Friday, June 30, 2023

Persistently Bold Prayer | Practicing Jesus' Faithful Way



God is eager to give Himself to us. + John F. Smed, Disruptive Prayer


Luke 11:1 Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.” 2 Jesus said to them, “Whenever you pray, say, Father, Your name be honored as holy. Your Kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us. And do not bring us into temptation.” 5 Jesus also said to them: “Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I don’t have anything to offer him.’ 7 Then he will answer from inside and say, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I have gone to bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he won’t get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his friend’s shamelessly bold persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. 9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

 When Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray, He assures those who do pray that God will give them the Holy Spirit: "How much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?"

The central answer to our prayer is God. 

Jesus taught, "Ask and you shall receive" after the Our Father | Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:1-13). When we pray using Jesus' guide to prayer, God's first answer is the gift of Himself, His Holy Spirit. As we pray, He increases our capacity for the gift of Himself and expands our hearts with a growing love for others. + John F. Smed, Disruptive Prayer

" ... I began, haltingly but really, to give up my confidence in any human adequacy and my own abilities. I tried to rely more exclusively on 'prayers and the supply of the Spirit' (Phil. 1:19 Miller) for the power to serve Christ effectively. Increasingly I saw myself as a desperately needy person, like the man who goes to his friend at midnight and says, 'I have nothing' (Luke 11:6). Before this, my problem in praying was that I had something – namely, reliance on myself, my training, my study, and my work. But the man at midnight has no bread for himself or for others. In his total need he forgets all sense of dignity. The standard translations of Luke 11:8 speak of the man's 'persistence,' but that is hardly what the original language indicates. A better translation would be 'shamelessly persistent' or even 'shamelessly pushy.' Once I began to pray boldly like this man in my hunger for God and His help, He began to impart to me in a new way the presence of the Holy Spirit. 
And that is the whole point of Luke 11:1-13 that compares bread and food to the Holy Spirit after the Lord's Prayer. God promises in Luke 11:13: 'If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!' What came home to me with power is the centrality of the Spirit's working for all of the Christian life and service. In my need I came to appreciate what Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck stresses in his excellent essay 'The Gift of the Spirit' in Our Reasonable Faith. He says that all the promises of Scripture – for protection, healthy, daily physical bread, etc. – find their root in the one supreme promise: the commitment of the risen Christ to impart the Holy Spirit as the power source for the Church in answer to prayer.  
In practice this meant for me that I began to pray for the Spirit's presence to be with almost everything I did. I especially began to pray with 'shameless boldness' for His working in our corporate prayer times (i.e. Sabbath gatherings, City Group prayer meetings, SLT meetings, DNAs, etc.). I also prayed for each person who was likely to come, for anyone who had a part in leading the prayer meeting, and for my own leadership during the prayer time. I asked God to give us His Spirit that we would know how to pray, that our hearts would be surrendered to His missionary will, and that we would leave the prayer meeting freed of guilt and fear and ready to witness fearlessly for Christ. In brief, my plea, based on the promise of the Spirit given in Luke 11:13, was for Him to meet with us and change us into a community of faith working through love. Frequently I asked the Father to visit us with His Spirit to equip us with three things:  
1. His self-forgetting love for others, 
2. His wisdom for praying specifically and intelligently, 
3. His boldness for prayer and risk-taking witness. ... " 
+ pgs 96-97, "The Praying Local Church" from Outgrowing the Ingrown Church by Jack Miller

 North African St. Augustine said it best, "Prayer increases our capacity for God's gift of Himself." Our hearts expand until we share Christ's own passion for His Church and His sacrificial love for a lost world. 

 We become what we pray. ... With the Our Father | Lord's Prayer, God lifts us and our prayers from the narrow confines of present urgencies to the majestic vision of the world reborn through answered prayer (Isaiah 66:9). 

The King's Strategy for Prayer by John F. Smed


"Our Father in heaven" | Increasing our capacity for God (less focus on self)

 As we pray our Father in heaven, God answers, and it brings childlike love and trust to our soul. We begin to treat all people as created equal, having one God as their Creator. We are praying against tribalism, nationalism, and racism. Because God is the Redeemer Father of all believers, we become passionate for the unity of the Church. We call every believer in Christ brother or sister, and we gladly pray for them.

 "Hallowed be your name" | Giving reverence to God (banishing idols, not needing to make a name for myself)

 When we pray Hallowed be Your name, we gain a humble sense of awe at God's holiness. We are renewed in reverence and become jealous for His name to be honored and His fame to spread throughout the world. With this fuller vision of God, we experience new depths of repentance and new fillings of joy. We focus our resolve on proclaiming the fame and glory of God to those who do not know Him (Psalm 96).

 "Your Kingdom come" | Rejoicing in Jesus' name and announcing the Good News of His Kingdom (instead of building my kingdom or merely blessing my plans)

 As we call out from the heart Your Kingdom come, we rejoice in Christ's rule and reign, and we are captured by the majesty of His mission. As we go deep in prayer, Jesus gives us His heart for those who do not know Him. Our prayers are filled with zeal for His mission: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38). As we pray, we move from being spectators to becoming participants in His mission. “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, I also send you. ... 'Receive the Holy Spirit'" (John 20:21-22). As we pray, His purpose becomes ours: many people repent and come to Christ and renewal in the Church and renewal for our towns and cities follow (Zechariah 12:10-13:2).

 "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" | God's will becoming ours including mercy and justice (from relieving just our struggles to relieving the world's struggles)

 When we pray Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, a miracle happens within. God's will moves into our hearts. From within, we strive to accept His will, no matter how difficult things get. We learn to approve God's will as good and right and just; we resolve to act on His will in loving obedience. As we faithfully pray Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we feel our souls burn with God's love of righteousness and justice: "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8). We move from being overwhelmed by the injustice of the world to becoming agents of its renewal. Our Kingdom prayers bring justice and mercy to realization. We become God's answer to our own prayers. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ ... If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted ... you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in (Isaiah 58:9-12).

 "Give us this day our daily bread" | receiving contentment, simplicity, generosity (releasing worry for present urgencies)

 As we request of God to give us this day our daily bread, we trust in firm assurance that we will have enough supernatural and natural resources for ourselves and plenty to care for the poor and needy. Our hearts become generous, and our needs modest. We are filled with the Spirit of wisdom, revelation, and thanksgiving. We learn from Him contentment and generosity. We don't just talk about helping others in need, we start doing it, giving our time and releasing our resources and opening our homes to the poor, displaced, disabled, immigrant, or otherwise outcast.

 "Forgive us our trespasses, debts, sins as we forgive others'" | releasing grudges and debts against others (stopping quarrels and conflict avoidance)

 When we humbly pray forgive us as we forgive others, we are asking God to impart His Spirit and grant redemptive community. God gives us a deep inner peace as we accept and enjoy His forgiveness. Whether in the Church or in the world, we begin to treat others with humility and grace. As we bow in humble repentance, asking God to forgive us, He makes us agents of reconciliation.

 "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one" | receiving guidance and power in spiritual advance (overcoming challenges and defeat)

 When we pray lead us not into temptation, God fortifies our soul against the incessant temptations of the world and the devil. We do not pray about spiritual warfare. Prayer itself is spiritual warfare. We are not overwhelmed or fearful because Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), and indeed He did. At the cross, He dealt the death-blow to the evil one. We join others praying against the predatory and immoral actions of those who deceive others, who use all manner of schemes to exploit people, from dishonest marketing to human trafficking. We cultivate godliness.


Read previous posts on the Our Father | Lord's Prayer:

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Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Special June CN | An Unexpected Story of Discovering Jesus


Free Audible Audiobook of A War of Loves Read by Author David Bennett

 

David Bennett's account of his meeting with Jesus ... is alone worth double the price of the book. + N.T. Wright

 

The God who I thought hated me still haunted me, even through a fortune teller's words. And it wouldn't be the last time I wanted God to leave me right alone.


These words also continue to haunt me (in a good way) in relation to David Bennett's brave and profound story he generously shares with us all in A War of Loves: The Unexpected Story of a Gay Activist Discovering Jesus. This post will feature 3 moments in David's life in which he had an encounter with Jesus that would transform his experience of love. Recently, during a Surge Table meeting, we were talking about common grace, and I remembered David's story of meeting with a psychic, someone we wouldn't usually think God would use to point others to Jesus (a descriptive meeting, not prescriptive nonetheless). This is the 1st of 3 moments in David's story included below. But as N.T. Wright states in the quote at the top of this post, David's account of his meeting with Jesus is worth double the price of the book. So if what you read below makes you curious, I invite you to purchase the entire book to support David on his journey. It's a story that I think might collide with the questions and curiosities of many as it has certainly captured my attention.

If the gods we worship are exactly like us, are we just creating divinity to be like us or in our own image? ... 
My quest for love must have a reason behind it. ... 
Do I know what grace is?

| 1 | Grace Foretold through a Tarot Card-Reading Psychic with a Friend

Christians are bigoted. 
I mean, I'm spiritual but the Bible's just horrible. 
I can't stand how ignorance can shroud itself in religious ceremony. 

I was meeting up with my best friend, Emma. I smiled and sat down. As I entered the café and ordered my usual soy chai, I looked around but barely recognized her. Her hair had been dyed black. "Hey! What have you done to your hair?" Emma put down her book. It was my favorite biography of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, one I'd picked up at a writer's festival. "I'm sick of being valued just for my blonde hair. It's my statement for the cause of women!" she said enthusiastically.

I smiled and sat down. "Love it. So you're the token feminist and I'm the token gay activist. Is that how this is gonna play out?" We laughed.

"I actually just dyed it for fun; the protest is secondary," she said with a flourish of conscience. "Also, I'm doing a part for a theatre piece, and it fits with the character." She leaned toward me. "So you know how yesterday we were talking about getting in touch with our spiritual side? I saw a sign for psychic readings down the road. Have you ever had your cards read? I'm kind of curious. Want to go?"

I thought of my past obsession with Wicca and new age religion. I now considered myself an atheist, but I figured there was no harm in a simple reading. We walked down to the health food store, and as we entered, the pungent smell of vitamin, tablets, dietary supplements, and patchouli oil filled our senses. I strode up to the counter, where a woman with dreadlocks tied up in a bun was sitting, filing through the day's receipts. "Could we please have our tarot read?"

She looked at the clock. "Sorry, there's only one reading left for today. I can arrange it for one of you in 15 minutes. It's $20 for 30 minutes." Emma was happy to go another day, so we waited for my reading. I was filled with nervous excitement. When it was time, I passed through the beaded strands that hung in the doorway, clicking exotically together. A rosy-cheeked woman with dark hair and a large, purple velvet coat greeted me. Sandalwood incense filled the room; aromatic candles flickered in the background. The fragrance was effusive and intense but pleasant.

"Nice to meet you, David. I'm Rose," she said. "Let's begin." 

We sat down at the table. She looked into my eyes for a moment, then pulled out her deck. Shuffling it, she placed the deck facedown on the table, and then drew tarot cards from the top, placing them faceup in front of me until a full reading had been laid out. I was skeptical, almost amused by the spectacle. People believe in this stuff? I mean, it's fun, but ... seriously?

Rose inspected my cards. She seemed to be consulting a spirit guide in the form of a Native American sketched on a paper next to her. Suddenly, she looked at me in amazement.

"Incredible! You are very blessed! I need to tell you this now. You are a child of the light, destined to be with the greatest mediator in the spiritual realms, Jesus Christ. He has chosen you!"

I was a bit glazed for the rest of my reading, not really listening to her half hour of babbling about the various cards laid before me. Jesus Christ? Back at the café, I fumed. "Emma, I think that medium is actually an undercover Christian evangelist."

She sipped her latte and cackled. "Uhhh ... what?"
"She said I was destined to be with Jesus. I don't think she knew who she was talking to!"
"Maybe she's right, David," Emma said matter-of-factly.
I made a face. "What do you mean? There's no way I'd ever become a Christian."

| 2 | Christmas Conflicts and the Spirit of Grace at the Holiday Table

I believed the Christian God was a moral monster who had punished his son on the cross as an act of divine child abuse. 
Jesus had become a weapon in the hands of homophobes, used to deprive LGBTQI people of their rights. 
It was as if we were being stripped of dignity and deleted from existence. 

I came to understand that like many Christians my Aunt Helen had used the wrong words to communicate both her stance and her concern for me. My uncle Brendan also deeply cared for gay people. But in my mind, he and Helen were still bigots. Anyone who disagreed with me or had a different vision of marriage was automatically a bigot. No qualification needed. But on this Christmas day, I took my seat, trying to rise above their hatred. I'll just ignore them, I thought.

As we ate, I talked with my cousin next to me. Suddenly I overheard Uncle Brendan mention God and something about truth. Truth was a dangerous word. Through my university lectures, I had adopted the key doctrine of postmodern worldview: there are no absolutes. Such "truths" are just ways to control other people. 

"Are you kidding me? There's no absolute truth and certainly no God," I proclaimed, breaking up the conversation around me. All my relatives stared at me, and the whole room went silent. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aunt Helen recoil at my assertion. "I've studied postmodern philosophy. I can tell you there is no absolute truth," I told my uncle. "You can't even communicate truth with language, so please don't try to talk to me about God. It's ridiculous, a delusion. You can't have an exclusive claim to know God. I have many atheist, Hindu, and Muslim friends. Do you really think they're going to hell because they don't know your Jesus?"

"David, there are a few issues with what you are saying," Brendan said, cutting through my exasperation. "Like what?" I asked irascibly. "You say, 'There is not absolute truth' as if it is an absolute truth, and you also used language to communicate that. You just doubly contradicted yourself," he said. He glanced at my aunt. "For me and your aunt, the truth is a Person we know, not just a concept in our heads. He's someone we have a real relationship with." He turned back to me. 

"Just because our understanding of Him isn't always perfect doesn't change that He's the absolute truth. It's his perfect grace, not 'perfect' knowledge of God, that saves us, David."


I pushed my plate away. "But what about all the evil the Church has done to LGBTQI people? Do you really think I'd believe you after all of that?" I shook my head. "I can't believe 'God' would create us this way and then punish us for it. And what about all of the other religions? ... " I stood up to leave.

My aunt and uncle also left soon afterward. Years later I learned that on the way home, they talked about my response. "When David was talking, I saw the Holy Spirit over him. He's going to be saved and baptized with the Spirit in three months' time," Brendan told my aunt confidently.

Aunt Helen stared at him, incredulous. "Are you sure? Didn't you see his reaction?" He nodded. My uncle wasn't one to push things like prophecy. He was reserved about making extraordinary claims, and yet this time he was adamant. 

God's grace was reaching out to me in my deepest anger. He had started through my uncle's apologetic witness. And Brendan was right. One hundred percent. I had only three months of atheism left.

| 3 | Experiencing the Love of God at a Short Film Festival

The Bible was a dangerous book. 
The Christian faith was bad news. 
For everyone ... 

Madeline was a finalist in one of the largest short film competitions in the world, a huge accomplishment for a young creative. Everyone was talking about her in my screenwriting class, and I wanted to interview her for the student magazine. It would easily make the best feature article. Unlike a lot of my peers, whose creative projects centered on them, Madeline was using her gifts to raise awareness for those often misunderstood or forgotten — people with disabilities. Having a disabled uncle, I found her work inspiring. As I approached, her brown eyes warmed in recognition, and we said hello. Her hair was cut short, and she wore red lipstick and a black dress. Right away I launched into the question I wanted to ask. 

"How did you become a finalist? You just graduated!"
"That depends," she said. "Do you want the real answer or the interview answer?"
I laughed, unprepared for what would follow. "The real answer, of course!"
"God led me to make the film."

Madeline must have seen the shock on my face. I remembered the conversation with my aunt and uncle over Christmas lunch. Please don't mention Jesus, I thought. I couldn't see how Christianity had anything to do with her work. How could a faith that oppressed me and so many others motivate her to do such good? 

"So, which God?" I asked, with a hint of sarcasm. "We talking, like, Vishnu here?" "Jesus," she said. A thousand objections flooded me as I thought of this God who stood in the way of my community's progress in society. And yet ... Madeline wasn't like the other moralizing, intolerant, anti-intellectual, homophobic, anti-feminist Christians I'd met.

She explained that she too struggled with Christian stereotypes and the small-mindedness found in parts of the Christian community. The key word in John 3:16, she said, was whoever: "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." ... 

"Do you think there's a God?" she asked. Not a hint of ulterior motive or trying to convert me. Just an open question. "Well, I'm basically an atheist, but I believe there's a Something, I guess. I'm a spiritual person, and I think you have to be blind to believe there's absolutely nothing behind life," I said, looking down at my drink. "I just don't like organized religion. I'm gay, so I know this Christian God isn't an option for me. I've never understood how if he existed, he'd give me these desires, then condemn me."

I expected her to quibble or awkwardly change the subject, like many of my Christian friends. But Madeline didn't hesitate. 

"David, have you ever experienced the love of God?" 

"What do you even mean? No." My only impression of Him was that of an angry, distant diety. "God loves everyone right where they are," Madeline said. I wanted to recoil at her words, yet something drew me deeper. ... She paused. "... I'd never usually ask this, but ... can I pray for you?"

Instantly I had an internal war over how to respond. Should I say yes or no? A voice in my mind whispered, You're a good agnostic; you have to be open to prayer, because you don't know if there's a God. Any other response is intellectually dishonest and close-minded. Another thought, this one louder, came on its heels: Get away from this crazy fundamentalist! She's brainwashed like those Christians you read about in the newspaper! The gentler voice won. "Yes, you can pray for me," I said finally. "But I don't think anything is going to happen."

As Madeline laid her hands on me and prayed, the bustle of the pub faded away. I entered into a stillness, a peace. Soon I felt a soft tingling on the crown of my head that slowly intensified, as if someone was pouring oil over me. The warm sensation ran down my entire body like a current of water. It was unlike anything I'd ever felt before. In a moment, in that experience so totally from outside me, so totally unasked for, everything turned upside down in my mind. All my searching in religion, in relationships, in atheism — none of it compared with this love coursing through me like electricity.

For the first time, I knew God was real and that He loved me. This changes everything, I realized. As my eyes filled with tears, I heard a voice in my head say, softly at first, Do you want Me? It cut to my core, to a deeper place I never knew existed. ... If you are really there, then yes, I said, to my own surprise. As soon as I did, a laser-like pinprick of light pierced the darkness over my heart and entered that mysterious place deep inside me. I was later to find out that Jesus speaks of this place in John 7:38 as the innermost being, from which rivers of living water, God's Spirit, flow for those who believe in Him. Then I felt a wind, like someone breathing on me, filling me with life. It was as if I were taking my first breath.

"Madeline!" I said, both frightened and exhilarated, "I'm breathing without taking a breath! What's happening?" "David, that' the Holy Spirit filling you. He loves you," she said, unaware of my internal dialogue. As she kept praying, I heard the voice ask, Will you accept my Son, Jesus, as your Lord and Savior?

Immediately I was offended by the Christian nature of the question. Once again the war inside raged like a tug-of-war over my soul. I heard two voices. The first said, What you're feeling is a psychological reaction. It's just wish fulfillment! Get away from here! A calmer quieter voice followed it: I am calling you, David. This is real and true. You've never experienced anything like this in all your searching. This internal struggle felt like the longest moment of my life. Then the most reluctant of words came from my mouth: "Yes, I accept Your Son, Jesus, as my Lord and Savior." ...

I was dumbfounded. 
I was an atheist gay activist, perhaps the least likely of anyone to ever find Jesus. 
But in that moment, I knew I had become a new person.

As I opened the door to my parents' house, I could see the light was on. My mother was up later than usual. When I entered the living room, she saw my face and knew something had happened. "David? Is everything okay?"

I couldn't say it. It was as if admitting what had happened meant I had to eat my words and objections to my mother's faith. "Mum, tonight ... I ... uh ... think I've become ... uh ... a Christian," I said sheepishly. For a minute she stared at me, awestruck. The moment my news sunk in, she jumped up and hugged me. My mother's reactions always had a hint of drama about them — she had been an opera singer in her younger years, "David, I prayed that if He was truly the God of the impossible, God would save you, because you were so impossible to save! Now I know He can do anything!" she said, wiping away tears.

She told me Aunt Helen had been praying for 11 years that I would come to know Jesus. She also told me about Uncle Brendan's prophecy after Christmas lunch. I quickly did the math and realized that day was exactly 3 months ago. My salvation had been foretold more than once, it seemed.

I began to see I was the object of a benevolent divine conspiracy to reveal the love of God to me.

+ The adapted excerpts above are taken from Chapters 2, 4, and 7-8 of David's Unexpected Story of a Gay Activist Discovering Jesus. To hear a little bit more from David, you can also see:


And to hear from more LGBTQ+ and SSA followers of Jesus about the worth, the cost, and the rest of abiding in Him with sexuality, the Spirit, and the Scriptures, I would encourage you to to take a look at the FREE 8-part series:


Bonus Story: Genia and Misha

Genia married first at 17 and had her first three children with a chronically unfaithful man. She tried to turn her marriage around, but it didn't work. Instead, she had an affair with another woman, who gave her the relational connection she craved. When her marriage finally broke up, Genia became depressed and suicidal. She was part of a church and had met a young woman named Misha through a friend in her Bible study group. Misha kept vigil over her. "We were at a lake house," Genia recalls. "I could have just walked out into the water." 
Misha had no history of same-sex attraction, but one thing led to another and she and Genia fell in love. They moved in together, entered into common-law marriage, and (through a sperm bank) had a child. Everything was well until Misha's grandpa died. She started wondering about mortality and told Genia she wanted to go to church. "I was fine and happy until I went back to church," Genia said. "That was when God started tugging at my heart again." God's call became so clear that Genia told Misha they couldn't go on as they were. At first, Misha took it very badly. But after a period of resisting and even having an affair herself, Misha gave her life to Christ. "Her transformation was amazing," Genia recalls. 
All this time, Genia's daughter and son-in-law, who pastors a church in Nashville, had been loving and praying for the two of them. When Genia and Misha came to Christ, they knew they couldn't continue in a sexual relationship. ... But as they prayed, they both felt called instead to restart their lives in the church family Genia's son-in-law served. That church had been deeply instrumental in Misha's faith journey and felt like their spiritual home. So in the end, all three of them moved in with Genia's daughter and son-in-law, who were also raising little girls. Rather than being broken up, their family grew, and their relationship changed. "We were lovers," Genia explains, "and now we're sisters." With words that brought tears to my eyes, Genia told me that she and Misha are closer now as sisters in Christ than they ever were as lovers." ... Today, most people associate non-traditional family—the sense of corporate closeness that doesn't depend on DNA—with LGBTQIA+ people. But the first pioneers of such community were Christians. As one second-century commentator put it, Christians have "a common table, not a common bed."
+ The Secular Creed, pgs. 56-57; also see No Longer Strangers: Belonging in a World of Alienation



Christ is all,

Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan 


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Monday, June 5, 2023

CN | Free to Stand in Solitude and Solidarity with St. Kevin

 

St. Kevin in "Cross Vigil"


The Celtic church knew that prayer and devotion to God had to be at the heart of its life if it was effectively to witness to God. ... It was essential that some from the community lived out this life for the sake of the community, and indeed for the sake of the wider community ... provided (as) a kind of anchor for a church which could easily become over-busy. + Michael Mitton


This will be the last of my posts in relation to a retreat at St. Mary's Monastery and St. Scholastica's Priory in Petersham, Massachusetts I had the privilege to orchestrate and facilitate for sisters and brothers from Pentecostal, Baptist, Charismatic, Congregational, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Reformed backgrounds.

We joined together for some focused prayer and devotion to God across a few days in the midst of lives which could (and often do) become easily over-busy. In preparation for our time together in this sacred, soulful, and spacious place, I recommended three books for each person to choose one from to read before the retreat:

+ David Taylor's Open & Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life
+ Leighton Ford's The Attentive Life: Discerning God's Presence, and
+ Tracy Balzer's Thin Places: A Journey into Celtic Christianity.

While teasers for Open & Unafraid and The Attentive Life can be found in the posts, "Open & Unafraid Psalms in Which No Secrets Are Hidden" and "Still: Becoming More Attentive (Less Distracted) People" (and Lanterns, Fireworks & Stars: "Only One Thing Is Needed") respectively, this post features an excerpt from Tracy Balzer's Thin Places and specifically focuses on the life of a saint who embodied the framework of monastic life in what some might call legendary ways. I have a friend named Kevin who I admire. And now I have a saint named Kevin I get to admire (and perhaps they are both alike in similar ways in their willingness to stand with others and for others).

Standing in Solitude and Solidarity with St. Kevin Alongside Jesus Our Savior

A classic example of the Celtic hermit is found in St. Kevin of Glendalough (498-618). Legendary stories about St. Kevin have been passed down through many Celtic generations. The earliest account of Kevin was not written until five hundred years after his death, so we have to take these stories with a pretty substantial grain of salt. However, stories, as we know, can be profound agents of truth and instruction. While they may seem rather outlandish, it is through these accounts of Kevin's life that we can observe this rhythm of work and prayer, of community and solitude, of engagement and silence.

Colorful adjectives may be used to describe this Celtic saint: mystic, hermit, abbot, miracle worker. At the Upper Lake of Glendalough, south of what is now Dublin, Kevin made his hermitage, staying for many days alone in silent fellowship with God and creation. He eventually founded the great monastery at Glendalough, and it became a thriving "city" of prayer, study, service, and worship. Yet for Kevin, the call to solitude and silence remained in his heart, for he eventually commissioned his fellow monks to lead the monastery and left for the Upper Valley, just a mile from the monastery, to create his hermitage. There he lived in complete solitude for four years, perhaps longer. Michael Rodgers and Marcus Losack, Catholic and Anglican priests, respectively, who currently live at Glendalough, provide helpful commentary: "The experience of prayer and austerity, instead of hardening Kevin, enabled him to express his gentleness and become more at one with himself, with creation and with God. He lived in a place beneath the cliffs on the shores of the Upper Lake, which remains in shadow for at least six months of the year. The reality of this must be woven through our understanding of Kevin's life at this time. It is also a very beautiful place, where even today there is a great atmosphere of peace and seclusion."

Cross Vigil, Resurrection and Beauty of Transformation 
One of the more fantastic and well-known stories of Kevin shows him praying, as many of the Celtic saints did, in "cross vigil," meaning that he stood or knelt with "arms out-stretched in the shape of a cross (the sacred tree)." Praying this way, in such a tiny cell, required that his arms would stretch out the window of his tiny dwelling. It was there, during Kevin's prayer, that a blackbird came to build a nest in his open hand. The story claims that Kevin, aware that the bird had laid an egg in her new nest, remained in the cross vigil position for days, perhaps weeks, until the baby bird was hatched. 
What an illustration of what happens when one finds the place of resurrection! This legend of Kevin may first of all remind us of the vigilance and sacrifice of Christ Himself, enduring the pain of the cross so that we might be raised to new life. It also can metaphorically illustrate the process of our own spiritual transformation, that to become new creatures in Christ is a very slow but beautiful process, one that requires stillness and patient waiting.

Conversely, Kevin's seeming lack of action in this situation might actually make us nervous. I find myself thinking, "Kevin! Just find a nice place for the nest, put it down and move on! Put your multi-tasking skills to work, man!" That's certainly what I would have felt compelled to do had I been in his position.

Yet there seems to be something inherently formative in Kevin's act of not-acting—his willingness to remain motionless so that new life can arise. It counters our modern-day Christian sensibilities that put so much emphasis on doing.

It presents a radical new paradigm, one that's actually not new at all, for the biblical Teacher of Ecclesiastes himself arrived at a conclusion that addresses this problem. He proclaimed that there is a time to plant and a time to reap. But what do we do when we're doing neither? We wait and watch the plant grow. There is little else we can do in that seemingly unproductive time of waiting for God to bring forth new life. The implied truth is: There is a time to do nothing. "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His" (Hebrews 4:9-10). This is a great reversal of modern-day values. I succumb to those modern values myself when I believe that every moment of my day must be productive, that I must have something to show for my time. Yet clearly, biblical wisdom and the Celtic example relieve us of this compulsion, saying, in effect, "Don't just do something, stand there."

Solitude is actually extremely productive; the difference is that it is not we who are doing the work, but the Holy Spirit of God in us. We take our hands off so He can do the transforming work. Resurrection is always His doing.

+ Excerpts from Tracy Balzer's Thin Places: A Journey into Celtic Christianity, pgs. 113-116

Bonus: Celtic Prayers of Blessing: 

God bless the path on which you go;
God bless the earth beneath your feet;
God bless your destination.
God be a smooth way before you,
A guiding star above you,
A keen eye behind you,
This day, this night, and forever.
God be with you whatever you pass;
Jesus be with you whatever you climb;
Spirit be with you wherever you stay.
God be with you at each stop and each sea,
At each lying down and each rising up,
In the trough of the waves,
on the crest of the billows.
Each step of the journey you take. Amen. 

 

The path I walk, Christ walks it.
May the land in which I am be without sorrow.
May the Trinity protect me where I stay,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. ...
May I arrive at every place, may I return home;
may the way in which I spend be a way without loss.
May every path before me be smooth,
man, woman, and child welcome me.
A truly good journey!
Well does the fair Lord show us a course, a path.

Bonus Ireland and Celtic Christianity Posts:


Bonus Story from Sue Monk Kidd's When the Heart Waits:

"I saw you today sitting beneath the tree — just sitting there so still. How is it that you can wait so patiently in the moment. I can't seem to get used to the idea of doing nothing." 
The monk broke into a wonderful grin. "Well, there's the problem right there, young lady. You've bought into the cultural myth that when you're waiting you're doing nothing." 
Then he took his hands and placed them on my shoulders, peered straight into my eyes and said, "I hope you'll hear what I'm about to tell you. I hope you'll hear it all the way down to your toes ... 
When you're waiting, you're not doing nothing. You're doing the most important something there is. You're allowing your soul to grow up. If you can't be still and wait, you can't become what God created you to be.



Here are links to other recent City Notes (CN) books:


Christ is all,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan


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Location: Worcester, MA, USA

Sunday, June 4, 2023

CN | Be Still and Know That I Am God Pausing Prayer Practice

 


As rays of sun do not set fire to anything by themselves, so God does not touch our souls with the fire without Christ. + Thomas Merton


"May Christ be the magnifying glass through which I see the ordinary today, so that I may have strength to rise above winter moods." This quote helped lead into a step of faith and obedience I got to take this year in helping to orchestrate and facilitate a retreat in central Massachusetts for servant leaders across various Christian faith traditions. Sisters and brothers from Pentecostal, Baptist, Charismatic, Congregational, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Reformed backgrounds joined together at St. Mary's Monastery and St. Scholastica's Priory in Petersham, Massachusetts to soak in some silence and solitude, readings, Psalms, Benedictine hours, prayers, and whatever God had in store for each of us, as well as all of us together. As I have experienced some "Abbey Awe" with God in previous retreats, I was praying that each of the participants would experience some of the same in their own way during this special time.

In preparation for our time together in this space, I recommended three books for each person to choose one from to read before the retreat:

+ David Taylor's Open & Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life
+ Leighton Ford's The Attentive Life: Discerning God's Presence, and
+ Tracy Balzer's Thin Places: A Journey into Celtic Christianity.

Other excerpts we read together during the retreat from The Attentive Life can be found in the post, Lanterns, Fireworks & Stars: "Only One Thing Is Needed", as well as at the end of the post, In the Holy Wild with the Lion Who Offers Us the Stream (see the story about the Masai Chief). 

The invitation below complements a previous post, Still: Becoming More Attentive (Less Distracted) People, and includes an invitation from the final reading during our reflections in the time of silence during the retreat. Here, Ford is taking a cue from Alice Fryling's The Art of Spiritual Listening: Responding to God's Voice Amid the Noise of Life in which she suggests setting aside time with the verse "Be still and know that I am God (Ps 46:10), repeating it over and over, leaving off a word or phrase each time. This practice, along with some of Ford's own reflections (also an invite to write your own reflections when you practice such stillness), is provided below in case it might help you in the days ahead.

Pausing Prayer Practice | Be Still and Know That I Am God 

+ Be still and know that I am God. 
You are God, I am not. You are Center. Not my moods, my complaints, my busyness. Not my desires—physical, emotional, sexual, or spiritual. Transform them into longings for You. 
 
+ Be still and know that I am. 
Make me aware of Your being ... Your light in my physical reality. Your time runs through the ticking of the clocks. The world is running on, as I sit, without me. You are as present as—through—beyond—the sun that gives light today to all I see. 
 
+ Be still and know. 
I do not have to read to know. To run to the computer to know. To talk on the phone to know. ... Even to scrutinize my Bible to know ... When I am still, knowing comes ... (when) the light of Christ makes me see. For that I need to ... 
 
+ Be still. 
"Peace, be still." Still, still with Thee." Why is a "still" so named—a distillery of essences? Must we be still to be distilled, i.e., purified? Be still my soul. 
 
+ Be. 
When I find myself 
as a being before God 
as a physical being in a world irradiated by light 
as a moving creature, urged on, but able to say "Whoa" 
I am not ruled by urges 
as a temporal being, living in the I Am Eternal One 
reminded by the clock to live here, now 
I can be content 
with whatever I have  
 
The paradox of our modern world is that we know so much about so many things, about how things work, but so little about who we are as persons, why we are. We believers are not immune to this dis-ease. We have more and more sources of information about the Bible, theology, ethics, history, psychology and organization—but relatively little time to absorb even a little bit of the information so that it can form and transform us. Still, sometimes in quiet moments, sometimes at a dramatic crossroads, something may happen that makes us stop, look and listen ... 
Most of us need some kind of spiritual jolt ... to make us stop and listen long enough to pay attention to what God is saying to us ...
When I am still, compulsion (the busyness that Hilary of Tours called "a blasphemous anxiety to do God's work for Him") gives way to compunction (being pricked or punctured). That is, God can break through the many layers with which I protect myself, so that I can hear His Word and be poised to listen.

+ Excerpt above from Holy Stillness: An Interlude in Leighton Ford's The Attentive Life: Discerning God's Presence, pgs. 136-139

+ Bonus reflection on Psalm 46:10 from Tracy Balzer's Thin Places

Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God" is indeed a compelling thought, but it is incomplete without the context of the entire psalm. Here we see that God is not merely inviting us into a blissful reverie, but is rather giving us a stern reminder. "Cease striving," the New American Standard translation says. Or, in my own words, "Stop—I am God, and you are not. Put this in perspective. You, _____ (fill in your name), are not in charge of this world—let go and know that I am managing things. Just stop for awhile." 
I heard a story recently about an English-speaking pastor who was preaching on this passage in Japan, and when the Japanese translator communicated it to Japanese listeners, he translated it, "Lay down your weapons." Doesn't this speak of the ways we defend ourselves, hiding behind the illusion of control? 
Our instinct is to cover ourselves, Adam-like, with the externalities of title, possessions, and achievement, making it much easier to ignore the true state of our souls. In solitude (silence and stillness) we are forced to set aside these external trappings and allow God to put to death what is false and superficial about us in order to raise the "new self" created in the image and likeness of Christ. 
+ pg. 116

Bonus Story from Sue Monk Kidd's When the Heart Waits:

"I saw you today sitting beneath the tree — just sitting there so still. How is it that you can wait so patiently in the moment. I can't seem to get used to the idea of doing nothing." 
The monk broke into a wonderful grin. "Well, there's the problem right there, young lady. You've bought into the cultural myth that when you're waiting you're doing nothing." 
Then he took his hands and placed them on my shoulders, peered straight into my eyes and said, "I hope you'll hear what I'm about to tell you. I hope you'll hear it all the way down to your toes ... 
When you're waiting, you're not doing nothing. You're doing the most important something there is. You're allowing your soul to grow up. If you can't be still and wait, you can't become what God created you to be.



Christ is all,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan


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Location: Worcester, MA, USA
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