Living in the Spirit
Tuesday, April 10, 2007 -- Tuesday in Easter Week
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.
Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html
Discussion Blog: To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.
Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 958)
Psalms 103 (morning) 111, 114 (evening)
Isaiah 30:18-21
Acts 2:36-41 (42-47)
John 14:15-31
What wonderful readings we have today!
Isaiah speaks of a way of walking in the presence of God. There is an intuitive sense within which can guide us faithfully. "When you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it.'"
And Jesus' discourse from John's Gospel elaborates on this intimate presence of God. "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth..."
Jesus speaks of our living within the dynamic life of love which characterizes the very being of God the Holy Trinity. "Those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them... The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you."
Jesus teaches that this kind of living in the Spirit brings peace. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you."
Peter's Pentecost speech also lays out some fundamentals. When those who are listening are convinced that Jesus is the crucified and risen Lord and Messiah, they ask Peter, "What should we do?" The answer: repent and be baptized. The results: forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit. A multitude respond and were baptized. Acts 2:42 nicely summarizes the rule of life that they adopted: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." That phrase is part of our Baptismal Covenant.
It is interesting to note the practice of the early church to hold all material "things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need." Except for monastic communities, Christians have largely abandoned this practice. I remember during my childhood while growing up in the Cold War, a particularly confrontational interpreter cited this passage as Biblical warrant for some form of communism or socialism. He poignantly challenged us to defend the greed-centered economics of capitalism. I felt pretty intimidated.
The other descriptions of the church's common life included daily prayer in the Temple and some form of Eucharist or eating together in homes. In some periods of church history it was customary for worshippers to take home enough bread from the Sunday Eucharist to be able to break bread daily in a domestic eucharistic ritual.
These readings bring to mind two norms of Christian living:
(1) The nurture of our constant awareness of God, living moment to moment in relationship with God's Spirit.
(2) The practice of a rule of life which includes some disciplines of prayer, service, fellowship, and stewardship.
At St. Paul's we like to encourage everyone to "worship weekly, pray daily, learn constantly, serve joyfully, and give generously."
Lowell
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Our Rule of Life:
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.
posted by Lowell @ 7:31 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
At the end of your commentary, you write "give generously" but at the foot of your page it says "live generously". Not that it matters, but which is it?
It is both. In fact you could take the first word of each and place any or all the the last words.
worship weekly, daily, constantly, joyfully, generously,
you get the picture. And coincidently, it doesn't matter what you worship, or who you pray to, or what you learn, or who you serve, or how you live, just so long as you feel GOOD about yourself and are pursuing some higher power.
You see it does matter, words are very important and mean something.
Wouldn't it be nice if a church would challenge and encourage us to
Worship GOD in all we do
Pray to GOD without ceasing
Learn GOD's precepts and truth's
serve GOD! and serve the least of these.
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