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Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and Action
Church of the Faithful Centurion
- Descanso, California
Today’s
sermon tied the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and talked, as is oft the
case, of the need for action, not simply diction.
Consider the words of the Collect, “… Keep … thy Church with thy perpetual mercy;
and … keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all
things profitable to our salvation …”
When the Collect talks about the church, it is not talking about
buildings; it is talking about us. Each
of us; all of us. We need God’s Mercy
and Grace to keep us from desiring those things that are bad for us and help us
to see we really want those things that are good for us.
Speaking of things, just like the Jewish based Christians of Paul’s
time, it often seems like everyone has secret rituals, handshakes or hoops they
want you to jump through to be really IN.
Paul reminds us that all fall short, and special fancy diets, days or
outfits do not change us. God does not
require any sort of fancy diet, days or outfits to be IN with Him. All He asks
that we believe on Him and His Son Jesus and do our best to follow Him. None of these fancy rituals that churches have
are keys to salvation. It is only by the Grace of God through our Lord Jesus
that we find real salvation. Our
salvation is not based on the ritual, the handshake or even the slice of the
circumcision scalpel. It is based on
Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection that we might have eternal life, not some
rituals. He is the key to our salvation. He does not require for us to have any
fancy garb or rituals, only to remember His death and passion that we might be
partakers of His Heavenly Kingdom. He does not ask for much, only this simple
thing, we believe on Him, which is the key to getting into heaven. His Faith
saves us, and we have to have faith in Him that He did those things, and act
upon that faith.
Our salvation comes one way, by the Grace of God through our Lord
Jesus. He is the Way, the Truth and the
Life. Nobody comes to the Father but by Him. He is our salvation. His faith has
saved us and made us whole, not our faith. But we need to act for Him to show
that we have faith in Him. It is not through us to decide the salvation, but by
God through His Son, who died for our sins. This is what the whole Gospel is
based upon. This is the solid foundation, as Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of
our faith. We are not Cranmerians, nor are we Calvinists or Lutherans, but we
are Christians primarily, who like the ideas of Cranmer, et al. We should never
be identified as followers of man but of Christ and God. When one becomes a
follower of man, he ends up following the devil in a fashion; for if we serve
ourselves, or follow ourselves, we tend up to end up in death. But if we follow Him, we have the gift of
life as St. Paul explains “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 KJV)
The problem with the folks that identify themselves as something other
than Christian, is they start to believe on more of the ideas of the person
they are following, than the ideas of Jesus Christ and God, whom they are
supposed to be following. They get lost in the theological rabbit hole and
wander so far back, they’ve gone past where they were supposed to be, and got
lost off the narrow uphill trail towards heaven, and on the wide downhill trail
towards hell instead. It is so easy to get lost in the ideas of the various
theologians, even in that of John Calvin and Zwingli, that you forget that they
were doing their best to be known as followers of Christ. They would frown upon
those who identify themselves as Calvinists or Zwinglians, and not primarily
Christians.
It does not matter whose theology you like the best, but what does
matter is that you follow Scripture and God and Jesus Christ. In the end that
is what will matter, not whose ideas you liked the best. Calvin’s ideas nor
Luther’s ideas can save, only Christ and God’s actions and words can save us
and heal our souls. We must be dependent on God and not man for our earthly
guidance.
We alone cannot enter into heaven without His help. We are imperfect
creatures with free will, with a tendency to choose the wrong thing at the
wrong time. We really need His help to get into heaven, and His help here on
earth as well. We also need the help of the third God guy, the Holy Ghost. But,
in order to have their help, we have to be dedicated to serving God, and not
Man. If we focus on serving Man and not God, we do not have the Holy Ghost
within us.
For the Holy Ghost would never have us listen to the ideas of man and
not God. So we must take care and review what the leaders of the church say,
for there are many who are not listening to God, but only care to please Men to
get them to come into their churches. These men are the false prophets Christ
has spoken of who disguise themselves as sheep to infiltrate the Church. As the
times march on, there will be more of these false Prophets. In the end, people
will have to choose who they want to serve, God or Man.
That brings us to Saint Matthew’s point, one cannot serve two
masters. Like that bad pun, “When you
come to a fork in the road, take it.” You
cannot travel both paths. We must choose
who we will serve: God or the world. If
we chose God, that does not mean we turn our back on the world around us, but
rather we interface with the world using the Rules of Engagement given to us by
our Lord. We prioritize our actions with
Him first. Our family motto; God • Honor • Country • Family is an example of this
prioritization. First things first. Build from the inside out and the bottom
up. Do not mistake this motto for perfection,
we have erred and strayed from our ways like every lost sheep, probably farther
than most. But we know which way is The
Way and keep correcting back on course.
Prioritization can be as a simple as coming home early on Saturday
night so that you get a good night’s sleep and are ready for the Sunday church
service. It can be as complex as leaving
a job that interferes with your honoring God, Country or Family. First things first. God can help you make
that decision; but you have to make it, He can’t make it for you. He will not force use to make that decision,
you on your own free will, will have to make that conscious decision and
effort. The Holy Ghost will give you guidance on that front, but you will have
to listen and it will be your responsibility to listen and then act upon that
guidance.
Throughout the Bible we are exhorted to respect God, be honorable, work
hard and take care of our families. If
we do these things, following God’s Will, our fiscal standing here on earth
will be sound. Follow these precepts,
you will never be lacking, but you will never be inordinately wealthy, “Bill
Gates rich” so to speak. For to do that
requires reprioritization to wealth in the first place. Replacing allegiance to God with allegiance
to wealth is a one way ticket to a destination you don’t want. Allegiance to
God is a more precious and valuable thing to have, for with it comes a
priceless gift, eternal life. Eternal life is a gift that mankind has been
seeking for the ages, but has not found.
But Jesus Christ offers that gift to us, as long as we follow Him to the
best of our ability.
The last part of this reading is the one we often have the most trouble
with. We are far too ready to borrow
trouble from tomorrow. Every day, I pray
at least twice for help with this. It is
getting better; I am confident on one thoughtful level no good comes of worry,
yet I have such a hard time acting on that thought. It is a very difficult
thing not to worry, but it is something that needs to be done nonetheless. I
find as I trust God more and act upon His will more, I worry less. There is a
correlation there I believe. It is a very hard thing to do, but it must be
done, to ensure our success in spreading the Gospel and being an effective
minister of God. Plus, worrying less will provide other benefits as well, and
help us to lead happier lives. When we do what God asks, doing our best and not
just saying it, there is not a lot to worry about. Even if there is, we can
relax, knowing God has everything under control and He will always give us
guidance on how to proceed.
God wants you to be happy; He knows what will make you happy. God does not mind if you have fun along the
way, but never pursue fun confusing it with happiness. In the end, you won’t find either.
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
