Sermon for 1st Sunday after Easter, 27 April 2025, the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide – Bp Jerry Ogles
The Collect.
ALMIGHTY Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification; Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
There is an allusion in the Collect of the Day to the Passover. Just as the Passover in Goshen precluded all leaven in the dwelling, our Eternal Passover in Christ counsels us to element the leaven of sin and false doctrine from our tables. In the Holy Communion, we use unleavened bread to reflect that principle in the elements of Bread and Wine. We cannot accomplish this through our own merits, but through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ whose righteousness is imputed to the saints.
The Epistle. 1 St. John v. 4.
WHATSOEVER is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. For there are three that bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
The Epistle points out the rebirth of the Christian by the water and the blood of Christ. Our baptism symbolizes the admission to the covenant of Grace granted in Christ Jesus. We are born of water from our mother’s womb, and we are rebirth in Christ is symbolized at baptism; however, that baptism does not save – it is a work of man that is symbolic in nature. True rebirth is by the Spirit of God in which we take upon us the Mind that was in Christ and abandoning the self-will (so-called, Free Will) of man.
In our Communion Service, the wine represents the blood of Christ by which we are redeemed. Christ observed the Last Support during the time of Passover which was early Spring. The juice of the grape could not have been kept fresh for those many months after harvest in the previous fall months. The wine is then mixed with water to symbolize the water and blood by which we are reborn. Additionally, we become one in Christ at rebirth, and are mixed in His blood symbolically in the Cup.
The Spirit must testify of all truth. Without that Spirit, there is no truth. Remember the Woman at Jacob’s Well. When her eyes were opened to whom Jesus was as her Savior, she hurried back to her village to testify. Many believed her witness and went immediately to the Well to see for themselves. Upon meeting Jesus face to face, they proclaimed, “We believed the woman at first when she gave testimony of Christ, but now we have seem face to face and believe.” (paraphrased). We may be drawn near to Christ by the testimony of many witnesses, but, at last, it is the witness of the Holy Spirit that binds us by faith to Christ.
We may testify of our faith in the God the Father without end, but faith in God cannot truly exist without faith in Christ for the two are One in Spirit.
The Gospel. St. John xx. 19.
THE same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.
The events of Good Friday had been fearful and horrifying ordeal for the disciples. They were the closest friends of Christ, yet, they abandoned Him at the last to his most hateful enemies. That fear endured until the sure knowledge of His resurrection was made known to them in His appearance to them behind the closed doors behind which they were hidden.
Jesus stands in the midst of all of faith just as He stood among the disciples on that wonderful first day of the week of His resurrection. When dread and fear wax strong in our hearts, our Lord stands at the ready to greet us with that comforting counsel, “Peace be unto you!” He always brings calm in the midst of the storms of life. When our bark is near bringing with the waters of the sea (and world), He stands among us and commands the storm to cease and the waters to calm.
There is an encouraging lesson we can take, as believers, from this appearance of Christ to the disciples. That lesson identifies what comfort we may be to others in the midst of fear. Just as the Father has sent Christ to calm our fears and restore our peace, so should we do the same to others whose courage falters. Just as the Father has sent Christ to us to give us peace, He also sends us to calm the peace of others whose courage wanes in the face of persecution and danger. We may impart life to others through faith in Christ and as His vessels of carrying the Gospel abroad.
Breath is the means by which God imparts life to these clay vessels which we are. At the beginning, He breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam. So today, the Holy spirit imparts eternal life to those upon whom He breathes the breathe of life and commands, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”
Pleasse remember every day of your awakening those beautiful words of Christ that strengthen the soul: “ For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” and remember that there can never be only two so gathered for He is among them as well. What love and security is the grant of grace to those who love the Lord and do His Commandments.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.
