Bishop Jerry is on travel from Statesville at present, he asks you consider this sermon from Rev Jack Arnold from the Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California:
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| If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE! |
Today’s sermon brought
the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the
forewords above.
The Fourth Sunday in Advent
The Collect.
O
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LORD, raise up, we
pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that
whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in
running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may
speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee
and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, world without end. Amen.
The Collect for the First Sunday
in Advent is on Page 90:
The First Sunday in Advent
The
Collect.
A
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LMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of
darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal
life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in
the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both
the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who
liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.
¶ This Collect
is to be repeated every day, after the other Collects in Advent, until
Christmas Day.
As is oft the case, today’s
propers all tie together to reinforce a point and build our understanding of
what God wants and expects from each of us. The Collect asks for God’s help for us to accept His Help and
do it His Way. That is a thought
that permeates or at least should permeate our entire lives. It is oft supposed Christians are dour
souls, with no sense of happiness or humor. Perhaps this thought comes from those who have heard what
the Bible says, filtered through some odd prism, but have never actually read
it. That may have been the way the Puritians thought, but then again, the
Puritians were not holding to the consistent truth of the Bible. After all God
commands us to make a “joyful” noise unto the Lord! Not, a dour, grumbling and
solemn noise, but an exceedingly JOYFUL noise unto the Lord! There is nothing
in the Bible that says you cannot have fun whilst worshipping our Lord, in fact
that is the preferred way to worship Him! In fact, if we enjoy worshipping the Lord,
then we are most apt to do more of our best to follow Him, if we are enjoying
ourselves whilst doing so!
After all, the one said to be the
most dour of all, Paul, tells us to be happy. Not just happy, but to REJOICE. REJOICE in the Lord ALWAYS and AGAIN I say REJOICE! How much more fun can you have? We are also to be moderate in
everything we do, no excesses, an even keel. Work hard, but maintain a time and space for our family,
honor our country, and above all honor God. He goes on to tell us if we think we need something, simply
ask God for it! Speaking of God,
John recounts John the Baptist’s role in preparing the way for Jesus. The Pharisees just had trouble with the
simplicity of his message. They
were looking for something more complex, less straightforward, something more
like themselves.
They were not willing to accept
the change in the status quo that the New Testament would break their role in
finding ways around the commandments Jesus gave, as there is no way around the
two commandments, namely of loving God with all our heart, soul and mind, and
loving our neighbors as ourselves! Without those, we are just pitiful, weak,
sinful beings! But, if we embrace those commandments, we start to shed our old
man image, and put on a newer, shinier and better image. We then become, Man
2.0, quite the upgrade from the first version!
The Pharisees were a case of no
play, all work and led a rather unbalanced life. We are told to balance
ourselves with play besides work, to make us into a happier people who will
rejoice in God’s commandments and will do His Work without complaint. We will be happier in the end if we do
it His Way instead of our way as we are so want to do, which is in our nature.
The whole of Scriptures is about us fighting against our nature so we will be
closer to what God intended us to be; a happy and holy people, living together
in harmony. If the world would do what God asked, our lives would be so much
better, we would all be living together in happiness. Peace on earth will not
be possible until the world accepts Him into their hearts. This is the perfect
season for those who haven’t yet, to accept Him, to acknowledge Him at His
first true appearance amongst us, at His Birth. There is always time to accept
Him, but do not wait until it is too late to do so!
People can accept Him any at any time, but sooner rather than later is
preferable.
Jesus also tells us to put our
trust in the Lord, then not to worry.
He knows how counterproductive, indeed how destructive worry can be in
our lives. We know it not only
cannot, but will not do good, we know it will only hurt our cause; yet we do
it. Is this not a proof positive
of how much we need His Help? How
hard is it to Trust in God and Dread Naught? Very! Yet to
make progress this we must do. Even though it is very hard to trust somebody
you can’t see physically, you must trust your spiritual sense and follow Him
anyway! Knowing you will see Him
physically one day, is one of our great rewards. This
greatly eases at least my worries and it should ease yours as well. There is
always going to be a great evil in this day and age and we do not need to add
to our existing problems by worrying. Worrying solves nothing and can in fact
create more problems for you. It is an activity that we need to do our best to
stop doing.
The world is extremely complex;
it is full of problems, temptations and difficulties. It is full of obstacles for us, yet all Christianity offers
is a few simple solutions. We
often hear there are no simple answers to complex questions. Actually, that is not true. There are simple answers to complex
problems, they are the only ones which can and will work. The problem is they are not the answers
people want. Most people do not
want to know what they are supposed to do, lest they have to do it. They want to be told what they want to
do is at least okay, even though it is clearly not okay. But we need to know
what we are doing is the actual “Okay.” thing, and not what Joe on the corner
claims is Okay. To do that, we have to read the Scriptures and listen to what
God says is Okay, because He really does know the best in this matter for us.
Once again, when you think about
being a Christian, think a bit about these quotes from GK Chesterton:
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Christianity has not been tried and found
wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.
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The word good has many meanings. For example, if
a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should
call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.
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The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and
also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.
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Tolerance is the virtue of the man without
convictions.
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A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a
living thing can go against it.
G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)
We are called to a new and
different life, we ask the Lord to both lead us and follow us, to keep us
always. Our goal is to do the
Lord’s will, not to avoid 613 laws.
To do what is right and be humble.
Heaven is at the end of an uphill
trail. The easy downhill trail
does not lead to the summit.
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
