MAC KIRK

1st Sunday after Christmas Day John 1:1-18 " Theology is rather a divine life than a divine knowledge" 1613-1667, Bishop in England, who wrote one of the best books on the spiritual life, Holy Living and holy dying. The author this morning of our Gospel, John, tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word, was from the beginning, and was with God, and was God. Yes, we must know our theology that is what the Scriptures ( the Holy Bible) can teach us. We must know our verses, but if there are just knowledge, that alone will not complete and sanctify us in this life as a witness to others of the true light which lightens every man that comes into the world. The Word became flesh. John 1:14 Knowledge as the Apostle says puffs up without love. Puffs up is from physio in original greek and means air bellows, therefore swelled up, i.e., an ignorant person. Love builds up oikodomeo, to build a house ( oikos -house, domeo-to build). So our knowledge gives us the ingred...

Peace at Christmas "When we are inwardly tossed by various tempests, and when Satan attempts to disturb our consciences, let us remember that Christ is The Prince of Peace, and that it is easy for him quickly to allay all our uneasy feelings." - Calvin This is the crux of our thought for tonite. " Glory to God in the highest, and earth peace, good will toward men." ( or " with those whom He is pleased.") The peace which is of Christ " For He is our peace" , Christ . Ephesians 2:14 -15 " He has abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments....that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross" Point I- He is the Prince of Peace, the One Isaiah told about. He is our Saviour. He is the Prince of Peace because He possesed peace in Himself. Peace rests in our Christian hearts because they belong to Jesus Christ. The contrast is clear. The wicked Isaiah 57:21 " There is no peace, saith my God , ...

Mary and the Angels Luke 1:26-38 What a Gospel for today! It is full of great news and Divine Announcements and the appearance of the Angel Gabriel. To all who are struggling with the life here in so many ways we are all surrounded by such love and mystery that it is overwhelming wonderful! It saddens me at some level, but gives me hope that people who normally do not have any spiritual interest at most times of the year, come to this account in Luke with angels and have interest and wonder. First, What is this " Gabriel"? A man in Daniel who comes to Daniel touching him, perhaps flying to assure him that God would give him understanding. Daniel 9:21 The Angel Gabriel, lit. Geber el = man of God. He is called an angel in Luke 1. This is angelos in Greek....a messenger, or One who brings tidings. vs 19 (Why do people have interest in this but not in other things that are in the record of the Scriptures? It seems if you accept this truth, you may have to take...

Third S. in Advent. Rejoice Sunday. We light the rose Candle for Gaudete ( latin for rejoice) Sunday. Scriptures for today focus on this . I Thess 5 says, " Rejoice always". Isaiah 65 says, " Be glad, and rejoice forever..." The Gospel in John , " the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him ( John the Baptist speaking of Jesus) rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice..." & " this joy of mine is complete" 3:30 One of my favorite on joy in Nehemiah 8:10 , " ...do not grieve for the joy of the LORD is your strength." Christians should be especially full of joy as they anticipate the coming of our Lord both at Christmas and His Second Coming to redeem His people. This reminds me of the story of C H Spurgeon, the great Reformed Baptist pastor in London who was talking to his seminary class," When you speak of heaven, let your face light up with a heavenly gleam. Let your eyes shine with reflected glory...

Peter writes to us of the last days and of the peril of false teaching--The Book, The Event Second Coming, The Purpose for Us 2 Peter 3 " Beloved I now write to you, in which I stir up your pure minds by remembrance....." Stir up- wake up lit. to arouse us out of sleep. " that ye may Be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour" " Read, Mark, learn, inwardly digest" " All Holy Scriptures which were written for our learning" " in such wise hear them---that we may ever hold the blessed hope of everlasting life which Thou hast given us in Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord" We are people of the Book of God. These are the teachings and words to which we must pay attention, not to the scoffers who say He will not return , bodily , visibly, in a glorious reappearing . This teaching comes from God Himself who inspired and taught His apostles a...

1st S in Advent, Year B " O that You would rend the heavens and come down..." This is part only of a long prayer in the middle of a people that feel abandoned as many have gone into exile. The temple has been burnt. vs. 11. If only is the prayer ...If only things could be different is the thought. Who of us has not felt this? Could da, Should da , Would da kind of thinking is it not? I could be so and so and in the whatever, instead of where I am. We wish for deliverance out of our troubles whatever they may be. And yet we cannot wait. We are so impatient . " Someone asked Antony, founder of desert monasticism, “What must one do in order to please God?” Antony said to stay focused on God and live according to Scripture, and “in whatever place you find yourself, do not easily leave it." Antony speaks of a core anxiety and truth. We don’t like to stay with what is hard. We try to flee what troubles us, whether literally or figuratively, and God invite...

Thanksgiving. I Thessalonians 5:18 says, " In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." What I have learned in thinking about this verse the last few days or so is that it is a command first of all. Give thanks. You give thanks. It is the word we often use for Communion, " Eucharist" . We wonder why such and such happens, the job goes, the washer goes, or the tire blows. And we say wonder how can we say thank you for that? The point is that we are to recognize " Divine sovereignty" and that " God is over all". ( Leon Morris ) In other words all things are under His hand even the difficulties we experience. But a Christian has much to be thankful for. A thief broke into the home of Matthew Henry , one of the most popular Bible commentators who has ever written. The robber stole Matthew's wallet. He wrote this in his diary, " Let me be thankful, first, because he never robbed me b...

All Saints Day Sunday " I sing a song of the Saints of God" " I sing a song of the saints of God, patient and brave and true, who toiled and fought and lived and died for the Lord they loved and knew. And one was a doctor, and one was a queen, and one was a shepherdess on the green: they were all of them saints of God, and I mean, God helping, to be one too." Written in 1929 and published in England by Lesbia Scott," "Lesbia Lesley Scott (1898-1986) wrote pedagogical and inspirational hymns for her three children during the 1920s. Many were written in response to the children’s suggestions: “Mum, make a hymn for a picnic,” or “Mum, make a hymn for a foggy day.” Though these domestic expressions of family faith were never intended for publication, at least one of them appears to have had a life all its own. Born in Willesden in 1898 and educated at Raven’s Croft School in Sussex, Lesbia Lesley Locket married John Mortimer Scott, a naval offi...

Walk Worthily I Thessalonians 2:1-12 Why is the Church here? Why I am here? Why are you here? ( Let me comment that the lectionary sometimes gets it wrong....should have gone to vs 12 today, so we are looking at that vs.) "...Walk worthily of God, who calleth you into His own kingdom and glory." The Apostle identifies what that means by his own example in vs. 10 " Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and righteously and unblamably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe..." 1. What does it mean to " Walk worthily"? As one commentator puts it, " ...Such a picture of a Christian pastor , drawn with such conscious sincerity and honesty, warns all the followers of Christ against the temptation of avarice and ambition and inspires them to emulate the courage, the purity, the tenderness, the self-sacrifice, and the fidelity which the apostle claimed and which all who knew him could testify he had embodied in his life..." Th...

Reflection on I Thessalonians 1:3 What is the Church to be? In the Epistle today we hear what the Apostle calls the Christians there to continue in. We too need to hear what he is saying for our encouragement and growth in the body of Christ. Divisions over doctrine can be important of course, as well as the fine points of theology but here Paul tells us what is good and right about the Church in Thessalonica in their believing lives of love. They were commended for their " unceasing work of faith, the labor of love, and the endurance of hope " 1:3 Let us look at these individually through the use of the words in the original language. "Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.2We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers;Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father; Knowing, brothers belove...

ST Michael and All Angels - Sept 29/Sunday OCT 1. As we rejoice today in the Mystery, the Truth and the Love that is in our Lord and His Word, a few introductory comments on this occasion which is so important. Man tries to humanize God, but that is a mistake. God is not human, and our belief and our thinking about God should be based on Revelation, that is His Holy Inspired and Inerrant Word, not our own human feelings about Him. So we think so and so about God and His revelation which is a great mistake because if we start from the human and move to the Divine, we miss the Mystery, the Truth and the Love that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord if we receive Him by faith. Today we celebrate the feast day of our parish and we enter an area that is certainly in Scripture but this is an area of great mystery . We can only as Christians bow before what we hear in reverence. When I think of angels I think of that marvelous vision of Isaiah in Chapter 6 of his prophetic book where there...

Is Christ our Life? Philippians 1:21 There is another Scripture in Colossians that links in with our text for today, " For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Phillipians Colossians 4 from the traditional 1928 BCP lectionary says, " If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above....( and then vs. 4) Easter Day, p. 164. When Christ who is our life , shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." My almost favorite author, the RC Monk at the Abbey of Gethesemani in his book, New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton, reflects on how theology, that is our belief system about doctrine is not enough to bring us to heaven:" Faith is primarily an intellectual assent. ..It has to be something more than an assent of the mind. It is also a grasp, a contact, a communion of wills ...By faith one not only assents to propositions revealed by God, one not only attains to truth in a way that intelligence and reason alone ca...

Loving Resolution and Forgiveness in Matthew 18 How timely are the Scriptures. They tell us how to deal with conflict resolution or at least how to attempt it. Some are not going to respond. If people who are in the Church do not respond to one on one, more than one, and then the Church , then they are not to be treated as brethren if they were ever such at all. This is simply an acknowledgment that an attempt has been made at restoration and the person refuses to listen to the wisdom of others and the Church. " If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican." 18:17 We might say that the current Church in many places ignores this whole area of discipline. There is the devotion of the Church---the Prayer Book. There is the Doctrine of the Church- the 39 articles and the Catechism & there is the Discipline of the Church . Every family has this. Love without boundaries is not love. We have the choice to be a Church t...

Romans 12:9-21 - Thoughts Difficulties are in our lives for a reason. They are there to mold us, form us, and give us faith in God's ways, not ours. Who would sign up for evacuation of a whole state? As we think and pray for those who are fleeing the storm, we too have storms to deal with in our own situations. Sometimes they are things we could avoid if we did things correctly, but sometimes they are things not of our own making. It hurts and we cry out. We come to the end of our own selves and efforts and as Christians we turn to the ways and will of God. But in these circumstances of our lives we grow if we see them as opportunities for good and not for evil. There is enough of sin and death in our world that we do not need to be part of the problem. As Christians, we should be part of the solution . We read in Romans that our love should be real. 1. " Let love be without dissimulation. That English word means to feign, or to simulate, disguise or conceal. ...

To the Faithful of the GAFCON movement and friends from Archbishop Nicholas Okoh, Metropolitan and Primate of All Nigeria and Chairman, the GAFCON Primates Council. My dear people of God, Gafcon is not just an organisation, but a movement that God has raised up and by his grace continues to work through. I have just returned from a visit to the Anglican Church in North America and rejoice in its continued growth and vitality. This is yet another reminder of the wonderful partnership we enjoy as confessing Anglicans and which we will celebrate with great joy as we gather in Jerusalem next year for our third Global Anglican Future Conference. Gafcon is about hope and the future. It is about godly unity and faithful witness for generations to come, and I want to state these positive things very clearly as I share my reasons for not attending the Primates Meeting in Canterbury next month. I attended the Canterbury Primates Meeting held in January 2016 because I believed it might be p...

Members of One Another ⦁ Members of One Another Romans 12:5 "After the finishing of the principal points of Christian doctrine, consists in the declaring of precepts of the Christian life. And first of all he gives general precepts and grounds: the principal of which is this, that every man consecrate himself wholly to the spiritual service of God, and do as it were sacrifice himself, trusting the grace of God. (a) By this preface he shows that God's glory is the utmost goal of everything we do. (b) In times past the sacrifices were presented before the altar: but now the altar is everywhere. (c) Yourselves: in times past other bodies besides our own, but now our own must be offered. (d) In times past, dead sacrifices were offered, but now we must offer those which have the spirit of life in them. (e) Spiritual. Geneva Study Bible- Biblehub" Romans 12:2 ⦁ ⦁ We are " members one of another" in the Church and the Body of Christ. There are 58 " ...

Matthew 16:18 And I say also to you, That you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I. WHAT THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IS. II. AS TO THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH. 1. Negatively. Not Peter. (1) He was but a man. (2) Peter was a frail mortal man. (3) Peter was a sinful man. (4) Peter determines the point himself, and expounds the prophecy in Isaiah of Christ (1 Peter 2:4). (5) Peter, as mere Peter, could never victoriously grapple with the assaults of Satan.Some assert that Peter was the foundation in a secondary sense. (1) This secondary foundation is an absurd distinction, and contrary to the very nature of a foundation. (2) It would have to be extended to all the apostles. 2. Positively — that Christ is the only true foundation of the Church. (1) God the Father selected no other. (2) Christ asserts no other. (3) The Holy Spirit fits no other. (4) Only Christ can withstand the gates of hell. I...

Take Courage. BE not afraid. It is I. Matthew 14:27 We are afraid. We look over the side of the bridge or the height and we feel as though we are going to fall. We have a sickening feeling in our stomach. The air is gone. There is no interest in continuing. We feel alone. What drives us into this feeling? How do we get there? What is missing ? Jesus would say we are missing courage. Courage is not the absence of fear but an emboldening from within. It is the warming of the heart..... Tharsos=Courage-tharséō (from the root thar-, "bolstered because warmed up," derived from /thársos, "emboldened from within") – properly, bolstered within which supports unflinching courage – literally, to radiate warm confidence (exude "social boldness") because warm-hearted. Biblehub " It is when we take our eyes off from Him and think of our own weakness, and worry about our own temptations , that we are imperiled. ..Christ does not rebuke us fo...

Transfiguration Sunday This festival of the Church is in all of the Gospels except for John. Our Lord had been saying things to the disciples and then it says in Luke 9 , " And ...about eight days after these sayings He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray..." He had fed the crowd---the miracle of feeding the 5,000. Then he asked the disciples, " Who do you say that I am?" After Peter got it right, " The Christ of God" He told them , " The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day." vs. 22 vs. 23, " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Then He took them up to the mountain. Have you ever been on top of a mountain? You can get a picture of the whole area. There is a place near my old home in Monterey, CA called Jack's peak, that you ...