Bishop Hap’s sermon is below the propers and can be viewed on video HERE ->https://youtu.be/jXfttChJRUo
Bishop Hap’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. This Day of the Resurrection is when the promise of eternal life was delivered. Remember, your eternal life does not start when your body dies, but when you accept it with your soul. So, 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 171-172, with the Collect first:
The Second Sunday after Easter.
The Collect.
A |
LMIGHTY God, who hast given thine only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an ensample of godly life; Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This morning’s Epistle came from the First General Epistle of St. Peter, beginning at the Nineteenth Verse of the Second Chapter. The Epistle reminds us that Christ, who was completely without sin or guile, not only died for our sins, but suffered humiliation and torture without complaint for us. Thus, if we, because we believe in God and our Lord Jesus, are subjected to unfavorable comment, criticism or even persecution, we should bear this gladly, as our Lord gave us his example. If we want to benefit from the Lord’s sacrifice, then we need to try to follow in his footsteps. We need to look to His example to live our lives.
We are as sheep going astray who have been returned to the flock by our Lord, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls.
We were asked the question, who is this man Jesus? We answered, he is the Son of God; are we following him? In this Epistle again, we are admonished to follow our Lord.
T |
HIS is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
Today’s Gospel came from the Tenth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. John beginning at the Eleventh Verse. Using the words that give this Sunday its name, Jesus said: I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He goes on to say He is not a hireling who cares not for the flock, but rather the shepherd himself. He understands his job and puts it first, before his desires. Jesus knows each of His sheep and they know Him, even as He knows His Father and His Father knows Him. Because we are His sheep, He willingly laid down His life that we might live. Jesus also points out He is not here to shepherd only the Jews, but all men, And there are other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd.
J |
ESUS said, I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd; and know my sheep, and am known of mine, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd.
Hap Arnold
Bishop Coadjutor
Anglican Orthodox Church Worldwide
Bp Hap 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 Hap’s sermon can be viewed on video HERE ->https://youtu.be/jXfttChJRUo
Good morning! I hope you are all doing well. I know you were looking for a sermon from Bishop Jack, but he is on travel so you get one from me. We are in the Easter Season which consists of Easter and the following four Sundays, through Rogation Sunday. This is a time we should work on centering our lives on the central figure in our religion, Jesus Christ.
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 was delivered. Remember, your eternal life does not start when your body dies, but when you accept it with your soul. So, act in a manner consistent with the fact you will live forever and be responsible for your actions forever.
Let’s start by reading the Collect for today:
The Second Sunday after Easter.
The Collect.
A |
LMIGHTY God, who hast given thine only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an ensample of godly life; Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Consider these words from the Collect:
… given thine only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin, and also an ensample of godly life; Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavour ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life …
To understand the importance of Jesus’ sacrifice, it is critical to understand He is the only begotten Son (John 3:16) of God. He is also referred to in places as The Word, the means by which God has given His instructions to the world. But, more than that, 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3) Though the corrupted versions of the Bible (NIV, NKJV, RSV, etc) have attempted to erase His Divine Status and the role He plays in our salvation, that does not change the reality of Who He is. He is in simplest terms, the great I AM. He was the one who brought light into this World. He has been there since before the beginning of time, before the beginning of what we know as our Universe. He created this world, it is by rights His. It is not the true possession of the Prince of this World, otherwise known as Satan. When Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness, he offered Christ something that was not his to give away. This shows how he truly does not understand God or Christ. Christ is the one who created this world and truly is the rightful owner of it and not Satan. God values us so highly that He sent His only begotten son that all who believe on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
If we recognize anything close to the magnitude of the sacrifice made on our behalf by our Lord and Savior, we will do our best to put away all hate and evil thinking that we might more successfully follow His instruction and example. Carefully study Scripture, no matter how many times you read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them you will not find one instance of Jesus being mean or nasty, taking revenge or even being condescending. We must do whatsoever lieth within us to do ye likewise. If we do not, we are doomed. We will try and fail. But, remember, you cannot be beaten if you do not give up.
This brings us to Peter’s point in the Epistle, Christ serves as a perfect example for the conduct of our lives. Not only was He sent to sacrifice His Life for us that we might have eternal freedom, He was sent to provide a perfect example of us, to how we should live our lives. There again the Epistle and the Collect tie together amazingly well. Very fittingly, His Ministry acts as the pattern we should look to emulate in our trials and tribulations here on Earth. His Ministry was based upon action. It then follows that we should we in our earthly attempt to follow Him center our words on action. We need to not just speak nice words but back them up with nice actions as well. As our friend KT pointed out recently, our actions show who we truly are and what we truly believe. This also connects with the Bible verse from Matthew (6:21) that says “For where your treasure is, your heart will be also.” If we treasure and believe upon Him, our actions will show that we do indeed believe and value Him highly.
If we do wrong actions and suffer for it, there is little honor; for we were wrong. But, if we do right actions, that is follow God’s Will, and suffer for it, there is in fact glory, laud and honor there. Jesus went to His death on the Cross that we might be accounted as perfect at our final accounting rather than being held accountable for our failures. He who is, was and always will be perfect suffered great pain that we might live life eternal. If He did that for us, should we not follow that example and follow His Direction, counting the cost only after the work is done? We can be assured that no matter how bad our sufferings and tribulations here are on Earth, Jesus had it far worse. Not only did He die a painful death, but then He had to descend into Hell and fight the Devil. I think we have it better than He did as far as suffering goes. Just something to think about next time we think our sufferings are so awful.
We are, after all, much like sheep, following the lead of those around us, somewhat like lemmings, it seems. We have great need of a shepherd to lead us back from the edge of The Pit and to life, back to those verdant pastures and still waters. This Shepherd never will fail to lead us back to the pastures, we just have to pick up the guidance from the Holy Ghost and follow the path He has set for us.
In order to follow His Directions to the path He has set for us, we have to let go of our pride, vanity and arrogance and accept His Guidance and teachings of humbleness and humility into our hearts. We have to realize we cannot do this on our own; we cannot save ourselves and we need God’s influence in our lives. We have to allow the Holy Ghost to enter into our hearts and once He is in accept His Direction and Guidance and then act upon that guidance. It is not good enough just to say we believe, we must actually believe. Actually, believing means if we truly believe on Him, we have no choice but act in a manner consistent with Scripture.
Acting is the key word here, not just talking about it, but acting. It isn’t good enough just to read Scriptures and go on our merry way and act like we did before we read them. We have to apply the key principles of Scripture in our lives and shine the light of Christ to those around us.
The Gospel notes the difference of ownership. Our true owner will, and I might add, has, given His Life so we might be protected from the ravening wolves of this world, the Prince of this World. We are cautioned to 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:(1 Peter 5:8) But, sobriety only gets you so far; sheep do poorly against wolves and lions. We alone cannot defend ourselves against this great spiritual threat. We need one who is experienced in protecting our souls against the spiritual wolves and lions of this world. Jesus is that experienced protector we need. Make no mistake, we need the help of that Good Shepherd. That Good Shepherd calls to each of us, we need the Holy Ghost in our hearts to hear the call. Regardless of what you have been told by those of this world, there is only One God, One Lord, One Savior. Thus, there is only One Flock; there are many ways to follow Scripture, but they must all have the same general plan. That is the reason for the creeds, the reason we tell all to compare what is preached against what is in Scripture. We need to daily work towards doing a better job of following God’s Will.
We need help, He provides it, we need to accept it.
The key is action, in this case our action. We need to actually accept the offered help; like the life ring thrown to a drowning person, we must grab God’s proffered help, else we profit nothing.
Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail. The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit. But, it takes Action, not Diction, to get there. The way is hard, it is just not as hard as that easy downhill trail to The Pit everthing considered.
Hard as it may seem at the time, there is much joy and satisfaction to be found in proper action.
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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