The Gospel
St. Matthew v. 20.
JESUS said unto his disciples, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
The days of the hyprocitic scribes and Phrarisees is not over and hypocricy is still well and truly amongst us.
It is particularly sad, that it is a phenonomen in Church circles around us. In Roman Catholic cirles for instance: the shocking news of gay clergy parties right under the eyes of the pope in the Vatican, those concerned on the outside living a Christian life and when the darkness comes it is a different story alltogether.
Then there is the constant sweeping under the table of sex crimes by the clergy by their Bishops.No one takes any proper action. In every Parish or congregation of a Church there are Christians, who are only Christian on Sunday and on weekdays they lead different lives, they judge people, they are angry with other people and so it goes on.
Jesus is very clear to his disciples about this particular issue and it is my duty as a Priest to pass it on to you and to take heed myself, so that I might not fall into this trap. It is now time to look at ourselves and see whether we need to change our ways leading our lives as a Christian , so that we may still be with our Lord at the end of our pilgrimage here on earth.
Father Ed Bakker
Anglican Catholic Church/ Original Province
Mission of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne
Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
No comments:
Post a Comment