Where True Joys Are To Be Found

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Earlier this month the vestry and I spent most of a Saturday on a retreat, talking and praying about the church. As I have done before, I asked everyone what brought them to this church and why they continue to come. It did not surprise me that one of the main reasons was the people. I work with a community that enjoys being together, especially when food is involved! It is also a welcoming community that opens up to everyone who walks through the door.

Another strength came through loud and clear. In the midst of the turmoil of life, the church provides predictability. No matter what chaos happens during the week, Sunday brings a familiar liturgy with familiar prayers. For many people, that’s a rock in their lives. We do have seasonal changes so we can experience the full richness of the Book of Common Prayer, much of which is based on the Bible. But for the most part, worship is predictable.

It’s not just the turmoil of the outer world that makes us seek refuge; it is our own inner turmoil as well, what the Collect for the Day calls “the unruly wills and affections of sinners.” In that collect we pray that God will give us the grace to love what God commands and desire what God promises. That is where true joy is to be found. But how often our hearts wander away from the true path!

The prophet Jeremiah knew that better than most. He was a singularly misused prophet, once even thrown into a muddy cistern when the leaders didn’t like God’s word coming from his mouth. It’s all the more remarkable that Jeremiah presents such a wonderful vision of the future, a future when hearts will no longer be wayward because God’s covenant, God’s promises, will be written directly on them. At that future time, Jeremiah says, God will forgive all that has been done and remember their sin no more.

In the present, however, we continue to need forgiveness, for we fall short of all God desires us to be. The penitential Psalm 51 wonderfully expresses regret for sin and the desire for God’s forgiveness. Traditionally it was written by King David after he had taken another man’s wife as his own and then repented. Whether David actually wrote it or not, it remains a remarkable confession of wrongdoing and a plea that God’s saving grace will once again be offered. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me” – words that can be said at any time and any place, words that a priest can use when washing her or his hands before the Eucharistic prayer.

This Sunday at our church there will be yet another opportunity for finding grace in a broken world. We will have a healing service. After communion, all who desire healing will be invited to come to the side altar for prayers, laying on of hands, and anointing with blessed oil. All it will require is a heart open to God, a willingness to kneel and ask prayers for whatever in one’s life is not right.

A healing service is yet another way to enjoy the richness of the prayer book. The familiar will still be present, but there will be an opportunity to experience the love of God in a different way. It is God’s love that reorients us among the swift and varied changes of the world, love that comes to us through people, through prayer, through word and sacrament. May we always live in that love of God, so that our hearts find true joy.

[Lent 5: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-13; Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33. The collect for this day is an ancient one, originating in the eighth century and reaching its final form in 1662.]

Listen to this as preached on the Fifth Sunday of Lent.