Bishop Jack brings the propers together. His sermon is below the propers and can be viewed on video HERE -> https://youtu.be/TDVtYMAH7JI
Bishop Jack’s sermon looks at the unifying message of the Collect, Epistle and Gospel and examine how they share a common message as we celebrate the revealing of our Lod to the world. After we acknowledge God’s place in the universe, we go on to ask God to listen to us and give us His peace in our hearts. God is perfect. His hearing is perfect, ours is not. In the Epistle Paul reminds us that each of us have of individual talents important help the Church further its cause. Look at John the Baptist, out in the wilderness; not in the fancy building, the gold- plated temple, but out where he could prepare straight the way for the Lord. It all comes together.
The Propers are found on Page 111-112 with the Collect first:
The Second Sunday after The Epiphany.
The Collect.
A |
LMIGHTY and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth; Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people, and grant us thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle for today came from the Twelfth Chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans beginning at the Sixth Verse. As Paul often does, he gives guidance on what God would have us do. He notes that each of us have differing talents, skills and resources. What God wants us to do is use all of what He gave us to further His will and His way, so that we might be truly happy here on earth. To be gracious and hospitable to those around us, to remember each of us are equal in God’s eye.
H |
AVING then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate.
The Holy Gospel for today came from the beginning of the Gospel according to St. Mark, the First Chapter, beginning at the First Verse. This is the very first of the New Testament, a New Covenant or agreement with God. It tells the story of the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It talks of John the Baptist, who God sends as His messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And the people came to John and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. But, as a harbinger the One to come, John told them of the One coming the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. He told them of the Holy Ghost. When Jesus, in His submission as a man to God came to John for baptism, as he came out of the water, the heavens opened, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him: and there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
T |
HE beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; as it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the land of Judæa, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; and preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him: and there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Sermon - Bishop Jack Arnold
Anglican Orthodox Church of the United States
Diocese of the West
Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California
Today’s sermon brought 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/TDVtYMAH7JI
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 as we celebrate the revealing of our Lod to the world. Let us start by reading today’s collect:
The Second Sunday after The Epiphany.
The Collect.
A |
LMIGHTY and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth; Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people, and grant us thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
After we acknowledge God’s place in the universe, we go on to ask God to listen to us and give us His peace in our hearts. God is perfect. His hearing is perfect. It is not His hearing that is in need of help; it is ours. He hears us clearly when we pray; God always hears us when we call Him. What we learn from this Collect is that when we pray to Him, we need to listen to Him. We need to establish two-way communication. In order to act upon His Word, we need to first listen to what He tells us and understand what He is telling us. We are the ones that need help with hearing, not Him. He always listens to what we have to say, but do we always listen to what He tells us? Therefore we need the help to calm our hearts and listen to what He says and then act upon it. This is easier said than done sometimes because of our natural inclinations to sin and do the wrong things. That is why we need the help of the Holy Ghost to enter into our hearts and help us to listen to what God tells us to do, then He will also give us the strength to act upon what He tells us to do.
Consider these words from the Collect:
… hear the supplications of thy people, and grant us thy peace …
In the Collect, we are asking God to listen to us and give us His peace in our hearts. God is perfect. He hears us when we pray, God hears us when we call Him. This Collect is really to remind us that when we pray to Him, we need to listen to Him. To often we ask Him what to do, when He tells us what He wants us to do, it is not what we want, so we don’t hear. After all, there are none so deaf as those who will not hear. So, the question is not, Does God hear our supplication? Rather the question is, Do we hear His answer and abide by it? Do we listen when His answer is not what we want but what we need? We think that he doesn’t answer, but that is often because we are deaf to His answer through our own condition of being poor, sinful creatures that need His forgiveness desperately. If we open our hearts and minds, then we will hear Him. Will we let him in to our hearts for this to happen? It has to start with us letting Him in, and then we will hear His answer loud and clear.
In the Epistle Paul reminds us that each of us have of individual talents important help the Church further its cause. And it is equally important that we all work together. To work together in the church, each of us need to utilize our unique talents according to the needs of the church, not somebody else’s talents, but their talents. God has given each of us unique talents. Indeed, each and every one of us has a talent of some sort, be it musical, talking (being good with communication), sweeping, taking out the trash, there is no end to the need. Almost anything else can be used for His Glory, to further His Work, His Goals, is a talent. What we need to do is co-ordinate with others of differing talents to come together and further His Will. This is what we need the Holy Ghost to help us with that we might co-ordinate our gifts effectively to spread His Word.We have a lot of differing gifts, each and everyone of us and the Church needs all of those gifts to work together to further His Cause here on Earth. Each gift is special and unique to the person and can advance the Church’s mission here on Earth and someway. If we do our very best to follow the Holy Ghost’s guidance and use our talents for His Glory, we will find there is no limit to what we can accomplish for Him. We just need to have the Holy Ghost enter into us and tell us what we need to do, then listen to what He says and to do it! IF we do this, we will find that things will turn out very well!
However, we should not look for praise for our own work (though we may appreciate it, we should not dwell on it too long, lest we have to start shopping for size fourteen hats for our swollen heads!) However, we should look for reasons to praise and encourage others. Encouragement is the best way to help the team grow the Church. Encouragement helps other Christians to grow in their talents. The more we encourage our fellow Christians, the better off the team as a whole will be. That which is rewarded most is what grows. And this is how we can encourage our fellow Christians and our other friends to grow and learn, by the encouragement. This encouragement will help sprout the seed for more of the good work around us to flourish.
Look at John the Baptist, out in the wilderness; not in the fancy building, the gold-plated temple, but out where he could prepare straight the way for the Lord. He was out where the people were, he came to them, rather than wait for them to come to him in a fancy building. He was on a mission to pave the way for Jesus to come and preach and ultimately for His Death and Resurrection. Smoothing the path so to speak, making ready the hearts and souls of the people for the coming of the Lord. He did not point at himself, rather he pointed the way towards God incarnate[1]! This tells us where we need to be for our spreading the Gospel, not always in the fancy buildings and mansions but out on the street and where the people are so we can spread the Good News to all nations. God doesn’t want us to stay in the fancy building to to speak but go out to where the people are and with spreading the Good News, we too might pave the way for Jesus’s second coming as John the Baptist did for Jesus’s first coming.
By the way, how necessary is praise to miserable human beings? God Himself, looking on His Son’s baptism remarked for all to hear, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
How oft do we praise the actions of others? Too often we are quick to criticize the failings of others and over analyze their failings. Sometimes when we think of people we know, all we can think of is their failings and forget everyone has their good parts as well, for each of us has been created by God. It is in our nature, part of our human nature, our free will condition that we must fight against with His help. We must understand while it is valuable to know when we fall short, people strive the hardest for praise of those whose opinion they value.
When you hear those words, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, remember to use them yourself. Lead others to God, don’t just point the way.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
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