A man may remain for a hundred years in his cell without learning how to live in the cell.
Abba Poemen
“What am I doing here?”
While I was at diocesan convention I had the pleasure of hearing the Rt. Rev. Brian Thom, Bishop of Idaho, speak. He touched on several things, but the one that I continue to ponder were two questions he asked those in attendance.
First, theologically speaking, why are you an Episcopalian? In other words, liking the people, building or liturgy can't be the answer.
Second, why do you go back to church every Sunday?
The answers to those two questions, he contended, were the recipe or prescription toward creating a vital parish that embodied and exemplified a new spirit. They were also the keys to evangelism. If you know why you are here, you are more rooted and comfortable in speaking about your faith and your parish. And that provides the foundation to talking with others about your faith and practices.
People come to church for a variety of reasons – habit, friends, time with God, music, and the list goes on. If, however, we aren't growing, if we aren't being challenged as well as comforted, if we aren't drawing closer to God, if what we participate in and proclaim on Sundays makes no discernible difference in our lives, then we haven't really learned to live in our cell.
The goal of the Desert Fathers was to bring themselves slowly, through fasting, prayer and service into a central relationship with God in Christ. If a monk lived in his cell for a hundred years fasting and praying, but without ever allowing himself to be changed and molded by God, then he had not truly learned to live in his cell.
What am I doing here? Hopefully learning to enthrone the King of Love in mind and heart, making my body a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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