Instructed Eucharist

Trinity Sunday, 2010

Before the Procession

This morning we will be participating in an Instructed Eucharist. Throughout the service, I will be breaking in with comments providing explanation or reflection on various parts of the service. I expect you will find these interruptions distracting today, but I hope that one Sunday’s distractions will enrich your participation in the liturgy in the many days and years ahead.

The Episcopal Church is a liturgical church. This means that our community worship follows a prescribed, ordered liturgy. This is probably the most fundamental distinction in style of worship among different Christian denominations. Roman Catholic and Lutheran worship are also liturgical. Most other Protestant churches are not; their worship is highly variable. When we pray together as a community we follow a prescribed, ordered liturgy as presented in the Book of Common Prayer.

Two aspects of liturgical worship are important to consider. First, liturgical worship is shared worship. The way we pray is what we all have in common. We are united by common prayer. Diversity and individuality enrich our fellowship in many other ways, but in worship individuality is repressed in favor of commonality. For Episcopalians, we find unity and identity in the words of worship we hold in common.

Second, liturgical worship emphasizes the active role and participation of the laity. You have the words and directions for worship in your hands. You are not here to be edified by something a clergyperson, or even a committee, has whipped up today for your spiritual pleasure. Liturgy means work of the people. You are here to work. In liturgical worship, the assembly has a very active role. Your role is all there in the Book of Common Prayer.

Every service begins with a procession, whether simple or elaborate. Your part in that procession began when you left home to come here. We all come from somewhere to gather here as a community in worship. The act of gathering is essential. And we bring our individual joys and anxieties with us. This is not a place or a time of isolation or escape from the world. Bring your good news and your baggage with you. To be shared and transformed by corporate worship.

Procession

The opening words of the liturgy are a greeting. Now that we are all gathered, we greet one another. “Good to see you; how are you?” “Good, good to see you, too.” Our is a Christian greeting. But it is a greeting, shared with everyone here. To not say that greeting due to inattention or tardiness is rude to everyone else who is here. Part of the active work of liturgy is courtesy to one another.

The Opening Acclamation

The next prayer is known as the Collect for Purity. It has been used by faithful Christians since the 11th century as an expression of our desire to come before God in worship with pure thoughts and open hearts.

The Collect for Purity

Say amen. Say amen after the prayer. Any prayer said by a single worship leader on behalf of the assembly becomes yours when you say amen. Amen means, “so be it.” So be it for me. You claim the prayer, become an active participant in that prayer, when you say “amen.”

The Summary of the Law
The Gloria

Part of being a liturgical church is following a defined calendar of seasons and holy days. The calendar forces us to be mindful of the breadth of Christian faith and life. Every year we must approach the glorious redemption of Easter through the penitence of Lent. Every year we reflect in awe as God takes on flesh in the manger at Christmas time and we experience the departure of God in flesh incarnate at the Ascension. And we have to struggle with Trinity Sunday every year.

Liturgically, we experience the calendar through what are called the “Propers.” “Propers” refers to the particular collect and Scripture readings that are appointed for any given day in the calendar. We always follow the appointed propers. The following Collect is always prayed on Trinity Sunday.

Collect of the Day

The lectionary indicates which Scripture readings are “proper” for any given day in the calendar. Interestingly, although liturgical churches are sometimes criticized for underemphasizing the Bible, the lectionary prescribes a much, much broader reading of Scripture throughout the year than is usually heard in non-liturgical churches.

Your job is to hear the Scriptures, to hear the Word of God. One of your fellow Christians will read it to you, for you. Give the reader your attention. After hearing the Scriptures, without looking back at your leaflets, you should be able to summarize the readings. At coffee hour you should be able to discuss interesting points from the lessons (whether or not they were the topic of the sermon.) If you can’t do these things, you’re not listening well; you’re not doing the work of hearing God’s Word spoken to you. Personally, I hear better if I do NOT “follow along” reading the printed inserts. Whatever it takes for you, do the work to really hear and absorb the Scriptures into your consciousness, so that they may speak to you in your life.

First Lesson
Psalm
Second Lesson
Sequence Hymn (10:00 o'clock)
Gospel

Typically, of course, the Sermon follows the Gospel. I want to talk briefly this morning about sacraments. Once we get into the prayer of consecration, the Great Thanksgiving, there will be only minimal interruptions, so I want to take this opportunity to explain sacraments, specifically the sacrament of Holy Communion.

The Episcopal Church is a sacramental church. We teach and experience the sacraments as a part of our common life. A sacrament is “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.” God’s transforming grace… given without any conditions or qualifications through the ministry of the church. The sacraments are “sure and certain means” by which we receive God’s grace. Sure and certain. It doesn’t depend upon you. It doesn’t depend upon me. It only depends upon the power of God functioning through the activity of the church.

In the sacrament of Holy Communion, the outward and visible signs are the bread and wine. They convey to us the Body and Blood of Christ. The bread and wine are sure and certain means by which we receive the Body and Blood of Christ. In the sacramental act, the bread and wine are changed, infused with God’s grace to become for us the real Body and Blood of Christ.

How exactly? The sacraments are all mysteries. Mysteries fueled by the power of God. But by God’s grace and power, the bread and wine are transformed into the Real Presence of Christ and when we participate in Communion, we are literally in Communion with the living Christ, and with one another through Christ.

The Nicene Creed was written by the church, gathered in council in the city of Nicea in 325. The Nicene Creed is not an individual affirmation of faith; it is the church’s creed. And no matter what other profound debates or uncertainty have swirled around through the centuries, the Nicene Creed has stood steadfast as the church’s expression of the Christian faith for over 1600 years. We say it as a response to the reading and proclamation of the Word of God. Whether you accept or understand every bit of it, say it. At the very least, as a member of the church, it is your job to share it and pass it on.

The Nicene Creed

Part of our work as Christians is to pray. To pray for others. I recently read that our Christian vocation is to become in “real life” the people we are in worship. When we process out of here at the end of worship, take these prayers, your prayers, the prayers of the people, with you. Take them in your heart, or literally take the printed prayer sheets, and be people who pray for others throughout your life.

The Prayers of the People
Confession and Absolution

Say amen after the absolution. For some reason, this amen is typically one of the most feeble. Your sins have just been absolved. By God’s grace, through the action of a priest of the church, you are reconciled to God. Now. Any sins for which you offered repentance this morning have been forgiven. So be it? If you wish for it to be so, if you wish to claim God’s absolution of your sins, say amen after the absolution.

The Comfortable Words (Rite 1; 8:00 o'clock)

The sharing of the peace is a wonderful celebration of Christian fellowship. But it is more than that. Your action, your work in the liturgy at this point is to give the Peace of Christ to others. I convey the Peace of Christ to you and you and you. Try saying the whole phrase to one another… “The peace of the Lord be with you.”

The Peace

Announcements

The next portion of the service may seem like filler, but it is very important, and it is one where you, the assembly, do all the work. The Offertory. One of my seminary professors wrote, “It is not too much to say that one understands the meaning of the Holy Communion to the extent that he or she understands the significance of the Offertory.” (Edward Kryder). We can’t, any of us, really participate in Holy Communion without first acting ourselves to offer the ingredients of which Holy Communion is created. Most importantly, we must offer ourselves.

As part of the offertory, we e offer our creativity, our talent and our skill to the Glory of God and for the purpose of God. This offering of creativity is often represented by a musical offering, but it stands for all of the creative potential of all of us.

We also offer the fruits of our labor in the offertory, the substance of our lives. These days that’s money. Historically, those offerings of substance might often have been in kind… crops we had grown, clothing we had woven or sewed. We offer them in thanksgiving that all we have comes from God. We offer them for use to further God’s kingdom. We offer our money, not primarily because the church needs it (although of course it does), but because we cannot come into Communion with God unless we offer ourselves, all that we are, all that we value, our souls and bodies to God.

Make some active offering every time you approach participation in Holy Communion. Many liturgical scholars suggest each worshipper put something of some value in the collection plate every time we celebrate the Eucharist to ensure that we do the real work of offering, and remember that it is ourselves we offer.

And, of course, the assembly offers the bread and wine. They are your corporate offerings.

The offertory is not a time to be planning your afternoon or chatting to your neighbor in the pew or digging through your purse for God doesn’t care what. Your focus should be on God and on actively offering yourself to God. Offer your voice, your creativity, your substance, your body, your soul, all that your are. Participate in the offertory.

Offertory Sentences
Offertory Music (10:00 o'clock)

The next phrases are often called by their Latin name, the Sursum Corda. They are a dialogue, a conversation. Lift up your hearts means, among other things, literally, stand up. The next part is really a question from the presider to the assembly. Shall we, together, now, give thanks to the Lord? If you would like to proceed with Communion, you need to speak your assent. “Yes, we think it is right to give thanks to God.” Without your response the presider cannot proceed. The Prayer that follows is the Great Thanksgiving. The greatest of all thanksgivings for all of God’s saving acts on our behalf. Especially the gift of his living presence in Holy Communion.

Sursum Corda

…proper prefaces are seasonal. Listen for brief summary of the teaching of the various seasons of the calendar.

The Proper Preface for Trinity
Sanctus

The Council of Nicea forbade kneeling for prayer on all Sundays throughout the church year and every day of the Great Fifty Days of Easter. Kneeling thus was permitted only on weekdays outside of Easter season. Kneeling for the Great Thanksgiving, or prayer of consecration, did not become common until the late Middle Ages. At that time in the Roman Catholic Church, the peoples’ role in Holy Communion was a passive one of adoration only… passive to the point that they did not even receive the bread or wine. The Book of Common Prayer provides you the option to either stand or kneel. If you have never stood, try it for a few weeks sometime. It takes more than one Sunday to get over the awkwardness of change. If you give it a fair trial, you may find it a more open and active posture and find yourself powerfully drawn into Communion.

All versions of the Great Thanksgiving are Trinitarian. All include an institution narrative, recounting Jesus’ institution of Holy Communion, and all invoke the Holy Spirit’s transforming power upon the offered gifts, the offered gifts of bread and wine and the offered gifts of ourselves.

The Great Thanksgiving, continued

The Great Amen. Capitals and Italics. The greatest of Amens. Say this amen especially with joy and fervor.

And then we pray boldly by Jesus’ warrant and teaching. It is only at Jesus’ instruction that we boldly call God our Father and make these bold intercessions to him.

The Lord’s Prayer

The Fraction (Breaking of the Bread)
The Fraction Anthem

These next words are an invitation to come to the table. “The gifts of God for the people of God…” They are not a prayer or culmination. Resist the temptation to say “amen” at the end of the invitation. Just come. Jesus, your host, invites you to his holy table.

Come to the table promptly. Symbolically at least, we all dine together. Those of us here in the sanctuary do not dine first. Do say “amen” after you are offered the bread and wine. This is important, and most of you don’t. The Body of Christ, the Bread of Heaven. “Amen.” The Blood of Christ, the cup of salvation. “Amen.” Amen, indeed. May these be for me the Body and Blood of Jesus. And do not leave the communion rail until the person after you has received. We dine together, always with at least one Christian neighbor beside us.

The Invitation

Distribution of Communion

The post-Communion prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving, thanksgiving that everything we have done the work of offering to God has been transformed. All of ourselves that we have truly offered has been transformed, thanks be to God. This prayer also reminds us that our primary work as Christians lies ahead. Our participation in the liturgy and in Holy Communion are not ends in and of themselves. They give us strength and courage to do the work God has given us to do throughout our daily lives.

Post-communion Prayer
Blessing

Having been fed and transformed by the Body of Christ, we process again. We process onward and outward through the doors of the church to be the Body of Christ in the world.

Hymn
Dismissal

Postlude

Pentecost

Belong

Acts 2:1-21

Today is Pentecost. One of the great feast days of the church calendar and the culmination of the Great Fifty Days of Easter. But Pentecost was, and still is, a Jewish Holy Day, called Pentecost by Greek speaking Jews, but known as Shavuot in Hebrew. Shavuot falls fifty days after Passover and commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. As I understand it, today it celebrates God’s giving of the Torah to his people. Words of covenant and guidance.

The story we heard from Acts this morning defines Pentecost for Christians. The early disciples were gathered, with other first century Jews, in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost. While gathered there, they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. For us, Pentecost is about God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the power of the Spirit that makes God’s living presence real in our lives. And it is the Spirit that guides and sustains us in the way of God’s truth. Through the Spirit we know God’s presence with us and God’s purpose for us.

So it is appropriate that we baptize on Pentecost. This morning we will welcome Nneka and Dakota into the fellowship of the Body of Christ. Through baptism, they will become Christians. As I told their parents and godparents yesterday, this is the most important event in their lives. I can say that with certainty, even this early in their young lives. It would do us all good to be reminded… For all of us, baptism is far and away the most important event in our whole lives.

Thinking about baptism raises the question: How do we really become Christians? Beyond just a label or a name, what is the process by which we truly become Christians.

There is considerable discussion these days among people who think about the church on the three B’s. (Not, I have to say, Biggio, Bagwell, and Bell.) The three B’s of becoming Christian are Believe, Behave and Belong. Ways of becoming Christian: Believe, Behave and Belong. The discussion centers on the appropriate sequence for actions. The evangelical wing of Christianity is very clear that Believe comes first. The first and essential step in becoming Christian is to Believe. Personal belief in Jesus Christ as savior is the beginning of Christian becoming. After acquiring belief, a seeker should try to learn and practice appropriate Christian behavior. And only when that is more or less successful, does real belonging take place. Believe first. Then Behave. Then, finally, belonging is earned.

It’s not just evangelicals who teach this sequence. I expect that consciously or subconsciously, most of us accept this sequence also. We consider the status of our belief to be crucial to any claim of Christian identity. Then, we imagine that we earn belonging based upon how Christian we are able to behave.

Our baptismal service even follows this sequence. Within the context of the service, first we say the creed, a statement of belief. Then we rehearse the baptismal covenant, an outline of Christian behavior. Then, finally we baptize and welcome the newly baptized.

Folks who identify themselves with what is called the “emergent church” movement would like to redo the sequence of the three B’s of Christian belonging. Specifically, they want to place Belong first, not last. Belonging is the beginning. For the emergent church people, their emphasis is on our existing Christian communities or parishes and how those parishes help others become Christian. They stress that our parishes need to be primarily places of welcome and belonging before people new to faith can even begin the Christian journey. That’s certainly a worthwhile point.

But I want to put belong first for a different reason. Not as a reminder to us of who we should be as a Christian community, not as a reminder of what our behavior should be. Belonging is the beginning of the Christian journey because of who God is and what God does. Period.

Belonging is the beginning because God acts in baptism. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are marked as Christ’s own forever. It isn’t conditional on anything, certainly not our belief or our behavior. God gives the gift. Remember that the Pentecost story does NOT say that tongues of flame, as of fire, descended upon some of the disciples, those whose personal faith was sufficient to gain them that privilege.

We need to remember and claim and celebrate the power of God that acts in baptism. We belong. By God’s power, by God’s gift, we belong. No one or no thing can take that belonging away. We, of course, can be indifferent to the joys and responsibilities of active membership in the Body of Christ. But nothing can diminish or revoke our belonging. Thank God!

The early church understood this. Historian Andrew McGowan writing on the early church, “While faith was of course fundamental to being a Christian, it wasn’t faith itself that achieved that for you, because the church wasn’t quite a voluntary organization in the modern sense where membership and desire to belong are more or less the same. Rather, baptism was understood to be a transforming action in which God, rather than the convert, was the key player, and in which one actually became a Christian through the action of the Holy Spirit.” (Quoted by Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook and Fredrica Harris Thompsett, "The Ministry of the Baptized," Alban Weekly.)

It isn’t your faith that enables you to become a Christian, it is the transforming action of God in baptism. That’s good news.

Belonging comes first. By God’s grace, by God’s action. Then there is ongoing discussion about how the other two B’s, behaving and believing, are related. I can speak from my own experience to say that behaving leads to believing. Do not wait upon belief before you try to behave as a Christian. Behave as a Christian and you will find your belief grows. Live according to the baptismal covenant and you will grow closer to God.

I’m not going to, of course, but I’d like to turn the baptismal service upside down. I’d like to start right off with the flourish and splash of baptism. God’s unconditional gift of belonging first. Then the covenant of behavior outlined in our baptismal covenant. And, finally, as our Christian identity matures over a lifetime, the creed, an articulation of belief.

Belong. Behave. Believe.

The Seventh Sunday of Easter

Sing Praise

Acts 16:16-34
John 17:20-26

We are still amid the Great Fifty Days of Easter. Today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter, day 43 in the Great Fifty. Today is also the Sunday after the Ascension. This past Thursday was the Feast of the Ascension. Ascensiontide, in a way, is a subset of Easter season. And, as we continue to rejoice in the celebration of Easter resurrection, the collect and readings for today also make allusion to Jesus’ Ascension.

As I said in my homily for Ascension Day, Jesus’ ascension created a momentous shift in the lives of the disciples. It caused a huge change in the way they understood their relationship with Jesus. This profound conversion or change in perception has very significant implications for us today.

For the disciples, Jesus’ ascension changed Jesus’ life and ministry from a historical event to a timeless reality. Before the ascension the disciples had met and known Jesus in particular places and times, singular historical events. After the ascension, they came to meet and know Jesus, alive with them, in all times and places. Jesus, of course, was always a part of God’s eternity. It was the disciples’ awareness that changed.

In Jesus’ Easter resurrection, people became aware of his power, his transcendence over death. After his crucifixion, he came to them alive. Mary met him in the garden. The disciples saw and touched the living Christ in the upper room. They ate with him by the Sea of Galilee. They gathered with Jesus on the mountaintop. Then they saw him leave. He promised to send them the comforter, the Holy Spirit. And he promised to be with them always. And he left, ascending into heaven.

The disciples would never see him again in the same way they had in the past, in particular places and events. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, they would meet the living Christ in all sorts of places in the future. Somewhat paradoxically, Jesus’ physical departure from the earth made him infinitely more accessible to the disciples and to us.

Meeting the living Christ no longer depends upon being in the right place at the right time. We cannot grieve because we had a schedule conflict and missed the one showing of the Sermon on the Mount. We can’t be upset that we were not among the chosen twelve. We cannot say, “if only….” If only I had been there, then, I would have met Jesus. Those days are gone. For the disciples and for us. But a wondrous new day has dawned. Now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the living Christ is present in all places and all times. The living Christ is always with us.

The living Christ is always with us. There is no time or place in our lives today in which Jesus is not with us.

So. Do we live that way? Do we live as though we are aware or care that Jesus is with us always?
Do the choices and actions of our daily lives reflect the presence of Christ? At the risk of casting Jesus as Big Brother, do we act as though he were watching over us? Do we seek his guidance, follow his will in the choices and actions of our everyday lives?

In our interactions with one another, with our fellow human beings, we often quip: “It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission.” We plow ahead with thoughtless or ill-advised actions in the hope that we will be forgiven for any potential hurt or harm. It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission. That is never a faithful approach to living. Even though God is abundantly, infinitely ready to forgive—more so than our fellow human beings—we should never be casual or indifferent to Jesus’ presence with us, assuming that God will understand or forgive us in the long run. Every choice, every action is made in the presence of the living Christ.

What a wonderful gift. Jesus, always with us. To guide and support us, never abandoning or forsaking us. But do we welcome and cherish the gift of Christ’s presence with us in the actions and choices we make everyday?

There is a prayer in the Book of Common Prayer for Young Persons (p. 829). It is only appropriate, of course, for young people. It speaks of the actions and choices of daily living.

God our Father, you see your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world: show them (us) that your ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following you is better than chasing after selfish goals. Help them (us) to take failure, not as a measure of their worth, but as a chance for a new start. Give them strength to hold their faith in you, and to keep alive their joy in your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Do we live as though we had the living presence of Christ with us? To say that Jesus is with us always is also to say that he is with others always. Today’s Gospel reminds us that we are one. We are one because we are united, bound together, by the very life of Christ present and shared among us all. This is most powerfully true when we share in communion, when we literally take the living presence of Christ into our bodies. That living presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus binds us into one.

But in this post-ascension world in which we live, it is always true that we are bound together by the presence of Christ. In our baptismal covenant, we vow that we will “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves.” When we look upon others, do we see the face of Christ? Jesus is with them, too, always. Do we live that way?

Finally, in terms of living in the presence of Christ…. In the Gospel reading for Ascension Day, Luke says that immediately after Jesus ascended from their sight, the disciples went to the temple and were there praising God continually. Continually. They were not lost in grief or despair, they were praising God continually. We know that eventually they left the temple, at least from time to time, to become apostles. To help others discover the living Christ present with them.

But no matter where they went or what they did, they continued praising God, singing songs of worship and praise. Even in prison.

In today’s reading from Acts, Paul and Silas have been imprisoned. Falsely imprisoned. What would your reaction have been? They were thrown in prison because some other people were greedy and angry and had the power to imprison them. An abuse of power, illegitimately exercised. And Paul and Silas were beaten, imprisoned and chained. The story turns out OK in the end, but they couldn’t have known that then. They only knew that God was with them. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the living Christ was with them and they began to sing songs of praise.

The living Christ is with us. Sing praise. No matter what is going on in our lives. Whether it is a time of wonder or a time of mundane tedium. Whether we are mired in tragedy or being tried beyond endurance. Or whether it is a time of peace or beauty or joy. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is with us. No matter where we are or what we’re doing, Jesus is with us. Sing praise.

We have Jesus’ own assurance that he will be with us always. Do we act like we know or care? Pray that we may live thankfully aware of Jesus’ life shared with us, seeking his support and guidance in all we do, cherishing and nurturing his presence in others, and always offering thanks and praise.

Every day. Everywhere. Sing praise.

The Sixth Sunday of Easter

An Acquired Skill

John 14:23-29

Do you love God? I’m not asking for any actual response. But ask yourself, really, honestly, do you love God? Today, on a scale of 1 to 10 how much do you love God? Any of you have had any experience around hospitals know how the nurses incessantly ask: how’s your pain now? On a scale of 1 to 10, how is your pain today? So what is the level of your love for God?

We are taught that loving God is very important. In the summary of the law Jesus commands us to love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind. This is the first and great commandment for us as Christians. The collect appointed for this morning, the Sixth Sunday of Easter, speaks of us as people who certainly hope to love the Lord.

So do you? Do you really love God?

Loving God is not something that comes naturally to us. For me, this is a very important statement to hang onto. Loving God is not something we are automatically able to do; it’s not something we are born able to do. It isn’t something that just happens or that we just fall into without trying. Being able to love God does not come naturally to us. It is an acquired skill.

This is an imperfect metaphor, but it’s a bit like being a major league shortstop or a concert pianist. No one is born with the skills of a shortstop. No one just discovers someday out of the blue that they can play Chopin. These are acquired skills.

Now it does seem to be true that some people are born with greater potential than others for athletic or musical excellence. No one is born fully skilled, but some people do seem to be born with greater potential. So is the same true of loving God? Are some people born with a greater potential to become skilled lovers of God? What do you think? Think of yourself and others. No matter what you consider your own potential, I’ll bet every one of you is thinking of someone else whom you imagine was born with a greater potential than you were to love God. But each of those people is thinking of someone else... It is NOT like baseball or music. All of us are born with the full potential to love God. We must learn and acquire the skill. But each of us has full and equal potential to become a person who loves God. Like baseball or piano playing, it takes time, focus, practice, desire, commitment, to become skilled. None of us is born automatically or naturally able to love God, but each and every one of us has the potential to acquire and grow in our love of God.

I think that’s good news. If I’m not as good at loving God as I would like to be... One, it does not mean I was born somehow spiritually flawed or lacking and, two, it does mean improvement is possible. Improvement is possible.

What does it mean to love God?

It’s always helpful to be reminded that loving God is not a feeling, it is not the romantic feeling we usually mean when we speak of loving one another. It is not like being in love, that indescribable feeling of warmth and affection.

Loving God is an action. It is giving ourselves to God. It is offering everything we do, everything we think or hope or care about to God, so that our lives are literally shared with God. To love God is be with God, to seek God in everything. To love God is to choose to share all that we are and all that we do with God.

I enjoy the comic strip Zits. I find a lot of parish life reflected in it. This image won’t work as well for those of you who don’t know the strip, but there is a character in Zits called Richandamy. One word. Richandamy. Theoretically, Rich and Amy are two people, but in the strip they are perpetually glued to one another, pressed together in a permanent embrace. They have but one thought, one opinion, on any subject. They breathe together. Their bodies are linked on a cellular level. This may not be a healthy model for human relationships, but maybe it is not a bad image for loving God, for a life lived shared with God.

Loving God is more than worshiping God. More than serving God. More than being a generous or self-giving person, although all of those are positive qualities of living faithfully. Loving God means being united with God, sharing our lives with God.

Why. Why should we seek to acquire the skill of loving God? God commands us to. That is reason enough. Or, in response not only to God’s command, but in response to God’s act of self-offering to us. We seek to love God, as the old hymns says, “because he first loved us.” Because God offered the fullness of his life and death to us through Jesus Christ, in response we offer the fullness of our lives. Because God shared his very life with us, we gratefully share our lives with him.

But there is also a tangible incentive to become skilled at loving God. Remember today’s collect. God has prepared good things that surpass our understanding for those who love God. To share our lives with God is to share in God’s own life. To share good. To experience good. The deep, true good that is God. To offer our lives to God in love is to be enabled to know good.

Over and over again in John’s Gospel, as in the portion we heard today, Jesus offers peace to his disciples. My own peace I leave with you, Jesus says. The peace of God which passes human understanding. Do not let your hearts be troubled, Jesus says. To love God, to share God’s own life in love, is to experience God’s own peace. The peace which stills anxiety and fear. The more deeply we share our lives with God, the more deeply we will know the peace of God in our hearts.

The ability to love God does not come naturally or automatically to us. It isn’t something we are born proficient at, although each and every one of us is born with the ability, the potential to learn how to love God. And we acquire that skill, we learn how to love God, by praying to God that God will teach us how to love him. It is only by God’s gift that we are able to love God. And we seek that gift in prayer.

Remember the collect of the day. Collects always start with a statement about God. “God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding.” That’s a given. That’s a statement of fact about God. God has prepared for those who love him good beyond human understanding. After this opening statement, the intercessory part of the collect begins. We pray. We pray that God will pour into our hearts love towards God. We pray that God will give us the ability to love him. We pray that God will help us grow in a life of love.

Those prayers will be answered. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says that we (the Triune God) will come to those who love us make our home with them. That Greek word “home” or “dwelling place” occurs in another very familiar portion of John’s Gospel where Jesus says, In my Father’s house there are many mansions or dwelling places and I go to prepare a place for you. We read that passage at funerals and find great hope and comfort in the assurance that Jesus has prepared a dwelling place in heaven with God. A place to find peace and rest and joy. Not only are we promised a dwelling place, there, in heaven with God; God promises to make God’s own dwelling place, home, here, with us.

Loving God is an acquired skill. None of us is good at it on our own. But if we pray, pray that God will give us the ability to love him, those prayers will be answered and God will make his home with us.