Week 5

Simplicity 

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells the story of the "Rich and the Kingdom of God" (Matt. 19: 16-30).  Most of us have heard this story many times.  I would bet that most of the time it has been taught and preached as a stewardship sermon.  It is true that Jesus has a lot to say about our money and how it should be used.  But, I would suggest that this story is about much more that stewardship.

The rich rules opens with the question, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"  We must first consider what he was asking.  In our contemporary understanding, eternal life suggests that he is asking about heaven.  But what did eternal life mean to this rich young man?  It has less do with the after life and more to do with life in the present.  He was asking what must I do to have a full and joyful life right now?  

It is interesting that the young man had it all according to our standards today.  He was rich and could have anything he wanted.  Yet, his life was missing something.  There are many stories of million dollar lottery winners who become more unhappy than before winning.  Money and possessions do not buy happiness.  I was struck, by the joy that was evident in the lives of the poor of Paraguay that I encountered on a short-term mission trip.  They literally had nothing.   

He was a religious man.  He attended church and obeyed the commandments.  He followed the religious conventions of his day with all its legalisms  yet, his life was still missing something.  I think the clue is in his question.  In his quest for an abundant life, he was looking for something that he needed to do.  He was looking to add to his life rather than subtract from it.  In order to find eternal life, he needed to simplify.

The spiritual discipline of simplicity while classified as an outward discipline, first begins with what Richard Foster calls "inward focus and unity."  It means as Christians, we need to operate out of what Thomas Kelly calls "The Divine Center."  Simplicity is emptying oneself of those things that prohibit us from making space for God and for others.  Real life is measured in relationships rather than checking things off of a to-do list. Relationships can only be fostered when our lives are simple enough to allow them.

Think about your life for a moment.  If it is anything like mine, it is filled with moving from one thing to another.  Technology is supposed to make our lives easier.  But in many ways technology has complicated our lives with the constant intrusions of text messages, emails, Facebook messages and the like.  Our culture sets expectations we aspire to achieve with the newest toys, gadgets, gizmos, clothes, cars and other things.  We are constantly working to keep up with the Jones.  Life is anything but simple and relationships are hard to foster in this environment.  Jesus said in John 10:10, "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full."  The abundant life only possible through a relationship with Jesus and that requires space that can be made through simplistic living. 

Week 4

Study

For most of us, when we hear the word study, we are taken back to our high school days.  It involved memorizing and learning facts to prepare for a test.  As an educator, many times my students ask me, "What do we need to study?"  In essence, they are asking what is going to be on the test.  If we are real with ourselves, many times we as Christians approach the Bible in the same way.  We memorize passages or want answers for the test of life.

Study as a spiritual discipline involves more than memorizing or preparing for a test.  Paul says in Rom. 12:2, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."  Study then is allowing the Scripture rather than other things to conform your mind.  Paul goes on to say in Phil. 4:8, "Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, what ever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Study is giving ourselves the space to to think about such things.  

Study is different than meditation.  In mediation, we seek to read Scripture devotionally; it speaks to the heart.  Study speaks to the head.  With prayer, it is an essential component of a deep, vibrant relationship with God.  I believe that study is a non-negotiable for the Christian life.  Jesus said in Jn. 8:32, "The you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  Study is necessary for a balanced Christian life.  In prayer, we engage our hearts and emotions.  We can not live a Christian life constantly operating from an emotional state.  We need to be grounded in the truth that only come through study.

According to Richard Foster, there are four steps to study:

1.)  Repetition 

2.)  Concentration

3.)  Comprehension

4.)  Reflection

Many times we come to the Scripture, especially passages that are familiar to us, and read them very quickly.  Study requires us to read the Scripture over and over very slowly.  It is best to read the passage in different versions.  If you do not have different versions, an online source like www.biblegateway.com could be helpful.  Repetition in and of itself helps to begin to mold the mind.

Study also involves concentration.  This can be difficult for many of us with so many distractions.  Many of us think that we can multitask well.  Studies have shown that our brains do not shift well from one task to another; it  is inefficient    To truly study, you have to be committed to time devoted only to it.  

Comprehension is understanding what is being studied.  It requires understanding the culture and the intent of the writer.  This may require the use of commentaries and dictionaries.  These other sources are aids to augment our comprehension, they do not take the place of our own thinking.  Also they are not Scripture.

After doing the work of comprehension, the last step is reflection.  How does this apply to my life?  Foster says, "Reflection brings us to see things from God's perspective.  In reflection we come to understand not only our subject matte, but ourselves."

Study cannot be done in isolation.  To truly get the most out of study, there needs to be discussion with other people.  We all come to Scripture with our own particular lens.  As we begin to discuss the Scripture with others, we are challenge to hear it from a different vantage point.  We come to understand it more fully.   

 

Week 3

Fasting

John Wesley said about fasting, "Some have exalted religious fasting beyond all Scripture and reason; and others have utterly disregarded it."  In my experience as a United Methodist, it has been disregarded.  

When I hear the word "fasting," I am immediately taken back to my days as a Roman Catholic and Lent.  Each year we would "give up something" whether it be chocolate, sweets, coffee, etc.  Then on Fridays, it was time to give up meat.  It was intended to be a spiritual discipline to prepare us for Easter.  But in actuality, it lacked spiritual power.  In my experience as a Roman Catholic, it has has been misunderstood.

I think that it has been misunderstood in the sense that the focus was about me.  It was about what I was giving up and when I could get whatever I had given up back.  Really though, the purpose of fasting is to grow closer to God.  It is less about self-denial and more about building a closer relationship with God.  So, fasting is a God thing, not a me thing.  First and foremost, fasting is God-centered.

We live in a world of plenty.  When we pull into McDonald's we are asked if we would like to super-size our order.  Food is at our disposal 24/7.  We don't know what it is like to go without.  The idea of denying ourselves seem to be foreign many of us living in the US.  Why would we ever need to fast?

In Luke 4:1-13, we hear the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert.  In verse 2 it says, "where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.  He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry." So Jesus fasted forty days and at the end of his time in the desert, he was hungry.  According to Richard Foster, those who fast for long periods of time experience hunger in the first week, but after that time, the hunger pangs go away.  If that is true, what kind of hunger was Jesus experiencing?  Could it possibly be that after fasting Jesus had an intense spiritual hunger?

Many times, without us realizing it, food and other things (texting, Facebook, Twitter) control us.  We use them almost as medicines so that we don't have to feel.  Think about it.  We eat when we are anxious.  We eat when we are bored.  We eat when we are sad.  We eat so that we don't have to come to grips with our emotions.  When that which controls us is stripped away, we are left with our true selves.  That is when we realize we are hungry for God, just like Jesus was.

So how do we fast?  It is fairly simple.  Find a time that is going to work with your schedule.  It is not a good idea to pick a day of the week if your job requires business lunches and dinners.  After you have found a good time, start to abstain for short periods of time and slowly build to longer periods of time.  For example, you might want to start with fasting one or two meals.  Fill those times when you would eat a meal with prayer.  Also every time your stomach growls, stop and offer a brief prayer.  Allow God to break into your day.  Be mindful of your health.  For some, fasting from food is not a good idea.  For others, food may not control you, so find something else to fast like your smartphone.  However you decide to fast, seek to feast on God.

  

Week Two

Prayer

 Most of us would define prayer as communication with God which it is.  Communication involves both talking and listening.  But it we are honest with ourselves, our prayer lives are more about talking rather than listening.  We approach God as if God is the cosmic Santa Claus.  Yes we employ the ACTS acronym that we learned in Sunday school:

     Adoration (praising God for who God is)

     Confession (admitting our sins)

     Thanksgiving (thanking God for blessings)

     Supplication (asking for needs)

We acknowledge God's provisions for us and we butter God up acknowledging God's sovereignty so that we feel good about presenting God with our Christmas list.  Just like our Christmas lists, we also expect that God will give us what we want.  We TALK, TALK, TALK.  What about listening? 

Prayer is more than mere communication.  It is dialogue.  With communication, we impart information.  With dialogue, we move deeper, beyond the masks that we wear, to the depths of our spirit.  We bear our true humanity to God with all its imperfections.  Richard Foster says about prayer, "To pray is to change.  Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us.  If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives."  Through prayer, we see our need to conform to the likeness of Christ.

Prayer needs to be the fabric of our lives as Christians.  In the Scriptures, we read that Jesus got up early in the morning and withdrew to pray (Mk. 1:35).  Jesus was in the middle of his day, and he stopped to pray (Lk. 11:1).  In sum, the Scriptures encourage us to pray continuously (1Th. 5:17) as our goal.  When I think of praying continuously, Brother Lawrence comes to my mind.  In the midst of the washing the pots and pans, he kept his mind on Christ, seeing God in the ordinary.

While most of us are not Brother Lawrence, we can aspire to try to allow God to break into our day.  One of the ways that we can move in that direction is "Praying the Hours."  When I brought up this suggestion at worship, one of the thoughts is, "That's Catholic."  While Praying the Hours is a part of Roman Catholic monastic life, it predates the monastic movement and was adapted from ancient Jewish prayer practices.  One can use the Liturgy of the Hours (a Roman Catholic liturgy) adapted to our Protestant bent.  But I am merely suggesting that we use the model as a blueprint for prayer that is intentionally dispersed throughout the day.  If we commit to Praying the Hours model, we determine set periods of time, 5 mins, 10 mins, etc., and then we withdraw at certain times of the day, 8 AM, 12 PM, 3 PM, etc.  Obviously each of these times can be adjusted to fit your schedule.  And the prayers that you use can be unique to you.  The important thing is to stop and allow God to break into the day.

Before long, we will be like Brother Lawrence -seeing God in the ordinary of the day - and our lives will a living prayer to God.

Week One

Meditation

Many times when we envision meditation in our minds, we conjure up images of a person sitting on the floor  with legs crossed, palms up and chanting UM, UM, UM.  The goal of this type of mediation is to completely empty oneself.  Christian meditation is the discipline of disengaging from the busyness of the world and making space to hear God.  Foster says "Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God's voice and obey his word."  Instead of emptying ourselves, we are filling ourselves with God.

While this may sound like a very simple task, think about all the noise in our lives.  Foster argues that "In contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry and crowds.  If he can keep us engaged in 'muchness' and 'manyness.'"  Our lives are so filled with chatter that silence seems like a foreign land.  We don't know how to act in the silence and we become uncomfortable.  We run back to the noise.  Mediation offers an alternative creating a means to learn to embrace silence and seek God.

Practically speaking, for most of us, meditation is going to require trial and error since it is so foreign.   It is okay for our minds to drift.  Keep at it.  The more we engage in meditation, the easier it becomes.  First find a time of the day that works for you.   Second, find a space that is conducive to meditation.  It should be a place that is comfortable but is free from distraction as possible.  Third, select a Scripture to meditate on.  Remember, meditation's purpose is to create space to encounter God on God's terms.  It is not Bible study, so we do not approach Scripture to see what we can learn.  So, read the Scripture SLOWLY and REFLECTIVELY.  We are not reading for information.

If the Scripture is a story, one way to meditate on it is to insert yourself into the Scripture as one of the characters.  Try to imagine with all of your senses.  What do you see?  What do you hear?  What do you smell?  What do you taste?  How do you feel? How did you experience Jesus in the story?

Another way to meditate on the Scripture is Lectio Divina.  Read the text very slowly drinking in each word.  Listening for the still, small voice of God.  When a word or phrase seems to pop out, stop and reflect upon it.  Let it interact with your inter-being.  Insights gained during this time make excellent grist for journaling.

May God Bless You this week as you seek to meditate upon his Word.

For the next twelve weeks I invite you to journey with me as we explore the spiritual disciplines using David S. Young's "A Closer Walk."  Each week we will examine a different spiritual disciple.  On Sunday morning we will learn about the discipline, then we are encouraged to practice it throughout the week.

The purpose of the spiritual disciplines is to deepen our individual spiritual relationship with God.  Ultimately, this will lead to congregational renewal.  My hope is that through this twelve week journey, the disciplines will become part of the fabric of each of our lives. 

Each week we will only be able to briefly learn about each discipline.  For those who would like to learn more, I would suggest that you read Richard J. Foster's Celebration of Discipline which offers extended explanations.  "A Closer Walk" is based upon this book, so it serves as an excellent companion.

I would like to offer this encouragement from Foster as we begin our journey together:
     We must not be led to beleive that the Disciplines are only for spiritual giants and hence beyond
     our reach, or only for contemplatives who devote all thier time to prayer and meditation.  Far
     from it.  God intends the Disciplines of the spiritual life to be for ordinary human beings:  people
     who have jobs, who care for children, who wash dishes and mow lawns.  In fact, the Disciplines
     are best exercised in the midst of our relationships with our husband or wife, our brothers and
     sisters, our friends and neighbors.

May God bless us as we endeavor to draw closer to God.

Who Is Jesus? (John 5:31-47)

“Because Jesus was doing these things…” begins the next pericope of chapter four and it effectively links what follows to the story that have preceded it.  What things is John referring?  The healing of the invalid at the pool was the story that was done on the Sabbath.  Jesus’ question still rings in our ears…“Do you want to be made well?”  Healing did not come about by the invalid’s own efforts or through other human effort.  It only came about through the healing presence of Jesus Christ.  

But there is a problem.  Jesus healed the man on the Sabbath which incensed the Jewish leaders.  Now if we think about it for a minute, the man had been an invalid for thirty eight years and came daily to the temple waiting his chance to get into the pool.  So why did Jesus heal him on the Sabbath?  He could have just as easily came back the next day after the Sabbath and healed him.  What was Jesus trying to say with his actions?  If we think about the purpose of Sabbath, it was a day that was set aside to rest fulfilling the purpose of the Sabbath.  But the Jewish leaders just saw Jesus breaking the rules and usurping their authority.  Because they were the one who decided what was acceptable work on the Sabbath and what was not.   But the Law was given by God to constitute a peculiar community of faith that was marked by their love of God and love of neighbor.  The Law was interested in creating a whole community that was centered upon the presence of God in their midst; exactly what Jesus was doing.  

Because of the challenge of the Jewish leaders’ authority and referring to God as his father, Jesus is indicted and what continues for the rest of the chapter is a trial motif in which Jesus testifies about himself.  He answers the question, “Who is Jesus?”  And it seems that each pronouncement is followed by a required action.  Jesus as the Christ necessitates a human judgment about Jesus’ claim.  And it is quite apparent that each one of us is going to be judged by our own judgments about Jesus.  

But Jesus goes on in his own defense citing the testimony of others as to his claims.  The first is John the Baptist.  The work that Jesus is doing testifies to the authenticity of his claims as well.  But since Jesus is testifying to Jewish leaders, his final testimony that he puts forth is their very own scripture. He states emphatically that Moses wrote about him.

It is important for John that the readers of his Gospel have a strong Christological understanding of Jesus.  Since the first verse of the first chapter John has been unfolding his theological understanding.  And it is import to John because it is in our understanding of Jesus that we really come to know ourselves and our purpose in life.  If our Christology is erroneous so will our understanding of ourselves. So who is Jesus?  Your very existence depends upon your answer.