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How can we make spiritual realities both present and visible in our ordinary lives? Reverend Daniel leads us in examining the incarnational tradition.

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The incarnational tradition in a way focuses on making present uh and visible the spiritual in ordinary life. So this will be kind of the thesis or the central point I like to make today. The incarnational tradition focuses on making present and visible the spiritual in ordinary life. So there's no dichotomy between our spiritual life in God and our life today. We did talk about the contemplative tradition where there's a time that we need to spend closet time with God, uh in his presence, and sometimes it means taking retreats away from God. So that has a place in the Christian life. We need time away to contemplate, to adore God, to refocus our lives. But the incarnational tradition or the sacramental life tells us we need to see God at work in our lives. We need to engage the world with the presence of God in our lives. So making present and visible the spiritual in ordinary life is at the heart of the incarnational tradition. So through it, by making visible and present the spiritual in ordinary life, we experience God as truly manifest and very much active in our daily life. The incarnational tradition underscores the fact that God is truly present among us in the warp and woof of our earthly existence. It also roots us in everyday life. And the word uh sacramental, just to clarify the term, uh comes from from the word uh sacraments, and and we know that as uh as Anglicans, we see uh there are two sacraments, a baptism and holy communion. And basically a sacrament uh brings, uses an outward sign, uh uh the wafer and the wine uh to represent an inward grace, which is uh God's strengthening of us through uh partaking of the bread and wine. So, in other words, the outward and the visible, you know, uh carries out its own meaning uh as it brings about the inward uh meaning of what it means to live out what is within our heart. So the sacramental life is all about our living out what is inwardly within us in the outer world, the sacramental life. So it roots us. The sacramental life and the incarnational tradition roots us in everyday life, it saves us from a spirituality divorced from the stresses and strains of ordinary living. We don't recall or retract from the world in the hope of finding God elsewhere. Instead, the very presence of God is manifested in the smallest and most mundane of our daily activities. Our work takes on a new meaning. We develop a heightened sense of the sacramentality of work as we work to the audience of one. And the greatest example for us what it means to live out the incarnational tradition, the tradition is the incarnation of Jesus Himself. In John chapter 1, verse 14, we read that the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. The term translated as dwelt would call to mind the skine, which is the tabernacle which God met with Israel before the temple was built. And the tabernacle was erected at God's command. In Exodus 25, verse 8, the Lord says, Have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. The people were to make a tabernacle and all its furnishings in exact accord with the pattern God had provided. So the tabernacle, the physical tabernacle was a sign, a visible and physical sign of the spiritual, in which, even though it's a physical building, it is a tabernacle, but God's presence comes to dwell in the physical building. So in John chapter 1, verse 14, the idea of God dwelling or the word becoming flesh is further heightened because now it is God Himself. Jesus comes to make his dwelling among us. God stood to our need and allowed himself to be glimpsed in the material world through the incarnation of Jesus. So Jesus in his incarnation brought the sacramental life to bear. We know God is spirit with no form. We can't see him in the Old Testament. But with the incarnation, Jesus brought the sacramental life to bear because he brings about a sense of what the spiritual is incarnated in human flesh and bones. So, in other words, the life of Jesus made present and visible the spiritual in ordinary life. 1 John chapter 1, verses 1 to 3 tells us that John tells us that Jesus, when he came from the beginning, he is someone that the apostles have looked upon, they have touched with their hands, they have seen with their eyes, this word of life revealed as Jesus. So, in other words, John tells us that this Jesus is a historical person that lived. He wasn't a myth or a theory, but he came to live among us. Jesus came as a human being. So when Jesus was on earth, he came to reveal who and what God is like. In other words, the very life of God was a sacramental life. He came to be incarnated, to be like us in the physical world, so that he may through his physical life bring about spiritual realities and point us back to Jesus. So Philip, a disciple of Jesus, wanted to see the Father. In John chapter 14, verse 8, he said to Jesus, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. Jesus replied to Philip, Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. In other words, Jesus is saying all that he is doing in the present physical realm is a revelation of what God is doing. Jesus brings to bear spiritual realities of who and what God is like through his ministry. And one uh good illustration of this is the story of the wedding at Cana in John chapter 2, verses 1 to 12, where we read that there was a wedding taking place. This was the first sign or miracle according to John that Jesus did. So, in the context of the first century, a Jewish wedding party is a major celebration that may last about a week. In that context, the host had certain social obligations with regard to the community that he invites to the wedding. It would be embarrassing and a disgrace if the host could not serve the guests adequately in such lavish celebrations. And there are certain stories that say the guests can even throw the host in jail for lack of adequate hospitality at that time. So the crisis came about because in John chapter 2, verse 3, uh it reads that when the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, They have no wine. The story goes on to tell us that Jesus did his first miracle by turning water into wine. So uh John tells us Jesus revealed his glory, his manifested glory of who he is by providing for a dire need in the social custom of the day. This in turn points to himself in a spiritual way as the one who comes to fulfill the Jewish messianic hopes. The Old Testament saw the outpouring of the best wine as a fulfillment of Jewish messianic hopes. Where it recalls the passage in Isaiah 25, verse 6, where on this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. So we see from John chapter 2, verses 1 to 12, in Jesus turning water into wine, the outworking of a sacramental life. Jesus made known the spiritual reality of him being the fulfillment of Jewish messianic hopes by living out this reality by transforming what was ordinary water into wine. So, in the same way today, God is able to use us to make known spiritual realities by meeting human needs in a supernatural way in our ordinary lives through the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Living the sacramental life means a life of living out the spiritual in ordinary living by bringing God to bear in our varied circumstances. So, in practicing the incarnational tradition, there's often an invocation or the calling out to God for Him to manifest Himself in the physical world in which we live. Even though God feels all things, we intentionally invite him to enter every experience of our lives. So it's a God souled world because Jesus has uh taken, has incarnated, has become one of us. The incarnation of Jesus revealed that this is the life in which we all are called to live. I'd like to share with us the story of a person by the name of Brother Lawrence. Perhaps uh I've alluded to him before. So, Brother Lawrence was born, uh, his full name was Nicholas Herman, uh, and he was known to be lowly and unlearned in the teaching of the schools. Uh, in the time of the day, he served as a footman and a soldier, and under the whips of God and conscience, he was driven to become a lay brother. So there was a movement at the time uh called the Carmelite's uh spirituality, it's a Catholic uh spirituality. So they moved around and they called them the barefooted Carmelites at Paris. So he was a lay brother, he was serving in that order, and that that was where he was termed the name uh Brother Lawrence. So he was connected, he was converted to God in a very natural way, you know, in the through the ordinary ways, uh he was uh converted to God. And out of that conversion experience led him to experience the reality of God in the ordinary. So he describes his conversion this way uh in the winter, seeing a tree stripped off its leaves and considering that within a little time the leaves would be renewed, and after that the flowers and fruit appear, he received a high view of the providence and power of God, which has never since ever effaced from his soul. This view had perfectly set him loose from the world and kindled in him such a love for God that he could not tell whether it had increased during the more than 40 years he had lived since. So the beginning of uh Brother Lawrence's conversion was just the mere sight of a midwinter day of a dry and leafless tree uh uh standing against the snow. It stirred deep thoughts within him of the change of the coming spring that the coming spring would bring. From that moment on, he was awakened to spiritual realities and to walk in the presence of God. So a holy, consecrated man, Brother Lawrence lived his life as though he was a singing pilgrim on the march, as happy serving his fellow monks and brothers from the monastery kitchen uh as in serving God. And he died 80 years of age, full of love and years, and honored by all who knew him. So the the story of Brother Lawrence is interesting because it shows us that the most commonplace and menial task could be a life of praise and him to God. So he transformed the ordinary life by bringing God to bear in all situations. So the spiritual meets the ordinary. So this was his prayer. We call it a pilgrim prayer. This is what he prays Lord of all pots and pens and things, make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates. In one of his letters, Brother Lawrence described his approach to God this way. This is how he experienced the sacramental life. And I quote, this is what he says. Having found in many books different methods of going to God and diverse practices of the spiritual life, I thought this would serve rather to puzzle me than to facilitate what I sought after. And this is what he sought after, which was nothing more but how to become holy gods, how his life can be holy God, holy belonging to God. In other words, the spiritual experience of who God is cannot be divorced from his day-to-day life. In all of life, he wanted to be holy gods. So he goes on to say, this made me resolve to give the all for the all. So after having given myself wholly to God, that he might take away my sin, I renounced for the love of God everything that was not him. And I began to live as if there was none but he and I in the world. Sometimes I considered myself being before him as a poor criminal at the feet of his judge. At other times I beheld him in my heart as my father, as my God. I worshiped him the oftenest that I could, keeping my mind in his holy presence and recalling it as often as I found it wandered from him. I found no small pain in this exercise, and yet I continued it notwithstanding all the difficulties that occurred, without troubling or disquieting myself when my mind had wandered away. I made this my business as much all the day long as at the appointed times of prayer. For at all times, every hour, every minute, even in the height of my business, I drove away my mind everything that was capable of interrupting my thought of God. So for Brother Lawrence, it's a life of continuous connection with God. The spiritual meets the ordinary. There's no dichotomy because God feels all things and God is in all of our lives. So then I move on to the question: how then do we as a church live out the sacramental life? How do we live out a life in revealing the spiritual in the ordinary? Firstly, we need to give ourselves wholly to God and renounce the self and all its distractions. Jesus' words to his disciples are poignant, and we read it often in scripture. You know, Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would want to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. So there's no way that we can live the sacramental life without self-denial, without a sense of giving ourselves wholly to God each day. It's not just about uh yesterday or the day after about making plans for a retreat or time to unwind ourselves, unburdened, but each day, the sacramental life calls us each day to devote ourselves wholly to God and to renounce the self and all its distractions. So just as how Brother Lawrence approached God by an inner posturing of giving himself wholly to God, we can yield and open our lives to practice the presence of God by applying our spirit to God to allow his presence to fill our souls. Out of love for God, then renounce everything that is not God. And how that would look like in practice could be we we could begin the day in quiet contemplation, just allowing the Lord uh to renew us and saying, Lord, as I begin this day, I want to give myself holy to you. I want to live my life such that there is no dichotomy into coming to church, serving in church, and living my life out in the marketplace in the stress and the strains and the pressures. Lord, I want my life to be wholly given to you. And you'll be surprised if you pray that prayer, you will see God at work in your life. You'll see that there's no dichotomy. God is in all things and he feels all things. So give yourself wholly to God, renounce the self and all its distractions. So Brother Lawrence goes on to speak of the presence of God this way. The presence of God is an applying of our spirit to God or a realization that God is present. Because God feels all things, he is present. Even while I'm speaking now, uh, God is present, his spirit is with us, he's here with us. You know, so we just have to attune ourselves and to his presence. He goes on to say, I have a friend who these 40 years past have been practicing through the understanding, a realization of the presence of God. To it, he gives many other names. Sometimes he calls it a simple act of just stealing our heart before God, or a clear and distinct knowledge of God, at other times a view as through a glass, a loving gaze, an inward sense of God. Yet again, he terms it as a waiting on God, a silent conversation with him, a repose in God, the life and peace of the soul. Still, my friend tells me, he says, that all these ways in which he has expressed his sense of the presence of God come to the same thing. And that is the presence of God fills his soul quite naturally. That is, it comes so to pass in this way. So the second way in which we can live out the sacramental life as we give ourselves wholly to God and renounce the self and all its distractions is then to practice the presence of God naturally. Allow God's spirit to bring you into his presence by opening your spirit to God. As we allow God to fill our souls and the spiritual reality of God to affect our ordinary living, our lives will be assignedposts to divine. Reality by which we bring God to bear in all our varied circumstances. So, this is what it means to live the sacramental life. All of life is sacred, all of life can be lived with God in mind. So, as a way of turning to scripture and allowing it to inform our lives on living the sacramental life, I believe it's always good to return to the Word of God because it has the power to speak into our life circumstances. So, how do we then connect all this and apply all this to our life? I believe uh Psalm 139 is a poignant psalm to remind us of who God is daily, you know, to bring us to the place of posturing our lives uh in a place where God is able to live in and through us. And it presupposes on three points. The first point is this that God knows all things. God knows all things. Can we rest assured our hearts in God because He knows all things? And Psalm 139, because of time, we we won't be able to read through the whole Psalm. But again, I'd like to suggest to us go and read Psalm 139, go and meditate on it, use it for your quiet time because it's a wonderful psalm reminding us that God knows all things, God feels all things, He's everywhere, and God has power over all things. So, firstly, God knows all things. So, reading a couple of verses, the first six verses, Psalm 139, the psalmist says, Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down, when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all together. You hand me in behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it. Verse 17 and 18 goes on to say, How precious to me are your thoughts, O God, how vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than a cent. I awake and I'm still with you. So the psalmist orientates us to a life so in God's presence. The psalmist reminds us that God knows all things. He feels all things, he knows our thoughts even before we speak it. He hands us in behind and before. In other words, God is everywhere. He feels us, he goes before us, he goes behind us, and more than that, his thoughts for us is more than the grains of the sand, which we know is uncountable, right? None of us, you if you bring your children to a picnic, you won't ask them, a boy, a girl, please go and count the sand, how many grains you can pick up. You know it's useless to do that because it's uncountable, right? And yet the psalmist says, um, your thoughts to me are more than the sand. I awake and I'm still with you. So God knows all things. God knows everything about us. So a lot of times we struggle through issues in life, we we go through a lot of pressures at work in the family front. But if we are able to come to God and come to an understanding that he knows all things, he feels all things, he knows our thoughts, he searches out our ways, he knows when we sit down, when we rise up, uh, when we lie down, in other words, he knows everything about us. How then does this affect our approach to God? If he knows all things, how does it how will we relate to God? Would we come before him with long prayers? Or would it mean that at times we just come to him in quietness and in silence, knowing that he knows all things? We don't have to talk too much, you know, but we can steal our hearts to know that he goes before us and he has his thoughts over our life. Secondly, God feels all things, he's everywhere. The psalmist in verse 7 to 12 says, Where shall I go from your presence? Where shall I sorry, where shall I go from your spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If my if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the outermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, your right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me be as night. Even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. So God not only knows all things, he feels all things. You know, it's a God-soaked world, he feels all things. There's nowhere we can run. And the psalmist is using uh a hyperpole, he's using extreme language to say that we cannot run away from God. Even we ascend to the highest heavens or go down to the lowest depths, we fly to the outer parts of the world, even if we think that we are darkness, we are in darkness, yet darkness is light to God. So, in other words, uh we cannot run from God. God feels all things. So God knows all things, God feels all things. And the last point is that God has power over all things. Verse 19 to 22, that is where uh the psalmist. We may think it's out of sync, you know. The whole psalm talking about how God knows me uh as a person, and then it ends with this verse 19 to 22. Oh, that you will slay the wicked, oh God, oh man of blood, depart from me. They speak against you with malicious intent. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? Do not do I not loathe those who rise up against you. I hate them with complete hatred, I count them my enemies. So the psalmist was looking at meditating on God, and he's he's looking at the prosperity of the wicked, how the wicked prosper. And and he he in a way he recalls that um perhaps that God has power. God has power over all things, over the wicked. That's why he could tell, you know, oh, that you would slay the wicked. He has the power to uh over the will of man, he has the power and over the wickedness that is rampant uh in the world today. So how this is contextualized in our lives could be, you know, as we come to God, we pray through Psalm 139, and as we come to uh verse 19 to 22, it may be a tough situation that you are going through at work. It may be a situation, a crisis that you are going through, a very complex situation. Know that God has power over that. Even at times when you are wrongly accused at work or in a family situation where things are not getting better, where you are facing crisis after crisis? Know that God has power over all things. He can slay the wicked at a word, you know. So, isn't this wonderful for us to know that we worship a God who knows all things, a God who feels all things, and God has power over all things. So, how does this then affect our daily living? How does this then affect the way we approach God, the way we live our sacramental life? If God knows all things, if God feels all things, if God has power over all things, so what? Like to suggest to us that because God knows all things, because he feels all things, and because he has power over all things, therefore all of us here can give ourselves wholly to God. Because there's no one on this earth, not even our closest friend or even our spouse, can say that he or she knows everything about you, you know, or he or she is present everywhere for you, not even your best friend. And I'm sure none of us will have the audacity to say that we have power over crisis, right? Then we'll be invisible. Right? So, but we worship a God who knows all things, who feels all things, and who has power over all things. So, because of that, consequently, we can give ourselves wholly to God and put aside everything which cannot be compared to the God reality, the God-soaked reality of God, a God who feels all things, a God who is in all things. So increasingly, as I allow the God who knows all things, who feels all things, and who has power over all things to pervade my life more and more, the spiritual reality of who God is will color all I see. More and more as I spend time uh praying and seeking God's presence, quieting myself and saying, God, this day I dedicate to you. I want to be wholly yours. Help me to make the God reality visible in the ordinary. As we allow that truth to sing in us more and more, the reality of God will color all we see. We begin to see that God knows all things, God feels all things, and God has power over all things. Our ordinary living day by day becomes a signpost of bringing the spiritual to bear in the physical world. So, this is what it means to live out the sacramental life, bringing God to bear in all our life situations.

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A God who knows all things, a God who fears all things, a God who has power over all things. We pray that you've been ministered too on the Word of God today. If you'd like to know more about the Eastern Christian Church, please visit our website at yccanglican.com. Have a blessed day.