Saturday, July 18, 2015

Sixth Sunday after Trinity, 2015

The Sixth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, July 12th, 2015.

To hear the sermon given by Fr. Todd on this Sunday, please click on the following link:


Join us for the Seventh Sunday after Trinity, July 19th, 2015

Over the duration of a person's life it is interesting to think about all the gifts that a person has received. I would imagine that we can not even remember every single gift that we received during our lifetime. Certainly going back to our childhood when we would receive gifts on our birthdays, such as a doll baby or a truck, and then as we got older we might receive gifts for our graduation and other events. Today it seems to be a trend just to give a gift card as a gift and that way you can pick out the gift that YOU would want. This seems to make sense although it is certainly less personal in many ways. If we think back over all the gifts we have received in our lifetime, all of them are certainly appreciated but some gifts have really stood out for us. These gifts might stand out for a number of reasons: the gift might have been give to us by a very special person . . . . maybe a parent or a spouse who is no longer with us; or perhaps we have a gift that was given to us at a very special occasion such as a graduation or a wedding, for example; or maybe the gift itself if just very special. For whatever reason, each of us, I am quite sure can come up with an example of an item that we treasure and we will not get rid of it because we treasure it so much.
Continuing on in the Sixth Chapter of the Epistle written to the Romans, which we also read last week, we hear: " . . . . but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. " (Romans 6:19 ff) Here, St. Paul is contrasting the wages of sin and the end result being death versus giving our lives over to Christ and experiencing eternal life with Our Blessed Saviour. As I mentioned earlier, we have been given many gifts in our lifetime but you know as well as I that the most valuable gifts that we own are not always the most expensive gifts. The greatest gifts that we could ever be given are the ones given straight from the heart. This is the case with the gift of eternal life that Our Lord offers to each and everyone of us: He gives us this gift freely . .. . He offers it to us from His Heart . . . His Most Sacred Heart . . . . . but it is not a gift that was lightly given. He offers this gift to you from the Cross. He offers this gift to you through His death on the Cross to atone for your sins and mine. We need to consider this aspect when we think about the gift that God offers to us. This is a gift that is given to us freely but it has great value. It was Our Saviour's life exchanged for ours on the Cross. He hung there in our place in order that we might be forgiven.
There are two opportunities for you to join us for Mass on Sunday, July 19th, 2015:
St. Margaret of Scotland Anglican Church gathers for Mass every Sunday morning at 9:30 AM. Mass is celebrated at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.
The Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit gathers for Mass every Sunday at 1:00 PM. Mass is celebrated at the beautiful, historic First Presbyterian Church, which is located at the Corner of South and Pennsylvania Streets (116 W. South Street) in Greenfield, Indiana.
Join us as we listen to the Word of God found in the beautiful King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Come worship God in a beautiful, traditional worship where not only does God feed you through His Word but He also feeds you at Communion time through His Most Precious Body and Blood. Take an hour out of your week and dedicate that hour solely to God. God, Who has given you so much, certainly deserves at least an hour out of your week, doesn't He?


Friday, July 10, 2015

Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 2015

The Sermon of Fr. Todd given on Sunday, July 5th, 2015, the Fifth Sunday after Trinity.

Click on the following link to hear the sermon:


Join us for Sixth Sunday after Trinity, July 12th, 2015

In the Sixth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, we hear the following: " . . . Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him . . . " (Romans 6:3 ff) I would imagine that just about all of us have been in the position at one point or another in our life where we had the feeling that we had hit "rock bottom." Perhaps it came when we had lost a job unexpectedly. Maybe it came about when we struggled with a difficult project that fell apart and had to start all over again. Maybe it had involved health issues or the death of a family member or a close friend. Nonetheless, whatever circumstances we can think of, I am sure that most of us have had the feeling at one point or another that our world came crashing in on us. I know I have felt that way a time or two in my life. I have found myself struggling with some issue and everything seems to go wrong all at once and I feel like the whole world is crashing in on top of my head. But then afterwards I moved forward and the world brightened. In other words, I had to go through the darkest hours in order to finally see the light of dawn ahead of me. And then everything seemed to improve and things got better and better and better . . . . . Sometimes, as I say, we have to hit rock bottom in order to move forward. Sometimes by struggling and going through the darkness, we are able to get stronger and learn from our difficulties. We become strong through our struggles, it would seem. We learn from our mistakes . . . . or at least we should learn from our mistakes. When I look back on my life, I realize now that it was the struggles that made me a stronger human being. It was the times when things seemed the worse, that I was able to move forward and grow stronger. Although we may not want to admit it, it seems like the best "teacher" is to learn from our mistakes.
This is what we are also hearing from today's passage from the Epistle to the Romans, that through death to sin we are able to live again with Christ. It is through dying to self that we can live with Christ. It is through dying that we can live. We must never forget that Christ did not experience Easter Morning without first carrying His Cross to the hill at Calvary. The same is true for us. We can not truly live in Christ until we have died to our sinful ways. And for most us, this is painful whether we want to admit it or not. As human beings, we want things our way. We want people to do things the way we want them to be done. We want to be comfortable. We desire our wants and we want them right now. We focus on our own needs and desires and forget about what God wants for us. Most of us, quite frankly, only go running to God when we need Him for something. Other than that, we go our own way in life. But sin is a barrier that keeps us away from God. Sin is like a brick wall that we keep running into time and time and time again. We have to remove the brick wall of sin in order not to run into it again. And once we do this. Once we die to our sinful selves. Once we do all we can to get rid of the sinful desires in our life, it allows us to focus more and more on God and less and less on ourselves.
Join the Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit on Sunday, July 12th, 2015 as we gather together to worship Our Heavenly Father. Join us as we listen to God's Word found in the King James Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Join us as we receive the Most Precious Body and Blood of Our Blessed Saviour at Communion time to nourish us and sustain us in our Christian journey.
St. Margaret of Scotland worships at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis. Mass begins at 9:30 AM.
Holy Spirit worships at the beautiful, historic First Presbyterian Church , which is located at 116 W. South Street, at the corner of South and Pennsylvania Streets in Greenfield, Indiana. Mass begins at 1:00 PM.


Saturday, July 4, 2015

Fourth Sunday after Trinity, 2015

The sermon of Fr. Todd given on Sunday, June 28th, 2015, the Fourth Sunday after Trinity.

Click on following link to hear Fr. Todd's sermon:




Join us for Mass on the Fifth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, July 5th, 2015

Fifth Sunday after Trinity, Sunday, July 5th, 2015

In St. Luke's Gospel at today's Mass, we hear the story of the beginning of the association between Our Blessed Saviour and St. Peter.  As was very often the case, the crowds were pressing against Our Blessed Lord so much and He could not make Himself heard.  We hear the following:  ". .  . . He stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships . .  . : "  (St. Luke 5:1)  And as a result, Our Lord got into St. Peter's boat so that He could preach to the multitude that had gathered to hear Him speak by Lake Gennesaret.  Now the rest of this passage obviously focuses mainly on Our Lord directing St. Peter to throw the nets out and ended up hauling in a miraculous load of fish when he could catch nothing by himself.  But the one thing that really caught my attention in reading and rereading this Gospel passage was the fact that there were two ships, St. Luke tells us.  But then if there were two ships, why did Our Lord choose the one that St. Peter owned and not the other ship?   The fact of the matter is that God chooses each one of us for specific tasks because each one of us has particular skills and talents.  One person might be good at teaching while someone else is good at preaching.  Or it might be the case that someone is good at fixing things while another person is skilled in music.  The bottom line is that each one of us might not be talented in one area but very skilled in something totally different.  Again, I can not help but focus on the fact that there were two ships in today's Gospel passage and Our Lord picked one but not the other.  Maybe I am making too big of a deal out of this fact, but in my mind, it does point out that Our Lord does pick us.  He chooses us.  He singles us out and calls each one of us.  The key, though, is that we need to respond accordingly.  We have to say "yes" when we are called.  We may not understand why Our Lord has chosen us.  Look at today's passage, St. Peter did not understand Our Lord's instruction to cast the net out when he had been working so hard all night and caught nothing.  And yet he did it anyway.  Our Lady most certainly did not understand when she was told that she would be pregnant with child and yet her response was "Let it be done to me according to your word!"  She said yes despite the fact that she did not understand . . . .  St. Peter said yes despite the fact he could not understand how it would be possible.  This is the definition of faith.  God chooses us.  We respond. And sometimes we may not even understand how it will take place . . . . or why it will take place . . . . or why in the world that God would choose me . . . but we respond to God's call and move forward.   This is faith!

Two opportunities to hear Mass on Sunday:

St. Margaret Anglican Church meets every Sunday morning at 9:30 AM.  St. Margaret worships in the beautiful Chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.

The Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit meets every Sunday afternoon at 1:00 PM at the beautiful First Presbyterian Church in Greenfield, Indiana, which is located at 116 W. South Street, located at the corner of Pennsylvania and South streets near downtown Greenfield.

Join us as we listen to the Word of God found in the King James Version of the Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Join us as we meditate on God speaking to us.  Come receive Our Lord's Precious Body and Blood at Communion time.  And then join us after Mass at our coffee hour where we have many delicious goodies and fellowship.