I want to tell you a contemporary kind of Easter story. It's about four women. They were good friends, and they went on a camping trip together as a kind of spiritual retreat. They had a lot in common. They were all past mid-life, approaching their later years, and they were all beginning to reflect more on their lives:

• where they had been...

• the lessons they had learned along the way...

• the experiences that had made a real difference in their lives....

• the people who influenced them the most....

• their wounds; their dreams; their regrets; their hopes...

• and so on....

All the questions that we tend to become more interested in as we get older and have the time to review the story of our lives. So it seemed like a very good time for them all to get away and spend some quality time with one another.

On the first day of the trip, something life-changing happened to one of the women, which affected them all. They had set up their tents, and had lunch. They took a little rest after lunch. And then, they decided to go canoing on the little lake near their campsite.

And so, off they went, all four of them together in one large canoe. And it was very quiet and breathtakingly beautiful. The water was crystal clear. There was a gentle breeze, and the smells of Spring were in the air. The sky was clear and blue. The lake was surrounded by a forest of very tall green pines that were reflecting into the water. And when the four reached the middle of the lake, one of them looked back and saw how beautiful their campsite was from this distance, nestled in the midst of the pines, looking out over the glistening water of the lake. And she decided to take a picture of it. So she stood up to get her camera, and as she was framing the picture through the camera lens, she began to step forward slightly in the canoe, and one of those plastic water bottles rolled under her foot. Well, she lost her balance, the canoe flipped, and all four friends were in the water.

Fortunately, they all had life-preservers on. And the canoe hadn't sunk, and they were able to right it fairly easily. So there was no great danger. But one of the women did not know how to swim... and even though she had a life-preserver on and her friends were with her, she was absolutely terrified. So the other three women, surrounded her in the water, and just let her hold on to them. And as they were just floating there together in the middle of the lake, the three friends of this frightened woman had what seemed to be a good idea. They said to her:

“You know, one of the reasons that we all came out here together was to support one another and to talk about the fears that are holding us back in our lives. Maybe this canoe tipping over and us falling into the water happened for a reason.... We could get right back into the canoe. But, as long as we're here... and you're safe... you've got a life-preserver... you're surrounded by people who love you... what if we just stay here for a couple minutes, floating in the water, maybe it would be a great opportunity for you to get past the fears that are holding you back... and get clear about what it is that you really want more than anything else in your life. What do you say?”

And the frightened woman agreed to give it a try. She became very quiet, and started looking within, trying to identify what really mattered most to her, what it was that she wanted in this life more than anything else. And so there they were... in a circle... floating in the water... holding each other's hands, the three being very quiet and respectful as their frightened friend was looking into her soul.

After a couple of minutes of silence, the frightened woman looked up into the eyes of her friends, and said: “I'm clear.... I'm clear about what it is that I want more than anything else in life.” Her friends were nodding supportively, excitedly, and asking her: “What is it, honey? Tell us what you want more than anything else in life?” And she looked at her friends, straight in the eye, and said: “I want the boat back.” Nodding... “No great spiritual desires. I just want the boat back.” They laughed, and got back in the boat.

Our five senses are very powerful gifts, given to us by God. And usually we trust our 5 senses. Usually we think that what-our-eyes-are-seeing is what's actually out there. ...what-our-ears-are- hearing is what is actually being said. …what-our-skin-is-feeling is what is actually touching us... And so on....

But, actually, the gifts of our 5 senses are much more complicated than that.... because, by design, our 5 senses are very strongly connected to our deepest beliefs. What we experience through our 5 senses is always very influenced by whatever we really believe in our heart to be true. The story of the four friends in the water illustrates that.

In her heart, this frightened woman really believed it was true that she was dying that very moment. And what she believed to be true... was coloring everything that her 5 senses were telling her. She wasn't seeing the beautiful, crystal clear water; she was seeing a dark and dangerous tide that was about to take her life away from her. She wasn't feeling the gentle caress of the water splashing against her skin; she was feeling the water like it was a monster pulling her down to her death. She wasn't really hearing the comforting words of her friends; she was hearing the loud and scary inner voices of her own fears. So... were her 5 senses not working properly? Yes, they were working properly... but just like our 5 senses, they never work alone.... they always work together with what we believe in our hearts to be true.

But I should finish the story:

Once the four friends got back into the canoe, paddled back to their campsite, put on dry clothes, and were safe and sound on solid ground... the situation improved dramatically. Once the frightened woman knew in her heart that she was safe again, her 5 senses calmed down... they weren't all on “red alert” any more... so she was in a better position to turn her attention to the spiritual questions that she and her friends had come there to explore together. And as the days of their trip went on, over meals, and on hikes, and just sitting around the campfire, they continued to talk about their lives and their dreams and their fears and what really mattered most to them at this point in their lives.

And one evening around the campfire, the woman who had been so afraid in the water, had a sudden realization about her life. She realized that in her heart she really believed not just that she was going to die (like we all will sooner or later)... but that she was going to die before she was really ready, spiritually and emotionally, to deal with dying... and do it well. She was afraid that she was getting older and that she still hadn't learned all the important lessons in life that she felt a person has to learn before they can be at peace with dying. And so she spent the rest of their trip trying to coming to terms with that frightening belief that she was not prepared, not ready to die. She prayed about it, cried about it, laughed about it, talked and prayed with her friends about it. And on the last day of their trip, she had an epiphany, a kind of sudden revelation from God about her life. She came to understand that she was actually much more “ready” than she'd thought. She found within herself, a trust that was much deeper and stronger than her fears, a trust that she was truly not alone, that God was really with her, and in her, that she was in good hands, and that, no matter what, she was going to be o.k.

And on that last day of their trip, much to her delight and the delight of all her friends, she very quickly and easily learned how to swim. And she discovered that the lake was no longer the same place for her that it had been just a few days earlier. Now she was able to see the water, and taste it, and feel it on her skin, in a way that made her want to shout for joy, rather than cry out in fear. Nothing had really changed about the water. But something within her had changed. She really believed that God loved her, and was with her and in her, come what may. And that changed everything. Not only was the water now a fascinating place to be and explore, so were the senior years of her life. The wrinkles on her face, and the gray in her hair, hadn't changed at all. And yet, they looked different now. They didn't look bad at all. Had her eyesight somehow improved? No. But her 5 senses were now under the influence of a new belief, a new trust that God had given her. And now, everything she saw, and heard, and smelled, and felt, and tasted.... had something of God in it. Her whole world had changed.

In this morning's gospel reading, the Risen Jesus breathes on the disciples and says “receive the Holy Spirit.” This is John's version of the Pentecost story. (Luke's version, where the disciples receive God's Spirit and start to speak in other languages... we won't hear until later on in May.) What I like most about the way John tells the story is that he makes it very clear that the Gift of the Holy Spirit is, in fact, the Spirit of Jesus. …. John paints the image for us of the Holy Spirit as the very breath of Jesus, which he breathes out, and the disciples breathe in, with Jesus instructing them to “Receive” his Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, into their hearts, into the core of their being.

But Thomas wasn't there... to receive this transmission of Jesus' Spirit into the core of his being. Those who were there, and had been personally addressed by Jesus and had received his Spirit into their hearts... believed that he was alive.... because they knew he was really present within them. They could have no doubt that he was alive, because when they looked within, there he was. But Thomas misunderstands what had happened. Thomas assumes that what had done the trick for the other disciples, the real key that had enabled them to believe that Jesus was alive... was the evidence of their 5 senses.... not the fact that he was actually living within them. And so, Thomas says to them, in effect, “unless I also get the evidence of my 5 senses that he is alive, I am not going to change what I believe to be true in my heart... that he is dead. Period. End of story.”

Thomas doesn't understand that our 5 senses always follow the lead of our hearts... What we're able to perceive through our senses is … always colored by what we believe in our hearts to be true... That's just the way we're built. Thomas had it backwards. He thought that once he had the so-called “facts” from his 5 senses, then he would believe in his heart that Jesus lives. But that's just not how the gifts of our 5 senses work. What Thomas really needed was not physical evidence, but the Gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus living within his own heart. Only then would he really know that Jesus is alive. Only then would his 5 senses, guided from within by the Holy Spirit of Truth, be able to perceive the reality of Jesus & his Good News.... “out there”… in the world.

The same, of course, is true for us today. One way or another, we find ourselves being called by name, being personally addressed by the Living Christ... that One who is always absolutely depending on the One he called Father. However it happens:

• … in prayer... … in receiving the Sacraments.... … in the hearing of God's Holy Word....

• … in the kinds of Christlike (loving & self-giving) relationships that we call “Pastoral Care”...

• … or in some other way that God's Spirit is able to move us along the Way that leads to Life...

He reaches us.... and he always seems to have the very same agenda: to give himself to us; to breathe his own Divine Life into us... and for us to receive that life, so that in His Spirit, we may fulfill our destiny by taking up his yoke and becoming like him.

It is the receiving of this transmission of the Living Spirit of Christ into our hearts that the Sacred Liturgy (the Eucharist) is all about.... that prayer & worship & devotion are all about.... that life itself is all about.... But today we have to ask ourselves: is the receiving of this transmission of the Living Spirit of Christ into our hearts still what the Anglican Church is all about?

Last Sunday, Easter Sunday, I had lunch with my dear friend & mentor, Mickey Chovaz (whom I've talked about before in my sermons.) And while we were eating, Mickey's daughter asked him: “Why do you think the Anglican Church is in decline?” It's a very good question. The “decline” that was being referred to, I believe, was the decline we can perceive with our 5 senses, the decline in numbers of parishioners. But Mickey's response addressed a decline of a deeper sort. He said: “Well... what we offer people is an institution... instead of the Living Christ...” and went on innocently eating his lunch. But what he had said gave everyone around the table... pause.

Personally I hear in Mickey's words a fundamental truth. A truth which I believe is at the very root of the contemporary church's deficiencies in “sanctification” or “spiritual formation.” Because those fancy terms simply describe how we are actually “taking up the yoke” of the Living Christ and “learning of him” in our daily lives, so that we can actually fulfill our destiny as human beings to become like him. (Mat 11:28-30, Gal 4:19, Eph 4:12-13.) Our actually being like Jesus is what enables us to attract the people whom we need to attract (John 13:34-35; 14:12-21). It is not simply a matter of “marketing” ... it's a matter of possessing the actual spiritual 'goods' that are required to repair a very broken world.

We can only become genuinely like one whom we have had the pleasure of meeting, again and again and again.

We can only offer others that which we ourselves possess.

I know this in my heart to be true.

But...

I also know in my heart that no matter how low the state in which we may find ourselves in this life – either individually, or collectively as the church – Jesus, the one True Head of the Church, is still alive within us. Jesus is still alive within us, even when all that we can see and hear and smell and taste and be touched by–even in the church–suggests to us that he is dead. Because our 5 senses always follow the lead of our hearts, and our hearts can always be converted to the Truth

Back in the 1980s, when I was still living in the U.S., I had to have some medical tests done on my spinal fluid, which required a “lumbar puncture,” or spinal tap procedure. It was, to say the least, a very memorable experience. Firstly, because the resident at the hospital who did the procedure accidentally hit one of my vertebrae with the needle. And secondly, because, in my hurry to get home and into my own bed, I got up and left the recovery room too quickly after the procedure... and, for the first time in my life, I discovered what it meant to be in severe pain, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. All my 5 senses were telling me that, if there was such a thing as Hell, this was it. And, unlike the woman in the story that we began with today, I couldn't just 'get back in the boat' and be on dry land in a few minutes. It lasted for two days... and nothing helped, at least nothing physical. I think of it now as my “Job” experience, because.........

Even though everything that I could see and hear and smell and taste and feel was absolutely awful... Jesus was still alive in me. I wasn't alone in that Hell. Somehow God enabled me to know his Presence, and even though the pain didn't diminish even one bit … for two days ... I felt much better... There was a strange spiritual strength that came from knowing that God in Christ was with me, and in me, through His Spirit... no matter what.

This is the kind of mysterious spiritual renewal that is available to every human being in this very broken world.

No matter what is going on in our lives, Christ is alive within us. Christ is always addressing us by name. Always poised, even now, to breathe his own life-giving Spirit into our hearts and minds and bodies. Always instructing us to “Receive” His Spirit, so that we may take up his yoke, and become like him in how we think and feel and act.

This is what the practice of this amazingly rich Anglican tradition of ours – with its deep contemplative roots, both Celtic & Catholic – enables us to enjoy.

And this is what we who would learn to live in this Way have to offer others in this very broken world.

Something worth offering...... something far, far more than just an institution!!! Thanks be to God.

 ☩ Easter II, April 15, 2012 ☩ Christ Church (Glanworth) & Trinity (Lambeth) ☩ Huron, Anglican Church of Canada