The Propers for today are found on Page 127-128, with the Collect first:
The Second Sunday in Lent.
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
And due to the rubric, the Collect for the Day is followed by the Collect for Ash Wednesday, which is found on Page 124:
The first day of Lent, commonly called
Ash Wednesday.
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent; Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
¶ This Collect is to be said every day in Lent, after the Collect appointed for the day, until Palm Sunday.
The Epistle for today comes from the Fourth Chapter of Paul’s First letter to the Thessalonians beginning at the First Verse. Apparently the Corinthians were not the only church founded in a Red Light District. In this letter Paul is telling the people to refrain from random sex and get married. Paul is starting into the beginning of his New Man concept. We are called to be as God wants us to be, not as we would be without His guidance and help. God does this, not that we would miss fun, but rather that we would enjoy happiness.
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E beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit.
This morning’s Gospel comes from the Gospel of Saint Matthew, the Fifteenth Chapter, beginning at the Twenty-First Verse.
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ESUS went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
This story surfaces again in the Book of Common Prayer in the Prayer of Humble Access, in the Book of Common Prayer, Page 82:
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E do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy: Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.
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.
Consider these words from the Collect:
… we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul …
In the Collect, we acknowledge to God that we cannot direct our own lives; if we listen to our own selves we are without guidance. Consider the airplane flying, it orders its movements according to Polaris, the Pole Star of True North. If a pilot flies guided by his “inner self” he soon knows only where he is: at the controls, and little else. Like the pilot who needs to know where the True North is so he can orient himself, we need God’s guidance to move towards our goal of eternal life with Him. While flying my aircraft in instrument meteorological conditions or IMC , I have to rely on the aircraft instruments as our bodily senses lie to us about our aircrafts true altitude. So too do we have to rely on Scriptures for our guidance on the path towards heaven as our natural inclinations will also lie to us on our true performance. And we also need the help of the Holy Ghost to be our infalliable co pilot and help guide us on the narrow uphill path towards heaven.
We have to let Him into our hearts in order to let Him guide us. If we do not do this, then how can we expect to have Him guide us, if we are not open and ready to receive Him and His Guidance? We have to be willing and ready in order to receive His Guidance, then we have to act upon the information His Guidance gives us.
Thus, when Paul tells us to keep our bodies under control of our minds and our minds to be guided by God only, He helps move us on course. This ties in very well with the collect’s request for God to keep us outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls. It links the theme of both spiritual and physical moderation extremely well. We are to be true and honest in all our dealings, both physical and fiscal and to live our faith. His Epistle ties in well with the theme of the collect to keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls. To do this, we must live the faith. Living the faith requires us to restrain our bodies and our minds from doing foolish/evil actions which hinder our walk towards heaven. This is a very difficult task, one we will slip up from time to time on, but as long as we repent and return back to the course God has set, all will be well.
Being honest with others and especially ourselves is one of the most important things we can do. If we are not honest with ourselves to start, how can we be honest with others? For only by living our faith can we demonstrate that we in fact have faith. For professed faith with no action when you are able to act is not real. You must actualize what you claim to believe. We are called to be as God wants us to be, not as we would be without His guidance and help. God does this, not that we would miss fun, but rather that we would enjoy true happiness.
Keeping evil thoughts under control can be a difficult task, but we do not have to face it alone, we have the Holy Ghost in our lives and other Christians and friends that support us and guide us, that can help us battle evil thoughts. Of course we need to be willing to talk to our good friends within the Church about our problems and evil thoughts and listen to their advice, and more importantly to the Holy Ghost’s advice to combat these evil thoughts and drive away the temptations of the devil. As we have discussed before, Christianity is not a hermitic religion, but a social one. Christianity did not flourish because its followers were hermits, it flourished because its followers evangelized the religion throughout the known world. It is an active religion and it requires its followers to actively participate in it by spreading the Good news.
Matthew gives us a fine example of faith that demonstrates how we must be guided by faith in our Lord. The woman who cries unto Jesus is a Gentile, just like us. Just like us she longs for His Mercy. In her case, she asks only for the mercy rejected by others, the crumbs of the Master’s Table[1]. This is the essence of our faith, we are not worthy to dine at His Table, no more than dogs are meet to dine at our table. Yet, what is left over is more than enough for us. And we are content with that, knowing what miserable creatures we are. And, even more important, even knowing what miserable creatures we are, Jesus offers to share His Table with us. He is not content for us to grovel for His crumbs. If He offers His love for us, should we not love Him back, by acting upon our faith? If you truly believe, you are compelled to act upon the faith you have. Action is the key principle, the cornerstone of the faith of Christians. Christ set this example for us by doing, that is action. This is seen throughout Scripture, but nowhere is it as clear as His Action of sacrificing Himself for our sins on the Cross. This is the prime example of action not just diction. Action is far more important than diction only. Diction is nice, but it needs to be paired with Action in order for it to have any sort of meaning.
It is also important to understand if one loves God, He still has the exact same amount of love available for any other person or group. His love is infinite, even if it wasn’t, love multiplies in use! We do not have to worry about God running out of love at all. There is more than enough to go around!
Recognize how poorly you do with your own guidance, accept His Guidance, stay on course and accept the fruits of that action.
There is but one way to heaven.
That easy to find, easy to follow, easy to hike path does not lead to the summit where eternal life in the real world awaits. Open your heart to the Holy Ghost, use His Power to follow our Lord to God who awaits in heaven.
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
