The Way of Love - Learn


I love our Anglican sensibility of not “checking our brains at the door” of the Church.  We are called to bring all of ourselves, including our minds, into our relationship with God.  In fact, God gave humans the ability to reason and learn, which makes us different and special among all of God’s creatures.  We have used the knowledge we have gained since Creation began to bring us to where we are today, with all the modern conveniences of technology, health care and lots of other things that Jesus never talked about!

Human’s ability to learn is innate – we start from the moment we are born interacting with our environment and learning how to get our needs meet.  We cry and someone takes cares of us – awesome!  We learn to use our physical bodies and develop language – all forms of learning.  But how to do we learn about God and develop a relationship with our Creator? 

The Church’s hope is that parents will bring their children up in the Church, surrounded by the ritual and stories of old, so that it is almost absorbed into a person’s consciousness. In the baptismal service we ask parents, god-parents and the entire community if they will raise the child in the life of Christ, and we all respond that we will, but it takes a lot of effort to actually live into that commitment.  We need to bring the child to worship on a regular basis, read Bible stories, model prayer and be an example as a Christian in the world, loving our neighbors especially when it is hard.

We must be careful not to fall into the gnostic idea that we can know God through study alone.  While intense study of the Scriptures and other theological ideas is a great academic practice, it does not develop faith.  We cannot study our way into belief! Faith is a gift from God that can be nurtured and developed by study and reflection, but faith cannot be achieve by intense mental exercise!

As faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, we must learn from his example of how to live in this world.  It is not easy, as we see from his own life (he was killed for what he believed!), but it is the best way to live.  We learn from the scriptures as well as from our rituals and activities within the church, such as prayer, which I will reflect on in next week’s blog.

Perhaps the most important thing we need to learn is who Jesus Christ is to us.  In our Lenten journey, that is a great question to ask and articulate a response. For example, if I say, “Jesus Christ is my Redeemer” that is a good first step, but what do I mean by the term “Redeemer?”  I’m not going to give the answer away just yet!  That is something we can learn!

Let us continue to walk the way of love by learning our faith through study and practice, just like we learn everything else.  If it is important, we will make the time to do it well.

With Lenten Blessings,
Rev. Valerie+

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Give God the Glory

Reflections on Chapters 12-14 of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles Years ago, I had a grandparent chargingly ask me if it was OK for her to be proud of her granddaughter, because she had been taught, “Pride goeth before the fall.”   I assured her that being proud of her grandchild was not a sin when the feeling was offered in thanksgiving of the accomplishment and not boosting up one’s own ego. “Look at what I have done,” has been the down fall of many people because they neglect or forget those that helped them achieve their goals. The Book of Acts shares story after story of the importance of acknowledging that all power and might comes from God, to whom we should offer our thanks and praise.   When our egos take over and we congratulate only ourselves for what we have done, we become idolatrous. Chapter 12 records an terrible story of King Herod’s response to the apostles.   He outright kills James and then arrests Peter, who is guarded by over 30 men....
Read more

Good Lord, Deliver Us

Today is the “Hallmark Holiday” Valentine’s Day.  Some of us will mark the occasion by wearing red or remembering at the last minute to buy a card or flowers of one’s beloved.  But my thoughts and prayers are with the 17 families of Parkland, Florida who mark today as the first anniversary of living without a loved one who was killed in a shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.  It seems hard to believe a year has past since that awful day, which also happened to be Ash Wednesday.   Due to that fact, I was not as “plugged-in” that day and only got snippets of information between services.   As the details emerged, it was tragic and heartbreaking, taking on a surreal shimmer as most unthinkable acts do. Unfortunately, it was quite real, and the aftermath will be felt forever. I don’t know any of the victims, however I feel a connection to Carmen Schentrup, who was a 16 (almost 17) year old senior with big plans. She was also Episcopalian. ...
Read more

Transformation

Reflections on Chapters 9-11 of the Acts of the Apostles A little over a year ago, on the Feast of St. Paul’s Conversion (January 25), I wrote a blog post entitled “People Don’t Change – Until They Do.”   In our cynical world, too often we dismiss the idea that transformation can be a reality: that a criminal can be rehabilitated; an addict can remain in recovery, a “sinner” can become a “saint.” It is true that, being human, many of us fall short of complete change (I’ve lost and gained the same 40-50 lbs. many times in my life). However, such skepticism neglects the power of the Holy Spirit at work in peoples lives.   As we continue to read through the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, an essential art of what the author is sharing with us are amazing stories of such radical transformation that the only thing that can account for it is the Holy Spirit. And it begins with Saul.   He is the perfect villain in the story of the apostles.   No one was more opp...
Read more