…that you may know

Posted on by Fay Rowland (Mother Clanger)

Hello, fair ‘Flectioneers!
We are nearing the end of Easter season during which, if you are a good Anglican (alleluia), you have to (alleluia) say Alleluia (alleluia) after every (alleluia) second word. (alleluia, alleluia). Gets kinda annoying after a while, I find, but YMMV. (alleluia)

Please find below a refection on part of the 1 John passage and your lectionary-linked liturgy (try saying that while licking a lolly in a yellow lorry) based on Psalm 1. And here’s a bonus funny. Put it on your power point at the start of the service and see if anyone gets the ref.

Pentecost is coming along soon, so there are some advance-notice links below, including the ever-popular Pente-copters! If you’ve never tried this wonder of science-meets-faith, give it a go at your next all-age / youth / Messy / Schools event. There’s even a video!

Pentecost Links

Resources from other places

Check out these resources from other websites (please note, I’ve not vetted these, I’m just providing links)

That You May Know

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13)

I write these things … that you may know …

This phase from 1 John is an echo of the end of John’s gospel, where he sighs over all the things he could have written about but didn’t. “If I wrote everything there is to say about Jesus,” he laments, “there would not be room in the world to hold all the books.” (Clearly, he’d not seen the shelves of your average preacher’s study.) Then he continues, “But these thing are written that you might believe … and, by believing, have life in his name. (Jn 20:31)

That’s something that I really value abut Christianity. We can read, and understand, and meet God and find true life in him. Words are a big deal!

I’m not meaning that faith is a merely intellectual exercise. We need the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds and make the seed of God’s word produce fruit, but Christianity is, at its roots, an understandable faith. It makes sense. As I have said many times before, you do not need to have your brain amputated to become a Christian. Science and faith are not opposites. You are not required to screw up your eyes and believe six impossible things before breakfast. Christianity makes sense. It is reasonable and we can use our God-given reason to explore who God is.

Anselm of Canterbury said, “I believe in order that I may understand.” Well, he actually said, “Credo ut intellegam,” cos he went to a posh school what did classics, but you get my point:  belief and brains are not opposites; each can aid the other.

We believe in a God who reveals himself, primarily and ultimately in Christ, but before then and during then and since then in so many other ways. “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” (Heb 1:1-2)

We can know God through Christ, through Scripture, through nature, through imagination, through study, through conversation, through observation, through silence, through art, through beauty, through community, through the wisdom of those who have loved God before us and through our present sisters and brothers in Christ. Through all these and more God speaks and self-reveals and makes his ways and character known to us. And we, with hearts kindled by the Spirit, can have the incredible privilege of knowing (at least something of) God, simply because God’s nice like that.

John, along with the other gospel writers and Christian writers ever since, have been keen to pass on this knowledge of God. We write these things … that you may know.

Liturgy Resources for Seventh Sunday in Easter

Psalm 1, 1 John 5:9-13

Confession and Absolution

This is the testimony:
God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

Gracious God, you have given us eternal life
and we have squandered it on mean words and selfish acts.
Lord, forgive us.
Forgive us and help us.

We have wasted your son’s redeeming work
on bitterness and vain ambition.
Lord, forgive us.
Forgive us and help us.

We have refused your gift of grace
preferring our secret vices and comfortable sins.
Lord, forgive us.
Forgive us and help us.

May the God of all mercy grant us true repentance,
swift redemption and full restoration
into the likeness of his son, our saviour, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

This is the testimony:
God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

Blessing and Dismissal

May you be like trees planted by streams of water,
may your delight be in the law of the Lord,
may all you do prosper.
May you meditate on his law day and night,
may the Lord watch over your way,
may you stand in the congregation of the righteous.
And the blessing …

Go now, bearing fruit in due season,
to the glory of God.
Amen.

One thought on “…that you may know”

  1. Pingback: Pentecost – The Reflectionary

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