I send my messenger

Third Sunday in Advent, Sunday, December 15th, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

" Behold, I send My messenger before thy face."  (St. Matthew 11:2 ff)

In today's Gospel passage coming from St. Matthew, we are listening to Our Lord speaking about His cousin, St. John the Baptist.  The passage begins by St. John, who is waiting in prison, sending two of his disciples to question Our Blessed Saviour if He is the long-awaited Messiah or should they wait for another.  Our Lord responds that if they want to know if He is the Messiah, that they merely need to look at the works that He has done.  Then He quotes Scripture in regards to St. John the Baptist:

"Behold, I will send My messenger and he shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, Whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple."  (Malachi 3:1)

Two things that we should consider:  One, Our Lord did indeed come to His temple . . . . He came to earth as a human being.  Secondly, Our Lord does not need our assistance but He welcomes our assistance.

As I try to make the point so often, we do not have a God Who is far off or distant.  In other words, we do not have a God Who created us and then stays away at a distance.  He, on the other hand, was so concerned for His creation that He became One with His creation . . .  like us in all things but sin.

"Who is like unto the Lord Our God, Who dwelleth on high, Who humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in Heaven and in the earth." (Psalm 113:5-6)

We have a God Who not only created the universe but humbled Himself to become One with His creation.

"But we see Jesus, Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that by the grace of God should taste death for every man." (Hebrews 2:9)

Christ made Himself lower than the angels so that He could not only experience living as a human being, walking in your shoes, but also so that He could experience death.  By experiencing death, He defeated death.  And by joining His Immortality to our mortality, by defeating death, He has included us and we are the ones who will benefit by His dying on the Cross but also by His rising to life again.

In regards to the second point, the same God Who created the universe does not need or require my help or assistance . . . .  but He does appreciate it when I do assist Him.  In other words, He does not require our help . . . . but He does desire our help.

Whether it be St. John the Baptist, St. Mary, St. Joseph, St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Gemma Galgani, etc.  the point is that each one of us can assist Our Lord in proclaiming the Gospel.  Each one of us has the opportunity to prepare the way of the Lord through our actions and our words.    St. James writes "But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your ownselves." (St. James 1:22)

Remember that Our Lord humbled Himself, not for His benefit, but for our benefit.  He had no need to humble Himself, but He did it out of love for you and me.  Thus, we can repay Our Lord by imitating St. John the Baptist and proclaiming the Gospel to those around us.

That ye may abound in hope

Second Sunday in Advent, Sunday, December 8th, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

" . . . that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost."  (Romans 15)

Let us set the scene for our mind's eye to picture:  We have just been through the worst day in the history of the world.  We have witnessed Our Blessed Saviour beaten, mocked, scourged at the pillar.  We have seen Him forced to carry His own Cross to the hill of Calvary.  We have been witness to His painful and agonizing dying on the Cross in addition to seeing His Blessed Mother by His side the whole time, with her heart agonizing out of despair and pity for her loving Son.  And after all this we are witnesses to Our Blessed Saviour being taken down from the Cross and laid in a tomb.  The Man that we came to view as our hope of the Messiah is now laid in the tomb, dead and lifeless.  We are confused, to say the least, and shocked and disappointed that so much would happen in such a short period of time.

Then fast forward to:  "The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken taken away from the sepulchre.  Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter . . . " (St. John 20:1)  Now, albeit that there was a strong mixture of emotions that filled St. Mary Magdalene when she made a point to go to the tomb:  sadness; despair; confusion; being afraid; desperate; anxious.  All of these emotions were swelling up inside of her and, yet, despite all of this, I would contend that when she saw that the stone was rolled away, deep down underneath the layers of all of these various emotions, there was one more emotion underlying all of these others:  hope.

If we were forced to describe the holy season of Advent in one word, I think that many of us would use the word "hope."

"The Lord shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel." (Joel 3:16)

Yes, hope entered the world on that first Christmas morn some two thousand years ago but the hope was found in something very deceiving:  a small, helpless child born to poor, ordinary parents.  And yet, it would be wise for us to consider that sometimes looks can be deceiving.  What we see with our eyes is not always the reality.  This seemingly small, helpless babe was in reality the Saviour of the world, the long-awaited Messiah.  But to our eyes, without knowing any better, He was just a helpless infant.

The same thing happened some thirty-three years later on that hill at Calvary.  To the eyes of the world, it seemed that defeat was achieved on that Cross at Calvary.  And when He was taken down was the Cross and laid in the borrowed tomb, it seemed to the world that death had won.  And, yet, we have to keep in mind that what seems one way is not always what we perceive it to be.  The world expected and hoped for a Messiah.  They perceived that the Messiah would be a strong, powerful king or ruler with power and armies unimaginable.  The world received her long-awaited Messiah but He came in the form of a small, helpless babe.  Sometimes perceptions can be deceiving.

To the world, death had achieved victory on that Cross on the hill at Calvary, and yet, sometimes perceptions can be deceiving.  The victory for death was only fleeting and death was ultimately herself defeated by Our Blessed Lord's Resurrection from the grave.   As Christians, we are called to have faith and hope and to realize that not everything is as it may appear.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)

Abraham and Sarah, though old in years, and certainly beyond child-bearing years, were promised to be the parents "of many nations."  In fact, Sarah laughed out loud at the thought of her becoming a mother at her age.  And yet, perceptions are sometimes deceiving.  What may seem a certain way . . .  in fact, it may seem impossible to us . . .  we always have to have hope and faith as Christians that nothing is impossible to God.  This is the message of Advent.

Behold, Thy King Cometh Unto Thee

First Sunday in Advent, Sunday, December 1st, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

"Behold, Thy King cometh unto thee . . . ."  (St. Matthew 21)

Whenever we begin the Holy Season of Advent and I hear this Gospel passage being read from St. Matthew, it strikes me that this passage is really something that is read during Holy Week and not during Advent.  But keep in mind that during Advent, we are preparing a welcome for Our Blessed Saviour just like those people were welcoming Our Blessed Lord into Jerusalem some two thousand years ago.  Advent is about preparation and making our welcome for the King.

Now, St. Matthew reminds us that Bethphage was about a mile outside of Jerusalem.  Bethphage was known as the "house of figs and dates" due to what was grown there.  St. Matthew reminds us that Our Lord told His disciples to go and get both "an ass and a colt" for Him to use upon His entry into Jerusalem.  Now, it is a fair question to ask: why exactly would Our Lord insist on riding into Jerusalem when it seems that everywhere else He was very humble in walking everywhere He went.  Certainly, the answer would be to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah:

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, Thy King cometh unto thee; He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass."  (Zechariah 9:9)

But then the question becomes, why would Our Blessed Saviour need two animals on His entry into Jerusalem?  Did He switch back and forth between the animals?  No, the early Church Fathers felt that the two animals: the ass and the colt symbolized the Jews and the Gentiles.  The ass symbolized the Jewish people because, in terms of faith, they were older and had a longer relationship with God; whereas the colt symbolized the Gentiles because they were new in regards to their relationship with God.

"On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went forth to meet Him, and cried: Hosanna, Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the Name of the Lord." (St. John 12:12)

Let us make an effort during this Advent season to welcome Our Blessed Saviour into our hearts like we've never welcomed Him before.  It is difficult in the society in which we live because so many people are focusing on Christmas already by dwelling on the latest bargains and the latest gadgets and shopping and holiday festivities.  Now, there is nothing necessarily wrong with any of these things but Advent is a time of preparation . . .  preparing for the coming of the Christ Child into our hearts.  The world wants to make it a time of preparation with the emphasis on shopping and buying things and making purchases.  Let us take time out of our Christmas preparations in the secular sense and put that time into spiritually preparing our hearts for God.  Prepare a place for the Christ Child and make ready to welcome Him as your King this Christmas.

That a Prophet Should Come into the World

Sunday Next before Advent, Sunday, November 24th, 2013

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church

Indianapolis, Indiana

"When they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet should come into the world."  (St. John 6:5ff)

In today's Gospel passage from the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel, we hear the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand.  Certainly, as we have stated in the past, Our Divine Saviour is very observant and also compassionate.  Thus, we have a God that is concerned about His sons and daughters.  In other words, He noticed that they were tired and hungered and He had compassion enough to take note and make a point to feed them.  In doing so, and rightfully so, the multitude was certainly impressed with such a miracle . . .  in other words, how He fed so many with so little.   And as a result of witnessing this miracle, they referred to Him as a prophet.

"Prophet," from the Hebrew "Nabi," meaning "to bubble forth," as from a fountain.  Also, another word was used in regard to the word "Prophet," this is the word "Ro'eh," meaning a "Seer."  The Prophet Samuel is described some seven times as a "Seer" or "Ro'eh."  Thus, the prophet proclaims the message given to him while the seer beheld the vision of God.

"And He said, Hear now My words; if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known to him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream." (Numbers 12:6)

"I will raise up a Prophet from among their brothers, like to you, and will put My words in their mouths; and he shall speak to them all that I command him." (Deuteronomy 18:18)

We are all called to be prophets, in that we are called to relate what God has chosen to reveal to each one of us.  In order to do this, we have to first be focused on God.  In other words, we have to pay attention to God first in order to know what He is saying to us.  How many of us hear  something on the radio or TV or even in general conversation, but then we don't know what was said because we weren't paying attention.  We were hearing, but we weren't paying attention.  We could say that hearing is not necessarily the same thing as listening.  We need to listen to what God is saying, we need to pay attention to what God is saying in order to share what He is wanting us to know.

St. Augustine said:  "Christ is a Prophet and the Lord of Prophets; as He is an Angel, and the Lord of Angels. In that He came to announce something, He was an Angel; in that He foretold the future, He was a Prophet; in that He was the Word made flesh, He was Lord both of Angels and Prophets; for none can be a Prophet without the Word of God."

We need to pay attention to what God is speaking to us and what He would have us know in order to impart this knowledge to others.  Let us always make a point of first paying attention to Our Blessed Saviour, to listen to Him and what He is saying to us so that we can share this knowledge with others, both in word and in deed.