ALL SAINTS CHURCH

The rites of the church symbolize this, as it is not unusual to go from baptizing an infant, to a funeral with a wedding or two in the mix, frequently within a matter of hours. Once while riding on a subway, obviously on my way to perform a wedding, I glanced at my watch nervously. The person riding next to me began to inquire about the wedding and she eventually asked me, “Is it an important wedding?” I immediately replied, “It is to them!”

Weddings, baptisms, funerals, all of these events are so large they are impossible to contain within our personal psyches. We need to seek the wisdom and the rites of the ages to help us place ourselves in the context of the eternal and sacred history. Each of these rites tells us that life is about change, growth and the meaning of our mortality.

In school we learn how to acquire and manage information. We learn about the struggles and heroes of society, we learn skills to earn a living and perhaps we learn about the arts. But the deepest aspects of human existence, the meaning of our birth, our death and the ways we change in between, are not learned in the classroom. One reason is because different people have different opinions about these things. But another reason is because these issues are neither science nor art. At the heart of our existence is mystery that can only be approached by faith.

By nature religion is concerned with these ultimate questions. Our life itself poses the question. Our religion contains clues and tools to help us approach the mystery. These clues and tools function only for those who are honest about the nature and the depth of the question. Our scriptures, sacraments and liturgies must be used with the greatest degree of respect and reverence. If not, they become academic subjects, like any other. Perhaps a better image is of museum exhibits, to be observed at some remove.

Most of us don’t live too close to the question or the mystery too often. But we run into the question, like it or not, every time we encounter change, e.g. births, weddings, deaths. Of course there are smaller events, more subtle yet perceptible to the sensitive, or as Jesus would say, to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Our lives are a journey of constant changes, deaths and rebirths that call for a spirituality to comprehend.

Our religion begins at the point of our “ultimate concern.” If we come with the honest question, posed to us by our existence, we will find in our church a sacred toolbox that is so nuanced and profound that it will excite the most passionate commitment to discovery.

Jesus exhorted us to seek the Kingdom of God first and that everything else would take care of itself. This summer, I encourage you to make this Kingdom your priority.