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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 showest to them that are in
error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way
of righteousness; Grant unto all those who are admitted into the fellowship of
Christ’s Religion, that they may avoid those things that are contrary to their
profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same…
God is a
Triune God; Father, Son, Holy Ghost. The
function of the Holy Ghost is to open our souls, hearts and minds to God’s
Will. It is to help us not be so deaf as
those who will not hear. Thus, to open
our “ears” to His Voice. As is oft the
case, the Collect really asks us to let the Holy Ghost in so He can change us. Today’s Sunday Report has a quote from Jack
Lewis out of Mere Christianity:
“When
He said, ‘Be perfect,’ He meant it. He meant
that we must go in for the full treatment. It is hard; but the sort of
compromise we are all hankering after is harder—in fact, it is impossible. It
may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder
for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And
you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be
hatched or go bad.”
It does not
matter if it is hard for us to listen to the Holy Ghost, we must do it. If we will listen to Him, God will always
provide the light to show us where “We have erred, and strayed from His ways like lost sheep. Where we have followed too much the
devices and desires of our own hearts. Where
we have offended against His holy
laws. Where we have left undone those
things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we
ought not to have done[1]…” He does this so that we might return to His
Path. He does not show us where we have
erred for no reason, but rather that we might use His Light to return to the
path which brings us to His World. Then we can shine that Light for others to
see, that they might pick up their torches and bring His Light into the
darkness of the world, be it the Western Civilized Word or the Eastern World.
First, we have to let His Light into our hearts before we can shine it to
others that they may see the works of His Light. Then we shall transform the
world from total darkness, to that of a total light. At least that is what we
are always striving to work towards, even when evil is often thwarting our
efforts to the maximum. If evil is thwarting our efforts then we all must put
in 110% to stop evil and combat it across the world wherever it is. We must
never, never, never, ever give up on this fight.
We must
fight evil wherever and whenever we run across it. We must not let the little
and big evils in this life get us down or defeat us. We must rely on the
guiding power of the Holy Ghost and God’s unlimited grace to save the day. His
Grace can help you out of any horrific situation, but first you have to ask and
accept His help, which is a universal theme in our sermons here, because it is
a truth and one that Jesus preached, that is that we have to accept Him into
our hearts, if we are to become truly Christians.
A couple
years ago, I met a Navy SEAL in Guam, who gave an excellent sermon to the point
we must be on the offense in the battle against Satan, never defense. The SEAL
noted Paul did not describe any sort of back armor whatsoever, showing us
Christianity was an offense based, not defense based religion. We must never our back towards the enemy, but
rather face forward and attack. The best defense is a good offense as in every
case. We must never cease our fight against Satan, for he is powerful here on
earth, tricking many. We are often outnumbered in the fight. Numbers matter not. We must always fight with all we have every
time. We must carry on; we must storm
the beaches of Hell itself, and keep on persevering in good times and in bad.
Paul tells
us if we follow Christ’s example, we will live lives like His to the extent we
can. We will do good, be law abiding,
work hard, be generous to our fellow human beings, help where we can, pray for
help when we can find no physical way to help.
It may be hard to give physical help, but if you are generous and
prayerful, you can often do good even when physical help is next to impossible.
Be good citizens, be good neighbors, take particular care of our Christian
family. In short, do what Christ would
do as far as it is in us. Let us do our
best to think in hard and trying times, what would Jesus do in our situation,
and then act in a manner most like Him. In order to make the world a better
place, we first have to start with our selves then work out word, applying the
principles of Christ to our lives. God does not ask us to be perfect; He does
ask us to do our best to try to be perfect, to follow Jesus’ lead to the extent
we have it in us. Each of us is
different, some are in truth less bad than others. God holds us each to the same standard, that
is to do our best. Not to be better than
any other particular person, but to do our best to follow His Instructions. Being better than someone else is of no
account, what is of account is following His Instructions to the best of YOUR
ability.
Don’t think
of trying to be better than your neighbor, think of being better than you are.
Be better than you were yesterday, if you do this, then you will improve day by
day, year by year.
In the
Gospel according to Saint John, Jesus tells of His impending bodily death and
resurrection. He reminds us if we have
eternal life, sorrow, even the sorrow of death is transient, for He has
conquered death. Any irritations or sorrows, large ones or small ones, are in
the large scheme of things (eternity that is) very small and insignificant
compared to our future with Him in heaven. We have to keep this in mind
throughout our travel along the straight and narrow upward path. His One
Sacrifice, made One Time, for All Mankind, for All Time is that joy that no man
can take from us. But, if we want to
share in that eternal life, we need to see the error of our ways in the Light
of His Light and take actions to follow Him.
Often it
seems much easier to take the path of least resistance, to quit our work at the
first sign of effort, to goof off when “no one” is looking. But in the end, the right thing to do is
always the easiest, the most profitable.
The one that will result in happiness.
It might seem hard, but it will not be as hard as doing the “easy”
thing.
The time is
now, not tomorrow. The time has come,
indeed. How will you ACT?
It is by
our actions we are known.
As
we go off on our business, please recall this quote from GK Chesterton:
Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
