January 10, 2015

“I feel a nameless sadness o’er me roll.
Yes, yes, we know that we can jest,
We know, we know that we can smile;
But there‘s a something in this breast,
To which thy light words bring no rest,
Ah, well for us, if even we,
Even for a moment, can get free
Our heart, and have our lips unchain’d;
For that which seals them hath been deep-ordain’d!”

“The Buried Life” by Matthew Arnold, 1822 – 1888

“Your lives are busy, useful, honest; but your faces are anxious and you are not all you want to be. There is within you another life, a buried life, which does not get free. In old days it got free through old forms of religion, and then men had peace and were not afraid of anybody or anything. We cannot go back to the old forms…Many therefore have given up religion altogether and carry about a buried life. It is buried but it is not dead. When it really hears G*d’s voice it will rise. Will you come (to church) and give yourself even ten minutes? It may be that as you listen to the silence, to the music, or to the worship of others, G*d will speak and that the buried life will arise and that you will have peace.” {Samuel Augustus Barnett (1844 – 1913) “For All The Saints” Volume I}

Many today want to bury religion because it is too “judgmental”, too “universalistic”, too “pious”, too “out of touch”, or too “whatever they can see that they feel is wrong with religion”. In response then they have buried lives – lives where they can find no sense of comfort, of peace, of stability, of assurance, or of value. As Christians we should find value and peace and comfort in the fact that G*d knew us and loved us before the foundations of the earth were set. Our value comes in being “children of G*d”. Therefore let us not live buried lives – instead let us live into the resurrection of Jesus, who lifts us up and offers us life.

Pastor Dave