I just recently moved to Spokane from
Seattle.
It
has been 54 years since I’ve lived here.
Actually I was born here and grew up here,
but
I have spent most of my life living in a variety of places
around
the country.
There were five years back in the 90’s
when
I served congregations in the diocese
before
I did something bold
and
followed where I felt the Holy Spirit was leading me.
I took a sabbatical – for two full years –
and
spent that time meditating and reading scripture.
I did that because I had begun meditation practice
and
I was discovering how significant and powerful meditation is
as
a transformative spiritual practice.
For me this was the way I could live out my relationship
with Jesus
most
genuinely and faithfully.
And that is what brings me here today, to share with you
about a meditational prayer practice that can be healing and transforming and
is centered in Jesus.
Our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has talked non-stop
about
the Jesus Movement,
the
way we Episcopalians can authentically
put
Jesus back in the center of conversation and of our faith
so that we can go out and express the love of Jesus to a
hurting world.
Jesus is the reason we are Christians, right?
Otherwise we could be Jewish or Buddhist
or
anything else as a demarcation of religious and faith affiliation.
But if you are going to be identified as a Christian,
Jesus
has to be in there some place.
Having
grown up in the Episcopal Church
I can say unequivocally that we Episcopalians
don’t say the word “Jesus” much.
Why
is that?
Well, what if we had a greater understanding, or, better,
a
deeper experience of him?
You would think that understanding Jesus wouldn’t be that
hard,
but
look at what the Gospel for today shows us about that.
James and John, you would think they would know better.
They had been with Jesus all this time,
they
had heard him preach, watched him heal,
been
sent out to do what he was doing, had some success with that,
and now what do they want?
The
two seats of power in the coming Reign of God
about
which Jesus had been talking.
The seat on the right would go to the equivalent in our modern parlance,
of
the Secretary of State,
and
the one on the left would go to the Secretary of Defense,
assuming, that is,
as
the disciples James and John seemed to have been assuming,
that
Jesus was going to take the head position of power
in
the Kingdom of God
and
that the Reign of God would be a divine version
of
political and military earthly kingdoms.
James
and John had visions of grandeur.
Their
idea about who the Messiah was is so influenced by
their cultural and religious assumptions
and hopes and expectations
and moral framework regarding justice and
righteousness.
It
would take the crucifixion and Resurrection
and
the hurricane force of Holy Spirit setting them on fire
and
abiding in their hearts
for
them to fully know who Jesus is.
So this picture of Jesus, this
version of him is not what he is talking about.
Here, instead, is the Jesus that
each of the Gospels describes:
In
all the stories Jesus looks at all with love and compassion,
every
single person wherever he went, even those he argued with.
He saw, and sees, the condition
of suffering for each one;
he
sees the helplessness they experience in the face of their suffering.
He knows it all.
Nothing escapes from his loving
gaze –
Peter
denying him, you in your pain and me in mine,
known
and hidden,
the
suffering we admit to and the suffering we hide out of the shame
of
not being self-sufficient,
of
not having it all together.
And then there is the suffering
we are not even aware of,
the
ways in which we are bound by the limitations of our perceptions
and
the timidity of our faith.
We can make things so tough on ourselves without even
realizing it.
Let
me suggest to you a spiritual practice that has been around for millennia a
spiritual practice that can help dispel our cloudy way
of
understanding and experiencing Jesus and responding to him.
This
is a way that can help us be open
to
the healing, restorative and grace-filled Resurrection Presence
of
Jesus within us.
It’s
been around for millennia, what we can call meditation.
It
is so counter-intuitive – meditation is primarily sitting awake.
Sitting,
that is, doing nothing, ceasing from our own activity
which
gets in the way of God’s saving action within us.
When
we act, when we pray even,
we
bring our limited understanding to the situation.
We
may do some good, much good,
and
yet we inhibit what the Holy Spirit could do through us.
Meditation
is a primary spiritual practice for being a follower of Jesus,
for
entering into the process of discipleship –
discipleship
which is an action at work in us through the Holy Spirit.
In
meditation we sit with openness to the Holy Spirit and trust in Jesus.
The
more we sit in this trust, this faith, the more we may come to recognize
that
underneath the initial experiences of peace and relaxation
lie
fears, anxieties, hopes, anger, despair –
all
waiting to be recognized, acknowledged and compassionately addressed.
By
sitting quietly one finally comes to the point
of
seeing through all the ego-constructs that we create
for
defining ourselves and the world we live in,
and
how we think it is all supposed to work.
Primarily
meditation is simply sitting awake.
This
coming Friday evening and Saturday morning I am offering
an
introduction to a form of Christian meditation
that
has been around forever,
that
is directly connected to scripture,
that
has links with our liturgies, the way we worship,
and
the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist.
I
invite you all to come and explore what this Prayer of the Lamb is,
a
short, simple prayer,
“Jesus,
Lamb of God, have mercy on us.”
And
then for those who discern that this would be a good spiritual practice
to
explore more deeply and establish as a personal practice,
we
will follow up with a weekly course of 12 sessions
where
we will meditate together,
reflect
on the experience of meditation,
and
look at what our Bible, and the Gospels in particular,
says
that relates to meditation.
Because
meditation is not like ordering through Amazon Prime
and
having it arrive on your doorstep the next day.
Meditation
is a life style,
that
is, it has to be incorporated into our daily lives,
and
become a part of the infrastructure of our being,
so
that its effectiveness can then be seen and experienced.
And
honestly, meditation is not a DIY project – you know,
read
the instructions and put it together all on your own
like
an IKEA kit.
That’s
why a group meditating together,
reflecting
on the experience of meditation ,
and
getting some guidance along the way,
makes
it far easier to discover and recognize the fruits of meditating
and
to sustain consistent meditation practice.
So
if you have ever wondered about meditation,
or
questioned whether there was a Christian form of meditation,
or
felt that your spiritual life needed a boost or renewal or direction,
come
this Friday evening and Saturday
and
find out what the Prayer of the Lamb is.
We
are all in a life long process of growing in our faith,
endeavoring
to comprehend who Jesus is,
who
he is for each of us,
just
as James and John were finding out
in
how Jesus responded to their request.
Not
in seats of power, James and John,
but
down on your knees washing feet and serving humbly,
and
becoming like Jesus in loving service.
The
collect for this Sunday is a prayer for the community of faith,
for
those who identify as followers of Jesus,
those
of us who admit to the need to know Jesus more clearly and fully,
those
of us who would be disciples and accept a call to mission.
Almighty and everlasting God, (we prayed)
in
Christ you have revealed your glory among the nations:
Preserve
the works of your mercy,
preserve
the works of your mercy,
that
your Church throughout the world
may
persevere persevere
so
that we can hang on, hang in there, stay the mile,
with
steadfast faith
steadfast
in trusting and being faithful and acting on that faith
that
confesses to be called by your Name,
your
Name, Jesus. Amen.
