Trinity Sunday

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church,

Indianapolis, Indiana

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."  (St. John 3:1 ff)

Did you hear the one about the snail that got mugged by the tortoise and when the police arrived to interview the snail, they asked him, 'Can you describe who did this to you?'  And the snail responded, 'no, it happened too fast.'

Some things in life are very difficult to comprehend . . .  sort of like that last joke . . .  And today is perhaps one of those things that is just very difficult to understand because today the Church celebrates the Feast of Trinity Sunday.

The earliest reference to the term "Trinity" in Christianity seems to come from Terulian, who used the term to try to explain the "Three in One" aspect of God.  Three Persons but only One God.  The "Tri-unity," if you will.

Now the whole concept of the Trinity is something that very few people can understand how it is even possible.  And for me to stand here before you and try to put into words something that, quite honestly, I do not understand myself, is beyond comprehension.  But it does make me feel better, to know that I am not alone when I found the following quote from one of my absolute favorite Church Fathers.  St. Augustine wrote the following:  "If you deny the Trinity, you will lose your soul, if you try to explain the Trinity, you will lose your mind."  So, if a great mind and thinker such as St. Augustine admits just how difficult concept the whole idea of the Trinity is to comprehend, then I don't feel so bad after all.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote in the Summa:  "It is impossible to believe explicitly in the mystery of Christ without faith in the Trinity; since the mystery of Christ includes that the Son of God took Flesh; that He renewed the world through the Holy Ghost, and again conceived by the Holy Ghost."

And, again, we find in the Catechism:  "The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity" is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life.  It is the mystery of God in Himself.  It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them." (CCC #234)

I believe that what we can take away from all of this in regards for our understanding in the Trinity is to remember what Our Blessed Lord stated:  "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father."  In responding to a question posed to Him first by St. Thomas, we hear Our Blessed Lord's response:

  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?  Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.  Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.  And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.  (St. John 14:6-14)

 In this exchange between Our Blessed Lord and His apostles, what we hear is that if you look at Our Lord you will see the Father.  Our Blessed Lord so closely emulates His Heavenly Father that when you see Him you see the Father.  And Our Lord chastises St. Phillip especially when He says "Have I been with you so long and yet thou has not known Me."  Again, Our Lord is saying to us that the Three Persons of the Trinity are One because they work as one, they think as one, they are one in their purpose and their resolve.  Thus, if you have seen the Son, you have seen the Father and the Holy Ghost.  

In St. John's Gospel, we hear the following:  "That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me." (St. John 17:21)

For our part, what we can learn from the Trinity is that the more we will follow Our Blessed Saviour's commands, the more that we follow His actions, the more that we emulate the way in which He treats others, the more that we do all of these things, it is then that we will be recognized as a Christian.  In other words, if we are loving in the way in which we treat others, if we are forgiving when we are wronged, if we are humble in our attitude toward those around us, if we are giving to those in need, in these ways will we be so closely identified with Our Blessed Saviour that people will know that we are Christians.  Of course, we will not always do everything correctly as we should.  We are not perfect.  If we were perfect, there would be no need for Our Blessed Lord to die on the Cross to atone for our sins.

Thus, in short, if we want to comprehend the Holy Trinity, let us think of the Holy Trinity as love.  Love for those around us . . .  love for those whom we come into contact with . . . love for those in need of God's grace.  We are called to follow God's commandments, let us follow His commandment to love one another and to show the love of God to those around us.

Pentecost Sunday (Whitsunday)--May 19, 2013
Fr. Todd Bragg
St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church, Indianapolis, IN
Readings:  Acts 2 and St. John 14

"And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues."

As we gather today to celebrate the feast of Pentecost, or as is known in the Anglican Tradition, Whitsunday, we have to remind ourselves that we are not the first ones to celebrate Pentecost.

In today’s Epistle reading coming from Acts, St. Luke reminds us that “Devout men were gathered in Jerusalem . . . “  We have to keep in mind that devout Jews were instructed that they were to make pilgrimage three times per year.  We are reminded in Exodus:  “Three times a year shalt thou keep a feast unto Me in a year . . .  And the feast of harvest, the first fruits of they labors, which thou hast sown in the field.” (Exodus 23:14).  In other words, this feast was also known as Pentecost.  Elsewhere we read in Leviticus:  “And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath . .. shall ye number 50 days and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord.”  (Leviticus 23:15).  Please note that we also mark our Christian Feast of Pentecost fifty days after Easter. 

If you were paying attention to the reading coming to us from Acts, you will make note that it seems to revolve around the speaking and understanding  . . . remember, I stated both speaking AND understanding . . .  other languages.  Keep in mind, devout Jews were gathered there from all different regions, different countries, different lands, and as a result, these different men were able to understand what the Apostles were speaking, despite the fact that these devout men from other regions did not speak the same language as the Apostles:  “Are these men not Galileans???”

If we look back to the Old Testament, we will find a very familiar story which we might have read ourselves or even heard about in Sunday School.  It is the story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).  If you look at this story, it boils down to this:  the people were so impressed with themselves that they decided to build a tower that would reach to the heavens.  But when God saw what they were doing, he scattered these people to all different regions and they spoke with different languages and division was created.  In other words,  these people were so proud of themselves and so proud of what they could do, that they wanted to build this tower as a testament to THEIR achievement and left God completely out of the mix. 

We are always to remember that everything we do,  everything we have, all the skills and powers and knowledge that we have comes directly from God.  It is God Who has bestowed upon us everything that we have.  Of course, it is up to us to use the skills that the Almighty has bestowed on us but we are always called to acknowledge the source of our skills. 

In St John’s Gospel, we hear the following:  “If ye love Me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever . . . . but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” (St. John 14:15-17). 

The Apostles and the Blessed Mother kept Our Lord’s commandments and they followed His instructions.  They might not always have done so perfectly or understood perfectly, but they did what they could and followed Our Lord as well as possible.  We are called to do the same thing:  Follow Our Lord’s commandments and follow His example.  Being human, we will now always do everything perfectly, but that being said, keep our focus on God first and foremost and let things follow from there.

As St. Peter reminds us:  “Once you were no people, now you are God’s people.”  (I St. Peter 2:10)  As God’s people, we are to remember exactly who we are and what we are.  We are Christians.  We bear the name of Christian and belong to God.  As Christians, we acknowledge where our abilities come from and to Whom our heart belongs;  to Our Heavenly Father.

 “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world . . . wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” (Galatians 4:3-7)

Let us acknowledge that God is Our Heavenly Father.  Let us acknowledge Our Blessed Lord to be Our Saviour.  Let us ask, on this feast of Pentecost, for the Holy Ghost to fill our hearts, to fill the hearts of every Christian throughout the world so that we can acknowledge Our Heavenly Father and to follow His commandments.

Please visit the St. Margaret Parish website:
http://indyanglican.blogspot.com/

May 19, 2013  Whitsunday.

Welcome to my new blog which is simply entitled "Father Todd Bragg's Sermons."  I know, it's a pretty snappy title but I think it gets the job done.  As the name suggests, this is where you will be able to see Fr. Todd's sermons online.  Of course, Fr. Todd would like it better if you would listen to his sermons in person during Mass but if that is not possible, this is the next best thing.  Well, OK,  . . . the next best thing would be to have the sermons videotaped and shown on the parish website.  Yes, that would be better but since I don't have the capability to videotape not to mention the know-how to post the videos online, this is the next best option.  OK, a podcast of the actual sermons would be better but, again, I don't have the capability or the know-how to do this, just writing out the sermons in this blog will have to do.   In addition to posting sermons, hopefully, I will be posting other items of interest as well such as interesting pictures, etc.  So,  as they say, come back often and enjoy!!!!

Please visit the St. Margaret Parish website:
http://indyanglican.blogspot.com/