162 – Fellowship – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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Dallas Willard sees no replacement for Christians coming together to share their lives,

“In fellowship we engage in common activities of worship, study, prayer, celebration, and service with other disciples….  Personalities united can contain more of God and sustain the force of his greater presence much better than scattered individuals.  The fire of God kindles higher as the brands are heaped together and each is warmed by the other’s flame.  The members of the body must be in contact if they are to sustain and be sustained by each other.  Christian redemption is not devised to be a solitary thing … the Life is one that requires some regular and profound conjunction with others who share it.  It is greatly diminished when that is lacking.”  (from “The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives”, by Dallas Willard, pp 186 – 187)

 Does Willard make his point or does he state his case too strongly?

 What is the “profound conjunction” that he alludes to?  It seems to me easy enough to make “regular” my association with other Christians but how do I find this “profound conjunction?”

 I will leave those questions with you today and also leave with you my prayer that we all be “warmed by the other’s flame.”

 

161 – Being Present – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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Recently I came across these words from Henri J. M. Nouwen,

“When I reflect on my own life, I realize that the moments of greatest comfort and consolation were moments when someone said, ‘I cannot take your pain away, I cannot offer you a solution to your problem, but I can promise you that I won’t leave you alone and will hold onto you as long and as well as I can.’ There is much grief and pain in our lives, but what a blessing it is when we do not have to live our grief and pain alone. That is the gift of compassion.”  (From “A Spirituality of Caregiving”)

I think Nouwen’s words captured me because they describe what can happen when we make ourselves present to another.  It is not our advice that offers “comfort and consolation,” it is our being present and being there for another.

Many, many years ago when I was a college student, one Sunday night I was church taking part in a class with other college students.

Graduation day was approaching.  I have no memory of what the focus of the hour was suppose to be, but I have vivid memories of what the focus became.  One of the students started talking about graduating and after a few minutes it was evident he had much he wanted to say.  It would be an understatement to say he was experiencing gradation anxiety.  I don’t remember many of the others saying much and I don’t remember the person charged with “leading” the class saying much, but I do remember we listened.  And we did not leave when the “bell rang” to tell us it was time for the class to end and time for us to go to the “church service.”  We spent about two hours listening as he poured out more and more of his fears.

I think before that night, I thought all classes and services at church were on a schedule to begin and end at certain times.  And I certainly thought that when the church/worship service was happening, that is where you were suppose to be.  But that night I saw a person leading a class who cared more about a hurting person than about keeping the class on the “right” schedule.  I saw a class leader and class members willing to be present to another who needed someone to listen.

How does Nouwen put it?  “… I won’t leave you alone and will hold onto you as long and as well as I can.”

Those many years ago, those in the class held onto that person by giving him a safe space and the time to speak his fears.

When have you seen compassion and presence offered to another?  Were you one offering your presence to another?  Or, where you one in need of the presence of another?

What ways can you think of to be present to those you encounter this week?

 

160 – Community – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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Let’s continue to think about groups and community this week, and let’s start by hearing Castell again,

“Above all, the group must keep remembering that true growth in grace is not to be achieved by our own efforts or contriving, but must be received as the gift of God’s Spirit, working in, and among, us. The work of the group is to keep open the channels of receptiveness through study, discipline, prayer, and self-offering… When a group learns to live in this faith, it can keep the lines of endeavor tentative and sensitive to new headings and possibilities, on the one hand; and on the other, move forward resolutely under such light as is now given. “ ( from “Spiritual Renewal through Personal Groups”, 1957, by John L. Casteel, p. 195)

“ … true growth in grace is not to be achieved by our own efforts or contriving, but must be received as the gift of God’s Spirit, working in, and among, us.”

Grace is gift.  No argument with that.  But I wonder if we sometimes so focus on “gift” that we become almost totally passive.  We come and sit and wait for a “leader” or “facilitator” or “teacher” or “mentor” or “preacher”  to tell us, or instruct us or “pour” something into us.

Casteel writes, “The work of the group is to keep open the channels of receptiveness through study, discipline, prayer, and self-offering…”  

Maybe not just the “work of the group” but my work also?  Maybe not just during the time the group assembles but before it assembles?

How can we be intentional as we come to the community and as we participate in the community so that we are fully invested in the its life and are open and receptive to the experience of grace that is given.

Why don’t we start to think about and maybe even list some of the things we can do.  If I am thinking in terms of a small study or service group or class, maybe I can pray for each member of the group.

Maybe even pray for them by name each day.  I can be fully present to the group.  I can listen when someone talks with the intention to hear what they say and try to understand what they mean as opposed to thinking about what I want to say and the “advice” I want to give.

I guess all that is pretty obvious.  But sometimes it helps to start with the obvious.

What would you add?  How do you think you can “keep open the channels of receptiveness” so that you see God’s grace as it is offered?

 

 

159 – Community – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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Last week we listened to John Muir tell us to go to the mountains, and thereby to go home, to the “fountain of life” for the healing and renewal it can bring to us.  I asked you to think about when you have experienced the kind of connection Muir speaks of.

That has lead me to think this week about how I connect with church and what I find there.  We often speak of our “church family.”  That seems to me to be a natural connection to Muir’s speaking of “home.”

So I began to wonder, when have I been to church and found myself connected to this same source of energy, renewal and healing Muir could find as he returned to the mountains, to nature, to “wildness.”

I invite you to ask the same question.

As I considered the question for myself, I began to remember the times when a small group at church (and sometimes not at church) has been this conduit of energy, renewal and healing for me.  But, of course, there are times when small groups and classes at church do not do this for me.  As I was thinking about this, I came across these remarks John Castell penned many years ago,

“Above all, the group must keep remembering that true growth in grace is not to be achieved by our own efforts or contriving, but must be received as the gift of God’s Spirit, working in, and among, us. The work of the group is to keep open the channels of receptiveness through study, discipline, prayer, and self-offering… When a group learns to live in this faith, it can keep the lines of endeavor tentative and sensitive to new headings and possibilities, on the one hand; and on the other, move forward resolutely under such light as is now given. “ ( from “Spiritual Renewal through Personal Groups”, 1957, by John L. Casteel, p. 195)

Can you recall the occasions when you have been in this place of “receptiveness” and found God’s Spirit there waiting for you?  

Do Casteel’s remarks offer you any pointers on how you can be open and/or ready for this encounter?

 

158 – Wildness – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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A few weeks ago I was watching several episodes of the Ken Burns documentary “The National Parks.”  The series is impressive to me both for its visuals and its narrative.

In the first episode John Muir is much quoted and toward the end of the episode the following is related,

“The tendency nowadays to wander in wilderness is delightful to see.  Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity, and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers but as fountains of life.”  (also found in The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, edited by Dayton Duncan & Ken Burns, p 55)

Muir leaves little doubt to me where he connected and reconnected with the source of life and energy and probably hope.

” … going to the mountains is going home … are … fountains of life.”

That got me asking what awakes that much passion in me.  Where is the “home” that is a “fountain of life” for me?

What “wildness” nourishes me?  Could I change the wording and ask “What holiness nourishes me” without totally distorting Muir’s experience?

Here’s a challenge for today.  Name the last three “places” that evoked this kind of passion and connection to the “fountain of life” for you.

Don’t limit your thinking to what you think might be the right answer, but relax into the challenge and go back over the last days, weeks or maybe months and look for the times you have been brought near the “fountain of life.”

And enjoy the discovery.

 

 

 

157 – Blessings – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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Recently I took up again the practice of listening to the Pray As You Go podcasts* on my drive to work. (I wonder why I stopped?  Well, that’s a question for another day.)

One recent podcast was the story of Jacob wrestling though the night with … here you read it and see what you think.  Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”  Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans,and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’ (Genesis 32:24-30)

This Scripture story fascinates me!  I have a hard time saying this strongly enough.  The energy and determination of Jacob, his unwillingness to “give up” or “call it quits.”  And even the paradoxical way the account ends with Jacob in a sense getting the blessing he asks for but getting it probably in a way he did not expect, and even being “wounded” in the process.

What aspect of the account draws your attention?  Jacob’s persistence?

The nameless one Jacob fights with who cannot best Jacob but then puts his hip out of joint?  Jacob’s demand for a blessing?  Jacob’s new name?  Or maybe Jacob’s claim to have seen God “face to face.”

What part of Jacob’s story do you identify with?  If you and Jacob could sit together and talk to one another about the long struggles you have had, what struggle would you share with Jacob?

What would you tell Jacob you took away from the struggle?  A limp or a new name, or ……   ?

 * http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/home/

 

156 – Grace – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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Have you had those kind of days when you knew you needed an extra touch of grace?  As I look back over the past couple of weeks, I know I had several of those days.

Well, some of that needed grace arrived one day via an email delivered reflection from Upper Room.  Please allow me a couple of minutes today to pass this along to you in hope that you might find some encouragement or grace.

Assisting God’s Creation

SOME YEARS AGO, several friends and I were experiencing difficult days. Joan’s best friend died suddenly. Marty was going through a divorce. Charlene’s son was experimenting with drugs. And on it went.  The sky seemed to be tumbling down. But we got through those tough times and became deeper, more compassionate people as a result. …  

The image of God that comforted me in former struggles surfaces again to provide consolation. It first came to me in the form of a visual love note from the heart of a caring, almighty Creator during a time of silent meditation. It goes like this:

A flock of birds lies on their backs with their little twiglike legs stiffened and sticking straight up in the air. Some animals have told them the world is a mess and about to be annihilated. The sky is going to fall and crush the life out of God’s critters. The birds love God and God’s creation. Their frail, skinny legs might not be able to do much to keep the falling sky from crushing the life out of God’s created order, but by golly they are trying the best they know how.

About that time, God comes by and asks the birds what they were doing on their backs with their legs up in the air. They explain their little twiglike legs might not be able to catch the falling sky and prevent the destruction of creation, but they are doing the best they possibly can.

A faint smile forms on God’s face. The Lord looks at them with loving eyes and says, “My silly little birds, I see you are doing the best you possibly can and I would like to say…”

There is a long pause and the birds together say, “You would like to say…?”

And God, in a rather shy, embarrassed manner, says, “I would like to say, God bless you!”

From pages 116-117 of Not Alone: Encouragement for Caregivers by Nell E. Noonan.

http://daily.upperroom.org/?p=3136

 

 

 

155 – Homilies – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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At Google you can discover, “Andrew M. Greeley was an Irish-American Roman Catholic priest, sociologist, journalist and popular novelist.

Born: February 5, 1928, Oak Park, IL Died: May 29, 2013, Chicago, IL”

Since Father Greeley’s recent death there have been many, many pieces posted on the internet praising him (and no doubt some attacking him, but I haven’t read those).  One brief article by Father Ron Rolheiser reads in part,

“I [once] jumped to [Greeley’s] defence with these words: ‘Nobody has ever left the Church because of an Andrew Greeley novel, but many people have stayed in the Church because of Andrew Greeley’s novels.’“

“As literary works, his novels suffered more because they were too pious and often thinly disguised Catholic apologia. Any true reading of his novels reveals a man who was deeply pious, much in love with his Church, and not-so-subtly defending his Church…..  Like other Christian apologists before him — Tolkien, Lewis and Chesterton — he too tried to give a reason for the hope that’s within us. In that, he succeeded, wonderfully so.” *

I have had the good fortune to have a read a number of Greeley’s novels, sermons, devotional writings, and even some of his sociology.  I have to differ with Fr Rolheiser’s description of  Greeley’s novels as “thinly disguised Catholic apologia.”  I see them as homilies.  But much, much more interesting and entertaining than some of what happens around pulpits but certainly no less a proclamation of God’s redeeming love.  Whether his novels take the form of a family saga, science fiction, or mystery, he is always helping us see how God is active in our relationships bringing us hope and redemption.  And often when we least expect it.

I wonder if we need more Christian apologists writing novels and less writing theology.

Take some time today or tomorrow (or when you can make the time) and name a few novels, or short stories, or movies, or plays, or musicals that for you proclaim the Gospel of God’s Redeeming Love.  What might those works teach us about how the Gospel can be proclaimed both in the pulpit and out of the pulpit with more passion and more clarity?

*  http://ronrolheiser.com/andrew-greeley-rip/#.VDXrJPldV_g

 

154 – Psalms – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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Who do you go to plumb the depths of the Psalms?  A linguist? A theologian? A preacher? A musician?  Well, maybe all of them.  Each might have a different insight.

And what kind of insight might Bono have? Yes, the lead singer of U2.  Several years ago I came across Bono’s introduction to a small paperback that contained selections from the Psalms.  His musings captured my attention.  You can find the entire introduction at –

http://www.trinitycovenantchurch.org/images/stories/dcamp/Bono_Book_of_Psalms_Intro.pdf

And for a taste of what he wrote,

“Explaining belief has always been difficult….  Explaining faith is impossible: vision over visibility; instinct over intellect. A songwriter plays a chord with the faith that he will hear the next one in his head.

“One of the writers of the psalms was a musician, a harp-player ….  At the age of 12, I was a fan of David. He felt familiar, like a pop star could feel familiar. The words of the psalms were as poetic as they were religious, and he was a star. Before David could fulfill the prophecy and become the king of Israel, he had to take quite a beating. He was forced into exile and ended up in a cave in some no-name border town facing the collapse of his ego and abandonment by God. But this is where the soap opera got interesting. This is where David was said to have composed his first psalm — a blues. That’s what a lot of the psalms feel like to me, the blues. Man shouting at God — “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me?” (Psalm 22).

“Abandonment and displacement are the stuff of my favourite psalms.  The Psalter may be a font of gospel music, but for me it’s despair that the psalmist really reveals and the nature of his special relationship with God. Honesty, even to the point of anger. “How long, Lord? Wilt thou hide thyself forever?” (Psalm 89), or “Answer me when I call” (Psalm 5).

“Words and music did for me what solid, even rigorous, religious argument could never do — they introduced me to God, not belief in God, more an experiential sense of GOD. Over art, literature, girls, my mates, the way in to my spirit was a combination of words and music. As a result, the Book of Psalms always felt open to me and led me to the poetry of Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, the book of John…My religion could not be fiction, but it had to transcend facts. It could be mystical, but not mythical.”

What in Bono’s musings capture your attention today?

 

 

 

153 – Church – Intention on the Spiritual Journey

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When you consider the church, what do you see?  I feel sure most will see more than a building.  Probably many will see more than a group of people assembled for a meeting.  Will any of us get a glimpse of what brings us together and unites us as the church, the Body of Christ?

Consider something Thomas Merton wrote regarding the “members of Christ,”

“The union that binds the members of Christ together is not the union of proud confidence in the power of an organization. The Church is united by the humility as well as by the charity of her members. Hers is the union that comes from the consciousness of individual fallibility and poverty, from the humility which recognizes its own limitations and accepts them, the meekness that cannot take upon itself to condemn, but can only forgive because it is conscious that it has itself been forgiven by Christ.”  (From “Disputed Question,” p 139)

What do you think?  Do these words describe the church you know and experience?

“ … humility … charity … fallibility … poverty … meekness … forgiven …”

How comfortable or uncomfortable are you in using these words to describe yourself as a member of the church?

A lot of days, a question like that makes me uncomfortable.  I see so many ways my attitude and actions go in a very different way.

If I look at how Merton begins and ends his description, “ … humility … forgiven,” I wonder if I might get a clue on how to move into the reality he envisions.

What about you?  How do you think we begin to move into this way of being church?