Spiritual Practices: Study

This Fall the whole church will be walking together through a number of weeks introducing and describing Christian “spirituality,” or “Spiritual Practices.” We’re aiming to address questions like: “How do I grow?” and “How do I get close to God?” 

We’re continuing this week with study as a spiritual practice.

One of the glories of the Anglican tradition is that we are convinced (and rightly so) that Christianity is a faith that takes practice. To live as a Christian is not simply to give intellectual assent to a series of propositions about God; it’s also not simply to have been baptized—buried and raised with Christ, as St. Paul puts it. Our commitment to prayer and worship is an expression of this conviction. 

But while the Christian faith is something practiced, it is also something that is taught. And it always has been. Learning the faith does happen when we give ourselves to disciplines of prayer and worship, but it is also learned in a more straightforward way: through study. 

But the proper study of God and of the Christian faith is also a particular kind of study—study for a certain end. That end is the increase in love of God and neighbor that results from moving “further up and further in” to the life of God. St. Paul puts it well again when he says that knowledge for knowledge’s sake—for mastery, that is—“puffs up” (1 Cor. 8:1), and any gift or skill that doesn’t empower love is just noise (1 Cor. 13). You can learn things about God and about Christianity without learning the faith.

On the other hand, a sure sign that you’re learning the faith is that your love, both for God and your neighbors, is growing. Another sign that you’re making contact with God as God really is is that he gets bigger and more mysterious, not less. 

Scripture to consider:

• 1 Sam. 3

• Luke 2:41-52

  
  

Peace,

Danny+