Full Service
11th Sunday after Pentecost—Full Service
Trinity Church, 1589 Hwy 174, Edisto Island, SC 29438
www.trinityedisto.com 843-869-3568
11th Sunday after Pentecost, August 21, 2022
Holy Communion - Renewed Ancient Text; 2019 BCP, p.123
Order of Worship:
Open Hymn #680 O God Our Help in Ages Past
Song of Praise He Is Exalted (CCLI #258356)
Collect BCP, p.616
Isaiah 28:14-22
Psalm 46
Seq Hymn #686 Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Luke 13:22-30
Sermon The Rev. E. Weyman Camp IV
Nicene Creed BCP, p.127
Prayers of the People BCP, p.128
Holy Communion BCP, p.132
Be Still For The Spirit of the Lord (CCLI #258356)
Spiritual Communion Prayer - BCP, p.677
Close Hymn #688 A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
Luke 13:22-30 Sermon Notes
Intro - The Narrow Door
Luke 13:23-24 - 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.
The Question - “Lord, will those who are saved be few?”
A question born out of anxiety.
The Answer - Jesus does not answer the abstract speculation but issues a call for personal striving.
Striving - agonizomai - to engage in intense struggle against strong opposition, to fight. To agonize.
Salvation by Works or Grace? Ephesians 2:8,9
Luke 13:25 - When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’
When once - is a reference to time and opportunity.
Jesus is here to open the door!
1. Jesus Opens the Door - Isaiah 61:2 - "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor” and the day of vengeance of our God;
2. Jesus is the Door - John 10:7 - “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
3. Jesus now Knocks on the Door - Revelation 3:20 - Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
How do we Strive to Enter through the Narrow Door?
Not by Familiarity but by Faith.
1. Attending Church Services is Not Enough -
Luke 13:26-27 — 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’
2. Being Jewish by Blood is Not Enough -
Luke 13:28 - In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out.
3. But rather, People of Faith from the World will get in -
Luke 13:29 - And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.
Faith - Repenting and Believing The Gospel.
The Gospel is the Good News of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ by which we come the Righteousness of God.
“I Stand at the Door” By Sam Shoemaker
I stand by the door.
I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out.
The door is the most important door in the world -
It is the door through which men walk when they find God.
There is no use my going way inside and staying there,
When so many are still outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where the door is.
And all that so many ever find
Is only the wall where the door ought to be.
They creep along the wall like blind men,
With outstretched, groping hands,
Feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it.
So I stand by the door.
The most tremendous thing in the world
Is for men to find that door - the door to God.
The most important thing that any man can do
Is to take hold of one of those blind, groping hands
And put it on the latch - the latch that only clicks
And opens to the man's own touch.
Men die outside the door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in cruel cities in the dead of winter.
Die for want of what is within their grasp.
They live on the other side of it - live because they have not found it.
Nothing else matters compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk in, and find Him.
So I stand by the door.
Go in great saints; go all the way in -
Go way down into the cavernous cellars,
And way up into the spacious attics.
It is a vast, roomy house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those inner rooms
And know the depths and heights of God,
And call outside to the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a deeper look in.
Sometimes venture in a little farther,
But my place seems closer to the opening.
So I stand by the door.
There is another reason why I stand there.
Some people get part way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal of His house devour them;
For God is so very great and asks all of us.
And these people feel a cosmic claustrophobia
And want to get out. 'Let me out!' they cry.
And the people way inside only terrify them more.
Somebody must be by the door to tell them that they are spoiled.
For the old life, they have seen too much:
One taste of God and nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out just where they came in,
To tell them how much better it is inside.
The people too far in do not see how near these are
To leaving - preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch for those who have entered the door
But would like to run away. So for them too,
I stand by the door.
I admire the people who go way in.
But I wish they would not forget how it was
Before they got in. Then they would be able to help
The people who have not yet even found the door.
Or the people who want to run away again from God.
You can go in too deeply and stay in too long
And forget the people outside the door.
As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to hear Him and know He is there,
But not so far from men as not to hear them,
And remember they are there too.
Where? Outside the door -
Thousands of them. Millions of them.
But - more important for me -
One of them, two of them, ten of them.
Whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.
So I shall stand by the door and wait
For those who seek it.
'I had rather be a door-keeper
So I stand by the door.