All Thy Heart, All Thy Soul, All Thy Mind

Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, September 29, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

"Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."  (St. Matthew 22:37)

In today's Gospel passage from St. Matthew, we hear that the Pharisees had heard that Our Lord had put the Sadducee's to silence and they saw this as their opportunity to put Our Lord in His place.  Now, they probably should have known better but they took their chances and sent out a lawyer which, St. Matthew reminds us was "tempting Him" and asked:  "Master, which is the great commandment in the Law?"  Now, this lawyer might not have been the sharpest knife in the bunch because it seems if he was trying to trip up Our Blessed Saviour, it seems like he would have picked a tougher question than this.  You see, any devout Jew would have known the answer to this question, let alone a learned Rabbi such as Our Lord.  And, so Our Lord responds very easily:  "Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all they mind." (St. Matthew 22:37.

Now for us listening today to these words, they can be a bit overwhelming, can't they?  I mean when we hear the words:  .  . . . with all thy heart, with all thy soul and with all thy mind . . . . especially if we emphasize the "all" . . . it can be a bit overwhelming especially to those of us who lead busy lives.  If you are anything like me, you are constantly doing things and going from one place to the next.  So, your day, your week, your month is broken up into "pieces."  In other words a piece of your day goes to work; another piece goes to doing things at home; another piece goes to relaxation; another piece goes to shopping; another piece goes to running errands; etc.  And in between running errands and relaxation and going to work, etc., if you have some spare time in between you give this "piece" to God.

Now, there is no way getting around being busy.  All of the things I just mentioned are very important in their own right and need to be done, but the key is to somehow involve God in each one of our tasks, whether it be going to work, or doing chores, or fixing up the house, or going shopping, etc.  If we find a way to involve God in each one of our tasks on a daily basis, it is at that point that we can truly say that we love God "with all of our heart, all of our mind, and with all of our soul."

Now, interestingly enough, even though today we celebrate the 18th Sunday after Trinity, September 29th is also the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels or as called in our Anglican heritage, Michaelmas.  Now, you know what St. Michael the Archangel was known for, don't you?  He was the Prince of the Heavenly Host and he had a fierce battle with Satan and kicked Satan out of Heaven:

"And there was a war in Heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels.  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." (Revelation 12:7-9)

Now the reason why there was a battle resulting in Satan and his angels being thrown out of Heaven is because, quite frankly,  Satan got a little bit too big for his britches.  In other words, even though he was an angel, and was supposed to be in service of Almighty God, he decided that he didn't want to be in service of God any longer.  He wanted to do things his way and not God's way.

"How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!  How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God:  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High." (Isaiah 14:12-15)

As you can see, the problem with the old serpent Lucifer was that he got to be too good for God.  In other words, he was too big for God and did not need God any longer.  He thought he was so good and so mighty and so powerful that he did not need God any longer.  He was in Heaven but Heaven was not enough for him, he wanted more than Heaven.

In a strange sort of way, this story reminds me of another episode also heard about in the Old Testament.  Go back to the Book of Genesis.  We hear the following conversation between that old serpent and Eve in the Garden of Eden:

"For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took fo the fruit thereof and did eat."  (Genesis 3:5-6)

Now, we know the rest of the story:  Eve got her husband Adam to eat of the apple as well . . . . because we know that all husbands do exactly as they are told . . .  and they both did something that they should not have done.  They knew that they should not have done it because God told them not to.  But despite the fact that they were in Paradise, paradise was not good enough for them.  They wanted more than paradise.  They wanted it all.  They wanted paradise plus more just like Heaven wasn't good enough for Satan.  He wanted Heaven plus more.

As Christians, we are called to acknowledge the fact that we are in need of God.  As Christians, we are called to acknowledge the fact that we are not perfect, that we are fallen, that we are in need of the Messiah.  Lucifer, and also Adam and Eve, decided that they did not need God.  They could do things on their own, and in their minds, better than God since they didn't need to rely on God.  We, on the other hand, acknowledge that everything we have is a gift from God.

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord." (Romans 6:23).  God gives the gift of Christ to us on a daily basis.  God gives of Himself to us especially in the Blessed Sacrament so that He can nourish us, fortify us, and strengthen us for the journey of life.

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."  (1 St. John 4:10)  God loved us before we were even born.  God has loved us every day that we have been alive.  Whether we are 30 or 70 or 90 years old, no matter what our age, God has thought about us every single day our entire life.  Can we say the same thing about God, though?  Have we thought about Him every day?   God has given the gift of His Son to you.  Give God the gift of your love and devotion to Him.

Join us on Sunday, September 29, 2013

Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, September 29th, 2013

 In the 22nd Chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, we hear Our Blessed Saviour posing the question, "what is the greatest commandment?" The response is certainly easy for us to respond back because we hear these words spoken each and every time we hear Mass: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The key here, and I think what actually makes putting this into practice so difficult, is the emphasis on "all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." The main emphasis being on the word "all." This is indeed the tricky part. Now, we have to ask the question, do we give God our "all" in life or do we simply give Him a "piece" of our life every now and then? Now, I suppose it all boils down to how we define the word "all" but honestly do we always give God our "all" in life or is our life segmented into pieces? One piece goes to work. One piece goes to home. One piece goes to chores at home. One piece goes to running errands. One piece goes to church. One piece goes to relaxation.  One piece (on Sundays) goes to God. etc. etc. etc. All of us lead very busy lives and it is extremely easy . . . . entirely too easy, sadly . . . for us to be diverted in a thousand different directions with everything that we have to accomplish. Unfortunately, there is not a way around that. But there is a way that we can involve God in every aspect of our busy lives and in this way, He will become the center of our life. If we always make a point to involve God in our daily routine, our daily living, the important and the not-so-important aspects of our life, then ultimately we will love God "with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind." Go to your loving Saviour on a daily basis. Make Him a part of your life like never before. He has made you a part of His life since before you were born. You have been on His mind everyday of your life. Isn't about time that you have Him on your mind every day of your life?

 St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church celebrates Mass each and every Sunday at 9:30 AM. We join together to celebrate Mass in the Chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. Join us for Mass as we join together as God's Family listening to the Word of God found in the King James Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Join us as we worship Our Blessed Saviour and then receive Him in Holy Communion so that He can nourish us physically and spiritually for the upcoming week. Afterwards, join us for treats at our Coffee Hour. Any questions about our church or where you can find us every Sunday morning, please visit our webpage at:

St. Margaret Webpage

Mass in Greenfield, Indiana on September 28, 2013

Church of the Holy Spirit in Greenfield, Indiana September 28, 2013 Fr. Todd Bragg will celebrate Mass for the Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit on Saturday evening at 5:00 PM. Mass will be celebrated in the Chapel in the Park which is located in Riley Park in Greenfield at the Corner of 40 and N. Apple Street. Mass will begin at 5:00 PM. If you live in or near Greenfield, please consider yourself invited to Mass on Saturday, September 28th, 2013. Please join Fr. Bragg and the members of the Church of the Holy Spirit parish was we hear the Word of God and receive Our Blessed Lord in Communion. Come join the Church of the Holy Spirit for Mass and refreshments will be offered after Mass. Please forward this announcement to others that you know that may be interested in attending Mass on Saturday evening, September 28th, 2013.

Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk

Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, September 22, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

"For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."  (St. Luke 14:1 ff)

If you look at both the Epistle and the Gospel today, the emphasis seems to be focused on "humility" and "meekness."  In St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians (Ephesians 4:1-6) we hear St. Paul encourage the Ephesians to walk "with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love."  In today's Gospel we hear this passage broken down into two parts, if you will.   The first half of the Gospel passage deals with Our Blessed Saviour being invited to the home of one of the Chief Pharisee's.  While there, Our Lord encountered a man with the Dropsy.  Now, Our Lord must have seen their faces and knew their hearts because He immediately asked the question who would leave an ox or an ass fallen into a pit and just leave them there.  He asks if it would be lawful for them to do this on a Sabbath or would it would better just to leave the beasts there to suffer.  St. Luke reminds us that nobody answered a word to this question.  Now, Our Lord was learned in Scripture and the reason He asked this question was because this very question was posed in both Exodus and Deuteronomy.  And the answer was that it would be permissible to rescue the ox or ass on the Sabbath.  Thus, Our Lord asked if it permissible to rescue animals in trouble on the Sabbath, then why is it not permissible to bring healing to a man who is suffering even if this healing is performed on the Sabbath.  And Our Lord promptly cured the man with the Dropsy.

Now the second half of this Gospel passage deals with priority and placement of importance.  Now, keep in mind we are certainly not different from other cultures in this regard.  If you go to a dinner at the White House, you will see the President has a certain place where he sits, the First Lady has a certain seat, the Vice-President, Guests of honour and so on.  Everybody has a certain place where they are seated and this place shows the importance of the guest.  Same way two thousand years ago.  People of importance had certain places where they would be seated.  Now Our Lord witnessed this and perhaps He saw people arguing over who was to sit where but for whatever reason He tells a story about a man who goes to a wedding feast and takes it upon himself to sit in the very highest seat of honour only to place himself in a very embarrassing situation when the host told him to move to a much lower seat.  Thus, Our Lord states:  " . . . sit not down in the highest place, lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden." (St. Luke 14:1 ff)  In other words, sit in the lowest place and then if it is meant that you are to go up higher to a more honourable seat, then you will not embarrass yourself.

Now, we know that Our Lord was a wonderful teacher and preacher.  We know this because of the various Gospel passages which showed that vast multitudes were drawn to hear Him speak.  One of the other reasons why Our Blessed Saviour was such a good speaker was that He would use parables and examples that would be easy for everyone to understand.  In other words, He would use parables that everyone would understand.  The other thing that made Our Lord such a wonderful preacher was the fact that He "talked the talk and walked the walk."  In other words, He did not stand up and preach one thing and then go out and do the opposite.  What you see is what you get.  So, when Our Lord spoke about humility and being humble, you know that He was first and foremost humble.

Look at when Our Lord wanted to teach the example of being humble to the Apostles.  He told them to gather around and He proceeded to wash their feet.  Now, keep in mind that washing the feet was the lowest, most menial job in that society.  In other words, the very lowest-ranked servant would have to do that job.  Thus, when Our Lord washed the feet of the Apostles, He was doing the lowest job imaginable in that society.  And when He was finished, we hear the following:  "When He had washed their feet and taken His garments, and resumed His place, He said to them: 'Do you know what I have done to you?  You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.  If I then, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.  For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you."  (St. John 13:1 ff)

Our Lord, Who is the Teacher, the Lord, the Rabbi, the Master, the Saviour . . . . is also the Servant through His actions.  He came not to be served but rather to serve.  He backed up His words with actions, in other words.  He talked the talk and walked the walk.

Elsewhere, we hear Our Lord state that "whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.  Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His Life as a ransom for many."  (St. Matthew 20:27-28)   Our Lord had no need to do any of the things that He did here on earth.  He could have just stayed up in Heaven and leave it at that but He chose to become a human in order to know what it was like to walk in your shoes.  The other reason He wanted to become a human was so that He could redeem our humanity.  In other words, as a human being, Our Lord suffered death but in so doing, He was able to rise again to new life on the third day and allow fallen humanity to share in that Redemption!  Our Lord humbled Himself to take the place of a criminal up on that Blessed Cross.  In other words, He humbled Himself by taken our place on that Cross.

In response to hearing the Apostles arguing about who was the greatest, Our Blessed Saviour responded:  " . . . . but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.  For which is greater, he that sitteth at meat or him that serveth?  But I am among you that serveth."  (St. Luke 22:26-27)  Our Lord taught by not only the words He spoke but also the way in which He lived His life.  And as Christians we are called to do likewise: to serve and to love in humility.

Mass at Holy Spirit in Greenfield

Holy Spirit Anglican Church

Greenfield, Indiana

Fr. Bragg is very pleased to announce that on Saturday, 9/21/2103,  he has the honour of saying Mass for the Holy Spirit Anglican Parish in Greenfield, Indiana.  Mass will be held at the Chapel in the Park, which is located in Greenfield near the corner of Apple Street and 40 / Main Street.  Mass will begin at 5:00 PM and all members of Holy Spirit are invited to attend along with any interested persons living in the Greenfield area.  Fr. Bragg will celebrate the vigil of the 17th Sunday after Trinity.  So, please feel free to join us for Mass as we gather together as God's Family as brothers and sisters and worship Our Heavenly Father; listen to the Word of God; and receive Our Precious Lord in His Body and Blood at Communion time.

Where is your heart?

Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, September 15, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

". . . according to the power that worketh in us . . ." (Ephesians 3:13ff)

Did you ever have the experience of finding something that did not know that you had or at the very least you found something that you had forgotten about?  It's like finding a treasure.  Well, I had that experience this week.  I finally watched a movie that I had for a long time but I had never watched it until this week.

This movie that I finally got around to watching this week was called "Cinderella Man" which was based on the true story of a man by the name of James J. Braddock, who was a boxer back in the 1920's and 1930's.  The movie begins by seeing Braddock shortly before the beginning of the Depression where he did have numerous fights but his career was really not going anywhere.  In fact, just the opposite.  The beginning of the movie shows a fight where Braddock is fighting with a broken hand and as a result he is not really boxing as well as he should have.   Shortly after this fight the boxing commission takes away his boxing license, which of course, is the way he makes a living for his wife and his three small children.

Just as his boxing career is bottoming out, so is the country as it enters into the Depression Era.  The movie moves forward to where the Braddock family is now shown living in a very poor basement apartment barely making ends meet.   And to be honest, they were not making ends meet at all because both the electricity and heat were turned off in the middle of winter.

It turned out that Braddock became the replacement for a boxer that could not fight one night.  And Braddock jumped at the chance to box because it meant money for his family to survive on.  One fight led into another fight and so on and even led ultimately to his getting an opportunity to fight the heavyweight champion of the world at that time, Max Baer.  Now, in every one of these bouts, his main focus and his main motivation for winning fights was not furthering his career or even winning the title, his main motivation became his family's survival.  Every time he became injured and felt that he could not go on, he thought about his family and the struggles that they had.  So, for James J. Braddock, the "power that worketh" in him was his family and their survival.   He was fighting for them.

We hear in St. Luke's Gospel, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." (St. Luke 12:34)  For James J. Braddock, his treasure was his family and that is why he put his heart into every round of every boxing match that he was in.  He put his heart into keeping his family afloat.

The reason I bring all of this up is because, certainly, in a similar way Our Blessed Lord's motivation for everything that He did was His love for the fallen human race.  He became a human out of love.  He performed His miracles out of love.  He died on the Cross out of love.  His motivation was love for us, the fallen human race.  We were in His heart.  We were His motivation for everything that He did.

"Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God, not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart."  (II Corinthians 3:3)   What St. Paul is saying here is that faith is not something that we read off of a paper or off of a script or from some book.  Rather, our love of God, our faith in the living God, is something that is written down in our heart.  It is something internal that is deep down inside of us.  And as a result of our faith taking root internally, this faith springs outward and shows itself externally in the way in which we show love to one another and care for one another and minister unto one another.   In this way, we are imitating Our Blessed Saviour because the love He has for humanity is not written down in stone or on tablets or in a book but is written in His Heart.

And to the young man who was questioning Our Lord and asking Him about what the greatest commandment was, Our Lord responded:  "Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and with all thy mind."  (St. Matthew 22:36-37)  When we give ourselves over to God, we give ourselves wholeheartedly.  We give of ourselves to God with our whole being:  our heart, our soul and our mind.  And we do this because it was God Who first gave of Himself  to us.  Our Lord did not just give us a part of Himself and then kept the other part from us.  No, He gave everything to us.  He gave fallen man His life and even His death!  He gave us everything and in return He asks the same from us.  He does not ask more from us than He is willing to do Himself to begin with.  We are His motivation.  We are the reason that He lived as a human being and even the reason why He died.  Thus, we can certainly offer our heart to the One who first offered His Heart to us!

Thy Faith Hath Made Thee Whole

Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, September 1, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

"Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole." (St. Luke 17:11ff)

In today's Gospel passage coming to us from the 17th Chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, we are witness to Our Blessed Saviour travelling to Jerusalem and going by way of Samaria and Galilee, St. Luke reminds us.  On the journey, while travelling, Our Lord encounters a group of ten lepers.  St. Luke makes a point to tell us that this group of lepers must have been raising quite a bit of noise in order to attract Our Lord's attention.  Part of the reason might very well have been due to the fact that lepers were supposed to keep a distance away from those not afflicted with their disease.  We hear from Leviticus 13:46:  " . . . all the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled: he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be."  Thus, lepers were required to be separated from the general population.  Remember the movie Ben Hur, where Charleton Heston's mother and sister were thrown in prison for a crime they did not commit and during that long prison stay, they developed leprosy and had to go live in the area designated for lepers.  

Well, certainly these ten lepers attracted Our Lord's attention because He spoke to them and said nothing more than "Show yourselves unto the priest." (verse 14).  In other words, He does not come right out and tell them that they are cured,  He directs them to go to the priest.  Our Lord does this because He was following Jewish Law and Custom:  "This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing:  He shall be brought unto the priest." (Leviticus 14:2)  

On the way to see the priest, we are told that the group of ten lepers were cured.  And yet only one out of the ten has the decency to return to Our Blessed Saviour to give Him thanks and pay Him homage.  We hear in verse 15:  " . . .  and when one of them saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God."  I imagine that he did glorify God when he discovered that he was cured of leprosy!  When we get something that we are wishing for, don't we show excitement?  If we are stuck in a jam, and then we find a way out, don't we show relief?  If we are given a miracle, don't we show amazement?   Well, imagine how it was with those who spent time with Our Blessed Saviour on a daily basis.  "Insomuch that the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel." (St. Matthew 15:31)  When we witness miracles in our own life or in the lives of others, we should show amazement but we should also show gratitude to Our Heavenly Father Who makes all miracles possible.  This is what the Samaritan Leper did in today's story:  he showed his appreciation for the miracle that he experienced.

Now, Our Lord was surely impressed with the fact that this man took the time to come back and express gratitude and pay homage to Our Blessed Lord.  He was the only one to make a point to do this, Our Lord rightfully points out.  As a result, He says to the Samaritan in verse 19:  " . . . . thy faith hath made thee whole."  Elsewhere in St. Mark's Gospel, Our Lord uses this term when we hear of the blind man being cured:  "Go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole and immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way."  (St. Mark 10:52)

In this context, the word "whole" refers to being restored back to health.  But if we look elsewhere in Scripture, we see that this word "whole" meaning "complete," "perfect," or "entire."  When the leper returned to Our Blessed Lord, he had already been cured, keep in mind.  So it was not until he returned and gave proper thanks and respect to Our Lord, it is then that Our Blessed Saviour tells him that his faith made him whole.  Thus, seen in this light, we are complete, we are whole, only when we give God thanksgiving and acknowledgement for all the wonders He does in our life.  

We can only be "whole" or "complete" when God is apart of our life.  Go to God on a daily basis.  Make God a part of your life.  Read your Bible everyday.  If it is only for five minutes today, work on making it six minutes tomorrow.  Show the proper gratitude and respect and homage and adoration that Our Blessed Saviour deserves.  The world we live in today represents the nine lepers that have received a blessing but do not show the proper respect or adoration that God deserves.  Let us be the Samaritan Leper that comes back to thank Our Lord.