Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity

If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is 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.  We ask for help to withstand what?  Actually, what we are looking for is help to not follow our own devices and desires.  This seems like an odd request, until one considers the fact that our own devices and desires are the root of all of our troubles. We are naturally inclined to the sinful things that separate us from Our Lord. We are simply requesting help in combating the evil desires of our heart that would separate us for all eternity if they were left unchecked. We are simply asking for help to make His Will our will.  To help us to do what will make us happy and not just what makes us temporarily happy but permanently happy, which boils down to following His Word.. For we know that we ourselves will not do what His Will is on our own volition, but rather we must ask that God plant the seed of His Will on our hearts so that we will do it.




Paradoxically, we are asking for help to do not what we want, but what is best for us. There is a difference between what we want, and what is best for us, as there is a difference between the words want and need. What we want and what is best for us are not necessarily interchangeable.  We are asking God’s Help to make us want to do what He wants us to do, so that not only will we have “fun”, but be happy!  For, being happy is far more important and helps our spiritual lives more than the temporary state of fun. Fun will only last a few moments, happiness will last forever. There is a distinct difference between the two states of being. Fun is short lived while happiness can carry on through periods of time be it days, month or years.  On the surface, it does not really seem all that reasonable, but here we are imperfect creatures with free will! The free will sometimes or rather most of the time seems more like a curse than a blessing, at least to me. For I feel that with it, I am more tempted to go the wrong way than the right way, but when I go the right way, it then comes to me that it is a blessing.

Using it properly to follow God’s will, is what free will was intended by God to lead us to. He intended for us to follow Him willingly without any coercion whatsoever. He wants each and every one of us to come to His throne willingly and with all of our heart souls and mind for Him.




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, that through Jesus we might have salvation, that through Jesus our sins would in the end be forgiven.  We are not made perfect by Jesus.  That is a common misconception by non-Christians.  It would be convenient if we were made perfect.  This is an issue that is sorely needed to be addressed in today’s church, to combat the misperceptions of the non-Christians. The common complaint most non-Christians have of Christians is that we have a holier than thou attitude. There may be some indeed that have this attitude. But for the most part, they are confusing our righteous judgment of the world’s behavior with a holier than thou attitude. But they do not see that we realize that we are not perfect, but we are striving for perfection.  And there would be no point behind Christianity if that we had been made perfect. Would we have to have a “New Testament” if we were molded into cookie cutter perfection? If this was so, then there would be no need for the letters of Saint Paul, James, Peter and John to the early church, for they as us, would have no need of them. If we were made perfect, then there would be no strife in the word today I believe, and thus no reason to even have any of the parables that Jesus gave.  This is simply not so! While we are accounted as perfect before God in the final judgment, we are not perfect at all.  If anything, we are more conscious of our imperfection. 

As a side point, none of us is perfect, none of us is better than others; however, some of us are clearly worse than others. We clearly know more than those who do not believe that we are fallen far short of the goal that He expects from us, being in our fallen state, and we know how far we have to go to as get close to perfection as we possibly can. We need the help of the Almighty to travel on this path!




Which takes us to Paul’s next point; if we 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…”  For by acting on Christ’s words, we not only gain eternal salvation, 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.  It will make us far more happy than say for instance people like Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, etc, that have far more money than even they know what to do with, and money cannot provide true happiness. Only God and Jesus can step in and fill that role, if we let him into our hearts.




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 come out looking like a fool. 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 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. They could be closely compared to Lawyers today as a matter of fact, in the striking amount of dishonesty that is in their profession (no offense to the good lawyers!).




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.” Like I mentioned earlier, the result of their attempt to trick the Son of God made them look like absolute fools.




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, that is to be a Christian and do as Christ asks us to do.  People are always going to avoid doing what God wants us to do, that is in our nature. You can see this as the government attempts to supplement the rule of God with the rule of man. When a group of men believe that they have the right to control other humans with the rule of man and disregard the rule of God, you know that a society is in trouble. Ask Sodom, Gomorrah, Rome, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan how that worked out for them in the end. No country has ever fared well when 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, think a bit about 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.

Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE!

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.

Consider the words of the Collect, “… thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works …”

The first thing to consider when you look at today’s Collect is a word: prevent.  Prevent is a word that has many uses, and at least one has fallen out of general usage as time has gone on.  This is one of them.  In this case the word prevent means to go before.  Before you object to archaic words, consider this is a current word, it just has a use you may not have been aware of and now you are!  What a bonus for this week!

So, we ask God that His Grace, His Love, His Power, His Help may go before and after us to protect us and guide us that we might desire to do what He wants us to do.  Pretty much a re-wording of a lot of the Collects.  Why would that be?  Pretty simple, our biggest failing is we are wont to do what we want!  This is a very common theme in the collects and lessons in the lectionary, for a very good reason. It is is our sinful nature that we have that causes us to want to do what we want. As we are creatures that have free will and are not wont to exercise it for God or good. That is a very dangerous combination, as my father says often.  That is not the same as doing what will provide us with the best result. The difference is that God truly knows what is best for us. And that if we follow what He wants for us, we are guaranteed to have food results in the long run. It does not mean that we will not suffer in the short term, however it means that if we follow God's will for us, then we will come out ahead in the end, when we have eternal life. If we follow our natural inclination, we will not like the end result,that is eternal separation from God.  We are like disobedient children, and God is the ever patient Father. But, from time to time, we will make mischief and or trouble, some of us more than others. God has to gently warn us and allow us to experience the consequences of our inclination to sin, in order to learn not to do it. This is His form of discipline in a way. When bad things happen as a result of our doing, it is not His fault that's it happened, but our fault for not having done what we were supposed to be doing because it was too difficult. Through consequences of our sinful actions, we know that we shouldn’t do it again. We know, often very clearly, what we want. For example, one morning I started to lead the Order of Morning Prayer. My first inclination was to do it without looking at the rubrics. But after thinking a moment, I realized that this was a mistake, as the rubrics are there to guide the minister in leading the service. While I was studying for my WGU degrees, I found that if I didn't adhere to the task rubrics when writing papers, I got my tasks sent back revision. However, when I did follow them, I passed. So I ended up putting the rubrics in a document and writing around them, to make sure I followed them. Like the rubrics, God knows, always very clearly, what we need. But we do not often know what God wants for us, so we have to first pray to Him to find out what He wants, then the most critical step of the communications is that we have to listen to What he says.  He is there, like the rubrics to guide us along our paths in our daily life.  So, we need to ask God every day, every time, for help to do our duty.

So, what does Paul tell us in his letter to us? Once again, he calls us to a new life, different from our old life.  We shed our old clothes, as it were, like reptiles shedding their old skin and put on the brand new armor of light, new helmet, new boots and new everything. A life in which we act in a manner worthy of the better life to which we have been called by Christ and for which He gave His life. We are to act in accordance with the new way in which life, to desist from sinning and to do good things for people and for Him. The part about cease and desisting from sin is one of the most difficult aspects of putting aside ones old life. But it can be done. Paul, formerly Saul did it, and went on to become one of the greatest apostles that served the Lord. So if he can do it, so can we. And it is made possible by the Holy Ghost, who is our lifeline to God our Father. Paul, of all people, knows the importance of setting aside your old life, as Saul did, so that as Paul he asks us to put God first in our lives, to put ourselves last.  He even changed his name to reflect his state as a new man under Our Lord’s leadership. He reminds us, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”  The key to a successful life is to put the important things at the top of your To Do List. And, notice it is a To Do List, not a To Think About or To Wait a While List.  It is not a I’ll Get a Round To It List, or What I Don’t Want to Do List.  What is more important than God? It is all about prioritization, putting God ahead of your wants and desires. We have to make it so that serving God is our want and desire, then and only then are our desires aligned with His. We have to accept the Holy Ghost into our lives to do this, then when we truly have faith, it will show in our actions. Action and not diction is what truly counts in the end. It is a phase that shows up in the sermons a lot, but that is only because it is very true.

When Luke relates the parable of the feast, it is more than just a sitting diagram. I liken it to the tale of the publican and the Pharisee. When Christ talks about the man who exalts himself and sits too high at the wedding and thus must be abased. That would be the Pharisee. When Christ then talks about the man who sits low, and is raised to the higher station, I think of the publican, who smote his breast and would not even look up his eyes to heaven. We have to be the publican in our dealings with God, rather than our natural tendency of being the Pharisee. We should not be one of those selfish individuals who always causes grief for others because he is blind to his own faults and only thinks of himself. Again as with the ceasing from sin, this is one of the hardest things we have to do. But it must be done, no matter how we feel about it. So let us turn to our Lord to help with it, because He alone can help us. He can truly help us, if we are truly willing with our hearts, souls and minds. We have to be willing to act and do actions, and not just say it.  No other expert can help us, no “theologian” or prosperity preacher can truly provide for our needs better than Our Lord. If we do what God asks, we will not become like those people. If we put God’s will before ours, the welfare of those we encounter before ours, if we hold open the door as gentlepersons are wont to do for others, we will find we are doing what God would have us do and enjoying it. And that is the best gift of all, the joy one gets from serving others is true happiness.

It is very possible to do the good deeds and have fun doing them. The week we spent in worship with the other ministers and their wives at the AOC Convention proves this. Doing good things for other people and being with other believers gives me some of the greatest happiness I have ever felt. This comes from the Holy Ghost, from being inspired by Him, around other believers. Wherever two or three or gathered, Christ is there also. It is a wonderful feeling wherever He is.

Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail.  The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.

The time is now, not tomorrow.  The time has come, indeed.  How will you ACT?

It is by our actions we are known.

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God

Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity

If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE!

The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity.

The Collect.

O

 LORD, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

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.

Consider the words of the Collect, “…let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour, preserve it evermore by thy help and goodness …”

When the Collect talks about the church, just like last week, it is not talking about buildings; it is talking about us.   Each of us; all of us and together.  We need God’s help (pity) to keep the group of us together following His Will, for without His Help (Holy Ghost) we are doomed to utter failure.  We can see this in the church today.  Many churches are leaving the Bible used for over 2,000 years and adopting newfangled translations which mangle His Word.  When they leave the theology Christ gave to us, they soon find they are on a broad easy path paved with smooth talking New Age pagan theology.  The problem is that Heaven is at the end of a hard and narrow uphill trail.  The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.  That seemingly easy way leads to the Pit. The way of the easy to read Bibles with their corrupt non Received Text manuscripts is not the way to go. This proves the truth of this collect, that without His help, we are doomed. With His Help, we are set for success for evermore.  He offers, do we accept?

That leads us to Saint Paul’s point:  If we will open our hearts to God, He will send the Holy Ghost to fill our hearts with Love, Courage, Inspiration, Tenacity and Confidence, to mention just a few helpful additions to our portfolio. In short, all of the things that will help our character development. Once the Holy Ghost enters into us, we will know the full dimensions of Christ, the height, width and depth of His love for us, and this fullness will fill us to our content, and we will want to spread that Good News and Love of Him to others.  This is what the truly the Good News is all about, His love for us. His love that He died that we might have eternal life, a happier life here and a happier life after our life here. He offers all of these things for our benefit, so that we will be successful for Him. We have to accept this offer by opening our hearts to Him.  One of my favorite cartoon strips Calvin and Hobbes, oft has great moral lessons.   Calvin’s dad so very often reminds Calvin that doing one’s duty in the face of adversity builds character.  It also strengths the soul building trust in God.  If we will open our hearts to Him, our ears will hear the command “… Arise.”  When we rise, we rise with the confidence of immortals and can conquer any obstacle. We will have died in our  old sinful ways and are resurrected like our Lord in a new spirit and a new birth of everlasting freedom. But, without an open heart, our ears will never hear the command directed to our soul, “… Arise.”  We will be dead to eternity. There are none so deaf as those who will not hear.

Open your heart to our Lord and arise.  Arise; go forth with Love, Courage, Inspiration, Tenacity and Confidence to fight the battle our Lord leads us into.

All Jesus asks is that we follow Him.  That is all follow Him.  But, words mean something.  The word follow is very important.

I have heard my dad say many times in the military fighter world the strongest acceptance and recognition of excellence that can be given is, "You lead; I'll follow."  For to do so is to put your life in the other's hands.  Literally, completely and without question.  It is a matter of putting the light on the star and hanging in there.   It is said by few to an even smaller number.  When you break out of the cloud after an hour of GE-28 Volt burning in your retina and see the runway or pop over the ridge after a half hour of dodging trees and triple A and the target is right there in the reticle, or gunsight, it is all okay.  Sometimes in between, it does not seem like it will turn out that way.  What makes you keep the light on the star is trust.  Just like the Marines in World War II had to put their trust in their squad/platoon/company leader that they would be able to outfight the Japanese for example. Even through the hell of battle, they surely must have felt relief when they were able to finally push the Japanese out of the islands. Like them, we have to trust God to get us through whatever hell the enemy can throw at us. I see this as another aspect of that truth.  The numbers are different in the case of God.  We all (unlikely to happen) need to put our lives in the hands of a small number (that would be ONE).

We need recognize who has the ability, the power, the perfection in leadership and have that trust to say, "You lead; I'll follow." I believe that is what Jesus expects from us in regard to our entire life. We may get out of position or even go lost wingman on the odd occasion, but he expects us to Our very best to follow His lead and stay in position.  Hard to do if your eye is not padlocked on Him.

I might add, as ministers of our Lord, we have a similar responsibility to those who would follow us here on earth.  And we have to work even harder, for created by a perfect God, we are imperfect creatures with free will.  A problematic combination.  We must strive for a correct attitude, heading, stability and predictability in our path so that we can be followed towards that final destination that marks a successful mission. We must always be checking our navigational instruments of the Holy Scriptures and our navigator the Holy Ghost, to ensure that we are following on the right heading. We have to be willing to do actions for Him to show that we truly do have faith and not just say that we have faith. It is a lot easier to say than do, that is for sure.  It is easy to get wrapped up in little words and over analyze each word of Scripture rather than just taking the whole with the faith of a Child and taking the big picture in, rather than a shred of tapestry close in.

When Saint Luke relates the story of the Widow of Nain, it is more than just a simple miracle. 

In those days, a widow with only one son had little, a widow with no son was in deep trouble.  Jesus took compassion on her and also took the opportunity to make His power evident.  He came to the bier, and touched it saying, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.”  The young man arose and began to speak; whereupon Jesus brought him to his mother.  Not surprisingly, news of this event was spread “forth throughout all Judæa, and throughout all the region round about.”  Like the young man, we are dead to eternity until we hear the command “… Arise.”  If we hear and act on that command, we have eternal life, just like the young man, it starts right then! Eternal life doesn't start when you take your last breath, it starts when you take your first breath! Think through your life like it will be eternity and plan your actions accordingly.

Also, please take note Jesus ACTED.  He did not just tell the widow He was sorry, so very sorry; He actually did what He could to help her.  He can do more than we can, but we can do more than we do and we can certainly do more than just talk.  Words are very nice, but do not mean a whole lot unless they are backed by words.

If we truly have faith, then we will have good actions that will follow with that faith. If we only speak with our lips and do not have good actions, then we do not have any faith. However, if we do truly have faith, then we will speak the right things and do the right things.

Action, not diction, is what counts in the end.

Heaven is at the end of a hard and narrow uphill trail.  The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.

The time is now, not tomorrow.  The time has come, indeed.  How will you ACT?

It is by our actions we are known.

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE!

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.

Consider the words of the Collect, “… Keep … thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and … keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation …”

When the Collect talks about the church, it is not talking about buildings; it is talking about us.  Each of us; all of us.  We need God’s Mercy and Grace to keep us from desiring those things that are bad for us and help us to see we really want those things that are good for us.

Speaking of things, just like the Jewish based Christians of Paul’s time, it often seems like everyone has secret rituals, handshakes or hoops they want you to jump through to be really IN.  Paul reminds us that all fall short, and special fancy diets, days or outfits do not change us.  It is only by the Grace of God through our Lord Jesus that we find real salvation.  Our salvation is not based on the ritual, the handshake or even the slice of the circumcision scalpel.  It is based on Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection that we might have eternal life, not some rituals. He does not require for us to have any fancy garb or rituals, only to remember His death and passion that we might be partakers of His Heavenly Kingdom. He does not ask for much, only this simple thing, and that we believe on Him, which is the key to getting into heaven. His Faith saves us, and we have to have faith in Him that he did those things, and act upon that faith.

Our salvation comes one way, by the Grace of God through our Lord Jesus.  It is not through us to decide the salvation, but by God through His Son, who died for our sins. This is what the whole Gospel is based upon. This is the solid foundation, as Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of our faith. We are not Cramerians, nor are we Calvinists or Lutherans, but we are Christians primarily, who like the ideas of Cramner, et al. We should never be idenitified as followers of man but of Christ and God. When one becomes a follower of man, he ends up following the devil in a fashion, for if we serve ourselves, or follow ourselves, we tend up to end up in death, but if we follow Him, we have the gift of life as St. Paul explains “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 KJV)

The problem with the folks that identify themselves as something other than Christian, is that they start to believe on more of the ideas of the person they are following, than the ideas of Jesus Christ and God, whom they are supposed to be following. They get lost in the theological rabbit hole and wander so far back, they’ve gone past where they were supposed to be, and got lost off the narrow uphill trail towards heaven, and on the wide downhill trail towards hell instead.

We alone cannot enter into heaven without His help. We are imperfect creatures with free will, with a tendency to choose the wrong thing at the wrong time. We really need His help to get into heaven, and His help here on earth as well. We also need the help of the third God guy, the Holy Ghost. But in order to have their help, we have to be dedicated to serving God, and not Man.

That brings us to Saint Matthew’s point, one cannot serve two masters.  Like that bad pun, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”  You cannot travel both paths.  We must choose who we will serve: God or the world.  If we chose God, that does not mean that we turn our back on the world around us, but rather that we interface with the world using the Rules of Engagement given to us by our Lord.  We prioritize our actions with Him first.  Our family motto; God • Honor • Country • Family is an example of this prioritization.  First things first.  Build from the inside out and the bottom up.  Do not mistake this motto for perfection, we have erred and strayed from our ways like every lost sheep, probably farther than most.  But we know which way is The Way and keep correcting back on course. 

Prioritization can be as a simple as coming home early on Saturday night so that you get a good night’s sleep and are ready for the Sunday church service.  It can be as complex as leaving a job that interferes with your honoring God, Country or Family.  First things first. God can help you make that decision, but you have to make it, He can’t make it for you. The Holy Ghost will give you guidance on that front, but you will hve to listen.

Through out the Bible we are exhorted to respect God, be honorable, work hard and take care of our families.  If we do these things, following God’s Will, our fiscal standing here on earth will be sound.  Follow these precepts, you will never be lacking, but you will never be inordinately wealthy, “Bill Gates rich” so to speak.  For to do that requires reprioritization to wealth in the first place.  Replacing allegiance to God with allegiance to wealth is a one way ticket to a destination you don’t want. Allegiance to God is a more precious and valuable thing to have, for with it comes a priceless gift, eternal life. Eternal life is a gift that mankind has been seeking for the ages, but has not found.  But Jesus Christ offers that gift to us, as long as we follow Him to the best of our abilitiy.

The last part of this reading is the one we often have the most trouble with.   We are far too ready to borrow trouble from tomorrow.  Every day, I pray at least twice for help with this.  It is getting better; I am confident on one thoughtful level that no good comes of worry, yet I have such a hard time acting on that thought. It is a very difficult thing not to worry, but it is something that needs to be done nethertheless. I find as I trust God more and act upon His will more, I tend to worry less. There is a correlation there I believe. When we do what God asks, doing our best and not just saying it, there is not a lot to worry about. Even if there is, we can relax, knowing that God has everything under control and that He will always give us guidance on how to proceed.

God wants you to be happy; He knows what will make you happy.  God does not mind if you have fun along the way, but never pursue fun confusing it with happiness.  In the end, you won’t find either.

Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail.  The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.

The time is now, not tomorrow.  The time has come, indeed.  How will you ACT?

It is by our actions we are known.

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God

Fourteen Sunday after Trinity

If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE!

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 is partly contained in the forewords above.

Today we talk consider The Law and how it failed to solve the problems of the people it was designed to help and think about how getting around technicalities is different that doing what is right.

Consider the words of the Collect, “…give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost command …”

The Collects often are repetitive, in that we ask the same thing, week after week in differing ways.  Why is that?  Sadly, we have the same needs and the same failings week after week.  We are WEAK, we need God’s STRENGTH.  Today, we ask Him to help us, through the Holy Ghost, to increase our faith, to help us love what He wants us to do, to make His Wishes our wishes.  To make us want to follow Him that we might gain the prize which He has promised us.  That prize has multiple aspects, first and foremost eternal life which begins when we accept it, not when we die.  Second, as a benefit of that eternal life, we live our lives here in far greater happiness than we would otherwise.  We have peace of mind, as well as a better physical life.  If we can but just put our hearts in His Heart.  We will improve in all aspects of our life if we truly do our best to follow Him. And if we can also remember the benefits of the prize of following Him, it would be easier for us to follow the path, maybe not much easier, but easier enough to keep our eyes on the prize.   We often forget about the Holy Ghost, that Third God Guy.  Without Him in our hearts, we are lost.  He is a critical part of our journey towards heaven. He will help guide us along the narrow uphill trail to heaven. With Him, we, like John Newton, are found.  We will have that vision He gives to us in our lives and we will be able to see the way God wants us to travel.

That brings us right in to Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, and us!  We need to walk in God’s Word and in His Spirit.  We need to put aside the things of this world which are not in accord with the Way of God.  The things that are of this world are contrary to how God would have us act, and unbecoming of our position as sons and daughters of Him. If we are of God, then we will act of God, then only will we be of God.

What is important is not what you were born to, for we were all born to death.  A king is born, a king dies.  We are born into this world, our body will die in this world.  Yet through the grace of the King, we live on.  There is much conflict in us, look at all those “fun” things Paul lists in the Epistle.  Those “fun” things do not bring happiness, they really just bring us closer to death.  We all struggle with fun and happiness, two words that often do not mean the same thing. It is simlar to the need and want issue, two other words that get easily mixed up.

Yet, God has the answer for us.  He sent His Son to bring it to us.  Who will listen?

The only people who listen are those who are in need, hurt, pain and despair.  Often it is because they or one of their loved ones are ill or injured, perhaps near death.  Perhaps they are unemployed or undergoing some family upheaval.  Their situation is less than perfect.  They need help and they know it.  In their own mind, they are the Samaritans of this world.  It was no accident that Jesus oft cast Samaritans as the stars of his parables and stories.  It is also no accident that Jesus parables and stories center on actions, not words, thoughts and meditations.  Actions are who you are.  Without action, there is nothing. The key driving principle behind his parables are actions for Him, are those of goodness, not of evil.  “Those who believe on me keep my commandments.”  Actions!

Yet, those who turn to God in “need” are no different than each of us.  To quote Paul, “None are perfect, all fall short.”  We, each and every one of us, need God’s help.  Perhaps some need it more, none need it less.

When Luke tells us of Jesus and the ten lepers whom He heals and only one expresses thanks, do you think he is only telling of lepers?

In a sense are we not all lepers, outcasts with unhealable conditions?   We are outcasts of this world so to speak, we only have God and our friends in Christ to help us. The world cannot help us, but those in Christ, and God can. We have an incurable condition of sin, but with God’s help, it can be healed, though we cannot heal it on our own. We cannot be healed by this world, yet there is One who can heal us and will if only we appeal to Him,  “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”  We pray to God in His Name every day, He listens every day.

Through our Lord, God is there for each of us if we will accept His help.  When He gives that help, how do we react?  Frankly most of us just think it our due.  We oft fail to give thanks for all that He gives us.

Even if we get an answer we don’t expect, do we thank Him?  What if we get an answer do we thank Him?

Like the lepers only one in ten will show thanks for the mercy and help given them.  Rarely do people give thanks for large efforts done to help them. We must endeavor to be grateful for Him and for all of those who strive hard to help us out I our time s of need.  In the case of the lepers, it was the Samaritan[1], showing that fancy dress and rules are not as important as doing what is right and being grateful for what we are given.

Are you part of that 10 percent?

Remember, it is Please and Thank You that are the magic words, not Please and I don’t have time for you.

Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail.  The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.

The time is now, not tomorrow.  The time has come, indeed.  How will you ACT?

It is by our actions we are known.

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God

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[1] Samaritan - Of or pertaining to Samaria, in Palestine. -- n. A native or inhabitant of Samaria; also, the language of Samaria. [1913 Webster]

Samaritans were descendants of those who had stayed behind during the Captivity and had been separated for many years from the body of Judaism.  They had not developed, nor did they subscribe to them, all the rules the Jews managed to invent during their separation.  The main body of Jews viewed them as lesser peoples, not really Jews.

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE!

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.

Consider the words of the Collect:  “…whose only gift it cometh that thy faithful people do unto thee true and laudable service; Grant, we beseech thee, that we may so faithfully serve thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain thy heavenly promises…”

In our prayer to God, we acknowledge that His only or greatest gift is that we are, through Him, able to give Him true service.  For, it must be understood the only way we can really be happy is when we align our being with His Being.  Truly align, not get around restrictions.  There is a big difference.  We are not trying to avoid being caught in a rule, but trying to live by the Big Picture and not worry about little things.  How do we do this? Well, we first must trust God in our hearts, souls and minds. Then we love him with all our hearts souls and minds, this creates a solid foundation for serving Him laudably throughout the rest of our days.

In order to serve him, we have to remember to love Him with all our hearts, souls and minds and to “love thy neighbor as thyself.”  This is the first step to following him. Then, you have to act upon your trust in Him. If you trust Him truly, as a spiritual parent, then just like with your earthly parents, you will take His advice into consideration and acting upon int. In the old times, God had to prepare the people for the coming of Christ. So the Law of the Old Testament was an intermediate step to prepare people for Jesus. People had to be trained to follow the basic moral laws, before they could even comprehend the message Jesus gave.

If we do what we should do, we will follow the little rules as a matter of course.  If we get the important things the little things will follow soon after. The only rules that are important really come from:

1.     Love thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind;

2.     Love they neighbor as thyself.

As Jesus says, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” He means all of the moral laws and preaching of the prophets past can be traced back to these laws, which comprise the basis for all of the laws that would follow thereafter, especially the Ten Commandments.  The 613 Mosaic Laws can call be traced back to these two commandments. They are the “Basic Speed Laws” of the Christian faith; there is no way to get around these two and be within the spirit or intent of the Law.

Trying to follow the Law failed to solve the problems of the people it was designed to help and thinking about how getting around technicalities is different than doing what is right. To comply with the Law is a different matter than finding loopholes around the Law. The Pharisees did the latter, and we should do the former.

In California, we have this law called The Basic Speed Law. It says you should drive no faster than is safe. If there is a bend of road posted at 40 miles per hour, but it is really safer to go 25 mph, which is complying with the intent of the law ?

The Pharisees would have you find a loophole in a 25 miles per hour zone for example, by just going 25 miles per hour. But, what if the area it is in is not safe for 25 mph, more like 15 miles per hour?  Could you honesty think going 25 miles per hour in what is actually a 15 miles per hour zone is within the intent of the law? No! It is the same with trying to go around the intent of the Law. We cannot honestly say we are doing something within the spirit of the Law, when we are only doing lip service to it. We must be within the intent or spirit of the Law, rather than trying to find ways around the Law.  Follow, not avoid.

In the Epistle, we are reminded God chose Abraham not because of he complied with The Law, for the Law was far into the future.  God chose Abraham because he had faith and put his trust in God.  The Law was an aid to man to help him be better when he had difficulty following God’s Will. 

If we do the same and put our trust in God, we will be able to perform the laudable service that He so desires for the rest of our days. We have to keep this continuous process of faith and trust going. The best way to do that is to learn and absorb the Scriptures as a whole, to see the large picture of what He wants for us. The Law is a small part of the large picture, when you see how it ties into the New Testament, you have a larger understanding of what God wants in your lives, as individuals. That is to follow the Great Commission, to spread the Gospel of our Lord, which will improve the lives of those who truly believe upon Him and bring true Happiness throughout the globe.

However, not everyone on the globe will follow Him, and they will not be truly happy as a result. An example of this are the Pharisees.  They were religious lawyers who specialized in the 613 Mosaic Laws, which brought them death, not life.  Their job was to help people not break The Law without unduly interfering with their lives by forcing them to embrace the intent of The Law.

When the Pharisee of the Gospel asked Jesus what he should do to gain eternal life, the Pharisee correctly summarized The Law: Love God; Love your neighbor.  He would have been fine had he stopped there.  But, he had to show the Son how smart he was.  In doing so, the lawyer was about to learn the first lesson of lawyering, ‘Never ask a question to which you don’t know the answer.’  So he asked, ‘Who is my neighbor?’  The answer, of course, is everyone but you; the rest of humanity.  But, as was often the case, Jesus presented the story of the injured man helped by the Samaritan, then asked who was neighbor to the injured man?

The priest and the Levite would not see the injured man; there are none so blind as those who will not see.  They could or would not follow the second commandment of the Summary of the Law, of loving they neighbor as thyself. They were too prideful to see the truth of loving they neighbor. They were too wrapped up in the riches and cares of this world.

The material things of this world are temporary and they have blinded and ensnared many. This is the reason that the Jews have not yet come to Christ and they will not come to Christ. They care too much about the symbolic rituals of their Temple of restoring that. They are very much like many churches of today in that respect, caring about their position on Earth more than their faith in God.  Focusing on this world, which is only a temporary state, is a foolish and fleeting thing. What they should have focuses on was their eternal life. While they knew of the concept of Heaven, they truly did not know it or believe in it per se.

They cared only about following The Law on Earth and hoping that foolish hope would bring them salvation. No matter how they followed it, they could not obtain salvation on their own. The missing link to their solution was one that has been here since The Creation: Jesus Christ. They are searching for Him, but they cannot find Him, as he is right under their noses. This is the problem with the World as well. They search for the answers that He provides, but they will not acknowledge Him or His solutions.

The world would be better off if they learned the lesson the lawyer learned in today’s Gospel. You will also note the Samaritan, one of those separated from the chosen mass of Judaism, did his duty.  When he left the injured man at the inn, having given the innkeeper roughly two days wages, he said, “Do what need be done, if I owe more I will pay when I pass by next.”  You will note, he put no limit on his duty, he just committed to doing what needed to be done, regardless of cost. 

The lawyer to his credit answered honestly, “He that shewed mercy on him.”  Jesus told him, “Go, and do thou likewise.”

Right is not a matter of quantum; it is not a matter of majority rules or public opinion; actions speak louder than words.

Action counts.  For by their actions ye shall know them. 

Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail.  The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.

The time is now, not tomorrow.  The time has come, indeed.  How will you ACT?

It is by our actions we are known.

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God