postID: 6848; title: The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
no collect_text found
groupKey: secondary
groupKey: other
Array
(
[date] => 2012-09-30 11:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 719
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => formatted
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2012-09-30 11:00:00
)
2 post(s) found for dateStr : 2012-09-30postID: 6782 (Jerome)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6782; date_type: fixed; year: 2012
fixed_date_str: September 30
fixed_date_str (mod): September 30 2012
formattedFixedDateStr: 2012-09-30
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6782
displayDates for postID: 6782/year: 2012
Array
(
[0] => 2012-09-30
)
postPriority: 999postID: 6848 (The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6848; date_type: variable; year: 2012
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6848
displayDates for postID: 6848/year: 2012
Array
(
[0] => 2012-09-30
)
postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2012-09-30 with ID: 6848 (The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost)
The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost
Array
(
[date] => 2012-09-30 11:00:00
[scope] =>
[year] =>
[month] =>
[post_id] => 719
[series_id] =>
[day_titles_only] =>
[exclusive] => 1
[return] => simple
[formatted] =>
[show_date] =>
[show_meta] =>
[show_content] => 1
[admin] =>
[debug] => 1
[filter_types] => Array
(
[0] => primary
[1] => secondary
)
[type_labels] => Array
(
[primary] => Primary
[secondary] => Secondary
[other] => Other
)
[the_date] => 2012-09-30 11:00:00
)
2 post(s) found for dateStr : 2012-09-30postID: 6782 (Jerome)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6782; date_type: fixed; year: 2012
fixed_date_str: September 30
fixed_date_str (mod): September 30 2012
formattedFixedDateStr: 2012-09-30
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6782
displayDates for postID: 6782/year: 2012
Array
(
[0] => 2012-09-30
)
postPriority: 999postID: 6848 (The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost)
--- getDisplayDates ---
litdate post_id: 6848; date_type: variable; year: 2012
Variable date => check date_calculations.
=> check date_assignments.
=> NO date_assignments found for postID: 6848
displayDates for postID: 6848/year: 2012
Array
(
[0] => 2012-09-30
)
postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2012-09-30 with ID: 6848 (The Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost)
The reading_id [73274] is already in the array.
reading found matching title 'Revelation 12:7-12' with ID: 73930
The reading_id [73930] is already in the array.
reading found matching title 'John 1:47-51' with ID: 73415
The reading_id [73415] is already in the array.
No update needed.
Scripture citation(s): Genesis 28:10-17; Revelation 12:7-12; John 1:47-51
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Genesis 28:10-17; Revelation 12:7-12; John 1:47-51
✛
Subway Messengers
Array
(
[0] => 60703
[1] => 60781
[2] => 60758
)
book: [Array
(
[0] => 60703
)
] (reading_id: 73274)bbook_id: 60703
The bbook_id [60703] is already in the array.
book: [Array ( [0] => 60781 ) ] (reading_id: 73930)
bbook_id: 60781
The bbook_id [60781] is already in the array.
book: [Array ( [0] => 60758 ) ] (reading_id: 73415)
bbook_id: 60758
The bbook_id [60758] is already in the array.
No update needed for sermon_bbooks.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
My gym instructor does not go to church although his wife does. Nevertheless he told me this story. He was on the Number 2 train in the Bronx, reading the morning news on his iPhone as he stood, holding onto the pole for balance. The car was about half full of people, enough to make his standing necessary. Across the car were a couple, a man and a woman in perhaps their late thirties or early forties, the man with a tiny baby in a carrying pouch on his chest. Suddenly the man began to speak to the whole car. “Ladies and gentlemen, please give me a few minutes to speak to you. I’m not asking for money. I want to speak the Word of God to you.”
Of course everyone braced themselves. Then the man told them he had been incarcerated for 14 years, but that he had been saved and blessed in every way by the Lord Jesus Christ, who had not only given him a new mind and heart, but a new life including his wife and child. He spoke about what the Lord had done for four stops.
The amazing thing was, the people in the car were paying attention. One man was clearly praying, but the whole car was listening. Then the speaker came to his stop, thanked the people in the car for their patience, and courteously assisted his wife out the door, telling her to watch the gap. The people in the car smiled and quietly applauded. My gym instructor, who had stopped looking at his iPhone and had joined everyone else in listening, not given to such occurrences or such responses, went home and told his mass-going wife he wished she had been there to hear it. He looked at me and said he couldn’t get over the man’s simple honesty, the sincerity. No hectoring; just a witness of thanks. It was the recounting of this story, so honest and sincere as well, that made me decide it was given to me for this morning. I was sitting amidst the bars of an exercise machine, and I looked straight back at my gym instructor. “Maybe he was angel,” I said. His eyes widened. “Maybe he was angel,” he replied.
Because I believe in Jesus I believe in the angels. I have since the time, as an adult years after the event, I remembered an experience I had as a child. Two angels were at my bed, one at each side. It was after my parents had me say my night prayers and kissed me goodnight. One angel said he thought I would have a hard time (whatever that meant). The other angel agreed but said they would help me through it. Maybe it was a dream. Maybe it was really my parents. It doesn’t matter. The angels are God’s messengers; that is what the word angel means.
Many years ago I was describing to our then young daughter what the Bible says about angels. Then I quoted the hymn about the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel visited the Virgin Mary with the news that she would be the Mother of Christ. “The Angel Gabriel from heaven came/his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame.” At once she said she had seen one of those. What? Oh yes. He was right there (she pointed to the pinnacle of the garage roof). He was so beautiful. She doesn’t remember this incident, but I sure do.
Jesus told Nathaniel in today’s Gospel that he would see greater things than these. He would see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
The fact is, God’s world is shot through and through with his angels, from the outer reaches of the cosmos to the inmost reaches of the microcosms. God appoints guardian angels to protect his children. And it does seem that the angel of rebellion, the devil and father of lies, has also assigned his minions to tempt and deflect us. Michael, whose name is his challenge to the devil as he, Michael, drives him out of heaven, means “Who is like unto God?” There is an image of him at the World War I Memorial with the words in Latin. Michael is the patron saint of the whole community of the people of God, of Israel and of the Church. I was instituted Rector of Saint Thomas in 1996 on Michaelmas, and I do ask the great patron of my ministry here to guard and guide us through this new season of our Lord.
As a priest and pastor I have heard so many stories of God’s grace from the people I am privileged to serve. When you get down to the details of these stories, where there is often a wondrous turning point, whatever it may be, it seems that the good angels have been there, and their being there has also included giving the person the mind to respond and the eyes to see; or at least the heart to feel the grace. The father of faith, Abraham, entertained three angels unawares, and in so doing heard the word (at which both he and Sarah laughed – they were old) that they would have a child of their own the next year. Isaac means “he laughs.” As we heard in our first lesson, Jacob, Isaac’s son and Abraham and Sarah’s grandson, dreamed of angels ascending and descending on a ladder from earth to heaven.
The angels have names, ranks and functions. Some lead worship at the heart of heaven. Some deliver messages. Some head off evil chances. Some are simply there for the glory of God. They all, said Jesus, behold the face of my Father in heaven. And the worship of the Church is empowered by them, which is why the ancient preface of the Eucharist says, “Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee and saying, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts – that is, the angelic hosts – Heaven and earth are full of thy glory.’”
The worldlier we become, the harder it is for us to see the angels. But Christ has told us that if, by grace, we allow ourselves – no matter how experienced and sophisticated we may be – to be born anew from above, to become like an innocent and unspoiled child at heart; then we can see God’s Kingdom. And once that happens, I tell you, you will see how many myriads of angels there are, punctuating the Word of God in this world with their service. They are here in solemn assembly leading our praises; by you at the wheel of your car; at your bedside; on the roof on a clear blue day; and even on the subway for a few stops in the Bronx.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
