March 20, 2011, Lent 2, Year A. Meditation, prayer and study

Year A Lent 2, March 20, 2011
St. Andrew’s, Elyria
Rev. Catherine Wright

Sermon series on Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster
Second sermon: Inward Disciplines of Meditation, Prayer and Study

Meditation:
The purpose of meditation is sinking into the light and life of Christ. It is intimacy and reverence, a perpetual Eucharistic feast in the inner sanctuary of the heart. The aim is to bring this living realty into all of life, all we are and do.

Christian meditation is very different than Eastern or secular meditation. There the goal is to empty oneself, and detachment. Here the goal is to fill ourselves with Christ. Not detachment, but attachment.

Thomas Merton tells us “meditation is really very simple and there is not much need of elaborate techniques to teach us how to go about it.” Of course, we have to want to sink into God- doing so will change us, will bring about repentance and obedience, will create a new heart in us. Some of us do not want that, do not want to change or draw closer to God. We understand that something might have to be let go of, old hurts, understandings, ways of being.

Meditation is fellowship with God- something that God wants with us but that rightfully scares us. We want an intermediary, someone between ourselves and God to diffuse and soften the impact on our lives. But God wants to draw close, get behind our defenses and walls and warm our hardened hearts and minds. Scary stuff indeed!

Foster gives some suggestions for meditation. Make time for it. A quiet place free from interruptions. The same place so you are not hunting for a new place each day. An outward posture that reflects an inner attitude of attention and calm.

We can meditate on scripture, taking a single event, or even word and play with it. Or a still time, centering ourselves, perhaps using a technique such as palms down, palms up that helps us to release that which we need to release and receive what we need to receive.

We can meditate on creation, enjoying the details of the world around us. We can contemplate the events of our time- what is going on and what it means. For guidance on how we can be light and salt in the world as it is.

Prayer:
We sometimes feel that everything is set in the universe and so cannot be changed. But the people who prayed in the Bible, and more contemporary model prayers, pray as if their prayer could and would make a difference. The Bible speaks of great things happening because of the prayers of the people. This puts quite a responsibility on us- our prayers can change the outcome of the world.

There are many types of prayer. Foster chooses to focus on intercessory prayer- praying effectively for others.

Prayer also involves a learning process- like fasting that we heard about last week, and meditation that we have already spoken of today. Foster likens it to working a TV. If the TV doesn’t work when we first try and turn it on, that does not mean there is no such thing as TV. It means something is blocking this set- the cables, cords, all need to be checked until the picture comes on. So it is with prayer. We are doing it right if our prayers come to pass. And the most important piece of prayer is getting in touch with God, being in tune with God. “We must hear, know, and obey the will of God before we pray it into the lives of others.” (Foster, p.39) We are to pray for those for whom we feel called to pray- not because we ought to, or they need it, but because we have an inner sense of compassion and there is the drive to lift them and their needs up in prayers.

An email I received this week put it this way “To me, at least, you are saying that the surest way to find God is not to make Him a private possession, a problem solver, or an instant consolation in time of need, but rather by opening to love.” Praying with the intent of forcing God to prove that praying “works” will not produce the desired results. Praying for those whom you know you need to pray for and in the way you feel called to pray for them- i.e. for strength, or peace or guidance and not always for healing of the infirmity, is what we are called to be about. Foster lets us know that “if the idea is accompanied with a sense of dread, then probably you should set it aside. God will lead someone else to pray for the matter.” (p.40) We are not in this alone, we are not the only person praying, but our prayers do matter.

They should be marked by “openness, honesty and trust”. Guided by imagination fueled by the Holy Spirit. Foster suggests blessing your children as they sleep, and praying for people you hear or see as you go about your day. Those on the street as you pass, in cars next to you. A tradition in my family is to pray when we hear sirens- for the emergency personnel going someone, for those that need help, for those who will be affected by the event. Whatever feels like the most needed prayer at the time when I hear those sirens.

Study
Foster starts his chapter on Study with this summary: “The purpose of the Spiritual Disciplines is the total transformation of the person. They aim at replacing old destructive habits of thought with new life-giving habits. Nowhere is this purpose more clearly seen than in the Discipline of study.” (p.62)

He sees two types of things to be studied- verbal, such as books and lectures, and non-verbal such as nature, events and actions. Study gives us “perception into the reality of a given situation, encounter, book, etc.” (p.64) Foster gives us four steps- repetition, concentration, comprehension and reflection. It is not merely the accumulation of information, but rather acquiring knowledge that we are after. It is seeing and understanding the world the way it really is, not how we or someone else wants us to see it.

We are to study things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and gracious. This is what St. Paul encourages. Many things could be studied that will not lead us closer to God and transformation- movies about murder or how to exploit people, focusing on our own selfish desires and needs, and not on the reality of those around us.

The Bible of course is a good thing to study, but there are other writings as well. And the study of scripture is different than the devotional reading of scripture. Foster suggests setting aside days devoted just to study and getting out of the home to do it. For many of us, our Bible readings are fragmentary- we have never read many of the books straight through. That is a great place to start. Keep a journal of your impressions, findings and questions. There are many experiential classics of Christianity to be read also- from centuries ago to more contemporary writings by the great thinkers and mystics of our tradition. If you need suggestions, just let me know.

Then there is the study of non-verbal things, events and actions. Nature is one of the easier ones to approach. We pay attention. Noticing the new spring growth coming up, the birds and their habits, the way the snow falls on that particular day. Past nature, there are relationships to observe- not with judgment, but just observing and attentive to those around us. We also learn about ourselves- what controls and has influence on us? Study the institutions and culture around us, what is valued, lifted up. What impacts relationships in our society? Is it in harmony with the Gospel, with how Christians are called to be? There is a big caution here- if you find this type of study too depressive or are very weighed down by life, this type of study may not be for you at this time.

Our lessons for today are about having a right relationship with God. Jesus came so that we might have life, we might be drawn to God, and be able to draw to God and be saved. The disciplines are about claiming that salvation and claiming our place of doing God’s will and work in the world. In order to do God’s will, we must know it. Meditation, prayer and study are ways of seeing, really seeing the world the way God does and by the power of the Holy Spirit understanding God’s will for the world and the role we can play in it. Abram heard the voice of God, and obeyed it, bringing blessings to himself and the whole world. Nicodemus is still in the dark, unable to understand what Jesus is saying to him.

Lent 1 2011, Spiritual Disciplines

Lent 1, March 13, 2011
St. Andrew’s, Elyria
Rev. Catherine Wright
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7; Psalm 42; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11
Sermon series on Celebration of Discipline, Richard FosterZZZ

It is great to be back. It was great to be home with Sarah, and in a nutshell everything went well with her birth and things are going well now.

It has been interesting emerging from our domestic seclusion. I feel like time stood still, but it didn’t. Things here at St. Andrew’s continued on well I believe- I look forward to hearing from you about what has been going on in each of your lives. Taking a bigger focus, there is the political turmoil in the Middle East and, the earthquake in Japan and tidal waves from that. Our prayers are needed- for those who struggle close by and in distant lands.

And it is Lent- Sarah managed to arrive after Christmas and give me just enough time to get back before Ash Wednesday. So we are able to spend all of Lent together, this time before Easter, this season of preparation. And I am a fan of Lent. It is an odd position to take- being a fan of this time of year. This season of repentance and giving things up. David Lose had a post on Huffington Post this week that really resonated with me. In part he wrote:

And maybe, just maybe -- and this takes the greatest amount of imagination of them all -- just maybe Lent really isn't mine to do with whatever I please. Perhaps Lent isn't even the Church's to insist upon or discard at will. Maybe Lent isn't any of ours to scoff at or observe. Maybe Lent is God's. Maybe Lent is God's gift to a people starved for meaning, for courage, for comfort, for life.

If it is, if we can imagine that Lent is not ours at all but is wholly God's, then maybe we'll also begin to recall, at first vaguely but then more strongly, that we, too, are not ours at all, but are wholly God's -- God's own possession and treasure.
Seen this way, Lent reminds us of whose we are. The "sacrifices," the disciplines, these are not intended as good works offered by us to God; rather, they are God's gifts to us to remind us who we are, God's adopted daughters and sons, God's treasure, so priceless that God was willing to go to any length -- or, more appropriately, to any depth -- to tell us that we are loved, that we have value, that we have purpose.

Yes. I need Lent. I need an absence of gifts so that I might acknowledge the Gift. I need a time to be quiet and still, a time to crane my neck and lift my head, straining to hear again what was promised me at Baptism: "You are mine! I love you! I am with you!"

David Lose, Huffington Post online, posted 3/7/2011

This is why I like Lent. I need to hear again what was promised at my Baptism, what will be promised to Sarah when she is baptized at the Easter Vigil by Bishop Hollingsworth, what was promised to each of you. You are God’s. You are loved. God is with each of us.

In our Gospel lesson for today we hear, as we do each first Sunday in Lent, of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness. After fasting for forty days and nights, Jesus was famished. Vulnerable to the first temptation put before him, turning stones into bread. But this and the other two temptations he resists. He rejects the lure of the powers of this world in favor of uncompromising obedience to God the Father. As completely human, Jesus felt the full force of these temptations; yet his relationship with God the Father enabled him to resist and renounce these assaults.

Jesus did this fast right after his Baptism, right after he heard the voice of God proclaiming that he was his son, well loved and with whom God is pleased. So our 40 days begin, leading up to Easter with it’s Baptisms and Confirmations and reminders to each of us that we are loved by God also.

But there is the forty days to get through. This desert between now and Easter.

This Lent I have chosen to focus on Richard Foster’s Book, Celebration of Discipline. He looks at 12 classical disciplines- classical because they are central to experiential Christianity. Experiential- how we experience, do, are Christians. We will be looking at them over this and the following 4 weeks during my sermons. We will also be discussing them on Wednesday nights during our Lenten evenings together. The final week I have added some that he doesn’t cover- some that I encountered at a youth minister training years ago- Spiritual Disciplines for the undisciplined. Items that don’t fall under the category of classical but seem particularly appropriate in our day and age- getting enough rest, disconnecting from electronics on occasion.

The disciplines are things that move us beyond surface living, where we are just going through our days on autopilot as fast as we can, and into living in the depths. These are not just for spiritual giants, those whose whole lives are dedicated to spiritual living. These are for each of us. The primary requirement to do them is a longing after God, and I believe as St. Augustine of Hippo did, that our hearts are restless until they rest in God. We all long after God- the aches in our lives are aches for God. And the closer we are the more the pains of this world fade away. And Celebration is very appropriate in the title of Foster’s book- for the disciplines lead to joy. We become liberated from our self-interest and the fear that is there. We are filled with the joy and love of God.

The two big difficulties with the disciplines are this: We doubt our ability to reach beyond this physical world- we doubt that we can draw closer to God, have any growth in this area. We doubt it’s importance- the world is prejudiced against the nonmaterial world and calls us to not spend time on it, but rather to focus on material things.

The second big difficulty is a practical one- we don’t know how to explore the inward life. The logistics are unknown to us. Foster’s book covers that also, and we will go into it here and on Wednesday nights also. But the mechanics aren’t it- the attitude of the heart is far more crucial than the mechanics.

And they are not to turn into law, not to manipulate or control people, we are not to think that we are earning our way into God’s prescience. They are a means for us to place ourselves before God so that we may receive the gracious gift of God and be transformed by God.

Foster categorizes them into 3 groups- Inward, Outward and Corporate.
In the Inward category he places Meditation, Prayer, Fasting and Study.
In the Outward category is Simplicity, Solitude, Submission and Service.
In the Corporate we have Confession, Worship, Guidance and Celebration.

Today is mostly about an overview of the next four weeks, but we do have time to look at one a little more closely. Given our Gospel, looking at fasting seems appropriate. The Plain Dealer had a piece on fasting this past Monday. It gave the following statistics: 4 in 10 Americans say they have fasted for religious or spiritual reasons. 6 in 10 Catholics in the U.S. abstain from meat on Fridays in Lent. 3 in 4 Jews have abstained from food for religious reasons. 4 in 4 Muslims make the same claim.

Throughout the history of our religion, people have fasted. Throughout scripture fasting refers to abstaining from food for spiritual purposes. It is not a hunger strike done for political power or to attract attention to a cause. It is not done for health dieting, for physical benefits. It is unto God, with the focus being on worshiping God. We are reminded during a fast that food does not sustain us- God does. We can put aside our craving for the nonessentials and not be enslaved by them.

On the practical side, there should be a progression- walk before you run. A partial fast of 24 hours to begin, perhaps lunch to lunch. Drink fruit juice. Do this for several weeks. At first the physical aspects will be fascinating, but watch the inner attitude of the heart. After a few of these partial fasts, move on to a 24 hour fast. Drink healthy amounts of water. Master your stomach. Perhaps use the time previously spent eating in prayer and meditation. Perhaps donate the money to a good cause- the food pantry or community meals or some other organization that helps feed others. Don’t call attention to what you are doing. This is between you and God and you are not doing it to get attention from others. There will be a spiritual progression over the course of many fasts. Longer fasts can be done after you have achieved several fasts with a degree of spiritual success.

Yes, there are people who should not fast. Certain medical conditions. The pregnant and nursing are excluded. Children. But many of us could, and yet never do. And the history of its efficacy for religious people is indisputable.

Next week is meditation, prayer and study. Hope to see many of you Wednesday night. If you have experienced the power of fasting, fill out one of the cards in the pew and let us know about it.

Again, it is good to be back.