and readings from the Bible. There is a Collect for the Day; that is a single thought
prayer, most written either before the re-founding of the Church of England in
the 1540s or written by Bishop Thomas Cranmer, the first Archbishop of
Canterbury after the re-founding.
The Collect for the Day is to be
read on Sunday and during Morning and Evening Prayer until the next
Sunday. If you have a hard time
remembering, “Do I read the Collect from last Sunday or next Sunday during the
week?” Remember Sunday is the
first day of the week. There are
also two Bible readings, the Epistle and the Gospel. While they are “lessons”, they are not the First Lesson and
the Second Lesson, they are the Epistle and the Gospel. The Epistle is normally a reading from
one of the various Epistles, or letters, in the New Testament. The Gospel is a reading from one of the
Holy Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Collect is said by the minister as a prayer, the Epistle
can be read by either a designated reader (as we normally do in our church) or
by one of the ministers and the Holy Gospel, which during the service in our
church is read by an ordained minister.
The propers are the same each
year, except if a Red Letter Feast, that is one with propers in the prayerbook,
falls on a Sunday, then those propers are to be read instead, except in a White
Season, where it is put off. Red
Letter Feast, so called because in the Altar Prayerbooks the titles are in red,
are special days. Most of the Red Letter
Feasts are dedicated to early saints instrumental in the development of the
church, others to special events.
Some days are particularly special and the Collect for that day is to be
used for an octave (eight days) or an entire season, like Advent or Lent.
The propers for the Twenty-Second
Sunday after Trinity can be found on Page 220-222:
The
Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity
The
Collect.
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ORD we beseech thee to keep thy household the Church in
continual godliness; that through thy protection it may be free from all
adversities, and devoutly given to serve thee in good works, to the glory of
thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Dru Arnold read the Epistle for today, which came
from Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians beginning at the Third Verse of the
First Chapter. Writing to the
church in Philippia, Paul sends his greetings letting them know he has been
praying for them constantly. He
tells them that the good work God has begun in them will surely continue until
Christ returns to them. Paul tells
them he prays that they will find more and more joy in following the will of
God. Continually reminding people
of the joy of being born a new person, Paul prays that their “love may abound
yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things
that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of
Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus
Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”
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thank my
God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all
making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day
until now; being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: even as it is meet
for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as
both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are
partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all
in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love may
abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve
things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the
day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by
Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Rev Jack Arnold read the Holy Gospel came from the
Twenty-Eighth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew beginning at the
Twenty-First Verse. On the subject
of confession, repentance and forgiveness, knowing the rabbis had ordained
forgiving one’s transgressors three times Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how oft
shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus
saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy
times seven.” Knowing Jesus as he
did, Peter no doubt expected Jesus to say more times than three, but 490 may
have been somewhat more than he expected.
In one of the more important stories in the Bible concerning God’s
forgiveness of us and our obligation to forgive others, Jesus went on to liken
the kingdom of heaven to a king, who was balancing his accounts. He found a servant who owed him, in
today’s terms, a million dollars.
The man had no money, but promised to pay and begged for mercy rather
than have himself and his family sold into slavery as the law allowed to repay
the debt. The king forgave him the
debt and set him free. Upon
release, the man being reminded of his debts, began to attempt to collect from
those who owed him. The first
debtor he came across owed him $10.00 and had it not. The one who had been forgiven cast the $10.00 debtor into
prison. The king found out and
bye, bye.
The quote is - Do unto others as you would have them
do unto you. Not – Do unto others
before they do unto you.
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eter said unto Jesus, Lord, how oft shall my brother
sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I
say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Therefore
is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account
of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him,
which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his
lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had,
and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him,
saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of
that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the
debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow-servants,
which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the
throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow-servant fell down at his
feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the
debt. So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and
came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he
had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that
debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on
thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and
delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts
forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
Sermon –
Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and Action
Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and
Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above.
The
Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity
The
Collect.
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ORD we beseech thee to keep thy household the Church in
continual godliness; that through thy protection it may be free from all
adversities, and devoutly given to serve thee in good works, to the glory of
thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
In the Collect we ask the Lord to
keep His household (that would be us) in continual godliness (that is to keep
Him as our leader and follow Him), so that with His Help we can have as smooth
a path as practical and serve Him in happiness.
Saint Paul follows this same
thought in his Epistle when he thanks the Philippians for their fellowship and
talks about how they in the bond through Christ have strengthened his faith as
a result which enabled him to continue doing his good works for the Lord. In
this same way our friends in the AOC, strengthen our faith as we tell others
about the good news of our Lord and the faith in which we all share. The more we love the Lord, the more it
will show through in our actions and our judgment. So let us keep loving the
Lord, so that our actions and judgment will align with the Lord’s!
Which brings us to the point of the Gospel, in which Christ tells Peter about forgiveness and how we must be ever patient with our fellow humans, and if they are repentant grant them that forgiveness, no matter how many times they might err and vex us. It doesn’t matter if we want to or not, if they are repentant then we must forgive them, regardless of how we really feel. If they are truly sorry for their sins, then God will forgive them. We are not forgiving them ourselves, but informing them God has forgiven them for their sins. We can forgive them for personal trespasses against us, but through God’s power, only He can grant absolution of our sins, not us. I do not remember Christ telling Peter humans have the power to forgive sins, like the Roman Catholics claim they have, but rather that God must forgive sins, but we can tell others that God has forgiven them. It is more of an announcement of God’s forgiveness, then the actual act. God has done the actual acting of forgiveness, but it falls upon us to tell people about it.
The parable illustrates what
happens to those who are forgiven, but yet turn around and do not forgive their
neighbor (in this case, a debtee.) for their sins and have thus abused their
forgiveness from Our Lord, and will find himself in a very poor spot in the
life hereafter. Let us not be like that fellow, but let us forgive our
neighbor, if he is truly sorry and willing to repent and start the friendship,
and turning a new leaf so to speak.
The Collect’s prayer the Collect,
Epistle and Gospel tie together, laying out, detailing and reinforcing the same
message, ultimately. We have to be
willing to forgive others, tell them about God’s forgiveness, and not turn
around and commit the grave error of not forgiving others as God has forgiven
us for our sins. We have to act more like God everyday, though we are not
perfect. If we try our utmost best, then that is all we can do.
Heaven is at the end of an uphill
trail. The easy downhill trail
does not lead to the summit.
The time is now, not tomorrow. The time has come, indeed. How will you ACT?
It is by our actions we are known.
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
- Forgiven and Unforgiving - Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity - 27 October
2013, Anno Domini
The
Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity
The
Collect.
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ORD we beseech thee to keep thy household the Church in
continual godliness; that through thy protection it may be free from all
adversities, and devoutly given to serve thee in good works, to the glory of
thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle
for today comes from Saint Paul’s letter to the Philippians, the First Chapter
beginning at the Third Verse:
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thank my
God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all
making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day
until now; being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good
work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: even as it is meet
for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as
both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are
partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all
in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus. And this I pray, that your love may
abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve
things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the
day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by
Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
This week’s Holy Gospel comes from the Twenty-Eighth
Chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew beginning at the Twenty-First
Verse:
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eter said unto Jesus, Lord, how oft shall my brother
sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy
times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king,
which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one
was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he
had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children,
and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down,
and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee
all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him,
and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his
fellow-servants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and
took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow-servant
fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I
will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he
should pay the debt. So when his fellow-servants saw what was done, they were
very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord,
after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave
thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had
compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was
wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due
unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from
your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
Reading the last part of the Prayer of Collect today, one might be led to
believe that the first aim of the Church is to serve God in good works; but
that assumption misses the central point. It is God’s Holy Ghost that keeps the
Church centered on God’s will and purpose, and maintains the Church in
godliness. Our efforts at ‘being good enough’ always fail of
accomplishment. Only in its dependence upon the Providence and protection
of God can the Church be free from all adversities. It is when the heart of the
Church is centered upon God’s perfect will that it can be devoutly given to
good works. The good works of the Church are the fruit that issues from sound
faith and doctrine. Without faith, we are totally incapable of good works. We
must be God-Like if we are His children. That quality enables us to forgive
sins against us even as we are forgiven.
Paul echoes the sentiment of the Prayer Book Prayer of Absolution in assigning
whatever good work that has ensued from his preaching to be solely to the glory
and keeping of God. The officiate at worship in the Anglican Church does not
forgive a single sin or absolve a single soul of sin. He merely pronounces that
it is the will of God to forgive all who earnestly repent. The arrogance of
Rome has led to the ungodly error of believing that the priest can forgive or
absolve sin. The Pharisees challenged Jesus when He forgave the man with palsy
of his sin. They said, “Only God can forgive sins.” The Pharisees were right –
only God can forgive sins. Their tragic mistake was in failing to recognize
Christ as God Himself. When you think of it, how can a sinner forgive sins of
other sinners – and, of course, ministers are sinners, too? It is reprehensible
that a pretentious minister would ever claim that authority which belongs ONLY to
God.
It is very timely that our Gospel text today will address forgiveness for it is
a component of every worship service, but also of everyday life for the
Christian. So many errors have grown up around the law of forgiveness, and many
are deceived by blind guides who urge forgiveness of every trespass against us
even when the offender does not ask. If a criminal broke into your home and
began murdering every member of your household beginning with your tender young
daughter, would you forgive him with each additional murder, or would you take
action to defend your family by neutralizing the murderer? It is absolute
nonsense to preach, or believe, that we must go about simply forgiving every
cruel act of the wicked. This false teaching has led to a sterile American
church in which no discipline or defense can be possible against the ungodly
among us.
This fact is so clearly and unmistakably brought out in our Gospel text. Peter,
seeking to appear quite pious and proper, asks the Lord: “Lord, how oft
shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?”
Seven is considered a very divine and complete number, so Peter chooses this
number to gain favor to himself. He believes that he is being over-generous in
his charity to forgive. The answer Christ returns is one which most probably
shocked, not only Peter, but all those other disciples listening. Jesus
responds: “I say not unto thee, Until seven
times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Well, this number is
very great, and made up of two perfect multipliers: 7x10x7 = 490. Please do not
get bogged down with counting how many times you have forgiven your neighbor
until you reach this magic figure – that is not the meaning. A talent was of an
enormous value, and every sin is of enormous magnitude. King David says that
his sins were more than the hairs on his head – and David was not bald! “. . .
. mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look
up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.”
(Psalms 40:12) The meaning which Christ conveyed was that there should be an
indefinite and limitless number of times that we must grant forgiveness to
those who seek it. There is a reason for this large number which I will explain
later. If we forgive as many as 490 times, forgiveness will become an imbedded
habit of life (as it should be).
I saw a very
erroneous and misleading quote on Facebook the other day which showed a large
man pointing at his young child and saying: “You must forgive everyone their
sins whether they ask for it or not!” What a lie from Hell. This idea is not
Godly and nowhere found in Scripture. Jesus uses a parable of two different men
to illustrate the real nature of forgiveness – one of a King who forgives a servant,
and of the servant who does not forgive.
Before getting into this account of the King and the ungrateful servant, let us
consider, seriously, the nature of forgiveness that God has granted to you.
When you fully confirmed, or accepted, Christ as your Lord and Savior, you
prayed for forgiveness of all of your sins. God did, at that very moment,
forgive you of all of your sins – but not a moment before your repentance of
them. There must have been a very large multitude of sins for which you were
forgiven – certainly a number exceeding 490 Since that time, unless you
are a very exceptional saint (an I doubt you are), there have been untold
scores of sin for which you have repented and been forgiven: perhaps scores,
perhaps hundreds, perhaps thousands? More like thousands, I would say. But God
has forgiven you each sin of which you have repented. Now let us look at the
example Jesus gives in the Parable:
1)
The
King and His Debtor:
23 “Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain
king, which would take account of his servants. 24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto
him, which owed him ten thousand talents. 25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded
him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to
be made.”
Who do you suppose the King represents in the above passage? It is, of course,
God. Who do you suppose was the servant? It was Jerry, Bob, Betty, Paulette,
Richard, Donald, and all who call upon the Name of the Lord. We are all a part
of every Word that the bible speaks – either good or bad. There will come a
time when the books are closed and accounting made, friend, of our lives. God
will review our account and decide if our debts have been either paid, or
delinquent. May I remind you that your sins are ENORMOUS! But God’s grace is
sufficient to cover all through the redemption made available through the
sacrifice of His only Begotten Son. Now, I will tell you that ten thousand
talents will not begin to number your sins, or mine. But ten thousand talents
represent a grievous debt of billions of dollars in our contemporary society.
It is a figure that no man can pay. Is there any way that we can make amends
for our sins to repay God for the blood of His Son shed on the cross for them?
Is it not a grievous number of sins? This servant to which the Lord makes
reference had racked up an enormous debt which he could not possibly pay.
The proper punishment for not paying one’s debts was imprisonment and his
family sold into slavery until the debt was paid. Can you pay such a debt from
the prison of Hell? Can we keep the law so perfectly that the King will not
find a debt on our account sheet?
The servant was frantic with grief and hopelessness. There being no possible
means of repaying the debt (of sin), what did the servant do, and what COULD he
do? He had no recourse except that of begging mercy through repentance. 26 “The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him,
saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.”
Have mercy on me, Lord. Forgive my great shortcomings (my sins) and I shall
change. Have you come to the point of knowing your only recourse was to throw
yourself down before the Throne of God’s Grace and beg forgiveness – not from a
priest, but from God? How does the Lord respond to such tears of repentance? 27 “Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion,
and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.” This act of the King
(God) is not exceptional, but made available all whose burdens of sin have
become unbearable. He did not simply grant a probationary release, but a
permanent forgiveness of ALL debt. What a relief it must have been to
have been relieved of such a burden of debt – for the servant, and for you and
me, when we came to Christ! Please note that forgiveness was not granted until
it was pleaded for. How should we respond afterwards?
2)
The Forgiven Debtor and the
Unforgiven:
How soon does the dog return to its own vomit and the washed pig to
wallowing in the mud! “But it is happened unto them according to the true
proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed
to her wallowing in the mire. (2
Peter 2:22) The nature of a dog
and a pig remains the same regardless the provision made for them. A reprobate
sinner may fain the repentance necessary before God. But, his old nature shall return unless he has truly been
made a new creature in Christ.
Did this forgiven servant amend his thinking after being forgiven? 28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his
fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and
took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.” He was
greedy when he begged for mercy of the King, and his darkened heart is yet
filled with greed – a hundred pence was a pittance compared to even a single
talent; but it must be said that the forgiven servant at this point has no
obligation to forgive the debt. That obligation will be made in the next verse:
29 “And his fellowservant fell down at
his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee
all.” Suddenly, the circumstances have changed. The same appeal
made by the forgiven servant to the King is now being made to him. How he
responds will determine his standing with the King (God). Will he freely
forgive as he was forgiven? 30 And he
would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.”
First of all, just as we, or a priest, cannot forgive or absolve sin, so can we
neither condemn any to the same Hell from which we have been so graciously
saved. What abject ingratitude. Once forgiveness is asked for, out of a sincere
heart, we have no choice but to forgive. And, just as God does, we should
remember the debt no longer that we have forgiven. Make no mistake; the eyes of
God are everywhere. His Holy Angels also report directly to Him of every
transgression of man.
31 “So when his fellowservants saw what was done,
they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.”
The fellow servants were more righteous than the forgiven servant because they
were sad to see the injustice of an unforgiving heart. No such injustice
remains secret to the mind of God. 32 Then his
lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I
forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: 33 Shouldest
not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on
thee? 34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till
he should pay all that was due unto him.” God has forgiven us an
immensity of sins, yet we often fail to forgive those around us of a single
offense thought they come begging for forgiveness. God places no higher
standard of forgiveness upon His children than He, Himself, exercises. To be
forgiven of God, we must pray for forgiveness. To be forgiven by men, we must
repent and ask for forgiveness. Then are we required to forgive without number
of times. God compares the process of our responsibility to forgive to be
identical to His. Remember the Lord’s Prayer which too many utter in vain?
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
(Matt 6:12) Have we repeated that verse with true conviction? What does this
mean? Jesus explains it perfectly in the Parable today and in the sequential
statement on the Lord’s Prayer: “For if ye
forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your trespasses.” (Matt 6:14-15)
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:
Christians
Hold Fast
Psalm 71, Numbers 20:14-29, 2 Timothy 11-14
Twenty-second Sunday after Trinity
October 27, 2013
I am
surprised at the increasing nihilism in our culture. I should not be for
nihilism is the natural philosophy of man, but it is such a degrading and
depressing view of life I am surprised anyone can tolerate it. Nihilism
is the philosophy of nothing. It is based on atheism, and states that,
since there is no god, there is no purpose or meaning to anything. There
is no moral standard; morality itself is a meaningless word, for all thoughts
and actions are meaningless. Therefore cruelty and kindness are morally
equal; or, more accurately, without moral value or meaning. In this view
nothing means anything, nothing has any value, except what you can put into
your own life, and that generally becomes a matter of finding pleasure.
That is why we are such an entertainment oriented culture; we are looking for pleasure.
Even though pleasure is empty and meaningless in this view, it is basically all
there is.
The
Bible refutes this view at every point. According to the Bible the world
has purpose, human life has purpose, your life has purpose because God is, and
God has purpose. What is God’s purpose? It is stated well for us in
Ephesians 1:9-10. This is one of the foundational points of Scripture and
we ought to memorise it the way we have memorized other verses of
Scripture. If I say, “John 3:16,” most of you can quote it from memory
immediately. If I mention Romans 3:23 most of you immediately think, “For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” If I mention Romans
6:23, most of you will automatically say, “For the wages of sin is death; but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” But how
many of you can quote, or even state the essence of Ephesisans 1:9-10?
These verses describe the purpose of God, and here it is:
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his
good pleasure which he purposed in himself: that in the dispensation of the
fullness of time he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both
which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.
God’s
purpose is to gather all things into Christ. Some will be gathered into
Him in sorrow. They are the unbelievers, the wicked. Others will be
gathered into Him in joy. They are the believers who have come to God in
Biblical faith. But all will be gathered together in Christ. That
is what God is doing with this world.
That
purpose is manifest, that is, it is revealed and put into action by the
appearing of Christ according to 2 Timothy 1:9-10. The “appearing” of
Christ here refers to His birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection.
By this we have seen the purpose of God. But also, by this we see that He
has “abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the
gospel.” He has abolished the wages of sin. Remember Romans 6:23,
“the wages of sin is death.” This refers to the second death, a living
death of the soul in the hell of eternal punishment and separation from
God. This has been abolished by Christ’s sacrificial death on the
cross. He died the sinner’s death, and now the sinner does not have to die.
Instead, He has brought life and immortality to light. He has revealed
the way of eternal life. He has even purchased it for us. It is in
His cross. He died in our places, and offers life to those who will
accept it. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord.”
We learn
of this through the Gospel, according to verse 10. In one sense the
Gospel is the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It is the whole
story of God’s dealings with humanity from the very start of time to the very
end of it. In a more limited sense, the Gospel is the story of Christ
dying for our sins and gathering us into His Kingdom of Grace. It is the
story of Him purchasing eternal life for us, and giving it to us as His free
gift, which we receive by faith.
Now we
come to the point of today’s sermon; “Christians Hold Fast.” Christians
hold fast to this Gospel of Christ, according to verse 13. That means we
cling to it like a life preserver in a stormy sea. It means we honour and
preserve it as an heirloom, as a great treasure above all treasures. It
is our most prized possession. Christ is worth more to us than all the
world, even more than our very lives. We know the truth of the words that
to gain the whole and loose our own soul profits us nothing. Without
Christ we have nothing. We are thrown back into the nihilism I spoke of
earlier in this sermon. Without Him nothing matters. But with Him
we have purpose, we have fullness, we have hope and joy and happiness and peace.
We hold
fast to the form of sound words. Many say the faith and the Church has to
be re-cast into the lingo and culture of each new generation. We must
speak their lingo, their street talk. We must sing their music and dress
their dress. I fail to see the logic in this. It seems to me that
most of the lingo, music, and fashion of the world is intentionally anti
God. Why would I want to imitate that? I would rather call people
into the forms that have served God’s people for thousands of years. I
would rather call people out of their worldly identity into a new
identity. I don’t want to show the world how much I can be like it and
still be a Christian, I want to show the world how being a Christian is
different and better than the world.
Certainly
we hold fast the form of sound words rather than changing those words to please
people. Paul refers in part to the ancient way of teaching and learning
that prevailed in his time. That method was memorisation. Hebrew
children memorised vast portions of Scripture. They memorised the history
of Israel. They memorised their family history. They did this
partly for education and partly for entertainment. The result was a sense
of connection and belonging in the children. They had an identity and a
solidarity with the Jewish people. The Apostle Paul, as a Jew, had also
memorized much of the Scriptures. He had probably memorized most of the
words of Jesus while he was a new Christian in the Church in Antioch. He
memorized them word for word. To change or omit a word was not
permitted. He kept the form just as the Jewish children kept the form of
words they memorised, word for word.
Paul
passed this form of sound words on to Timothy. Timothy passed them on to
the people and ministers of the Church. They have passed them on to
others, who passed them on to others, and eventually they have come to
us. We, have not memorised them they way the early Christians did, but we
read them in the Bible. We hold them fast.
Paul
tells us to hold fast the form of sound words, “in faith.” This means
first with understanding. It means we know the words and their
meanings. It means also that we believe the words. It means we
believe the Gospel. We trust it. We trust that in Christ we
are clean. Our sins are washed away and we are dressed in the
righteousness of Christ. We believe we are accepted by God, forgiven by
God. We have been made acceptable to God, and God has been made
acceptable to us. God and us are reconciled in Christ.
It is,
as verse 12 says in some of the Bible’s most famous words, “I know whom I have
believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed
unto him against that day.”
--
+Dennis
Campbell
Bishop,
Anglican Orthodox Church Diocese of Virginia
Rector, Holy
Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
Powhatan,
Virginia
Rev Rick Reid of
Saint Peter’s Sunday Sermon
We are happy to have a
sermon from Reverend Rick Reid, minister of Saint Peter’s, whose congregation
is right at the Worldwide Headquarters of the Anglican Orthodox Church. Rev Rick has all the resources and
challenges right at hand. This
sermon is not in the usual expository style common to the Sunday Report and the
AOC, but I think you will enjoy it.
Most importantly you need to
accept forgiveness yourself
Today our Gospel reading
from St. Matthew has Peter asking Jesus:
How Oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I
say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
In Jesus’ day the rabbis taught that people should forgive those who
offend them; but only up to three times. Peter was trying to be especially
generous, when he asked Jesus if seven, (the perfect number), was enough times
to forgive someone. But Jesus answers “Seventy times seven, meaning that we
should not count or keep track of how many times we forgive someone. We should
always forgive those who are truly repentant, no matter how many times they
ask.
A lot has been written on forgiveness, and most of the great Christian
religious leaders of the world believe that forgiveness is the foundation of
Christianity.
Forgiveness is God’s Command, according to Martin
Luther.
True forgiveness is liberating and necessary
for attainment of peace. True forgiveness frees us from the captivity of the
past, and helps us move into a more promising future. In fact, Archbishop
Desmond Tutu said, “Without forgiveness, there is no future.”
Because God has forgiven all our sins, we
should not withhold forgiveness from others. As we realize how completely
Christ has forgiven us, it should produce an attitude of forgiveness toward
others. When we don’t forgive others, we are setting ourselves above Christ’s
law of love. Christ told the
scribes and the people of Israel in Mark’s gospel (Mark 12:28-31):
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this
is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
But, what about accepting forgiveness ourselves for our own mistakes?
If you look in the mirror and don't like the person you see, then you
need to repent, accept God’s forgiveness for yourself, and learn how to love
the person God has made in you.
Bill Cosby once said: People can be more
forgiving than you can imagine. But you have to forgive yourself. Let go of
what's bitter and move on.
As we read in Jeremiah 31:34
34And
they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother,
saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me,
from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no
more.
If you have repented of
your sins, and asked God for forgiveness, then you are forgiven, it does not
work if you won’t take what God gives you, so you must come to realize the
power of God’s foregiveness.
You need to stop
associating your past failures, with your "new creation”. St Paul tells
the Corinthians in his second letter:
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Corinthians 5:17
You've came to Jesus and
repented, but you haven't really accepted the truth about what Jesus has done
for you yet. You still feel ashamed and guilty over your past and you keep
holding it against yourself.
The way you see yourself
is not an accurate picture of How Christ sees you or what Christ has done
for you. It is basically denying the work that Jesus accomplished for you on
the cross!
Satan will always try to
remind you of your past, and continue to beat you up over sins that have
already been nailed to the cross. If you allow him to, he will do his best to
keep you from experiencing the breakthrough that you need to be set free.
Failing to accept God’s
forgiveness for our past mistakes is in essence denying the work of the Cross
and the shed blood of Christ in our lives.
God's Word tells us
we've been washed clean with the blood of Christ and our sins are removed
through the atoning work Jesus did for us. If we cannot accept that sacrifice on our behalf and get
past our mistakes, we are denying what the blood of Jesus has done. It's
staggering to think such a thing, but that is what really happens when we
refuse to accept God’s forgiveness ourselves.
Not regarding yourself
as a new creature in Christ can lead to serious problems for you. You will be
hindered and held back from freely and confidently living out who you really
are in Christ!
You will be hesitant and
feel unworthy to approach your Heavenly Father, because you feel you're a
failure and unworthy. This is why it is vital for your conscience to be
cleansed of dead works, meaning (your past mistakes or failures), just as the
author of Hebrews tells us:
"How much more
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God?" Hebrews 9:14
There is an old proverb
from the country of India that says, "Some men try to be tall by cutting
off the heads of others." They try to make themselves feel better by
making others feel bad.
We have all experienced
sarcasm or a rude remark When that happens, it is easy to forget others may be
hurting or broken, just as we are.
Jesus understood the
brokenness of the human condition. There is no one who knows the human heart
like He does. He forgave tax collectors, prostitutes, and all sorts of sinners.
He forgave his best friend Peter for betraying him. On the Cross he even
forgave the people who killed him. Jesus knows that we humans are weak and
frail.
In his book, Landmines in the Path of the
Believer, Charles Stanley wrote:
We
are to forgive so that we may enjoy God's goodness without feeling the weight
of anger burning deep within our hearts. Forgiveness does not mean we recant
the fact that what happened to us was wrong. Instead, we roll our burdens onto
the Lord and allow Him to carry them for us.
Rolling our burdens onto
the Lord is the key to the Christian life, and it is crucial to learning how to
forgive. Trusting God, depending on Him instead of ourselves.
It's a hard thing but
not a complicated thing. It's the only way we can truly forgive.
Each of us is wounded,
as Paul said, “All fall short.” We
are all inadequate in our own way.
Some days, our self-esteem can hover somewhere between feeble and
fragile. All it takes is disapproval, or perceived disapproval to send us
staggering. These attacks bother us because we forget who we really are.
As believers, we are all
forgiven children of God. We have been graciously adopted into His Royal
Family as his sons and daughters. Our true worth comes from our relationship
with Him, not from our appearance, our performance or our net worth. When we
remember that, criticism will have little or no effect on us. The problem is we forget who we
are! We seek others' approval.
When they reject us instead, it hurts.
By taking our eyes off
God and His acceptance, and putting them on the conditional acceptance of our
friends or acquaintances, we set ourselves up to be hurt. We forget that mortal
man is incapable of unconditional love, unlike our Lord Jesus Christ who loves
us unconditionally.
Remembering our sins are
forgiven should make it easier to forgive others. Forgiveness should remind us
of the great Savior who forgave us, undeserving though we will always be, and
draw us closer in loving obedience to Him
Remember, He wants us to accept His forgiveness and rejoice in His
grace. We must never think that
our sins are greater than God’s love!
Now let’s all rejoice in the knowledge God
loves us, unconditionally and has forgiven us, and so it is His will, that we forgive others, and accept
that forgiveness ourselves.
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.
Twenty-Second Sunday after
Trinity
In our gospel lesson from St. Matthew we learned that God will forgive
us of our sins
and trespasses if we will forgive others for the same. We need only consider
the very words of the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father... forgive us our trespasses.
But there is a qualifier: as we forgive those who trespass against us. Yes, God
will forgive us, but we are called on to forgive one another from the heart.
That clearly means for us to forgive every offense regardless of the number of
times we are wronged (St. Matthew 18:21-35). No doubt, those are hard words
indeed. The tendency for many will involve trying to get back at their
antagonist.
But God would rather have the true and faithful Christian leave the
desire for vengeance with him. If we would possess a forgiving spirit, we will
deny the devil access into our hearts and minds. So it follows that if we would
be effective messengers for our Lord, then we ought not open ourselves up to
demonic influence which will stifle the working of God’s Spirit within us
(Ephesians 4:26- 27).
There are other biblical examples we can point to which validate our
Lord’s command that we forgive our trespassers. Examine the story of Jacob and
Esau (Genesis 33:4-15). Jacob had supplanted Esau as the inheritor of the right
of the first born and, in turn, Esau sought to harm Jacob. Afterwards, Jacob
fled to his uncle Laban’s land for refuge and to take a wife from among his
daughters. Some years later, God directed Jacob to return to the land of
Canaan. God then brought Esau into the mix again. Jacob heard that his brother
was coming out to meet him and he was greatly concerned. But God turned the
heart of Esau from hatred for Jacob to forgiveness. Jacob was more than
pleasantly surprised to discover this when he met his brother. For at that
meeting God’s love for Jacob was displayed in Esau’s warm greeting and
brotherly embrace.
The story of Joseph includes not only his mistreatment by his brothers,
but his forgiveness of them as well (Genesis 50:15-21). Joseph had been sold
into slavery in Egypt by his brothers who hated him from the heart. Later,
Joseph was cast into prison by Potiphar as he believed the accusation of his
adulterous wife that he had tried to rape her. Joseph had been seemingly
forgotten in an Egyptian prison until his gift of interpretation of dreams was
made known to Pharaoh. When Pharaoh was given a dream by the LORD which he
could not understand, he sought out his wise men and priests. But they too were
unable to explain it. It was then that an advisor to Pharaoh — who had been
imprisoned briefly with Joseph — told his master of a man who could interpret
dreams. Joseph was brought to Pharaoh and provided him the message God had
intended for him to know. Afterwards, Pharaoh appointed Joseph as second only
to himself in the kingdom for the purpose of saving Egypt from the approaching
seven years of famine. When his brothers came to purchase grain, Joseph was
troubled by their presence but, he forgave them because he had seen the hand of
God in his life. As he reminded his brethren, Fear not: for am I in the place
of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good
to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore
fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them
and spake kindly unto them. That is forgiveness from the heart!
Our Lord also forgave those who persecuted and crucified him (St. Luke
23:34). Consider his words, Father, forgive them: for they know not what they
do. St. Stephen — the first Christian martyr — asked God to forgive his
murderers (Acts 7:60) saying, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. These
words were offered in the martyr’s prayer as he was being stoned to death. Even
facing death at the hands of a detractor, we ought to ask God to forgive them
and not carry any hatred and bad feeling into our meeting with the Lord face to
face when we “cross the bar.”
Consider Psalm 86:5 wherein it is written, For thou, Lord, art good,
and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.
In the book of Isaiah (43:25) God said, I even I, am he that blotteth out thy
transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. And further
on in the same (55:7) we are admonished, Let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will
have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
St. Paul understood the concept of godly forgiveness. He had been in
and out of prisons on account of the faith and had suffered beatings of every
sort, and was even stoned because of his preaching of the gospel (II
Corinthians 11:24-26). He could well have asked God to strike his persecutors
with lightning or worse. But instead, St. Paul asked God to forgive those who
harmed him. In his second epistle to the youthful Timothy (4:16) the apostle
recounted how no one had supported him against Alexander the coppersmith; but
in spite of that, he asked God that they not be held liable for their lack of
effort. Notice he did not include Alexander in his prayer request because he
had resisteth the truth in unrighteousness. The apostle’s prayer was for those
of the flock of Christ who had not resisted in unrighteousness but had not
stood with him against the unrighteousness of Alexander. Alexander’s offense
was more against God than the apostle. Those who had failed to support St. Paul
had offended the apostle and thus his request that God forgive them. As he
explained in his epistle to the Ephesians, And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath
forgiven you (4:32).
Are you in accord with God? Have you sought from him a pardon for those
who have sinned against you? Are you prepared to let go all hatred, and all
malice against those who have hurt you in any way? If we desire God’s
forgiveness for our sins and trespasses against him, we must also forgive them
who are our persecutors and pray for them who spitefully use us that perhaps
God will turn their hearts as he turned ours. Make it your prayer today that
God will not only grant you true repentance, but that he will also give you a
heart to forgive others. Our heavenly Father desires that we have his peace.
And so if we seek the same, then we must let go of all malice and anger so that
our hearts may be free to contemplate the good things which are before us in
Christ Jesus. May our good and gracious God grant to you such faith that you
will obey his commandments and experience his joy not only in this life but in
the life to come.
Let us pray,
|
L
|
ord, we hand over to you all who have harmed us
in any way, and we also pray for their redemption; that they too might come to
the knowledge of thy truth and be made members of thy fold and flock; for these
things we ask in the name of him who forgave all at the cross, even Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
Have a blessed week, Bryan+
