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 –
But where
are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in
the time of thy trouble...
Jeremiah 2:28a
Jesus said
unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
St. Mark 9:23
I am the
bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This
is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not
die.
St. John 6:48-50
This is a faithful
saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners; of whom I am chief.
I St. Timothy 1:15
Holy zeal
and bitter envying are as different as the flames of seraphim and the fire of
hell.
Matthew Henry
17th
and 18th century English pastor and author
If you ever
look about yourself and find that your country is a Goliath, towering over a
small enemy, be afraid. God enjoys letting giants grow, giants like Persia, or
our own country, but he always fells them, and he always fells them with
something small or petty, a stone, or a ragged bunch of impoverished Greeks
with schizophrenic gods. It is a curious thought to consider what God will use
to rein in our present predominate unrighteousness.
Douglas Wilson
20th
and 21st century American theologian and Christian Classical
educator
(Omnibus
I, p. 132).
On Vice
There is
one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world
loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except
Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people
admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about
girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard
anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same
time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the
slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more
unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the
more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.
The vice I
am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in
Christian morals, is called Humility. You may remember, when I was talking
about sexual morality, I warned you that the centre of Christian morals did not
lie there. Well, now, we have come to the centre. According to Christian
teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger,
greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was
through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice:
it is the complete anti-God state of mind.
Jack Lewis
Mere
Christianity
They promise to be good masters;
but they mean to be masters.
Daniel Webster
We must all hang together, or
assuredly we shall all hang separately.
Benjamin Franklin (1776)
Pride
If you want to find out how proud
you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, ‘How much do I dislike it when
other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar
in, or patronise me, or show off?’ The point is that each person’s pride is in
competition with every one else’s pride. It is because I wanted to be the big
noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise.
Two of a trade never agree. Now what you want to get clear is that Pride is
essentially competitive—is competitive by its very nature— while the other
vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure
out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We
say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they
are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than
others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there
would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud:
the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone,
pride has gone. That is why I say that Pride is essentially competitive in a
way the other vices are not. . . . . Greed may drive men into competition if
there is not enough to go round; but the proud man, even when he has got more
than he can possibly want, will try to get still more just to assert his power.
Nearly all those evils in the world which people put down to greed or
selfishness are really far more the result of Pride.
Jack Lewis
Mere Christianity
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. 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 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 or our Deacon Striker.
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 Feasts, 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 today are found
on Page 127-128, with the Collect first:
The Second Sunday in Lent.
The
Collect.
A
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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.
Ash Wednesday.
The
Collect.
A
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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.
W
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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.
J
|
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:
W
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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.
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. I had the experience of
flying our Ercoupe N7543C today. I had to maintain altitude, heading and airspeed
all at the same time. I then looked outside and re-checked my instruments. As I
was flying along, I thought about how these principles of flying could be
applied to being a Christian. The Holy Scriptures are our instruments and we
re-check our progress in the world by the instruments of His Word to make sure
we are on the right heading and not stagnating in our progress as pilgrims. God
is also our infallible co-pilot, always making sure that we stay on course. If
we are good pilots of our future, then we shall listen to God and His Holy Word
so that we might be on course.
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
what 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.
Acting is the key principle, the key cornerstone of the faith of Christians,
and Christ set this example of our faith by doing it, by sacrificing Himself
for our sins on the cross. This was an example of action not just diction.
Action is far more important than diction only. Diction is nice, but it needs
to be paired with Action in order for it to have any sort of meaning.
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
Second Sunday
in Lent
16 March 2014,
Anno Domini (In the Year of our Lord)
The Second Sunday in Lent.
The
Collect.
A
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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.
Ash Wednesday.
The
Collect.
A
|
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.
One great acknowledgment that stands out in today’s Collect for the 2nd 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)
Sir Francis Bacon has said: “A man’s nature runs either to herbs or
weeds. Therefore, let him seasonably water the one and destroy the other.”
The Epistle
1 Thessalonians 4:1-8
W
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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.
Quite often, in discussion with the modern Christian, when the sins of abortion
and homosexuality (and others of modern character) are raised, the response is:
“Well, we have ALWAYS had these sins among us.” This seems to be some
off-handed justification for toleration – a favorite tactic of the devil’s
minions. The fact is that sins abound today that were not even uttered publicly
in centuries past.
Though all generations are wicked and adulterous, we witness in history that
some are far more wicked and adulterous than others. It must be admitted that
it is rare in history to see the level of wickedness and rebellion against God
as we see in the present generation. The notion that things are just as they
have always been is a deception of the modern church as pointed out by Peter:
"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers,
walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his
coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were
from the beginning of the creation. " (2 Peter 3:3-4)
We know, from the very Words of Jesus, that things have not continued as they
have from the beginning. Those who support homosexuality love to argue that
nothing has changed, but it certainly has. The nature of sin has not
changed, but the abundance of it surely has increased. “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that
ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not
yet. For nation shall rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and
earthquakes, in divers places. All these are
the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they
deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of
all nations for my name's sake. And then
shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one
another. And many false prophets shall rise,
and shall deceive many. And because iniquity
shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But
he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” (Matt 24:6-13) It is a sad characteristic of man to always attempt to justify himself
– even in sin.
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, κυνάριον, 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
higher faith in 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 informed of it.
7.
We must
worship God even while we are pleading our desperate cause as did the
distraught mother.
We must give
evidence of our Faith in God without fear of 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:
In Christ
Psalm 142, 1 Kings 8:37-43, Colossians 3:12-17
Second Sunday in Lent
March 16, 2014
I want to start the sermon by reading a
verse that is not in our Lessons for this morning, but is nevertheless
foundationally important to a correct understanding of them. The verse is Colossians 1:2, and the
entire book of Colossians expounds the meaning of it, especially the words, “in
Christ.”
To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ
which are at Colosse.
It is
impossible to escape the fact that much of the teaching and evangelism of the
contemporary Church emphasizes trusting Jesus so we can be saved from Hell and
go to Heaven. And this is a
legitimate emphasis, one that is often found in Scripture. But it never, not even in Scripture,
has received the emphasis it currently receives. Rather than talking about
being saved from Hell, earlier Christians spoke more about being saved from the
power of sin and from the grip of demons and evil things that destroy lives and
families and cultures and souls.
They echoed the thought of Psalm 142, that God brings our souls out of a
kind of prison so we can have Him as our hope and our portion in the land of
the living. I spent much of
yesterday reading very ancient sermons on Colossians, and I saw them make this
same emphasis many times. “From
what monstrousness, from how great unreasonableness, hast Thou set us free”
wrote St. Chrysostom. I think that
if we were to replace his word, “unreasonableness” with, “stupidity” and
destructive idiocy” we will have expressed his meaning well.
I have
noticed something else about the Christians in earlier ages; that rather than a
constant emphasis on going to Heaven, they preferred to emphasise being “in
Christ” here and now[2]. Again Chrysostom is an example, for he
wrote that the entire tenor of the Epistles of St. Paul is that in all things
Christians are partakers with Christ.
We are partakers of all good things, and we are partakers not just with
Christ, but also in Christ. In
fact, we are partakers with Christ because we are in Christ, for we have become
His body. This emphasis entirely
Biblical, for Paul refers to us as ‘in Christ,” or “with Christ,” or as having
“Christ in us,” no less than eighteen times in Colossians alone.
There is
something else about the teaching and preaching of earlier times. It was not so much an appeal to accept
the grace of God, but a statement that God confers grace upon His people, and
this grace places us in Christ so that our lives are “hid with Christ in God”
(Col. 3:3). Being in Christ, or
living in Christ is exactly what our reading in Colossians 3 is about, and that
is what I want to talk about this morning.
I heard an
interesting sermon last week. I
was driving home from Powhatan and I turned on the radio, and a young man, I
don’t know who, was trying to preach about the difference between law and
grace. He said that in the Old
Testament, people were under Law, so they obeyed God in order to escape
punishment and reap rewards.
According to him, being under Law means they earned punishment by doing
evil, and earned rewards by doing good.
This, he believes, is true even down to their eternal destiny, for even
there they either earned Heaven as the reward for keeping the Law, or earned
Hell by breaking the Law and doing evil.
I am afraid the young man does not understand what it means to be under
Law or under grace. Nor does he
realize that those who were saved in the Old Testament era were saved by grace
alone as surely as those in the New Testament era. Salvation has always been by grace, never by Law. It has always been the gift of God
conferred upon His people, never a reward for good behaviour.
So, being
placed in Christ by the grace of God, we are now free to live in Christ. This is accomplished in at least four
ways. First it is accomplished by
belonging to the Church. Here I
refer not only to the Invisible, Spiritual Church, but also to the organised,
Visible Church. The Visible Church, the organizational Church, is the Church
which the “Second Office,” which we read last Sunday morning, says you were
made a member of when you were baptized.
You were baptized into a visible, organised congregation with an
ordained minister and a formal membership. And the more true to the Bible that congregation was, the
more formally it was connected to the Church at large, which we often call the
“Visible Church.” It is important
to note that the ancients, from the Apostles to the Reformers, believed that
the unity between Christ and the organised Church is so real that to be in that
Church is to be in Christ, and to be out of that Church is to be out of Christ. There were, of course false teachers
who erred in other things, and, therefore left the Church to form their own
cults. But it was chiefly after
the Reformation that some, otherwise orthodox Christians, wrongly interpreted
the Bible to mean the Church is only an invisible, spiritual fellowship of
believers, or only a local congregation, instead of a visible, connected
organisation of congregations. But
it is in Christ and in His visible body, the Church, where, according to
Colossians 3:11 all differences between people are erased and we are united in
Christ, who is all and in all. It
is in the visible, organised Church that we are called in one body, according
to Colossians 3:15. We truly are
in Christ as we are in the Church.
Second, we
live in Christ by the means of grace.
I know I say this often, but it needs to be repeated because we are
under a constant barrage of attempts to make us believe we dwell in Christ, or
participate in Christ, or relate to Christ primarily through religious
experiences. Such people are
always attempting to feel something when they pray, worship, or do “Christian”
things. It is the feelings, the
emotions, the emotional experiences that they think is contact with God. But this view puts the cart before the
horse. It makes feelings
paramount, and seeks them above God.
If they don’t get the feelings, these people conclude God is not in that
service, or in that church, or in that meeting. It doesn’t matter to them that the Bible is preached
faithfully and God is honoured. If
they don’t get the feeling, they conclude God is not in it.
But feelings
are not a trustworthy measure of closeness to God. Religious “experiences” can be, and I would venture to say,
usually are spurious. They are
usually nothing more than an emotional feeling evoked by a song or a story or a
personality. I have heard many
people say they felt God move in a service or song or sermon filled with dismal
errors in doctrine and practice.
It was not God who moved them.
What they experienced was simply an emotional feeling, what those who
have gone before us in the faith called, animal excitements.” And, by the way, they have always urged
us to avoid animal excitements in faith and worship.
Third, we
live in Christ by Godly living
What I have in mind here is what the ancients called holy lives and
righteous living. It is what the
Bible calls keeping the letter and the spirit of God’s commandments. This is a point that is repeated
several times in this short book of Colossians, including the part we read earlier. Today’s reading builds on the fact that
we are in Christ. We are buried
with Him in baptism according to Colossians 2:12. This verse does not refer to going under water. It is about being united to Christ by
baptism, such that we are baptized into His death and burial. We are also risen with Him according to
that same verse. This also has nothing to do with coming out of water. It refers to faith, and it means we are
baptized into His resurrection if our baptism was a true profession of Biblical
faith, not just a religious ceremony.
If indeed we have Biblical faith, we have put off the old man with his
deeds listed in Colossians 3:5-9.
And we have put on the new man with the things of Christ we read of in
3:12-17. This is a big part of
being in Christ. It is a big part
of the way we participate in Christ.
We participate in the kind of life Christ lives, and that is like
participating in Christ Himself.
Because we are in Christ, we live as Christ lives and do as Christ
does. We are in Christ as we keep
His commandments.
Fourth, we
live in Christ as the word of Christ dwells in us richly. This is one of the foundational verses
in the book of Colossians. Here
God is telling His Church to let everything He has been teaching us in the
previous chapters dwell in us richly.
Let all the doctrines and exhortations already written fill our being to
the point that they direct our thoughts, attitudes, actions, feelings, and
words. Let the knowledge of
Christ, and of being in Christ, fill and control every aspect of our
being. But the word of Christ is
not found only in the first chapters of Colossians. The entire Bible is the word of Christ, and we must be diligent
to let it all dwell in us richly.
Especially let us, as St. Chrysostom urged, take the New Testament, the
Apostolic Epistles, the Acts, and the Gospels for our constant teachers. Let us seek them as the sick seek
medicine. Let us take them fully
into our beings. Failure to do
this, he says, is like going into battle without weapons, and if we go into
battle without weapons, how can we expect to survive?
Should we
forget about Heaven and simply concentrate on being in Christ here and
now? Never. The knowledge of Heaven keeps us going. Knowing there is a better place, where
all is joy and peace is balm to our souls. It is like the prize at the end of a long and hard
contest. But let us not forget
about the here and now. Let us not
forget that being in Christ delivers us from lies to live in the truth:
delivers us from things that destroy us to live in things that build us up:
delivers us from evil to live in that One who is pure and perfect Good. Let us remember that being in Christ
now is the best life we can have on earth.
--
+Dennis
Campbell
Bishop,
Anglican Orthodox Church Diocese of Virginia
Rector,
Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
Powhatan,
Virginia
Roy Morales-Kuhn,
Bishop and Pastor - St. Paul's Anglican Church - Anglican Orthodox Church
Bishop Roy is
pastor of the biggest AOC parish West of the Mississippi and is in charge of
the Diocese of the MidAmerica.
Second Sunday in Lent
16 March 2014
Ps 86,
142 O.T. lesson: 1 Kings 8:37-43 N.T. lesson: Col. 3:12-17
“Forgiveness, peace and
security; gifts from our Lord Jesus Christ”
Psalm 142. Voce mea ad Dominum.
I
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CRIED unto the Lord with my voice; * yea, even unto the Lord did I make my supplication.
2 I poured out my complaints before him, * and showed him of my trouble.
2 I poured out my complaints before him, * and showed him of my trouble.
3 When my spirit was in heaviness, thou knewest my path; * in
the way wherein I walked, have they privily laid a snare for me.
4 I looked also upon my right hand, * and saw there was no man
that would know me.
5 I had no place to flee unto, * and no man cared for my soul.
6 I cried unto thee, O Lord, and said, * Thou art my hope, and my portion in the land
of the living.
7 Consider my complaint; * for I am brought very low.
8 O deliver me from my persecutors; * for they are too strong
for me.
9 Bring my soul out of prison, that I may give thanks unto thy
Name; * which thing if thou wilt grant me, then shall the righteous resort unto
my company.
In the
psalm we read where the author is crying out to the Lord, both in supplication
and even complaint. And yet he knows that the Lord has his well-being under
control. Even though he is faced with danger and trouble on either hand, the
author knows that the Lord will deliver him. Notice the final blessing in verse
7. (Read)
37 If
there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust,
or if there be caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their
cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be;
38 What
prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel,
which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his
hands toward this house:
39 Then
hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every
man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only,
knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)
40 That
they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest
unto our fathers. (1 Kings 8:37)
This
next passage of scripture, from the chronicles of the kings, Solomon is praying
at the newly built temple in Jerusalem for the well being of his people. He is
very mindful of the disasters that have been brought on by his sins and the
sins of the people. He catalogs the multiple problems that were brought on by
the sins of the people. And yet he doesn’t leave it there. He then prescribes
the prayer and supplications (similar to what we pray at Morning and Evening
prayer) with the understanding that God in heaven will hear us, forgive us and
give to us according to His ways (read in God’s will). Why in His ways ?
Because He knows our hearts and knows the difference between our WANTS and
NEEDS. We seem to think that God does not answer prayer because we don’t get
all our WANTS fulfilled. Have you considered no as an answer?. God does answer
prayer...and no is an answer. Most importantly, we are to fear God, give our
utmost respect to him all the days of our lives.
41
Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh
out of a far country for thy name's sake;
42 (For
they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched
out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house;
43 Hear
thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger
calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear
thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I
have builded, is called by thy name. (1 Kings 8:41)
In the
last four verses here {41-43} in the passage from 1st Kings, we see
what can be called the ‘proto-evangel’. The idea that God is reaching others
outside of the Hebrew people, by using the Hebrew people. ‘They shall hear of
thy great name,...strong hand....stretched out arm(welcoming) when he shall
come and pray....’ Then in verse 43 the whole aspect of the good news is summed
up. “...that all people of the earth may know thy name...to fear thee as do thy
people Israel...” Those who come because of the fame of God , what they had
heard in other lands, these folk would stay and become part of the family of
God. It is still the same today, people come or are attracted to a church group
because they see something different. They see a people who care, a people who
are honest, a people who love one another... those coming to see this are then
also converted because what they see and experience is real. In both Old
Testament passages we read of the bounty, blessings, forgiveness, and security
that comes from the hand of God. Even with the surrounding dangers, plagues,
and problems, God will deliver us from all danger, in His time.
12 Put
on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies,
kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
13
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel
against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. (Col 3:12)
Looking
at this New Testament passage, we now see a culmination of what has been
happening in the Old Testament. A fulfilling of the promises given. We do that
by being merciful, king, meek, longsuffering and humble of mind. We are to be
forbearing, forgiving, both in a present progressive form, in other words,
continually and without ceasing. Why ? Because Christ forgave you (us), so we
are to do likewise. This characteristic of Christ is something that we must
nurture, it must become second nature, something we do without hesitation. Each
day we most become more like Christ. That is a hard thing for us to do and yet
we can, if we day by day submit ourselves to the Cross. If we daily die to
self, the old man who we were born with, to be replaced by the Risen Christ,
who we are to imitate in the most sincere way.
14 And
above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
15 And
let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in
one body; and be ye thankful.
16 Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your
hearts to the Lord.
17 And
whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving
thanks to God and the Father by him. (Col 3:14)
What a
benediction! Look at how St. Paul finishes off this passage with a prescription
of peace, love, wisdom and worshiping of God. Put on charity, love, which is
the bond of perfectness. Let God’s peace rule in your hearts, being called in
one body, the Church. And in this peace be thankful. We are to let the Word of
Christ dwell in us, richly in all wisdom, we are to use the psalms, hymns and
spiritual songs to teach and admonish one another. All this as we sing to the
Lord with grace in our hearts.
And the
final admonishment is to do ALL, both in word or deed, do it all in the Name of
our Lord Jesus and in doing this we will be giving thanks to God the Father
because of the Lord Jesus.
In the
Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen
Let us
pray:
L
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et the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye
are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and
admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of
the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. Amen
✟
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.
Second Sunday in Lent
In our gospel lesson for today (St. Matthew 15:21-28), our Lord was
approached by a Syrophenician woman whose daughter was possessed of an
e il spirit. Her faith in him was such that even when told by our Lord that he
was come to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and It is not meet to take
the children’s bread, and cast it to the dogs, she persisted with the comment:
Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’
table. Our Lord’s response was clear: O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto
thee even as thou wilt. And the apostle then noted, And her daughter was made
whole from that very hour.
In an earlier chapter of today’s gospel (9:20-22), our Lord healed a
woman who had an issue of blood. He recognized her faith when he said unto her,
Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole (v.22). The woman
truly believed that by merely grasping his clothing she would be healed of her
infirmity, and she was.
Another example of our Lord’s healing power was when he heard a group
of ten lepers calling out to him for mercy (St. Luke 17:11-19). He did not
touch them and said nothing more than to Go shew yourselves unto the priests
(v.14a). Of the ten, only one returned to give thanks and he was a Samaritan.
To this man he said, Arise and go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole
(v.19). These events in our Lord’s earthly ministry continue to provide a
message of hope for all true believers as they set forth the power of God to do
good to all who hold a true and abiding faith in Jesus Christ.
Throughout the history of mankind, the devil and his servants have
worked indefatigably against those who held a godly faith. Lucifer has sought
to keep as many as he can from reaching out to God through Christ. How many
others who were standing nearby that hemorrhaging woman, or the Syrophenician
woman, or the ten lepers, could have been healed but were not because they had
not faith enough to reach out for him?
And such remains true today. There are actually persons who claim to be
Christians all the while possessing no real faith in Jesus Christ as God’s only
begotten Son. They may look upon him as a good teacher, or they may refer to
him as “a son of God,” but not the only begotten Son of the Father. It seems so
strange that such persons would even seek membership within a church. They
refuse to accept the truth about Jesus of Nazareth as being the Christ, the
Saviour, the King of kings and Lord of lords. They cannot envision him as such
because they have been blinded by the affairs of this world, the carnal desires
of the flesh, and most assuredly by the crafts and assaults of the devil. Satan
has taken the word out of their hearts leaving them with naught but an empty
space wherein he has dumped a horrendous amount of skepticism and doubt
concerning the things of God.
But there was no skepticism or doubt on the part of those
aforementioned persons. The woman with the issue of blood had reached the end
of the line with the medical practices of her day, and it was only through the
power of the Holy Ghost that she at last came to touch the garment of Christ
and be healed. Our Lord knew the moment she touched his clothing for he asked
Who touched me? of his disciples. They were puzzled by his question because of
the crowd. The woman’s faith in the person of our Lord was enough to heal her
of her malady. She came forward and confessed all before him and he comforted
her and sent her away in peace (St. Luke 8:43-48). And so it was for the Samaritan
leper. His faith in our Lord had made him whole as well. And the Syrophenician
woman who turned to him was also touched of the Spirit to come and seek our
Lord’s mercy for her daughter.
God’s word has made it plain what he desires of us: that we too would
come forward and confess our sins to him in the name of Jesus Christ, and be
healed so that we can go on with our lives, freed from their ill effects. You
see sin— just like the disease which caused that poor woman to suffer for
twelve years— makes us ill spiritually and may even affect us physically. We
know that when we are physically ill we ought to seek some sort of prompt
relief. We will try all the conventional remedies available to us; but if they
do not work, then we may even have to call on a physician for more advanced
treatments.
With sin sickness, we need to go to the throne of God’s grace.
Frederick W. Faber once penned these lines in a hymn (#304, 1940 Hymnal):
“There is no place where
earth’s sorrows, are more felt than up in heav’n; there is no place where
earth’s failings have such kindly judgment giv’n. There is plentiful redemption
in the blood that has been shed; there is joy for all the members in the
sorrows of the Head.”
God loves his own and is ready to forgive and forget our sins and
trespasses if we would but confess them in the name of our Lord and Saviour.
And we ought to lay before him our petitions and trust in him to answer them as
he sees fit. God knows what we truly need. As regenerated persons, we should
understand that there is a reason behind everything that God does, and does not
do. We ought to pray for understanding concerning God’s plans and purposes for
each of us.
The woman with the issue of blood trusted in our Lord’s power to heal
her if she but touched his garment. How often do we pray, “O if I could but
touch thy garment O Lord and be healed of my sins, my illnesses, my failings
and faults? O wouldest thou forgive me and cleanse me, O God, in the name of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?”
As we have seen in our gospel lesson, the Holy Ghost moved the woman
whose daughter was possessed by a devil to approach our Lord on account of her
extremity. I have often heard it said, “that when we are at our wit’s end, that
is where the regenerate person will find God waiting.” He is patiently waiting
for each of us to come to him when all other options in our human chest of
knowledge have failed us. And when he delivers us, if we have any courage at
all, we will confess to him our foolishness of not coming to him in the first
place.
So the moral of our lesson today is this: Go to God with your cares and
concerns, with your triumphs and your tragedies, with your sorrows and
sufferings, and surely, with your praises and thanksgivings for all that he has
done for you in Christ Jesus. Therefore go and seek him as if you wished to
touch his garment, trusting that in that moment he will do for you more than
you could ever possibly imagine. And then be sure to give him the glory and
praise with heart-felt thanks.
Let us pray,
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ather, we call upon thee to fill us with thy most
holy Spirit; that under his influence we would seek thee daily via our prayers
and praises, and that you would, in turn, touch our lives and make of us fit
servants of thy kingdom; and this we beg in the name of our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. Amen.
Have a blessed week, Bryan+
[1]
Sound familiar? Check out the Prayer of Humble Access,
Holy Communion, BCP Page 82.
[2]
I would only comment
that if you have the eternal life that Christ offers, it starts now, not when
you die. If you have eternal life,
you have it now, you live in Christ and you should act like you are going to be
eternally connected with now.
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