ISpirituality

“Superficiality is the curse of our age…the desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.” – Richard Foster, “Celebration of Discipline”

Once upon a time, a group of men from Chicago left their jobs in the high-rise office buildings, moved to the prairie, and bought some farmland.  “We’re farmers,” they all declared to each other. And all summer long they would go to the field to watch their crop grow up. However, when September arrived, their fields were filled with goldenrod and all kinds of wildflowers and weeds. “Where’s the corn?” they asked each other. And they wondered what they could have possibly done wrong.

When we come to Holy Eucharist, are we superficial or do we have depth? When we leave worship, do we have what we need to be resourceful and productive? Are we able to “plow the fields, grow corn, and keep out the weeds”?

Episcopalians are drawn to some Prayer Book spirituality for this answer. In the BCP, we have on page 316 something called the Exhortation. I’m not sure many people know about it. Interestingly, it is at the VERY beginning of the section of the BCP entitled “The Holy Eucharist”. In essence, it is an admonition to come to Holy Eucharist carefully prepared.

Preparation includes:

1. A penitent heart
2. A living faith
3. An examination of life
4. Acknowledgment of sin
5. Restitution with those one has offended
6. Forgiveness of those who have been offensive
7. Spiritual counseling, if one cannot do the above

Attending worship involves preparation and a well prepared person receives the Lord’s Supper, not by habit, but with a heart of deep gratitude and with a freshness that comes through being right with others.

The Apostle Paul reminds us in I Corinthians (10:13) –

“But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.”

I share that with you because Lent is a time when we deliberately focus on things that are a hindrance in our relationship with God. We try to remove them. Lent is a spiritual spring cleaning!

In the Transfiguration, Jesus went up on a mountain with Peter, James, and John. These three men would be the core of the earthly church God would establish.

Present were Moses, the lawgiver, and Elijah, the prophet. It was a time for God to give his first instruction to the church. God told them, “This is my son, the one I love, LISTEN to him.”

So, for Lent, the first step is to listen more, talk less.
The second step is to listen to JESUS. God did not propose that we listen to anyone else.

This line of thought can be extended to show what happens when we don’t listen.

When they came off the mountain several things happened: One, the other disciples were arguing with the people and two, on the road they were arguing who would be the greatest.

In the first case, the disciples asked Jesus why they could not heal a little boy. Jesus said it was because (Mark 9:29) it could only be done by prayer and fasting, which were common practices of Jesus. They had not listened!

Then, Jesus dropped the bombshell – “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”  

So, the first rules of Lent are:
Listen to Jesus.
Pray and fast.
Be humble.

Listening requires being quiet, so this kind of prayer is called abiding prayer. To abide means to make yourself available to God.

Fasting means to give up those things which spiritually are a hindrance in your life.

Humility means, just what Jesus said, making yourself last and a servant to others.

One of my favorite stories is about a little bird that was never able to learn the song her master was so anxious to have her sing.

Her cage was full of light, but there was too much to attract her attention. There were so many voices to which she listened. She would learn a little of one song and a note of another and another until she had a mixture of all the songs of other birds she heard through the window, but never a separate and entire song of her very own.

The master at last closed the window, covered her cage, and the little bird was surrounded by darkness. In her loneliness and darkness she could only listen to the one song the master was trying to teach her to sing. Then, when the cage was uncovered, she continued to sing it beautifully, to the joy of the master’s heart and the entertainment of all who heard. She sang her own song.

Here’s the POINT: Our lives are often like that. There are so many distractions that it’s hard to hear when God wants our attention.

Here is a spiritual secret! Many times, when we fail to listen, God changes our lives so we will listen…and listening, we become teachable and sing our own song, the song God gives us as his unique and beautiful children.

So it is. The first rule of Lent is to listen to Jesus!

Jesus said,

“Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. John12:26

 

 

This past Sunday the Gospel was about Jesus going to church (synagogue) and when he was there, he was invited to teach. This is in Mark 1:23-26. As he was teaching, a man interrupted him by raising his voice. He said, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!”

Jesus immediately responded by saying to this man, “Be quiet and come out of him!” The text says, “The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.”

The man was possessed, which is to say he was defiled by an evil spirit. Somewhere along his journey in life, he took up ideas and walked with people that filled him with that which would destroy him – eventually.  

Jesus wanted him to be quiet because he did not want people to know he was the Messiah. It was way too early for that. Much had to be done. Jesus also gave this man freedom by delivering him of this spirit.

Jesus has two kinds of authority. One, is throne authority. His other authority is what he says will come to be due to his annointing. We remember that at his baptism, the scripture tells us in Mark that heaven was torn open and the Spirit came upon Him as a dove.

In the spiritual life, we remember that “spirit” is the root word in “spiritual”. When we are baptized, we receive an annointing of the Holy Spirit. It is there and available to the degree we walk with God. Some never get to know God. That is sad. Others are baptized and the annointing is never nurtured, or if it is – sometimes very little. So, that person has little good spiritual influence in their life. Although we don’t know, this man was evidently not baptized and had nothing in common with Jesus.

The good news is he was delivered of the evil. He was set free. I would like to know what happened to him. Did he follow Jesus or just walk away?

God once told Jeremiah, and he tells us, too, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me WHEN you seek me with all your heart and I will bring you back…”

It only takes one thing to get right with God – a decision.

What is your decision? Which way will you go?

1 John 2:15-17 (NIV)

On Not Loving the World

Do not 1) love the world or 2) anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

Commentary:  In October of 2011 I was listening in worship to this scripture being read. Usually when the Holy Spirit is trying to point out something to me, it stands out in my mind. The words “lives forever” stood out. In our society, people work very hard at living longer. I do and I try, but I’m more interested in the “forever” part. So, I had to weigh if I was investing more into the world and the “things” in the world or more into my love of God. I’m happy to say I think my priorities are right and if my life were over today I’m sure I’d inherit a “life forever” and the reason is my spiritual desires outweigh worldly desires – not just in the way I think, but in my actions.

How about you?