Spiritual discipline during lockdown

Sunday24th – Easter 7.

Acts 1: 6-14. The time between the ascension and Pentecost, Luke has the Apostles meeting together in prayer, where they are gradually becoming not just witnesses to Jesus but a kind of ecclesiastical council. Judas is replaced by Matthias, immediately after this episode and they assume the equivalence to the twelve patriarchs of old Israel. Mary, the mother of Jesus makes her last appearance here, and James (still unnamed) makes an appearance as one of the “brothers”. By Acts 15, James has evidently assumed some kind of leadership of the Jerusalem church, apparently chairing the Jerusalem council, hearing the testimony of Paul and Barnabus.

1 Peter 4: 12-14, 5: 6-11. The walls of the church are invisible – people are as “living stones” - but the structure of this house need to be strengthened against attack to survive. Evil is the guise of persecution and discrimination batter the walls, windows and doors of this spiritual house. While humbly accepting the reality of the situation Peter advocates resisting evil, casting our anxiety on God, and strangely to many modern readers, rejoicing in our suffering because it brings us closer to Christ. Because we know that what followed Christ’s sufferings was glory and exultation, so discipline yourselves and keep alert!

John 17: 1-11. It is Jesus’ prayer that we may “ascend” with him to know his unity with the Father. And we have a definition of eternal life into the bargain. The content of eternal life can be a present possession as well as a future hope. Eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ as the revelation of God. To say that I know God is to have eternal life already. This point of view is particular to John’s gospel and if you’d like to know the fancy theological term for it, it is “realised eschatology”.

Salvation is not something I need to work to achieve, always just out of reach, striving to grasp hold of it,

Salvation is the ground on which I stand. It is the solid rock that the church stands as a whole, and it is this blessed assurance that we witness to in the world.

Accepting and assimilating this truth is liberating and when you realise that salvation, the ultimate healing, attaining oneness with God and all things is what Jesus is praying for in this final discourse is exciting and then when you realise that Jesus is praying for you personally it becomes life-changing.

"Truth only has the power of truth when it becomes true for you."

Salvation is synonymous with eternal life. And John has Jesus saying exactly what eternal life is.

Eternal life is to know and achieve union with the Father, whose very being is revealed in Jesus Christ.

Having this truth gradually underpin and shape your life and perceptions is what I like to call a spiritual “ascension”. We ascend to this knowledge of the truth.

All of us gathered together in this knowledge are called the church and Jesus also prays that the church will be protected, because we are now his body on earth, this house made up of living stones, and just as Jesus was harangued, attacked, misunderstood, suffered, so will we be as his body.

Peter in his letter told us to expect it. He says “Don’t be surprised as though something strange were happening”

We need to be humble enough to accept it as inevitable but also spiritually disciplined enough to resist the world’s attempts to break us.

This current pandemic can justifiably be described as evil because in its effects it is an assault on the nature and being of the church. It will attempt to tear people apart from the church, and I dare say it will have a measure of success.

As each one of us is one of those living stones of the church, Peter says we have to remain disciplined spiritually by praying regularly in whichever way feeds you and engages you. That could be anyway from standing alone in the garden or contemplating the night sky to online prayer resources or liturgical daily prayer. It could mean engaging in spiritual disciplines like the examen, where you go through your day and notice what brought you closer to God and what pushed you away, what pleased you and what angered you and discern how you can learn from your daily experience to better face tomorrow.

You may want to read favourite texts from the Bible that builds you up and strengthens you, or even try writing your own prayers.

In these ways we can remain strong even in our isolation from each other because as St. Paul said. “I am convinced that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.