Rule of Benedict 33
July 6, 2009
Benedict writes in 4:48-49
Keep guard at all times over the actions of your life, knowing for certain that God sees you every where.
I didn’t grow up with this Sunday School song: O be careful little hands, feet, eyes, ears what you do, where you go, what you see, and hear for the Father up above is looking down in love… Yes indeed one must be careful. Enticements to drift away from a Jesus-abiding life are many. Outward enticements to indulge our sensual pleasures of every kind abound. Inward enticements fueled by stored memories of sinful pleasures, boredom, and a sense of entitlement or missing out, lie in wait in every nook and cranny of our heart, mind, and soul. Thus keep guard at all times is apt advice, the one necessary thing in kingdom living.
Two people I read about and read some, who have managed a keeping guard over their hearts (Proverbs 4:23) are Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach (other than the proverb writer and of course our Master). Perhaps there are many more.
Laubach in Letters by a modern Mystic says:
As for me, I never lived, I was half dead, I was a rotting tree, until I reached the place where I wholly, with utter honesty, resolved and then re-resolved that I would find God’s will, and I would do that will though every fiber in me said no, and I would win the battle in my thoughts. It was as though some deep artesian well had been struck in my soul… and strength came forth. I do not claim success even for a day yet–in my mind, no complete success all day–but some days are closer to success, and every day is tingling with the joy of a glorious discovery. That thing is eternal. That thing is undefeatable… This spirit which comes to a mind set upon continuous surrender, this spirit is timeless life.
Does this sound doable? Is there a desire within me for this?
Laubach adds:
It seems to me now that yonder plowman could be like Calixto Sanidad, when he was a lonesome and mistreated plowboy, “with my eyes on the furrow, and my hands on the lines, but my thoughts on God.” The carpenter could be as a full of God as was Christ when he drove nails. The millions at looms and lathes could make the hours glorious. Some hour spent by some night watchman might be the most glorious ever lived on earth.
We occupy our lives with all kinds of activities. But with our thoughts we train our minds to turn upward, keeping guard over our actions because the Father up above is looking down in love to give us the desires of our hearts.
This is challenging to say the least. Keeping guard is only the starting point. The rest is to turn our minds to be stayed on Him. Much easier said than done. But willed by our Lord for us.
Prayer from Celtic Daily Prayer morning canticle:
Christ, as a light
illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
What do you do?
April 23, 2009
What do you do when you sense an oppressive enmity settling on you? I have been feeling such an enmity lately and today’s morning prayer helped a lot.
Readings for Day 23
April 23
Psalm 57:1-11 Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. 2 I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills his purpose for me. 3 He sends from heaven and saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me; Selah God sends his love and his faithfulness. 4 I am in the midst of lions; I lie among ravenous beasts– men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. 5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. 6 They spread a net for my feet– I was bowed down in distress. They dug a pit in my path– but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah 7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music. 8 Awake, my soul! Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. 9 I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. 10 For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. 11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.
1 Samuel 27:1But David thought to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”
James 5:13 Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.
Whoever “they” are in the Psalm (unspecified) they are no match to what God sends from heaven: to “they” he sends rebuke; to me he sends His love, His faithfulness, His Hesed. I can hardly wait for the day to unfold to be surprised where I will find this love, faithfulness, and hesed.
Thanks Papa. Your mercy endures for ever.
St. Patrick the “Missional”
March 18, 2009
This week marks the celebration of the Feast of St. Patrick. He was known as the apostle to the Irish andone of the most important missionaries of Christian history. Thomas Cahill (in his book How the Irish Saved Civilization) claims that if it weren’t for the work of Patrick, and his fellow missionaries and monks, Europe would have had no Christian legacy or memory to withstand the onslaught of Islam which arose only a few centuries later. Patrick’s work was not only soul saving but culture making. (Two enterprises that should never separated.)
Remember that St. Patrick’s day is a good time to recall the way in which God works through the small and despised; through the failed and forgotten; through the Samaritan (Stephen, the woman at the well,) and through the Irish (Patrick, Aidan, Brendan, Columba, Killian, Art Guinness, Brigid and Bono).
Living as God’s people require that his mission become our own. Patrick is one of the best examples of following Christ into the world. He returned to a world that had once abused and enslaved him. Yet, Patrick followed God’s lead and joined Christ in the work he was doing among the most dangerous and despised of the world.
The Irish saints had strong sense of God’s presence and power in their lives. Regardless of where they were, whether adrift at sea like Brendan, engaging the violent pagans in conversation like Patrick, or establishing beachheads of the faith in far away places like Aidan, they each knew that God was with them and that Christ was working through them. This trust in God’s abiding presence is evidenced in the morning canticle from CDP:
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
Rule of Benedict 17
March 9, 2009
Chapter 2:16-22 of the Rule of Benedict speaks to me regarding the issue of discernment of those we lead. Perhaps something else will grab you.
How do you see how others in your circles of influence are growing in Christ? Beside prayer, what do you look for as marks in a person who is growing in Christ?
The abbot is not to make any distinction of person in the monastery. He should not love one more than another unless he finds one better in good actions and obedience. A free-born man is not to be put before a slave who becomes a monk, except for some other reasonable cause. Although, if justice requires it, the abbot may see fit to change anyone’s rank. Otherwise let each keep to his regular place, because whether we a re slaves or free, we are all one in Christ (Gal 3:28), Eph 6:8) and serve alike in the army of the one Lord; for with God there in son partiality among peersons (Rom 2:11).
Solely in this only are we distinguished in his sight: if we are found to surpass others in good works and in humility. Therefore, let the abbot show equal love to all and impose on all the same discipline, according to their merits.
Lectio: Discernment is the thought that kept grabbing my attention here. Though the word is not in the text, I am reading it into the abbot may see fit. This ability to see, I am calling discernment. How can I see unless Someone show me and how can Someone show me unless I am paying attention closely?
Comment: It is a difficult thing to measure spiritual growth (in others, more than in myself). But the fruit of the spirit is observable in the life (interactions between Chrstians) of the commnity. Norvene Vest, the commentator on the Rule, speaks of the “work of the heart the hidden action of amenability to the Spirit’s graces, the evolving disposition toward the mind of Christ–all of these are manifest for the one who has eyes to see and ears to hear.” Norvene mentions two concrete evidences that Benedict will elaborate on later: Good works, and Humilty/obedience.
Prayer: Lord, help me to see your work in me. Help me to see your work in those around me. Help to rejoice when I see it. And to weep at the absence of evidennce. Amen. Lord, have mercy.
The Wounded Healer
February 2, 2009
Henri Nouwen passed away a while back but his words never seem to do. In the Wounded Healer, he talks about the need to be healed since the onset of the nuclear age. Nucelar man must learn the inner way of healing the wounds of our age. He must also learn the revolutionary way of not accepting the evil of this present age. The Christian way, says Nouwen, is the third way. It is based on the “growing conviction that in Jesus the mystical [inner way] and the revolutionary [activist ways] are not opposites, but two sides of the same human mode of experiential transcendence [of experiencing the presence of God]. I am increasingly convinced that conversion is the individual equivalent of revolution.
Therefore every real revolutionary is challenged to be a mystic at heart, and he who walks the mystical way is called to unmask the illusory quality of human society. Mysticism and revolution are two aspects of the same attempt to bring about radical change. No mystic at heart, and he who walks the mystical way is called to unmask the illusory quality of human society. Mysticism and revolution are two aspect of the same attempt to bring about radical change. No mystic can prevent himself from becoming a social critic, since in self-reflection he will discover the roots of a sick society. Similarly, no revolutionary can avoid facing his own human conditions, since in the midst of his struggle for a new world he will find that he is also fighting his own revolutionary fears and false ambition.”
I am struck that what Nouwen is talking about is so similar to how we are thinking at missional order. His conversion as individual revolution is our life of continuous conversion (our second common commitment) based on a continuous life of seeking to understand the msytery of God (our first commitment to pray our life in a sacred rhythm in order to know God), and resulting in activism for the transformation of society (our third commitment to missio dei).
I am tempted to propose a name for our missional order: The Third Way. I don’t know if it’s taken. Do you have an opinion about a name for our order?
The Blessing
January 25, 2009
The blessing at the end of morning prayer in CDP is:
Blessing
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
protect you through the storm.
May He bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders He has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.
As you notice, this voiced wish or desire for good, is not addressed to God. This “prayer” assumes that you have someone in mind for whom you wish all the wonderful desires mentioned here. It is a prayer in community, for community, by community.
A couple of questions:
Has anyone used this prayer in their missional communities, or societies of Jesus (churches)?
Who do you have in mind when you say this blessing?
Perhaps I’ll be the first to answer my own questions. I haven’t used it in a corporate setting. But I am excited when I think about using it in a couple of settings to see how it goes. I will try it in two life groups I am involved with. And I hope to make it a reguar part of the prayer we end with in those groups. I am not a pastor of a church presently but would love to hear from some to see how it works in larger settings.
As to the second question, I’ll also be the first to answer. Sometimes I think and pray for family members, my sisters, and brothers, my wife and children and grandchildren, friends, and colleagues, and the life groups of which I am a part. Especially, I desire the expressions of this prayer in the presence of the Lord for those who are away from home, from God, from the fold.
Your turn…
Canticle 5
January 18, 2009
The last part I’ll comment on from the canticle in the morning office of CDP is: This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Lowliness and meekness spell out the virtue of humility that every Christian should ask for from the Lord who dwells within.
This prayer is asking the Lord to manifest himself within us in lowliness and in meekness. Frankly, I am not given to ask for this meekness and lowliness by nature. They ran out of humility when my turn came. I am more inclined to assert myself. Perhaps I can blame society’s influence on me: lowly and meek are out, brash and proud are in. Perhaps it’s not society at all; it’s just my human nature taking its time dying. Blame is not a very productive defense mechanism.
All the same, this prayer of receiving the humility of my Lord is a needed corrective for me. Perhaps it is for you too. Notice also the dailiness of this part of the prayer. I get the manna of humility in daily but sufficient portions. Sufficient unto each day its dose of humility. Tomorrow, I start over again and the day after until lowliness and meekness become inherent character traits in me. Or as Dallas WIllard says until humility become second nature in me.
Biblical lowliness and meekness are not self-deprecating nor are they cowing down to others. In fact the very opposite is true as the words yet all-powerful affirm. Our king Jesus had unlimited power from God while on earth, but willingly laid those aside exercised in order to teach us to negotiate the virtues of lowliness and meekness. How much self-control did he have to learn (he learned obedience through the things he suffered)? Did he pray daily for humility? While I can’t answer those questions for my Lord, I can use all the means of grace available to me to help me on the path of humility. It takes the powerful energy of the Holy Spirit within me to be self-controlled when my tendency is to exert unnecessary power when humility works better. Not everyone will see self-control as power. No matter, we know that “pupils are not above their teacher, but when we are fully formed we will be like our teacher.”
Canticle 4
January 11, 2009
I have commented in previous weeks about the canticle found at the end of morning prayers in CDP. Today I want to add a few more comments on my favorite part of the canticle: Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. The form of this prayer is a request. It is a good thing because I believe it is a necessary prayer.
The one who gave us this prayer understands that humans relate best by speaking one to another. Frankly there is no other way we get to know people intimately. Also understood and assumed in this request is the fact that humans can bless or injure one another by what they say. The author of this prayer knows the power of words. God also does and we do too. I speak many words daily (thousands). We all do. Many hear our words daily(7% of our communication is verbal). Many see how we express ourselves daily (50% of our communication is non verbal). Many hear our tone of voice (43% of our communication is tone). Let’s assume we are speaking good words, with right motivations, in a tone of voice that is loving. Does that guarantee a receptive hearing? I wish it were so. This prayer is necessary because of the endless possibilities of misunderstandings or willful rejection. After Jesus finished healing Lazarus, some of the Jews believed in him, and some plotted to kill him (John 11:45ff).
So Lord, we pray, please be in the heart of each to whom we speak that they might understand, see, and hear our love and your love for them.
In the mouth of those who speak to me. Hearing God is an art cultivated with the disciplines of silence, solitude, study, and contemplation. A main way God speaks to us is through others. Do you believe it? Is that a habit you intentionally cultivate. Yesterday I listened to my pastor preach and because of listening I was able to formulate his main theme, which he never said in these words: The church exists to be compassionate to those in need. God answered the prayer of my heart to hear his voice.
This prayer in the canticle teaches us a good habit: Before every conversation, every meeting, pause and let this prayer silently awaken our ears, hearts, and lips: Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. Amen.
Canticle 3
January 5, 2009
Today, I reflect briefly on the part of the canticle in morning prayers in CDP that says: Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right. My one word comment is I am Surrounded.
The form of this part of the canticle is not petitionary in that no verb expresses a request. Still we get the feeling that both a statement is being made of the reality we experience at times as well as a request for being surrounded by Christ.
Yes all dimensions of life come under our surrounding relationship with Christ. All dimensions: the things we experience with our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies. Not just the good things, or the right things, but all things. The things we think, say and do are subject to Christ. No dimension we know is outside the surrounding of Christ. When I feel rich with the presence or poor with the absence; content with my life, or discontent and striving for more, hungry for presence, empty and alone? No matter! I am surrounded and can do all things by the strength of his surrounding.
This interpretation is helpful to me in reflecting about this surrounding prayers.
Christ under me: My foundation. The ground of my life. The one sure thing that is not going to crumble when the crushing meteors of life hit us.
Christ over me: My authority. I have the freedom and will to act but never on my own authority. In any role in my life. As a parent or grandparent I am not the final authority. As a minister ditto. As a husband ditto. As a friend, spiritual guide, counselor, sibling, ditto, ditto, ditto, and ditto. King Jesus has come and his kingdom is here. Authority belongs to you my king.
Christ beside me on my left and my right. He walks with me as he did with the two on the Emmaus journey. He talks with me as he did with them. He listens to me as a friend would. He shares with me my humanity, my temptations, my victories, my defeats. Where is he in my suffering? Where is he in my joys? Where is he when I am despairing? Where is he when I feel I can conquer the world? Beside me, on my left and my right.
And now I ask O Christ and state that I be surrounded by You.
Canticle 2
December 29, 2008
Missional Order is engaged in three interrelated commitments or vows. First we are committed to live in a sacred way in chronological time and the special moments of worship. The second vow is continuous spiritual formation. We believe our initial conversion into Christ is just that initial. We want to spend the rest of our lives learning and training to be conformed to the image of Christ. The third commitment that unifies our vision for the Christian life is missio dei. It is not enough to worship and train. We must also do the work of God in this world as we participate in the establishment of the Kingdom of God. By making these three commitments we declare our Christian lifestyle not just our beliefs.
We take seriously time set aside for worship, and special moments of encounter with God. As an aid to worship we are using as our guide Celtic Daily Prayer, which is accessible from this site’s menu. Celtic simply means Irish in this case. This prayer book we use was composed by a community of Christ followers in a place in Ireland called Northumbria. Each morning time of worship we sing with them this song or canticle toward the end of the worship time. Last week I wrote a few comments on the first two lines. This week a few comments on the following two lines are in order: Christ, as a shield overshadow me.
Notice again that the form of this line is petitionary, in other words, we are asking Christ to be our shield and as a shield to overshadow us or protect us. I don’t know about you but as for me I need Christ’s protection for he knows how to protect his own as promised “I will never leave or forsake you, and no one will pluck you out of my hand.”
What do you need to be protected from in your life?
For me it is mostly my heart, soul, mind, and body. These are the components of my self and what they are like is the sum total of what my character is like. Proverbs 4:23 says that we must protect our hearts because out of them flows life. Our heart, soul, mind, or inner existence needs protection. It is susceptible to all kinds of attacks from the evil side. These are the areas of susceptibility many of us deal with and need the overshasowing by Christ’s shield: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. If you guessed or recognized that these are the 7 deadly sins the early church gave us, you would be right.
And so the petition: Christ as a shield overshadow me gains in significance for me as I reflect on the presence of these categories of sin in my life. We are predisposed to all of them; perhaps not always, but periodically. Confession and repentance follow and forgiveness is received. Then we can ask Christ the shield to overshadow us with the 7 virtues, which are also the gift of the early church to us: courage, faith, hope, justice, love, prudence, and restraint.
Canticle
December 21, 2008
Christ, as a light
illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
I find this prayer deeply meaningful. I cannot simply recite it without going deeply into myself and appreciate its work in me. It reflects a ton of biblical images and concepts that are familiar to the Bible reader. That’s the most endearing thing about it. I am going to write a few posts on this canticle of worship. Reading these words is one thing, reading them and letting them read us spiritually is another. I read them slowly, meditatively, prayerfully, and restfully allow them to settle down deep within (by the way this kind of reading is called lectio divina).
The canticle begins appropriately with Christ: Christ as a light, illumine and guide me. The form is prayerful. It is the asking for direction, for wisdom, for understanding of everything in life and of the things of God. Jesus said “I am the light of the world, he who comes to me will not live in darkness”. And this world of darkness needs the light of Christ, and in my world of darkness I need the light who is Christ. Daily I make numerous decisions, some of them are big, most are small, but cumulatively, they shape my future life. How I need The Light!
Christ as a light means to me that Christ reveals God, no small thing. Christ as a light reveals life and reveals me to me. Equally no small thing. Christ as a light reveals the way of life in the kingdom of God. I rest in the thought that I am his and he is mine and that he wants to show me himself and show me myself and the ways of the kingdom of light. He is ever so gentle in his pointing the light. Sometimes the light floods over me and sometimes it comes with laser precision. He knows which I need. I rest in that knowledge of being known and accepted.
Christ as a light, illumine and guide me. Amen.
A Lament to Amen
November 23, 2008
“Do I hear an amen?” “Give me an Amen!” shouts the preacher. And I often wondered if this was an admission of insecurity. Once I heard this: “I am preaching better than you’re amening.”
Poor word, you don’t stand a chance! With friends like that, who needs enemies? A few more layers of bad use and meaning and you will be buried for good. Do you cry dear word?
Amen, in other places, you are just one of those functional words we drag kicking and screaming into its proper slot at the end of a prayer. “There, I finished my prayer properly.” Are you happy being used in this way, my word? Do you object? Do you wonder if you will ever come into your own?
Some composers have played on your inherent lyrical abilities. AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaAAAAAAAAaaaaAAmen! You’ve been stretched on musical score sheets for pages on end. By the time the second measure drones on singers have already forgotten what you’re about. Stretched to the point of snapping. Toyed with until you’ve become a discarded rag doll.
Somehow, against all odds, you have survived. Victim of abuse, you have remained strong. Today I want to respect and honor you. I offer you an ode. Be honored my word by being a God-chosen word teaching us to agree that God is faithful. Faithful is your name, faithful you remain. Hats off.
Resolution in honor of Amen: I resolve that every time I encounter you in the written pages of Scripture and in other writings, to honor you by lingering with good thoughts. I resolve every time I see you in Celtic Daily Prayer, and I will see you often, to salute you and welcome you as a reminder from God that I too am called to remain faithful to my call as you have remained faithful to your call in the midst of a trying life. Amen! So help me God.
The Community
November 16, 2008
A couple of Sundays ago I spoke the word to a few people in Hamilton, Kansas. I spoke about the healing of the paralytic by Jesus in Mark 2:1-12. I have probably spoken on this passage 25 times or more. It never gets old for me. Every time I speak this word, it seems as if the one whose experience this was in the first place honors my love of it with deeper understanding. It is said that familiarity breeds contempt. False. Not necessarily. Familiarity with an open heart and mind is never contemptible.
This time around (probably my 26th time) I saw three distinct communities in this text. First there is the community of faith (first identified as “They” and then as “four of them”) which is responsible for bringing the paralytic to Jesus (when Jesus saw their faith–verse 5). Pieces of their imaginations collided into one holy action, they dismantle part of a roof, they struggle together, they have compassion together, they are concerned for the welfare of the paralyzed among them together, and each of them was responsible for a corner of the stretcher. Mission accomplished.
This enacted repentance and expression of confidence in the power of God are two motivators of this community. Following their example the community of faith continued to develop in repentance and trust throughout the ages until our very day. It is the kind of community missional order seeks to be. Community is held together by its rhythm of life, by shared experiences, by intimate self-revelation, by formative activities, by being missional.
Our common commitments of praying together, of being transformed together, of being on mission with God together, like the common commitment of the community of faith in Mark 2: 1-12 is one that is built on compassion for others. Praying with others the same text, the same liturgy, the same prayers, sharing the same intentions of being Christ-like in our God-life, will enable us to create a community of faith. Our hope is that this community of faith will find local expressions of the the common commitment we have made, and multiply ad infinitum.
When I pray the closing blessing in CDP’s morning prayer I imagine the many of us who are heading into the world of work or school or vacation, or wherever. Perhaps some are heading into a storm without knowing it. Perhaps there is a wilderness experience custom-made by the Holy Spirit (in imitation of Christ’s custom wilderness journey). What a gift we can give each other when we say those words:
Blessing
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
protect you through the storm.
May He bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders He has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.
Lord, hear us and answer our prayers in your mercy.
By the way, the other two communities are the communities of disbelief (2:6), the ones that began to question in their hearts and the community of celbration, the ones that glorify God for what Jesus did (2:12-13.
Do You Hear What God Says?
November 9, 2008
Listening to the voice of God joins our 3 common commitments at missional order into one way of doing life with God and with others. I am in the middle of reading Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read The Bible (Scot McKnight) and got to thinking about his 3 levels of listening to the voice of God.
Level one is attention grabbing speaking and attention paying listening. We hear the message and we bring our spiritual faculties to attend to it. We hear the voice of God and the voice arrests us.
Level two, Scot calls absorbing the voice. This is the level where the heart takes what it hears and drives it deep, deep, deep into the self. Make no mistake about it, listening by heart is not about self-feeding, or self absorption. It is rather absorbing the voice in a life transforming way but for the sake of others. It’s like Solomon prayed: God, give me a hearing heart. It’s like the famous Behold, I stand at the door and knock and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, we will have intimate absorption.
The third level of listening is to practice or act on what we hear. It’s like Jesus said if anyone, any community, hears my message and acts on it, he will be a wise builder (Matt 7:24).
Listening to the voice of God helps us personally but the goal of listening cannot stop there. Christian spirituality is not about personally gorging ourselves on spiritual practices or disciplines. Our common commitments at missional order of prayer, formation, and serving God and others demand all three levels of listening. Our order is no self-feeding trough. We are an order that is Other-focused, i.e. loving God and loving others as expressed in missio dei. Our common commitments are the vehicles to get us at constantly experiencing loving God and others.
The multi-level listening to the voice of God is a good way of understanding the goals we have set for ourselves in missional order. It’s a good way of integrating our three common commitments. Sacred Rhythm is our attention getter. Continuous formation (level two listening) occurs as we give ourselves to the Holy Spirit through our praying, reading, serving one another, and our world.
CDP is our common way of listening to the Voice of God or to pay regular, daily, and frequent attention to our lives with God. Once our attention is grabbed we are open to formative and transformative listening. The readings, prayers, and Scriptures CDP provides are not artificially consumed. They are full listening courses ready for absorption. We savor them and properly absorb them into our lives so we can practice what we hear. Let the sacredness of the four times of prayer in the day become brief labs of listening to the Voice that speaks. If we let them, if we take time to be with God through them, we will be transformed, and get to act out our transformation. We will then carry paralyzed friends and dig roofs. We will tally the amount of money we don’t need at the end of the month and give it to the poor, or feed the hungry. We would take time out of our busy schedules to visit widows, minister in jails, and spiritually guide a friend. Our hands, our minds, our wallets, if we listen well, will be extensions of his love and our way of loving God and others.
There is a danger in any order to be about self-improvement and doing it for our own sake in our common commitments. It is also dangerous for our spirituality if we adopt a posture of non-listening. Another danger is to get stuck at the first level and listen informationally rather than formationally. Our order is not the point. The point is to live a life of loving God and loving others as ourselves. We see our common commitments as a way to get at that goal. We will stop at nothing in order to get to do our goal.
Do you see any danger (s) in missional order becoming self-focused versus God and others focused? How have you moved from a spirituality of self-improvement into one of serving and loving God and others?
Help
November 3, 2008
One of the best definitions of prayer and one I use often is “help.” Ole Hallesby in his book Prayer, says that “prayer and helplessness are inseparable.”
In morning prayer liturgy in CDP there is a moment that is allotted for the Declaration of faith:
“To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God. Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory.”
These are touching words to me and I enjoy saying them and hearing them roll off my tongue in the morning. This prayerful declaration of faith humbles me by awakening me to the reality of my self-insufficiency and need of God and of Christ. Through this prayer I come to declare morning by morning my brokenness and my neediness just like the saints have done before me (Luke 18:13; Psalm 40:17). Where do I go? how do I live? what shall I do with my life? What meaning do I bring into my existence? These are the questions that lurk in the background of “To whom shall we go?”
Missional Order expresses our common commitments of prayer, Holy Spirit transformation, and participation of the mission of God. These commitments begin with the acknowledgment of our insufficiency to live up to them. By formulating the question on our lips “to whom shall we go” we are admitting the impossibility of doing the Christian life as we perceive it in our own strength. To whom then shall we go? To the Able One who is Lord, Holy, King full of glory. In our question we bring him brokenness and neediness and in answer he offers us his full power.
Let these two be inseparable in my life today: prayer and helplessness. If I must be bold, let me bold from a posture of helplessness.
What do you think of Hallesby’s idea of marrying prayer and helplessness?
Seeking 3
October 29, 2008
Celtic Daily Prayer’s third opening and arresting question asks:
Do you seek Him with all your soul? and answers with: Amen, Lord, have mercy!
Scot McKnight says that the soul is the seat of our spirituality in 40 Days of Living the Jesus Creed. I understand Christian (The only spirituality Missional Order promotes) spirituality as “The entirety of my lived relationship with God” (Brazos Introduction to Christian Spirituality, which is a fantastic resource to help us sort through terms like spiritual formation, spirituality, spiritual growth, discipleship, sanctification, religion, mysticism, etc…).
Every particular happening I live through with God, I process it through my soul. Better, God processes it with me through my soul. This means the seeking of God I do aims to discover God in every aspect of my lived relationship with God. Here I ask every time I go through an event or experience, God what is this about? What are showing me of you? The community in Psalm 60 couldn’t help but ask God to interpret their experience. This is seeking with the soul as I am coming to understand it.
There are patterns of lived relationship with God that are common to all God-life practitioners (e.g. prayer, Bible reading, sacred rhythm). But there are particulars that can only be true of each of us bespeaking the uniqueness of each soul design. The soul is deep, deeper than human knowledge can fathom. I enjoy expressing my relationality with God through playing the piano. When I do, say late at night, I experience a real sense of the presence of God touching my soul. But you may do so by jogging, writing, cooking, plumbing, blogging…
Seeking God with our soul, is seeking to understand the entirety of our lived relationship with God. In that sense our “spirituality is local and ordinary” (the phrase is often used by Eugene Petersen). The soul is a mystery. It stands in defiance of understanding life materially or with the lens of consumerism. The soul is THE seeking mechanism of our lives. It takes what our minds think and feel, what our hearts will and spirits experience, what our bodies do, integrating the whole life (The entirety of our lived relationship with God). When the soul is seeking the life is reflecting what is sought.
Amen, (May it be so) Lord, (possessor of my soul), have mercy (for truly I know little of whom I seek, and I seek in such little ways)!
Seeking 2
October 27, 2008
Celtic Daily Prayer begins with a reading from Psalm 27, which is followed by a series of pointed and arresting questions. The question about seeking God with all my mind arrested my attention the other day.
Here is the CDP opening:
One thing I have asked of the Lord,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life;
to behold the beauty of the Lord
and to seek Him in His temple.
Then the call to seek God in the participant is put in relief:
Call: Who is it that you seek?
Response: We seek the Lord our God.
Call: Do you seek Him with all your heart?
Response: Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Call: Do you seek Him with all your soul?
Response: Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Call: Do you seek Him with all your mind?
Response: Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Call: Do you seek Him with all your strength?
Response: Amen. Christ, have mercy.
The pray-ers who graced the Church with CDP felt they could equate seeking with loving (a la Shema). A fine equation it is, I believe. We seek what we love and we love what (whom) we seek.
I know I desire to seek God with all my mind. Yet how can finitness seek infiniteness? How can what is limited seek the Limitless One? Answer: As best one could. Particular seeking is unique to each of us. Some seek by prayer only, others by reading Scripture, others by observing the actions of God in their lives, or by means of other disciplines. Yet all Christ followers are all one in our seeking.
The rational part of us, the things we have come to believe, what we think about, urges, images, impressions, what we know, what we feel, all of them are filtered through and some come to reside in our minds. The mind always seeks to make sense of things. This mind of ours has a lot of control over most of what we do. And one thing we are free to do is to seek God with the mind.
One thing I have to be careful about (how about you?) are things that impress themselves upon my mind, my mind like yours is impressionable. I am discovering that age and past wisdom are no guarantee against the onslaught of impressions. I am thinking it will always be that my mind is susceptible to impressions (even the bad ones) and that seeking God is the antidote.
One of the benefits from practicing sacred rhythm is the shaping of our minds in the likeness of Christ. Engaging in Sacred Rhythm is imitative of Christ’s behavior. It is the one of the means that the Holy Spirit uses to transform our minds. In comparison to the constant bombardment of impressions from evil elements in the world, the short times of punctuated prayers gains in importance. It is in this practice that we bring much needed balance to our minds. In Sacred Rhythm we are letting the holy Spirit through whatsoever is lovely, good, faithful, of good reputation etc… have a go at the renewing of our minds.
The arresting questions of CDP make the all-encompassing subject and object of our lives to be seeking God. It is good that each time our mouth engage in prayer for these questions of life to be foremost in our minds. We are born with a seeking mind, we live by a seeking mind, we hope and anticipate the future with a seeking mind, and we love Him with all our mind.
On Your Mark…
October 20, 2008
To relish the presence of God, a way of slowing down is necessary. I use these steps in preparation to pray.
Space/Place: I have created a space that helps me be present. While many people can focus on what is going on internally while in high traffic areas, I prefer a quiet, comfortable, and free of distractions spot, at least for one of the 4 sacred times of prayer in my day. Nothing elaborate here. Could be as simple as a well-placed chair at home or office. Naming a place is a way of sanctifying it (a common biblical tradition). I take no chances of being disturbed. I have removed all the hooks that lure me in the direction of the tyranny of the urgent.
Posture: I position my body and my self in a way that maximizes paying attention. I keep my back as straight as possible so that breathing is not labored. Crossing legs or arms restricts the flow of blood. Body posture carries symbolic overtures to know the presence of God and to be present to God. By adopting the right posture I declare my readiness to have an audience with the King. Recliners are death to prayer. I know. You know.
Pace: Slow down the rate of your breathing. This is the most helpful step I take in preparation for prayer. It has a way of slowing me down like no other. By slowing down I send a signal that I am ready to listen. It’s my way of saying: Speak, Lord, for you servant is in hearing mode. I want to let God know I am not in a hurry. I want to tame my “hurriedness”. I try to take no more than 4-7 breaths per minute. I breathe deeply and rhythmically by holding my breath to the count of 4. I concentrate on inhaling and exhaling which to me are symbols of taking in the presence of God and offering my presence to God.
Perceptions: The fourth thing I do is to become aware of my surroundings and my inner self. What is my body touching, what am I smelling, seeing, hearing? I pay attention to my breathing, what my body is touching, what I am wearing. I listen to what my soul is saying. Am I anxious? Tired? Joyful? Expecting? This is good because it helps me be and stay in the present moment. Seek depth of awareness not analysis.
Purpose: I remind myself that the purpose of prayer is to enter into a deep conversation with God, and to keep his company. Personal transformation that leads to world transformation may happen as a result of prayer but the focus is on the One who transforms.
I need not take long in preparation but I need to take the time I need to prepare.
Do you have some ways you prepare yourself to enter into the presence of God?
-
Subscribe To MO
