Bishop Jack brings the propers together today. His sermon is below the propers and can be viewed on videoHERE -> https://youtu.be/3bzJ0RCZ5cM
In the Collect, we ask God’s Grace to withstand the temptations of this world. What does that mean and what are the ramifications of asking for help to withstand them rather than resist them? Sometimes, when we are seemingly surrounded by the enemy, we might reflect much of the enemy is our own selves. Paul’s letters are timeless; like the people of Corinth, we are not made perfect by Jesus, merely accounted so at the final accounting. If we believe, we need to ACT. Matthew points out people seem to never tire of justifying their avoidance of the spirit of the law while not being inconvenienced. 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. Learn how that worked out. It all comes together, read or listen and find out how. I hope you find it useful.
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.
Bishop Jack Arnold
Anglican Orthodox Church Diocese of the West
Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California
Bishop 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. It is not easy to hold off temptations from these three different sources. 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. Without some significant assistance and support in this multi front battle we are doomed to lose. This is a very difficult battle for us to fight with multiple enemies including ourselves surrounding us on all sides in this spiritual battle.
In order to successfully fight and be victorious in 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. It is not just enough to listen to what He says and go off and do whatever we want to do. That is not being congruent with the Gospel. What we need to do is hear what the Holy Ghost says we are to do and to go out and actually perform those actions. It is action and not just diction that counts in the end.
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. The messages are truly timeless and are just as applicable to us now as it was to the readers back in the day.
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. This is something we need to address in our ministering and preaching. Becoming a Christian does not mean you automatically become perfect. It means you are fully aware of your less than perfect state and how much work you have to do to work your way towards perfection, a state we will never obtain in this lifetime but we will never get close if we do not at least do our best to make our way on that narrow uphill trail.
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
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