Living in Two Worlds
- davidwperk
- May 8, 2024
- 7 min read
Devotional Reflection, Wednesday, May 25, 2022
The week of the sixth Sunday after Easter
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection in today’s reading:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. . . . 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
You will find the full text of today’s epistle reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 963)
AM Psalm 119:97-120; PM Psalm 81 82
Lev. 26:27-42; Eph. 1:1-10; Matt. 22:41-46
Rogation Day
Today we celebrate the Feast of Julian of Norwich. (See below.)
David’s Reflections
Tomorrow we celebrate Ascension Day, Christ’s return to the Father after his resurrection. Only Luke/Acts actually describe the Ascension as a literal going up. But, Jesus’ return to the Father certainly lurks behind the dialogues in the Gospel According to John. The Gospels According to Mark and Matthew also assume the ascension. (Jesus is no longer visibly present after the resurrection in their narratives.) Statements like this one in the epistle for today also assume that Jesus has returned to the heavenly realm. This also holds true especially in Philippians, Colossians, Hebrews and today’s Ephesians reading.
Today’s Epistle refers to God’s having blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Beneath the literal idea that heaven is “up there” somewhere, passages like this one give us the idea that heaven is not so much “up there” as “out there,” which could prompt us to reframe our understanding of the ascension as more than a “going up”; perhaps more of a going out of sight into the invisible world of the Spirit, which in the biblical documents is what we call heaven. My personal image for it resembles an actor stepping back behind the closed curtains in the theater.
We are “in Christ,” vitally united with Jesus in an indissoluble relationship that introduces us to that new world beyond our vision, a world intangible. That world, what Ephesians calls “the heavenly places,” contrasts with our visible and tangible earth. It is in that world of spiritual experience that we dwell with Christ and are risen with Christ (Colossians 3:1). His ascension took us with him into that world. We refer to that world in The Nicene Creed when we say, “We believe in the God the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.” (BCP, 358)
As a young adult, my son, Ben, asked me to introduce him to fly fishing. He had shown no interest when he was younger, probably because I had not pursued that love as much during his childhood. My Dad, Bill, taught my brother John and me to catch bream and bass with a fly rod as children, wading with us in the warm water of the Calcasieu River in south Louisiana. Ben and I went to the Chattahoochee River south of Atlanta and Ben waded with me into the shoals and caught the love of fly fishing. He now has his own tackle. Now, his young son, Will, has his own tackle. More than once, the three of us and Ben’s wife, Jenny, have fished a stream together.
In a real sense, when Ben and I fish together, we are experiencing my union with my father and we are deepening our own bond of love and shared experience with each other. With me that first day, Ben was introduced into a whole new world of experience, one that non-fly- fishing folks have only watched in a movie or on TV or from the dry safety of the bank.
God has elicited our faith in Jesus through loving initiatives. That vital bond, our being “in Christ,” has us wading in a new river, one invisible to the eye, the world of spiritual reality. We have become sharers in Christ’s ascension and been lifted into the heavenly realm. Dark and evil forces also dwell in that invisible realm, the heavenly places, but Christ has conquered them by his life, death, and resurrection. I especially resonate with the term “metanormal” to describe our normal, visible world as one into which that invisible world can impinge suddenly and surprisingly. I am indebted to New Testament scholar Dale Allison for that term.
Each Sunday in the service of Holy Communion the barrier between those two worlds grows noticeably thinner. The invisible world of the heavenly places dances in the chalice and in the bread. Christ’s loving and saving presence comes to us in the visible, tangible symbols of bread and wine. We get a foretaste of that heavenly realm at the end of the age when the forces of evil will have been vanquished completely. In that eucharistic moment, we truly dwell in the heavenly places. The week to come challenges us to bring the loving reality of God's saving love from the heavenly places into visible expression in our lives.
Consider this statement from one of the Anglican Communion’s most profound theologians of the previous generation.
When . . . we rise from the altar rail after making our communion, and turn west to go back to our seat in church or chapel, we should in our mind's eye look out beyond the walls of the building to all the world around, the world in which the Father's will is waiting to be done, reminding ourselves that we are in Christ and He in us in order that, enlightened by the Spirit, we may see that world as He sees it and find and do that work and offer it to the Father in Him. We need to practice ourselves in this attitude towards life until it becomes a second nature, as it was that of St. Paul and the other Christians of the New Testament.+
+Leonard Hodgson, Christian Faith and Practice: Seven Lectures. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1952), pp. 83-84.
Collect of the Day, Sixth Sunday of Easter
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 225)
Today we celebrate The Feast of Julian of Norwich, anchorite and contemplative (died ca 1416 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Julian of Norwich
Triune God, Father and Mother to us all, who showed your servant Julian revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all things, for in giving us yourself you give us all. Amen.
Rogation Day: For fruitful seasons
Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth: We humbly pray that your gracious providence may give and preserve to our use the harvests of the land and of the seas, and may prosper all who labor to gather them, that we, who constantly receive good things from your hand, may always give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 207)
A Collect for Grace
Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)
Disturb Us, Lord
Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we dreamed too little, when we arrived safely because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of the things we possess we have lost our thirst for the water of life.
Stir us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery, where in losing sight of land we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hope, and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope and love. Amen.
(Attributed to Sir Frances Drake upon departing to sail to the New World, 1577. Cited by The Right Rev. Clay Matthews, Clergy Retreat, Diocese of So. Virginia, 2004.)
In the Evening
O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen. (BCP, 833)
A Collect for Mission
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP, 101)
Daily Office Epistle, Ephesians 1:1-10
1:1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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