Nature Prayer - Our Practice for May at L.V.

 

How many times have you heard or even said something like, “I feel so much closer to God in nature, when I’m outdoors.” This deeper sense of the divine in the out of doors runs across religious lines and across all cultures and even time periods. Our ancient ancestors felt this same way, as is evidenced in some of the Hebrew psalms. Psalm 19 notes that “the heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” The 24^th Psalm begins, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it; for He founded it on the seas and established it upon the waters.”

Jesus embodied a faith that was also profoundly tied to the natural world. His parables spoke of flowers and bird; he asked us to consider the lilies of the field as well as the sparrow. He compared his kingdom to a mustard seed and to leaven. Virtually all his teaching took place by lakes and on mountains, places where God’s grandeur was on full display.

St. Francis was one of our most influential prophets when it came to understanding God in nature. He believed that God’s love literally surged through all things. Francis took literally the common Christian claim that “we are all one in Christ.” He observed quite accurately that even the air we breathe is common, completely and literally shared by all living beings. The air that I take into my lungs includes and is mixed with the air that has been in and out of your lungs, the same air that the trees have used and continue to draw from for their oxygen supply. Expanding and extending Francis’ observation allows us to see why he could feel so connected to birds and every other creature.

So nature is, in many ways, the most appropriate context and setting for prayer. It reminds us – or should remind us – of our ultimate interdependence, unity, and vulnerability. Literally every spiritual practice that we have undertaken this year in Living Vision can be practiced outside. But this month we turn our attention to a practice that actually begins with nature as the impetus and focus of our prayer and reflection.

We begin, as always, by expressing our intention of experiencing God in nature and in the silent time we are about to spend in it. At this particular meeting, since we are indoors, I have brought a bit of nature inside to focus and guide our reflection – a dandelion, a little patch of moss, and a few flowers. Our second step is to cast our focused attention on one of the natural items. We draw upon our previous practice of focused attention and observe the item like a scientist, artist, or writer, looking at it from every perspective and with profound clarity. Our third step is to allow our minds to consider the entire life process that brought this living thing to its current form. Include all the natural forces and other creatures that had a hand in its creation and development – soil, sun, rain, other trees, insects, etc. Finally, we turn all of these intentions, observations, and thoughts into praise and thanksgiving for the Creator, the Author of this amazing life we are observing and sharing in.

As with all our disciplines and practices, the ultimate purpose of what we do here is that it trains us to be equally observant and tuned in to nature every time we are out taking a walk, every time we look out a window, and at every sunrise and sunset. In other words, we practice these disciplines in discrete moments so that they will bleed into the rest of our lives in a natural, almost involuntary way.

* This coming Tuesday, May 15, we will practice this nature prayer with an item of food. You won’t believe how it will revolutionize and spiritualize your eating and meal preparation. Join us at Yoga Roots at 444 E. Mitchell from 7:30-8:30 pm. Hope to see you there! As always, all are welcome and if you have any questions, just contact Toby at tobyjones48@gmail.com.

A Recent Message I Delivered at TC 1st Pres

 

Nexus Message from 5/6/12 – On Abiding in the Vine & Bearing Fruit (John 15)

Jesus , as his time with the disciples drew short, started getting more and more direct and intense with them in his teaching. We can feel his sense of urgency in the final few chapters of each gospel, as Jesus prepared the disciples for that time when they would have to be able to get along without Jesus’ physical presence.

John 15 is just such a time. “I am the vine and you are the branches.” What a great image of dependence, emphasizing how vital, life-giving, and sustaining Jesus is to all those who would venture to live out his “way.” Jesus taught, in no uncertain terms, that all of us need to stay tuned into, tied into our life source if we are to be useful, effective, fruit-bearing followers. “Remain in me, as I also remain in you…for apart from me you can do nothing.”

If we think of our connection to God, to Jesus, as a relationship, then it stands to reason that to develop and enhance that relationship we need to spend time with God, with Jesus. Now that sounds very easy and straight- forward. But most of our other relationships involve another human, a physical being whom we can see, talk to, hear from, touch. Jesus, once he ascended after his resurrection, left all of his human followers with a bit of a dilemma….he’s not here…least not physically. So relating to him, connecting with him, staying tied to him is not the same at all as connecting with or relating to our other friends, is it?

So the first thing I’d like us to explore together this morning is what it means to remain in Christ, to abide in the vine? How, exactly, are we to do that? What are some of the ways you remain in Christ, stay connected to the vine?  (Spend a minute or two on your own, writing your thoughts about how to stay tied to the vine, and then we’ll discuss our individual ideas with our tablemates for a while. Then we’ll share what we came up with.)

So we do the things we mentioned a few moments ago, right? We come to a church or a spiritual community. We read and study the scriptures. We pray. We serve those in need through our time, energy, and offerings. All of these are good, and I would encourage all of you to keep practicing any and all of those as best you can in the interest of staying rooted in the vine of Christ.

But this morning I want to encourage you to explore the one form of tying into the vine that contemporary American Christians are least apt to try and have seemingly forgotten about.

The Spiritual Community that I lead over in Petoskey, Living Vision, has dedicated itself to the forgotten spiritual disciplines. We practice ancient contemplative disciplines, silent and listening-based practices to keep us rooted in the vine. We practice silent meditation, lectio divina, the Jesus Prayer, the Examen, and many other silent disciplines. Ours is a very unoriginal way of staying connected to the vine of Christ. In fact men and women have been performing these practices for thousands of years. What they all share in common - AND what makes them woefully unpopular among contemporary American Christians - is that they all require us to keep quiet, to keep our mouths shut. They are listening-based practices that require not only a silence around us, but a silence within us. That is the tricky part. It’s one thing to find or create a silent external space; it’s quite another to cultivate silence in your mind…Which is probably why the vast majority of people who even attempt these kind of practices give up in frustration within the first couple days. Contemporary American Christians find these silent, listening-based disciplines too humbling, as they almost immediately confront us with our own inner distraction and emptiness. But those of us who persevere and soldier through these vine-abiding practices find an amazing pipeline to the divine, a new depth of connection, one that actually celebrates our humility and that utter dependence that Jesus spoke of when he said, “apart from me you can do nothing.”

Let me tell you what it’s been like for me, a fairly recent convert to the ancient and silent spiritual practices. I’m smart, well-educated, and even have a degree in theology from Princeton. I’m an effective speaker. Give me a microphone and an audience and I’ll talk all day about Jesus. That’s comfortable for me. That’s easy for me. But turn off the mic. Empty out the room. Take away my cel phone and my computer and ask me to sit still and be quiet, and almost instantly I get antsy, squirmy, restless. I’d be better if I had a Bible or something to read…But with these particular disciplines, I don’t. So I have to adjust to the quiet and stillness around me. And that’s when things get really noisy in my head. My brain starts churning in high gear. I start making all of these mental lists – to do lists and worry lists and, of course, the “reasons I don’t have time to sit here quietly” list. My mind goes full into monkey mode, replacing the noise outside that is now gone with noise inside that I feel totally powerless to stop. So a large benefit of the ancient silent practices is that they remind us all just how UNspiritual we are, just how easily distracted we are deep down, at our core, where we like to think that we’re so spiritual and close to God.

So now I sit with a few other people at our Living Vision gatherings and we battle our monkey minds together. We’re getting a little better at cultivating inner silence and carving out space in our cluttered minds for the vine to feed us. There’s a reason that they call these spiritual disciplines “practices.” We need practice. We all need practice when it comes to abiding in the vine. And let’s remember that all we’re really trying to do with any of this stuff is follow the simple advice Seals and Crofts tried to give us back in the 70’s, when they sang, “Darlin, if you want me to be closer to you get closer to me.” God must dig that song. And if you were God, what could be better than having a room full of your followers just come into your presence, silently, humbly, with no props who just sit there for no other reason than they want to be in your presence, they want to be closer to you?

Now where does all this practice lead? Where does God want all this practice to lead? In a word…it’s fruit. What Jesus is interested in folks is fruit. Trees that don’t bear fruit are worth nothing. (Reread the story of the Fig Tree – Mt 21:18-19) Christians, people who allegedly follow Jesus, but don’t produce fruit, are of no real interest or value to Jesus.

So what does it mean to bear fruit. What is fruit, folks? Fruit is children, offspring, new life that you create that outlives you, that is still there living and producing more fruit when you are dead and gone, right? So let’s brainstorm a bit, first alone and then with our tables, on what kind of fruit Jesus is interested in from his disciples, from us. What kind of fruit can you produce that can satisfy Jesus’ hunger for fruit and fruit-bearing followers?

(a few more minutes for personal and then table by table brainstorming)

Here are a few other ideas on what Jesus might be after when it comes to fruit…

1) Actions that reflect or mimic his actions in an authentic, other-serving way.

…Stopping to help someone stranded on the roadside

…Stopping by a local jail, hospital, or nursing home and asking if there are any folks who never seem to get any visitors…then visiting them!

…Reading or hearing about a person or family in need and then figuring out a way to help them, without them ever finding out it’s you

…Talking to a school counselor and asking if there are any kids he/she knows of who are struggling to get lunch each day – then making or buying their lunch for a week or a month anonymously

…Finding someone who is lonely and/or alone and hanging out with them

2) Doing what you can to mentor somebody about Jesus and his path

…invest yourself in showing (more than telling) him/her everything you know about and do for Jesus. Bring him/her along. When was the last time you introduced someone to Nexus, brought someone here and helped them plug in?

…start a Bible Study, book study, discussion group, or even an ancient spiritual practices group J  with a few spiritually hungry friends

…pick a person or two whom you can bring along with you to those activities you do that are most Christ-like

3) Lasting Legacy work – pick one or two good things/programs, etc. you do and take action NOW to insure that this work continues when you can no longer do it!

…If you’re serving habitat or a local soup kitchen regularly, recruit your eventual replacement/successor and bringing him/her along now so you know your work/fruit will continue.

The bottom line here, folks, is that Jesus has NEVER been interested in our beliefs, what we think, how often we come to church how well we know the Bible if we aren’t bearing fruit. He has always been about fruit – what we DO here and now that LASTS, that outlives us. God is most interested in our lasting legacy, what we do with our time and with the gifts He gives us on earth. God is most interested in what we do to make sure that the work HE cares about will keep being done long after we have left this earth.

Let me close with a great story about legacy. When I first started serving at Harbor Springs Presbyterian Church, I noticed very quickly that every time I did something there – preached, taught a class, took kids on a mission trip, etc. – I would very shortly after receive a nice hand written thank you note from this retired doc, Fritz Schwartz. Soon I had a stack of these wonderful notes of encouragement and I decided to bring them up at a staff meeting. Now all the staff had been at the church longer than I, and they all nodded knowingly when I talked about these letters. They all had stacks of them too. My boss said, “You know why he does that, don’t you?” I thought and said, “Because he knows the value of encouragement and gratitude?” Then I heard the full story. For over 50 years, his wife wrote these letters. Fritz didn’t. When she died and Fritz lost and struggled to adjust to her being gone and his own retirement, he decided to continue her legacy. He decided that to honor her and to stay attached to his love, he would take up doing what she had done all those years. So all those letters I got from Fritz were not merely thank you’s to me; they were his way of staying connected to and honoring his beloved wife.

So abide in the vine and bear fruit. Honor Jesus by continuing HIS legacy, doing something you KNOW he did. That’s what it means to follow Jesus. That’s what he meant by “I am the vine and you are the branches.”