AOC Two

    Happy Septuagesima Sunday! The AOC Sunday Report can be downloaded  RIGHT HERE ! There are truly excellent sermons today from Bishops Jerry and Roy, as well as Revs Jack and Bryan.  It is interesting that Jerry and Jack address the scripture from the propers and Roy and Bryan address the scripture from the morning prayer lectionary, with some overlap.  I am confident that you will enjoy each of them.   They are quite different, perhaps because I heard it in person, I got the most out of Jack's.  But, each of them is really excellent.  Please read them all. There are always a lot of people craving your prayer.  Think how you would feel in their place. Please take a little time and pray in particular for Shamu, Armando, Howard, as well as Rev Jack Andrews, his family and the people of Fiji, then work out from there.  Please pray also with Covid harming people and the governments destroying the economy that they be guided into appropriate reaction and scientists find cures and vac

  Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and Action Church of the Faithful Centurion, Descanso, California Today’s sermon ties together the propers, that is to say the prayer and readings for this week. Consider these words from the Collect:   … we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness …   In the Collect, we ask God who knows we should be “…justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour …”  To get into heaven we need to be accounted as perfect.  Yet, we cannot be “cured” of sin nor “improved” to perfection. So how do we solve this irregularity? We know we ourselves cannot solve our dilemma.  Who can?  There is a solution for us!  Consider the words of John Newton [1]  near the end of his life, “ Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior! ” The answer lies in the latter part

                 The Sunday called Septuagesima, or the third Sunday before Lent.   The Collect.   O  LORD , we beseech thee favourably to hear the prayers of thy people; that we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end.  Amen.   F OR  the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.  2  And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.  3  And he went out about the third hour, and saw others  standing idle in the marketplace,  4  And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.  5  Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.  6  And about the eleventh hour he went out, and fo

   The Propers for today are found on Page 118-120, with the Collect first: The Sunday called Septuagesima, or the third Sunday before Lent.   The Collect.   O  LORD , we beseech thee favourably to hear the prayers of thy people; that we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end.  Amen.   The Epistle for today came from the Ninth Chapter of the first letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians beginning at the Twenty-Fourth Verse.  Paul tells us that we must strive for mastery over ourselves so that we can gain the crown of eternal life offered us at great cost by our Lord Jesus Christ.  We must each do our own personal best to control our own actions and behavior so we can follow God’s Plan for each of us.  We must be bold and certain in our actions.   K NOW  ye not that they which run in a race run

    F OR   I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings .  (Hosea 6:6)  W HEREWITH  shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?   7  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?   8  He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ?    (Micah 6:6-8)                          Kindness, mercy, and forgiveness are expressions of love. Without love, these would not be genuine. A coin, cast on the ground before a beggar, is not given out of love but out of a sense of pride and hypocrisy. But a warm meal prepared by a kind donor requires both love and effort to prepare. A wilted daisy plucked from the fields by a precious

      A T  that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.  2  But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.  3  But he said unto them,  Have ye not read  what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him ;  4  How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests ?  5  Or  have ye not read  in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless ?  6  But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.  7  But if ye had known what this meaneth , I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless .  8  For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day .  9  And when he was departed thence