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Spiritual Practices 0 Introduction 1 The Call of Community 2 The Non-Fasting Fast 3 On Behalf Of 4 Examen and Examination 5 Lectio Divina 6 Compassion and Justice 7 Stillness and Silence 8 Life Practices, Practicing Church In the summer of 2007, Pastor Don Portwood preached a series of sermons on Spiritual Practices. Here are the eight sermons, in the order in which they were preached. Ephesians 4:11-16 And God’s gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Child of God, to mature adulthood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of people, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into the one who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love. This morning begins the first sermon in a series I’m doing this summer on Spiritual Practices. It’s a follow up to a sermon I preached a couple months ago based on Marcus Borg’s book, The Heart of Christianity – about the way….dying to an old identity or way of being (appearance, achievement, affluence) and rising to a new identity or way of being centered in God/Christ/the Spirit. Spiritual Practices are ways we can midwife and live out the way. Dying and being raised to new life is about living from the inside out….having God’s loving, grace filled spirit fill and liberate us from those “damned” voices of society, culture, family and church – that criticize us and others – harshly, relentlessly, ungracefully on: how you should be, how you should look, how much you should make, how successful you should be. Living your life, not from the outside in…but from the inside out….is discovering or re-discovering, not just once, but again and again, deeper within you - God’s spirit of wisdom, love and grace. Spiritual practices have been underemphasized in much of Christianity, with orthodox Christianity often focused on belief, not practice. Protestantism talks about being saved by faith, not works, and to many, spiritual practices sound like works. However Spiritual Practices are being re-discovered; practices that deepen our relationship with God – as we come to know God more deeply through self, others, creation, mystery. Today I begin with the spiritual practice of community. Why are we here this morning? To worship God….we could do that outside under a tree. Some people say they do it on a golf course or lake. We could spend an hour in prayer in our bedroom…or singing hymns of praise in our shower. In fact many people think they can be a Christian by themselves. Common sense and scripture say otherwise. Paul writing to the church in Ephesus, reminds them that it takes a community to contain all the gifts given by the Spirit. None of us have it all, but to be a complete church, body of Christ….we need to be in community with others and their gifts. Whether it’s apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers in this mornings scripture or his metaphor of the body in Corinthians of the church as body parts…all being necessary, the foot doesn’t say to the ear I have no need of you. So to be complete, to be church we need one another’s gifts. But practically, it’s just no fun to be a loner, a miser. You can get only so much satisfaction from emails, my space, text messaging. People are looking for community. Especially when we feel alone, tired, unhappy, realize we’re not doing so well on our own….we seek community. I quoted one of the founders of InterPlay last week at the end of the prayer. “Never underestimate the body’s need for reassurance. Never underestimate the body’s need for reassurance. Never underestimate the body’s need for reassurance.” That’s generally hard to find by yourself…but we all need it. The assurance that we are not in this alone, that we have one another. We may be hard wired to be in community. Jean Vanier, author of Community and Growth reminds us that community can be a marvelously welcoming and sharing place. But he also say, (and he’s talking about intentional communities that live together), community is a terrible place. “It is the place where our limitations and our egoism are revealed to us. When we begin to live full-time with others, we discover our poverty and our weaknesses, our inability to get on with people. While we were alone, we could believe we loved everyone. Now that we are with others, we realize how incapable we are of loving, how much we deny life to others. So community life brings a painful revelation of our limitations, weakness and shadow; the unexpected discovery of the monsters within us is hard to accept. The immediate reaction is to try to destroy the monsters, or to hide them away again, pretending that they don’t exist, or to flee from community life and relationships with others, or to find that the monsters are theirs, not ours. But if we accept that the monsters are there, we can let them out and learn to tame them. That is growth towards liberation. If we are accepted with our limitations as well as our abilities, community gradually becomes a place of liberation.” Are there people at Lyndale that upset you? Of course there are. Vanier would say, that’s a chance to look at what that says about you….not just them. But that’s a whole other sermon series. We don’t live together in community, mostly we are with each other on Sundays….except for smaller groups that meet throughout the week, committees, study and fellowship groups. But we are still the Church, the faith community and Paul says the reason we exist – the reason the spirit has given us gifts is to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into the one who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love. Community – church exists to equip us for ministry…for building one another up – for growing in love. And there’s a whole social justice side of community. Especially at this time in our nation, communities of faith and practice are rebel bases of the Spirits healing, grace and power as we seek to transform this world and the powers of this world, and our govt…the powers of militarism, consumerism, and corporatocracy. Corporatocracy is a word Bill Moyers used yesterday as he spoke to the UCC General Synod about how large corporations rule the world and care little about the poor, the bottom line is making a profit now. But that’s a whole other series too. That’s a quick look at the big picture of community. Let’s get real real for just a minute. We are community most corporately on Sunday morning. Much grace in this community, radical welcome. Do well, but pews…isolate us….working against structure we’ve been given. Practical Practices: Sunday brunches….invite someone to lunch with you. People not connected tend to drift away….(if it’s only worship that connects them). Invite someone to go to lunch with you after worship, someone new, or perhaps someone you don’t like so well. The worst they can say is no. Might discover more about yourself and someone else and discover the Spirit working in your life in a deeper way. Or another spiritual practice of community. Pick up the phone and call one another. Call, one person a week from this community…just to talk, How are you? What’s on your mind this week, what are you excited and passionate about this week? Call someone you know and someone you don’t know. Call even if you’re feeling grumpy, lonely, out of sorts, unsettled. Call for yourself if you’re not calling for the other person. Make the call of community….and see if the Spirit might not just be on the phone with you – building you both up. July 1, 2007 Daniel 1:5-16 In this story from the book of Daniel, the author introduces Daniel – living under Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Daniel and others have been taken, along with treasures from the temple to Babylon. Daniel and some of other royal youth are to be trained as temple pages. Our Scripture picks up in verse 5. Daniel 1:5-16 5 The king assigned them a daily portion of the rich food which the king ate, and of the wine which he drank.. They were to be educated for three years, and at the end of that time they were to stand before the king. 6 Among these were: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 7 And the chief of the eunachs gave them new names: Daniel, he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah, he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, andAzariah he called Abednego. 8 But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s rich food, or with the wine which he drank; therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. 9 And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs; 10 and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, "I fear lest my lord the king, who appointed your food and your drink, should see that you were in poorer condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king." 11 Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 12 "Test your servants for ten days: Let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the kings rich food be served by you, and a c cording to what you see deal with your servants.” 14 So the steward took away their rich food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. 15 At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. 16 So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. Stay tuned to see what happened! And from the Christian Scriptures Matthew 6:16-17 Jesus said, “And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father/Mother who is in secret; and your Mother/Father who sees in secret will reward you.” How many of you have ever fasted? For how long? Fasting is a voluntary abstinence from food. Richard Foster takes a broader definition of fasting in Celebration of Discipline, he defines fasting as “the voluntary denial of a normal function for the sake of intense spiritual activity.” So one can have a TV fast, a sex fast, a sleeping fast, a car driving fast and on and on. The Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, mention all kinds of food fasts. A normal fast involves abstaining from all food, but not from water. It’s what Matthew reports Jesus did in his 40 days in the wilderness. A partial fast is a limitation of the diet, but not abstention from all food. John the Baptist - his food was locusts and wild honey. An absolute fast is the avoidance of all food and liquid, even water. After the Apostle Paul was converted on the road to Damascus, it says, “For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.” Congregational fasts and national fasts are also mentioned. So fasting is a spiritual practice that is known throughout the scriptures. I think the only time we’ve invited people to fast – are the years during Holy Week that we celebrate the Easter Vigil and we invite people to fast from Good Friday evening until we break fast – at the vigil with communion and the breakfast that follows. Fasting is always done for a purpose: to strengthen prayer, to seek God’s guidance, to express grief, to seek deliverance or protection, to express repentance and a returning to God, to humble oneself before God, to minister to others (from Isaiah 58: Is not this the fast that I choose, to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?), to overcome temptation and dedicate yourself to God, to express love and worship to God. Fasting is in important spiritual practice. But this morning I don’t want to talk about any of those fasts. I want us to think of another kind of fasting. A non-fasting fast. A fast where we eat food. That sounds pretty good doesn’t it? The question though is, what is food? Michael Pollan in his most recent book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and in an article in the January New York Times Magazine entitled, "Unhappy Meals encourages the same kind of eating." He says, eat food, not too much, mostly plants. Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. And he calls food: vegetables, fruits, grains. Why is that such a big deal? Because that’s not how most of America eats. The main features of the Western diet: lots of meat and processed foods, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of everything — except fruits, vegetables and whole grains. And that leads to what Pollen calls the elephant in the room — people who eat the way we do in America today suffer much higher rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity than people eating more traditional diets. (Four of the 10 leading killers in America are linked to diet.) Further, we know that simply by moving to America, people from nations with low rates of these “diseases of affluence” will quickly acquire them. There’s a new organic farmers market down by the new Guthrie, close to the condo we live in. It was started by Brenda Langton – of Cafe Brenda, who has opened another organic restaurant called Spoonriver, right by the Mill City Museum, across from the Guthrie. She tries to buy organically and locally, supporting local farmers. The market started last year and has been a wonderful place to stroll, meet neighbors and buy organic locally grown produce, meats, fish and chicken. A week ago last Thursday the Star Tribune wrote up the market…and the crowd the next Saturday and also yesterday was three times what there had been. Now instead of a stroll through the stands, you had to make your way through lines of people. Guess what the two places were they were lined up? The Organic Mini-donut seller, they’re still donuts deep fat fried, but organic products and the organic pork farmer who is making a sausage, egg and muffin breakfast sandwich…a knockoff of the Egg McMuffin. This is a headline in Friday’s business section, lead article. General Mills up against cereal wall. It says, General Mills’ financial results are often a study in human behavior. The results released Thursday: Americans love convenience, they increasingly hate to cook and they are probably eating as much cereal as they’re ever going to eat. What’s challenging them for top earnings honors? The meals division, which makes packaged foods that cut the time spent preparing dinner. Things such as Hamburger Helper, Progresso soups, Green giant vegetable and Old El Paso taco shells. What’s one of the problems with processed food? It’s mostly corn, and often, high fructose corn syrup. Our bodies don’t know what to do with it, we pass it or store it as fat. It’s in almost all processed food, at least five different ways – usually the names we’re unfamiliar with. Without going into detail in the article and the book, much industrial food production involves finding ways to deliver glucose – the brains preferred fuel- ever more swiftly and efficiently. Pollen says, “So fast food is fast in this other sense too: it is to a considerable extent predigested, in effect, and therefore more readily absorbed by the body. But while the widespread acceleration of the Western diet offers us the instant gratification of sugar, in many people the “speediness” of this food overwhelms the insulin response and leads to Type II diabetes. As one nutrition expert put it to me, we’re in the middle of “a national experiment in mainlining glucose.”’ We can almost have a chemical addiction to processed foods. So this Spiritual Practice is about, like Daniel, eating more vegetables and fruits and grains. Daniel and his friends after 10 days did much better than the others on the kings rich diet. That scripture is the raw foodists scripture. I’m not saying become a raw foodist…but I am saying, eat less chemicals and more food – food that your great great grandmother would identify as food. Eat around the edges of the store. Our bodies are temples…what we put in to them is important. Pollan ends his article in the New York Times Magazine with 9 pointers about eating. I just want to mention a few: Especially avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number – or that contain high-fructose corn syrup. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. You won’t find any high-fructose corn syrup at the farmer’s market. Pay more, eat less. Paying more for food well grown in good soil – whether certified organic or not – will contribute not only to your health (by reducing exposure to pesticides) but also to the health of others who might not themselves be able to afford that sort of food: the people who grow it and the people who live downstream and downwind of the farms where it is grown. Eat less is the most unwelcome advice of all, but it’s something to practice. That’s why these are called spiritual practices. They take practice. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves. So lots of advice, but really Don, how is this non-fasting fast a spiritual practice? Marcus Borg in his book, the Heart of Christianity says the purpose of Spirituality is to help birth the new self and nourish the new life. And spirituality is about what connects us. The practice of eating food, not too much, mostly plants - connects us to the earth, to a diversity of crops and food, it strengthens organic farming, nourishes this temple that is our body, gives us more health and energy to be about God’s work, and nourishes the new life we are becoming. Slowing down and mindfully making a salad, can be a spiritual practice that connects us to ourselves, others, the earth and deepens our relationship with God. Hallelujah! Now that’s a good salad. The New York Times Magazine, January 28, 2007 Unhappy Meals by Michael Pollan The Omnivore’s Dilemma A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan, 2006 Penguin Press July 8, 2007 Psalm 69:29-31 Psalm 69, is this long litany of complaints, the waters have come up to my neck, I sink in deep mire, I am weary with my crying, people hate me without cause, At right at the end of the complaints and cursing of the people who are after him, with a last complaint comes a surprise verse: But I am afflicted and in pain; let thy salvation, O God, set me on high! I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify God with thanksgiving. I Thess. 5:16 – 22 “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything, hold fast what is good, abstain from every form of evil. James 1:1 – 4 “James, a servant of God and of the sovereign Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the Dispersion: Greeting. Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. On Behalf Of: this is a spiritual practice using language from InterPlay. I’m going to invite us to try it….then tell a story why I’m preaching about this practice this morning. First, say a silent prayer for yourself. Now, say a silent prayer for someone else Finally, say a silent prayer for Ko Koyama, going through chemo and radiation treatments. On behalf of, something we do in interplay, move on behalf of…in yoga, dedicate the practice to… Great spiritual practice, to practice doing things, praying, dancing, acting on behalf of someone else…may be some power when we do it together. Monday afternoon I met with Belle Wager and in passing she mentioned something called “fire the grid”. She sent me the website, which I read. I also snooped around testing the spirits. I want to tell you the story as I remember it; you can check it out yourself. Fire the Grid, a movement to have people gather thanksgiving, joy, healing prayers, meditation, intentions for the earth at 11:11a.m. Greenwich Mean Time on Tuesday, July 17th. People from around the world. That would be 6:11 a.m. Minnesota time. Here’s the most amazing and odd story. (I told the story as I remembered it with these notes… Shelly Yates, Halifax Nova Scotia 4 year old son, she and he both drown, light beings, voice…fill him with joy, thanksgiving, passion…6 months later, do it for the earth.) You can read it in a short version on this website http://www.firethegrid.org/ Or if you want to hear Shelly Yates in her own words tell the unusual and amazing story of “fire the grid”, you can search Shelly Yates, Fire the Grid youtube (I used google) and her story will come up in different parts, or you can copy and paste this address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqUAluDvuU4&mode=related&search= This quote is from the “firethegridwebsite”. “Collect a series of happy moments from your life, for example your most loving kiss, the joyous happiness of eating ice-cream or the sun on your face after a long cold winter. They were very explicit with their details. The smile you have when you see the kindness of a child or the sheer pleasure you feel while washing your hands under warm water with a fragrance soap. It went on and on. However the basis of it was that there were thousands of happy uplifting moments in our lives that we miss because we are so busy with the business of being unhappy. They said even those in poverty have moments of tremendous joy if they would choose to feel them. When a lover touches your flesh or when your child smiles. If we as a group of humans would take time out everyday and I don't mean huge amounts of time I mean moments to remember a happy moment then we collectively raise the planets frequency a little every day with little effort. It will also raise the level of the humans who participate. Simply close your eyes and remember a thought or feeling that has given you earthly pleasure then be thankful for it. If you only have a few that is alright because as you practice this little exercise you will find yourself finding more and more to feel happy about. It will act like a contagion because others will feel your happiness and it will infect their field.” It was as I read that on Monday evening, that the scriptures for this morning came to me….about offering thanksgiving to God. I found Psalm 69: Psalmist…at the bottom, yet praised God with a song, magnifying God with thanksgiving I Thessalonians…exhortation to rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances…not a command, but a way of life… And the phrase, count it all joy – I had to look up which letter it was in. James, saying, count it all joy, when you meet various trials. As we see live as a University, a place to learn. The University of Life. Like her “guides”, spirits, guardian angels, light beings, whatever you want to call them, the scriptures remind us to give thanks always, rejoice, count it joy when we meet various trials…and as I Thess. Mentioned - not quench the Spirit, nor despise prophesy, but test everything, hold fast to what is good. My first reaction after hearing this story was to test the spirits. How’s she making money off this? She’s not, from what I could determine. If you have computer and internet access, listen to her tell her story. She seems about as real, unreligious as they come. I was talking with Barb about it Monday night and I remembered something I learned at seminary. God chooses people we don’t expect….it’s one of the main story lines of Hebrew and Christian scriptures….people you don’t expect to do God’s work. (And when I came to church this morning, having not seen the finished bulletin, there was the cover reading “unexpected prophets”.) This is the letter I emailed on Tuesday to over 100 people. I’ll email it to the church list after this sermon. Dear family, friends and others who share either my oddness or hope or both, (I feel empowered thinking of the many people I can send this email too - blind copied for your sake.) I just heard yesterday about an intention by people around the earth to send positive, prayerful, thankful, joyful, healing energy back to the earth, for the healing of the earth. It’s taking place on July 17th, for an hour starting at 6:11 a.m. Minnesota Time, 11:11 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time. I will be gratefully dancing, meditating and praying on behalf of the earth at the new Gold Medal Flour Park, just east of the new Guthrie Theater at 6:11 a.m. on July 17th. I invite you to check out the website and listen to Shelly Yates tell her story, then decide if this is something you want to do in the privacy of your home, or with others of your choosing. If you haven’t heard about this yet, you can check out the website at http://www.firethegrid.org/ If you want to hear Shelly Yates in her own words tell the unusual and amazing story of “fire the grid”, you can search Shelly Yates, Fire the Grid youtube (I used google) and her story will come up in different parts, or you can copy and paste this address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqUAluDvuU4&mode=related&search= Obviously an hour of prayer, dance or meditation doesn’t take away from the many ways we are hurting our planet and ourselves, but it certainly can’t hurt to join with others on July 17th to ring the earth with prayers of healing, thanksgiving, joy and love - while we drive less, bike more and work for policy changes in our nation that will bring about a spirit of love, generosity, peace and care for creation and all creatures. I pray the hour on the 17th, will make the rest flow more easily. Don I invite you to test the spirits….and at a minimum, wake up on July 17th, giving thanks to God for all the joyful things in your life….and then as you want: pass on that joy to the healing of the earth. It certainly can’t hurt. Then the next day, July 18th – wake up again giving thanks for the morning, for the joys of the past day that you experienced in the trials and classrooms of this university of life God has blessed us with. July 15, 2007 1.Anyone make any calls this week to members and friends of the church to see how they’re doing – calls of the community this week? 2. Anyone eating more fruits and vegetables and foods your great grandmother would identify as food? The non-fasting fast….or visit an organic market? I’ve seen two of you at the market down by the Guthrie. 3. Anyway wake up this week and go through the things that give you joy and thanksgiving? Send that energy out on behalf of others? Or planning on doing that this Tuesday for the earth? July 15th is the halfway point of the summer if you call summer 3 months, June, July and August. Series this summer on Spiritual Practices…why? Spiritual practices way we practice our spirituality – (as Marcus Borg says in The Heart of Christianity) spiritual practices are the ways we seek to “become conscious of and intentional about a deepening relationship with God”. A relationship that helps us birth and nourish the new life – as we are dying to an old identity and living into a new way of being. An identity that is in community with others – the call of community That cares for our selves – the non fasting fast That’s living joy and thanksgiving for self and on behalf of others. This morning’s spiritual practice is The Examen. The traditional Examen of Conscious is a daily practice that came from Ignatius. There are 5 steps to the practice, gratitude for graces given, prayer for the light of insight, particular and general self examination of one day, acts of sorrow and contrition and the resolution to do better. Psalm 139 captures this sense of awareness and intention. God is the searcher of every human heart, the One from whom no secrets are hidden. God examines and knows every aspect of our being in more intimate detail than we ourselves can see. This may scare the hell out of us, or give us great comfort. When we read “Even before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, you hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me, where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?”, we may have felt panic or assurance. Most likely we felt both…we want God when we need God…and want God far away when we’re up to something, or messing up. What the examen of conscious teaches is that the loving gaze of God falls on very human, unloving, unholy people and when we feel “searched and known” by a grace filled God, we are both moved and enable to search our own hearts honestly. Self-examination does not call us to self-hatred or self-condemnation; it opens the door of our heart to cleansing, renewal, and peace. So there are two basic truths we start with: 1. The first is the most basic affirmation of our faith: God loves us. Oh, to know this as an experience, not as words! This is not a general rule to which you, personally, may be an exception. It is not a rule that applies only when you are good, pure and lovable. It is about who God is, not who you are. God loves us with an overwhelming love that none of our sins can erase. God loves you. It’s not something you can change, or control either by effort to gain this love or even lose it. 2. The second basic truth is: we are wounded, broken humans and we mess up, in theological terms we sin, fall short of the mark….we head off influenced by false gods, in Borg’s book he mentions, appearance, achievement and affluence. We deny our essential dependence on God and do not see how compulsively we try to manufacture our own security. Marjorie Thompson in Soul Feast says, “An important turning point in our spiritual life comes when we acknowledge both truths and admit that we can neither earn God’s love nor achieve our own security and perfection. We cannot “fix” ourselves or anyone the way we want to. When we realize that GRACE lies at the center of life, we start to see in a new way. So let me talk briefly about the examen of conscious and the examen of consciousness. The examen of conscious is a time we review the day, week, month, year, life…. With detachment – not making excuses, explaining, judging, being defensive. It’s like the 4th step in 12 step groups, a time to “make a fearless and searching moral inventory of ourselves”. We look for “attitudes and behaviors” that interfere with our truest good and the good of others” or our highest and greatest good – or what I’ve also called God’s dream for us. It’s a time when we look at our weaknesses and our strengths. There’s too much information to give in this sermon. Talk to me for more. I’ve also put 10 copies of one way of doing it with Iganatian Examen, on the back table. Plenty of info on the internet - by doing a search on “examen of conscious”. We can examen our life (takes a lot of time)…or just our day. It’s incorporated into liturgy with the prayer of confession, the liturgical way we review the day or week and confess where we’ve fallen short. Along with the Examen of Conscious – there is also an Examen of Consciousness. Becoming aware of the contents of our consciousness—so that we can learn to respond in a more healthy, whole, Christ like way. It’s about becoming aware of the external and internal data doing on around and in us. Tension in your shoulders…that’s data…maybe from holding fear, anger…it’s about awareness of self. What are you thinking right now? What is your inner voice or voices saying? Right now? Examen of consciousness is about practicing the observer part of us…observe our self, our thinking ego self…instead of just living in that self. I suggest reading the book by Eckhard Tolle, The Power of Now to learn more about this. Examen of consciousness is about learning our mind patterns. Let me give you an example. I’ve recognized that for some reason which I don’t need to figure out, one of my patterns is the “fear the worst” pattern. Usually around my health, but other times too. If I feel a pain in my back, my mind goes to fear the cancer I had six years ago has returned. I used to ride that horse for awhile, that “fear the worst” horse. Now I’m more able to recognize when that horse arrives, “O there’s that horse I usually get on and ride.” I recognize my pattern – and instead I now try to walk a different path without the benefit of that horse, actually a more trusting walk with God- though I’m fully aware that horse is still clomping along beside me beckoning me to get on…cuz it’s easier, more familiar, all saddled up. The examen of consciousness is observing our self- instead of just living out of that self. It’s harder to do than it sounds, especially in crisis. That’s why we’re encouraged to what? PRACTICE! Practice this in silence, prayer, when rising in the morning, going to bed, through journaling. I want to close with one quick addition….little pun in the sermon title, examen and examination. Remind us of the call of every citizen, we the people of the united States, in order to form a more perfect union….need to do an examen of our nation, too. Looking at our weaknesses and strengths. Like most individuals, this doesn’t come easily or naturally. We are like Egyptians, we like to live near "de nile." Look at what happened to Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul when he tried to raise at a Republican debate the question of our role as a nation in the 911 tragedy. He was booed and attacked by other candidates that we didn’t deserve what happened to us. There was no prior cause. They hate us for our freedom may be only part of the story. Certainly the mainstream corporate press doesn’t want to tell the entire story. So we have to inform ourselves, break through our national denial. Read John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man or his new book, The Secret History of the American Empire. So that when the call from the administration comes to “be afraid, be very afraid”, we can recognize the patterns in this nation…and not live in fear, but rather, in a new way of walking in trust with God. Examen of conscious and consciousness as individuals and nations, allows us to become people who are at peace with ourselves and who can make peace with others, day by day by day. July 22, 2007 The Word Read Amos 8:1-12 This is what God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. God said, 'Amos, what do you see?' And I said, 'A basket of summer fruit.' Then the Sovereign said to me, 'The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day,' says the Sovereign God; 'the dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!' Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, 'When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.' The Sovereign has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? On that day, says the Sovereign God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only child, and the end of it like a bitter day. The time is surely coming, says the Sovereign God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Sovereign. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Sovereign, but they shall not find it. Luke 10:38-42 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, 'Sovereign, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help m But Jesus answered her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.' Lectio Divina is Latin for divine reading, spiritual reading, or "holy reading," and represents a method of prayer and scriptural reading intended to promote communion with God and to provide special spiritual insights. It is a way of praying with Scripture that calls one to study, ponder, prayer and listen. The principles of Lectio Divina were expressed around the year 220 AD by Origen. He affirmed that to read the Bible profitably it is necessary to do so with attention, constancy, and prayer. Origen also emphasized the value of reading scripture with attention to possible different levels of meaning. A number of monastic rules including the Benedictines made the practice of divine reading, part of their monastic life. The systematization of spiritual reading into four steps dates back to the 12th century. Around 1150, a Carthusian monk, wrote a book entitled “The Monk’s Ladder” setting out the theory of the four rungs: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. Rather than just preaching about Lectio Divina though, I’m going to lead us through one way to pray the scripture. So I invite you to prepare to hear the scriptures again, just by relaxing and focusing on your breathing, perhaps inviting the Holy Spirit to move through you as you prepare to hear the word again. I’ll read the scriptures again you just heard. You can just listen or follow along. But I invite you to see if there is a specific word or phrase that jumps out in your hearing this time. This is the Lectio part of the practice, the reading by yourself or someone else. Today it’s Vic and me. There are two scriptures, both from today’s lectionary. One is a longer harder scripture, the second shorter and more familiar. Pick out the word or phrase that jumps out at you from one of the passages. Read the passages slowly. That was the lectio part of the practice, the reading. Do you all have a word or phrase? If not, you can re-read the scriptures in the bulletin until one jumps out. Now comes the Meditatio part of the practice. If you have a word or phrase that caught you, take a few minutes now to meditate on that word or phrase. What comes to mind in your mind? What does it remind you of? What reactions to you have to it? How does it make you feel? Just roll the word or phrase over in your self, play with it, ponder it and come at it sideways. How does it apply to your own life? The third movement of this practice is Oratio. I invite you to start by telling another person the word or phrase that jumped out and you. Then if you want, tell them how that word or phrase connected to your own life. Now spend some time in prayer conversing with God, telling God the same thing. Just talk in the quiet of your mind to God - about how the word or phrase connected to you. The final part of the practice is Contemplatio. Listen to God. This is a practice of freeing oneself from one's own thoughts, both mundane and holy. It is about hearing God talk to us. Opening our mind, heart body and soul to the influence of God. Any conversation must allow for both sides to communicate, and this most unfamiliar act is allowing oneself to be open to hearing God speak. So be still and listen to the still small voice of God within you. I invite everyone to take a breathe and let it out with a sign. That ends the practice of Lectio Divina. Are there any noticings anyone wants to share? You can practice lectio as an individual by yourself and in a group. Practice with the Hebrew or Christian scriptures or another reading you choose. If I could have only gotten my hands on the new Harry Potter book earlier, we would have used a passage from that. Not. August 12, 2007 Sermon by Allan Henden & Don Portwood Preached by Allan Henden at Lyndale United Church of Christ, Minneapolis Scriptures: Amos 5.21 – 24 Luke 6.26 - 36 Today, as our pastor needs to be with family, I am picking up on what he started in this sermon, Spiritual Practices: Open-hearted Compassion and Justice, which continues his summer series on Spiritual Practices. It won’t be vintage Don, but here goes my best try at it. How can there be, you may ask, spiritual practices related to compassion and justice. Aren’t spiritual practices about developing your own internal spiritual life and relationship with God? Well, from Don’s series so far, we already know that spiritual practices can never be wholly personal and contained in our interior life. They must and will spill out into our relationships with others and the world. And this is certainly true of practices around compassion and justice. But, these are not wholly outward-looking either. We need this practice for our own spiritual life and relationship with God as we move toward more open-hearted compassion and a passion for justice. For compassion is a feeling deep within ourselves, a “quivering of the heart”; and it is also a way of acting – being affected by the suffering of others and moving on their behalf. And, this can’t happen with a “closed heart” or “hardened heart”, as it is sometimes described in the Bible. So, the spiritual practice of compassion is often likened to opening the heart. But, first let’s talk about hearts. What is all of this talk about “the heart”? What do we mean? Most of us know that we aren’t just talking about the physical organ we call the heart. It is more metaphorical, like our modern, English-language notion of the heart being our inner source of feelings of love or courage (from the Latin word for “heart”). In the many times we encounter this word in the Bible, however, it is a metaphor for one’s inner self as a whole – our inner thoughts and feelings, our sense of our self and our soul. So when we engage in practices to open up our heart, it isn’t just to conjure up more loving feelings, it is to open up our very self to God and to God’s compassion and passion for justice. Marcus Borg addresses this pairing of the closed and open heart in his book, The Heart of Christianity, and I’ll be using some of his ideas throughout this sermon. In Borg, some of the ways to describe a closed heart include: • turning away from God; • lacking in gratitude, in which those successful in life feel self-made and entitled, and those for whom life has gone badly, feel bitter and cheated; • living in exile – self-preoccupied, turned inward, and cut-off from the larger reality; and • lacking in compassion. And, why are hearts closed or hardened? For some it is the result of a chaotic childhood with abuse or radical instability, in which the self builds up layers of protection to defend against an unreliable and hurtful world. For most it is the natural result of the process of growing up. Self-awareness is born and developed with an increasing sense of being a separated self. We live within this separated self, as if the self is enclosed in a dome or transparent shell: the world is “out there” and I am “in here”. Closed hearts run a spectrum of hardness amongst people and at different times in each of our lives. In severe forms it is the basis of violence, brutality, arrogance, and rapacious world-devouring greed. In milder forms the violence is judgmentalism, the brutality is insensitivity, the arrogance is self-centeredness, and the rapacious greed is ordinary self-interest. But, even in the milder forms, we are still closed off from truly acting with compassion and justice. So, what should we do? What can we do? In today’s Gospel reading of Luke, Jesus tells us to: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them...But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return...Be merciful, just as God is merciful (or in some versions: be compassionate, just as God is compassionate).” And, how do we do all that? We practice. And Jesus’ list here is a good and challenging list to practice. Practicing compassion works to open the heart. First, allow yourself to feel the suffering in the world, including your own. Don’t turn away from pain; move toward it with caring. Go into situations where people are hurting. We saw this practiced in amazing and life-saving ways by the many ordinary people who plunged into the situation and tragedy of the I-35W bridge collapse to help people who were hurt. Identify with your neighbors in their distress. Then expand the circle of your compassion to include other creatures, nature, and the rest of the world. This practice of compassion increases our capacity to care. It reinforces charity, empathy, and sympathy. It leads us even beyond these feelings and responses to acts of justice. It is very good exercise for you heart muscle. But, when we move toward others with compassion, we are likely to bump into some common attitudes, just waiting to close our hearts again. The usual suspects are judgmentalism and all its associated “isms”: racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, classism, and nationalism. An extreme manifestation of this is Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church planning to come to Minnesota to protest at funerals of those who died in the bridge collapse. They are the ones of “God hates Fags” infamy. In their news release they say that “God hates Minnesota, the ‘land of the sodomite damned’.” They believe that the bridge collapse was an act of God’s vengeance because “America, and Minnesota especially, have alienated God by it tolerance for homosexuality.” This is certainly enough to close my heart and to challenge Jesus’ call for me to love my enemies, even Phelps and his followers. For, on a personal level, our compassion is sabotaged by feelings of ill-will toward others, by spite and malice. These feelings and others, arising out of emotional wounds and personal pain, are actually symptoms indicating that you need to have compassion for yourself, and I for myself. Remember, Jesus also said, “Love your neighbor as yourself”, so you first have to love yourself. And, loving yourself means being gentle with yourself when you fail at this. And we will. Our hearts will close, but we must forgive ourselves and start again. All of these challenges and personal feelings are opportunities to move from a closed heart to an open heart, to practice compassion and justice. Here are some daily cues and reminders to prompt us in this practice of compassion: • Seeing someone in pain is my cue to practice compassion. • My tears remind me of my compassionate link with all beings. • Just as a mother would protect her only child at the risk of her own life, I vow to cultivate a boundless heart toward all beings. (This is based on the Buddha’s words in The Sutta Nipata). • A prayer or mantra, based on Jesus’ words in Luke 6.36: < Breath in: Be compassionate... < Breath out: as God is compassionate. Let’s try it…breathe in: be compassionate…breathe out: as God is compassionate. • A practice of the Day: If you see a person on the evening news who moves you by their distress, just breathe it in and breathe out to him love and strength. Be compassionate...as God is compassionate. • And practice this thought: Send love to a stranger you notice is in need. And, to prompt us to practice justice: • Taking money out of my wallet is my cue to practice justice. • Whenever I see a poor person, I am reminded of the need for justice. • Watching a street demonstration, I vow to wage my own fight for justice. • A prayer or mantra, based on a chant on picket lines and marches: < Breathe in: Justice Here... < Breathe out: Justice Now. Let’s try this…breathe in: justice here…breathe out: justice now As individuals, and as a church and a community, we can practice by raising our consciousness about the affects of social systems on people’s lives and then acting on that awareness in ways appropriate to who we are. We practice by developing an empathy for the poor, by imagining and knowing the struggle and pain of living in poverty. We practice by meeting and befriending people suffering in our neighborhood, in our work with Families Moving Forward, at Simpson Shelter, and in the Taking Heart partnership, where some of our Muslim friends have experienced the ravages of oppression, war, and displacement. This practice can move us beyond acts of charity and service to a passion for justice, to “changing society so that structures do not privilege some and cause suffering for others.” • Practice by learning about and giving a higher percentage (up to 50%) of your donations to organizations committed to changing these social systems. • Practice by voting; • Practice by writing and petitioning elected leaders and representatives for change; • Practice by changing habits of life and what you purchase; not necessarily all at once, but one doable change at a time – changes that support economic justice for others and the environmental integrity of our world. Practice what the prophet Micah calls us to do: “What does God require of you? To do justice, To love kindness, To walk humbly with your God.” Then, our hearts can be opened to God and to God’s passion for justice, and the words of Amos will be true: “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.” Amen. August 19, 2007 Psalm 46 I’ve been preaching this summer on Spiritual Practices, this week the spiritual practice of silence, stillness. Nothing is so like God as silence. — Meister Eckhart quoted in Why Not Be a Mystic? by Frank Tuoti Silence is God's first language; everything else is a poor translation. In order to hear that language, we must learn to be still and to rest in God. — Thomas Keating quoted in The Sun & Moon Over Assisi by Gerard Thomas Straub There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden, or even your bathtub. — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross quoted in Awakening to the Sacred by Lama Surya Das It is in deep solitude and silence that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brother and sister. — Thomas Merton Silence will illuminate you in God. . . and deliver you from phantoms of ignorance. Silence will unite you to God. . . . In the beginning we have to force ourselves to be silent. But then from our very silence is born something that draws us into deeper silence. — Isaac of Nineveh, seventh century Syrian monk, quoted in The Great Escape Manual by Edward Hays Silence has many dimensions. It can be a regression and an escape, a loss of self, or it can be presence, awareness, unification, self-discovery. Negative silence blurs and confuses our identity, and we lapse into daydreams or diffuse anxieties. Positive silence pulls us together and makes us realize who we are, who we might be, and the distance between these two. — Thomas Merton quoted in Thomas Merton: Essential Writings edited by Christine M. Bochen I could talk a lot about silence, but that’s way too protestant to preach a sermon on silence. I want us to have the chance to experience silence together. And I know it’s hard for many of us individually to be still and have silence. So I invite us to practice silence, together. Using our breath to help us. Silence is about gentleness, focusing on your breathing…quieting the mind, letting the thoughts that come in gently float on. I’ve listed some possible mantras in the bulletin. Show breathing in and out of first three mantras. Lord Jesus, have mercy Be compassionate, as God is compassionate Haaam-Sa, the sound of breathing. The 4th is simply a position on your face and an intention. Smile with face, smile with mind. Finally the 4th is using your own mantra based on a word of phrase. To move us into the silence, I’m going to read a short story by Sue Monk Kidd, from her book, When the Heart Waits. My finishing of the story, invite us into silence together. Which is different than silence by alone. Here’s the story. One afternoon, as the children watched television and I folded laundry, we heard a terrible thud against the patio door. I turned in time to see white wings falling to the ground. A bird had flown into the glass. None of us said a word. We looked at one another and crept to the door. The children followed me outside. I half expected the bird to be dead, but she wasn’t. She was stunned and her right wing was a little lopsided, but it didn’t look broken, bruised maybe. The bird sat perfectly still, her eyes tiny and afraid. She looked so fragile and alone. But I sat down beside her. I reached out my little finger and brushed her wing. A voice came from behind me, “Why doesn’t it fly off momma.” “She’s hurt”, I said. “She just needs to be still.” We watched her. We watched her stillness. Finally, the children wandered back to the television, satisfied that nothing was going to happen for awhile. But I couldn’t leave her. I sat beside her, unable to resist the feeling that we shared something, the two of us: the wounds and brokenness of life, crumpled wings, a collision with something harsh and real. I felt like crying for her, for myself, for every broken thing in the world. That moment taught me that while the postures of stillness within the cocoon are frequently an individual experience, we also need to share our stillness. The bird taught me anew that we’re all in this together; that we need to sit on one another’s stillness and take up corporate postures of prayer. How wonderful it is when we can be honest and free enough with one another to say, “I need you to wait with me” or “Would you like me to wait with you?” I studied the bird, deeply impressed that she seemed to know instinctively that in the stillness is healing. I had been learning that too. Learning that stillness can be the prayer that transforms us. How much more concentrated our stillness becomes though, when it’s shared. The door opened again. “Is she finished being still yet”. “No, not yet”, I said, knowing that I was talking as much about myself as the bird. We went on waiting together, twenty minutes, thirty, fifty. Finally, she was finished being still. She cocked her head to one side, lifted her wings and flew. The sight of her flying made me catch my breath. From the corner of my eye, I saw her shadow move along the ground and cross over me. Grace is everywhere I thought. Then I picked myself up and went back to folding laundry. SILENCE - 10-15 minutes Elizabeth Gilbert in her book Eat, Pray, Love, has a great description of the beginning of a 10 day silent retreat. It took me a while to drop into true silence. Even after I’d stopped talking, I found that I was still humming with language. My organs and muscles of speech—brain, throat, chest, back of the neck—vibrated with the residual effects of taking long after I’d stopped making sounds. My head shimmied in a reverb of words, the way an indoor swimming pool seems to echo interminably with sounds and shouts, even after the kindergartners have left for the day. It took a surprisingly long time for all this pulsation of speech to fall way, for the whirling noises to settle. Maybe it took about three days. Then everything started coming up. In that state of silence, there was room now for everything hateful, everything fearful, to run across my empty mind. I felt like a junkie in detox, convulsing with the poison of what emerged. I cried a lot. I prayed a lot. It was difficult and it was terrifying, but this much I knew—I never didn’t want to be there, and I never wished that anyone were there with me. I knew that I needed to do this and that I needed to do it alone. I invite you individually…and us corporately…to continue to discover the practice of silence. 8 Life Practices, Practicing Church August 26, 2007 Ephesians 3:14-19 This is the final last sermon of an 8 week series this summer on Spiritual Practices. The series was the outgrowth of a sermon I preached in the spring, “The Way of the Way,” which you can find on the church website. Marcus Borg says in The Heart of Christianity, spiritual practices are the ways we seek to “become conscious of and intentional about a deepening relationship with God”. A relationship that helps us birth and nourish the new life – as we are dying to an old identity and living into a new way of being. The writer of Ephesians says it a little differently, but the nourishing and new identity are certainly stressed, praying that: God may grant you to be strengthened with might through God’s Spirit in the inner person, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, (nourished) may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Living into that new way of being, filled with all the fullness of God.) Being intentional about one’s relationship with God, being rooted and grounded in love…living into a new way of being…are not just nice theological phrases….they are the foundation of a way of being that can help us both through the pain an suffering that comes with living…but also give us tools to keep on loving in those times. This summer I discovered in a new way the importance of spiritual practices…first of believing that no storm can shake my inmost calm…while to that Rock I’m clinging….and then achingly learning to release, let go of my mother, my 2 day old grandson….and cling to God, trusting in that deepening relationship with God that intentional spiritual practices have helped nurture. Six years ago, as preparation for the surgery to remove a cancerous kidney, I began working with a hands-on healer. When I found out she was willing to be with me during surgery, I asked the surgery for his permission to have her there. I will never forget his answer. “Absolute, use whatever arrows are in your quiver.” I realized I had a lot of arrows in my quiver ….and they were all about this long (jack of all trades, master of none). So I intentionally began to develop and practice more. This 8 part series, was a sampling of spiritual practices. I could preach for a year on practices, and still not finish. Did any of the spiritual practices mentioned grab you? 1. The Practice of Community - Make a call each week to members and friends of the church to see how they’re doing – the call of the community. 2. The Non-fast fast - Eat food, not too much, mostly plants. Food our grandparents would recognize as food. 3. Prayer on behalf of - Wake up each morning and think and feel the things that give you joy and thanksgiving? Then send that energy out on behalf of others? 4. Examen of conscious and consciousness – go to be reviewing your day, remembering you are loved…and then where you messed up….and practice discovering the observer part of us…observe our self, our thinking ego self…instead of just living in that self. 5. Lectio Divina - sacred reading of scripture by reading, meditating, responding and contemplating. We’ll practice this when adult class starts in a couple weeks. 6 .The practice of compassion and justice – that Allan Henden so gracefully preached for me - be compassionate as God is compassionate. 7. The practice of silence - learning to be still, to be by focusing on a breath mantra - hammmm I got a lot out of this series. I hope you did too. My challenge though as your pastor is to discover a practice or two that you most connect with. When it comes to spiritual growth, human being are like tomato plants, we need some kind of structure and support in order to grow and bear fruit. Otherwise our spirituality, if it grows at only – often gores in a haphazard, confused way. We need a little structure in order to have enough space, air and light to flourish. In spiritual terms, that structure is called a life practice. It’s a practice we have, whether we need it or not, to help us grow in our relationship with God…and to have it there when we do need it. The Rev. Martin Luther King asked everyone who joined with him to agree to certain practices for their life: Meditate daily on the teachings an life of Jesus. Remember always that the nonviolent movement in Birmingham seeks justice and reconciliation, not victory. Walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love. Pray daily to be used by God in order that all might be free. Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all might be free. Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy. Seek to perform regular service for others and the world. Refrain from violence of fist, tongue, or heart. Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health. Follow the directions of the movement and the captains of a demonstration. If you don’t have a spiritual practice or two that you are practicing…or if you have a lot, but they’re all too underdeveloped, my encouragement to you is this: Ask yourself, what am I deeply attracted to, and why? Where do I feel God is calling me to stretch and grow? What kind of balance do I need in my life? Then pray about, think about, read about (books added to library), play with various practices to discern which might be most helpful to your spiritual life, to your relationship with God, to nurturing your self as you die to an old identity and live into a new way of being, rooted and grounded in love, filled with the fullness of God. This would be a good place to stop, if we were just a collection of individuals. But we’re not. We are a community, a faith community, a church, the gathered. And what is true for us as individuals is equally true for us as a community. In fact, one of the books I’ve been reading is called, The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church. In this book, Diana Butler Bass writes that a new kind of mainline congregation – the practicing congregation has been born which weaves together Christian practices- activities drawn from the long Christian tradition (and for us broader spiritual traditions) into a pattern of being church that forms an intentional way of life in this community: practicing healing, prayer, hospitality, silence, discernment, stewardship, peacemaking. Butler Bass believes the future is the practicing Church, “In an age of fragmentation, it may well be the case that the vocation of congregations is to turn tourists into pilgrims—those who no longer journey aimlessly, but, rather, those who journey in God and whose lives are mapped by the grace of Christian practices” Now is a good stopping point, for this is an area that the Stewardship Council and the Congregational Life Committee are beginning to discuss. So you’ll be hearing more about Lyndale becoming more of a practicing Church. Want to help? Look at the insert in your bulletin about the Pilgrimage Retreat in October. Talk to me if you want more information, I’m on the Spiritual Development Team of the Conference that is offering that retreat to train people to bring practices back to their congregations. Go for yourself, come back for the congregation. That’s a great practice. |
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