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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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God Hath Visited His People |
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Luke
7:11-17 Sixteenth
Sunday after Trinity September
19, 2010 Before
we begin to look at the Scriptures for today I ask you to turn to page 212
of the Prayer Book and look at the Collect for today, the Sixteenth Sunday
after Trinity. As Anglicans
we follow an annual cycle of prayer, worship, and Scripture reading. This
is a practice followed by God's people for many thousands of years, and it
is part of our identity as Holy Trinity Anglican Church and as members of
the Anglican Orthodox Church. This
is a wonderful blessing, for in the cycle of prayer we are guided and
instructed in the faith once delivered to the saints.
We are not simply left to our own devices to learn the Bible's
content and meaning. We are led into the Word in a way that helps us learn its
content and its message, and, at the same time, makes it part of the way
we think, and respond to life and God.
The more you follow our cycle of worship and Scripture, the more
you will understand the Bible, and, the more you understand the Bible, the
more you will be filled with the fullness of God.
This takes some effort and perseverance.
Actually, it takes years of hard work and dedication. So,
if you seem to be floundering a little, be patient and keep going.
The rewards are worth the effort. Each
week of the cycle of prayer begins with Sunday, of course, and assumes
that the people of God will not forsake the assembly, but will come
together to worship God. Each
Sunday is assigned Scripture readings and a Collect, which is a prayer
that sets forth the doctrine, Scriptural event, or exhortation for that
Sunday, and the week that follows. Sometimes
the connection between the Collect and the Scriptures is plain and
obvious. Sometimes it is less
obvious, and today, I think, is one of those less obvious days. So let's
look at the Collect for today. Please
read and listen thoughtfully as I read it aloud. "O
Lord, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy
Church; and because it cannot continue in safety without thy succour,
preserve it evermore by they help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen." The
point of the Collect, and the Scriptures for this morning, is that God is
able and willing to continually cleanse, defend, succor, and preserve His
Church by His continual help and goodness.
Let me show how this point is made. First,
we are shown that God is able
to help us. This is shown
first in the Epistle, Ephesians 3:13-21.
The Apostle Paul, who was the human utensil through whom God gave
the Book of Ephesians, tells us God is with him even in his tribulations. Paul's tribulations were many.
He lost everything in the service of Christ; he was persecuted,
stoned and beaten, shipwrecked, imprisoned, and finally executed for being
a Christian. Yet he endured
it all with a peaceful heart, writing in Romans 8:18 that the
"sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with
the glory which shall be revealed in us."
He does not promise that God will keep us from the pains and trials
of life. He does tell us we
can be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man, that we can have
Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, that we can be rooted and grounded
in love, that we can be enabled to understand the great things of the
mysteries of God, that we can know the love of Christ, and that we, you
and I, sinners that we are, unworthy as we are, can be filled
with all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:16-19).
These are powerful statements.
These are staggering words. I
think that if we ever felt their full impact it would be like being hit by
a train, except the result would not be pain and death, it would be life
and joy. Can these things be true? Yes,
God is able to do them. He is
able to do "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think"
(Eph 3:20). Second,
the ability of Christ to help us is shown in the raising of the dead man.
There is such a tender encouragement to faith in these verses of
Luke's Gospel. We see
Christ's compassion on the man and his mother, just as He has compassion
on us in our physical and spiritual needs. We see Christ move intentionally to the man, just as He
intentionally comes to us in the Incarnation, in His Word, Spirit, and the
means of grace. We see Him
touch the bier, as He touches our lives with His love and healing.
We hear Him speak, "Arise," just as He calls us to arise
from our spiritual death in trespasses and sins.
And He delivers him to His mother, just as He delivers all who
believe and trust in Him to His Father in Heaven forever.
The
man had been dead for three days. His
flesh was showing signs that he was not sleeping or in a coma.
He was dead. Only God can restore life to such a corpse. Thus the people
were correct who said, "God hath visited His people" (Lk. 7:16).
Surely such a One as this is able to succor and help His people no matter
what trials we may face. "Our
God whom we serve is able to deliver" (Dan. 3:17). To
be able to do something is one
thing; to be willing is
something else. Indeed to be
able is almost meaningless if one is unwilling.
But our Lord is both able and willing to help us.
Our reading from Luke's Gospel today was chosen carefully because
it shows that Christ is willing. Most
people, hearing me say that, will think I am referring to the Lord's
compassion and raising of the dead man.
Indeed there is great willingness to help seen here.
Our Lord was not asked to help this man. No one came to Him to seek His aid. The people probably thought He couldn't help, for, though He
had healed many sick, He had not raised anyone from the dead at this point
in His ministry. So the people probably never thought of asking Him to
raise this man. Jesus took
the initiative. Jesus went to
the funeral bier. Jesus
touched the man. Jesus gave
life to the body. He was the
initiator. He was proactive. He acted on the basis of His compassion.
He is willing. But
something else in the passage also shows the willingness of Christ, and it
is what I really want to emphasize today.
It is found in the words of the witnesses, "God hath visited
His people." To
"visit," in this case, means to come with the intention of
caring for someone or something. It
is to come with the intention of making things right, of helping.
It means that Christ came into this world to help us.
He came primarily to help us spiritually.
He came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost.
He came to save sinners. He
came to give His life as the ransom for our sins.
He came to take us back to God.
Indeed, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.
But He also came to help us in this world, in all our troubles and
needs and sorrows, and joys. "Come unto me... and I will give you rest" is a
promise for both this world and the next, and when He exhorted us to
consider the lilies wasn't He promising to be with us and care for us in
this world? And
so we come to the conclusion, which is simply, seek Him, and trust Him.
Seek Him in time of trouble. Ask Him to help you bear your burdens.
Ask Him to help you bear your sorrows and problems.
Ask Him to make you strong to bear your cross.
Ask Him to help you be content in whatever circumstances He places
you. Ask Him to help you
believe that all things work together for good to those who love Him.
Run to Him and seek His help.
"Seek and ye shall find." And
then, trust Him. I think trust is the real message I am trying to get
across today. It is the
message of the Scripture texts and it is the message of the Collect. Why would we pray that God would help and succor us if we do
not trust Him to actually do it? Why
would the Bible tell us of a willing and able Savior if it does not mean
for us to trust in Him? Dearly
beloved, I beseech you, seek and trust His help.
Truly pray with me, "O
Lord, we beseech thee, let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy
Church; and because it cannot continue in safety without thy succor,
preserve it evermore by they help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen."
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