Twentieth Sunday after Trinity - Propers with explanation – Rev Jack’s Sermon– With Video

Rev Jack brings the Propers together today.    His sermon is below the propers and can be viewed on video here -> https://youtu.be/STLJ3NI7128

 

 

Rev Jack brings the Propers together today.   The Collect, Epistle and Gospel tie together, laying out, detailing and reinforcing the same message ultimately. We have to be ready and willing to listen to God, and walk with God, and act with the Holy Spirit in us, in order to have the right “clothes” to enter into the kingdom of heaven.  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?  The time to act is NOW. Will you act? For whom will you act? Will you count the cost before you act?  Action, not diction, is what counts. It is by your actions you are known.  Be of God - Live of God - Act of God

The Propers for today are found on Page 217-218, with the Collect first:

 

Twentieth Sunday after Trinity

 

The Collect.

 

O

 ALMIGHTY and most merciful God, of thy bountiful goodness keep us, we beseech thee, from all things that may hurt us; that we, being ready both in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things which thou commandest; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 

The Epistle for today came from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians beginning at the Fifteenth Verse of the Fifth Chapter.  “… the days are evil.  … understand… what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; …” God wants us to be happy, to be good and to enjoy life.  The key to happiness is to do what God asks of you.  No more (you can’t), no less.  Though you fall short, keep trying, that is all God asks.   If you find this no other place, listen to the words of St. Paul.

 

S

ee then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

 

Today’s Holy Gospel came from the Twenty-Second Chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew beginning at the First Verse.  Talking to the priests and scribes, Jesus told one of the wedding parables, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.  Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then” he sent “his servants … into the highways” to “gather… together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding-garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding-garment?[1] And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.

 

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esus said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding-garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding-garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.

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[1] In that day, the giver of such a feast would have provided wedding garments for those who traveled far and were unable to bring one.  In our case, Jesus provides the appropriate garb to those who will wear it, not just accept it and put it to one side.

Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and Action

Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California

Today’s sermon tied the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and talked, as is oft the case, of the need for action, not simply diction.

 

Rev Jack’s sermon is available on video RIGHT HERE.

 

Consider the words of the Collect, “…God … keep us … from all things that may hurt us; that we, being ready both in body and soul, may cheerfully accomplish those things which thou commandest …”

 

The Collect asks God to keep us from things that are bad for us and make our hearts ready so we can do the things He wants us to do; this ties perfectly with the Epistle and Gospel as it always does.  The message of the Collect, the Epistle and the Gospel can be summarized by Stay away from things that will harm your spiritual and physical health and do things good for your health and be spiritually aware of what is going on.

 

One word that intrigues me from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is “circumspectly”; which when I looked it up meant “wary and unwilling to take risks.”  I believe Paul meant today we should not be taking risks with our faith, but walking in that which has been tried and true for over two thousand years. He means we should not compromise our belief in the Gospel. There are some things we can compromise on safely in this life, but our faith is not one of these things. There are too many churches these days that are compromising the integrity of their faith. They care more about quantity of parishioners than quality. They thus make compromises on uncompromisable theology such as Jesus being the Son of God, and the savior and nobody can be saved but by Him. These churches try and claim there are many roads to God when there is only one road to God, that paved by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We must not become like these churches, but we must be the faithful who have stuck with the same theology as the churches for the past two millennia.

 

Indeed, we must not change our position; if it is truly derived from His Holy Word, then it should never change. If a minister or bishop’s position conflicts with Scripture, then you know they are not in line with His Word and is not a fellow believer. We must all strive to be in congruence with His Word. We are all working together in His Church to further His Cause. If we are not all on the same page, then we are not furthering His Work. We have to all work together to spread the Gospel, each person contributes to the much larger picture of spreading the Gospel. One person alone may not make a ton of progress but many people working together to spread the Gospel will make a lot of progress. If we are working together there is no limit to what we can accomplish for God!

 

Paul in his Epistle warns us not to drink to excess, but to keep it in moderation. In moderation it can be a good thing. Over moderation, it can become very harmful for us. He does not mean never to drink wine, as some, (Puritans and certain Baptists, among others) would take, but rather have “moderation in all things”; which is a similar idea Paul expresses in 1 Corinthians 6:12, All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.  We have to learn how to keep our wants in check to reasonable qualities, else we may find ourselves in a world of hurt or worse death. He is not saying not to have fun, but to be reasonable about the fun and never over do anything. 

 

Our Lord wants us to be moderate in our celebration, not celebrating to the point of excess where bad things can happen to our bodies and our minds; but celebrating to where we are thankful to Him for all things, and for His Love.

 

This is the unifying theme of both the Epistle and the Gospel for today. Keep everything we do in moderation and avoid excesses in anything.  Rather than turn to the excesses of this world, Paul says we must turn to God and be filled with His Grace of the Holy Spirit; making joyful noises to the Lord, be it in prayer or song while giving thanks always for all things to God. 

 

The Gospel’s theme is everybody is invited to God’s great feast and or wedding party (heaven) but if you do not have the right clothes (the Holy Ghost’s presence in your heart) then you will not be allowed to enter. In Jesus’ time here on earth, the person who threw a wedding provided the special wedding garment to take the place of the guests’ clothes filthy from travel.  So, then and now God provides the Holy Ghost for our hearts to take His place in our hearts dark and filthy from this life and make to present as acceptable before Him.

 

Just like if somebody shows up to a black tie event wearing a Hawaiian shirt and shorts, if we are not up to God’s Holy Dress Code, then we will not be able to make it into heaven. How do we get His Dress code? Simple, we have to let the Holy Ghost into our hearts and read and digest His Word. Scripture will tell us how to act and be allowed into the feast.

 

How often are we thankful to God for letting us join His Feast? More often than not we seem to forget who made us, who created the world we dwell in, who created the fantastic beasts on land and in the sea. It seems very strange we forget to thank God for all of these things, but we do. We most constantly remind ourselves to be thankful to Him for creating us and this Earth and allowing us to see another day here on Earth. Making a joyful noise unto the Lord is part of how we can do this, besides prayer and thanksgiving. Be it through songs, happy declarations to the Lord or joyful worship, we can send our joy unto our Lord.  This is part of the reason it is important to say prayers like the Gloria in the prayer book with “liveliness”, we are expressing our praise and thanksgiving unto God, for having sent His Son down to save us from our wicked selves. 

 

In our lives, we should be grateful to God more than we are. We are too often not thinking of God’s role in our lives and only thinking of our own. I can identify this. We have to widen our view to think of what God has done for us in our lives and appreciate and thank Him for it. We have to turn away from that temptation, and let the Holy Spirit in and guide us to thanking God for what He has done for us in our lives. 

 

The Collect, Epistle and Gospel tie together, laying out, detailing and reinforcing the same message ultimately.  We have to be ready and willing to listen to God, and walk with God, and act with the Holy Spirit in us, in order to have the right “clothes” to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

 

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?

 

The time to act is NOW.  Will you act?  For whom will you act?  Will you count the cost before you act?

 

Action, not diction, is what counts.  It is by your actions you are known.

 

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God

Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity - Propers with explanation – Rev Jack’s Sermon– With Video

 

Rev Jack brings the Propers together today.    His sermon is below the propers and can be viewed on video https://youtu.be/U6VF0-lVqos

 

In the Collect, we acknowledge without God’s guidance, we are unable to please Him. We ask that His grace to allow us to accept the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost’s guidance for our thoughts and actions. In his Epistle, Paul tells us that if we are to be Christians, we must act as Christians. We cannot of our own volition be truly good, with God’s help we can work our way towards there. If we are truly Christians, then our actions will be as a consequence of those of a Christian.   And, in the Gospel, Jesus deals with scribes and heals a man sick of the palsy.

The Propers for today are found on Page 215-217, with the Collect first:

 

The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.

 

The Collect.

 

O

 GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

The Epistle for today came from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the Fourth Chapter, beginning at the Seventeenth Verse.  Typical of Paul, he uses a spiral argument with a seemingly confusing structure to further instruct the people on how to become the New Man.  Our nature is not good, but rather straying from good.  We have to work at good, by ourselves good is not attainable, but through Christ, we can attain good.  Paul asks us to lie no more, particularly to ourselves, but rather to “speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.”  If we are angry, we must “let not the sun go down upon our wrath.”  We should not live off others, but rather, “labour, working with our hands the thing which is good, that we may have to give to him that needeth.”  Speak good, speak that others might learn.  Put away ill feeling, give in to God and be “kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”  God wants us to be happy, to be good and to enjoy life.  If you find this no other place, listen to Paul’s words.

 

T

HIS I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

 

Today’s Holy Gospel came from the Ninth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew beginning at the First Verse.  Jesus came upon “a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.”  Present were scribes of the temple.  They thought to themselves., “This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house.  Sometimes we are tempted to view the troubles of this world as the only issues we have to confront.  Surely the trouble we have here pales to that we have if we make the wrong choices here and end up in the pit.  Many can heal the palsy; only through Jesus can our sins be forgiven.  In this case, the sins were forgiven and the problems of this earth resolved.  The power of Jesus was again made manifest.

 

J

esus entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

 

Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and Action

Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California

Rev Jack’s sermon can be viewed on video RIGHT HERE.

 

Today’s sermon tied the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and talked, as is oft the case, of the need for action, not simply diction.

 

Consider the words of the Collect, “…without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts …”

 

The collect continues on the theme from last week, that without God’s mighty help through the Holy Spirit, we are not able to understand what we need to do to be one with God, to follow His Will; we need Him, through the Holy Ghost, to direct us in our endeavors, beliefs and understanding. We cannot be successful without the help of the Holy Ghost.

 

This theme is continued and amplified in the Epistle, where Paul writes to the Ephesians, Chapter 4, Verse 17: Yet henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened and alienated from the life of the God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.

 

Paul basically is saying we should not do as the world does and look into ourselves for guidance in our spiritual lives. If we look to ourselves for inner guidance, nothing good will come out of it. In short, we will be separated from Him for all eternity. We obviously do not want this, so we must look to Him for guidance.Without the help of the Holy Ghost, we will be spiritually blind. We need the Holy Ghost to help us with our spiritual vision. Make no mistake, that fixed gulf is very real. There is a way to avoid this fixed gulf; accept His spiritual help and guidance and to let the Holy Ghost into our lives. 

 

To do that, we must openly accept Him into our hearts and let Him guide our thoughts and actions. This follows the collects words of “Without thee we are unable to please thee”, showing we do need Him in our hearts in able to serve and please Him.  This process begins by allowing His guidance to enter into our actions and to make His Way our way, so that we are in alignment with what He wants us to do here on Earth. We are making His picture of the world our Picture, and so we act as He would have us act to align ourselves with His Picture. Saint Paul tells us we must begin to live our lives anew, to leave off the old sinful ways and thoughts of our old lives, to reboot as it were, and to start afresh by being honest, not prone to anger, work hard, to think, speak and act kindness and to forgive as you would have God forgive you. 

 

In short, we are to act on His Instructions, then our lives will change as the natural result of doing what we are supposed to be doing. And our lives will most certainly change for the better if we act and continue to act on His Instructions.  Simply saying you believe changes nothing.  Change your actions and your heart must in the end follow, with the help of the Holy Ghost.  We have to actually change to follow His Word in order for improvement to appear in our lives.  Your heart will be renewed through the entrance of the Holy Ghost.  This will show up a little later on, but it is an important message which bears repeating. It is the same with many changes you need to make in your life, you have to make them, not just say you are going to make them. In other words, to perform the action and not just say you are going to. Many people never get past the stage of saying they will perform the action, but we need to go farther and actually do the action. 

 

To be successful, Paul says we need to fix ourselves upon the guiding lights of Christ and God and not use ourselves for a moral compass. For if we use our sense of direction, we shall not get far and indeed we will be in much distress, though we would not think it due to our easily corruptible minds. I we rely on Christ as our navigator, He shall never fail us in His directions, if we will but listen to him. He, unlike us, will never let us down or withhold anything that we need to know; the catch is we have to be willing to listen to Him. We have to know He truly knows the way, and that without following His guidance, we cannot have any hope of finding the way on our own. We need to remember this in good times and bad and to always trust in God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost and do our best to follow their instructions to the best our abilities.

 

Paul also gives very practical and simple, though hard to follow, directions on living our lives:

 

·      Be honest;

·      Avoid anger;

·      Do not let anger linger over night;

·      Follow not the guidance of the devil;

·      Quit stealing;

·      Work hard;

·      Think kindness;

·      Speak kindness;

·      Act kindness;

·      Forgive as you would have God forgive you, which He hath done in Jesus Christ!

 

These are all fairly common sense concepts that when we utilize them become wonderful human beings and members of the Church.. While there may be hardships here, if we but hold fast to these principles which Saint Paul gives we will find they not only benefit ourselves, but they will help the people around us.  And that is what is so wonderful about living life in accordance with the Scriptures.  That is what the Gospel is about, spreading the Good News and helping the people around us to become better people and followers of God.  When we help others improving in our corner of the world, gradually as the work of the Spirit spreads, more goodness will help improve further corners of the world. It is always a work of constant improvement. We will never full 100% get there in our lives, but if we never give our best attempt we will never get anywhere. So let us do our best to improve and follow Him and not just say we are doing our best. 

 

We move on to the Gospel, where Jesus, attending to a sick man, picks up on the evil thoughts of the temple scribes, who think to themselves Jesus blasphemed.  The reason they are thinking that is that they have allowed darkness in their hearts, like the vanity of the Gentiles minds Paul talked about, which prevented them from seeing the truth of the person of Christ. Anyone who is a true Believer would know that God never blasphemes.  Then He asks them, which is easier, to forgive the sins or to have the man “Arise and walk”? Jesus is making the point that words are nice, but actions are what really produces fruit in the end. We could talk about spreading the Gospel all day long, but if we never actually go out and do it, it means little.

 

As always, Jesus’ words are important, but only as His actions always match those words. Jesus doesn’t just talk to hear himself talk, unlike some of the more modern “Christian” television preachers.  He talks to make a point and acts in accordance with the point He makes. If we believe His commandments, we will keep them, which means our behavior, our actions, will match His Words.  The book Acts of the Apostles, isn’t “Meditations”, “Philosophies” of the Apostles, but Acts.  Jesus puts forth emphasis on “Actions speak louder than words” through his actions. Actions truly show where a person’s heart is set. Words do not reveal much about a person’s character alone, you need to look at their actions to see where their heart truly lies. They may profess to be a member of Our Lord’s church, but if their actions do not match his profession then we shall clearly know he is not truly our Christian brother. 

 

Therefore we must make sure our actions match our claimed beliefs in Scripture. If our actions do not match the Scriptures, we are not truly following Christ. Thus we must realign ourselves so that our actions will match Scripture. We will all struggle with this from time to time, but as long as we return to Christ with true repentant hearts, all will be fine with our souls.

 

If we profess to be Christians, then we need to act like Christians, not just say we are Christians.  The ending sentence at the end of the sermons I have given thus far goes, “Be of God”, “Live of God” and finally, last but especially not least “Act of God.” We have to Be of God, and Live of God, to live our lives in a Godly and Christian way, which means as Paul said “Henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk”, so should we not walk in the ways of the world but that of God and His Heavenly Kingdom. Our actions which make up our lives need to be in alignment with the principles of Scripture and need be clearly seen. If our lives are not in alignment with Scripture, then we are not living the faith as God has called us to do.  

 

To Act of God, we must follow the commandments of Christ and act according to them, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. If we actually follow the three step process “Be of God”, “Live of God” and “Act of God”, we will find ourselves in a much better position than walking in the ways of the World. 

 

The time to act is NOW.  Will you act?  For whom will you act?  Will you count the cost before you act?

 

Action, not diction, is what counts.  It is by your actions you are known.

 

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God

Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity - Propers with explanation – Rev Jack’s Sermon– With Video

 

Rev Jack brings the Propers together today.    His sermon is below the propers and can be viewed on video RIGHT HERE.

Rev Jack brings the Propers together today.   The Collect introduces a word you may not really be familiar with, that is GRACE.   In the Collect, we aske for God’s grace to withstand the temptations of the world the flesh and the Devil, most of the temptations of the world seem to be in our own hearts.   In his Epistle, Paul tells us he thanks God for the grace given to us through Jesus Christ that we might follow Him to the best of our ability.   And, in the Gospel, Jesus provides both a summary of the law and confounds the Pharisees.

The Propers for today are found on Page 214-215, with the Collect first:

 

The Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity.

 

The Collect.

 

L

ORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

The Epistle for today came from Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians beginning at the Fourth Verse of the First Chapter.   Paul tells the people of Corinth he thanks God they have been the beneficiaries of His Grace, that through Jesus they might have salvation, that through Jesus their sins would in the end be forgiven.  He also pointed out that if they would follow Christ in both their words and deeds, as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in them, through their actions, they would be “In every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge…”  For by acting on Christ’s words, we not only gain entry in to heaven, but are far more likely to prosper here on earth.  This prosperity is not the mega wealth sometimes associated with “prospering”, but rather the surplus of resources over our worldly desires and the true happiness that comes from loving and helping others. 

 

I

 THANK my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; that in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge; even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Today’s Holy Gospel came from the Twenty-Second Chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew beginning at the Thirty-Fourth Verse.  Pharisees who had heard how Jesus confounded the Sadducees, feeling they were superior to the Sadducees, came together to confound Him.  An expert in the law, of which Pharisees were very fond, asked Him a question, trying to trick Him, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”  Jesus answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”Thus, He provided the Summary of the Law we hear every Sunday.  The Pharisees made their earthly living by providing guidance on how to get around the 613 Mosaic Laws with as little inconvenience as possible.  They were astounded when Jesus boiled the intent of those laws down to two sentences.  They were much more comfortable getting around laws than complying with ones that might inconvenience them.

 

Apparently tiring of the game with the Pharisees and wishing to confound them instead, Jesus asked them, saying, “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is He?” They say unto him, “The son of David.”  For the scripture is clear that He should be of the House of David.  As God, Jesus has been from the beginning, so he queried them, “How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?”  Not grasping the concept that God was, is and always will be, they could not answer and “from that day forth” no one would “ask him any more questions.”

 

W

HEN the Pharisees had heard that Jesus had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.  Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and Action

Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California

Rev Jack’s sermon can be viewed on video RIGHT HERE.

 

Today’s sermon tied the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and talked, as is oft the case, of the need for action, not simply diction.

 

Consider the words of the Collect, “…grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only God …”

 

When you hear the word GRACE, what do you think of? 




·  Help;

·  Heavenly dispensation;

·  A gift freely granted;

·  The free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.




The word can be any of these, it comes from Middle English: via Old French from Latin gratia, from gratus‘pleasing, thankful’ and is related to grateful.




In this case we are asking God’s help, for which He charges nothing, except our faith and loyalty to Him, to withstand the temptations of this world. It is impossible to resist the temptations of this world on our own. The Collect notes our temptations come from three different enemies:

 

1. The world;

2. The devil;

3. Ourselves. 

 

We are asking for God’s help to help us resist each of those temptations from those sources.  They are the three sources that will give us the most trouble through the rest of our lives. The devil is constantly looking for ways to derail us from walking on that narrow uphill path towards heaven. The world is also doing the same and of course, our natural inclination as well. We are fighting a three pronged battle. In order to successfully fight that three pronged battle,, we need the  help of the Holy Spirit. We need Him to enter in our heart. In order to have Him in our heart, we need to invite Him in and then once He is in, listen to what He says and then ACT upon it. 




So, when Paul writes the people of Corinth, it is not just them, but us, for whom he thanks God we have been the beneficiaries of His Grace, through Jesus we might have salvation, through Jesus our sins would in the end be forgiven. This is true of all Paul’s letters, his messages in them are not just speaking to the people of those churches, but to us, the wider part of the Church in general.  

 

We are not made perfect by Jesus.  That is a common misconception among non-Christians.  It would be convenient if we were made perfect.  This is an issue which sorely needs to be addressed in today’s church, to combat the misperceptions of the non-Christians. 




People who have the misconception Christians are made perfect are shocked when Christians act less than perfectly; so they just presume the faith is false. Nowhere in the Bible does it say when we become Christians, we are magically made perfect. These people fail to realize Christians are no more perfect than non-believers, as we are all human and all are sinful creatures. We just happen to realize this fact more than non-believers do.  The world is blinded by the riches and cares of mammon and Satan and does not realize we do know we are not perfect and are doing our best to follow God’s word. This is an important reason to have our actions match our diction, so those who are lost may see our example and follow it to Christ Himself. 

 

There are too many Christians who do not have their actions match their diction and these are the ones that non believers see and must presume our faith must be false because of it. This could not be further from the truth. We have to act and have our actions match our dictions in order to show the world that we do have faith in God and Jesus and that even though there are some Christians who have strayed from the path, that does not mean that our faith is a false one. 




Paul goes onto mention that if we do follow Christ in both out words and deeds, as the testimony of Christ is confirmed in them, through our actions, we will be “In every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge…”  We will be enriched significantly by Jesus if we do our very best to follow Him in both word and deed and so will our fellow Christians around us. 




But, not everyone is content to take Jesus at His Word.  After the Sadducees lost their round with Jesus, the Pharisees, feeling they were superior to the Sadducees, came together to trip Him up. However, as we know ourselves, one cannot trick God and if you try, you will fail every time. An expert in The Law, of which Pharisees were very fond, asked Him a question, trying to trick Him, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?  Jesus answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Thus, He provided the Summary of the Law we hear every Holy Communion.  




The Pharisees made their earthly living providing guidance on how to get around the 613 Mosaic Laws with as little inconvenience as possible.  They were astounded when Jesus boiled the intent of those laws down to two sentences.  They were much more comfortable getting around laws than complying with ones which might inconvenience them. 




Apparently tiring of the game with the Pharisees and wishing to confound them instead, Jesus asked them, saying, “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is He?” They say unto him, “The son of David.”  For the scripture is clear He should be of the House of David.  As God, Jesus has been from the beginning, so he queried them, “How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?”  Not grasping the concept that God was, is and always will be, they could not answer and “from that day forth” no one would “ask him any more questions.” They realized they could not trick him with any more questions and it only made them look bad when He answered them.




There have always been and always will be people who want to pick nits with the intent of avoiding doing what should be done, thus making it seems acceptable to do what they want to do.  You can see people every day who fill the shoes of the Pharisees, insisting on complying with arcane and useless rules and regulations while studiously avoiding doing what God so clearly asks: to be a Christian and do as Christ asks us to do.  There are even those in the Christian faith who dutifly nitpick every world written in the Gospel in a vain attempt to find a loophole to get around doing what they are supposed to be doing.

 

People are always going to try to avoid doing what God wants us to do, that is in our nature. We can see this today in our country, as it replaces God with the rule of man. We are to be Christians, not “good”, to do what God asks, not Go with the Flow!  When you think about being a Christian, consider these quotes from GK Chesterton:




·  Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

 

·  The word good has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man. 

 

·  The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people. 

 

·  Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions. 

 

·  A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.

 

 G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)




We are called to a new and different life, we ask the Lord, in His Grace, to lead us and follow us, to keep us always.  Our goal is to do the Lord’s will, not to avoid 613 laws or to replace Him altogether.  To do what is right, no matter how hard that may be and be humble. This is the summary of what the Christian life should be all about.

 

Action, not diction, is what counts.  It is by your actions you are known.




Be of God - Live of God - Act of God