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| The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. The whole AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE! |
Sermon
- Rev Jack Arnold
Church of the Faithful Centurion
Rev Jack is back
from Okinawa, Detachment One is inactive for a bit.
Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle
and Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above.
We are in the Easter Season which consists of Easter
and the following four Sundays, until we get to Rogation Sunday. This is a time we should work on
centering our lives on the central figure in our religion, Jesus Christ.
Consider these words from the
Collect:
… who
hast given thine only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an
ensample of godly life; Give us grace that we may always most thankfully
receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to
follow the blessed steps of his most holy life …
God sent Jesus to be The
Christ, The Messiah, The Savior, The Lamb to be sacrificed for our sin. He gave His earthly Life, He went down
into Hell, that we might be justified before God at our accounting. Not that we might be perfect, but that
we might be accounted perfect at our judgment day. Yet we are not made perfect. We are fallen, miserable
creatures in the pattern of Adam.
Thus we need an example to follow, a pattern for our lives. God gave us that in His Son. Jesus leads us towards God. But, we have a hard time following
Him. Thus, God sent us the Holy
Ghost to enter in to our hearts, to make our eyes see The Way, to let our ears
hear the directions to The Path that will give us eternal salvation and
everlasting life.
Peter notes that throughout His
Life, our Lord gave nothing but good. He was not accepting of evil, but when He
was ill treated, He gave not venom, but healing in return. We are to act to the best our abilities
like the example He set forth for us. IWe have to give not gifts of evilness
but gifts of mercy and kindness. It will be hard and trying, but if we accept
the Holy Ghost into our hearts, we can do these things. We will never be
perfect, but that does not mean that we stop trying. We just reset our compass
and follow the True North of Christ. This is a process that is often repeated
through out our entire lives and indeed as it should be. Through His sacrifice,
we are accounted as perfect, thus we need try our best to be perfect following
His Example. Will we fail? That is certain. Should we thus be inclined to just give
in to evil? NEVER. To quote Winston Churchill, “Never give
in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty,
never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to
force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”[1]
Jesus gave His Life for us
because we are HIS. He made it
very clear that while He was sent to the Jews, God’s chosen people, His mission
was not to them only. It was to all of the people that God made. Remember, God
did not only create the Jews, but He made everybody! Therefore it makes sense
that God would want to save all of us not just the Jews. To say otherwise would
contradict our Lord! Jesus’ mission was to all of us miserable sinners, not
just the Jewish people. Recall, He told them, “And other sheep I have, which
are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and
there shall be one flock, and one shepherd.” He was there not only to bring them everlasting eternal life
and salvation, but to others also.
To US.
We are of His Flock, we are not
strangers to Him nor Him to us. If
God cared enough to send His Son to give His Life to protect us from certain
death, do we care enough for Him to follow His Directions? It is the least we
can do, after a painful death Our Lord endured that we might be free from the
wages of sin. We must do our best to follow Him and He will be well pleased
with us, if we actually do our best as opposed to saying that we are doing our
best. We cannot save ourselves any
more than you can hold yourself up by grasping your own body. But, if we truly are following the
Lord, our actions will be congruent with His will.
We have One Leader. He leads One Flock. His Way may not always seem the
easiest, but in the end it is for certain eternity. It is the best way. He is the One Way, the One Truth and the
source of all that is good. He came to earth to save our lost souls. If we listen to the clear guidance of
the Holy Ghost, to each of who are “as sheep going astray; but are now returned
unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls,” we will gain both happiness here
on earth and eternal life. Anytime we sin or fall short, we simply reboot and
start a new life with God yet again. It is a simple answer to our sins, repent
and do our best to “Go forth and sin no more.”
But, there is more than just saying you believe. You must act on those beliefs to make
them real. Things are getting
tough here on earth. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” (1 Peter 5.8)
And, I might add he holds sway in a lot of public offices. Things are going to get worse. You will need to act for God or for
that lion.
When the time comes, how will you ACT?
It is by our actions we are known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
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