As a young person I attended a private boarding school that was located on the shores of Katchewanooka Lake in Ontario. That almost sounds like a Canadian joke, but it’s not. The school had a fleet of sailboats and a number of canoes. In order to use one of the canoes you just walked down to the dock, picked one, took the paddles, and set out on an adventure. There wasn’t much in the way of safety regulations.

My friend Big Bill Little and I packed some fishing gear and headed out for an afternoon on the lake. Largemouth bass and perch abounded in the lake. We caught our dinner and cooked it over an open fire. We loaded the canoe with our gear and began to head out from the shore. About that time Big Bill deliberately stood up in the canoe, I think he was bored, and the canoe tipped. We spent the next half hour diving for our gear.

Well, here is the rule: “Don’t stand up in your canoe, or it will turn over.” The reason for rules in boating is so that you can avoid drowning either yourself or somebody else. Sounds simple? In a way it is, but as with many rules it is easily broken. On the news this morning was a warning: “Wear a safety lanyard with a kill switch so that if you get tossed out of the boat, or off your skidoo, it won’t head for the opposite shore leaving you in the middle of the lake.” Why? You might drown!

The basis of Old Testament law is much the same. Here are the Ten Commandments: if you break them you might get hurt, or even die. Is that true? “You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal.” i If you do those things you might have to pay a terrible price. You might even die.

Jesus never explained away, or negotiated a way around, the moral commandments. What he said was, “Truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” ii

This is a Big Bill Little society. We have a lot of people who just want to stand up in the canoe and that is why we are having problems with crime in our cities. You don’t think so? This week even school kids are being held up on the way home from school and joggers on the Katy Trail are going to have to be extra careful. What are we to do? First, don’t stand up in the canoe. Second, stand up for what is right; and try not to squirm around the commandments. The canoe might tip!

i Exodus 20:13-15
ii Matthew 5:18-19

It’s wonderful what you can learn in the allergist’s waiting room. As I write this on Tuesday morning, the TV news is on in the background. Two items come to my attention. Big Momma, Massachusetts is trying to ban school bake sales in an attempt to control obesity and Al Qaeda’s plot to blow up a U.S. bound jet with a more sophisticated underwear bomb has been foiled.

The latter makes me wonder about the psychology of putting on explosive underwear. That reminds me of one of my favorite terrorists who strapped a bomb on his body with the intention of blowing up the lobby of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Fortunately, or unfortunately [depending on your point of view], he successfully blew himself up on an empty street on his way to the hotel.

As for Massachusetts, I wonder about the governmental mind-set that leads to trying to control what people eat. Remember that the people of Massachusetts once threw 342 chests of tea into Boston harbor in an attempt to control big government. The next morning a considerable quantity of tea was floating on the surface of the water so the citizens went out with small boats and beat it down with paddles and oars so that it couldn’t be retrieved. That raises an issue: Is the state your rightful Momma, or is your Mother your Mother?

While all that is going on in the corner squawk box, a little child’s mother has taken him into the doctor’s examination room. From behind the closed door the sound of hysterical shrieking and abject wailing rises in an increasing crescendo. He is undergoing allergy testing and he is frightened, but his mother persists and eventually the shrieking decreases to periodic muffled sobs. The testing isn’t so bad after all.

I feel for the child. When I was a little child it took the nurse and my father to hold me down so that the doctor could give me a shot. Often it is a parent’s responsibility to hold a child down for the child’s own good, no matter how hard the child shrieks. I still don’t like shots, but I come to the allergist because I have learned as an adult that the shots are necessary. But remember, somebody had to teach me. Mothers and Fathers have an awkward role.

There is a spiritual application here. Before leaving for the allergist this morning I was reading in Psalms and came across this verse, “I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.”i There are times when a loving parent has to enforce discipline on a child for the child’s own good, and for the child that feels like affliction. There are times when God, in his love for us, allows us to suffer through some things and some of those things can be painful. Every now and then He holds us down because He actually knows what is good for us and sometimes, like little children, we haven’t a clue.

i Psalm 119:75

Bilbo’s traveling song:
The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.i

There are times when stepping out the front door leads only to the usual round of mundane tasks, but there are other times when we step out into the unknown. One of our hymns this morning says, “I know not where the road will lead I follow day by day, or where it ends: I only know I walk the King’s highway. I know not if the way is long, and no one else can say; but rough or smooth, up hill or down, I walk the King’s highway.”ii

Christians tend to forget that Christian life is a pilgrimage, but in life, whether Christian or not, there is no standing still. Some wander aimlessly, but consciously walking the King’s highway is a matter of the heart. The Psalmist says, “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.”iii

The journey of life, long or short, takes time and effort, and often a pilgrimage involves faithfully putting one foot in front of the other and doing our best to stay in motion. The journey goes up hill and down and occasionally on a level plain. Sometimes we travel through scenes of great joy and beauty, and sometimes we travel the through the Valley of Baca, the “valley of weeping” and the dwelling place of giants.iv

Sometimes the valley bears with it serious threat, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the death shadow, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and staff, they comfort me.”v Sometimes after a long journey up hill we crest over the rise and see spread before us the glorious vista of the blessings of God poured out in beauty, in loving relationships, in joy and in outright laughter. But whether we will, or not, we travel ever onwards towards our heavenly home.

When our hearts are set on pilgrimage we do not travel alone. We have a Divine Companion along the way. The promise of the Father is given to those who love his Son. Jesus tells us, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”vi

i J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, Book I, Chapter 1
ii Hymnal 1982, # 647
iii Psalm 84:5
iv Psalm 84:6
v Psalm 23:4
vi John 14:15-18

“The heart is tricksy above all things, and wicked and false, who can understand it?” – A Gollum translation of Jeremiah 17:9.i

The Psalmist says to the Lord, “O Lord, every desire of mine is before you.” ii

Solomon instructs us, “Keep your heart with all vigilance for from it flows the springs of life.” iii

We can easily fool ourselves and mistake what is in our imagination for what is in our heart. We imagine that we want to diet and our heart says we want to eat. Blaise Pascal, the 17th Century scientist philosopher makes an important observation about the difference between imagination and the heart. He says, “Men often take their imagination for their heart, and often believe they are converted as soon as they start thinking of becoming converted.” iv Peter Kreeft comments, “We can easily imagine, think of, contemplate and be attracted to the idea of giving our whole selves and lives over to God without actually doing it, and think we have done it because we have imagined it.” v

That is why the biblical view of conversion and surrender does not rest on subjective feelings, even though subjective feelings are a legitimate part of conversion. In his epistle St. John says, “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” What Teresa said was, “This love, daughters, must not be wrought in our imagination but must be proved by our works.” vi Those works include the works of righteousness and the works of love as we reach out to others.

We often spend too much effort in trying to recapture the subjective experiences of the Presence of God. Instead of expecting unearned favors and blessings from our Lord, Teresa would have us understand that aridity in prayer is a gift given to help us understand our limitations and, by spiritual discomfort, draw us to greater discipline in seeking the Lord. We are justified by faith. That does not mean that there is no further discipline of effort required on our part. We sense that and it makes us uncomfortable.

There is no substitute for simple spiritual discipline. Pray Daily Morning Prayer. Read Scripture. Sing praise to the Lord. Practice the awareness of His Presence. Meet frequently with the Saints. Pray for one another. Become aware of the need to lead a more disciplined life. Pursue love in service to others. Seek the spiritual gifts.

i Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.”
ii Psalm 38:9a. Trans. The Rule of St. Benedict
iii Proverbs 4:23
iv Peter Kreeft, Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal’s Pensées, (San Franscico: Ignatius Press, 1993), p. 232
v Ibid.
vi Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle, ed. & trans. E. Allison Peers, (New York: Doubleday, 1989)

To many Protestant Christians the Apocrypha is a strange and somewhat suspect collection of Books. Our Anglican tradition tells us that while we do not read the Apocrypha to establish doctrine, do read it for “example of life and instruction of manners.”i In short we can read the Books of the Apocrypha for devotional purposes and within its pages many secret treasures are hidden.

One book of the Apocrypha was highly regarded by the Early Church and that is the Book of Ecclesiasticus, written by Jesus son of Eleazor son of Sirach sometime before 180 BC. Two passages from Ecclesiasticus, including the Benedictus es, Domine,ii are beloved canticles in the service of Morning Prayer in The Book of Common Prayer.

One of the most thought provoking is the following from the New Revised Standard Version:

Pleasant speech multiplies friends, and a gracious tongue multiplies courtesies. Let those who are friendly with you be many, but let your advisers be one in a thousand. When you gain friends, gain them through testing, and do not trust them hastily. For there are friends who are such when it suits them, but they will not stand by you in time of trouble. And there are friends who change into enemies, and tell of the quarrel to your disgrace. And there are friends who sit at your table, but they will not stand by you in time of trouble. When you are prosperous, they become your second self, and lord it over your servants; but if you are brought low, they turn against you, and hide themselves from you. Keep away from your enemies, and be on guard with your friends.

Faithful friends are a sturdy shelter: whoever finds one has found a treasure. Faithful friends are beyond price; no amount can balance their worth. Faithful friends are life-saving medicine; and those who fear the Lord will find them. Those who fear the Lord direct their friendship aright, for as they are, so are their neighbors also.iii

The development of relationships with good friends takes time, testing, and the growth of trust. Christians are required to treat everyone in a loving manner, but they are not required to trust everyone. We are blessed in life if we find two or three very good friends with whom we can share everything. There is a larger circle of more casual friends with whom we can share a lot on varying levels, but not the deepest secrets of our souls. As for the rest of those whom we know, we can trust them to be themselves.

Even Jesus had circles of friendship. John was his closest friend, then Peter and James, then Andrew, then the rest of the twelve, except for poor old Judas who, in a graphic way, proved himself untrustworthy. Jesus knew many other people, but we are told that “he did not trust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.”iv Friendships take time, they take effort, they take patience and persistence. Good friendships are a labor of love.

i “The Articles of Religion,” The Book of Common Prayer, BCP p.868
ii Ibid. p. 90
iii Ecclus. 6:5-17 (NRSV)
iv John 2:24-25