Sunday after Ascension Day, May 29th, 2022

 Sunday after Ascension Day, May 29th, 2022

In the Twenty-fourth Chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke, we hear the telling of when Our Blessed Lord ascended into Heaven in the sight of the disciples"  " . . . . he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven ."  (v.51)  To say the least, this moment must have caused a wide range of emotions for the disciples:  joy, awe, confusion, majesty, excitement, inspiration, etc.  At any rate, in the following verse St. Luke tells us that they "returned to Jerusalem with great joy."  When we are in the presence of great people, we are inspired to greatness.  When we see truly inspiring acts of bravery or courage, we are inspired to greatness as well.  When we find ourselves in the presence of someone so filled with the spirit of God, we are inspired to want that same spirit.  The disciples and the apostles experienced all of this in the presence of Our Blessed Lord.  They saw His example on a daily basis:  they heard Him teach and preach; they saw Him cure the sick; they saw Him perform acts of love and compassion on those in need of God's love and forgiveness;  the disciples saw Him show love to those around Him.  And as a result of being in His presence day in and day out, they were affected as well by His life and the things that they saw and heard.  They were inspired to greatness just being in His company.

All of us, I am quite sure, can come up with an example of a time where we were inspired to greatness by what we saw or witnessed.   Whether it be the example of witnessing an inspiring performance by a great singer or a talented dancer.  Or it could be the witness of heroic bravery or courage exhibited by someone in the face of great danger who went forward anyway.  Or, finally, it could be the quiet example of someone who has such a close relationship with God that we can sense God's presence in that person.  Our Blessed Lord inspired the disciples to greatness.  He changed their "ordinary" lives into "extraordinary" lives.  This is how it should be with God.  So many people in the world are affected by the world, drawn to the world, brought down to the world's standards . . . .  We, for our part, should be inspired by Our Blessed Saviour's example to become something "extraordinary."  The disciples allowed their lives to be affected in such a way that the love of God showed forth in their lives.  So, too, we need to allow God to touch our lives in such a way that we show forth His love to the world around us.  Our Blessed Saviour inspired the disciples to greatness.  We should be inspired to that same greatness and show forth the glories of God to the world and to be a reminder of God's love to the world around us.

St. Margaret Church worships every Sunday morning at 10:30 AM at the Chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.

NOTE:  Keep in mind that we must enter in the main entrance of the lobby and sign in before we go to the chapel.  

Please Join us as we gather together as God's family to:  hear the Word of God; listen as God speaks to each one of us in our hearts; worship God in song and in word; listen to the King James Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer; and, finally, receive Our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion so that we can be nourished for the journey we call life.  Take one hour out of your busy schedule to worship God, to honour God, to acknowledge the need for God in your life.

Fifth Sunday after Easter, May 22nd, 2022

 Fifth Sunday after Easter, 

Commonly called Rogation Sunday, 

May 22nd, 2022

St. James tells us:  ".BE ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (St. James 1:22)   For a Christian, this sounds like pretty good advice:  " . . . . be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only . . . ."  But this Epistle of St. James has caused some controversy over the years for some Christian thinkers such as Martin Luther, for example, because they contended that St. James was proposing that we can earn our way into Heaven by what we do.   Now, without a doubt, there have been various individuals who have tried to "buy their way" into Heaven but what we hear from this verse ".  . . . be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only . .  ."   This is just an example of good old  fashioned sense, if you ask me.  I say this because, sadly, each one of us can think of a person who was "nothing but mouth."  In other words, we each know someone who talked about being a Christian but did not live as a Christian.  There are a lot of people who could explain the Christian faith and they could go on and on and on about it, but the question is:  Can they live the Christian faith and not just talk about it?  "Be ye doers of the word . . . ."  I think his is probably one of the biggest reasons why Our Blessed Lord came to earth as a human being, so that we could see Him in action.  Sure, God could have just spoken to us about being a Christian and left it at that.  But Our Lord chose to become a human being so that He could live among us, work with us, eat with us, travel with us, converse with us . . .  etc.  And, conversely, we got to see Him as well:  how He treated people, how He reacted to people, how He cured people, how He loved people.  Our Lord was a wonderful teacher and taught the faith wonderfully . . . . but He backed up His teaching by the way in which He lived.  Each one of us must listen and hear and pay attention, that is for sure,  but once we have listened and heard and paid attention, this gets translated into how we treat people, " . . . .  be ye doers of the word .

St. Margaret Church worships every Sunday morning at 10:30 AM at the Chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.

NOTE:  Keep in mind that we must enter in the main entrance of the lobby and sign in before we go to the chapel.  

Please Join us as we gather together as God's family to:  hear the Word of God; listen as God speaks to each one of us in our hearts; worship God in song and in word; listen to the King James Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer; and, finally, receive Our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion so that we can be nourished for the journey we call life.  Take one hour out of your busy schedule to worship God, to honour God, to acknowledge the need for God in your life.

Fourth Sunday after Easter, May 15th, 2022

 Fourth Sunday after Easter, May 15th, 2022

In the First Chapter of the Epistle of St. James, we hear some of the best advice we could ever hear in our day and age:   "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath . . . ." (St. James 1:19)   I would imagine that this is sound advice for every age but especially in our world today in which we live, this should be the advice that we follow and live by each and every day.  For example, when we get on Social Media and we see things that we don't like . . . . "be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath . . ."  When we are on the interntet message boards or comment sections and people do their best to antagonize us, humiliate us, anger us, lure us into a fight ,  . . . . "be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath . . ."  Even when we are in traffic, and the person ahead of us is driving like a moron, or if the person ahead of us is driving fifteen miles below the speed limiit and we are running late to work . . . . "be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath . . ."  How about when we get into an argument with our spouse or family member over what turns out to be something completely insignificant but we fight like it's World War Three, . . . . "be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath . . ."  When the pressures of work are getting to us, and we feel under-paid and even less appreciated and our boss turns around and tells us that we have to do even more than we are already doing . . . "be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath . . ."  

Today, we get so worked up over other people, . . . and their opinion . . . . and what they think about us . . . . and all sorts of other issues.  We tend not to hear or listen to anyone else speaking because we are so focused on what we feel or believe.  As a result, we are "chomping at the bit" to speak our mind nnd let everyone else know exactly what we think about something.  And when the rest of the world doesn't cater to us, doesn't care about us, doesn't give us what we want, we get full of anger and lash out at everyone  so that everyone can be as miserable as we are.   St. James gives us the answer for this problem as well.  He tells us to focus on God.  He tells us to focus on doing the work of God.  He tells us to be "the doers of the word, and not hearers only." (St. James 1:22)  Stop being offended by the world.  Stop letting others make you angry.   Stop caring about what what others think about you.  For that matter, quit trying to impress the world.  The world is fickle and will turn on you in a heartbeat.  But God is loyal.  God is steadfast.  God is with us through thick and thin.  Stay committed to Him.  Stay committed to doing His word.  Stay loyal to Our Heavenly Father. 

St. Margaret Church worships every Sunday morning at 10:30 AM at the Chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.

NOTE:  Keep in mind that we must enter in the main entrance of the lobby and sign in before we go to the chapel.  

Please Join us as we gather together as God's family to:  hear the Word of God; listen as God speaks to each one of us in our hearts; worship God in song and in word; listen to the King James Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer; and, finally, receive Our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion so that we can be nourished for the journey we call life.  Take one hour out of your busy schedule to worship God, to honour God, to acknowledge the need for God in your life. 

Third Sunday after Easter, May 8th, 2022

 Third Sunday after Easter, May 8th, 2022

When you go on a trip, do you ever notice how much time you spend in preparation for the trip by packing?  If you are like me, it seems like you pack half the house to go on a trip.  And even if you are only going to be gone a few days, it's unbelievable how much stuff we pack for those few days: clothing items . . . shoes . . . . jackets  . . . .  hygiene items  . . . .  The list goes on and on.  Then you spend all that time in preparation making sure you are bringing everything you need.  And then when the trip is done, you have to make sure you don't leave anything behind.  You've heard of people with a fear of spiders or people with a fear of flying?  I think I have a fear of leaving something behind in the motel room.   I will check and recheck to make sure we did not leave anything behind.  It's amazing how much time we spend in packing and preparing for going places.  But truth be known, we don't take anything with us when we die, do we?  I joke around and say that I'm going to take my Elvis record collection with me when I die, but of course that's ridiculous.  We don't take anything with us when we die.   The only thing that we take with us to the grave, it seems to me, is the love that we have in our heart.  When our time comes to an end here on this ol' earth that we call home, the only "thing" we will take with us is the love that we have for God . . .  love for our neighbors . . .  and love for one another.  Other than that, what do we take with us when we die?   Just the love that we have in our heart.  Why do we spend our lifetime accumulating so much stuff?  In comparison, though, how much time do we spend preparing our heart in regards to showing love towards God and our neighbor?

In the Sixteenth Chapter of St. John's Gospel, we hear Our Lord speaking to the disciples about various matters.  One of the things that He tells the disciples is preparing them for when He shall leave.  He says:  "A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father." (St. John 16:16)  Our Lord is preparing the disciples for His departure because He knows that they will be in sorrow and distress at His departure:  But Our Lord states that the sorrow the disciples will feel at His departure will be turned to joy.  "And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." (v. 22)  Again, many things that we have in life can be lost, taken from us, or stolen but the love and joy we have in our heart, nobody can take that from us.  Our Lord's last words in this discourse state:  "I came forth from the Father; and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." (v. 28)  We can say the same thing, it seems to me.   When we are born, our life is a gift from the Good Lord Himself.   And when we die, we leave the world and return to God.   And when we return, the only thing that we have to show for our journey is how we have lived our life while we were here . . .  how much love we have for one another . . .  and how much love we showed while we were here.  When we travel here on earth, we are careful to pack what we need for the trip.  We should also prepare for our "final trip" by loving one another and showing the love that God has shown us and sharing that love to one another.  

St. Margaret Church worships every Sunday morning at 10:30 AM at the Chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.

NOTE:  Keep in mind that we must enter in the main entrance of the lobby and sign in before we go to the chapel.  

Please Join us as we gather together as God's family to:  hear the Word of God; listen as God speaks to each one of us in our hearts; worship God in song and in word; listen to the King James Bible and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer; and, finally, receive Our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion so that we can be nourished for the journey we call life.  Take one hour out of your busy schedule to worship God, to honour God, to acknowledge the need for God in your life.