The collect continues on the theme from last week, that without God’s mighty help through the Holy Spirit, we are not able to understand what we need to do to be one with God, to follow His Will; we need Him, through the Holy Ghost, to direct us in our endeavors, beliefs and understanding. This proves the simple truth that we cannot be successful without the help of the Holy Ghost. This theme is continued and amplified in the Epistle, where Paul writes to the Ephesians, Chapter 4, Verse 17: Yet henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened and alienated from the life of the God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. In the Gospel, Jesus demonstrates the importance of action in our lives. It all comes together, read or listen and find out how. I hope you find it useful.
The Propers for today are found on Page 215-217, with the Collect first:
The Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity.
The Collect.
O |
GOD, forasmuch as without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Epistle for today came from Saint Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the Fourth Chapter, beginning at the Seventeenth Verse. Typical of Paul, he uses a spiral argument with a seemingly confusing structure to further instruct the people on how to become the New Man. Our nature is not good, but rather straying from good. We have to work at good, by ourselves good is not attainable, but through Christ, we can attain good. Paul asks us to lie no more, particularly to ourselves, but rather to “speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.” If we are angry, we must “let not the sun go down upon our wrath.” We should not live off others, but rather, “labour, working with our hands the thing which is good, that we may have to give to him that needeth.” Speak good, speak that others might learn. Put away ill feeling, give in to God and be “kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” God wants us to be happy, to be good and to enjoy life. If you find this no other place, listen to Paul’s words.
T |
HIS I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Today’s Holy Gospel came from the Ninth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. Matthew beginning at the First Verse. Jesus came upon “a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” Present were scribes of the temple. They thought to themselves., “This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. Sometimes we are tempted to view the troubles of this world as the only issues we have to confront. Surely the trouble we have here pales to that we have if we make the wrong choices here and end up in the pit. Many can heal the palsy; only through Jesus can our sins be forgiven. In this case, the sins were forgiven and the problems of this earth resolved. The power of Jesus was again made manifest.
J |
ESUS entered into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.
Bishop Jack Arnold
Anglican Orthodox Church Diocese of the West
Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California
Bishop Jack’s sermon can be viewed on video RIGHT HERE.
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, “…without thee we are not able to please thee; Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts …”
The collect continues on the theme from last week, that without God’s mighty help through the Holy Spirit, we are not able to understand what we need to do to be one with God, to follow His Will; we need Him, through the Holy Ghost, to direct us in our endeavors, beliefs and understanding. This proves the simple truth that we cannot be successful without the help of the Holy Ghost.
This theme is continued and amplified in the Epistle, where Paul writes to the Ephesians, Chapter 4, Verse 17: Yet henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened and alienated from the life of the God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.
Paul basically is saying we should not do as the world does and look into ourselves for guidance in our spiritual lives. If we look to ourselves for inner guidance, nothing good will come out of it. A lot of the problems of this world are caused by the fact that people look into themselves for guidance in their spiritual lives and only find their evil vanity which they follow and are consumed by. In short, if we follow their path we will be separated from Him for all eternity. We obviously do not want this, so we must look to Him for guidance. Without the help of the Holy Ghost, we will be spiritually blind. We need the Holy Ghost to help us with our spiritual vision. Make no mistake, that fixed gulf is very real. There is a way to avoid this fixed gulf; accept His spiritual help and guidance and to let the Holy Ghost into our lives.
To do that, we must openly accept Him into our hearts and let Him guide our thoughts and actions. We have to do this action of our own free will. God wil not force the Holy Spirit upon us. We have to be willing able and ready to accept into our hearts and once He is established in our hearts, listen to what He says and then act upon it. This follows the collects words of “Without thee we are unable to please thee”, showing we do need Him in our hearts in able to serve and please Him.
In short, we are to act on His Instructions, then our lives will change as the natural result of doing what we are supposed to be doing. And our lives will most certainly change for the better if we act and continue to act on His Instructions. Simply saying you believe changes nothing. Change your actions and your heart must in the end follow, with the help of the Holy Ghost. We have to actually change to follow His Word in order for improvement to appear in our lives. Your heart will be renewed through the entrance of the Holy Ghost. This will show up a little later on, but it is an important message which bears repeating. It is the same with many changes you need to make in your life, you have to make them, not just say you are going to make them. In other words, to perform the action and not just say you are going to. Many people never get past the stage of saying they will perform the action, but we need to go farther and actually do the action.
To be successful, Paul says we need to fix ourselves upon the guiding lights of Christ and God and not use ourselves for a moral compass. For if we use our sense of direction, we shall not get far and indeed we will be in much distress, though we would not think it due to our easily corruptible minds. I we rely on Christ as our navigator, He shall never fail us in His directions, if we will but listen to him. He, unlike us, will never let us down or withhold anything that we need to know; the catch is we have to be willing to listen to Him. We have to know He truly knows the way, and that without following His guidance, we cannot have any hope of finding the way on our own. We need to remember this in good times and bad and to always trust in God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost and do our best to follow their instructions to the best our abilities.
Paul also gives very practical and simple, though hard to follow, directions on living our lives:
· Be honest;
· Avoid anger;
· Do not let anger linger over night;
· Follow not the guidance of the devil;
· Quit stealing;
· Work hard;
· Think kindness;
· Speak kindness;
· Act kindness;
· Forgive as you would have God forgive you, which He hath done in Jesus Christ!
These are all fairly common sense concepts that when we utilize them become wonderful human beings and members of the Church.. While there may be hardships here, if we but hold fast to these principles which Saint Paul gives we will find they not only benefit ourselves, but they will help the people around us. And that is what is so wonderful about living life in accordance with the Scriptures. That is what the Gospel is about, spreading the Good News and helping the people around us to become better people and followers of God. When we help others improving in our corner of the world, gradually as the work of the Spirit spreads, more goodness will help improve further corners of the world. It is always a work of constant improvement. We will never full 100% get there in our lives, but if we never give our best attempt we will never get anywhere. So let us do our best to improve and follow Him and not just say we are doing our best.
We move on to the Gospel, where Jesus, attending to a sick man, picks up on the evil thoughts of the temple scribes, who think to themselves Jesus blasphemed. The reason they are thinking that is that they have allowed darkness in their hearts, like the vanity of the Gentiles minds Paul talked about, which prevented them from seeing the truth of the person of Christ. Anyone who is a true Believer would know that God never blasphemes. Then He asks them, which is easier, to forgive the sins or to have the man “Arise and walk”? Jesus is making the point that words are nice, but actions are what really produces fruit in the end. We could talk about spreading the Gospel all day long, but if we never actually go out and do it, it means little.
As always, Jesus’ words are important, but only as His actions always match those words. Jesus doesn’t just talk to hear himself talk, unlike some of the more modern “Christian” television preachers. He talks to make a point and acts in accordance with the point He makes. If we believe His commandments, we will keep them, which means our behavior, our actions, will match His Words. The book Acts of the Apostles, isn’t “Meditations”, “Philosophies” of the Apostles, but Acts. Jesus puts forth emphasis on “Actions speak louder than words” through his actions. Actions truly show where a person’s heart is set. Words do not reveal much about a person’s character alone, you need to look at their actions to see where their heart truly lies. They may profess to be a member of Our Lord’s church, but if their actions do not match his profession then we shall clearly know he is not truly our Christian brother.
Therefore we must make sure our actions match our claimed beliefs in Scripture. If our actions do not match the Scriptures, we are not truly following Christ. Thus we must realign ourselves so that our actions will match Scripture. We will all struggle with this from time to time, but as long as we return to Christ with true repentant hearts, all will be fine with our souls.
If we profess to be Christians, then we need to act like Christians, not just say we are Christians. The ending sentence at the end of the sermons I have given thus far goes, “Be of God”, “Live of God” and finally, last but especially not least “Act of God.” We have to Be of God, and Live of God, to live our lives in a Godly and Christian way, which means as Paul said “Henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk”, so should we not walk in the ways of the world but that of God and His Heavenly Kingdom. Our actions which make up our lives need to be in alignment with the principles of Scripture and need be clearly seen. If our lives are not in alignment with Scripture, then we are not living the faith as God has called us to do.
To Act of God, we must follow the commandments of Christ and act according to them, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. If we actually follow the three step process “Be of God”, “Live of God” and “Act of God”, we will find ourselves in a much better position than walking in the ways of the World.
The time to act is NOW. Will you act? For whom will you act? Will you count the cost before you act?
Action, not diction, is what counts. It is by your actions you are known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
