Advent message on Luke 1:26-38

Sermon for Advent 4 at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Mercer Island

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation,
that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming,
may find in us a mansion prepared for himself. Amen.
[from the Collect for Advent 4]

Th Gospel for the fourth Sunday of Advent focus on Mary,
I want to say a few things about the Mother of our Lord,
and her witness of faith,
and the way we view her traditionally and biblically.

Throughout a couple thousand years of church history
the ecclesiastical institution has made assertions about her
that have been devotional in nature, or theological, or political
in order to emphasize one agenda or another
in a struggle for control, influence or power.

People respond or react to Mary.
It’s hard to maintain neutrality.

Protestants may be reactive to anything they see
as ascribing too much devotion to Mary
as “theotokos,” the God-bearer, Mother of God.
Or there may be reactions between one ethnic group and another,
such as suspicion about the attachment of Mexicans
to their strong devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe.

For much of the time the male hierarchy of the Church
has instructed the faithful about Mary in such a way
that she has been used to perpetuate
submission and subservience among women.

Although more recently in history
with a renewed engagement in biblical studies,
Mary has become an example and champion of liberation theology.
For instance,
in some Latin American countries her song, the Magnificat,
is considered to be subversive, revolutionary literature.

You see, everyone has to come down one way or another
in reflection about Mary,
all dependent on individual situations, cultures, and life experiences.
Mary is a lightning rod for our reactivity.

So saying all that, let’s look at this key text about Mary
and notice our own reactivity
and what that may say to us about our Lord and our relationship to him.

First,
the angel messenger was not sent to just any woman of child-bearing years.
There was an openness in Mary to God,
to receive what God was saying to her.
She was fertile ground
where the seed of God’s Word could sprout and flourish
and produce 30-, 60-, 100-fold,
or produce just one, but the One who would give life to all.

Openness to God –
where there is openness to God,
then transformation and healing comes.
This is a spiritual principle I see at work all the time
in the lives of those with whom I relate.
But what is it that brings the openness to God?
because as logical and as practical as that may seem,
I encounter great reluctance to being open to God.

For good reason, I think.
If you really are open to God, then watch out.
Things are going to change!
And, well, I don’t know if I want that,
especially if things are going along just fine.
But it’s when things aren’t so fine
that then comes the openness to God.

So maybe we are being given a tremendous spiritual opportunity here
for openness to God.

I would suggest to you
that Mary was not just some sweet, innocent, pious girl
disconnected from the realities of the world around her.

Mary lived during a time of despair for her people;
they lived under foreign rule,
oppressed and without freedom of self governance.

For these people the biblical stories of the past seemed distant,
the biblical promises of the prophets hopeless to be accomplished.
And in this context Mary, a woman in a patriarchal culture,
which itself was subject to domination by a stronger power,
was lacking in any significant political or social power.

So where could Mary go for any sense of hope?
Perhaps the only appeal she could make was to God.
After all the message of the prophets emphasized
God’s preferential favor for the disadvantaged,
the widow, the orphan, the poor, the oppressed.
And so her heart was open.

When there is pain and the suffering that results,
when there is violence on any of various levels,
the violence of crime, of war,
the economic violence of the rape of greed
perpetrated upon those poorer and less advantaged,
such as we see in the rise world-wide
of economic exploitation of workers as the new slavery,
or ponzi schemes that steel from investors and pension funds,
when there is death and loss and grief,
then, I would put to you, in the midst of acute suffering
is the heart more likely to be open to God.

This is not to say that suffering is good,
that evil should prevail so that it can drive people to God,
but that this is a crucial moment spiritually
when incredible encounter with God can happen.

So when the angel came to Mary,
the greeting it gave changed everything in her life
- and not just everything in her life,
but everything was changed for the whole world.
Mary, and what she would do, was key to all that would follow.

She would give her body, her whole being to be at God’s disposal,
and within her the very Word of God,
the One who was in the beginning with God and who was God,
through whom all things were created,
including Mary herself,
this very Word of God would become himself subject to creation.

And so the Spirit of God, who brooded over the waters of the deep
as described in the opening verses of Genesis chapter 1,
now came to Mary and enveloped her in the same creative brooding.
And the waters of Mary’s womb welcomed their own Creator.

If we were to give special rank or place
to any of the saints whom we hold up as Christ-like examples for us,
Mary would deserve the place of highest honor,
and it would be not just for being the mother of our Savior,
as significant and important as that is,
and certainly not because she is some sort of benign role model
for holy, submissive, gentle girls.

But it is for Mary’s obedience,
her willingness to take great risk as an expression of faith.
Mary looked at what the angel was offering her,
and we do not know how long she pondered the situation
before she said, "Here am I, the servant, the slave of the Lord;
let it be with me according to your word."

She looked at the risks and the danger, the potential and promise,
and she said yes - with an obedience to match Abraham
poised with his knife raised at Mount Moriah;

It is significant to note just who it is that usually gets chosen by God
for these kinds of jobs.

God has a way of choosing the poor and the humble;
this is God's preference in most all the biblical tales
- the poor and the humble and the most unlikely as God's representatives
and as God's partners in carrying out the great acts of salvation:
people like Moses - a murderer,
and Rahab – a prostitute in Jericho,
and one who was the youngest of 8 sons with the least to inherit, David with his wandering eye.

So at this time,
the most important key time in all the history of salvation,
God asked a humble peasant woman,
whom some say was no more than an adolescent,
to be the decisive agent,
to be the human partner -
in producing the divine child that would be our salvation.

Mary's agreement to being a partner with God
is our perfect example of obedience,
and, of course, this kind of obedience
is what God is asking of each of us.

This is not a matter of heroics.

For Mary from that moment of conception
the Holy Spirit was hovering over her, and her life was graced.
And so it is with us.

We are baptized into that same Holy Spirit.
We too are graced.
We too are called into obedience,
called not on the basis of our prestige or wealth or power,
but on the basis of our openness and willingness to risk faith,
our own obedience in making room within us for Jesus.

Mary shows us the way of opening
so that Jesus at his coming
may find in us a mansion prepared for himself.

Next Introductory Seminar

Our next Community of the Lamb offering will be:

Introductory Seminar
followed by a 12 Week course

Friday, Feb. 20, 7 – 9 PM
Saturday, Feb. 21, 9 AM – 3 PM

hosted by

Emmanuel Episcopal Church
4400 86th Ave. SE
Mercer Island WA 98040

Looking for a spiritual practice beyond a personal meditation focus?
a form of Christian meditation that is
• outward looking
• inclusive
• ecological
• intercessory
a spiritual practice that is
• grounded in scripture
• from a long tradition of devotion and usage
• linked with the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist
• and that can be practiced both in quiet sitting and in the midst of activity

To register call 206-713-5321 or email PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com
Suggested donation for the introductory seminar $50
Lunch on Saturday will be provided

Testimony

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment and he who fears is not perfected in love.
1 John 4:18

I think I was born with fear and joy in my heart and developed both in the womb. My mother’s expectations for me were always beyond what was normal all through my life from the moment of conception on. Fear was always competing with joy. My father loved me without expectations, loved me as I was. He and I were very close and when he died suddenly when I was 15 years old the fear of abandonment held me in its grip for many years, and any loss in my life was magnified. I have had a lot of healing prayer for this, and then I began to pray the Prayer of the Lamb in 2001. Through that prayer prayed daily on a regular basis the Lord began a deeper healing and without realizing it I was being set free of that inner enemy, fear.

I realized in 2006 that the fear of abandonment was gone. I knew it was gone when my husband was diagnosed with dementia. I knew the day would come when he would be “leaving me,” an ongoing thing, but I wasn’t afraid of losing him. The loss would be tragic, but the fear of it was gone. I also realized this summer of 2008 that other fears were gone as well – fear of financial loss, fear of the dentist, fear of pain, and numerous other fears. God’s perfect love has cast out fear, and I’m able to love more deeply, see people and situations with Christ’s eyes and be more compassionate with others. I also have more energy, as fear was a heavy weight that I was carrying.

It is so freeing to be rid of fear and I am so grateful to the Lord for this miracle in my life. Now the joy of the Lord is my strength.

Jane Gray York

Agnus Dei Vol 6.4 Annual Report

This year the Board of the Directors for the Community of the Lamb decided not to send out our usual annual appeal letter. Instead of asking for donations and pledges, we want simply to give you a report of our activity and ministry during the last year as a way to express faithful accountability in the stewardship of the gifts give to the Community of the Lamb. While acknowledging the current economic situation, I am happy to announce that, as usual, the financial support received for this ministry has met all expenses and has provided a modest salary of $1,200 for the year of 2008 for the Executive Director.

During this last year our activities have included the ongoing group in Shoreline and intermittently an Eastside group meeting in Bellevue, as well as spiritual direction for individuals. I led a Columbia Region clergy retreat in Longview, held a short workshop at the Cathedral, led two Lenten programs in Everett and on Mercer Island, gave a presentation at the spring Ministry Resource Day, held a summer retreat at St. Dunstan, Shoreline, and led weekend retreats for the Total Common Ministry congregations and for Church of the Apostles.

Prayer beads were also sent to a new congregation in Sacramento starting up after most of the Episcopal churches in that diocese disassociated from the rest of the Episcopal Church. These were sent as an expression of prayer support not only for continuing Episcopalians grieving the loss of their diocese and church buildings, but also for those who were now feeling free to join the Episcopal Church and enter into a faith community that welcomed diversity of theological perspective within the faith of Jesus Christ.

Most significantly during the last year I have been going twice a month to the Monroe Correctional Complex and providing instruction in meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb for some 25 men in the Twin Rivers Unit. This is a major outreach ministry for the Community of the Lamb that I have been able to offer because of your contributions, since this is not a service for which I receive direct donations from the participants, nor am I paid by the prison. After a year now of working with these men I have observed how their motivation for meditation is significantly different from others I have worked with, how the prison environment presents challenges in how to carry out daily practice, and how I should direct instruction about meditation. There is much less talk filled with theological or churchy sounding words, and definitely no room for anything that might sound like easy platitudes, but instead pragmatic reality checks and compassionate listening, and a lot of reflection on the themes of escape, truth and faith. I continue to learn along with the men.

So thank you very much for making this ministry possible and for your role in nurturing faith development and increasing realization of Light, Life, Way and Truth as revealed through Yeshua. And with your support I look forward to the coming year in which we will have a major presentation of the Basic Introductory Seminar accompanied by the 12 Week follow up course beginning in February. I also look forward to continuing to build on the foundation now firmly laid at the prison in Monroe, to continue with those in spiritual direction, and to offer more quiet days, retreats and workshops. I feel that this is all possible because of Yeshua’s faithfulness in mercy and grace and great compassion working through many beings open to his love.

Along with my thanks I want to encourage you to continue in the spiritual practice of the Prayer of the Lamb, offering intercession for our environment, our stewardship of resources and deepening faith. Meditate every day. Mediate every day, because meditation is a form of fasting from all the ways in which we limit God’s mercy and grace that would operate within us. When we fast from our own assumptions and expectations about how we think life should work, then we provide the space for the great liberating Truth, the reality of the Reign of God, making its advent in our awareness and realization. Keep meditating!

Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly

Agnus Dei Vol. 6.3 Some Basic Thoughts about Meditation

Some Basic Thoughts about Meditation

How can I live my spiritual practice so that I can see it bearing fruit in my every day life? That is a practical question for those serious about being authentic and honest with the intentions of life, and not just looking for an escape through meditation in an attempt to avoid or deny the difficulties of human existence and the issues of suffering.

This requires a meditation practice of the heart and not just the mind for integrating wholeness throughout the mind-body being that I am. The spiritual practice of meditation requires dedication, energy and commitment. But this is not just a project of the mind in which we strive to think the right thoughts, reject other thoughts and “have faith.” Striving in meditation only increases our problems. Where we have been judgmental, we find that we become even more judgmental of ourselves regarding our spiritual practice. Where we have been cut off from feelings and our own body, striving toward a spiritual goal can heighten a sense of even further separation.

So a meditation practice of the heart helps us in facing, rather than fleeing from, what we may want to avoid or deny: our own greed, self-hatred, anger, fear, pride, self-centeredness. But this heart practice also gives us a hugely valuable tool as a spiritual practice grounded in personal experience, because in faith knowledge or knowing is not intellectual assent but personal experience, knowing from the heart not the head. It is firsthand, not second hand.

Faith is a key component in the spiritual practice of meditation. We sit and do nothing, wasting our precious time, in faith that it is Yeshua/Jesus, the Lamb of God, his Resurrection Life and his own faith that are at work in every aspect of our being. As the Apostle Paul put it in Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live in [the] faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.” Yes, I know that most translations read “I live by faith in the Son of God,” but that seems to be reading into the text that it is my faith. The translators get around the obvious genitive case “of the Son of God” by applying a grammar rule that seems constructed for only a couple of instances in New Testament Greek. But it seems to me that what Paul actually literally meant was that it is indeed Christ’s own faith that is at work in us and by which we live.

See also Philippians 3:9 as another example: “…that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through [the] faith of Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” This is to acknowledge that the faith we may claim as our own is actually a gift from way beyond ourselves. Trusting then that this faith is utterly sufficient for all needs we can then practice meditation with an openness of heart relieved from the burden of our own mental efforts and striving. We can be with our personal experience and direct knowing when we sit in meditation, and be able to face the greed, self-hatred, anger, fear, pride and self-centeredness we otherwise would not be willing to encounter. And the process of healing is at work.

Now when we engage in the spiritual discipline of meditation, we have a way of addressing the war going on within ourselves, the struggle with self regarding addictions, desires, denial, fear of death and isolation. But this is not by forcing ourselves through an act of will, but rather through cultivating a new way of being and relating which lets go of the battle. Facing what is the truth of self is not only an act of courage. It is also an act of compassion, compassion for ourselves. The hard work in practicing this new way of being is facing the truth about ourselves that is uncovered.

To live a life of faith requires us to engage in regular practice of a spiritual discipline such as the Prayer of the Lamb. This is meant to “ripen” us so that we can come face to face with life, be in the present, and be more honest and conscious. Then in meditation a sense of wholeness and abundance can arise within us as we sit, for in that sitting we are open to everything, rejecting nothing. Every possibility is there, nothing questioned, rejected or discredited – emptiness, and also expansion of awareness of and connection with all. Fullness.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Beverly

June 28 One Day Meditation Retreat

Our next Community of the Lamb offering will be:

Summer Retreat Day

A Drop in the Bucket

Saturday, June 28
9:00 AM to 3:00 PM
St Dunstan Episcopal Church
722 N 45th St, Shoreline

The theme will be "A Drop in the Bucket," in reference to how individuals often feel about their efforts in comparison with huge need. In the face of "compassion fatigue" and being overwhelmed by all the areas of the world where disasters have occurred and human suffering is great, take a day to be compassionately with yourself and this universal intercession of the Prayer of the Lamb.

Please make reservations by email at PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com or by phone 206-713-5321.

Support for Practice

Not everyone who prays the Prayer of the Lamb has been through the comprehensive 12 week course, but all have received some sort of training, teaching and initiation into the practice. Whenever I teach the Prayer of the Lamb I also make myself available for follow up for questions and consultation regarding practice. I also make a point of saying that the Prayer of the Lamb is a form of spiritual practice that needs to be incorporated into daily practice and ideally connected to a community of others engaged in the same spiritual practice. Meditation to be fruitful is best connected to a teacher and community. When practiced alone as individuals there are many ways in which we can simply strengthen our own ego identification, miss our self delusion, use the meditation only as a relaxation technique, make assumptions about spiritual attainment, or misinterpret experiences that may occur during meditation.

In meditation we sit with openness to the Holy Spirit and trust in our Lord. The more we sit in this faith, the more we may come to recognize that underneath the initial peace and relaxation lie fears, anxieties, hopes, anger, despair all waiting to be compassionately addressed. Hence the need for the resource of guidance in practice.

Also we have a tendency to take a particular spiritual practice and the teaching which defines it, and adapt it to our own preferences. This most usually hinders the potential and potency of the practice as it has been developed from its tested and proven source tradition.

If any of you have questions or would like consultation about how your meditation practice is going, you may email me at PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com or call 206-713-5321.

Offering Outreach Ministry Through the Prayer of the Lamb

Over the last seven years I have been privileged to share the Prayer of the Lamb with almost 1,000 persons through seminars, workshops, retreats, 12 week groups, and ongoing groups, not to mention an equal number who have received malas (prayer bead bracelets), each mala having been used in meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb for at least one hour. Members of the Community of the Lamb are those who meditate with the Prayer of the Lamb, and a number of you have taken part in preparing malas for others to use. We did this for those attending General Convention in 2003, for members of St. Paul, New Orleans, as part of the “We Will Stand With You” campaign, and for inmates at the state prison in Monroe.

Now we have received a new request. It is a modest request, not a large project, and members of the St. Dunstan ongoing group are already engaged in make malas and meditating with them for this latest project.

The Diocese of San Joaquin has gone through a tremendous shaking during the last several months. After the bishop and most of the congregations chose to disassociate from the Episcopal Church, much work has been done through the offices of the Presiding Bishop and the Episcopal Church Center to support and reconstitute the diocese around those congregations and individuals who wanted to stay. New mission congregations have been forming. Interestingly those who had not identified themselves with previous parishes of the diocese, now are seeking to become members of the newly forming congregations.

Grace Episcopal Mission in Bakersfield is one of these new faith communities. On June 22 over 20 persons will be baptized, confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church. One of those being baptized is related to one of the clergy of this diocese. Observing both this priest’s spiritual process of responding to a call to serve in ordained ministry and the emergence of this new congregation has lead to a commitment of faith in our Lord Jesus. In support for this we have been requested to provide a mala for each of those being presented to the bishop recently appointed to oversee the diocese. (There is synchronicity in that this bishop’s name is Lamb!) My colleague will be attending this event and taking malas representing our prayer support for the individuals making faith commitments and for the congregation as it lays a new spiritual foundation.

As is the case every time we offer the Prayer of the Lamb in intercession, we ask for God’s mercy without agenda or qualifications. There are no assumptions about rightness or religious political positions of belief. There is simply the plea for that abundant, unconditional, compassionate mercy to pour over them and us, that mutually we may wake to the reality of Yeshua’s Resurrection Life. Please remember Grace Episcopal Mission in your intercessions.

Agnus Dei Vol. 6.1 Easter 08 Ecological Intercession

Biological life on this planet, as far as I know, exists solely within a thin surface layer of earth, water and air. Relative to the size of the planet, this zone of habitation is miniscule, fragile and exposed. Yet billions of different life forms thrive in this biosphere. This planetary surface is so thin in comparison to the rest of the mass of Earth that it might be considered insignificant if it were not for the fact that this is where we humans live. We have a vested self-interest, therefore, in the condition of this biosphere.

When I teach about the Prayer of the Lamb, I talk about how this is an ecological form of meditational prayer, that this spiritual practice interconnects within the ecological system, that the context for meditation is a context of the whole. We cannot separate out this activity of meditation from the rest of the environment.

Another way of expressing this is: “It’s not about me.” It’s about us. I may think that I meditate for my own good, and yes, that it so. But whatever is for my own good is also for the good of all because we are intrinsically interrelated. Indeed when we continue long enough in this spiritual practice we can come to experience, not just have an insight about, but know experientially the unity of all manifest being. Then the only way we can offer the Prayer of the Lamb is to pray “have mercy on us.”

The Prayer of the Lamb, “Jesus/Yeshua, have mercy on us,” begins with an appeal for mercy to intervene in our condition, our situation, our environment. It is offering an intercession for what is seen as a need, and in saying “have mercy on us” it acknowledges that I myself am also impacted by the need seen in another. And continuing in meditation we can come to realize that the mercy, compassion, care, wisdom and grace needed are already abundantly present and available. In truth there is no separation or alienation from the compassion of God, just as much as it is not possible for any organism to exist separate from its ecosphere.
A key scripture text to support this is the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
The darkness, may I suggest, is not some evil force or enemy, something that would pose a threat to the light, but nothing, no thing. What we objectify as darkness is rather our assumption that darkness is substantial and able to bind and limit life. It is our supposed separation and alienation from God. To quote my own teacher, “Darkness is a function of our ignorance about the truth of life. We think the world is dark, because we are dark in our awareness, and yet the world is all light, one radiant wholeness of love.” It is salvation to be freed of this self-limiting ignorance.

The condition of ignorance and darkness is within the state of awareness of the whole of our species. As our spiritual practice brings awakening, so too the compassion of this abundant mercy empowers us in our actions, translating meditation into compassionate service not only for other human beings but for the whole of the biosphere. The fruit of meditation is action on behalf of the whole bio-system intervening into the darkness of human hearts, shifting callousness, despair, rage, hatred, envy and greed into life-sustaining directions.

Each time you sit to meditate is a turning toward the light and a cooperation with divine self expression. Every time you meditate you are adding to growing awareness about the illusion of our separateness. Every time in meditation the individual, separate "I" of self identity is no more, and "we" as the miraculous union of all unique beings in the divine radiance of Yeshua becomes the substance of creation. Keep meditating!