An Update on Living Vision Happenings...

Wow! What a great start we are off to in our fall practice at Living Vision! We've had great participation and been enlivened as we gather for silence, contemplation, and centering. Our focal practice/discipline for September has been Centering Prayer, also known as Apophatic Prayer in some circles. In this discipline we've been seeking to get beyond or beneath words, to put ourselves in the most receptive state possible, as we listen for that still, small voice.

In October, we'll shape our silent practice using the wisdom of Michael Brown's The Presence Process, a book that has influenced several of the participants in our fellowship. Brown's work centers on bringing ourselves into the present moment more fully and freely through a simple meditation he calls "the presence process." As with all our practices, one's particular religious perspective or background is not a limiting factor for the efficacy of this discipline. People from all religions or no religion can plug into the deep wisdom we will experience together. So spread the word, ALL are welcome. We meet each and every Tuesday from 7:30-8:30 pm at Yoga Roots in Petoskey at 444 E. Mitchell St. Please enter via the back alley and remove your shoes as you do.

On a related note, several of our practitioners have expressed a desire to spend some time talking and discussing topics of mutual interest, so we are looking for a time slot in which to do that. We will protect our meditation time on Tuesdays but we could meet afterward or find another day and time for that purpose. There is so much more we could grow into as we seek to live in community together. Please let Toby know your thoughts about this via email at tobyjones48@gmail.com.

The Living Vision Experiment in spiritual community turns its July attention to labyrinths. The labyrinth is a rich, historic symbol and practice in Christian and pre-Christian tradition. Greek and Roman history and archeology are full of labyrinths, but theirs tended to be tests, traps, and mazes. In the years following 1000 C.E. labyrinths began appearing on church floors and walls, inviting disciples to enter their purposeful path for reflection. Such labyrinths became symbols for the essential human journey to the core, the center, the soul of who we are.

When spiritual devotees walk a labyrinth, they are not asked to make choices or decisions about which way to go: those choices are already dictated by the labyrinth's one way journey to the center. The disciple simply chooses to enter the path, to engage, and then, having done so, simply lets go and surrenders to the path. All that is required from there is an open mind, a receptive spirit, a willingness to walk, putting one foot in front of the other.

Some people use the labyrinth exercise to work on an intention or a focal point of some sort. Perhaps a decision needs to be made or an emotion needs to be mulled. When a group walks a labyrinth together, they can silently draw near to one another and to God simply by sharing the journey. I've read of groups supporting one of their members who is leaving, moving, or journeying through cancer treatments by entering a labyrinth's path together. The possibilities are endless, and yet the path is one - one way in and one way out.

For us at Living Vision, everything we do together emphasizes silencing ourselves, humbling ourselves before God and each other. We seek to go inward to a place that lies beneath words, below doctrine, beyond belief. We seek to encounter the God whose ways are not like our ways, whose thoughts are not like our thoughts.

We invite you to join us during any of the Tuesdays of July at Crouse Chapel on the grounds of Bay View to walk a labyrinth together. We gather at 7:30 and disperse at 8:30. All are welcome. If you have any questions or seek more information, email tobyjones48@gmail.com   Peace.

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.”

The Examen - our discipline for April 2012

In many of our disciplines thus far in the Living Vision journey, we have sought to set aside our thoughts, to push away our analytical, mental machinations. We have, in one sense, sought to transport ourselves into the realm and presence of the transcendent God. We have wanted to make room for God, create space in our mind for God to speak by pushing away our thoughts about the day and setting aside our tendency to mull over recent events.

But in the spiritual discipline we begin for the month of April, we wille actually seek to pay attention to the day we had. We’ll want to listen to our own observations about what we experienced today in order to see if we can find any traces of the presence, power, and guidance of God IN and through those experiences.

The Examen is a spiritual practice of examination. In his most famous work, The Spiritual Exercises, Ignatius of Loyola sought to “examine his daily life for signs of God’s presence.” While we believe in a God who is wholly other and beyond our reach and intellectual capacity, we also believe in a God who is always with us, who abides with us and is IN the nitty gritty of our lives. So it only makes sense that the spiritual minded among us would seek to hone and fine-tune our observational skills in hopes of seeing God’s hand in our lives.

According to an Ignatian discipiles, the Examen is “a technique of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God’s presence and discern his will or direction for us.  The Examen is an ancient practice…that can help us see God’s hand at work in our whole experience.”

This is a version of the five-step daily Examen that St. Ignatius practiced:

1. Become aware of God’s presence.

   Use your breathing to connect to Presence. State your intention to be

   with and listen to God.

   

2. Review the day with gratitude.

   Gratitude is the foundation of our relationship with God. Walk through

   your day in the presence of God and noting its joys and delights.

3. Pay attention to your emotions.

   Reflect on the feelings you experienced during the day. What seems

   important? Consider what God is saying through these events or through

   your emerging feelings about them?

4. Choose or ask the Holy Spirit to highlight one feature/ event/

   decision/moment of the day that God thinks is particularly important. And

   pray on it, reflect on it. It may be a vivid moment or something that seems

   nsignificant.

5. Look toward tomorrow.

    Ask God to give you light for tomorrow's challenges. Can what you’ve

    seen/felt from today’s events and the examen guide you tomorrow?

So we’ll proceed together through all five of these steps and then spend some time afterward talking about what we experienced.

Living Vision meets three Tuesday evenings a month from 7:30-8:30 at Yoga Roots in Petoskey (444 E. Mitchell St. - enter via the back door of the alley). All are welcome to practice with us. We don't meet the first Tuesday of the month. For more information email Toby Jones at tobyjones48@gmail.com. Grace & Peace...

A Little Easter Humor

So I’m sitting in church this Easter morn listening as the robed gentleman reads John’s account of the resurrection. Having heard this particular story countless times, I always try to listen for the little things I may have missed. There’s always hidden humor in these bible stories.

The first thing I noticed in John’s Easter narrative is that Jesus apparently played favorites. Either that or John is angling for supremacy among the twelve disciples through how he tells the story. John writes that when Mary returned with the report of an empty tomb, “she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one the Jesus loved.” Does he mean that Jesus didn’t love Peter nor any of the other disciples? Does John intend to suggest that Jesus loved him - John - the most? I thought Jesus loved everybody the same?

Then, in the very next verse, as if John isn’t satisfied simply to be Jesus’ favorite, he writes the account of what happens next to emphasize that he – John – is also the fastest disciple. “So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.” I love this! I mean, what serious, bible-believing Christian hasn’t wondered which of the twelve was the best athlete? Who had the most stamina, the best 40-yard dash time, the highest vertical leap? These are the questions that have puzzled and plagued Bible readers for generations.

But the best tidbit I picked up this Easter is that Jesus was both anal-retentive and obsessive-compulsive. It appears then when Jesus got up, he not only laid the linens that had shrouded his body aside, but he also took the time to neatly wrap and fold the cloth that had been around his head and to carefully lay it in a separate place. Thank you, Jesus, for cleaning up what would have been such a mess otherwise.

I know, I know…there are so many more important and serious things to reflect on at Easter. But I couldn’t resist.

On a somewhat more serious note, we at Living Vision will be exploring and experimenting with the ancient discipline known as "the examen" on the remaining Tuesday evenings of April. Anyone interested in joining us is welcome. We'll meet at Yoga Roots at 444 E. Mitchell St. in Petoskey from 7:30-8:30 pm. Hope to see you there!

"Adventures in Missing the Point" - a Palm Sunday Message from Toby

         I’ve always thought that if I could re-title this famous Palm Sunday story of Jesus procession into Jerusalem, I would call it “Adventures in Missing the Point.” For if ever there was a time when people showed just how little they understood who Jesus was and what he had come to do, this Palm Sunday parade was it.

          Do you know why they were lining the streets with their palm branches and shouting “Hosanna!”? They thought Jesus was on his way into town to kick some Roman tail, to expel the Romans from their land once and for all, and to sit on the throne of David as the first legitimate political king that Israel had had for a long, long time. The truth, of course, was very different. Jesus was coming into town to offer himself, to sacrifice himself, to submit to the Roman authority rather than overthrow it. So Palm Sunday was one big adventure in missing the point.

         But to be fair, this huge throng of Palm Sunday hopefuls wasn’t the first group to miss the point where Jesus was concerned, and they certainly wouldn’t be the last. Think of the Pharisees and the Scribes. They had their image of what Jesus was supposed to do and supposed to be as well. In their highly educated view, Jesus was a Rabbi and they knew what any true rabbi “should” do. They wanted Jesus to comply with the letter of the scriptural laws; they wanted Jesus to fulfill their expectations of what a rabbi, a holy man of God should be. They didn’t want a messiah who fraternized with sinners and tax collectors. They couldn’t have that, any more than they could have a messiah who touched lepers and unclean women. They wanted Jesus to conform to their image of a holy man of God, to separate himself from all that was common, impure, and sinful, The Pharisees and Scribes time with Jesus was on big adventure in missing the point.

         The disciples weren’t really any better when it came to grasping who Jesus was and what he had come to do. They missed the point too. Think of Peter. He loved all of Jesus’ miracles – the healings, the feedings. Peter was the one who boldly jumped out of the boat to walk on the water with Jesus. But Peter’s problem came whenever Jesus started to talk about having to go to Jerusalem to suffer and die. Peter yelled, “Never, Lord! You shall never be handed over and crucified! Not you!” Peter, like the Pharisees and like that huge Palm Sunday crowd, wanted to hold onto his notion of a messiah, a victorious, miracle-working, and mighty messiah, not some weak, silent lamb led to the slaughter. Despite living with Jesus for three years, in the end Peter’s time with Jesus was an adventure in missing the point.

         Think of all the people who tried at some point to define Jesus, to fashion and shape him, and to make him conform to their image, to pigeon-hole him, and to get him to do what they wanted him to do rather than to do what he came to do. Remember the mother of James and John who tried to get her two sons special seats in the kingdom of heaven, right alongside of Jesus? Remember the disciples trying to shoo away all those little children who were flocking to Jesus and trying to touch him, while Jesus was saying, “Let the children come to me! For to them belong the kingdom of heaven…In fact, if you want to be a part of my kingdom, you need to become more like these little ones.”  Or what about the time Jesus entered Samaria instead of walking all the way around it – which is what law-keeping Jews were required to do to maintain their ceremonial cleanliness and purity? Jesus walked right into Samaria and then sat down at the well in the center of town and had a conversation with a Samaritan woman who had been married five times! The disciples were freaking out! They were thinking, “C’mon, Lord! We don’t do this! We don’t enter Samaria and we certainly don’t talk to unclean Samaritan women!” The disciples missed Jesus’ point every bit as much as the Pharisees on that night Jesus was dining with the Pharisees and that unclean prostitute entered their home to anoint Jesus with oil.

Now it’s one thing that all of these people who should have known better completely missed Jesus’ point. But the real tragedy in all of this is that these same people – whether they were Jesus’ supposed enemies or his supposed friends – in their missing of the point of who Jesus was also tried to limit who could and couldn’t be a part of Jesus’ ever expanding community. This is where missing Jesus’ point crosses the line from being foolish to being dangerous. This is the real problem with missing the point of who Jesus was and is and what he came to do. When we miss the point of who he was, then it becomes a virtual certainty that we will also miss the point of and the nature of the community he came to establish. When we limit Jesus and box him into our own narrow understandings, we can’t help but also limit and define in much too narrow a way his community, his church, his ever-expanding people.

         Think about it…The Pharisees didn’t think that Jesus’ community should include or embrace sinners, tax collectors, lepers, or prostitutes. The disciples didn’t think Jesus’ community should include children, teachers of the law like Nicodemus, or Samaritans like that the woman at the well.

If our scriptures are clear about anything, they are clear about the fact that those who thought they knew Jesus best, those who should have known better, were as wrong about Jesus – and about the community he came to establish - as they could have been. And if they – the very people who lived with Jesus, heard him speak, saw his miracles and his unlimited compassion and love – could be wrong about Jesus and who would be a part of his community, then so can we…so can we. Palm Sunday nineteen hundred and seventy nine years ago was a gigantic adventure in missing the point. Could Palm Sunday 2012 be an equally mistaken endeavor?

         Every single generation of Christians, going all the way back to Jesus day, has tried to draw boundaries around the Christian community. For the first chunk of years, followers of Christ believed that Gentiles or non-Jews should not be permitted into the Christian circle. For the next hundred or so years, Christians battled about whether the followers of the Apostle John’s school of thought or the followers of Peter’s school of thought should be considered the true fellowship. Moving into more modern times, American Christians debated whether African slaves should even be allowed to be baptized, much less welcomed into the full fellowship of the church. And you know the debates about women being allowed to speak or minister in Christ’s name, and whether gay, lesbian, and transgender people can be allowed into our churches. There are many Christians today who still don’t think that Jesus’ community should include assertive women, gay and lesbian people, pro-choice proponents, or those who are open to other religions.     

People are still trying to limit and narrowly define Jesus, his ministry, and his community today. Faithful men and women are still trying to pin Jesus down, confine God and ways of thinking about God. Do you know that in our own denomination right now there are people fighting about the doctrine of the trinity? There are many folks in our denomination for whom understanding God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit doesn’t work. It’s too limiting, too gender specific. It reduces God instead of magnifies Him. So these folks have worked on coming up with alternative language to express God’s multi-faceted nature. But even as they do, more traditional folks in our denomination are saying, “You can’t do that! You can’t change the way we’ve always talked about God. God IS Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and always has been, and if you try to say that in some other way, you’re going to have to leave our denomination.” We’re still fighting about words and doctrines that we humans made up in the first place to try and express something that’s beyond all human words.

         Jesus is more liquid than solid. He’s like the water I poured into your hands earlier this morning. He gets us wet, but we can’t contain or hold onto his living water. The living water of Jesus keeps flowing through us, squeezing out of the cracks and crevices of our lives, so that others can taste and feel and see his living water too.

         It is this deep truth of our wanting to contain Jesus and Jesus’ refusal to be contained that has led me to be very careful and very suspicious of doctrines and systematized, institutionalized beliefs. It is this flowing and liquid nature of Jesus that makes me equally suspicious of any efforts to limit or draw boundaries around Jesus’ community – who can be in it and who is to be kept out. We Christians have a long, long history of trying to hold onto Jesus and to our particular understanding of him, of trying to draw lines around him and around his community by constructing doctrines and then casting them in stone as a way of saying, “This is how we will understand and talk about Jesus and his community forever and ever. Amen.”

With both his actions and his words, Jesus was always saying, “Do not hold onto me!” Why? Because Jesus doesn’t want to be doctrinalized or institutionalized or put in some theological box. Even our best, most clever doctrines can only give us a tiny glimpse of God. They never have been and they never will be entirely accurate or true.  Every doctrine or statement or way of talking about Jesus that we’ve ever come up with is a bit misleading, incomplete, and seen through that foggy mirror Paul spoke of in 1^st Corinthians 13. When it comes to Jesus and his community, we, too, have missed the point, and in so many ways we continue to miss the point.

And God knew this was going to happen, which is why He said what he said to Moses all the way back in Exodus 3. Moses asked, “What is your name? Who should I say sent me?” God showed his infinite wisdom when He answered, “I am who I am, and I will be what I will be.” “Yahweh” is so much more than a name. It’s a reminder and a warning that the God we worship is not to be quantified, categorized, nor contained in any way. We mustn’t seek to contain God in human words, in theological systems, nor even in our finite human minds. When God gave Moses that second commandment, “You shall construct no graven images of me,” God wasn’t just talking about golden calves. God was forbidding us from ever limiting Him or boxing Him in with words or doctrines or anything that fixes Him – or his ever expanding community - in some permanent, solid, unchanging state.

God is like water, and what He wants more than anything else is people and churches and communities that are willing to have that living water flow through us – not just INto us, but OUT of us as well, to ALL people.

The people who waved those palm branches and shouted loud Hosanna’s 1979 years ago today couldn’t have been more wrong about who Jesus was. I hope and I pray that they won’t be saying the same thing about us a few years from now.

The Discipline of Focused Attention

 

Tonight we begin the month of March with a new practice, the practice of Focused Attention. This is a practice that His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls an essential discipline for developing compassion and for giving us the mental discipline we need to be effective, peaceful citizens in an increasingly interdependent world.

We live in an ADD world, and we all know that Attention Deficit is not only a disease that young school children and adolescents suffer from, but a metaphor for American society in the new millennium. And when we are honest with ourselves, we know how difficult it is to quiet our minds, to push aside the clutter. I think it was Eckart Tolle whose book The Power of Now first helped me realize that my mind controls me far more often than I control my mind.

So the discipline of focused attention is a form of training, a form of practice to enable us to regain the ability – the God-given ability – to control our minds so that our minds no longer control us. And, like all the other spiritual disciplines we practice, this one IS a battle, a battle waged in our minds as we seek to choose what the object and focus of our attention will be.

Dalai Lama describes this practice as follows: “this practice is a cultivation of sustained attention through single pointed concentration. We choose an object as the focus of our attention. It may be a flower, a painting, or simply an orb of life. For a religious practitioner, it could be a sacred object like a crucifix or an image of Buddha…”

“Having relaxed and settled your mind, try to maintain your focus on the object…Keep your eyes only slightly open and looking downward…don’t worry if your eyes close” for it is not the actual seeing of the object that matters but the ability to keep the object at the center of your mind’s eye, as the sole object of your focused attention.

So what do we do when our mind wanders…? We simply open our eyes and fix them on our object again, getting that image front and center of our focused attention again.

In terms of the big picture of what we have been attempting in all our Living Vision gatherings and spiritual practices, it’s vital to remember our goals. First, we are seeking, above all, humility. We’re here to humble ourselves by reminding ourselves just how UNspiritual we really are, how UNfocused we really are, how UNChrist-like we really are. So as we struggle with each discipline and practice we attempt, remember that if you AREN’T good at, if you AREN’T focused or centered, let it humble you, for the more humble we are about our spiritual lives, the more compassionate toward others we will be and the less likely we will be to judge others.

Second, we’re here seeking God. We’re here to break all the habits we have accrued in the rest of our lives and to try and create room and space for God to speak to us. We know from our human relationships that we can’t listen and talk at the same time. So we’re here to listen for God, to seek HIS still small voice.

So our object for tonight’s first segment of practice will be a lighted candle. Just the dancing light itself, an open image that can take your mind in many directions, but the task is to stay with the light.

Our second segment will focus on a painting, Van Gogh’s rendering of the Good Samaritan.

Beyond Religion - Ch. 10

Here DL identifies the following key human values: patience/forbearance, contentment, self-discipline, and generosity.

In discussing patience, he really calls it the ability to endure suffering with mental disciplines. He argues, as many others have, that accepting our pain and suffering in life makes it easier to bear. Do you have any experience or personal examples which support this principle?

I have found it helpful at times to draw a line between my actual suffering and my worrying or emotional response to the pain. This allows me to recognize the way I often subconsciously heap misery upon the misery and to call off the dogs of my mental negativity. Your thoughts?

Have you found any gain in DL’s suggestion to see how our bad fortune can sometimes be someone else’s good fortune, seeing things from that larger, less intensely personal perspective?

DL also talks about cultivating a sense of contentment in our lives. How do you limit your own desires and find satisfaction in what you have?

In his discussion of generosity, DL notes that we must “give out of respect for the recipient,” “honoring the recipient’s dignity.” Can you give an example of a specific act of generosity that has done that and one that has not?

So often we limit our discussion and understanding of generosity to material gifts. DL asks us to think of generosity of attitude and behavior and in dealings with others. Again, to encourage each other, please offer a story of when you have experienced such non-material generosity.

Beyong Religion - Ch. 11 - Meditation

This final chapter focuses on some particular internal, contemplative practices DL recommends for those seeking to live compassionately in the world for the benefit of others. It was hard for me not to think of Living Vision's Tuesday night gatherings throughout this chapter, because literally everything we have done since October has been geared toward these very truths.

The mind is a wild horse so difficult to tame...a small boat adrift at sea, being tossed about by every wave. With this in mind - and, in all likelihood, in your bountiful experience - how do you react to the Tibetan meditator's adage that, "I have only one task: to stand guard at the entrance of my mind."

Looking at the particular disciplines and practices DL advocates. comment on each one, particularly where you have some experience or practice. Or, if you prefer, ask a question about each:

Focused Attention

Present Moment Awareness

Cultivating Equanimity

Rejoicing in the Good Example of Others

Those of us who have explored and been involved with any of the contemplative prayer practices know a lot about the first major obstacle DL talks about - distraction. How have you handled distraction effectively in your own prayer life? What advice or wisdom would you share with the group?

Beyond Religion Book Group - Chapter 7

 

On the first page of this powerful and packed chapter, DL claims that, “the complex problems we face in the world…almost always indicate a failure of moral ethics and inner values. At every level we see a lack of self-discipline….Our shared problems do not fall from the sky, nor are they created by some higher force. For the most part they are products of human action and human error.” Do you agree? Why/why not? Why is this even important?

DL also claims that, “In this age of globalization, the time has come for us to acknowledge that our lives are deeply interconnected and to recognize that our behavior has a global dimension.”Respond.

In his section on the “Futility of War,” DL says that, “in this contemporary, deeply interdependent world, war is outdated and illogical. Before you agree or disagree, put this claim in the context of Iran’s current development of nuclear weaponry. How should we and our governments respond?

In his section on the Environment, DL calls us to “face the reality that our excessively materialistic lifestyles are wasteful and come at a considerable environmental cost.” This is not a popular, crowd-pleasing message in the U.S. How do we go about combating such rampant and culturally endorsed materialism?

Speaking of messages that won’t do well in the U.S., DL directly indicts capitalism as “only motivated by profit, without any ethical principle guiding it,” and leading to “terrible exploitation of the weak.” Your thoughts? How should we respond?

Beyond Religion Book Group - Chapter 8

 

What do you think of DL’s “ethic of restraint”?  In what ways, if any, do you consciously practice such restraint in your daily life? In what other ways could you expand your practice of this important ethic? Do you agree with what DL says later about restraint, that it paves the way for us to “give more attention to actively doing good?”

In his section on “Awareness” DL calls us to “honestly observe our own behavior,” and to “bring it under control.” Do you observe yourself in this way? How can we be more attentive to ourselves in this way?

Beyond Religion Book Group - Chapter 9

 

Ch 9 – Dealing with Destructive Emotions

This ch. really hit me hard as I have , in the last few years of my life, come to the profoundly humbling realization that much of my experience and world view is drastically colored by my own emotions and moods. In that light, what DL claims on the first page of this chapter – that “tackling these negative emotions is an important goal of ethical and spiritual practice” – is spot on.

How aware are you of your own genetic predispositions emotionally speaking? Are you more optimistic or depressed? How has that played into your attitudes and actions in the world? Are you aware of when your own “mental projections,” as DL calls them, are ramping up your irrational fears?

Respond to DL’s remark just before the subsection entitled “The Emotion Families,” where he says, “all these afflictive mental states in one way or another obscure our vision by clouding our capacity for discernment. They make us incapable of rational judgment, and thus we might say they steal our minds.”

For me, the crux of Ch. 9 is found in the section called “Understanding the Causes of Affliction.” DL notes that we “tend to see the troublemaker as something outside ourselves. If we reflect deeply, however, we discover that the real troublemaker is within us.” If you listen to the conversation all around us – including the 2 cents that we put in – isn’t it the case the we’re forever blaming others and outside forces for everything that is “wrong” with the world today – politically, economically, religiously, etc.? How do we change the dialogue from blaming others to taking responsibility ourselves?

What did you think of the door slamming story?

Stuck in the Middle...

Tonight at Living Vision, we were practicing the Jesus Prayer, a discipline that involves the repetition of these words: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us.” It’s profoundly simple and deeply transforming, as one moves more deeply into the practice. But something interesting and unexpected happened tonight as I did this practice that I want to share.

As you may know, this prayer has its origin in the Bartimaeus story in Mark 10. The scene is that Jesus is moving down a packed street to Jericho, a regular mob scene. And this blind beggar named Bartimaeus figures out who is walking by and starts shouting at the top of his lungs, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!”

Well tonight in the heart of this particular prayer practice, I began to imagine myself on that street calling out with the words of this very prayer. And what came to me was the sense that Jesus probably wouldn’t have noticed me. He probably wouldn’t have heard or responded to my cry on that crowded Jericho street because I wasn’t so noticeably deformed or so visibly needy.

When you think about it, pretty much all the gospel stories have Jesus responding to and reaching out to the remarkably outcast – blind beggars, lame and disfigured lepers, and raving demoniacs. And so, from deep in the practice of the Jesus Prayer, I had the profound and enduring sense that Jesus’ attention would have been elsewhere, that his compassion would have been drawn to someone “more” obviously in need or more visibly imperiled than I.

This thought pattern and thread continued as I went more deeply into the prayer practice, and I found myself becoming very sad. I suddenly felt as though this had been the story of my entire life – that I was not remarkable or excellent in any outstanding way, but neither was I “sufficiently” needy or messed up in any particularly significant way. I was, instead, stuck in mediocrity, in the middle…and I’m not really aware of any gospel evidence that Jesus deals with us who dwell in the middle. It’s great that Jesus is filled with such compassion for the outcast and the deeply unfortunate. But wouldn’t it be nice if there were at least a story or two in there somewhere when Jesus stopped and had a beer with a guy with all his limbs in tact, with all his senses functioning, but who was dying inside? Or how about a story of a guy who may have had things reasonably together physically but who’d lost his wife and family to divorce or who couldn’t sleep at night because of his economic fears or lack of health insurance?

I can’t help but wonder how many of us are stuck in the middle? How many of us don’t have the drawing card of the alcoholic collapse or the stint in prison? How many of us don’t have the riveting and infinitely marketable testimony of some horrific fall followed by a miraculous healing and salvation? How and where does the Gospel meet US? When do we get our moment with the savior like Bartimaeus and Zaccheus did?

I guess I want to know that if I were on that crowded road to Jericho and cried out “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me!” that he would have stopped…that Jesus would have come to me…to ME with all my limbs and both eyes…and that he would have cared…and listened…and understood. That sure would have been nice…It still would be nice.

The Jesus Prayer Practice – Week 1 – 2/14/12

 

For the month of February and our three Tuesdays within it, we will explore a very particular Christian prayer practice – The Jesus Prayer. Some trace the origin of this particular prayer to Luke 18:35-43 and Mark 10:46-52.

So the practice is quite simple in that it involves merely repeating this exact phrase – “Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me” – over and over and over. There is nothing complicate about it. We use this exact phrasing as our sole focus and purpose. It anchors us and brings us back to the very NAME of Jesus.

Let’s look at the words that make up this powerful and historic prayer. First, the two preliminary phrases are names for God – Jesus Christ…Son of God. We are saying and repeating this name.

The next phrase, “Have mercy on me” or “Have mercy on us” is both a humble statement of who we are in the presence of that God we named in the first two phrases – in need of mercy – AND an affirmation of faith in what God can do, namely have mercy on us, forgive us, restore us, lift us up, or in Bartimaeus’s case, give us sight. Help us to see again. For we too are blind.

So in saying this simple, brief prayer, we are lifting up God and the name of God, we are showing faith in that God as powerful enough to help, to bestow mercy, and we are confessing our own inadequacy – we are in NEED of mercy. In some ways this is the entire essence of the Christian gospel summarized in one prayer – who God is, who we are, and the need we have for God.

Now, just like all our other practices, we can expect to be assaulted with distractions as we undertake this discipline. Our minds will wander. We’ll think about a bunch of other stuff, our relationships, our to-do lists, etc. But so what? That is our nature. The good news in this practice is that the response to distraction is very simple; we just say the prayer again and again. It is our anchor. It is our salvation, the thing we come back to. No frills. No fuss. No great emptying of the mind. Just repeat the prayer again and again.

If you want or need to, you can try just letting particular parts, words of the prayer rise to the top of your conscious – Jesus Christ, or Son of God, or Have mercy upon me. But these words are it. They are the goal and they are the means. They are literally all there is to this practice.

We’ll try it for two 15 minute portions with a little break in the middle.

Beyond Religion Book Group - Chapter 4

DL’s goal is fostering a “universal compassion,” where we expand our “circles of concern until they finally embrace the whole of humanity.”(second to last page of chapter 4) Then in the middle of the chapter, identity, which we spoke of last week, resurfaces as DL calls us to “move beyond our limited or biased sense of closeness to this or that group or identity and instead cultivate a sense of closeness to the entire human family.” Can this be done? How?

Toward the beg DL writes that “people mistakenly assume that compassion is a religious practice.” DL uses as evidence for compassion not being religiously rooted the countless doctors and rescue workers who work to relieve suffering in the wake of tsunamis, hurricanes, etc. Is compassion necessarily a religious based practice? If not, how and through what means is compassion taught/caught, nurtured/conveyed?

DL makes a distinction between empathy and compassion. Is this helpful to you? Why/why not?

Beyond Religion Book Group - Chapter 5

DL begins stating a conflict many see with compassion as a central ethic, namely that it somehow undercuts justice in a society. Do you, personally, see or feel this particular conflict? When “fairness” is paramount, not only compassion but Jesus can get run out of town, right?

Traditionally, have you viewed  and practiced punishment as a form of retribution or prevention?

DL, midway through, highlights his belief that people can change. How vital is this belief if we seek a more compassionate world?

DL advocates distinguishing the action from the actor. He writes, “It is vital to keep in mind the distinction between the doer and the deed.” Sounds a lot like “love the sinner; hate the sin.” Do you buy this? Why/why not?

Beyond Religion Book Group - Chapter 6

On the second page of this chapter, DL defines discernment at “an ethical awareness of what will benefit both oneself and others.” But he is quick to add that such an awareness “does not arise magically, but comes from the use of reason.” He argues that some of what inspires and nurtures this ethical awareness is the prevailing culture in which one lives and education.  Is our American culture and educational system well suited for such a task? Why/why not?

DL highlights interdependence as a key principle in an ethically aware world.  He cites examples of interdependence in the global economy, the natural world, and in he quantum sciences. Again, thinking of our American culture, one of the dominant, driving values in American culture is independence and self-sufficiency. How can we Americans learn to let go of our false sense of independence and self-sufficiency and replace it with a healthy sense of global interdependence – what DL calls “the way things actually are”? Or can we?

Beyond Belief Book Group - Segment 1D - Chapter 3

 

Chapter 3

As DL outlines our common human quest for happiness, he identifies 3 main sources of our happiness: 1) wealth/prosperity, 2) health, and 3) friendship/companionship. Do you agree with these three? Are there other primary sources of happiness for you? (Comment!)

He also identifies 2 levels of satisfaction – 1) satisfaction based on sensory stimulation and pleasure and 2) satisfaction based on an inner level, a peace of mind level. Can you think of daily experiences that create these two types of satisfaction? Can you think of other levels of satisfaction as well? (Comment!)

What do you most want to discuss from Chapter 3? (Comment!)

Beyond Belief Book Group - Segment 1C - Chapter 2

 

Chapter 2

As DL notes our tendency to identify ourselves through what distinguishes us or makes us different from others, he challenges and calls us to learn to identify ourselves through what we share, our common human characteristics. More specifically, he notes that we all have a body, a natural capacity for empathy, and a deep and fundamental equality. On the final page of this chapter he writes, “The time has come to start thinking and acting on the basis of an identity that is rooted in the phrase ‘we human beings.’”

Have you thought seriously lately about how you identify yourself? Are you willing and ready to re-identify yourself in the way DL advocates? What is the cost of such a re-identification? What grates against us re-identifying ourselves in this way? (Comment!)

What do you most want to discuss from Chapter 2? (Comment!)

Beyond Belief Book Group - Segment 1B - Chapter 1

 

Chapter 1

In the middle of chapter one, DL says that “humans can manage without religion but they cannot manage without inner values.” Speaking for yourself, do you have a hard time conceiving of an ethical system without religion? Can one be good without God? If so, how? From what source or place – if not from God – can such ethics and goodness come, as you see it? (Comment!)

Toward the end of chapter one, DL offers what he calls the “two pillars of secular ethics:” 1) our shared humanity and 2) our shared interdependence. If he is right? How might we foster these pillars in our own lives, in our children’s lives, in our schools, communities, and churches? (Comment!)

What do you most want to discuss from Chapter 1? (Comment!)

Beyond Belief Book Group: Segment 1A - Introduction

 

Welcome to the first session of our Living Vision cyber book group. We are reading the Dalai Lama’s (we’ll refer to him as DL from this point forth) newest book Beyond Religion. On Sunday afternoon, Feb. 5 at 5:00, we’ll “convene” by logging onto this particular blog entry to discuss its introduction and first three chapters.

To make your entry of comments easier and our organized discussion more pointed and effective, let me clarify a few things. Since there are four Sundays in February and each one will be a target date for 1/4^th of our discussion of the book, those Sundays and discussions will be designated numbers 1-4. But each of those four will have several blog entries attached to them. You'll remember that on Sunday, Feb 5 we will be discussing the introduction and the the first three chapters of the book. So there will be an entry labeled 1A which will cover and invite your comments for the introduction only. Entry 1B will cover and invite your comments for chapter 1 only. Entry 1C will cover and invite your comments for chapter 2 only, etc. This will enable us to keep our comments clearly focused on the same portion of the book and see everyone’s comments on that particular section in the same place. So by the time we get to the second Sunday in Feb, the 12^th, the entries we will have used to prepare for that discussion will be 2A, 2B, etc. It may sound confusing, but we'll manage it together.

So, since we are in entry 1A, here are some key things to think about and comment on in the comment section of the blog in preparation to our live discussion. It is your written comments that will deepen and expedite our Sunday afternoon interchange. Further, since some of you may not be able to make Sunday’s “gathering,” now is your chance to make your points and raise your questions.

Let’s begin…

Introduction

The clear thesis of the book is found toward the end of the intro and reads

as follows: “Any religion-based answer to the problem of our neglect of inner values can never be universal and so will be inadequate. What we need today is an approach to ethics which makes no recourse to religion and can be equally acceptable to those with faith and those without: a secular ethics.”

Do you see his point? Do you agree? Why/Why not? (Comment!)

What do you most want to discuss from the introduction? (Comment!)

The Practice of Spiritual Journaling - Session 3 - 1/24/12

We’ve been exploring the beauty and power of the spiritual practice of journaling. We’ve found that when we prayerfully write to God and then prayerfully listen, that we actually can be led to write divinely inspired conversation. Tonight we continue that practice and privilege but in a slightly different way.  

In the last two weeks in particular, I have laid out some of the obstacles people often experience when they first enter this practice. Some, for instance, feel that they lack the requisite writing skills to effectively engage in this practice. Hopefully, by now we’ve overcome that obstacle. Others tend to feel that God could never or would never speak directly to and through “me.” I think that last week, in particular, we saw that such a humble self-assessment ought not get in the way, and, in fact, does not get in the way of God speaking.

But is the third obstacle that we will confront head on in tonight’s practice.   The third obstacle we have discussed is one that operates mostly at the subconscious level. It’s so subtle that at times we aren’t even aware of it. It is the notion many of us carry that God, the Creator, the Spirit, the Ultimate Source is somehow disappointed with us, upset with us, not pleased with us. Deep down, in our quietest and perhaps weakest moments, many of us, regardless of religion, may feel this way, with the result that we may not really WANT to hear from God. For those of us growing up in American Christianity in particular, with its constant emphasis on sin, guilt, confession, and what John Calvin called “total depravity,” it shouldn’t be hard to figure out where we get our sense of being disappointing to God. But is that really the whole story? Is sin even supposed to be central to the story of who God is, who we are, and what the nature of relationship to the Divine is and is all about? Does the loving God who created all that is, does that Source of all energy and life really want us to feel that way about ourselves?

My hope is that tonight’s unusual and imaginative practice will at least begin to answer that question for us. It is an usual practice and it does ask a lot of your imagination. I am going to ask all of us to close our eyes in a few moments and imagine a scenario. Once I’ve painted the scenario and sounded our bell, I’d like us to keep silently present in the scenario for ten minutes or so. From there, eventually, I’d like us to write whatever we heard and sensed and felt throughout the imagination-based exercise. That is the journaling component of this evening’s practice. Now to give this imagined scenario as much flesh and bone as possible, I’m going to use the name and figure of Jesus in the description. But, if you would like to picture or work with some other divine manifestation or figure, that is fine too.  So let’s begin.

You’ll need to get comfortable, sitting with good posture, practicing good, deep but relaxed breathing, and, of course, close your eyes.

I want you to imagine that you are sitting in an incredibly beautiful, peaceful, natural setting…It could be a place you know and go to often, a park, a place on the shore or in a woods clearing. It could be a place you’ve never been but have pictured…But it is amazingly beautiful and profoundly peaceful….Absorb and take in the scene…  There you are…the sun is warming your face…listen to natures sounds…smells…aromas…

In your peripheral vision you see a figure off in the distance walking toward you. It’s a peaceful figure, moving easily, naturally, taking in the scenery as you are. He’s not in a hurry and is as relaxed as you are…He’s not a distraction from the scene but seems part of it… 

He draws closer and you begin to make out his features….He is smiling…He approaches and gestures as if to ask if he may join you, sit beside you, and you nod your consent….It is Jesus… He begins to speak with you…. Listen to what he says to you…and pay attention to your conversation with Jesus…

Living Vision – the Practice of Journaling – Week 2 – 1/17/12

 

Tonight we continue our exploration of conversing with the Divine through journaling. This is a practice that has a long and rich history in many religions and spiritual heritages. For Christians, this practice of prayerful journaling and recording one’s spiritual interaction with God is most often traced back to Julian of Norwich, who recorded her visions and conversations in the 1300’s.

We noted last week that, like all the other disciplines we’ve explored, this particular practice engenders some reservations in those of us who enter it. And just for the sake of reminder, this listening and writing oriented discipline is in NO WAY dependent on your writing ability. You can misspell every word and make a million grammatical errors and still have a profound experience tonight. So let that go.

The other reservation we noted with this discipline is that we are such humble creatures that we can’t imagine that any words WE write can possibly come from God or God’s spirit. Julian of Norwich – maybe. Jesus, Paul – sure. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Rick Warren- perhaps. But not us! Not Annie or Toby! Well, not so fast. To me, if God doesn’t speak to and through common folk like us, particularly when we’re engaged in listening for God’s voice, then what are we doing here? What’s the point of being spiritually devoted creatures. We need to let go of this notion that we aren’t good enough to hear from God or that God isn’t still in the business of speaking to and through ordinary, common folks.

And finally, for this practice and discipline to work, we have GOT to believe and trust that this force and spirit we call God loves us…adores us…wants nothing more than to be with us. If we’re still clinging to the Old Testament, adolescent understanding that God is pissed at us and just waiting to punish us, then we probably don’t even WANT to hear from Him tonight or any night, through this prayerful discipline or any other one. We’ve got to let God love us tonight…We’ve  got to trust those prophetic words – “I know the plans I have for you, saith the Lord, plans for good and not for harm.”

So in tonight’s practice we are going to converse with God, both talk and listen to God, through the discipline of prayerful journaling.  We’re going to do this by drawing a vertical line down the middle of each page. On the left side we will write our thoughts, our questions, anything we want to direct toward God. The right side of the page will be reserved for whatever results from our listening. After writing the thoughts and questions we have on the left, we look each one over and we wait upon the Lord. If and when we get any sense of direction, any little nudges or possible responses, we write them down on the right side. Don’t question or criticize what emerges in your right column. Just trust it and write it. We’ll worry about evaluating what winds up in our right columns later.

Now there will be an ebb and flow to this. It might not be that for each thing we write on the left we hear or receive something for the right. It may wind up that we have 8 or 10 things on the left when our 25 minutes ends and only 1 or 2 things on the right. There’s no right or wrong here, no number or balance to shoot for. Just write what comes to you to write and trust the process. We’ll debrief the experience and what we’ve written later, ok?

January's Practice - Spiritual Journaling - Session I

The following is the introductory teaching material from the most recent Living Vision community gathering. We hope you find it edifying and we invite you to join us this coming Tuesday, January 17 from 7:30-8:30 at Yoga Root, when we will continue our exploration and practice of prayerful journaling. Peace.

Tonight we begin our practice of spiritual, prayerful journaling.  The “Mother” or chief source of this practice is Julian of Norwich, a famous mystic fromthe 1300’s, who wrote about her ecstatic experiences and encounters with God in prayer. But in another sense, anyone and everyone who has ever written about their relationship with God invites us into this practice. There is something about writing, particularly when in a silent, prayerful state, that puts us in touch with the Divine.

After a time of contemplation, silence, or prayer, it is often the act and discipline of writing about the experience that can lead us to greater clarity or understanding of it. But before we can begin the actual practice of journaling tonight, we need to address three specific barriers that can undercut and get in the way of this particular practice.

First, we THINK that the efficacy of this journaling practice must somehow be contingent on our writing ability…People say, “But I’m not a very good writer…I can’t do this discipline well.” Let me assure you that the value of this practice has absolutely nothing to do with our writing ability, nothing to do with our spelling, our grammar, nor our ability to come up with the “right” or best word. What matters about our writing is ONLY that writing cultivates two essential prayer skills – listening and noticing…And in this practice, as with all the others we’ve worked on, when we incline our ear to that still small voice of God, it may become more recognizable or audible through the discipline itself, in tonight’s case in and through the words that we are inspired to write.

A second huge and intimidating barrier that can undercut our buying into this particular practice is the notion people have that it’s already been done by people far more competent than we are. We already have the Bible and the Gita and the Koran. God has already spoken through others, hasn’t He?  So what could I possible add to this divine conversation? My response to this reservation is definitive and clear…If God ISN’T still speaking, ISN’T still inspiring, then what are we doing here? What are we doing in churches and religious communities? If everything God has to say has already been said and already written, then what are we doing here and why don’t we just hunker down in some library or monastery somewhere and do nothing but read God’s old words?  But IF we believe – TRULY believe - in a LIVING God, a LIVING, BREATHING Spirit, an OPERATIVE life force, then shouldn’t our lives be about seeking to hear THAT voice today, tonight? Friends, this is one of the key factors that led me OUT of the institutional forms of Christian practice, the fact that I didn’t feel Christians gave adequate attention to seeking to hear and respond to that LIVING voice, that PRESENCE here and now. That’s what I’m here for. That’s exactly why I started this Living Vision community and what I want the rest of my spiritual life to be all about, and I’m thrilled that you’re here with me in these kinds of endeavors.

The third barrier I want us to acknowledge is one that may actually be at play in ALL of the spiritual practices we’ve done and will do. We may NOT really want to hear directly from God because we may not trust Him. We may, deep down, still be clinging to a sense that God doesn’t love us, doesn’t accept us and is going to be harsh and condemning with us IF He comes to speak to us. If we are afraid of God and still carry that child-like  view that God is somehow angry with us or disappointed with us, we are likely to shut out His voice or at least prefer NOT to hear it in whatever form in comes to us. To this barrier and perspective I can only say what the writer of letters of John said in the Xn New Testament. “God is love.” Love is the essence of God’s nature. We must learn to trust both that God IS love AND that we ARE LOVED. We’ve got to trust that we ARE God’s own children, that we are loved with a love that surpasses even our love for our kids.

So tonight and in the next two Tuesdays, we’ll try three different approaches to journaling, in hopes that at least one of the three will really resonate with your heart and spirit. Each is designed to tune us in more closely to the living Spirit we call God.

1)    We’ll begin tonight by telling God our intention to be in God’s presence and to listen for His voice. Reminding ourselves and God of that intention and stating it is important in ALL our disciplines.

2)    Then we just begin writing thoughts and feelings we have about or in relation to God. They might be questions we have. They might be spiritual struggles we’re in the midst of. Anything that’s about God and your relationship with Him, as opposed to journaling about the days events or what your schedule is for tomorrow. There’s no real right or wrong here, but try to stick to your intention to write what’s on your heart or mind right now IN RELATION to God.

3)    Then we pause. We wait. We look at and read over what we’ve written and we restate silently our intention to be in God’s presence and listen to Him.

4)    If in this listening/waiting phase, we feel the desire to write more – by all means do so! This could be God’s nudging and way of conversing. The rhythm may be one of writing a little, listening and waiting a little, writing a little more, re-reading and listening a little more.

So let’s begin and see where this journaling exercise leads us….We’ll start with a chunk of about 20 minutes tonight. I’ll begin by offering a little prayer of intention for us, which you can follow up on in your own way as you begin…