10 May 2014 - uncommonplace

10 May 2014 - uncommonplace


The Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria
was at peace.

Is our Church at peace?  We have gone for years and years with an absence of conflict that few of us would be so bold as to call peace.  Peace is a positive quality, not a mere absence of conflict.  Peace can't entail this sense of numbness and isolation that we experience as we drift through life in the Church.  And these days, that life is not even without conflict.  The government assaults the freedom of the Church on the external front.  Within, liberals and conservatives war with one another.  What is different in the early days of the Church?

She was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord,
and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit she grew in numbers.

File under 'Stories of an Idyllic Past', right?  But wait.  Are we called any less than the early Christians to walk in the fear of the Lord?  Are baptism and confirmation becoming less efficacious over time?  Emphatically, no!

Yet we choose to walk without fear of the LORD.  We choose to take him for granted.  We are so used to the superabundance of his love and mercy that we accept it as normal.  We begin to live as though it is something which we are owed.  Our relationship with God starts to resemble a relationship between a man and a woman which, though it begins with the two so afraid to make a misstep because of the awe in which they each hold the other, quickly loses this quality unless it is constantly reaffirmed and chosen. 

So to with us.  If we want to walk in fear of the LORD it will not happen automatically.  We can't just enter our churches on Sunday set to autopilot.  We must choose how we regard God, whether with fear or with indifference.  We must choose the quality of attention with which we regard him as he offers us life.

When we do walk in the fear of the LORD our relationship with him is marked by joy and freshness.  Every time is like the first time.  The Holy Spirit builds the Church up in his consolation because, fearing him, we are open to that consolation in the deepest part of our souls.  We are intimately open to his gift in a way that we are not if we take him for granted.

This is why the stories from Acts are not just idyllic.  The early Church walks so profoundly in the fear of the LORD that his power can't help but manifest all around them.  Peter healing Aeneas, Peter raising Tabitha, and all of the healings in Acts are meant to show us what is possible.  In fact, they are meant to establish expectations for what is normative when, as Church, we walk in the fear of the LORD.

The LORD's promises are so great that if we hear him and our hearts are indifferent we are tempted to turn aside.

As a result of this,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer walked with him.

But when his promises are more than we understand, indeed more than all we can ask for or imagine, we can nevertheless accept them if we are walking in fear of him. 

Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

Jesus is the bridge between heaven and earth on which angels ascending, lifting us high, and descend, bringing down every blessing.  The places where heaven meets earth are not commonplace.  We are called to turn to him with our whole heart because only in his name is there salvation.  This is the attentiveness which couples that are truly in love with one another mirror on a natural level.  Only the Holy Spirit and his consolation can ultimately empower such love in our hearts.  But, oh, when he does, what joy we find.

How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD