Bishop Jack’s sermon is below the propers and can be viewed on video HERE ->https://youtu.be/VT11O0NmgQA
Bishop Jack’s sermon looks at the unifying message of the Collect, Epistle and Gospel and examine how they share a common message of action as we continue to celebrate Jesus’ delivery of the promise of life eternal with Him in our life to come. God is a Triune God; Father, Son, Holy Ghost. One of the Holy Ghost’s jobs is to open our souls, hearts and minds to God’s Will. One of His main functions to help us see where we are in error and how to fix those errors. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad. Act in a manner consistent with the fact you will live forever and be responsible for your actions forever. Action, not diction is what counts. It all comes together.
The Propers for today are found on Page 173-174, with the Collect first:
The Third Sunday after Easter.
The Collect.
LMIGHTY God, who showest to them that are in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; Grant unto all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s Religion, that they may avoid those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The Epistle for today came from the Second Chapter of the First Epistle of Saint Peter beginning at the Eleventh Verse. Peter tells us to live a good life, to follow the directions Jesus left us, to make ourselves positive examples of citizen to others, to be leaders of our community, drawing people towards God. To live out the life Jesus commanded, to do nothing to draw ill repute on the Word of God. To be truly free and follow freedom to where God wants us to be, not to Donkey Island, where false freedom takes so many.
EARLY beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
Today’s Gospel came from the Sixteenth Chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John beginning at the Sixteenth Verse.
Jesus warns his disciples of the events about to unfold. He is to be taken from them shortly by the painful death on the Cross for our redemption. He will not be with them here on earth. Yet, after three days time He will Rise from death, having overcome death for us. When He is gone from us we are sorrowful, just like the disciples. He came back from death for us. And yet He was to leave again, yet not be gone from us as the Father would send the Holy Ghost to make His abode in our hearts and bring Jesus to us.
ESUS said to his disciples, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father. Then said some of his disciples among themselves, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? we cannot tell what he saith. Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
Jack Arnold
Bishop of the Diocese of the West – AOC USA
Education and Training
Church of the Faithful Centurion
Anglican Orthodox Church Worldwide
Bp Jack brings the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together because as is always the case there is a unifying message in the Scripture for this Sunday. Bp Jack’s sermon can be viewed on video
HERE ->https://youtu.be/VT11O0NmgQA
Good morning! I hope you are all doing well. In today’s sermon we will be looking at the unifying message of the Collect, Epistle and Gospel and examine how they share a common message of action as we continue to celebrate Jesus’ delivery of the promise of life eternal with Him in our life to come. This Day of the Resurrection is when the promise of eternal life is delivered.
Let’s start by reading the Collect for today:
The Third Sunday after Easter.
The Collect.
LMIGHTY God, who showest to them that are in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; Grant unto all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s Religion, that they may avoid those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Consider these words from the Collect:
… who showest to them that are in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; Grant unto all those who are admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s Religion, that they may avoid those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same…
God is a Triune God; Father, Son, Holy Ghost. One of the Holy Ghost’s jobs is to open our souls, hearts and minds to God’s Will. One of His main functions to help us see where we are in error and how to fix those errors. Thus, open our “ears” to His Voice so we can listen and make our improvements based on His Words. He is there to guide us when we have gone astray from the path. What the Collect asks is we let the Holy Ghost in so He can change us. Without the Holy Ghost, change is impossible. Consider this quote from Jack Lewis out of Mere Christianity:
“When He said, ‘Be perfect,’ He meant it. He meant that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of compromise we are all hankering after is harder—in fact, it is impossible. It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”
It is clear from the above quote from CS Lewis that we cannot do things in half measures to follow God. It seems clear to me that we must give it our all with the help of the Holy Spirit. It does not matter if it is hard for us to listen to the Holy Ghost and attempt to follow His instructions, we must do it. He is our perfect instructor and if we will listen to Him, God will always provide the light to show us where “We have erred, and strayed from His ways like lost sheep. Where we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. Where we have offended against His holy laws. Where we have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done[1]…” He will shine His Light onto the dark areas in our heart and souls so we can focus on removing those evil attributes and replacing them with more Godly attributes. We just have to focus on letting Him into our hearts, souls, minds and bodies that he might be able to help us change our course guidance. In order to do that, we can’t resist Him, we have to let Him in. He will not force his way in, He has to be invited in.
The Holy Ghost does this this so that we can remain on the course which brings us to His World. For without that guiding light, we will be forever lost on the path to darkness. He is our infallible navigator/GPS. If we will always rely on Him, He shall never fail us. We more have to worry about failing Him than Him failing us.
One thing is clear and that is that we have to let His Light into our hearts before we can shine it to others that they may see the works of His Light. We cannot lead others to a Light we do not have within us. So, we must first make sure we have the Light of the Holy Ghost within us before we can think of leadings others to that Light.
We must start in our own little corner of the world and work our way outward. That is the best place to start. We cannot change the whole world at once, but it must be changed by us, individually, one little corner of the world at a time. We are always striving to work towards total transformation of our area to the light. However, we will always find opposition from evil. If evil is thwarting our efforts then we all must put in 110% to stop evil and combat it across the world wherever it is. We must never, never, never, ever give up on this fight.
We must fight evil wherever and whenever we run across it. Evil anywhere is Evil everywhere. We must not let the little and big evils in this life get us down or defeat us. We must rely on the guiding power of the Holy Ghost and God’s unlimited grace to save the day. His Grace can help you out of any horrific situation; only if you ask for and accept His help, which is a universal theme in our sermons here, because it is a truth and one that Jesus preached, that is that we have to accept Him into our hearts, if we are to become truly Christians.
Peter tells us our actions need to be consistent with the principles of Scripture and of Jesus’ message. In short, we need to be good citizens, be good neighbors, take particular care of our Christian family. In short, do what Christ would do, as far as it is in us. We need to cling to the good and reject the evil thoughts and actions of our old sinful selves. Let us do our best to think, in hard and trying times, what would Jesus do in our situation, and then act in a manner most like Him. There may be some people that are more trying to deal with than others, but it is clear that we must try and treat all as Jesus would in our place to the best of our abilities. In order to make the world a better place, we first have to start with our selves then work outward, applying the principles of Christ to our lives. God does not ask us to be perfect; He does ask us individually to do our best to try to be perfect, to follow Jesus’ lead to the extent we have it in us. Each of us is different, some are in truth less bad than others. God holds us each to the same standard, that is to do our best.
We are not competing against each other. Christianity is not about competing against each other. It is about helping one another to reach the finish line to the best of our ability. All of us in the Church are on the same team. We are just called to do the best individually for our Team and to stay on that narrow uphill path towards heaven. We are also called to encourage and support each other on that trek on the uphill path towards heaven.
In the Gospel according to Saint John, Jesus tells of His impending bodily death and resurrection. He reminds us if we have eternal life, sorrow, even the sorrow of death is transient, for He has conquered death. It is a very minor thing in the long term view the sorrow of a temporary parting of a loved one. For that is all that is, if we put our trust and hope in God and do our very best to follow Him. We have to keep this in mind throughout our travel along the straight and narrow upward path. His One Sacrifice, made One Time, for All Mankind, for All Time is that joy that no man can take from us. But, if we want to share in that eternal life, we need to see the error of our ways in the Light of His Light and take actions to follow Him.
Often it seems much easier to take the path of least resistance, to quit our work at the first sign of effort, to goof off when “no one” is looking. But in the end, the right thing to do is always the easiest, the most profitable. The one that will result in happiness. It might seem hard, but it will not be as hard as doing the “easy” thing.
The time is now, not tomorrow. The time has come, indeed. How will you ACT?
It is by our actions we are known.
As we go off on our business, please recall this quote from GK Chesterton:
Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
[1] General Confession – BCP Page 6
