Dear Readers,
My roots.
Primate Archbishop George Le Mesurier, IOCC of
America
Primate Emeritus Archbishop Maurice McCormick, IOCC of America
+++
Primate Emeritus Archbishop Maurice McCormick, IOCC of America
+++
Bishop George OtienoOdhiambo, IOCC of Africa
+++
Franz
Devantier, IOCC South Africa
Invocatio:
P.
In nomine Patris, et + Filii et Spiritus
Sancti. Amen.(In the name of the father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. )
Confiteor:
A. O Lord, Thou hast created man to be immortal and made
him to be an image of Thine own eternity; yet often we forget the glory of our
heritage and wander from the path which leads to righteousness. But Thou, O Lord, hast made us for Thyself
and our hearts are ever restless till they find their rest in Thee. Look with the eyes of Thy love upon our
manifold imperfections and pardon all our shortcomings, that we may be filled
with the brightness of the everlasting light and become the unspotted mirror of
Thy power and the image of Thy goodness;
Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Absolutio:
P. God the Father, God the + Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless,
preserve and sanctify you; the Lord in His lovingkindness look down upon you
and be gracious unto you; the Lord +
absolve you from all your sins and grant you the grace and comfort of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
19th
Sunday after Pentecost – 19th October 2014 (Colour of Celebration – Green)
All humankind are called to heavenly reward
and happiness.
Announcements:
We are actively recruiting candidate Priests. A custom program will be created for each
candidate Priest to reach the goal of Ordination to the Priesthood. Please contact us at: father@waseff.com
Special Prayer Requests:
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Let’s pray for the Salvation of all the souls on earth, and the return of Jesus
Christ.
News:
Still looking for a place to
meet on Sundays.
Download your free copy of
“Atonement for Everyone” by Father Mac Khruisium here:
Sacred References:
Epistle: Ephesians,
chapter 4, verse23-28
Gospel: Matthew,
chapter 22, verse 1-14
Homily / Sermon:
Firstly I will explain the concept of “Many are called, but
few are chosen.”
Lastly I will discuss the renewal of the mind of those that
are chosen.
Many are called
but few are chosen
You have probably heard this a few times already, “many are
called but few are chosen.” The thing is
what does this really mean? As we get to
the end of this explanation, you will see that there are things that you can
do, to make sure that you are chosen in the end. You will also understand that if you do
nothing about the situation, you may be part of the majority that are called
but not chosen. So often we hear about people
who receive a calling, to become a Pastor or a Priest or a Healer or a Disciple
or Believer. Sometimes they take up the
calling and sometimes not. However after
having taken up the calling, how can you make sure that you are chosen? I am going to tell you exactly how, at the end
of this first part.
Now as was often the case, Jesus Christ was talking to a
large crowd of people, and had chosen to speak to them in the form of a
parable. The idea of the parable was to
enable the ordinary person to understand the teaching in simple terms. However for those who were spiritually
advanced students of Jesus Christ, there were additional meanings and teachings
within the parable, that were not obvious, until it had been explained. Typically Jesus Christ would explain the
deeper meaning of the parables to his disciples when they were alone.
Now Jesus Christ was explaining to the crowd the nature of
the Kingdom of Heaven. This topic in
itself immediately poses questions as to whether it is a spiritual Kingdom, or
the Kingdom that will establish itself on earth after the return of Jesus
Christ, or maybe something beyond our comprehension, that embodies aspects of
all of the possibilities.
Jesus Christ begins, by explaining that the Kingdom of
Heaven is like a King who is making the arrangements for the marriage of his
son. The King had prepared everything
for the feast or banquet to be held after the marriage ceremony. There was already a list of guests who had
been chosen to attend this wedding feast.
So the King sent out his servants to gather the guests for the
feast. However something strange
happened, the guests would not come to the feast. You see these people had been chosen to
attend the marriage feast, they had a calling; but they chose not to take it
up.
Upon hearing this news, the King decided to explain the
circumstances of the marriage feast to the chosen people a little more
explicitly. He instructs the servants to
tell the people that a meal has been prepared.
The servants were to explain that the oxen and fattened up animals had
already been killed for the feast.
Everything was ready, the King was just waiting for the chosen (called)
people to come to the feast.
Again a remarkable thing happens, those chosen do not take
it seriously, and they make light of the invitation, some may have even made
jokes about the invitation from the King.
They go about their business as though nothing had happened. Some go to their farms, and others to their
place of business or place of work. This
is so much like people in society today, who have heard the good news of Jesus
Christ, but choose to do nothing about it.
However this was not the end of it, there was even a group
of those that were chosen to attend the feast, who took the Kings servants in
custody, and treated them in a spiteful and disrespectful way, ending up by
murdering the Kings servants. This is so
much like our society today, where you find those groups of people who have heard
the good news of Jesus Christ, but have decided to actively work against God,
instead of accepting the message. What
happens to these people further on in the parable; is symbolic of how they will
fair in the afterlife.
When the King received the news of how his servants had
been received, and how some of them had been disrespected and murdered, he was
very upset. The King sent his armies to destroy
those murderers and to burn their city.
The King explained to his servants that the wedding is ready, but those
chosen to attend the wedding were not ready.
To understand this parable, you need to picture yourself as a pilgrim
moving through the various scenarios described in the parable.
Now the King does something quite remarkable. He instructs his servants to go to the
highways, and other places where people were to be found. The servants were to invite all those that
they could find, regardless of who they were to the wedding. This also symbolizes that Jesus Christ came
first for the Jews, and then also for the Gentiles. The great commission is to go into all the
world, and to give everybody the opportunity of receiving eternal life, regardless
of who they are. Some of these guests
were very good people, but others were bad people. All of these people, symbolic of the Gentiles
or non-Jews had been called. In the same
way at the beginning of the parable the Jews had been called. Of course speaking of the Jews and the
Gentiles is a way of dividing the world into two groups, one the Jews, and secondly,
everybody else. So you see this is how
we understand that many are called. In
fact everybody had been called to the wedding.
However in reality it is not absolutely everybody, because of
circumstances there would have been those people who had not received an
invitation.
You may have been wondering why it was specifically a
wedding feast, and not just an ordinary feast.
Well in the scriptures the bride of Jesus Christ is also depicted as the
church or that group of people who believe in Jesus Christ and are his
followers. So this makes it very specific. The Kings son is none other than Jesus Christ
himself, and the King is God the Father.
So now we have all these called or chosen people (Gentiles)
to attend the wedding, making up the guests for the wedding. These were the people who had taken up the
calling, the rest were not present amongst the guests. Now the King comes to have a look at his
guests, and he notices a man who is not wearing his wedding garment. The wedding garment symbolizes atonement for
Sin, or justification by faith, it symbolizes that the person has received the
gift of eternal life from Jesus Christ.
So the King sees this one man amongst his guests who has not taken that
step. What happens next symbolizes what
will happen if you are not chosen.
The King instructs his servants, and by the way the
servants represent the Angels of God, to bind this man hand and foot, and to
cast him into the outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth. You see if you are chosen, then
you can’t pass through the pearly gates into the Kingdom of Heaven. You will have to remain outside of these
gates, where you will be separated from God, in what is described in this
parable as the outer darkness.
So now if you look at yourself, you have probably heard the
good news of Jesus Christ, because almost everybody on earth these days has
heard about Jesus Christ. You have
either accepted your salvation or you have not.
You may have joined a group of people who believe in Jesus Christ, but
in order to be chosen, you have to take the big step, if you have not already
done so, and accept Jesus Christ as your personal saviour. See the prayer of redemption below, and consider
downloading the free ebook below, to study it in more detail. So I could probably safely say that you have
been called to eternal life, but will you take the step to ensure that you will
be chosen?
Renewal of the
mind
In the book of Ephesians, Paul is giving us teachings from
his place in prison. You see Paul had
been put into prison by the Romans because he professed Jesus Christ. Quite a few years later the Romans would make
Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, after exacting horrendous
persecutions on the early christians.
Paul is speaking about the renewal of the mind, and he says
that we must be renewed in the spirit of the mind. To me this symbolizes that our core belief
system must be renewed, so that whatever comes out of the mind, or the tongue
spurts forth; is controlled by the core belief system, or your inner self. In other words we need to truly renew our
minds on a very deep and spiritual level, and not just pay lip service to the
concept. If we just pay lip service,
sooner or later our true feelings and beliefs will be expressed, which will
reveal that our minds have not been renewed.
Once we have prayed the prayer of redemption, and been baptised with
water and with fire, then we need to make sure that our minds are renewed.
Paul goes on to give some practical advice of how we can make
sure that our minds are renewed.
We are to put on the new man. Remember that after the prayer of redemption
you are born again. This means that although
your physical body is still the same, there has been a fundamental change in
your spiritual being, because you have accepted eternal life with God. Now to put on the new man, or woman for that
matter, is to allow that inner spiritual change to permeate to your outer
physical being and change the way you see things, the way you respond to
things. You see this new man is created
in the likeness of God, and so it is created in righteousness and true
holiness, because God is righteous and truly Holy. The mind is that part of ourselves, our
mental bodies, that control our speech, our outlook and so on. So it is good to think of this process as the
renewing of the mind.
Now once you have allowed your mind to be renewed, after
the prayer of redemption, then there are a few things that you should look to
because they should have changed. For
example, you should no longer be telling lies, but speaking only the truth with
those around you, and especially with your neighbour. In Jesus Christ we are members of the body of
believers, so if we lie, it is like lying to ourselves. We are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
and so we should speak the truth to our brothers and sisters. If you get angry about an injustice that has taken
place, you still should not allow yourself to sin because of it, because your
mind is renewed. Also and this is about
emotional intelligence, don’t allow the sun to set on your anger, but make
peace in your heart. Don’t let yourself
be influenced by negative and retaliatory emotions.
For those who were once thieves, because of your renewed
mind, you should steal no more. Instead
you should devout yourself to honest labour.
It is good to work with your hands or your intellect; to create those
things which are good and positive. By
doing this you will be in a position to give to those who are in need of
charity.
Everybody on Earth needs to believe in Jesus Christ, and
learn the ways of God that Jesus Christ taught us. In this way we will be ready for the second
coming of Jesus Christ. In fact Jesus
Christ may be patiently waiting for all of us to finally come to this
realization.
If you take this seriously, then you should pray the prayer
of Redemption if you have not already done so, so that you can start to receive
all of the gifts of the spirit, and position yourself for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and contribute towards the goal of world peace. See the Prayer of Redemption below.
Please download your free copy
of “Atonement for Everyone” by Father Mac Khruisium here:
Once you have read it, then
please send a copy to everybody that you know.
This ebook has an open source licence which enables you to freely
distribute it to as many people as possible.
It may easier to just email them the above link.
The Prayer of Redemption
Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for dying
on the cross for my sins.
Please forgive my sins and give me the
gift of eternal life.
I ask you into my life and heart to be
my Lord and Saviour.
I undertake to be baptized as called
for in the scriptures, Mark 16, verse 16.
I undertake to regularly partake of
Holy Communion, as in Mathew 26, verses 26-28.
Amen.
Mark, chapter 16, verse 16
Whoever believes and is baptized will
be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Mathew 26:26-28
And as they were eating, Jesus took
bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said,
Take, eat; this is my body. And he took
the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For
this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission
of sins.
Prayer:
Our
Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name: Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread. And forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil.
For
Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen.
A Prayer for
Jesus Christ’s Return
From the
Understanding of God
Let
Understanding flow into all humankind.
Let that
Understanding fill the Earth.
From the Will
of God
Let God’s
Will become our will
The purpose
which only God fully knows.
From the Love
of God
Let Love fill
the hearts of humankind.
May Jesus Christ return to Earth.
Let the
Understanding, Will, and Love of Jesus Christ Reign on Earth.
Benedictio:
P. The peace of God, which passeth all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and
of his Son, Christ our Lord; and the Blessing of God Almighty, the Father, + the Son and the Holy Ghost, be
amongst you and remain with you always.
Amen.
Love,
Franz of Saint Titus, IOCC, South Africa,
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