Dear friends in Christ,

Do parts of our liturgy ever jump out at you in the middle of us worshipping together? They certainly do for me. In fact, as I preside, sometimes I need to remind myself that my first responsibility while presiding is to lead the worship, not stop and reflect on how powerful the words are. Sometimes that’s a challenge.

In the middle of the burial service for our dear brother Boots Lewis, one of the petitions of the Rite I prayers of the people did just that – it jumped out at me. It says:

Help us, we pray, in the midst of things we cannot understand, to believe and trust in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection to life everlasting. (BCP, p. 481)

Is this “not understanding” thing an issue for you? The longer I live, I realize that there are some things I understand more as time goes on, and others that I understand much less than I thought.

Besides all the myriad things in our world that we struggle with understanding, there is this God issue. That is, how do we understand God? And what do we understand about God. Take the Trinity, for instance. Anyone out there understand that one? And – here’s the big question: how does our understanding relate to our believing?

Our old friend Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury (1093-1109) weighs in here. His spirituality is summarized in the phrase “faith seeking understanding”. He writes, “I do not seek to understand that I may believe, but I believe in order that I may understand. For this, too, I believe, that unless I first believe, I shall not understand”.

Mind you, I am not suggesting that anyone may just believe whatever they fancy, and the understanding part is irrelevant. I mean that many of us (all of us?) don’t understand a lot of this stuff about God, but we still believe, and that’s not only acceptable, it’s downright faithful!

Next time you are reciting the Creed and you shake your head over some of the things that are difficult to understand, please know that you’re not alone. And maybe that’s a perfect time to pray that petition:

Help us, we pray, in the midst of things we cannot understand, to believe and trust in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection to life everlasting.

I don’t know about you, but I can say – I don’t really understand, but – by God, I believe! In this joyful Eastertide, I pray you know that you are loved. Blessings and peace!

† George