Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, October 8th, 2017

Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, October 8th, 2017

"For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. "  (St. Luke 14:11)

In the Fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke, we hear about the time that Our Blessed Saviour went to the home of one of the chief Pharisees.  In the very first verse of this chapter, St. Luke tells us that those there were watching Our Lord.  The fact that St. Luke points this out shows that the Pharisees were waiting and watching for Our Lord to do something or say something they could use against Him.  As He was there at the home, He cured a man with the dropsy.  Now, keep in mind "dropsy" is another name for edema, or swelling beneath the skin.  Now, seeing this man led Our Lord into a discussion about whether or not it would be permissible to heal on the Sabbath.  Our Lord tells the parable of the man who was invited to a wedding.  And when the man got there, Our Lord tells us,  the man just assumed that he was supposed to sit in the highest seat.  But Our Lord went on to say, much to the man's embarrassment and shame, that the "higher seat" was saved for someone more important and, as a result, the man had to remove himself from the seat of honor and go down to a less important place.   Our Lord's advice to those that we listening and to us as well was to not be so "full of ourselves" in regards to importance.  

In this age in which we live, each one of us should read this Fourteenth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel with great care.  For each one of us could learn from it if only we would heed Our Lord's advice.  In this age of social media, we run the risk of thinking that our opinion is the only opinion . . . . the only one that matters, that is.  We expect everyone else to not only listen to what we have to say, but we first assume that everyone else is interested in what we have to say to begin with.  Whether it be posting pictures of what we are eating or posting updates of where we are going.  In the world of social media, it does not take much effort to let the whole world know . . . . . at least the whole "cyber-world" . . . . .  know what we are doing; what we are eating; how we feel about any given subject; etc.  And God forbid, if we disagree with anything that we see.  We will sit right down and let that person know in no uncertain terms that we do not agree and how wrong the other person is.  

Now, bear in mind that I am not criticizing others around me because I post things on Facebook and Google and other such places, I post really important things like:   pictures of my dog . . . . pictures of what meal I am eating . . . . .  updating the status of where I am at currently . . . where I was . . . . where I am going to be . . .  I list my "likes" and my "dislikes" . .. . . . my favorite TV shows .  . .  movies . . . . . types of pasta that I enjoy eating . . . . . It goes on and on.   Now I realize that I am not the only one that does this because I see countless others in the Social Media world do the same exact thing.  The risk that I want to point out is that when dealing with Social Media, we are constantly dealing with "my world:"  the things I like; the things I don't like; the things I agree with; the things I don't agree with; what I'm doing; where I'm going; pictures of me; pictures of my food; pictures of my pets; pictures of . . . .  my . . .  . me . . . .  I . . . . .  In the world of social media, the emphasis is always on "me, myself, and I."  In the world of Social Media, in my humble opinion, we run the risk of getting an over-inflated ego of how important we are.  Yes, we are important but we have to keep in mind why we are important and keep things in perspective.   We are important because God thinks we are important.  Not because we ourselves think we are important.  We are important because God sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world to save us from our sins.  We are important because God saw fit to raise His Son from the dead so that in conquering death, we have hope.  Without Jesus, we would only have death in our future.  With Jesus, we have hope.  We are assured that Our Lord goes before us to prepare us a place . . . . to be with Him for eternity.   Yes, we are important . . . .  we are important to God.  Important enough that the Son of God carried the Cross and died on the Cross so that you and I would not have to . . . . even though it is us that deserve to be there.  Yes, I am important but not because of the pictures I post of my pet or my food or not even because of my opinions that I hold on countless topics.  I am not important based on the neighborhood where I live . . .  or where I work  . . .  . or what kind of clothes I wear or shoes I own . . . . .  . I am important because God loves me and I am important to Him.  We should always keep this important fact in mind and humble ourselves before God.

Join us as we listen to the Word of God found in the King James Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.  Join us as we join together as God's family and worship Our Heavenly Father.  Join us as we come to the altar to be fed the Precious Body and Blood at Communion time.  And, finally, please stay after Mass for some fellowship at our coffee hour.

St. Margaret Anglican Church 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.