LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Last Sunday After the Epiphany + 2/3/08 + St. Paul’s, Lake James

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

    In the writings of the early Church Fathers, there is strong emphasis on the revelation of God, delivered by God to the Church through chosen voices, especially those of the Apostles, and, after them, their successors, the bishops.  In Greek, the word for that is parathosis, in Latin, it is traditio, and in English, tradition.  Do you remember that wonderful musical “Fiddler on the Roof” where one of Sholem Aleichem’s most memorable characters, Tevye, sings that rousing  song “Tradition!”  I wish I could get our choir to learn and sing it for us!  It’s not only a great piece of music, but a profound commentary on human life. 

    For those who are actively part of any particular group, the observing of “tradition” becomes a significant way of expressing the specific nature of the group, as well as one’s own identity as a member.  Through the centuries, what is considered to be “tradition” has come to include a wide variety of things, ranging from the essential to the trivial, so that observers from outside the group may be led to point out how foolish some traditions can be, especially if followed ignorantly or blindly.  In a gentle way, that was illustrated in a humorous article I read some years ago. 

    It seems that, for the very first dinner she prepared for her husband, a new bride decided to cook his favorite: baked ham.  Her efforts were quite successful and the husband was certainly pleased, but he was also puzzled by the fact that, before baking it, his wife cut off both ends of the ham and threw them away.  When he asked why, she said that was the way her mother always did it.  So, the next time his mother-in-law came for a visit, the new husband asked her about it, only to be told, “well, that’s the way my mother always did it.”  Sometime later, talking with grandma on the phone, the husband brought up the custom and asked why she always cut the ends off the ham before she cooked it.  Her answer was simple: “The only baking pan I had was too small and that was the only way I could get a ham into it!” 

     There are many traditions deeply imbedded in our Anglican  heritage, traditions which, unlike the way the young wife baked ham, can be meaningful and valuable if we understand them, but which may be of little or no meaning if we do them only because others before us have done so.  In just three days we will begin the season of Lent.  Whether one’s visceral response to that is “here comes a dreary six week fast with a veneer of attention to spiritual self-improvement” or whether one welcomes Lent as a special opportunity to intensify one’s relationship with God, should tell us a lot about what we really believe. Ask yourself if Lent seems to you to be a religious equivalent of going on a rigid, rather unpleasant weight-reducing diet, something harsh but maybe necessary, or is it a gift of extra time to be spent with someone with whom one is in love?  In fact, the great 20^th century theologian, Father Bernard Lonergan, defined “conversion” as “simply falling in love with God.”

       What might it mean to see Lent as a time given to us by the Church so that we can intensify our romance with God?  What meaning, and help, might we find in traditions associated with Lent?  I think first of the venerable tradition of increasing the frequency of one’s worship of God – at St. Paul’s, that would mean being present not only at the Eucharist every Sunday, but at Stations of the Cross on Thursday evenings as well as adding more time for private prayer and Bible reading at home.  It has long been a hallmark of the Anglican way to emphasize the centrality of the Sacraments and the life of prayer as means of actual grace. Closely allied with that emphasis is the awareness that we find God not only through worship, prayer, and Bible reading, but also in service to our brothers and sisters who are in some kind of need.  What opportunities exist, or can exist, for you to reach out in the Name of our Lord to the sick, the poor, the homeless, to those, in short, who, in Christ’s own words might be called “the least” of humanity?

    At this time of year, all sorts of charities send out appeals for help, and there is certainly nothing wrong with writing a check and helping in that way, but, for many of us, just sending a gift of money may not be as much of an offering as giving of our time and energy by being personally involved.

    Living, as we do, in the midst of an ever increasingly secular culture, observing the traditional Friday fast, or even the old “giving up candy for Lent” can be quite helpful by constantly reminding us that the 40 Lenten Days are a special time.  Most of us might agree that the tradition of observing Lent by extra acts of worship, self-denial, and the service of others is good but what a difference there is between keeping traditional customs “because, like baking the ham, that’s what we do – that’s what we’ve always done” or because our Lenten observances, whatever they may be, are intentional and conscious expressions of our love for God and therefore, express a desire to be more God-centered and less self-centered.

    C. S. Lewis, that great Anglican writer and lay theologian of the 20^th century, once proposed a rather unusual interpretation for one of the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, the one which says “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Lewis said the focus should be on action –Thy will be done.  In his wonderful book “Letters to Malcolm” he explained: “the petition is not merely that I may patiently suffer God’s will, but that I may vigorously do it.  I must be an agent as well as a patient.”

    Today’s Gospel places before us the image of the Transfigured Christ, Jesus, proclaimed Son of God by the Father, a claim you and I echo every time we recite the Nicene Creed or offer prayers which end with the phrase “through Jesus Christ.”  The six weeks of Lent offer us a special opportunity to deepen our belief in and relationship with God.  Unlike cutting off the ends of a ham, the traditions of the Church, while hardly magic, can provide us with means to accomplish those goals.  God’s grace offers us the strength to do so.  Our own needs, but also those of others all around us offer opportunities to do so.

   What will this Lent be – for you?

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Reverend Alfred T. K. Zadig, Sr.

This page last modified on Friday, April 11, 2008 09:40 PM