Epiphany
5A 2019
Rev. Adam T. Trambley
February
11, 2019, St. John’s Sharon
This morning, we are going to continue to talk
about the Way of Love. The Way of Love
is a set of practices for a Jesus-Centered Life that were introduced by our
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry at General Convention this summer. Last week, we learned some hand motions to
help us remember the seven practices in the Way of Love:
1.
Turn
2.
Learn
3.
Pray
4.
Worship
5.
Bless
6.
Go
7.
Rest
To summarize where we are so far, we talked
about how a set of practices to keep our lives with Jesus on track can be
called a “Rule of Life”. A rule of life
acts as a framework that gives meaning to our lives, and into which we fit the
other tasks of life. Most of our rules
of life might already include prayer times, times with loved ones, acts of
service and generosity. The seven practices of the Way of Love are designed as
a rule of life to let us live into the fullness of a life in Jesus.
Last week, we also looked at Turn. Turn involves our first big turn away from
darkness, sin and a self-centered life toward a God-centered life of light and
love and hope. Turn also involves the
daily decisions to get back on the right track after we mess up. We may need to swallow our pride, to
apologize, or just to recommit to Jesus.
Finally, Turn involves falling in love with Jesus more and more deeply;
allowing Jesus to love us unconditionally and completely, and accepting that
love; and allowing our longing to be with Jesus to propel us forward in the
God-centered life of the Way of Love.
This morning, I want to look at the next two
practices, Learn and Pray. Learn and
Pray are two ways to know Jesus more deeply, and they complement each
other. Pray gives us a deeper personal
relationship with God, and between God, us, and others. Learn helps us make sense of that relationship. Learn also lets us draw on thousands of years
of wisdom about how to develop that relationship.
Today’s scriptures talk about both Learn and
Pray. In our gospel reading, people come
to learn directly from Jesus. They
gather around the lake, and he teaches them.
Then the disciples learn from Jesus in a more experiential way with
their boats and nets. While on the one
hand they seem to be learning fishing techniques, they are really learning
about Jesus.
Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians
says, “For I handed
on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received.” Paul learned about Jesus, and he is teaching
the Corinthians and us the core of the Gospel.
This good news is that Jesus died, was buried, and rose from the
dead. Just in case you have doubts about
whether he really rose from the dead, Paul gives a list of the people the
resurrected Jesus appeared to, including Paul himself.
Isaiah’s experience in the first reading is a good
example of Pray. Isaiah is caught up in
this profound prayer experience where he is taken up into the throne room of
God. He has this vision with the Lord,
lofty and uplifted, seated on his throne, with seraphim flying around in
attendance, singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy” with loud noises, billows of incense,
and live coals that cleanse and purify Isaiah’s lips. In the prayer experience, Isaiah can respond
to God with his “Here am I, send me.”
Much could be said about this vision, but right
now I want to stop and recognize how Isaiah understood what was happening to
him. Isaiah was a priest. He served in the Temple. He knew his scriptures. His may well have known as much about God as
anyone in his day. Without the real
experience of God in prayer, of course, this learning may not have mattered
much. When he did have this life
altering encounter with the living God, all of this learning helped him make
sense of it. Think about what Isaiah might
have thought without the knowledge of his scripture and tradition. He could have understood what had happened in
bizarre, scary, or even demonic ways. He
could have thought somebody switched his incense for a more psychedelic substance. He might not understood that he was
encountering the personal Creator of the universe who loves us enough to make a
covenant with his people, intervene in history, and call us as individuals to
fulfill his purpose for us. Isaiah had
done the work to Learn, so he was ready to Pray when God showed up so vividly.
And Isaiah did pray. He made time to be with God regularly, so he
was open to this experience of God when it came. When we Pray, we develop that relationship
with God so that God can come to us however he chooses. Most of our prayer experience aren’t going to
be written in the Bible and preached on twenty-five hundred years later, but
profound spiritual experience are not uncommon.
And the daily, seemingly normal experience of being with God in prayer
regularly can be as transformative for us as some ecstatic vision.
The ways we Learn can be broken into three
parts, and I’m giving you these in order of importance. 1. Scripture.
2. Liturgy of the Church and 3. Other Godly Study.
The most important way we can learn about God
is by reading the Bible, especially the four Gospels. The entire Bible is useful for learning, and
different parts of the Bible contain essential instruction on different aspects
of Salvation History and our life. We
give priority of place, however, to the Gospels as those books that provide the
teaching and life of Jesus. We give
special weight to what Jesus said, and we take the accounts of his life, death,
and resurrection as the core of our faith.
The Gospels may be a small section of the Bible, but we include a Gospel
reading every day in the church’s daily prayers and every week in our
Eucharistic celebration.
We can read through the Bible in any number of
ways. The church’s daily prayers, called
the Daily Office, have an Old Testament, a New Testament, a Gospel reading and
a number of psalms every day, and goes through the Bible in about two years. Other apps and reading schedules can also
work.
Second, we Learn through the liturgy of the
church. Every week we hear the
scriptures. We profess our faith in the
Nicene Creed. In the Eucharist, we
recount the passion and death of Jesus as we proclaim his resurrection and
await his coming again. Our liturgical
seasons through the year help us learn from and live into Jesus’ life. The sermon is also a time devoted to Learn in
the midst of the liturgical context.
Besides the Bible and our liturgy, we have
countless ways that we can Learn about God and our faith. There are Bible studies, classes, podcasts, videos,
and countless books on theology, scripture study, doctrine, and the practice of
Christian living. One good basic book,
if people are looking for one, is Walk in Love by my friends Scott Gunn
and Melody Shobe, which provides an introduction to Christian and Episcopalian
faith and practice. This book is
especially good for those coming to the Episcopal Church from other faiths, and
I have copies if anyone is interested.
Of course, to Learn with our head is not
enough. We also want to Pray. Pray means that we set aside time to be with
God. There are probably as many ways to
pray as there are people, and many of us learned different types of prayer,
including praise, intercession, thanksgiving, confession and adoration. Knowing about different types and techniques
of prayer can be helpful. What is most
important for our purposes today looking at the Way of Love, is that we make
time and do it. Just Pray. Find a time every day and spend it with
God. Tell God what you need to tell him
and spend some time being quiet so he can talk to you, too. The goal is just to spend time with God.
Now, like spending time with anyone else, that
time with God can feel different on different days. Some days it may give us a sense of peace and
feel fantastic. We just want to keep
praying forever. Some days we are
distracted or bored or feel like we are wasting time. Either way, God is going to use the time, and
he may even appreciate it and use it more when we don’t feel so good about
it. The point of prayer is not to have a
warm fuzzy prayer time. The goal of
prayer is to let the Holy Spirit into our lives so that we bear more fruit when
we are done praying. We Pray to be more loving people, not to become better at
praying.
The best way to start is to pick a particular
time of day and set it aside for God.
Even starting with 10-20 minutes a day can be meaningful. Ideas for our prayer time could include
saying the Lord’s Prayer, or telling God what you are thankful for, or reading
a piece of scripture slowly and seeing what God says to you in it, or asking
God for what you and your loved ones need, or singing, or being quiet and just
listening. Some people find lighting a
candle or lighting incense or putting on music to be helpful. Sitting in the same place even time, or even
creating a little prayer nook of some type helps us focus when we are
there. Experiment and see what works for
you. The Daily Office of the church is
one way to pray that includes scripture, praise and intercession. If anyone wants to talk more specifically
about ways to pray or what they are experiencing as they pray, I’d be happy to
have those conversations.
Jesus
loves us, and he wants us to make time to spend with him, like we would for
other people that we love. The details
aren’t nearly as important as our desire to develop that loving relationship he
offers us.
Between now and the beginning of Lent, we’ll
look at the rest of the practices of the Way of Love. Let’s go over them together one more time:
1.
Turn
2.
Learn
3.
Pray
4.
Worship
5.
Bless
6.
Go
7.
Rest
