No sermon from Bishop
Jerry today. Not to worry, he and
Debbie are merely on travel to Stateville to GHQ[1]! All is well. He sends his heart felt joy of our Lord to each of you! He provided the Easter Letter and a lot
more this past week. If you don’t
get his daily devotions, let Hap know and you can.
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If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE!
Sermon - Rev Hap Arnold
Church of the Faithful Centurion -
Descanso, California
Today’s sermon ties together
the propers, that is to say the prayer and readings for this week.
Today is Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ. The central event
of not only the Christian Year; but of Christianity and the entire world. Witness the terms AD and BC. Anno Domini (the year of our Lord) and
Before Christ. Even the politically correct BCE - CE (that is to say, Before Common Era and Common Era) divides time at the birth of our Lord. Even those who fall in that trap must recognize Him!
When you google images for the term Easter, you find
95 percent of the images, eggs, bunnies and chocolates. That is NOT our celebration. That is
NOT what Easter is about. Easter is not about finding goodies inside plastic
shells. The Christian year has four main celebrations. Christmas celebrates the
incarnation or human birth of Jesus, the Christ of God. Epiphany celebrates His revealing to
the Gentiles, that would be us!
Good Friday remembers, the word celebrate hardly fits here, the one time
sacrifice for all mankind for all time by our Lord and Savior (that is where
the word savior comes in) that we might be accounted as perfect when we stand
before Him at the final judgment day.
Today, Easter is, in Spanish La
Resurreccion, in English The
Resurrection, The Return to Life of
Jesus, Christ of God, who returned from death, from Hell, to deliver His
promise of eternal life in person!
Consider these words from the
Collect:
… Jesus Christ hast overcome
death, and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life; We humbly beseech thee
that, as by thy special grace preventing us thou dost put into our minds good
desires, so by thy continual help we may bring the same to good effect…
In the Collect, we acknowledge by the sacrifice made
on Good Friday by the One and Only Perfect Man, a single sacrifice, made one
time, for all mankind, for all time by our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Christ of
God, we have eternal life. We no
longer our bound to the rules of the Old Covenant whereby animal sacrifices
were required. These sacrifices have never worked, as they could not provide
what Christ provided in His Sacrifice. He provided a body free and unblemished
from the tarnishes of sin. He was truly the perfect Lamb without blemish or
spot. This would allow Him to stand in our place. He truly took our place upon
the cross of sin literally and figuratively. By Jesus Christ overcoming death,
we through Him, are no longer under the threat of death of our eternal soul in
the Pit. No longer can anyone
condemn us to death, they may destroy our bodies, but we live on in Him and
through Him in Heaven. With the
acknowledgement God sent His Son to be our Savior giving us eternal life, we go
on to ask His Help so our hearts might desire good and with that Help put those
desires into action so that we might accept that eternal life offered us by
that same Jesus Christ. That is
what that preventing is all about. Today we think of the word as meaning
stopping something, but it also means going before one, as in this case God’s
special or particular grace preparing the way for us. Without Him to smooth the road, we will not make it.
Paul then tells us, if we say we are with Christ, we
must act with Him. The Sacrifice
He made for us is not free. There is no free lunch, nor in this case is there a
free ticket to Heaven. There is a continual debate in many denominations
whether we are saved by faith alone, or by good works. Our answer to this
debate should be that only the faith of Jesus can save us, His faith, not ours;
then our faith in Him, our belief, our trust, in Him, not in our own
selves. If we have faith, we have
to firstly believe, and if we truly believe, we must of necessity back up that
claimed faith with actions or works so to speak. So we are saved by our faith, but our faith requires
operative action upon our part. We must continually seek to better our selves
by setting our sights on Him in Heaven and guiding our actions by Him, by
associating with others likeminded.
We must turn our backs on this earth if we truly face heaven. We must use Jesus as our compass, for
looking to ourselves results only in confusion. As Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:24 “One cannot serve two masters.” We
must choose Him or Mammon. I know which one I choose, hopefully you do too as
well.
When we come to Holy Week, we find a triumphant
entrance into Jerusalem, triumphant in the eyes of the beholders, beholders who
really have no clue what this is all about. The crowd, with some of the same people who later condemned
Him, welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with the expectation He came to free them
from the Roman yoke, to hold them up, to put their feet on the Romans’ necks. Yet, He knew where He was going and what
would happen. He was in control of the situation, He knew what was going to happen. He would not have set the
plan in motion if He didn’t know it would work. He knew that the end result
would be a success, but He also knew that there would be incredible pain and
suffering involved on the road to His resurrection.
As He saw the road ahead was filled with obstacles,
the pain and suffering, so too, do we know that it will be filled with hard
times and suffering also. But like He, we must persevere on the straight and
narrow path, refusing to ever give up. He never gave up on us, why would we
give up on Him? When we are in
trying and very difficult circumstances let us remember Our Lord’s
circumstances. When those who had followed Him abandoned Him, including Peter
who denied him three times. Add to this being betrayed by one of those He had
included in the ranks of the Apostles, who had been seduced by the greed of
earthly treasures. Then on top of this, His unfair trial, then His painful
death upon the cross for us all. Then He had to descend into Hell and do battle
with the Devil.
Compared to all of this, are any of our circumstances
even close? Can any of them truly compare to the sadness, despair and agony our
Lord felt in Holy Week, with the Dramatic Conclusion on Good Friday. The answer
is no, no matter how hard and trying our circumstances are, we cannot even come
close to the magnitude of pain He felt. We must remember how hard things were
during this week for Him, especially as He knew precisely what would happen to
Him.
The week built towards the First Day of the First
Week of the New Covenant.
Jesus knew what He was doing.
Reflect on this, during World War II on D-Day, the
first waves were National Guard and new recruits. No veterans of Torch, Norway or Dieppe. Why? Because all the soldiers were patriots and all were ready to
defend their country; but like Peter, the new guys did not know what that
really meant.
Crucifixion, a cruel painful death. Painful beyond our comprehension. Think about the mechanics of being
nailed to a cross. Think about
that. Then think about the descent
into hell to do battle with the devil.
Think about that. No matter
what you imagine, like D-Day the reality exceeded the expectation.
Yet Jesus, being God, knew exactly[2]
what He was volunteering for. And
He rode towards the sound of gunfire with full and certain knowledge of His
Death and also of His Resurrection. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends. John 15.13
Jesus went with full knowledge aforethought where no
one would go – FOR YOU, FOR ME, FOR US.
That is Good Friday’s lesson.
Today, The Resurrection, Easter or as it is called in
Spanish, Dia de la Resurreccion, is the
day that the promise of everlasting life was delivered. It is the completion of
the sacrifice He made for us on Good Friday, it is His triumphant return from
the depths of Hell, having procured an eternal victory for all of those who
would truly follow Him and act upon His name. He went for us with full
knowledge of where no one but Him would go, so that we may have eternal life.
Dwell on that and think of how much love He truly has for us, that he went and
endured significant and terrible emotional pain for us.
This one perfect sacrifice, one time, for all time
and for all mankind was made for YOU.
All you need to do to get the benefit is follow Christ. So, what does that mean? See John 14.23: Jesus answered and
said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words:
and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with
him.
It is not if you attend church or not that makes you
a Christian, it is if you do what He asks of you. Going to church just gives you help and encouragement. It makes you part of a team, part of a
coherent unit. After all, the more
people there are in a group like the church, the more stable it will be. And
more stable also will our spiritual lives be if we have friends and family
involved in it as well, to keep us on that straight and narrow path.
Today, you have a choice, just like every day. Today you can be a Chreaster, that is
one who celebrates Christmas
and Easter and does not live
the life or you can be a Christian.
One who follows Christ. There is a difference between the two and it is
big The key in the difference is actions and faith. You have to have faith in
Our Lord and you have to act for our Lord. This will determine if you are a
Christian truly or only one in name.
If you choose being a Christian, be prepared for
constant failure and shortfall of goal.
So long as you do your best and never give up Christ will account you as
perfect when it counts.
Today, the first day in Eternity or another day off
your life towards death. Your choice. Jesus made His, you make yours.
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
[1]
GHQ – General
HeadQuarters – The home office of the Anglican Orthodox Worldwide
Communion. He conducted a
combination Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday service in Enterprise last week. All is well.
[2]
This is so very
important to remember, Jesus knew EXACTLY what He was doing. Yet, He did it anyway. He went through with all of this
knowing ALL.
