Easter 5 May 3, 2026 with The Rev. George Adamik

https://www.lectionarypage.net/YearA_RCL/Easter/AEaster5_RCL.html

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Good morning. Ever since I retired about a year and a half ago, I've noticed the different rhythms of the day-to-day life that we live. And many of you perhaps share that experience. But there's one rhythm that has remained, and it's this. I'm retired. My wife Mary is not. She still goes to work. And so we both get up at the same time. It's about 6:30 or so. And I take our corgi, Pippin, he's a fluffy corgi, for a walk. I come back in and I make the coffee. I grind the beans. It's like a little experience, you know, making this coffee. Pour some cereal, and sit down to have breakfast. And I open up my computer to read the New York Times. It's always been what I read for news in the beginning. I read a lot of other things too, but that's where I seem to start. So I'm, it was just a few weeks ago. I'm looking at the Times. You know when you look at a newspaper or online, there's words that may pop out at you? And I saw the word Saint Augustine in an article. And I said to myself, how often do you see St. Augustine on the front page of the New York Times? And um, so I read the article was about um the uh the just war theory and the conflict in our world today. St. Augustine was one of the early, early um uh saints and teachers uh scholar in the church. He's around, I think it's around 360 to 400 and something was his life. He had a great influence on the development of that theory, um, as well as other scholars who came after him put that war theory together. I actually spent a bit of time when I was in seminary on that, on that just war theory. Um but I'm not here today to talk about the just war theory. I'm here to talk about St. Augustine and the impact perhaps that he's had on my life for a long time. Um years ago, when I was in seminary, which was in the mid-1970s, a long time ago, um, I went to a lecture by a Benedictine brother, uh, David Stendelrast, who was a monk from Mount Savior Monastery in Elmyra, New York. And he gave this talk at Marinal Seminary in New York. I was I'm from New York and I went to seminary nearby. And his talk was on St. Augustine, mostly on a phrase of St. Augustine, one quote. And I'd like to share that quote with you and bring it into this space this morning, and maybe we can explore it a little bit. And may help us have a lens on our gospel reading today, a part of our gospel reading today. The phrase that he shared with us at this talk, and this was transformative for me. Do you ever have that experience looking back? You there's just something that happened, and you and it's locked in. And you realize as you as you grow older that the impact that had on things. You may not even realize it in the present, but you you see it as you as you as you move in your your life. Um the phrase is this. You may have heard this phrase before, um, but the phrase is restless is my heart until I rest in you, O Lord. Restless is my heart. Not my mind, my heart. And in the time of St. Augustine, the heart was really seen as that central place of us, of who we are. Restless is my heart until it rests in you, O Lord. That restlessness is a part of who we are. I would suggest from the moment we're born, we're restless. We're restless as we search, I think sought part of that is the search for meaning in our lives. From the moment we're born. And just to lock in another perspective on this, oftentimes we see ourselves as human beings who strive to be spiritual. We're human beings trying to be spiritual and holy. That's why we we get involved in a faith tradition where we we read scripture, we listen to the great uh our great ancestors in faith, and how can I be more spiritual? I'd like to suggest from this lecture of David Stendelaz, that just maybe reverse that a little bit. I think, you don't have to agree with this, I think we are spiritual beings. And what we're really searching for is humanity. I think we're born spiritually. I think we're born with that that search. And I think, I think, that is our spiritual self that seeks what it means to be human. Because we don't always do this human thing too well. Um we're we're we're we're in a world now that um that humanity, we're not doing it too well. And so we seek. We're restless as we seek meaning. Even in just our day-to-day lives. But but the St. Augustine is saying, restless is my heart until it rests in you, O Lord. And I would suggest that that seeking, that searching, that restlessness is our spiritual part of our who we are as spiritual beings. And and it's it's searching for that for that meaning, to find that meaning, and rest in that meaning. Have you ever, you're at home and maybe you're working on something, some project, you're on the computer, maybe you're trying to balance the checkbook at home, and you're like, ooh, this isn't, this is not working in a way, and and you it clicks, something happens. You know, you're doing a paper in school, or and you just, oh, you almost sit back in your chair. Oh. You know, I was restless, and I found the meaning. On a much larger scale, you know, much larger scale. We're called to find the humanity and the world that we live in. Restless is my heart until it rests in you, O Lord. I would suggest the ultimate source of meaning that we search for. So in our gospel reading today, and I think in this season of Easter, um, we find the followers of Jesus to be rather restless. Um from all these stories that we see, many of them have the followers of Jesus just wondering what is going on? Jesus the Christ was raised from the dead. So what what happens now? Where does this go? And in today's reading, there's that wonderful exchange where Jesus is inviting them to continue, or I to continue to walk with him. But but Thomas says, we we don't know the way. What are you you're talking about going to a place I don't know the way? And you know, I if I were Jesus, I'd probably hit my head against the wall, you know, like what have we been doing? You know, but but I'm not Jesus, thank goodness. But Jesus says, Thomas, and to all that, I am the way. I am the way. I am the truth, I am the life. And the way we come to step out of our restlessness and the meaning of that is to continue that journey with the risen Christ, to continue walking with Christ. Remember when Jesus called those first followers in his early ministry, what did he say to them? Follow me. Follow me. He didn't say, sit with me or just talk with me, follow me, walk with me, move with me as we walk into the humanity of the world in which they lived. Continue that journey. And I share with you today in our own personal lives and in the world in which we live. A world where human life is becoming less significant, a world where people are being pushed to the edges of our society, where the poor, the sick. That's what Jesus did. You know, it's like, follow me, watch me. This is what humanity can look like. Heal the sick, reach out to the poor, and change the society and culture around us. And so what I'd like to suggest to you this morning is, community of holy family, um, be restless. Be restless. And maybe you already are. Be restless so that you can be continually led to discover the humanity that Christ is calling us to. Walk with Christ in that journey. And not be overwhelmed by the restlessness. In conversations with folks, sometimes I see there's such an anxiety about the restlessness. Where is it going? We're like, we're like Thomas. And Jesus is saying, I am the way. I am the way. So let the restlessness, which I believe is our spirit, it's who we are. We're born as spiritual beings. That's the search. As we go forth to find the meaning of Jesus and bring that to our world, the world around us, and continue to be that presence, even when it seems overwhelming. Continue in the way, continue to be restless, and continue to search and find the meaning that as followers of Christ we can offer to this world.