The Propers for today are found on Page 134-137, with the Collect first:
The Sunday next before Easter, commonly called
Palm Sunday.
The Collect.
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LMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility; Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
¶ This Collect is to be said every day, after the Collect appointed for the day, until Good Friday.
The Epistle came from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, starting at the Fifth Verse of the Second Chapter.
Paul reminds us if Christ, the Son of God, was obedient to God, we should so be. Also, as a result of that obedience, God hath given Jesus the name to which all of earth should bow.
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et this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This morning’s Gospel comes from the Gospel of Saint Matthew, starting at the First Verse of the Twenty-Seventh Chapter and tells the story of Jesus’ trial, crucifixion and death. The Gospel was read by in parts. We all read the Crowd part together.
The normally powerful Gospel seems even more powerful when read as a play, so to speak. The crowd’s part is very hard to read as it reminds us of our dark side. If you did not make it to church today, please find someone to read this with in parts. It is an uncomfortable experience that you nonetheless should not miss.
Please read this out loud!
Parts
Reader
Jesus
Judas
Pilate
Pilate’s Wife
Crowd
Gospel of Saint Matthew
starting at the First Verse of the Twenty-Seventh Chapter
Reader: The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew: When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death: And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying,
Judas: I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.
Reader: And they said,
Crowd: What is that to us? see thou to that.
Reader: And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said,
Crowd: It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.
Reader: And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me. And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying,
Pilate: Art thou the King of the Jews?
Reader: And Jesus said unto him,
Jesus: Thou sayest.
Reader: And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him,
Pilate: Hearest thou not how many things they witness against thee?
Reader: And he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly. Now at that feast the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner, whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them,
Pilate: Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?
Reader: For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying,
Pilate’s Wife: Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.
Reader: But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them,
Pilate: Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you?
Reader: They said,
Crowd: Barabbas.
Reader: Pilate saith unto them,
Pilate: What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?
Reader: They all say unto him,
Crowd: Let him be crucified.
Reader: And the governor said,
Pilate: Why, what evil hath he done?
Reader: But they cried out the more, saying,
Crowd: Let him be crucified.
Reader: When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying,
Pilate: I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.
Reader: Then answered all the people, and said,
Crowd: His blood be on us, and on our children.
Reader: Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying,
Crowd: Hail, King of the Jews!
Reader: And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him. And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down they watched him there; And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, And saying,
Crowd: Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.
Reader: Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said,
Crowd: He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.
Reader: The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying,
Jesus: Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?
Reader: that is to say,
Jesus: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Reader: Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said,
Crowd: This man calleth for Elias.
Reader: And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said,
Crowd: Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.
Reader: Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
Moment of Silence
Reader: And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying,
Crowd: Truly this was the Son of God.
Having read this, do you see yourself in the crowd? The crowd were not a random group of bad Jews, the crowd is us. There is a little or more of the crowd in each of us. Uncomfortable? Yes. But, sadly very real. Yet, if we realize this, we can act to make ourselves less of the crowd and more of the Christ. For in us each is the crowd and the crown. We chose, each of us, which it will be, crowd or crown. One simple letter of difference, yet the gap between the two is bridged only by Christ.
Rev Jack's sermon can be viewed on video RIGHT HERE!
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:
… thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility; Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection…
In the Collect, we acknowledge God sent His Son to be our Savior. Think about that, the Creator, Lord and Master of the Universe sent His only Son to live amongst us and not just provide us with instruction and leadership, but to give His earthly life as a one time sacrifice for our sin that we might be accounted as perfect in our final accounting, the resurrection. How much did God value His Son? Consider what Paul tells us - Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Reading this, let us consider how much God valued His Son and how much He values us that He sent His Son here to teach us to guide us, to love us, and finally to give His Life for us that we might be free from the bonds of sin and death. Jesus humbled himself to a commoner’s death, and not just that of any commoner, but that of a thief. This tells us how much Jesus and God love us, that God would send His Only Begotten Son to die a horrendous death and that Jesus would under go this painful death and then the descent into Hell to save our souls from eternal bondage. If He did that for us, it is only fair that we should do our best to follow His Example and perform good actions for Him .
This thought leads directly to the collect. The Collect calls us to follow the example Jesus set in His actions of His Death and Resurrection, and also calls us to embody His great humility and His great patience, that we might follow the upward narrow path towards heaven and be partakers of His Resurrection. The Collect calls us to action and follow in the example of Jesus’s great humility, humbling himself, the being who created this planet, to die for us on the cross, laying down His Life for ours, is an example we must strive to emulate in our own lives, to the best of our abilities.
If we follow His Example and do our best to emulate His humility and patience, we too can be a part of His Resurrection. We will be a part of our own resurrection of sorts. To accomplish this, we have to have our selfish selves die and be replaced with the unselfish self, which we can achieve through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In other words, we need to stop our sinful behavior and replace that behavior with more Godly behavior. This is easier said than done, but it can be accomplished with the help of the Holy Ghost. Without His Help it will be impossible to accomplish. So let us ask Him into our hearts that we might renew our spirit and become New Men.
Jesus set the ultimate standard for us to following God’s will. His entire ministry can be described as actions. He physically lived His Message. His Message can clearly be seen through His Actions. We need to do as He did and show by our actions that we serve Him.
Jesus knew ahead of time where, how and when He would die. He even told His Followers this, but they did not understand as they did not have the Holy Ghost within them to help them comprehend what He said. He knew with a 100 percent certainty it was going to be a physically and spiritually painful death, Yet, He also knew this was God’s Will that we might live. If He did this for you, how can you not follow Him wherever His Will takes you? And remember His Example, of acting even if it means the death of your temporal body. His Example that He has left to us to follow is that of Action. And like Him, we may have to die for our faith but rest assured that death will have a reward of eternal life.
Recall Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on this day so many years ago. Only Jesus knew of the upcoming crucifixion; everyone else, including Jews, Romans and His followers, thought he was making a triumphant entrance in to the city to take control of things and kick the Roman occupation force out. It was almost a full moon, this was the year of the Messiah according to Daniel. The natural events were lining up as Scripture had predicted which preceded the arrival of the Messiah. Jesus chose the route into the city, through the King’s Gate. The people saw Him coming and met him at the Mount of Olives. When He came in through the King’s Gate, the people were expecting to see their future earthly king. They did not have the Holy Ghost within them to see His true nature. However, they were incorrect, who they were seeing was and is their heavenly king. Jesus had no intentions of establishing a Kingdom of this World. He was looking for followers for the Kingdom of the Next World, of Heaven.
This World is only temporary, but the Next World is of Eternity. What ever trinkets we might acquire on Earth will never measure up to the gift that Jesus bought for us by His Death and Resurrection upon the cross. We must always keep that in mind wheneer we are tempted by eathly trinkets. It is a gift of great joy, the fact is we should be by all rights dead and headed for the pit, instead headed to a kingdom of joyfulness and laughter and all pleasant things, and a world that will be far better than our pitiful shadowland here. This is indeed the most valuable of all gifts we will ever receive in our lifetime.
As an aside the Chief Priests, who had so much invested in their 613 laws, likely searched far and wide for the crowd to convict Jesus of the crimes they imagined against their system. We need to remember that not all of the Jews wanted Jesus executed, just those in power and those that followed them. The system that they followed was of this world, not God’s. Remember, there are none so blind as those who will not see. They were in the darkness, thus they could and would not see what was being shown to them because it would interfere with their comfortable way of living. A new way that asked of them, no demanded of them, accountability unto God for their actions. Know the crowd was not a self-forming group naturally set on condemning Jesus, but a handpicked gang. At the same time, many of those in the crowd who condemned Him the morning of Good Friday were in the crowd that welcomed Him to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. What a difference five days can make.
Make no mistake, we are that crowd. And, like Pilate, no matter what we say, we cannot wash our hands of the responsibility. Thus, we must separate ourselves from the crowd. Separate, that is to make ourselves holy, set aside.
When the time comes, how will you ACT?
It is by our actions we are known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
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