Anglican Values 3: The Sanctification of Ordinary Life

ANGLICAN VALUES 3: The Sanctification of Ordinary Life
September, 1996

It is sometimes said that different Christian traditions are characterized by different doctrines of the faith in their worship and thought styles: Roman Catholics are said to be "Good Friday" Christians, Orthodox Christians, Resurrection Christians, and Pentecostals (of course), are of Pentecost. This does not do justice, of course, to those rich and wonderful traditions, but is useful.

Anglicans are often associated with the Incarnation, because we so fully believe in the presence of God in the ordinary things of life. One of our great poets, George Herbert, in two of our hymns, makes this point so excellently: “Let all the world in every corner sing, My God and King” (Hymn 402); and “Teach me, my God and King, in all things thee to see” (Hymn 592).

We often think that religion is "special" ~ so we put on our Sunday best (or we used to — remember hats and gloves!), we dust off our Sunday manners, and we head for Church, because Church is where God is, right? And we pay our respects - as decorously as we can and as well as the parson is able to produce that day's ritual drama – and pray for one or two things (we'd better choose carefully and not ask for too many things — lest God think us greedy) — and then, with a companionable handshake at the door (nice sermon, Reverend!) and a cup of coffee with our friends, we're on our way, our Sunday duty done.

But in our tradition, religion isn't "special" — it is every day. The first service in our Book of Common Prayer is not the Eucharist, but Daily Morning and Evening Prayer. The idea is that we will read scripture and psalms and pray every day. That's our tradition! And then come together once a week to join in worship with others.

Anglicans take special delight in the homely parables of Jesus: the parables of housekeeping, gardening, business dealings, family relationships, which our Lord, ever observant of God's inbreaking wonderful new life for his world, delights to tell. And as we read and meditate on these parables, we are encouraged to think of our own ordinary experiences as places where God comes in to dwell as well. A certain man had two sons: well, we have children. Now, let's see....; The kingdom of God is like a woman who lost a coin. When was the last time you turned over the house looking for something valuable?....

In so many ways in our Church we carry out this domestic quality of our understanding of Christ's inbreaking love. We make most decisions by consensus, like a family in real life. And like families, there are always loose ends, always discussions that aren't finished, always life carries on in an uninterrupted stream. Things are rarely tidy or absolutely complete. Our worship, while done as well as it can be, with good music from many periods, and using the rich resources of the past as well as the present, has a sort of "homely" quality to it in most of our parish churches - as nice and grand as we can make it, but we will still see the acolytes smiling at each other, we will enjoy the Rector's jokes in the sermons (well, most of them - but then, poor thing, he does try!), we will notice the new parts we aren't used to and remark on them, wonder at how that teenager is able to read the lessons so well, rejoice to hear our own activity or ministry announced. The church is our home!

George Herbert (in Hymn 592, using the image of the drudgery of a servant's work) makes a wonderful point: God turns our most ordinary tasks to times of grace: "This is the famous stone that turneth all to gold; for that which God doth touch and own cannot for less be told".