Tempting the Lord . . . .

"Tempting the Lord . . ."

by Fr. Todd Bragg

September 28th, 2014

If we open up St. Matthew's Gospel and turn to the fourth chapter, we will hear St. Matthew recounting for us when Our Lord went out into the wilderness.  There, St. Matthew reminds us, that Our Lord was "tempted of the devil." (V. 1)  Now, of course, we have read this account many times over the course of our lives.  And it always struck me, personally, while reading this account that the devil was certainly very bold.  I mean, let's face it, the devil knew whom he was dealing with or else he would not have gone to the effort of doing what he did in the first place.  But that being said, it still was very bold of him to tempt Our Lord like he did.  You know the story, Our Lord went out into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights and then the devil tempted Him not once, not twice, but three separate times:  first, he tempted Him by telling Him to turn stones into bread; next, he tempted Him by daring Him to cast Himself from off the Temple; and, finally, the devil tempted Him by offering Him all the kingdoms of the world.  The bottom line is that Our Lord did not give in to any of these temptations and ultimately put the devil in his place:  "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God!" (V. 7)

Now, of course, this is exactly what we would expect the response to be from Our Lord.  There was really not ever any doubt that He would give in to any of these temptations.  But, we still go back to our original premise:  the devil was very bold to tempt Our Lord those three times.  We say to ourselves, "Devil, do you know who you are dealing with?"  "Surely, you don't or else you would not even try."  "Why would you even dare to tempt Our Blessed Saviour?!?!?"  "That doesn't make any sense . . . . "

No, it doesn't make sense.  But, on the other hand, do we ever tempt Our Lord?  I mean, when you think about it, have we ever gone back on our word with God?  What do you mean, Fr. Todd?  What are you talking about?  What I mean is this:  How many times have we sinned and we came to our senses and swore never to do it again.  But, then over time, we went back and committed the same exact sin all over again.  Just to go through the whole process again.  It's the same pattern all over again:  1) Commit Sin; 2) Come to our senses; 3) Repent of sin; 4) Ask God forgiveness;  5) Go back to step one . . . . Does this process sound familiar?  Have you ever gone through these steps in your life?  I know that I have.  It really doesn't matter what the sin is, the point is still the same.  There are things in life which we have a problem with and, yet, we persist in these behaviours over and over and over again.  And over and over, we also ask for forgiveness each and every time.  Only to, ultimately, go back and commit the sin all over again.  It's a frustrating pattern, to be sure.  And I am sure that the vast majority of those reading this know exactly what I'm talking about.  

But when you think about it in this light, aren't we tempting the Lord as well each and every time we commit a sin and then go back and do the same sin all over again after we have repented and asked forgiveness?  But, Fr. Todd, it's really NOT that easy!   I know it's not!  It's very hard!   I know from personal experience.  And, yet, we are called to true repentance.  God truly forgives us when we come to Him with true contrition  But we should do everything we should to keep from going to God and asking Him to forgive us for the same sins over and over and over again.  You see, each and every time, we commit the same sin over again . . . and each and every time we turn to the Lord for forgiveness . .. . . it becomes a little easier to commit the sin the next time, doesn't it?  "What the heck," you tell yourself, "God will forgive me . . . .  He always does."  And we give in to the temptation because we know deep down inside that God will forgive us "no matter what."  And, you know what?  God will forgive us "no matter what." But that is not the point.

The best way to stop the pattern described above and repeating the same exact sin over and over and over again . . . . is to change yourself from the inside out.  Give your hearts to God.  Transform your hearts and give them to God.  "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord Thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord Thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord Thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul." (Deuteronomy 10: 12)   We need to walk in His ways, love Him, and serve Him with all our heart and all our soul!  We need also stop "tempting" the Lord by seeing how many times He will forgive us for the same exact sin.  Instead of tempting, let's start transforming!  Difficult?  Most certainly but well worth the efforts!

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2014

Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

Sermon of Fr. Todd Bragg

given at St. Margaret Anglican Church

Sunday, September 28th, 2014

The sermon of Fr. Todd Bragg given on the 15th Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, September 28th, 2014 at St. Margaret Anglican Church in Indianapolis, Indiana:

For more information about St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church, please visit:
htp://indyanglican.blogspot.com/

For more information about the Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit, please visit:
http://anglicanholyspirit.blogspot.com/

Taking Time To Spend With God . . . .

Taking the Time to Spend With God

Reflections on Bishop James Mote.  When I think back to the years that I knew Bishop Mote, one of the lasting memories that I have was not one particular event or one specific conversation.  Rather, one of the lasting images that I have of Bishop Mote in my memory is simply seeing him in the second pew on the right hand side of the church as I would enter St. Edward the Confessor Cathedral in Indianapolis.  Bishop Mote would always sit in the same pew when he would come to church.  And I remember that he would have his Bible, and his prayer book, and he would also have a binder where he had listed all of the prayer intentions that he would pray for.  In other words, if you asked Bishop Mote to pray for you or if you had an intention that you wanted him to pray for, he would add you and your prayer intention to his binder and he would pray for you.  But like I say, the thing that I remember about Bishop Mote is that no matter how early I would get there to church, there was Bishop Mote always there in "his" pew, praying and spending time in front of the Blessed Sacrament:  praying the Rosary, for example, or reading Scripture, or just spending time with Our Lord in quiet meditation.   There is so much that each one of us can learn from this.   We all get so wrapped up in the "busy-ness" of life:  going to work; running errands; cleaning the house; getting supper prepared; going to the store; working on projects; etc.  And all of these things are important, I'm not saying that they aren't.  But there is something to be said for simply stopping what you are doing and taking time out of your busy day and just simply dedicate THAT time to God.  Take time out to read Scripture . . .  or pray the Rosary .. . .. or simply meditate.  Whatever you choose to do, the important point is to dedicate this time to God for His glory.

What are you hungry for?

What Are You Hungry For?

By Fr. Todd Bragg

I was reading an article today where the heart of the article focused on the following premise:  what people are searching for and what they are getting (or not getting, as the case may be) when searching for churches.  The one quotation that caught my attention was  "I'm just not getting fed."  It's funny to think about the fact that if you have not had anything to eat for a while, your mind starts to dwell on that fact and nothing else.  We focus on everything that we might want to eat:  pizza . . .  Chinese food . . .  spaghetti . . . Mexican  . . .  . fast food . . . fried chicken . . . a sandwich . . . And we finally make the decision as to what exactly we want and once we do . . . that's it.  We fixate on the food of choice until we get it.  And then finally we eat and we are satisfied. 




As Christians, we also have to be fed on a daily basis.  The article that I was mentioning at the beginning of this short essay of sorts was focused on pastors needing to feed their flock with the Word of God.  And this is certainly the truth.  People are hungry for the Word of God.  They want to hear what God is saying to them.  But pastors, priests, ministers, bishops, etc. can only do so much in a given week.  What I mean is that time is limited in what the priest or pastor can talk about in a given week.  If the average church service is, say, an hour  . . . an hour and a half . . . how much of that time is strictly the preaching of the priest or minister?  Fifteen minutes?  Twenty minutes?  More?  Less?  As my congregation will let you know, I don't time my preaching  . . . . . I just start in and see where God is leading me!  But even with that, I might get twenty minutes of preaching in on a given Saturday evening or Sunday morning.  Think about it.  Twenty-four hours in a day.  Seven days in a week.  By my calculation, that is One-Hundred and Sixty-Eight hours in a given week and the preacher gets fifteen, twenty, maybe thirty minutes of preaching out of all those hours.  That's not much time in comparison.  So that's why I say, in essence what the preacher is doing is planting the seed and leaving the rest to God.  




One of my favorite Scripture passages is from First Kings.  It is the passage where the Prophet Elijah is fleeing from Jezebel and Elijah "went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die: and said, it is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life: for I am not better than my fathers."  (I Kings 19:4) 


Then Elijah laid down and went to sleep and the angel of the Lord touched Elijah and "said unto him, Arise and eat."  (Verse 5)  And Elijah had seen where the angel of the Lord had placed there by his head water and food for him to eat.


And then Elijah laid down again,  . . . "And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat: because the journey is too great for thee."  (Verse 7)


This is certainly one of my all-time Scripture passages.  I think it is profound for a number of reasons: 




First,  God does indeed feed us.  He feeds us through the Word of God.  We Christians must be hungry for the Word of God.  In our society, there are so many different types of food to choose from:  pizza . . . Chinese food  . .  . Mexican food . . . fast-food . . . chicken . . . seafood . . . . etc.  Likewise, many people choose to get fed from different interests, desires, etc:  power, riches, money, fame, drugs, alcohol, etc.  People make choices where they eat and how they spend their time.  We, as Christians, have to make a choice as well:  we have to want to be fed by the Word of God.  And then make a point of studying the Word of God on a daily basis.  Get in the habit of reading the Bible every day. 




Secondly, God also feeds us through His Church.  God does not need our help but He desires us to help Him.  And as a result, He founded the Church here on earth.  And the Church distributes the Sacraments to the world.  And the Chief Sacrament is the Mass.  Come to Mass and receive the Precious Body and Blood of Our Blessed Saviour.  Our Lord loves us so much that He gives of Himself so that we can be nourished.  "Arise and eat: because the journey is too great for thee!"  Our Lord wants us to receive of the Sacraments of the Church as a physical and spiritual reminder that He is alive and well in the world.  The Sacraments help nourish and sustain us in the long journey we call "life." 




God gives us nourishment but we have to go find it.  God gives us food but we have to make the effort to get it.  God provides spiritual food and drink for our journey but we have to make the effort to obtain it.  Get a relationship with God.  Make Him the Lord and Master of your life.  Get in the habit of reading the Bible on a daily basis.  And take advantage of the Sacraments.  The same Lord Who said:  "This is My Body, This is My Blood" is the same Lord Who is awaiting for us to come and worship Him, to come and listen to Him, to come and receive Him when we come to church.




To find out more about St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church, please visit:


http://indyanglican.blogspot.com/




To find out more about the Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit, please visit:


http://anglicanholyspirit.blogspot.com/

Feast of Saint Matthew, 2014

Feast of Saint Matthew, Sunday, September 21st, 2014

Fr. Todd Bragg

St. Margaret Anglican Church
Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit

"I will have mercy; and not sacrifice . . . ."  (St. Matthew 9:9ff)

Sermon of Father Todd Bragg, given on the Feast of St. Matthew, Apostle on Sunday, September 21st, 2014:

Please visit the website for St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church at:

http://indyanglican.blogspot.com/

Please visit the website for the Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit at:

http://anglicanholyspirit.blogspot.com/

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2014

JMJ

Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity

Sunday, September 14th, 2014

Sermon by Fr. Todd Bragg

Please feel free to click on the following link to hear the sermon of Fr. Todd Bragg given on the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, September 14th, 2014:

If you would like to find out more information about St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church, please visit the following website:

http://indyanglican.blogspot.com/

If you would like to find out more information about the Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit, please visit the following website:

http://anglicanholyspirit.blogspot.com/

Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, 2014

JMJ

Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Sunday, September 7th, 2014

Sermon by Fr. Todd Bragg

Please feel free to click on the following link to hear the sermon of Fr. Todd Bragg given on the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, September 7th, 2014:

Please feel free to visit the website of St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church:
http://indyanglican.blogspot.com/

Please feel free to visit the website of the Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit:
http://anglicanholyspirit.blogspot.com/

Fr Todd issues the "Holy Water Challenge"

Father Todd Bragg issued his "Holy Water Challenge" by challenging people to invite their friends, neighbors, family members, coworkers and even complete strangers to come to church!  Or, as Fr. Todd would like for it to be known, the "Plant a Seed" challenge!  Invite someone to come to church and plant the seed and leave the rest up to God!

When you take the "Holy Water" or "Plant a Seed" Challenge, you really benefit three people:

1) You benefit God by bringing more people to church to give Him honour and praise and invite more people to join the family of God to worship Him!

2) You benefit the person you invited to church by allowing them to hear the Word of God and allowing them to worship God in a very special way:  with their brothers and sisters in Christ!

3) Finally, you benefit yourself by bringing someone to church and by doing your part to preach the Gospel and let someone else know about God!

Take the "Holy Water Challenge" and invite someone to church:

Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, 2014

Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

Sunday, August 31st, 2014

Sermon by Fr. Todd Bragg

Sunday sermon given at the Mass for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity.  Please click on the following link to hear Fr. Todd's sermon:

Sermon for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity

Also, please feel free to visit the following links:

St Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church

And, also please visit:

The Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit