{"id":15270,"date":"2014-10-31T16:25:07","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T05:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=15270"},"modified":"2014-10-31T16:25:07","modified_gmt":"2014-10-31T05:25:07","slug":"sermon-for-retired-clergy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2014\/10\/31\/sermon-for-retired-clergy\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon for Retired Clergy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Canon David Lewis shared this sermon recently at the Southern retired Clergy luncheon and with his permission I would like to share it with you.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Popular, some years ago, especially for those times when we sing \u2018songs\u2019, was the one which had the verse \u201cbe still and know that I am God\u201d.\u00a0It is sung three times, before moving to verse two.\u00a0 Calming, gentle, nice, and yet as is often the case, only half the story.<\/p>\n<p>The words come from Psalm 46, which we have just said, and come in the midst of the battle, as an encouragement:\u00a0to think on the truth that God is with us, &#8212; and as St Paul says (Romans 8:13 ) \u201cIf God is for us,\u00a0who can be against us? !!\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Paul goes on then to list some of the things that are against us, things that might separate us from God\u2019s love, from Christ\u2019s presence.\u00a0(Note: (Separate) us from God. Not God from us, He is always with us!!).\u00a0 Things that might cloud our realisation,\u00a0our faith,\u00a0that God is for us: things, (life\u2019s happenings) such as:\u00a0affliction,\u00a0hardships,\u00a0persecutions, hunger,\u00a0danger,\u2026his list goes on \u2013 for the battle we call life: goes on!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBe still\u201d in the midst of the battle,\u00a0and remember:\u00a0reassure ourselves that God is God, and God is with us, God is for us.<\/p>\n<p><em>You can\u00a0find the full sermon <a href=\"\/\/server02\/Groups\/Bishop\/Services,%20Events,%20Seminars,%20Training%20&amp;%20Conferences\/Other\/Retired%20Clergy\/2014\/Sermon%20Retired%20Clergy%20Lunch%20David%20Lewis%20241014.pdf\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">here<\/span><\/span><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Canon David Lewis shared this sermon recently at the Southern retired Clergy luncheon and with his permission I would like to share it with you. Popular, some years ago, especially for those times when we sing \u2018songs\u2019, was the one &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2014\/10\/31\/sermon-for-retired-clergy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15270"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15270"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15276,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15270\/revisions\/15276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}