Ruler of Our Hearts

Christ the King, Sunday, October 27th, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

" . . . My kingdom is not of this world."  (St. John 18:36ff)

If you look at the definition of "king" in the dictionary, you will find the following definition:  "a male sovereign or monarch; a man who holds by life tenure, and usually by hereditary right, the chief authority over a country or people  . . . .  a person or thing preeminent in its' class."

Typically when we think of a king or a queen we think of a person who is born with royal blood,  who by virtue of the family line that they were born into, they were born into royalty.  The young Prince George, for instance, who was baptized this past week, is already being heralded as the future "King of England" already in line to be succeed to the throne.

Now, in the Gospel passage that we heard today, we were witness to the scene of Our Saviour being brought before Pilate and being asked questions by Pilate.  Now, it is my opinion that Pilate did not know how to deal with Our Blessed Lord because here is someone being brought before him that is being charged with treason and claiming to be a king and yet there was absolutely nothing "kingly" about this man brought before Pilate:  He was not dressed in royal attire; He was not attended by an army; etc.  Thus, Pilate was certainly puzzled as to why these charges were even being leveled against Our Saviour.

We must always be aware when we are speaking about Our Blessed Saviour, that what appears on the outside is not always accurate of what is inside.   " . . . for the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart."  (I Samuel 16:7)  Thus, Pilate did not see a king before him . . .  nor did he see anyone that even resembled a king in the slightest.  But you see Pilate, just like so many others during that time were only looking at outward appearances.  Thus, they did not see a "king."  But with Jesus, we have to look beyond the outward appearance.

You see, Jesus did not come to be a "king" by earthly standards.  If He did, yes, He would have been dressed in fine attire fit for a king.  If He planned on being a "king" simply based on earthly standards alone, then He probably would have had an army to support Him.  But He did not want to limit Himself to an "earthly kingdom," as such.  In fact, we know this is the case if we look at St. John's Gospel.  When so many people had witnessed Our Blessed Lord and the miracles that He performed they were ready to force Him to be their king . . . "When Jesus perceived that they would come and take Him by force to make Him a king, He departed again into a mountain Himself alone." (St. John 6:15)  Jesus did not want to conform to their vision of what a king was to be.

Now, when Our Lord responds to Pilate by saying "My kingdom is not of this world . . ." we are correct to assume that He is referring to His Kingdom as being that of Heaven.  But I would contend to you that we should not even limit it to that.  I would suggest to you today that Our Lord is stating that He wants to be the King of your heart.  He wants to be the ruler of your heart.  He wants you to choose Him to be the king of your heart.

"Neither shall they say, see here! or, see there! for behold, the kingdom of God is within you!" (St. Luke 17:21)  Yes, our Lord desires to be a king, but not in the earthly definition of what a king is.  He wants to go beyond outward appearances.  He desires something much more personal.  He wants to rule your heart.  He wants to sit upon His throne right there in your heart.  " . . . and Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts . . .  prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve Him only." (I Samuel 7:3)  We are called as Christians to prepare our hearts for Him alone.  He is my saviour and my king!  He alone rules my heart!  So when we hear Him say that His kingdom is not of this world, we find comfort in the fact that He desires to place His throne right there in our hearts so that He will always be close to us!  Allow the Lord to reign as the true King of your heart!  Make your heart ready for Him and prepare a place for Him there.

Signs and Wonders

Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, October 20th, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

"Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe."  (St. John 4:46ff)

Now, in today's Gospel passage coming to us from St. John we hear Our Blessed Lord being approached by the Nobleman who was seeking a cure for his son.  St. John reminds us that the Nobleman was aware of Our Blessed Saviour and was certainly aware of the miracles that Our Lord had performed because St. John states that the Nobleman "besought Him that He would come down and heal his son." (St. John 4:47)   Our Lord responded to his request in what seems to be a very sharp tone:  "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." (v. 48)  Despite this response, the Nobleman again requested that Our Blessed Saviour heal his son, to which Our Lord responded to his request by healing his son.

Now, obviously, Our Blessed Saviour was not opposed to healing this man's son.  There are numerous examples of healing throughout each of the Gospels.   Thus, we can only perceive that Our Lord was not irritated by the request to heal the Nobleman's son, but rather He was trying to make the point that we should have faith in God and not to depend on "signs and wonders."    If only we have faith in God, we will be filled with all that we need.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not see."  (Hebrews 11:1)  And further on, we read:  "But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that dilligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)  God will reward our faithfulness in Him.  Faith comes not from seeing with our eyes, but rather faith comes from believing through our heart.  Our mind tells us one thing, but our heart tells us another.  This is why Our Lord was such a mystery to the Jews of His day, because they could not understand what they were seeing with their eyes and hearing with their ears.

"For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.  But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness."  (I Corinthians 1:22)  This is why even up to the end of Christ's time here on earth, even as He was hanging from the Cross, the Jews demanded a sign from Him in order for them to believe:  "Likewise the chief priests mocking him:  Come down from the Cross and we will believe Him."  (St. Matthew 27:41)  The Chief Priests, along with all of those who were witness to Jesus, had plenty of opportunity to see for themselves the signs and wonders that He performed.  But for all that they were witness to, they still chose not to believe in Him.

But there were examples of people, whose faithfulness impressed Our Lord:

1)  The Nobleman in today's Gospel.  He sought our Lord's healing for his son and as soon as he heard the word, he turned and went home, sure of Our Lord's promise that his son would be well again.

2)  The Centurion in St. Matthew 8:8-9:  "For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me . . . Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed."

3) And also the example of the Canaanite woman who desired that Our Lord would heal her daughter in St. Matthew 15:22-28.  Despite the fact that Our Lord at first "answered her not a word;" next, He stated that He was "not sent but unto the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel;" and then stated to her that "it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs."  Despite all of these objections, the woman was still persistent in her faithfulness and Our Lord, obviously impressed with her responded:  "O Woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt."

For us, we have to remember that faith consists of:  trust, persistence and stead-fastness.  We need to trust in God; we need to be persistent in our trust in Him; and we need to be steadfast, sure that God will be with us no matter what, sure of the knowledge that God will supply us with what we need, but not necessarily what we want.

Be Filled With The Spirit

Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, October 13th, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

" . . . but be filled with the Spirit."  (Ephesians 5:15ff)

Remember that we are once again visiting the young Church of Ephesus along with St. Paul in today's Epistle.  Keep in mind that last week we spoke of the Ephesians and their young church, albeit in the previous chapter.  And, again, we mentioned last week that the Ephesians were a young church filled with converts in a major city of the Roman Empire, which was filled with people going and coming from all regions traveling through Ephesus.  The young members of this church were converts from paganism of the time.  In other words, in their former life before they embraced Christianity, they were focused on pleasing themselves and taking care of their own needs and desires and to this, St. Paul writes:  "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit."  (v. 18)

Now, we know from reading Scripture, namely the Gospels, that drinking wine was not the issue.  Keep in mind that Our Blessed Saviour made delicious wine.  Remember the Wedding at Cana?  So, I don't think Our Blessed Saviour is so much opposed to drinking wine but drinking in excess with the point of getting drunk.  From the Old Testament, we hear the following:  "Neither let drunkenness go with thee in thy journey: drink not wine to make thee drunken." (Tobit 4:15)

If we look at the various prophets and holy men and women of Scripture, we will see examples of people purposely not drinking wine or drinking alcohol.  Why?  Simply because they do not want to be accused of being drunk when they prophesy or speak of the holy things of God.  In the first chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke, we hear the angel speaking to Zacharias concerning the coming birth of his son, St. John the Baptist:  "For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." (St. Luke 1:15)

Think back to the very first Pentecost when the disciples and apostles were gathered together, praying for the coming of the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost did come.  And He made His Presence known in them in such a powerful way that they were even amazed themselves.  Listen:

"But Peter standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken unto my words:  For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
But this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel:  'And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.  And on my servants and handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit.' "  (Acts 2:14-18)

Even in this passage, St. Peter is making a point to those who are listening that those gathered together were not drunk but wanted to emphasize that the amazing things that they were witnessing came of God's power and Spirit.

Again, St. Paul is pointing out to the young Ephesian converts at Ephesus to be filled with the Spirit and not spirits, so to speak.  Listen, it is just common sense.  Look at this cruet filled with water.  Now as long as it is filled up with water, how can I fill it with anything else?  I can not pour in any additional water if it is already filled to the brim to begin with.  Think of any container or space that is filled with anything you can think of.  If it is full of something already, we have to empty it out before we can put anything else in there.  This is the point that St. Paul is making:  if you are filled with the spirit of strong drink, and this is what you are focused on, remove that spirit and replace it with the spirit of holiness.  But it is not just strong drink that we can think of.  We can take it a step further and talk about, for example, anger or bitterness.  If your heart is full of anger or hatred or bitterness, how can there be room in that same heart for love?  If your heart is already filled with jealousy or envy, there is no room for love.  Remove the anger from your heart and replace it with love.  Take away the lust for power or material possessions from your heart and replace it with love for God.  Take away the hatred and anger and hurt from your heart and replace it with things of God.  Be filled with the Spirit, as St. Paul would say to us.

"And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:19)

Harden Not Your Hearts

Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, October 6th, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

"And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."  (Ephesians 4:17ff)

In today's Epistle from the 4th Chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul is writing to the young church at Ephesus.  Now, keep in mind that Ephesus was a major, thriving city in the Roman Empire.  In fact Ephesus was not only the Roman capital of the Province of Asia, it was also a thriving commercial center.  Thus, not only did you find many important people in regards to the Roman empire but also people coming in and out of Ephesus due to business purposes.  

Now, the Epistle written to the Ephesians is somewhat short, it is only five chapters long, but what is contained within those five chapters are very important.  You see, St. Paul is writing to the Ephesians to remind them of who they were now as Christians.  Keep in mind that these were converts to Christianity that St. Paul is writing to and that they were converted from being Gentiles.  In reality, though, Gentiles is a polite term because people found in that region were in essence pagans who were only interested in one thing:  to please themselves and their desires.  

So St. Paul is writing to them to remind them that what they are now is completely different from what they were in their former life as Gentiles.  St. Paul basically saw three things wrong with the culture at large there in Ephesus and this is what he is trying to warn them against:

1) He saw hearts that were petrified to the reality of sin.  In other words, as pagans, they would have been unaware that sin even existed. 

2)  He saw men where shame was lost and where decency was forgotten.

3)  He saw that men there were so much in the chains of their lusts and desires that they could care less what they did or who they did terrible things to as long as they got what they were lusting after.

If you look at verse 18 of the passage we just heard, you will hear:  "Having the understanding darkened, because of the blindness of their hearts."  Now, here the KJV translation uses the word "blindness" and using this word the context or meaning is there, but if you look at the original language you will see that the word that is actually used comes from "Porosis" which comes from the Greek word "Poros" which actually means "stone that is harder than marble."  In other words, St. Paul is telling them that their hearts are like stone harder than marble.  St. Paul is warning them that as Christians their hearts should not be hardened but should be open to the will of God.

"For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed:  lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."  (St. Matthew 13:15)

St. Paul is urging the young church at Ephesus to ever keep in mind that they are now Christians and no longer pagans and to use Christ as their guide.  

"As ye therefore received Christ Jesus the lord, so walk ye in Him: Rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." (Colossians 2:6)  If you have ever done any sort of yard work at your house, I am sure that there have been times where you came upon a stubborn weed or plant or even tree for that matter and were shocked to discover how deep the roots were embedded in the ground.  St. Paul is stating that we should be well rooted in Christ so that when the "gods of this world" try to sway us, our roots will be so deep that we could not possibly be swayed.

"Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." (Hebrews 4:7)