Today was the Second Sunday after
Easter, the central event of the Christian year, the celebration of our Lord,
“Christ the Lord is Risen!”
On
Point
Someone asked, where do the quotes come
from? The answer is from the
people who uttered them. But, how
did you find them? Oh, that. Some from Bishop Jerry, many from Rev
Bryan Dabney, a few from other places, some from Rev Geordie Menzies-Grierson,
but overall mostly from Bryan. He
always has some great ones to share.
On to the On Point quotes –
At
the Core
This is the
whole of Christianity. There is nothing else. It is so easy to get muddled
about that. It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different
objects—education, building, missions, holding services. Just as it is easy to
think the State has a lot of different objects—military, political, economic,
and what not. But in a way things are much simpler than that. The State exists
simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this
life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a
game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his
own garden— that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to
increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments,
armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time. In the
same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to
make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals,
clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time.
God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the
whole universe was created for any other purpose.
Jack Lewis
Mere
Christianity
Thy
Neighbor
There are no ordinary people. You have never
talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are
mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals
whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or
everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually
solemn: We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in
fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset,
taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And
our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in
spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence which
parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament
itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is
your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also
Christ vere latitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly
hidden.
Jack
Lewis
The Weight of Glory
It is of great importance to set a
resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so
mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie
once, finds it much easier to do it a second and a third time, till at length
it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without
the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the
heart, and in time depraves all its good disposition.
Thomas
Jefferson
1785
Death is just God’s way of telling you to
watch your airspeed or rotor RPM.
Truth
The rights of neutrality will only be
respected when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by
its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.
Alexander
Hamilton
Federalist No. 11, 1787
Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith
the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.
Jeremiah
23:24
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure
to give you the kingdom.
St.
Luke 12:32
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them,
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
St.
John 17:14
For as by one’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Romans
5:19
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians
4:13
Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
Hebrews
4:14
Those that bind up their happiness in the favor of men make themselves
an easy prey to the temptations of Satan.
Matthew
Henry
17th and 18th century
English pastor and author
There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in this day, which many
have, and think they have enough—a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, and
requires no sacrifice—which costs nothing, and is worth nothing.
JC Ryle
19th century Anglican bishop and
author
(Holiness, p. 204)
Our confidence must not be in what we have done, nor in what we have
resolved to do, but entirely in what the Lord will do.
Charles
H. Spurgeon
19th century English pastor and author
The taxpayer: That's someone who works for the federal government but
doesn't have to take the civil service examination.
Ronald
Wilson Reagan
20th century American president
You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything
away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything, he’s no longer in
your power— he’s free again.
Alexander
Solzhenitsyn
20th and 21st century Russian author
The freedoms of the mind, heart and voice are the most essential of
freedoms because they free us to be individuals. They allow us to have our own
values. Without these freedoms, no society is free... Individual rights exist
in the empty spaces that government is forced out of. Government rights however
do not exist until everyone is forced to provide them. That is true of the redistribution
of wealth and property, but it is even truer of the redistribution of freedom
and the confiscation of conscience... Without the right to be left alone, there
are no other individual rights. Without individual rights, there is no such
thing as a free society.
Daniel
Greenfield
21st century American commentator
(The Redistribution of Freedom,
12-16-13).
Propers
Each Sunday there are Propers:
special prayers and readings from the Bible. There is a Collect for the Day; that is a single thought prayer,
most written either before the re-founding of the Church of England in the
1540s or written by Bishop Thomas Cranmer, the first Archbishop of Canterbury
after the re-founding.
The Collect for the Day is to be
read on Sunday and during Morning and Evening Prayer until the next Sunday. The
Epistle is normally a reading from one of the various Epistles, or letters, in
the New Testament. The Gospel is a
reading from one of the Holy Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Collect is said by the minister as
a prayer, the Epistle can be read by either a designated reader (as we do in
our church) or by one of the ministers and the Holy Gospel, which during the
service in our church is read by an ordained minister.
The propers are the same each
year, except if a Red Letter Feast, that is one with propers in the prayerbook,
falls on a Sunday, then those propers are to be read instead, except in a White
Season, where it is put off. Red
Letter Feasts, so called because in the Altar Prayerbooks the titles are in
red, are special days. Most of the
Red Letter Feasts are dedicated to early saints instrumental in the development
of the church, others to special events.
Some days are particularly special and the Collect for that day is to be
used for an octave (eight days) or an entire season, like Advent or Lent.
The Propers for today are found
on Page 171-172, with the Collect first:
The Second Sunday after
Easter.
The Collect.
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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 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.
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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.”
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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.
Bishop Ogles’
Sermon
We are oft fortunate to get
copies of Bishop Jerry’s sermon notes.
Today is one of those Sundays.
Today’s sermon starts off with the collect, and like always, it will
give you a lot to consider in your heart.
Sermon Notes
Second Sunday
after Easter
St Andrew’s Anglican Orthodox Church
4 May 2014,
Anno Domini (In the Year of our Lord)
The Second Sunday after
Easter.
The Collect.
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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.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a
robber. 2 But he that entereth in by the door
is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the porter openeth; and the
sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them
out. 4 And when he putteth forth his own
sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.
5 And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for
they know not the voice of strangers. 6 This
parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were
which he spake unto them. 7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers:
but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I
am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and
out, and find pasture. 10 The
thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that
they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep (John 10:1-11)
Though today’s Gospel text ends with the 10th verse, I could not
bring myself to end there without adding the 11th which fully
reveals this gracious Personage described as the Good Shepherd.
The Universe is a closed system as every student of astronomy will admit as
scientific fact. Heaven, too, is separate and distinct from the physical
universe and is also, itself, a closed system (much like a simple Sheep Fold)
and the abode of God. Just as the Universe is a place prepared of God for our
temporal existence, so Heaven is a place prepared for the spiritual existence
of those who cling to Him as lambs and children. There is an old saying that
“nothing happens by accident” and I believe that saying is true as regards the
Universe and the heavenlies.
Far greater faith is required to believe that the intricacies of the Universe,
of the great organization of galaxies and star systems, of the perfect balance
existing upon earth for the support of life, for the amazing structure and
continually working intellect that is evident in the human body. To believe
that the tiny cell, much less the complex organization of millions of cells of
the human body, could happen by accident of nature requires a faith that can
only be identified as ridiculous. Of course there is, as even Einstein
admitted, a great Intellect behind the perfect balance and structure of the
universe – and of life itself. – and that Intellect is God!
In today’s text, Christ makes reference to that closed system of Heaven – the
Sheep Fold. The Mind that conceived the organization of interstellar space also
is the same Mind that created the natural world as we know it. He created every
rose of crimson beauty, and every lily of purest white splendor, the tiny
creatures that are unseen to man, the lambs and bears, lions and elephants, and
you and me. His Mind is Macro in its enormity to consider the whole
Universe and Micro in its meticulous awareness of the tender baby sucking at
its mother’s breast. The Divine Creator has endowed man with a special glory
and privilege and made him the crowning achievement of His Creative genius. We
are compelled to say, along with the psalmist: When I consider thy heavens,
the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast
ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man,
that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the
angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to
have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his
feet: 7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the
field; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever
passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is
thy name in all the earth! (Psalms 8:3-9)
Our God is a God, not only of this one-time life on earth, but the God of the
Resurrection. Life is continually being resurrected, even in this world of woe,
from death. Every stalk of wheat derives its being from that first grain of
wheat that fell into the earth at Eden and sprang into newness of life. Every
cell of our bodies can trace its primitive DNA back to that of the first man –
Adam. So God, even in the temporal, has place seeds of the eternal. There is,
however, a known end to the ways of the world and its supporting planetary
accoutrements. This system of death and life is not that which God approves for
those He loves. He has sent His only Begotten into the world to redeem us out
of that sin of Adam (and our own) which has interrupted His creative plan for
eternal life in all things.
As a great and all-knowing scientist speaking to children of the Manse, He
leaves off the references that cannot possibly be conceived by a child, and
uses vocabulary that is simply, pictorial and imaginative in revealing the
great mysteries of the closed system of His Heaven. He speaks of sheep and
shepherds, of porters and strangers, of doors and thieves. These mental
pictures we can grasp and know. Being the greatest teacher ever to open His
mouth, Christ employs the fundamental principle of teaching, known today, as
teaching from the KNOWN to the UNKNOWN. Teaching cannot be
accomplished in any other way. Unfortunately, the technique used in many of
today’s university classrooms is that of teaching from the UNKNOWN to the
IMPOSSIBLE!
1 Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other
way, the same is a thief and a robber Christ
begins with the negative – those who attempt to enter “some other way” –
precisely because this is the manner in which most will attempt to gain heaven.
The loose theologies of man-made truth has crept into churches and corrupted
the simplicity and truth of the Gospel. The leaven of the Pharisees is far more
prevalent than the pure unleavened Bread of Heaven served in most
churches today. How is it that ye do not understand
that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the
leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they
how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of
the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. (Matt 16:11-12) Our theology of today
is more of the WALMART variety than that of Treasures of Heaven.
2 But he that entereth in by the
door is the shepherd of the sheep. Christ is our Door to Heaven.
He is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” and “no one cometh unto the
Father but by Him.” We may come up with every self-enriching scheme and
call it exalted faith; we may labor our fingers to the bone in doing good; we
may sacrifice every of our livestock on the altar of benevolence; but still
stands in the foreground and brilliance of Light the single means by which we
may enter Heave n – the Lord Jesus Christ. It is He who keeps getting in the
way of the builders of a human paradise. If the secular humanists, the
Communists, the totalitarians of every stripe could only vanquish this shining
figure in the midst, they could then complete their human utopia. But “the
Stone that the builders rejected has become the chief Corner-Stone of the
building thereof.” When they have near-completed their structure, they then
may note the troublesome stone at the base around which they had to labor in
building their building. It kept getting in the way and causing them to
stumble. Now they recognize, after all, that is it is the Chief Corner Stone –
but too late. As they try to lift it to the crown of their hand-made building,
it tumbles back upon them and crushes them to dust.
3 To
him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own
sheep by name, and leadeth them out. The porter is very like the
true ministers of God who open the Door to Christ to his hearers. While living
in Iran, the sheep were led out during the warmer part of day from the stone
enclosures called sheepfolds in the mountain heights. These were usually
semi-caves in the mountainside with a large stone fence erected in an arch
around the front. There was an opening that was always guarded by the Shepherd
to keep the sheep from escaping into the dangers of winter and the predator-infested
mountain slopes. There were often different shepherds whose sheep were
sheltered in the fold. The Shepherd would make a unique sound with his voice
and his sheep would immediately respond by following him out of the fold. The
others would not respond. I found this remarkable and in complete accord with
the Words of our Lord. Christ calls out today and many do not heed His Voice
because they are not of His Fold.
4 And when he putteth forth his
own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his
voice. If we know the Shepherd’s
Voice, we will follow Him everywhere, for everywhere He leads will be a place
of security – green pastures and still waters. If danger lies ahead, the
Shepherd is first to address the danger and will even lay down His life for the
sheep.
5 And a stranger will they not
follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.
We have many who profess Christ today who are following strangers. If they
truly knew Christ, they would not recognize and follow a stranger’s
voice. Last year, I drew several hundred dollars from a bank in which I
have a savings account and went to deposit that money in another bank where my
personal checking account is maintained. The teller took the bills and ran them
through a machine. They all passed muster. She then marked each with a special
pen to verify their authenticity. They all passed this test. She then took one
of the bills and held it up to the light for quite a while. She then told me
that this particular one hundred dollar bill was actually a five dollar bill.
Well, I thought this ridiculous for it was clearly a one hundred dollar bill.
She told me to hold the bill up to the light and see whose visage was inscribed
in the watermark on the right side. It was Lincoln when it should have been
Franklin! She told me that a skilled counterfeiter had bleached out a five, and
over-stamped with the one hundred. This is why the bank device could not
recognize the fake – the paper was Federal stock. Neither would the pen. But
the skilled eye of the teller could catch the phony because she was so very
familiar with the true money. We may appear to be genuine Christians, and our
lifestyles may be moral and above reproach, but what of the watermark that is
INSIDE our hearts. Will that expose us as imposters to the knowing eye of the
Lord? 6 This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they
understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. He often
speaks to us in such simple words that we, too, do not understand. We expect
words of greater sophistication and profundity perhaps.
7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
When we simply do not ‘get it’, Jesus will speak to us in more direct ways.
Many local Christians of the Baptist persuasion wonder why I commit idolatry by
displaying the cross and candles above the Lord’s Table. I explain, usually in
vain, that the cross is a reminder of who Christ is to us and what He did. I explain
that Christ used metaphors to point to Himself. The Cross is one such example
of who Christ is and what He did. The candles, I explain, represent both the
Light of the Gospels and that of the Epistles which go out to the World in
giving Light. I explain that Christ tells us in the second chapter of
Revelations (2:5) to the church at Ephesus that if that church forgets from
whence they have fallen, Christ will remove their candlestick. I then remind
them that the Anglican Church still has its candlestick. This usually ends the
dialogue….(*___~) Christ is our DOOR. He meets every specification for a DOOR.
He is the only entrance available.
8 All that ever came before me
are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. Those
false prophets who deceived and misled the people are the thieves and robbers.
Their kin still dominate the world of theology today. They change biblical
meanings and words for profit. They build up the esteem of man, and minimize
the truth of God. But those who truly belong to the Shepherd will recognize the
phonies, just as the bank teller mentioned.
9 I am the door: by me if any man
enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
We have a perfect liberty IN Christ. Outside of Christ, there is only bondage
and whimpering servitude. The same is true of nations that honor Christ. Those
whose constitutions and morality adhere to Christian faith are free and her
people live without bondage.
10 The thief cometh not, but for to
steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and
that they might have it more abundantly. The thief never
announces his intentions ahead. His success is due to his cunning and secrecy.
Modern false teachers are never going to pronounce that they have no faith at
all in God the Father, or His Son Jesus. They begin, as the Serpent in the
Garden, with a half-truth and proceed, step-by-step, with a full denunciation
of Truth. Lies led to death at Eden, and lies lead to death in the church. But
in Christ, we have Life, and that life we have, even on earth, is full,
abundant and heavenly.
11 I
am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep
What other shepherd, bent on profitable gain, will lay down his life
for the sheep? But there is One Shepherd, who is the Owner of the Sheep, who
does not view them out of a prospect for profit, but loves them fundamentally
with a heart love of warmth and kindly beneficence. He loves them as His own
family (which they are) and will lay down His very life for the sheep so that
THEY may have life. Do you know this Shepherd, and do you hear His Voice today?
Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and
Action
Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California
Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and
Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above.
We are in the Easter Season which consists of Easter
and the following four Sundays, until we get to Rogation Sunday. This is a time we should work on
centering our lives on the central figure in our religion, Jesus Christ.
Consider these words from the
Collect:
… 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 …
God sent Jesus to be The
Christ, The Messiah, The Savior, The Lamb to be sacrificed for our sin. He gave His earthly Life, He went down
into Hell, that we might be justified before God at our accounting. Not that we might be perfect, but that
we might be accounted perfect at our judgment day. Yet we are not made perfect. We are fallen, miserable
creatures in the pattern of Adam.
Thus we need an example to follow, a pattern for our lives. God gave us that in His Son. Jesus leads us towards God. But, we have a hard time following
Him. Thus, God sent us the Holy
Ghost to enter in to our hearts, to make our eyes see The Way, to let our ears
hear the directions to The Path that will give us eternal salvation and
everlasting life.
Peter notes that throughout His
Life, our Lord gave nothing but good. He was not accepting of evil, but when He
was ill treated, He gave not venom, but healing in return. We are to act to the best our abilities
like the example He set forth for us. It will be hard and trying, but if we
accept the Holy Ghost into our hearts, we can do these things. We will never be
perfect, but that does not mean that we stop trying. We just reset our compass
and follow the True North of Christ. Through His sacrifice, we are accounted as perfect, thus we
need try our best to be perfect following His Example. Will we fail? That is certain.
Should we thus be inclined to just give in to evil? NEVER. To quote Winston Churchill, “Never give in--never, never,
never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except
to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to
the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”[1]
Jesus gave His Life for us
because we are HIS. He made it
very clear that while He was sent to the Jews, God’s chosen people, His mission
was not to them only. It was to all of the people that God made. Remember, God
did not only create the Jews, but He made everybody! Jesus’ mission was to all
of us miserable sinners, not just the Jewish people. Recall, He told them, “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.” He was there not only to bring them
everlasting eternal life and salvation, but to others also.
To US.
We are of His Flock, we are not
strangers to Him nor Him to us. If
God cared enough to send His Son to give His Life to protect us from certain
death, do we care enough for Him to follow His Directions? It is the least we
can do, after a painful death Our Lord endured that we might be free from the
wages of sin. We must do our best to follow Him and He will be well pleased
with us, if we actually do our best as opposed to saying that we are doing our
best.
We have One Leader. He leads One Flock. His Way may not always seem the
easiest, but in the end it is for certain eternity. He came to earth to save our lost souls. If we listen to the clear guidance of
the Holy Ghost, to each of who are “as sheep going astray; but are now returned
unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls,” we will gain both happiness here
on earth and eternal life. Anytime we sin or fall short, we simply reboot and
start a new life with God yet again. It is a simple answer to our sins, repent
and do our best to “Go forth and sin no more.”
But, there is more than just saying you believe. You must act on those beliefs to make
them real. Things are getting
tough here on earth. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” (1 Peter 5.8)
And, I might add he holds sway in a lot of public offices. Things are going to get worse. You will need to act for God or for
that lion.
When the time comes, how will you ACT?
It is by our actions we are known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
Bishop Dennis Campbell’s Sermon
Bishop Dennis is a brilliant
speaker. He is able to take
biblical precepts and make them perfectly understandable, even to me. Oft he provides the text of his sermons
and I take the utmost pleasure in passing them on:
Psalm 34, Isaiah 40:1-11, Philippians
3:7-16
Second Sunday after Easter
May 4, 2014
What makes you happy? I think most people would say they are
happy when they, and their family and friends have good health, loving family
and friends, a reasonable level of prosperity, and a comfortable standard of
living. Most of us grew up thinking it is possible to achieve these things if
we are willing to work hard, love our family and friends, treat all people with
respect and compassion, and live within the guidelines of basic, Biblical
morality.
But, by the time we reached our 40s we were beginning to understand
there is more to happiness than what we find in these things. We began to
find that we can have all these things yet not be truly happy. The great
example of this is Solomon, the Old Testament king of Israel and author of the
Biblical book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon had wealth, power, respect, health, and
love. Yet he was unhappy. So he devoted himself to getting more
wealth, more power, and more respect in the hope that he would find
happiness. It didn’t work. We know people like that today, people
who seem to have everything, yet find that everything is not enough, and they
live lives of quiet desperation in gilded cages.
These things are very fragile, and can be taken away from us in the
twinkling of an eye. You may pour your life into loving a person only to
be rejected and thrown away like yesterday’s newspaper. You may amass a
great fortune, only to lose it all in a bad investment or a market crash.
And your health… next to love that is the most fragile of all things. What
happens when these things are taken from us? Can we suffer their loss and
still be happy? We can, but only if our happiness comes from another
source. If these things are all we have, our happiness leaves with
them. If our happiness is founded on something else, it remains, even if
the other things go.
Let me start over again now. Let me start from a different
perspective. Let me ask what makes you unhappy? We could say the
loss of the things I have been talking about makes us unhappy. The loss
of prosperity, health, love, and comfortable life-style makes us unhappy.
We could put it more bluntly and say poverty makes us unhappy. Loneliness
makes us unhappy. Squalour makes us unhappy. Sickness makes us
unhappy. But is that really true? I know of people who are happy
though they are poor, lonely, live in squalor, and have terminal
illnesses. So those things alone cannot be the final deciding factor in
happiness or unhappiness. Tell me if you think this is true: unhappiness is
caused by the desire to have things different from the way they are. We
want a better job, so we become unhappy with the one we have. We want a
better car, a better family life, a better marriage, a better vacation, a
better house, so we become unhappy because we don’t have them. When life
doesn’t measure up to our storybook fantasy of “happily ever after” we become
dissatisfied. We become unhappy.
Do you remember George Bailey, the central character in “It’s a
Wonderful Life?” George didn’t think life was so wonderful. George
resented his life, and he was deeply angry and depressed because he was stuck
in the “crummy little town” of Bedford Falls. He wanted to see the world
and have adventures and money and fun. Bedford Falls was, to him, the
same as Alcatraz. In other words, he wanted things to be different.
Knowing they would never be different, George Bailey was bitterly and
desperately unhappy.
Could it be that being unhappy at the way things are is actually being
unhappy with the life God has given to us, and with the way He has guided and
provided for us as we travel the road of life? Is unhappiness caused by
rejecting what God has provided, and by longing for something else? We
want a carefree existence, God gives stress and problems. We want rest,
God gives work. We resist this. We kick against the prods. We
get angry with God because He doesn’t do things our way. Thus, we lead
ourselves into anger, depression and grief, and, for some, unbelief.
In such situations we would think we would turn to God. But, in
reality, we often turn intensely back to the things. We try to alleviate
our sorrows by drowning them in money, work, amusements, entertainment, even
religion. You have probably seen the bumper sticker that says, “When things get
tough, go shopping.” That is the foundational faith of many people.
Have a bad day at work? Buy a new toy to help you forget about it.
Troubles at home? Go play golf. Spend money. Indulge
yourself. See if you can buy happiness. And it works, for a while.
You get a feeling of happiness when you buy a new toy, and those endorphins are
released in your system. But they soon fade, and the toy goes into that
pile of other toys that gave you pleasure for a moment, but lost their
appeal. So the next day’s troubles require a new toy. And the next
day’s requires another, and so it goes and the depression rises like the credit
card bill.
So, how can we find happiness? Is happiness even possible in
this valley of the shadow of death. The Bible’s answer is a resounding,
“YES.” But it is not found where we usually seek it. When we accept
life as God gives it, and trust God to work it all for our good, we will begin
to be happy. When we are willing to obediently accept what God’s
providence gives, then we are ready to begin letting the world go and start
trusting God. I think this is a big part of what the Bible means in
Philippians 3:8,
“I count all things as loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ.”
Contrary to popular opinion, “dung” refers to garbage. It
consists of things we would put in the trash can. Ancient towns and
cities had dumps outside the gates where people would take their garbage.
Dead animals, spoiled food, and broken furniture would go there. The
Greek word for dung is a combination of two words. One is “ex” from which
we get our word, “exit” and simply means “out.” The other is a word that means
“to throw.” So dung is simply the broken, ruined and spoiled things we
throw out. How appropriate. We throw out the broken, spoiled and
ruined things of this world to find happiness in Christ. We throw out our
ruined dreams, our spoiled hopes, and our broken trinkets, in order to embrace
the things God gives that lead to true happiness. My beloved brothers and
sisters in Christ, when you can count all things as dung compared to knowing
Christ, and when you can gladly suffer the loss of them to find your happiness
in Christ, then you are ready to leave sorrow behind and embrace the peace of
God. I think this has been wonderfully expressed in Isaac Watts’ famous
song, “When I survey the Wondrous Cross.” He wrote, “All the vain things
that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.”
This is difficult. That’s why most people never do it.
Most “Christians” never do it, never even attempt to do it. But it is the
only way to be happy on this earth. And it only comes through years of
hard work, meaning diligent use of the means of grace, including
obedience. By the means of grace we “reach forth” unto the things of God.
By the means of grace we press toward the mark for the prize of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us not think we have attained it
yet. Let us press on toward the mark.
Before I close I want to remind us that the words of Philippians 3
only refer to happiness on earth in a secondary way. Their primary intent
is to point us to Christ and His righteousness as the only way to know God and
be saved. In Philippians 3:5-6 Paul listed all his religious
accomplishments which he had previously believed were his ticket to
Heaven. In his eyes, he was blameless in “the righteousness which is in
the law.” It is this personal righteousness and religious accomplishment
that Paul counts as dung in verse 8. It is dung in his own eyes because
it is dung in the eyes of God. None of us, coming the ticket office in
Williamsburg, would hand the attendant a bag of smelly garbage and expect to be
given a ticket to tour the Governor’s Palace. Yet many think their own
goodness can earn their place in Heaven. Paul is saying your own goodness
is garbage to God. It won’t get you in. It is offensive to
Him. Throw your goodness away and let God dress you in the true goodness
of Christ. Then you will be fit to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Christ died to get you into Heaven. Let Him do it. But He also died
to give us a foretaste of Heaven. He also died to give us new life, a
life lived in His love and peace. He calls this life, “eternal life”
meaning it is like the life we will have when we are finally in Heaven where
sorrows and sins and death will trouble us no more forever. We will be
eternally happy in that land. And in the little glimpses and tastes we
have of it here and now, we can be happy here too.
--
+Dennis
Campbell
Bishop,
Anglican Orthodox Church Diocese of Virginia
Rector,
Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
Powhatan,
Virginia
Roy Morales-Kuhn,
Bishop and Pastor - St. Paul's Anglican Church - Anglican Orthodox Church
Bishop Roy is pastor of the biggest AOC
parish West of the Mississippi and is in charge of the Diocese of the
Epiphany.
Second Sunday after Easter
04 Mat 2014
Epistle: I Peter 2:19-25
Gospel: John 10:11-16
19 For
this is thank worthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief,
suffering wrongfully.
20 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.
21 For
even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us
an example, that ye should follow his steps:
22 Who
did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
23
Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened
not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
24 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.
25 For
ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and
Bishop of your souls.
Remember right after Jesus was arrested, the
disciples ran away. Yes Peter did follow Jesus into the area where he would
later be tried, but before the first rooster crowed, Peter denied Christ three
times as Christ predicted. Peter
will also run away. So now after Jesus has come back from the dead he will
gather his followers around and calm them, teach them and prepare them for the
coming fury of Satan. Understand Satan knows he is defeated, but he will not go
down without trying to take others with him. He will do his best for the next
several millennium to destroy what Christ left behind here on earth.
Notice how Peter in this first letter he
makes reference to at least three Old Testament passages.
“Who did not sin, neither was guile found in his mouth”
{Isa.53:9}.
Then another O.T. reference. “...by whose
stripes ye were healed.” {Isa.53:5} . And finally the passage from Isaiah 53:6.
“All we like sheep have gon astray; we have turned every on to his own way; and
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
The whole 53rd chapter of Isaiah
is the plan of salvation. We can read that and understand that we do not seek
God, He seeks us. We run the other way or as verse six reads ‘turn to our own
way’.
Why do we do this ? Because as David wrote,
we are born into sin. So we must ask Jesus to cleanse us and make us clean. We
must ask Jesus to save us from our sins, we must ask Jesus to come into our
life and make us free. Only he can. His death on the Cross has made our
salvation possible. Seek Jesus today if you doubt that you are saved. Ask him
to come into your heart to heal you of this sin that caused him to go to the
cross instead of you.
Let us now look at our Gospel reading. We
see that Jesus is telling his to be wary of those leaders of the church who
will not protect the church.
The illustration of the Good Shepherd and
the Wolf is not a cautionary tale. It is the Truth of which Jesus tells, a time
coming when those who have been charged with protecting the flock {church} will
run. When there is any controversy, those who are supposed to protect will
flee.
Let’s read this and see what Jesus is saying
to the Jewish-Christians and later to the Gentile-Christians.
11 I
am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
12 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.
13 The
hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
14 I
am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
15 As
the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the
sheep.
16 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 fold, and one shepherd.
In this passage from the tenth chapter of
St. John we learn the man who tries to enter the area where the sheep are safe,
is a thief and a robber. One who wants to deny and take away that which Christ
has given us, our salvation. This is all part of the fight Satan is engaged in.
Because this parable was spoken several weeks before Jesus went to Jerusalem
for the last time, many did not understand what he meant by passages such as “
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
His followers can now understand what he meant. Look at the verses 17 and 18.
“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life–only to take it up
again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have
authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I
received from my Father.” Interesting note as we study this passage of John’s
gospel, we fins a prophecy pertaining to non-Hebrew believers.
Notice what Jesus says in verse 16. “ I have other sheep that are not of this
sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there
shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
Jesus is referring to non-Hebrew believers
here.
This is where the Great Commission comes
into play. “Go ye therefore into the world making disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit..
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely I will be
with you always to the very end of the age.”
It is now clear what he meant, now that the
disciples are talking to Jesus, after he came back from the dead. Over the
forty days that Jesus lingers on earth after Easter there will be some four to
five hundred witness to his being alive. This will be so convincing that these
people will be willing to give up their own lives when they are confronted and
forced to choose between Christ and other choices. The Hebrew authorities will
try to force these early believers to abandon the faith they now have, they
will be threatened with death, shame, being cast out of the synagogue and all
manner of trouble. But they will not give up their belief in the Risen Savior.
This willingness to give up their life rather than convert will actually cause
the Church to grow over the early years of persecution. Many a pagan will come
to the Lord after witnessing believers willingly giving up their lives for this
risen savior. Death in the pagan world was to be feared and all omens or signs
that pointed to death were to be avoided. Even the Hebrew people wrote and
spoke angrily about death. David wrote many a time about being dead and not
remembered. He does not like the idea of death. So when these new believers
came along and did not fear death, it will cause people to take notice. “Surely
there must be something about these people that causes them to willingly go to
their deaths.”
We must learn from those who have gone
before us. We must read, digest, and use the Word of God, the Bible. We must
follow Jesus, because He is the good shepherd, he will not lead us astray, he
will not fail us. Let us follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.
|
T
|
He peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ
our Lord: And the Blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, be amongst you, and remain with you always. Amen.
✟
Rev Rick Reid of
Saint Peter’s Sunday Sermon
We are happy to have a
sermon from Reverend Rick Reid, minister of Saint Peter’s, whose congregation
is right at the Worldwide Headquarters of the Anglican Orthodox Church. Rev Rick has all the resources and challenges
right at hand. I think you will enjoy it.
The
Good Shepherd
In our
Gospel reading: Jesus 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.
In saying
this, Jesus was referring to the unfaithful shepherds of Israel, the kings and
the priests that Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel spoke of. He then declared that He
would be our Shepherd, and that He would be a good and faithful
Shepherd. Jesus was also telling us that He is the fulfillment of the
prophecies, such as this one from Ezekiel 34:
And
the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying,2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of
Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God
unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves!
should not the shepherds feed the flocks?3 Ye eat the fat, and
ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the
flock.4 11 For thus saith the Lord God;
Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.12 As
a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are
scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places
where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.
The
Good Shepherd is of God. He runs from no danger, but pays the
price. That should tell us
Jesus paid our tab, then asked the price. He told His disciples He was
sorrowful to the point of death.
He really didn't want to go to the cross to suffer and die. He
cried out earnestly to His Father in heaven: Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove
this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
(Luke 22:42)
Jesus
truly displayed great courage. I think that John Wayne best described
courage when he said: Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up
anyway. Jesus displayed great courage because He is the Good Shepherd. He is not a hireling,
but the Owner of the sheep. So, He could not run. His duty lay with the flock. He could not deny the need of the
flock. He could not take care of Himself, first. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the
sheep. So Jesus died on the cross…in our place. He died for
His sheep, because we are His, and He is the Good Shepherd And, if He is
the Shepherd, we must be the sheep. Sheep are, in fact, among the least
intelligent of animals. They will wander from safety into danger without any
thought. They will go where they cannot get back from without assistance,
repeatedly. They are helpless in the face of genuine danger, and do not
understand the dangers that confront them, and even when they do, it is often
too late for them to flee or do anything about it to protect
themselves.
T
That is
what makes the sheep a perfect
image for God's people and the Shepherd the perfect image for God
Himself. We also, do not understand the depth of the danger we live
in. We do not always see sin for the evil thing that it is, nor do we
often see our sins, as sins. We do not always follow God. We follow our
family, our friends, our neighbors, just like sheep, into things we ought not
to do, and into attitudes and values which deny our God and betray the faith we
confess. Like sheep, we allow ourselves to be drawn away from what is
wholesome and good, many times, by our expectation of some pleasure, joy, and
some "greener grass" on the other side of the fence.
When we
do discover the danger, and see what we have done, we are not able to
rectify it. Even when we know we have gone astray, we are all too often
unwilling to turn around, unwilling to do the things that we know would bless
and benefit us, unwilling to give up the things we have become accustomed to,
or the high regard of the people we have learned to treasure. Instead we
just stand still; right where we are, and await disaster rather than repent,
ask for forgiveness, and turn away from whatever it is that threatens us.
The devil, the world and
our own sins can threaten and destroy us, if
we are unwilling to give up whatever it is that draws our hearts and attention
from a holy life of faith. Whatever it is that keeps us from His Word, whatever
it is that makes us too busy to pray or too important to put the others
first. Anything which delights us or frightens us into placing God and His
grace out of our minds or out of our priorities is one of those things that
threaten us. Anything that causes us to forget to trust God, or causes us to
despair of God's love, good will, and forgiveness, threatens us. Jesus is the
Son of God, God of God, and Very God of Very God …who came down from heaven and
was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made man.
That
means He became one of us, taking on human nature, flesh and blood and was born
fully human, while still truly and fully God as well.
The
truth is Jesus lived without sin, and spent the last years of His life teaching
His disciples and doing things which should have identified Him as the promised
Messiah of the Old Testament, the Savior intended by God for our rescue from
our sins.
Then
Jesus died. "The Good
Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep." He died on a
cross, as we just celebrated on Good Friday. His death was ours. We
had earned it and we deserved it, and He did not, but He died for us and in our
place anyhow. Because of His great love and His self-giving sacrifice, we
are forgiven. Our sins are not held against us. We are no longer
considered guilty, and deserving punishment and death, but holy and righteous
because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus
won this for all men, and God has promised that all who trust His promises, and
expect what He has promised will receive and possess those promises,
forgiveness, love, and blessings, along with life everlasting, though His Son,
Jesus Christ.
Jesus' sheep hear His voice and follow Him. We follow Him trusting in His power of eternal
life. We hear His voice, all are faithful. We follow by faithfully
delighting in His will, and walking in His ways. We believe in Him, and
we cling to His Word, His truth and most importantly we follow His voice.
Jesus
said His sheep hear His voice.
Those who cannot hear it are not His sheep. Those who will not listen are
not His sheep. Those who will not believe the things His voice is saying
are not His sheep. Those who will not follow Jesus are not His
sheep. In the days of Jesus, shepherds led their sheep; they did not
drive them like cattle. In fact, you cannot drive sheep as one might
drive a herd of cows. You have to lead them. Shepherds of old would
meet and their flocks would mingle, but when it came time to part, the
shepherds would simply walk away and call out, and their sheep would each hear
his shepherd's voice and follow the their shepherd because he was their
shepherd, whom they knew and trusted. Jesus' sheep hear his voice.
He said so. Those who do not hear and follow Him are simply and sadly not
His sheep. And Jesus is the Good Shepherd. There are other shepherds out
there. They speak different words and lead in different directions.
Each has his own agenda, and do not care for the sheep, except as a means to
their own needs. They do not love the sheep because they do not own them,
and they cannot save them, because the kind of saving the sheep need is beyond
anyone but Jesus. When life’s dangers confront the sheep, those false
shepherds, those hirelings, run away and abandon the sheep to their
destruction.
But
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. That means you are safe. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the
sheep. He will protect and keep us in all things. He
will guide and bless us. He will not desert us in our hour of need,
because He is not merely a hired hand. We need have no fear of life or
death. He is our Shepherd. He has loved us to death, and into
everlasting life. Jesus knew that we were like sheep and not able to
understand, and not able to sense the danger we were in, and not able to help
ourselves, so it is finished, He has gone to the cross for our salvation. He
has spoken His love for us in His Word and Sacrament. And as we again read from
Ezekiel the 34th Chapter:
Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Only the
Good Shepherd is the One promised in ancient prophecy: " 14 I
will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall
their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall
they feed upon the mountains of Israel.15 I will feed my flock,
and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.16 I
will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and
will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick:
but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.
He has sought you. He has
gathered us into His flock. He has healed our deepest wounds, and He shed His
blood for our sins.
And He gives us the peace that passes
all understanding. So listen for His voice. Be careful to hear His voice
and not the voice of another. And when we have heard His voice, and know
that it is His voice, we will follow Him.
Do not let anything, success, family,
friends, pleasures, fear, troubles, or sorrows, or any other thing stand in
your way, but follow Him. Be at peace in whatever circumstance you may
find yourself; for Jesus Christ, your Shepherd, is the Good Shepherd.
Rev Bryan Dabney of Saint John’s Sunday
Sermon
We are fortunate to
have Bryan’s Sunday Sermon. If you
want people to come to The Truth, you have to speak the truth, expouse the
truth and live the truth. This is really a good piece and I
commend it to your careful reading.
Second Sunday after Easter
Consider the words of our lesson from the book of Ezekiel wherein the
prophet was given to pronounce, For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I,
will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his
flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek
out my sheep , and will deliver out of all places where they have been
scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the
people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own
land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel... (34:11-13).
In a later chapter, the prophet was given of the LORD to say more on
this subject: . . . Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel:
behold, they say, Our bones are dried, our hope is lost: we are cut off for our
parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O
my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your
graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the
LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of
your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall
place you in your own land: then ye shall know that I the LORD have spoken it,
and performed it, saith the LORD (37:11-14).
The prophet Jeremiah was also given to write on the dispersal and re-
gathering of Israel when he prophesied saying, Because they have forsaken my
law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked
therein; but have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after
Baalim, which their fathers taught them: therefore thus saith the LORD of
hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them wormwood, and give them
water of gall to drink. I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom
neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them,
till I have consumed them (9:13- 16). . . He that scattered Israel will gather
him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock (31:10).
Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah were well known as bearers of bad tidings to
the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The LORD had commissioned them to warn the
descendants of Jacob about his coming judgment for their sins against him. Yet,
sprinkled through their proclamations of judgment were passages such as our
lesson today where God made known that he would redeem the remnant and restore
them to the land which he had sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would
give them.
From the beginning of their history, the children of Israel have been
notoriously stiff-necked and willful. Consider the following examples of their
refusenik nature.
After leaving Egypt, they set up a false god to worship (32:1-6). God
dealt with the rebels as Moses called on the Levites to draw their swords and
slay several thousand of the wicked. Moses then had the golden calf ground to
powder and the dust thereof was cast into water which the people were forced to
drink.
In the book of Numbers, we are told of their refusal to enter the land
of promise because they were afraid, and as a result, the LORD their God
forbade them to go in and take possession of that good land for some forty
years (13:26-33; 14:1-3).
Even after entering the land of Canaan, they refused to follow through
on God’s command that they drive out the heathen peoples living there (Judges
2:1- 3). As a result, the LORD made the Canaanites a stumbling block and a
thorn in their flesh. They also sought to have kings over them instead of the
one, true and living God (I Samuel 8:1-8). Saul— their first king— was
rebellious and self- willed, and God soon replaced him with David. Under
David’s leadership, the people conquered Jerusalem and it became their capital
(II Samuel 5:6-12) as well as their seat of worship. Later, David’s son,
Solomon, constructed the first great Temple upon Mount Moriah (I Kings 6:1).
But even those great men were plagued by sinful acts and bouts of willfulness.
The rest of the kings of both Judah and Israel were for the most described as
being persons who did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD (II Kings
13:11).
Things got so bad in the northern kingdom of Israel that God permitted
them to be carted off into captivity by the Assyrians in 721 B.C. The southern
kingdom lasted but another 135 years before it too was carried away into
captivity by the Babylonian Chaldeans. And while the people of Judah and
Benjamin were eventually permitted to return to their homeland, the ten tribes
of the northern kingdom did not begin their return until centuries after Judah
had formally returned.
The catastrophes of 70 and 135 A.D. saw the Jews reduced, and then
removed from the land of Canaan which was renamed Palestine by the Romans. With
their homeland taken from them, their holy Temple destroyed, and their
population greatly reduced, the name “Wandering Jew” took hold. While some of
the Roman emperors tolerated them, with the coming of Constantine and his
elevation of the Christian faith, the Jew became a hated and maligned figure
agreeable to the prophecy of Moses found in Deuteronomy (28:63-68).
The prophet Zechariah affirmed the above when he penned the following:
But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped
their ears, that they should not hear. Yea, they made their hearts as an
adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of
hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets... I scattered them with a
whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate
after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant
land desolate (7:11-14).
Scripture makes it abundantly clear that the LORD God scattered the
children of Israel because of their sins and trespasses. While the first two
scatterings (the kingdoms of Israel and Judah) were for the most part regional,
the last one in 70 A.D. was over a much wider area, literally from one end of heaven
to the other, and over a much longer period of time.
And on account of their rejection of their promised Messiah, Jesus
Christ, God deprived them of their homeland, the Temple, and the great city of
Jerusalem. With the loss of the Temple, they had no place to offer their
sacrifices to the LORD; and no sacrifices meant no atonement. The loss of
Jerusalem meant there was no place to erect a new temple, for it could only be
set up there. And without their homeland, they were a people dispossessed and left
to wander about with no true national home. They would try to adapt themselves
as citizens of the countries where they migrated, but they generally met with
little success and much sorrow.
The Bible says that there is but one homeland for the children of
Israel and that is the land of promise. And so the Diaspora in 70 AD was that
scattering among the heathen nations which had been foretold them by Moses when
he prophesied that, . . . among these... shalt thou find no ease, neither shall
the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling
heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in
doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none
assurance of thy life (Deuteronomy 28:65-66). And our Lord prophetically warned
them on account of their failure to know the time of their visitation when he
said, Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye
shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord (St. Matthew 23:38- 39).
Forty years later, Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans and bulk of
the people were sold into slavery. The Bar-Cochba Revolt (132-135 A.D.) seems
to have been the final phase of third scattering as the Romans finished their
work of driving the remaining Jews out of Judea and into Galilee. The children
of Israel had become as Moses had prophesied, a stateless people. It was on
account of the aforementioned events, that several notable Christian scholars—
from antiquity even until today— believe that God has washed his hands of the
children of Jacob who have, on so many occasions, rejected his word and
commandment.
In spite of all this, God’s promise to the patriarchs remains in force.
Throughout the books of the prophets, God spoke to the children of Israel
promising them, And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon
thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt
call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven
thee, And shalt return unto the LORD... then the LORD thy God will turn thy
captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from
all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee... And... will
bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess
it, and he will do thee good and multiply thee above thy fathers (Deuteronomy
30:1-5). He has preserved for himself a remnant. In the book of Isaiah, God
made it plain that, Except the LORD of host had left unto us a very small
remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto
Gomorrah (1:9).
In the book of Jeremiah, the prophet reminded the people that, For lo,
the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my
people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the
land that I gave their fathers, and they shall possess it (30:3). And in that
same book, God affirmed his relationship to them when spoke of the unbreakable
nature of the covenant with them (31:31-40).
In the book of Zechariah we are told, Behold I will save my people from
the east country, and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they
shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will
be their God, in truth and in righteousness (8:7-8).
If God is willing to save and restore for his purposes a people who had
been long in rebellion against him, what joy there should be in our hearts
because he has promised us— who had once been in rebellion and separated from
him— that he will not suffer us to be taken from the hand of our Saviour. Our
Lord has promised to finish the work he began so long ago. On a day known only
to the Father, our Lord will, pour upon the house of David, and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they
shall look upon me [Jesus Christ] whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn
for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him,
as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn (Zechariah 12:10). And so God
will gather all true believers to himself in one fold and one flock. What a joy
there will be on that day, so pray for the hastening of it. And pray also that
others will be joined to our Lord in his salvific work by our life and witness
on his behalf.
Let us pray,
|
O
|
LORD our God, who art the author of all life upon this orb; grant we
beseech thee thy blessings and lovingkindness upon the nation of Israel; take
away their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh; breathe upon them and
restore them as you have prophesied through your prophets, so that they might
come to a saving knowledge of him who is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and
without whom no person can be saved, even Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Have a blessed week, Bryan+
Guest Sermon - William Arnot
Bishop Jerry writes … An old
friend of mine who deceased in 1875 wrote the following sermon. He was a
favorite of my father's and now is one of my favorites. He has a gift to
explain God's Word in terms that the simple (such as I am) can understand.
Anchor of the Soul
Which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the
veil.
Hebrews vi. 19.
In the margin of the ocean that
surrounds and laves our island home, an object of absorbing interest may often
be observed, —a ship riding at anchor near a lee shore in an angry sea. She has
drifted, ere she was aware, too near a rock-bound coast: the wind is blowing
direct on shore: there is not room to tack: whether she should point her prow
north or south, she will strike a projecting headland ere she can escape from
the bay. One resource remains, —to anchor where she is till the wind change.
There she lies. Stand on this
height and look down upon her through the drifting spray. I scarcely know in
nature a more interesting or more suggestive sight. The ship is dancing on the
waves: she appears to be in their power and at their mercy. Wind and water
combine to make her their sport. Destruction seems near; for if the vessel's
hull is dashed by these waves upon the rocks of the coast, it will be broken
into a thousand pieces. But you have stood and looked on the scene a while, and
the ship still holds her own. Although at first sight she seemed the helpless
plaything of the elements, they have not overcome—they have not gained upon her
yet. She is no nearer destruction than when you first began to gaze in
anticipation of her fate. The ship seems to have no power to resist the onset
of wind and wave. She yields to every blast and every billow. This moment she
is tossed aloft on the crest of a wave, and the next she sinks heavily into the
hollow. Now her prow goes down beneath an advancing breaker, and she is lost to
view in the spray; but anon she emerges, like a sea-fowl shaking the water from
her wings and rejoicing in the tumult. As she quivered and nodded giddily at
each assault, you thought, when first you arrived in sight, that every moment
would prove her last but now that you have watched the conflict long, it begins
to assume in your mind another aspect, and promise another end. These motions
of the ship now, instead of appearing the sickly movements of the dying, seem
to indicate the calm, confident perseverance of conscious strength and expected
victory. Let winds and waves do their worst, that ship will meet them fearless,
will hold her head to the blast, and maintain her place in defiance of their
power. What is the secret of that ship's safety.? No other ship is in sight to
which she may cling: no pillar stands within reach to which she may be moored.
The bond of her security is a line that is unseen. The ship is at anchor. The
One on which she hangs does not depend on the waters, or anything that floats
there; it goes through the waters, and fastens on a sure ground beyond 'them.
Thus, though the ship cannot escape from the wild waters, she is safe on their
surface. She cannot, indeed, take the wings of a dove and fly away so as to be at
rest; but the sea cannot cover her, and the wind cannot drive her on the beach.
She must, indeed, bear a while the tempest's buffetings; but she is not for a
moment abandoned to the tempest's will. The motto of that ship is the motto
once held aloft in triumph by a tempted but heroic soul: "We are
perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not
destroyed" (2 Cor. iv. 8, 9).
An immortal creature on this
changeful life is like a ship upon the ocean. On the strength of that obvious
analogy the apostle intimates, by a bold yet perspicuous figure, that we have
" an anchor of the soul." The soul, considered as a passenger on the
treacherous sea of Time, needs an anchor; and an anchor "sure and
steadfast" is provided for the needy soul.
In many respects the world, and
life on it, are like the sea. Itself restless, it cannot permit to rest any of
the pilgrims that tread its heaving, shifting surface. At some times, and in
some places, great tempests rise; but even in its ordinary condition it is
always and everywhere uncertain, deceptive, dangerous. Currents of air and
currents of ocean intermingle with and cross each other in endless and unknown
complications, bringing even the most skilful mariner to his wit's end—making
him afraid either to stand still or to advance. On this heaving sea we must all
lie. Even our Father in heaven does not lift up his own, and Christ the Son
does not ask him so to do: “ I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of
the world; but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." The best that
can be done for them, in this world, is to preserve them from sinking or
striking on the shore. The soul is tossed by many temptations; but the anchor
of the soul is sure and steadfast within the veil. Without are fightings,
within are fears, —all these are against us; but one thing will over-balance
and overcome them—" Our life is hid with Christ in God."
Hope sometimes signifies the act
of a human spirit laying hold of an unseen object, and sometimes the object
unseen whereon the human spirit in its need lays hold. These two significations
may be combined together: they are so combined here. " The Hope set before
us," is Christ entered for us now within the veil; and the hope that
" we have," is the exercise of a believing soul when it trusts in the
risen Redeemer. These two cannot be separated. The one is the grasp which a
believing soul takes of Christ, and the other Is the Christ whom a believing
soul is grasping. These two run so close together that you cannot perceive
where the joining Is. " I am the vine, ye are the branches." Even so.
Lord; and what human eye can tell the very line which marks where the branch
ends and the vine begins? Christians are members of Christ, —of his flesh and
of his bones. " As he is, so are we in this world." " Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me. -*" "Which Hope we have." If you
ask me, Whether does he mean, by hope, the Christ on whom his soul is leaning,
or his own act of leaning on Christ } I answer, Both. You cannot have one of
these without having both. The branch has the vine; but it has also its own
living growth into the vine. And if it had not that living growth into the
vine, it would not have the vine. So the soul has Christ, and also its own
living faith in Christ, wanting which it would have no Christ.
Mark well here what it is that
renders a disciple safe and firm as he floats on the rushing tide of Time. It
is not terror of the Lord in his conscience. Such terror may awaken a
slumberer, and make him flee to that which will keep him; but the terror itself
cannot keep him. Fear repels; it is hope that holds; —blessed hope!
The anchor must not be cast on
anything that floats on the water, however large and solid it may seem. The
largest thing that floats is an iceberg. But although an iceberg does not shake
like a ship, but seems to receive the waves and permit them to break on its
sides as they break on the shore, it would be ruin to anchor the ship to it.
The larger and the less would drift the same way, and perish together. Ah! this
stately Church—this high-seeming and high-sounding ecclesiastical organization,
woe to the human spirit that is tempted in the tossing to make fast to that
great imposing mass! It is not sure and steadfast. It is floating: it moves
with the current of the world: it moves to an awful shore! Not there, not
there! Your hope, when you stretch it out and up for eternal life, must enter
" into that within the veil, whither the Forerunner is for us
entered."
Nor will it avail a drifting ship
to fix its anchor on itself It would be very childish to try this method; but I
have seen full-grown people betake themselves with great energy to this foolish
shift. When a boat on a stream broke adrift with a few unskilful people on
board, I have seen them in their alarm grasp the gunwale and bend themselves
and draw with all their might in the direction of the shore! In spite of their
drawing, the boat glided with them down the stream. In the concerns of the soul
such childishness is even more common. Faith in one's own faith or charity is a
common exercise among men. Beware! Hope must go out for a hold; even as the
ship's anchor must be flung away from the ship. The eye is made for looking
with, not for looking at. Away from all in ourselves, and out through all that
floats like ourselves on this shifting sea, we must throw the anchor of the
soul through the shifting waters into Him who holds them in the hollow of his
hand.
Mark, further, that hope in
Christ is specifically the anchor of the soul. Here, like draws to like: spirit
to spirit. God is a Spirit, and they that worship him worship him in spirit.
There is no anchor that will make our temporal possessions fast. Wealth, and
friends, and even life, may drift away any day on the flood; and no power on earth
can arrest the movement. These bodily things may or may not abide with a
Christian; but his anchor does not hold them. It is only an anchor of the soul,
not an anchor of the body. We must not expect from the Lord what he never
promised.
There are contrivances not a few
in our day for fixing material property, so that it shall not drift away in the
currents of time. The system of assurances both on life and property has
reached an enormous magnitude. Amidst its great and manifold branches, the
wicked have of late years, like wild beasts in a forest, found cover for
various crimes. Things are now made fast which our forefathers thought
essentially uncertain, like the currents of the ocean. Treasures are insured
while they cross the sea in ships, so that, though the vessel go to the bottom,
the importer gets his own. The food and clothing of a wife and children, which
formerly were left to float on the uncertain waters of the husband and father's
life, are made fast by insurance to an anchor which holds them, although that
life should glide away. Taking up the obvious analogy employed in this
scripture, one of the insurance societies has adopted the anchor as its name.
But the action of these anchors
is limited to things seen and temporal. They cannot be constructed so as to
catch and keep any spiritual thing. They may hold fast a wife's fortune, when
the life of the bread-winner falls in; but they cannot maintain joy- in her
heart, or kindle light in her eye. Far less can they insure against the
shipwreck of the soul. With these things they do not intermeddle. All the world
may be gained for a man, and kept for him too, and yet he is a loser, if he
lose his own soul. Only one anchor can grasp and hold the better part of
man—and that is the hope which enters into the heavens, and fastens there in
Jesus.
The anchor—in as far as it
indicates the object which hope grasps—the anchor is " sure and
steadfast." The expressions are exact and full. The words are tried words.
They are given in order that we might have strong consolation who have fled for
refuge to the hope set before us.
There are two cases in which
one's hope may be disappointed: the support you lean on may be unwilling or
unable to sustain you. In the one case it is deception; in the other, weakness.
A Christian's hope is not exposed to either flaw: it is both "sure and
steadfast;" that is, the Redeemer, who holds them, is willing and able. He
will not falsely let you go, nor feebly faint beneath your weight. He is true
and strong—for these are the words. He both will and can keep that which we
commit to him against that day.
With the same meaning, but by
means of another analogy, Christ is represented elsewhere in Scripture as a
foundation; and it is intimated that the foundation is a tried one. It has been
put to the strain, and has stood the test.
In modern practice great
importance attaches to the trying of an anchor. Many ships have been lost
through accident or fraud in the manufacture. The instrument had a good
appearance, but there was a flaw in its heart; and when the strain came, it
snapped, and all was lost. For the security of the subject, the Government have
erected an apparatus for testing anchors; and the royal seal is stamped on
those that have been approved. When the merchantman purchases an anchor so
certified, he has confidence that it will not fail him in his need. It is
interesting, and even solemn work, to test anchors, and stamp them as approved.
Beware! set not the seal on one that is doubtful, for many precious lives will
yet be entrusted to its keeping.
He who is now the anchor of the
soul within the veil, was " made perfect through suffering." The
safety of which this text speaks, is safety such as an anchor affords. This is
different from the safety of a ship on a stormless sea, and different from the
safety of a ship that is moored fore and aft within the walls of a harbour.
Both these positions are safe; but they differ both from each other and from
safety by an anchor. Man unfallen enjoyed the first kind of safety, and the
ransomed in rest enjoy the second; but the place of a believer in the body is
neither like that of a ship on a calm sea, nor like that of a ship within the
harbour, —it is like a ship exposed to raging winds above, and deceitful
currents below. Such a soul may be abundantly safe; but its safety is of the
kind that a ship enjoys while it is exposed to the storms, and before it
reaches the haven – the safety that an exposed ship enjoys through an anchor
that is sure and steadfast. Take now a series of practical lessons.
1. The ship that is kept by an
anchor, although safe, is not at ease. It does not, on the one hand, dread
destruction; but neither, on the other hand, does it enjoy rest. "
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try
you." Those who have entered the harbor do not need an anchor; and those
who are drifting with the stream do not cast one out. The hope which holds is
neither for the world without nor the glorified within, but for Christ's people
as they pass through life rejoicing with trembling; faint, yet pursuing. "
In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer: I have overcome
the world."
2. But further: the ship that is
held by an anchor is not only tossed in the tempest like other ships, - it is
tossed more than other ships. The ship that rides at anchor experiences
rackings and heavings that ships which drift with the tide do not know. So,
souls who have no hold of Christ seem to lie softer on the surface of a heaving
world than souls that are anchored on his power and love. The drifting ship,
before she strikes, is more smooth and more comfortable than the anchored one;
but when she strikes, the smoothness is all over. The pleasures of sin are
sweet to those who taste them; but the sweetness is only for a season. “The
wicked shall be driven away in his iniquity; but the righteous hath hope in his
death."
3. When the anchor has been cast
into a good ground, the heavier the strain that comes on it, the deeper and
firmer grows its hold. As winds and currents increase in violence, the anchor
bites more deeply into the solid, and so increases its preserving power. It is
thus with a trusting soul: temptations, instead of driving him away from his
Saviour, only fix his affections firmer on the Rock of Ages. " When I am
weak, then am I strong;" when I am most exposed, then am I safest, in the
hollow of my Redeemer's hand. If you have hold, it is in a time of temptation
that you will increase the intensity of your grasp. Accordingly you find, as a
general rule, that those Christians who have passed through a great fight of
afflictions are stronger in the faith than others who have always sailed on a
smooth sea.
4. The ship that is anchored is
sensitive to every change of wind or tide, and ever turns sharply round to meet
and resist the stream, from what direction soever it may flow. A ship is safest
with her head to the sea and the tempest. In great storms the safety of all
often depends on the skill with which the sailors can keep her head to the rolling
breakers. Life and death have sometimes hung, for a day and a night in the
balance, whether the weary steersman could keep her head to the storm until the
storm should cease. Even a single wave allowed to strike her on the broadside
might send all to the bottom. But to keep the ship in the attitude of safety,
there is no effort and no art equal to the anchor. As soon as the anchor feels
the ground, the vessel that had been drifting broadside, is brought up, and
turns to the waves a sharp prow that cleaves them in two and sends them
harmless along the sides.
Watch from a height any group of
ships that may be lying in an open roadstead. At night when you retire they all
point westward; in the morning, they are all looking to the east. Each ship has
infallibly felt the first veering of the wind or water, and instantly veered in
the requisite direction, so that neither wind nor wave has ever been able to
strike her on the broadside. Thereby hangs the safety of the ship. Ships not at
anchor do not turn and face the foe. The ship that is left loose will be caught
by a gust on her side, and easily thrown over.
As with ships, so with souls:
those that are anchored feel sensitively the direction and strength of the
temptation, and instantly turn to meet and to overcome it; whereas those that
are not anchored are suddenly overcome, and their iniquities, like the wind,
carry them away. " We are saved by hope; " —saved not only from being
outcast in the end, but from yielding to temptation now.
It is a vain imagination that
rises in ignorant minds against the gospel of Christ, that when a sinner gets a
glad hope in Christ's mercy, he will not be careful to obey Christ's law. It is
an old objection, and perhaps it is human and natural; but it is not real—it is
not true. As certainly as the anchored ship feels every gust and every current,
and turns sharply round to face and fight it; so certainly a soul that has hope
in Christ has a quick and sure instinct to detect influences and companionships
and customs that dishonour the Lord and ensnare his people. And as the hopeful
soul surely detects the danger, it also, in virtue of its hold and hope, turns
round to meet, to resist, and to make the devil flee.
I suppose no youth, since Pharaoh
reigned in Egypt, has been exposed to a greater strain of temptation than that
which Joseph overcame in Potiphar's house. But it was hope that saved him, as
the anchor saves the ship. If he had not been at peace with God, he would have
been like a ship caught on the broadside by a hurricane. It was the anchor of
the soul, sure and steadfast within the veil before the blast began, that
enabled him to overcome it: " How can I do this great evil, and sin
against God?''
5. When the ship is anchored, and
the sea is running high, there is great commotion at her bows. The waves in
rapid succession come on and strike. When they strike they are broken, and
leap, white and angry, high up on the vessel's sides. This tumult is by no
means agreeable in itself; but the mariner on board would not like to want it,
for it is the sign of safety. If, while wind and waves continue to rage, he
should observe that this commotion had suddenly ceased, he would not rejoice.
He would look eagerly over the bulwarks, and seeing the water blue on her bows,
instead of the hissing, roaring spray, he would utter a scream of terror. The
smoothness at her bows indicates to him that her anchor is dragging. The ship
is drifting with wind and water to the shore.
Such, too, is the experience of a
soul. Brother, you hope in Christ. Do not be surprised that the currents of
fashion rub sometimes rudely against you. It is explained by a text in the
Bible: " The friendship of the world is enmity with God." If you are
fixed, a great flood is rushing by, and it must needs cause a commotion round
you. An impetuous tide of worldliness will dash disagreeably against you from
time to time. Do not be too anxious to make all smooth. Peace may be bought too
dear. When the mighty stream of vanity on which you float produces no ruffling at
the point of contact, —when it is not disagreeable to you, and you not
disagreeable to it, —suspect that your anchor is dragging, that it has lost its
hold, and that you are drifting into danger.
Cast in the anchor while the sea
is calm: you will need it to lean on when the last strain comes on!
