Stand Firm | Thomas Cranmer 2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556

Stand Firm | Thomas Cranmer 2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556

Sermon preached Sunday, 3/18/12

Reclaimed from Death

We may be experiencing the realm of death more than we realize. Death is part of what encounters us in the spiritual battle we all know as Christian believers. The nagging feelings, the sense that something is wrong, or that something is dying inside of us… are all part of this experience of death in our daily lives. When we become apathetic: not caring what happens, or when we become numb: unmoved or non-responsive to that which used to be important to us… we may very well be experiencing the realm of death as we try to live! It is also said that we live in what has been called a ‘culture of death’. That which brings the realm of death into our sub-consciousness and consciousness comes daily through the exposure we get from television, the internet, the attitudes of many people, etc. Death in its many forms is taking its toll on us. Truly, when we realize it, we certainly know that we need to be reclaimed from death. This is exactly the battle won by Jesus our Savior. It is also exactly the overcoming He is accomplishing in our lives daily through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus has taken away the sting of death and the victory of death by His sacrificial death upon the Cross. Through prayer and as we grow closer to Him in faith, we will experience ever increasing blessings of being reclaimed from death both today and forevermore! Through remaining close to Jesus, we Christians will actually be living in a culture of life through God’s grace and power to save. Let’s wake up and realize the battle we are in and open afresh to God’s Holy love flooding in and bringing new life into us.

 

Ephesians 2:1-7 (ESB)

¹ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

Believing: we are able to see; Not Believing: we are blind

Sermon Notes for Sunday, February 19th

   

 We cannot see ‘a blooming thing’ when we do not have faith in Almighty God. It is faith that opens our eyes to God. When our hearts are open to God: when we believe that He is real, then and only then are we able to notice the reality of God at work in our lives. It is strange, yet true that there are like scales over our eyes when we do not believe or when we mistrust God. These scales fell off from Saul when he became a believer (Paul): he was healed of his spiritual blindness which was also manifested in physical blindness (see Acts 9:18).

   The old adage: ‘seeing is believing’ is basically true, however when it comes to matters of the faith it may become even more true that: believing is seeing! We pray, as Paul prays in Ephesians 1:18 that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened, that we may know the hope to which He has called us. May His true light ~the light of the Gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ~ enter our eyes through faith and shine in our hearts ~giving the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ~ as stated in today’s passage: 2 Corinthians 4:4-6.

   In this way of faith we will no longer be spiritually blind (the work of the ‘god of this world’ who blinds the eyes of unbelievers). We will instead see by faith and recognize the Lord loving us in all His glory.
 

                               2^nd Corinthians chapter 4 verses 3-6

³ And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. ⁴ In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. ⁵ For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 
⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness”, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

VirtueOnline - News - News - TONAWANDA, NY: Anglican church assumes central role in new diocese

News : TONAWANDA, NY: Anglican church assumes central role in new diocese
Posted by David Virtue on 2011/8/16 15:00:00 (646 reads)

TONAWANDA, NY: Anglican church assumes central role in new diocese

By Jay Tokasz
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/tonawanda/article521170.ece
August 13, 2011

[Rev. Arthur Ward] When members of St. Bartholomew's Church in the Town of Tonawanda decided in 2008 to leave the Episcopal Church, they didn't know for sure where they fit in the larger structure of Anglicanism.

Less than three years later, the parish has become a pivotal congregation within the Anglican Church in North America, a rival to the Episcopal Church that grew from a rift between theological conservatives and liberal Episcopalians over Bible interpretation and the ordination of a gay bishop.

This week, the congregation served as host for a conference of the International Diocese, the new diocese to which it belongs as part of the Anglican Church in North America.

Friday, Bishop Bill Atwood dedicated St. Bartholomew as the diocese's pro-cathedral, giving the church special significance as the site of the bishop's chair.

Atwood cited the church's role as a stabilizing force in organizing the new diocese, which includes congregations in Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas, as well as New York State.

"The people here are magnificent," Atwood said. "It's a resource place with great people."

Unlike most dioceses in the Anglican Church, the International Diocese is not regional.

"It's not geographical by definition, but it's based on a shared mission value," said Atwood.

Congregations within the International Diocese have strong connections overseas, which they expect to maintain and enhance.

When the congregation left the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, for example, the Rev. Arthur W. Ward Jr., its longtime rector, was able to remain an active priest by transferring to the Diocese of Argentina.

The Argentina diocese is part of the province of the Southern Cone in the Worldwide Anglican Communion - a province that was sympathetic to churches in the United States that disagreed with the 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop.

Provinces in Africa also provided temporary ecclesiastical homes for American priests and congregations that disputed the consecration.

Those provinces "offered us more than a lifeboat," said Atwood. "They offered us life."

Western churches, he added, can learn from the impact that those Anglican churches have had on the cultures of their countries, he added.

For more than 50 years, the St. Bartholomew congregation had worshipped in a sanctuary at 1064 Brighton Road, becoming the largest single parish in the Episcopal Diocese.

After the split with the diocese, members left their church behind and purchased a former synagogue at 2368 Eggert Road.

The move "energized the parish," Ward said. "We got stronger as a result, not weaker."

The Episcopal Diocese attempted to establish a new parish in the Brighton Road site. But when that failed, the diocesan offices were moved there from their longtime location on Delaware Avenue.

"It's ironic," Ward said, "but it's nice that our old place was a blessing to the diocese that they were able to make it their headquarters."

END