LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Easter V C + May 6, 2007 + St. Paul’s Church, Lake James

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

Over 450 years ago, someone (no one is quite sure who,) wrote the prayer which is assigned for use to begin the liturgy on this 5^th Sunday of Easter in what some of us still think of as the new Book of Common Prayer [“new” although it is now 28 years old!]. The prayer was specifically written for what, in 1549 was not only the new, but the first Book of Common Prayer. In its original form, the prayer was intended for use on May 1^st, the Feast of St. Philip and St. James, and for over 400 years, that’s when it was used until our 1979 Prayer Book moved it to today, the 5^th Sunday of Easter. I share all that with you because it strikes me as rather humorous that a prayer which emphasizes that which is eternal turns out to have experienced change in its own use. But on the other hand, how helpful to be able to separate what is really unchanging and unchangeable from what is not. And that, at least, is quite simple. God in the first category, and all else in the second!

The prayer begins with the words, “Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life…” What does it mean “truly to know” someone? Truly to know someone is quite different from knowing something. A child does or doesn’t know the multiplication tables. A mechanic does or doesn’t know how to do a tune up on a car. A math test or the way your car runs will easily testify to which is which. How different it is with truly knowing people! Humans seem constantly to surprise one another, sometimes for good, but sometimes for ill. In the wake of broken relationships, how often one hears “I thought I really knew him (or her). How wrong I was! Have you ever felt that way?

Truly to know God, the prayer says, is everlasting life. But how does one get to know God? For a Christian, the best source of knowledge about God comes in and from Jesus, who is both truly God and truly human. So, the question then becomes “how does one get to know Jesus?” The answer is that one gets to know Jesus much the same way one gets to know anyone else. Imagine there is someone you really want to get to know. What would you do? To begin with, some way or other, you’d arrange to be introduced, and then, if the other person was willing, you’d begin to spend time together, communicating both by words and actions so that you’d learn as much as you could about each other – about values, interests, beliefs, and personality. Getting to know another person takes time, effort, determination, and patience! It is not something which happens automatically, accidentally, or overnight. The same is true for getting to know Jesus. To spend time getting to know Jesus means taking quiet time, thoughtful time, prayerful time, but especially appropriate time. The Hassidic rabbis have a funny story about a man who was always so wrapped up in his prayers that he never looked where he was walking, and so, sooner or later, inevitably would up by falling into ditches! How would you like to have him driving a car on a narrow road coming at you?

Although it is certainly true that, wherever we are, we are in God’s presence, that doesn’t mean that we are always aware or conscious of it. In the supermarket, I’m usually concentrating on unit prices or finding the brand I’m looking for, rather than thinking about Jesus. Nor is that all bad. It would be silly to come home with shoe polish instead of orange juice because my mind had been on God instead of my shopping list!

The Church teaches that even our faintest stirring of desire for God and our wish to know Jesus better, are reflections of God’s grace already in us. The traditional name for that is “prevenient grace” and it means that our reaching out to Jesus is not just our own initiative, but is in itself an expression of God’s love for us. The reason we can get to know Jesus is that God both wants it to happen, and helps it to happen.

Some of the best ways to get to know Jesus are right under our noses and are so simple, so “ordinary” that they are often overlooked by people who are searching for God. Let me give three examples:

* regular reception of the sacraments, most especially Holy Communion,

* faithful, prayerful, reading of the Bible

* active participation in the life of the faith community we call “the Church.”

To be sure, any or all of those can become little more than mechanical, almost meaningless acts, but the same is true for most all other good things as well, such as a kiss, or saying “I love you.” Yes, they can be abused, but they can also be used properly and effectively.

One of the saddest things is that some people think that truly knowing God only begins when we die. Not so! It is what God intends to be happening now, today! In the 23^rd verse of the 14^th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John, Jesus, talking about those who love God, says “My Father and I will come and make our dwelling with them.” That “dwelling place” is not only in the Larger Life of heaven, not only in the Larger Life of the Intermediate State we Anglicans call “Paradise,” but also on earth – right here and right now! God’s promise is not “pie in the sky by and by” but eternal life which already exists! It began at baptism, and will never end!

One reason people sometimes have difficulty coping with the relationship between life here on earth and what will be true after the death of the body, is that our culture assigns a meaning to the physical which not only far overshadows, but even denies reality to the spiritual. Think of it. If someone says to you “I’m sorry, I can’t come to your party, but I’ll be there in spirit” what is really being said is “I won’t be there.” A wise Anglican Franciscan Friar who lived in England in the early part of the 20^th century, Father Andrew of the Society of the Divine Compassion, used to say “It’s wrong to say you ‘have a soul.’ Say instead, ‘I am a soul and I have a body.’” In a similar vein, the brilliant Jesuit Paleontologist, Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

When we say in the words of today’s prayer that “truly to know God is everlasting life,” we are talking about now as well as the future, about life on earth, as well as the Larger Life. Think of the difference that makes! Think of how it enobles, dignifies, and sanctifies the present – the moment in which we actually live – and recognize in that a wonderful expression of God’s love for us.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, you and I can trust our Lord’s own words – His promise to us – when he said “I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am Life!” It all boils down to what is an astounding, and thrilling, claim, namely, that God not only loves us, but because of that love, wants to be known by us, and so makes that “knowing” possible, even though it is never forced on us.

Today’s liturgy confronts us with that amazing truth. So, once again in the words of today’s Collect: “Almighty God, truly to know you is everlasting life.” What do you think about that? Does it matter to you? Does it make any difference?

It’s worth thinking – and praying – about.

+ 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