True Gladness

In the ordinary, we find peace. In the ordinary, we find true gladness. That is a gift from God.

Because God, Jesus, is human, He brings holiness to the mundane and the ordinary as well as to the extraordinary.

In the peace, in this holiness, which is a gift from the Lord, we find true gladness.

written by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael Weston

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In the Collect today, the Collect talks about true gladness, where true gladness is.  And the readings today reflect that.  The first reading from First Corinthians.  You have Paul reminding the Corinthians of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

And the sense that you have is a sense of completeness.  A sense of gladness.  A sense of being what you are with Christ.  And it is something that, like I said, we see the turmoil of the day, on whatever level you want to see the turmoil.  We see the turmoil in our lives.  But when we think about when we are the most satisfied, the most happy, it is when we are allowed ourselves to be in Christ and to partake in the peace that He gives us. 

It is itself a very satisfactory thing when, not as a matter of "Oh yes, I am singing alleluia and I'm doing all of these exciting things," or "I feel the presence of God," but it is in the reality of our lives, of living our lives in accordance with the teachings of Christ and in knowing that He is there for us always, that true gladness can be found. 

It is in the mundanity of our lives. This is one of the wonders of the humanity of Christ is because He does not purport to have lived a life that wasn't other than ordinary.

Yes, the extraordinary happens, He goes out and preaches, but He also comes back into the ordinary.  He goes back home.  He is with friends.  He sits around discussing in the ordinary.  And it is in the ordinary that we find Him.  That we find the sense of being with Christ and the sense of completeness.  And the ordinary in our lives is to get up early in the morning and come here.  That is the ordinary.  There is a great deal of satisfaction in, many times, walking through that door knowing all the turmoil that I am walking away from or being insulated from for at least another hour.  It is a wonderful thing. 

The other thing, though, that comes with that, and it is in the gospel today, is that we take this completeness from God, from Jesus, and we throw it away.  There is a tendency for us to throw it away because it isn't the fireworks.  I walk into the church and no one sets off any firecrackers.  There isn't a great wonder.  We don't have marvelous deeds.  It isn't exciting constantly.  I mean we can think in our lives of the times when we have felt so intensely the presence of God and we remember those times.  But those times were really a very short period of time.  Overall the reality of our lives is enriched by Christ, but it isn't something as exciting as it could be.  And we have a tendency as humans, as imperfect as we are, to take advantage.  To do something that just doesn't work properly. 

Jesus talks about this master.  He put this man in charge of his household.  This guy has it made.  Think about it.  He is working for someone who is wealthy.  He is well compensated.  He is given power.  He has power to give people what they need to eat.  Probably has the power to say, "Hey, I want the best stuff.  Save it for me."  What more does he need? 

Yet, he has this tendency not to accept the mundane of his life, as good as it is, just like our lives are good in Christ.  We have a tendency not to accept the goodness and the gladness that we receive from Christ and we have this urge to stray, to do something that we perceive is better.  "Ah, my master is long delayed.  Even though I have everything I could possibly want, I'm gonna get more.  I am going to take advantage.  I am going to take advantage of the situation and get even more," and by that, discard the very thing, the true gladness, that Christ brings us.  To separate ourselves from Christ and say, "We recognize on an intellectual basis everything you've given us. Oh, but give me the opportunity and I will make it even better."  And by my efforts to make it even better, by beating his fellow servants, which is kind of strange, going out and eating and drinking with his friends, who are a bunch of drunkards, he risks everything. 

And we do the same thing in our lives.  It's very hard to keep in mind the passive nature of true gladness.  But it's in the passive nature, in our humanity, where we are saved, where we are children of God.  Because it is in our humanity that we are given the opportunity to leave God, but more than that, we are given the opportunity to follow Him. 

And like this servant, he was given free will, he could do his way to act, and do what the master did not want.  We have that same power.  Not only to exercise our will and say, "No" to God in sin, but we have within our power to reject God, and to reject the true gladness He has given us through his Son, Jesus Christ. 

And it is simply a different way to perceive our relationship with God and to recognize the enormity of what we do when we separate ourselves from God with sin.  Is it the enormity of, "Oh gosh, I don't get to see the fireworks.  I don't get to see all the wonderful things, all the wonderful trappings and everything that gets me so excited for one tenth of the time, one hundredth of the time, or are we simply rejecting the reality of Christ that He brings true gladness to us?  And reject the peace that He has offered us, the peace that He has offered to us to spend all eternity with Him in Heaven.

August 30, 2018 2