Glocal Christianity

Community Building Prayer Exercise

"Remember the gifts of love you have received through the body of Christ. Give thanks for these gifts. Ask the Spirit to bring to mind those failures of love in which you or your congregation have taken part. Confess your sin and the sin of your people. Ask God to forgive you. As in Isaiah's vision, imagine God's cleansing as a live coal that touches your lips and body as well as your congregation. Receive the words of grace, 'your sin is blotted out' (Isaiah 6.7). In silence, wait before God. Is God asking you to take some healing or reconciling action? How are you called to respond?" (Kropf and Hall, Praying with the Anabaptists)

Meditations on God's Mercy

"So it behoves us, if we would have Christ for a frequent guest, to fill our hearts with faithful meditations on the mercy He showed in dying for us, and on His mighty power in rising again from the dead."

- Bernard of Clairvaux, On Loving God

Stress, Relaxation and the Scriptures

Having been back at work a week now, my mind turns to stress and relaxation.

The cruise we’ve just returned from in the South Pacific was wonderful. I had a “hot stone” massage on the first day which did wonders for all the built up tension in my neck and shoulders, I caught up with sleep, I got in some reading and meditation, and I’m left with warm memories of snorkelling with my eldest son for the first time amongst the tropical fish of Mystery Island and the Isle of Pines.

Yet, though I’ve been back only a week, I already feel my shoulders tensing up again. I enjoy my job, but there are inevitable pressures that come along with it. Having been reminded what relaxation feels like however, I’m keen to get back to a more disciplined mediation practice. But what does that look like?

Most writings on Christian mediation tend to focus on “insight meditation”, on developing greater awareness of God (and relationships to God). That’s all fine if insight is what you’re after, but what if you’re after healing and release from stress? What might a Christian approach to “relaxation meditation” look like?

Like always, I find discernment begins with the scriptures, with the teachings God has already revealed through many people in many ways. 

Initially this may sound like a pointless exercise as “stress” and “relaxation” is never mentioned explicitly in the Old and New Testaments. And yet, as I’ve looked closer I’ve notice that there’s plenty of teaching about “stress” and “relaxation” … just not in those words. Consider, for instance, what the prophets, the apostles and the Messiah said about “rest” and “restlessness”:

Genesis 2:3
Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Genesis 4:14
Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

Exodus 33:14
The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

1 Kings 5:4
But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster.

Job 3:26
I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

Psalm 62:5
Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.

Psalm 95:11
So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

Psalm 116:7
Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

Ecclesiastes 2:23
All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

Matthew 11:28
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Mark 6:31
Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

1 John 3:19
This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:

Note the holistic nature of this rest. It is rest of body, heart, mind and soul. It is often associated with restoration. And its absence is considered a curse. Rest is not self indulgence, indeed selfishness is the enemy of authentic rest. Rest is a blessing, something to be looked for - and found - in God.

But notice some of the other words associated with rest and restlessness - peace, quietness, turmoil, burdened – these also speak to stress and relaxation as we know it. Consider seaching deeper into the scriptures:

Anxious Mind

Deuteronomy 28:65
Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart.

Calm

Proverbs 29:11
Fools give full vent to their rage, but the wise bring calm in the end.

Quiet

Ecclesiastes 9:17
The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouts of a ruler of fools.

1 Peter 3:4
Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.

Contentment

Psalm 131:2
But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.

Proverbs 19:23
The fear of the LORD leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble.

Philippians 4:12
I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

1 Timothy 6:6
But godliness with contentment is great gain.

So, as I meditate, I will meditate on these words from the Word.

Vision

I had a really psychadelic vison while I was meditating yesterday. It was like a huge eye, filling my field of vision, with the colours all falling towards the centre like a waterfall. No idea what it meant. But I felt content.

The experience did however follow on the heals of a inner shift over weekend, that came from a reading of the Prodigal Son which highlighed the deep truth that "The father is equally gracious to both sons because both were lost. One was lost in licentiousness. The other was lost in self righteousness." (Randy Newman, Bringing the Gospel Home)

Having long identified with those on the fringe of Christianity I've tended to identify with the younger brother more than the elder brother in the readings of that story. However, the truth is I've been a disciple of Christ for more than sixteen years now, so if I'm at risk of anything it's the elder brother attitude. I sensed myself letting go of something that I've obviously been holding onto. An understanding of my own identity? An understanding of grace? It was deeper than I can easily articulate. I mean, I know these things. But it hit at a deeper level of knowing. And I feel lighter.

Revelation and Meditation

I was meditating this afternoon when it struck me that I should say something about the relationship between revelation and meditation, particularly from a Christ-centred perspective.

Many forms of meditation, such as Zen and Yoga, focus on immediate experience. I have no problem with this, so far as it goes, yet I think its worth highlighting the difference between general revelation and special revelation and how that relates to meditation. A distinctive feature of Christianity is the recognition that some experiences are more authoritative than others, particularly the experience the apostles had of Jesus of Nazareth. Hence our emphasis on scripture. 

This has important implications for how we do mystical theology. Mystics who recognize Jesus as Messiah also tend to recognize the limits of immediate experience. That is, even as they embrace their immediate experiences they seek to discern how these square with the experiences of Jesus that have been passed down from the ancients. Thus meditation on scripture is commonly found within their mystic writings. There is a holistic relating of the now to the not now.

Listen first

Do not be quick with your mouth, 
do not be hasty in your heart 
to utter anything before God.
(Ecclesiastes 5:2)

Pray for Westboro

These guys make me angry.

Anger calls me to action.

But then the words come: "But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them." (1 John 2:11)

Don't hate the folk of Westboro Baptist Church. Don't hate as they hate. Pray for them. Pray they'll find the living God and abandon their false God. Pray actively and act prayerfully.

Thomas Merton on the Unknown

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself , and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thomas Merton - Thoughts in Solitude

Prayer for wisdom, here and now

"Father, we praise you and glorify you for sending your Son to us that He would die for our sins and be raised from the dead to reign in Heaven. But we also praise You and glorify You for sending Him to live among us and teach us how we ought to live. As we seek to understand Your Word and what it means to live as disciples of Jesus Christ, we pray for You to grant us wisdom, knowledge, mercy, and power so that Jesus’ teaching may be clear to us so we can understand and that we may be empowered by your Spirit to obediently follow Him. In Jesus name, Amen." (Paul Williams)

 

 

Imagine

"Imagine if all the tumult of the body were to quiet down, along with all our busy thoughts about earth, sea, and air; if the very world should stop and the mind cease thinking about itself, go beyond itself, and be quite still; if all the fantasies that appear in dreams and imagination should cease, and there be no speech, no sign: Imagine if all things that are perishable grew still -- for if we listen they are saying, "We did not make ourselves; he made us who abides forever" -- imagine, then that they should say this and fall silent, listening to the very voice of him who made them and not to that of his creation; so that we should hear not His word through the tongues of men, nor the voice of angels, nor the clouds' thunder; nor any symbol, but the very Self which in these things we love, and go beyond ourselves to attain a flash of that eternal wisdom that abides above all things:

And imagine if that moment were to go on and on, leaving behind all other sights and sounds, but this one vision that ravishes and absorbs and fixes the beholder in joy; so that the rest of eternal life were like that moment of illumination, that leaves us breathless: Would this not be what is bidden in scripture, Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

St. Augustine