Isaiah 6:1-8; Romans 8:12-17; John 3:1-17
The Reverend Paul DeLain Allick, St. George’s Episcopal Church, June 7, 2009

Years back I had just finished presiding at Holy Eucharist. In the congregation that day was a visitor. She rushed up to me in the greeting line to give me a pamphlet. She said that she gave this pamphlet to everyone. She told me that it summed up the Christian Faith; I should read it and make sure everyone in the parish read it. I got the feeling that she assumed folks in the Episcopal Church, including the ordained, weren’t quite Christians.

The pamphlet was an exposition of the Gospel lesson we read today. It explained how ignorant Nicodemus was; how he represented all those living in the dark who needed the light of Christ. It was all laid out: say that Jesus is the Christ, get “born again” and it’s all solved.

I was intellectually agitated. Here I am spending my life in devotion to Jesus Christ, giving my life to his Church, spending years studying the Holy Scriptures, studying the Church Fathers and liturgical history and someone comes to correct me with a shallow explanation. These simplistic theologies miss the wonderment that is the Mystery of God in Christ sanctifying us in the Holy Spirit.

This stuff is not easy; it isn’t meant to be easy. I could preach several different sermons from the material we are engaging on this Sunday.

First we could explore the mystery of the Holy Trinity: how God has manifested himself in three persons. We could explore the metaphorical meaning behind the images in the story of the call of the prophet Isaiah: the seraphim and their correctly placed wings to the burning coal on the lips. We could take apart and study what St. Paul is getting at in telling us we can now call God, “Abba! Father!”

In this Gospel lesson from John, which my inquisitor so aptly summed up for me, we could explore all kinds of things. We could study what it

that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. We could study what the phrase for “born from above” or “born anew” implies in the Greek. That is has to do with Christ ascending and descending to and from the sky, calling us to join him. We could explore what it means for the Son of Man to be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert. It would be fascinating to understand how the author of this Gospel loves to use irony like using the phrase “being lifted up” in reference to our Lord dying on the cross.

We could do all of that but we’d be here until next Sunday. Instead I want to remind you how it is that we as Episcopalians approach these Holy Mysteries and make them part of ourselves. The first thing to remember is that discipleship with Christ is a process: the Church is a process not a product. We are trying to be the Church. So we are always exploring and asking questions.

We have a manual to help us. This week on the Church Calendar we celebrated the Feast of the First Book of Common Prayer. Many of our ancestors sat in prison and others were executed to bring us this Prayer Book. This is our manual for living into the Mystery.

In the Book of Common Prayer we are guided through the whole of Holy Scripture, not just the parts that reinforce what we already believe but all of it. At Holy Eucharist we read through the Scriptures in three years; at Morning and Evening Prayer we read through them in two years. In the Prayer Book we have the Catechism and Historical Documents of our tradition. We have all the Sacraments. We have a calendar of celebrations to keep us in mind of the life of Christ and his saints. In this current version of the Book of Common Prayer the Holy Eucharist is brought to the center of our lives just as it was for the first Christians and the form we follow for it is based on the same.

And none of it is made up by Anglicans. It is all from the two thousand year journey of the Church. It is our attempt to accurately live into what our ancient ancestors taught us about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Saints, the Devil, prayer and worship.

Starting today we will again be holding this book in our hands. For practical reasons, yes, to save paper and staff time. But more importantly to get us all engaged in looking at our Tradition, our guide to being disciples of Christ.

If you do not have your own Book of Common Prayer I strongly encourage you to get one. You can find reasonably priced ones or very elegant expensive ones. But you should get one and set about praying it and studying it. This fall at our Adult Formation program we will offer classes in the Prayer Book so that you can learn how it works. This summer you can begin (or continue) your study and devotion and show up in the fall with such good questions that you will stump the priest.

(Now let’s look through our new bulletins to see how it works, so that you who are here today can help others)

Let us pray:
Almighty and everliving God, whose servant Thomas Cranmer, with others, restored the language of the people in the prayers of your Church: Make us always thankful for this heritage; and help us so to pray in the Spirit and with understanding, that we may worthily magnify your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Lesser Feasts and Fasts 1997 p. 253