The Fourth Sunday in Lent - Propers with explanation – Rev Jack’s Sermon

The Propers for today are found on Page 130-132, with the Collect first:

 

The Fourth Sunday in Lent.

The Collect.

 

G

RANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that we, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of thy grace may mercifully be relieved; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 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.

 

A

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 todaycame from the Fourth Chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians beginning at the Twenty-First Verse.

 

Paul talks about the two sons of Abraham, one of the bond, one of the free.  These two, the bond under The Law and the free under The New Covenant.  The people of old are the people of The Law, 613 laws by which they must abide.  Perhaps more properly said in practice that they must work around or evade those 613. Yet, they cannot comply with all the laws nor even work around them.  They are doomed to failure with no help from God.  As people of The New Covenant, the original and real New Deal, we have only to comply with two laws or rules; To love the Lord with all our hearts and to love our neighbor.  Actually, those two are much harder to fully comply with than avoiding the 613 laws of The Law.  But, we have the key – Jesus Christ.  He came to earth not only to lead us to heaven, from the front; but to be a propitiation for our sins, to make us account as perfect to God to allow us to come into His Land.

 

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ELL me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not: break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. 

 

This morning’s Gospel comes from the Sixth Chapter of the Gospel of St. John beginning at the First Verse. 

 

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ESUS went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

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, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of thy grace may mercifully be relieved …

 

In the Collect, as is often to the case we acknowledge to God we have fallen way short of our goals He set for us. We are also acknowledging we deserve to be punished for our failures; by His Grace we are relieved of that punishment. Jesus accomplished that relieving by laying down His Life so we might be free of eternal damnation. 

                                                                                        

In order for us to enter heaven, we have to be accounted as perfect.  Most of us know we are so far away from perfect, it would not seem to be possible.  

 

How then can we get into heaven, if not by our own means?

 

The answer is simple. God has provided the Way, the one true Way, by sending His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins so we might have eternal life, and He also sent the Holy Ghost to help guide us. 

 

At that final judgment day, if we stay the course and follow God’s guidance, we can be accounted as perfect through the Grace of God’s Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ, Paul is right on point when he talks about the two sons of Abraham, one of the bond, one of the free.  Being adopted into the freewoman’s family requires us to follow Him and His guidance. This gift of eternal life is not free. It was paid for by Jesus’ death on the Cross and it requires us to actively follow and work for Him here on earth. 

 

The son of the bondwoman represents our state before Christ and those who refuse to follow Him.  They are stuck in bondage to their own sinful selves and can never exit that state, except they allow the Holy Ghost into their hearts and redeem themselves. It represents the state of all those who do not have the Holy Ghost within them and us before we let the Holy Ghost into our hearts to regenerate us.

 

The two are representative of the two covenants with God, the bond under The Law and the free under The New Covenant.  

 

The people of old are The People of The Law.  Six Hundred Thirteen Laws each of which they were to follow.  They really did not attempt to follow them, rather to avoid being seen to break them.  A very complex and even more difficult life to live, to comply and uphold those laws and failing. We still fail miserably at times, but we only have two laws, which we will hear about in a second. They are still hard to uphold, but if we manage to, easier to remember.  The big thing to remember about the 613 laws is they could not accomplish what Christ accomplished with His Sacrifice and establishing the New Covenant. The Holy Ghost helps us along the journey to this goal, to bring us to eternal life.

 

The New Covenant is so much less complex than the Old Covenant.  It is much easier to remember the ways of the New than the Old. However, we must remember that the Old Covenant had a purpose. The Old Covenant had to come first to get people’s hearts ready to follow the New Covenant.  For the New Covenant could not be introduced, or in other words, Jesus could not come to Earth until the people were ready for His Teachings. The Old Covenant was a stepping stone to the New Covenant. 

 

Remember this from Holy Communion:

 

Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith:

 

T

HOU shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

 

Under the New Covenant, we have only two laws with which we must comply.  But, there is a catch.  We are not to just avoid breaking those two laws, we must actually live them in our hearts, souls, minds AND bodies.  We must actualize them. It is the common theme of Action not just Diction, that appears in sermons past here. The only way in which we can follow these two laws is we have to put them into practice in our day to day lives, which requires Action and not just Diction. The New Covenant is not about following the Law perfectly, but it is about living the spirit of the Law to the best of our abilities.

 

This requires that we act based on what we can and should do, not what we want to do.  What we want to do will not get us the results that acting from following God’s word will.  The results may or not be obvious right away, but they will be soon enough. A hard principle to follow; but in the end, it is the easiest way and worth the struggle to trust God instead of worrying and or doing what we want to do. 

 

What we want to do is very rarely if ever in congruence with God’s Word. We have to realize this and shift our behaviors that are in line with God’s Word and Will.  We must recognize that what we want to do will not benefit us as well in the long run as what God wants us to do.  This is very hard, but it can be done with the help of the Holy Ghost. We just have to let Him into our hearts and provide us that guidance. Once we receive that guidance than we should act upon that guidance.

 

Action will always benefit our spiritual state compared to inaction. Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we are compelled to act upon our faith. Perhaps not what we want right at the time, but certainly what we need then and in the eternal future.  In the middle of nowhere, two thousand years from the nearest McDonalds, the disciples looked to Jesus to fill the needs of their congregation.  Jesus took what they had and gave them what they needed; “for he himself knew what he would do.”  He acted to help them.  Do ye likewise:

 

ACT

 

Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail.  The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.

 

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