Summer Retreat Day

Our next Community of the Lamb offering will be:
A Summer Retreat Day
"Don’t worry! Be happy!"
Saturday, July 18
9 AM – 3 PM
hosted by
St. Dunstan Episcopal Church
722 N. 145th St., Shoreline
To register call 206-713-5321
or email PrayeroftheLamb1@mac.com
Suggested donation $35
Lunch will be provided

Community News and Reflections

I had wanted to get a newsletter out since March, but as you can see I missed the due date! However the ministry of the Community of the Lamb has been growing, and now I have news about this that I am eager to share.

The 17th Prayer of the Lamb introductory seminar was held at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Mercer Island, this last February, followed by a 12 Week course that will finish in June. Those participating have been actively engaged in establishing a meditation practice, and express obvious commitment to this spiritual practice through consistent regular attendance and active engagement in discussion during our sessions. Watch for what the next Community of the Lamb event at Emmanuel will be.

Summer Retreat Day – St. Dunstan will again host a retreat day on their beautiful campus in Shoreline. This will be Saturday, July 18, 9 AM – 3 PM, with the theme, “Don’t worry; be happy.” This event will include meditation, gospel study, free time to walk meditatively in the gardens and among the trees, a light lunch, and the Supper of the Lamb.

Prison Outreach Ministry – Since October of 2007 I have been going out to the Monroe Correctional Complex to offer meditation instruction twice a month. The big news is that the Community of the Lamb has just received a generous grant of $3,000 from the Social Outreach Committee of Emmanuel, Mercer Island, for this ministry for 2009. This enables me to now go once a week greatly strengthening the program by giving more consistent and regular support to the men participating in the meditation group, and it also goes a long way toward meeting its expenses this year. The benefits of meditation in the prison setting are becoming more well known, and the chaplains and inmates tell me that this ministry is deeply appreciated. So I also want to communicate to all those who participate in the Community of the Lamb by using the Prayer of the Lamb in your spiritual practice, that you too can contribute to this ministry, especially so that we can continue to offer it on a weekly basis in 2010 as well.

While it has been a few months since the last newsletter, I hope you all have visited the blog/website and read what has been posted there. If you would like to have an email notice sent to you whenever a new item is posted on the blog, you can go to the blog site, sign in (and create an account if you don’t already have one), and sign up for an email feed.

Meditation Reflections - Here are some words about the significance of observing the body while sitting in meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb.

It has been said that paying attention to the body as we sit in silence can be compared with looking at pond water under a microscope. What is not obvious to the naked eye now is revealed as full of myriad tiny creatures swimming about. There is endless activity. So it is that as we observe more closely our own body sitting so still, we discover so much activity – subtle, tiny vibrations, variations, and movement. We can see how each part is in constant change and flux. The body now seems more like a river than a still pond.

Thus we have the opportunity to see how the body communicates its condition to consciousness more clearly. At times it is settled and at ease. Other times it is jumpy, edgy, tense, and emotions and thoughts are turbulent, or it is sleepy. In order to pay attention to what the body is communicating we may cultivate a compassionate gaze that becomes more alert to this subtle body language. We bring to it our same intercessory intention of the Prayer of the Lamb as we have for all those others for whom we are asking God’s mercy. And then when we have been able to sit with the body and all that it tells us, we are then able to sit with our feelings and emotions that rise to our attention, where previously we had been in avoidance and denial regarding them.

We cannot change ourselves, but in spiritual practice we can become what we practice. We do this by repeatedly practicing observing ourselves in place of reacting, and instead let go of fear and trust the process of purification of the Spirit at work within us, seeing through the self-limitations of our ego identities, our identifications with our suffering, needs and limitations, our poverty or lack. As we express compassion for self, the self opens to healing. Then comes the cultivation of the virtues and qualities that can strengthen our lives.

Realization and awakening are not accomplished by force of will-power and the efforts of the self in perfecting spiritual practice, but rather through rest, the resting of the heart and the opening of the mind. In that we discover what has always been present to us.

The point of meditation is the present moment – not getting someplace. In this way it is like dancing, which is not done to get somewhere, but to be present interacting here and now. With Jesus in the dance, there is no need to go anywhere else. Keep meditating!

Jane's Testimony

The following is a brief reflection written by Jane Gray York, president of the board of directors for the Community of the Lamb. The words she has to say about a faith response to the global economic conditions are neither naive nor glib, but words out of her direct experience and the wisdom that has come to her through faith. Jane has the life credentials to speak to us all these challenging and encouraging words.

Philippians 4:6-7
Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

During this time of recession in our country and our world where we don’t know what is coming next, it is more important than ever to turn to Jesus, who is the one we can depend upon to care for us. I am a person who likes things in order. I like to know what will happen, look ahead, make plans and have them work out.

But life isn’t like that. The Holy Spirit frequently changes the lesson plans to teach flexibility and to trust in the Lord one day at a time. I have found that by praying the Prayer of the Lamb each day I have let go of the need to control my circumstances, to live each day fully one day at a time, and to cease “futurizing.” If I am worrying about the future, I am not living today. I’m not staying in the moment. This prayer has helped me to adjust to big changes in my life when the tendency is to try to hang onto the familiar.
I’m 77 years old, my husband has dementia, our retirement nest egg has been lost to the stock market, and I am asking the Lord for direction as to how I can earn money at home. However these events do not determine how to respond to the events. The way in which I respond to these events will direct and influence the events more than the events themselves.

Because prayer, scripture and giving to others has been a larger part of my life, of my abiding in Him and His abiding in me, I am learning to live trusting that the Lord will provide what we need when we need it. Prayer helps me to let go, and to keep the garden of my heart weeded and fed each day with love, peace, joy, and hope so I can live each day with energy and gratitude.

Philippians 4:19-20
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God be glory for ever and ever. AMEN.

Jane Gray York

Sermon preached 6th Sunday of Easter at Ascension, Seattle

Thank you for sharing Carla with Emmanuel, Mercer Island, this morning,
and thank you for having me here with you today.

Pulpit exchanges are a double benefit:
a good way for a congregation to hear
a different voice and a different perspective on the gospel,
and an opportunity for the clergy
to experience how another congregation worships
plus that little but dangerous enticement of being a new voice
and thus likely to be more appreciated than at home.

Carla and I are each getting to preach on our favorite topics.

Carla is back with a congregation that knows and loves her
to have her take part in Emmanuel’s Rogation celebration.
Emmanuel is blest with expansive grounds
with some garden areas that are particularly beautiful right now
and also a large pea patch for vegetable gardens.
And this year our Kids Green Team
is planting their own section of the pea patch.

And I am honored to be back here at Ascension
where I had held a Prayer of the Lamb seminar
and led a 12 week group.
Today’s pulpit exchange was originally to have happened during Lent
when the topic of prayer and meditation was part of your lenten program,
but those plans had to be changed,
and now here we are, and prayer is always a topic that can be addressed.
The prayer relationship with Jesus is at the heart of our Christian faith.

This is where faith is made real,
where the rubber hits the road,
whenever we bring ourselves into the posture of prayer or meditation.
The prayer relationship with Jesus is foundational to trust and commitment.
It informs all that we subsequently do.
Prayer is the time and place where grace is given freedom to act in our lives.

What we experience in prayer and meditation
shapes our motivation for service and enables us for action.
That is why it is so very important to pray first before engaging in action.

So now, how to talk about prayer and meditation
in this short space of time this morning…
There is so much that can be said,
BUT I always find that a gospel passage gives a good way
to focus in on an aspect of prayer and meditation
that is a gold mine to explore,
and today’s gospel is no exception.

Actually I think that John 15 describes rather well
what is at the heart of prayer and what is realized in meditation.

Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.”

This love of which he speaks is, of course, agaph love,
that is the unitive love of God
which is a dynamic force and action within the heart of God,
within the Holy Trinity,
and this is what Jesus preached, demonstrated, and lived.

This agaph love flowed from Jesus continually,
so that in all the gospels everything recorded about Jesus
indicates this dynamic
and reveals no self-interest, no self-concern,
no self-contraction away from others and their needs.

This is a way of being that has overcome the mindset of the world,
where self-preservation arises
out of concern for having one’s own needs met.
Indeed Jesus so loved that he willingly laid down his life for his friends.

Jesus says, “Remain in my love,”
remain in this agaph, unitive love of God: be here!
Don’t go back to the old mind set.
Don’t get hooked by the pressures of the world.

Then he says, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,”
which can also be said the other way around:
“If you remain in my love, you will be able to keep my commandment,”
because what was that commandment of Jesus?
Love one another – in the same way he has loved us.

Look, this is for the sake of joy – your joy, joy that completely fills you up,
joy that permeates to the depth of your being,
joy that swallows up all grief, all suffering, all sadness, all anxiety,
all fear, all despair, all confusion, all self-constriction,
all that melting away in unbounded, liberating, life-giving joy.

Again, this love talk in today’s gospel is at the heart of prayer
and what is realized in meditation,
AND what can be experienced at every point in life.
I am saying that to sit in meditation
is to put ourselves in the best possible position for being able to
recognize and experience this agaph love, this unitive love.

See! We can’t be loved from afar.
God seeks to have us realize that God’s love is so intimate
that it is unitive.

So Jesus says remain in the love – don’t go back to the old mind set,
don’t get hooked by pressures from the world.
You can take a lot of hits from the world, if you are wakeful to the Love.

Now, a word about being chosen, since it’s right here in the text:
Jesus said, “You did not chose me, but I chose you…”
This is not an issue of being chosen out of the great pool of all living beings
to have an exclusive claim about relationship with Jesus.
Not that at all.
This is about initiative.

We may think we have made the first move by coming to church,
by getting ourselves baptized or confirmed, by offering our prayers,
but the move was initiated by Jesus, his Resurrection Presence
through the Holy Spirit moving us to turn toward him:
Jesus lifted up on the cross drawing all to him.

Ah, so we come to offer prayer, we sit to meditate,
not because we thought it up, but because we cannot help it.
If some of you then begin to think, oops, I’m not a meditator
and I hardly remember to say my prayers each day,
take that self-realization as indication that you are being drawn, being called.

Now the reason for all this love,
and for being the object of Jesus’ initiative, his choosing:
it’s not so we can just sit around in this wonderful love being blissed out,
or just feeling comfortable in the self-satisfaction of knowing we are loved.
It’s not so that we can come to church each Sunday,
hear the beautiful words of the liturgy that pronounce this love,
have a cup of coffee with friends
and go home again to think about other things.
We are being loved and being chosen
so that, frankly, we can be of some good use,
so that we can be fruitful, create some results, bear fruit.
And what happens to fruit grown on a tree or vine?
It gets eaten.
That’s right. If we bear fruit, then expect to get eaten.
Expect to be nourishment for others.
Jesus did this big time.
Look – we come here, up to this table, and eat him,
this literal giving of his life blood for us.

I am speaking very intimately here, at at very fundamental, foundational level
about life in relationship to Jesus.
I speak this way because what I have come to see
through my own meditation practice
is the very solid and immediate reality of this Love that Jesus has for us.

And this has worked in me an action of grace and mercy
that has been liberating and healing.
I began to meditate as a response to huge grief and loss
through the deaths of two young men in our family
followed shortly after by the death of my father,
out of a deep inner need that began shout at me
to sit down, shut up and listen.

And when I did, I came to discover this huge love,
and as I opened my heart to let this love in
much more than the grief was transformed and healed.
There were many ways in which my own self-limitation, doubt, fear,
anger, aggression, and other self-destructive attitudes
were being addressed,
not through any agenda or effort of my own,
but as a result of sitting still and doing nothing,
that is, meditating.

That is why I recommend this spiritual practice to others.
As a spiritual practice meditation is tried and true, accessible,
and bears fruit for those who discern a call to engage the practice.
That is why I have dedicated my time and effort
into providing instruction and forming meditation groups
where establishing a stable and ongoing personal practice
can be supported.

Bearing fruit – let me say one thing more.
It should have been no surprise to me
that eventually my own mediation practice would start making
some use of me in a way that would go beyond
my own comfort level in offering ministry.

It started with a simple pastoral referral
when I was doing some interim work in Monroe.
A prisoner was sent there who was an Episcopalian. Would I visit him?

I don’t like prisons,
and I don’t particularly care for the kinds of people you find in prison.
I can work pastorally in other situations of need.
I have been a hospice director and a chaplain in a trauma hospital.
I’ve been with a lot of people in crisis and difficult situations.
But prison ministry and the personality types there –
well, others would do much better with that than I;
I had never been much good with that or felt comfortable in that setting.

Nevertheless I made the visit to the Monroe Correctional Complex,
and lo and behold, this inmate wanted to learn how to meditate.
So there we sat in the large visitors room
surrounded by everyone else visiting – prisoners and their families –
a veritable din going on around us,
and we mediated together.

This guy was super motivated,
and he went back to his cell and meditated daily between my visits.
This went on for months.
Then he introduced me to the chaplains,
and we talked about my coming as a volunteer to teach meditation to others.

Now I go out there on a weekly basis, and have just recently received
a grant that will help keep this going for the rest of the year.
So far over 30 men have at least sampled the meditation class,
and some have stayed and established a personal meditation practice.

I am learning along with these men about the mercy of God,
mercy for them for an openness to
healing and transformation in their lives,
and mercy for me in bringing me to repentance
about my own judgments about them,
freeing me from another inner prison.

I am learning more and more what it is to do what Jesus commands,
that we love one another.

Sermon preached Good Friday at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Mercer Island

In John, chapter 12, when some Greeks came to see Jesus,
he answered them,
"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Very truly, I tell you,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains just a single grain;
but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

The hour of glory has come, the hour of GLORY,
when Jesus is lifted up upon the cross
and draws all to himself
all of humanity, all living beings, all life,
all suffering, all sin, all death.

And this is glory in the true sense of the word,
glory – not splendor,
but in the pure translation of the word
that which has weight of meaning,
that which is highly valued: glory.

But at that time 2,000 years ago
the glory was misunderstood, just as it is today,
in the desperate hope for another King David,
in clinging memories of the glory of King Solomon,
and the cross,
the ignominious death by execution as a criminal undeserving of life,
the cross (!) as a means of glory was incomprehensible.

Now admittedly even knowing what we know about Easter Sunday morning
and all the theology of resurrection, salvation and redemption,
2,000 years later it is still hard to sit here today
with the cross, with crucifixion, with death.
But this too is part of our devotion and response in gratitude
for God’s gracious love expressed so incredibly for us.

So let us be here with the Passion Narrative that we just took part in
as though we are one of the participants
and not just as the crowd who must say all those hard lines
of ignorance, delusion, and rejection.

In reading the Passion Narrative in each of the four Gospels
we see many participants in the scene and in the action,
many involved on the edges
the whole spectrum of the human condition,
so that ech of us can recognize ourselves there.

The general atmosphere in light of the events since Palm Sunday
had been an escalation of tension and confrontation
with the religious hierarchy
gathering energy around the big celebration of Passover.
One little incident could push the whole thing over into riot, uprising,
bringing on a strong Roman action of suppression.

Those in the highest leadership for the Jewish people
- the Sanhedran and clergy at the Temple -
probably were suffering sleepless nights.

Those with Jesus that Thursday evening in the upper room,
said to be near King David’s Tomb,
those closest to Jesus, the twelve,
each one of them had their own individual concerns and agendas for Jesus.

And those in the city of Jerusalem not directly involved
or ignorant or unconscious about what was happening that Friday
and about just who it is
who is passing by in the streets of Jerusalem
on the way to Golgatha.

Come, stand in those streets with me.
I’ve been there before – several times –
in the very same places where Jesus carried his cross.
Whenever I have been in the Holy Land
- a most unholy place with all its violence -
I usually find myself gravitating to the old city.

This is the part of Jerusalem that was the original city,
a city whose history goes back at least 4,000 years,
3,000 years since King David,
a city that has been destroyed and rebuilt 40 times in its history,
a city that has gone by various names
like Aelolia Capitolina after 70 AD by the Romans
and Al Quds as it is known in Arabic.

The Old City is that which is enclosed by the 16th Century wall
built by Suleman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire.
It includes all of what would have been Jerusalem during the time of Christ
plus the area to the west and north
so that now the wall encloses what was once Golgotha and the tomb.

Throughout the Old City bits and pieces of architecture and roadway
poke out from this century or that
all the way back to the time of Christ.

One can see the actual paving stones,
parts of the Antonio Fortress where Pontius Pilate held Jesus
and presented him to the people and said,
“Behold the Man.”

The way from the Antonio Fortress through the city streets
and out the gate to the place of execution, the hill called Golgotha,
can be traced with a fair amount of accuracy,
although now all the route is within the city wall.

Just as 2,000 years ago the Via Dolorosa, the sorrowful way,
went through the busy marketplace,
so it does now today,
through the busy marketplace,


so that all the citizenry of Jerusalem can see and take note
of what happens to those criminals condemned to die,
a harsh object lesson for the people,
but also for the condemned another humiliation
added to what had already been suffered.

It is not easy to walk the Way of the Cross in Jerusalem.
It is more like running a gauntlet of pick pockets and street hawkers,
where every several paces you can duck into a shrine
at one of the stations
for a moment of prayer
before emerging again into the barrage of the market place.

To right and left are endless shops with all sorts of things to buy,
from souvenirs to underwear, spice shops and butcher shops
with entire carcasses of goats and sheep hanging
skinned except for a tuft of fur at the end of the tail,
shops that sell Palestinian embroidery or pottery
or Israeli tee shirts,
candy stores, internet cafes,
and all with men sitting there watching those who pass by,
trying desperately to engage you in conversation
in order to get you to come into their shop.

Over the years I’ve noticed
that it’s not as crowded along the Via Dolorosa as it used to be.

So everyone has a “good price” they say to you.
Come in a haggle over a cup of mint tea.
Buy more than one of an item and reduce the price.
Start your bartering at a price less than half what is quoted you,
and agree on a price somewhere in between.
Expect to spend much time over each purchase.

Doesn’t sound very spiritual, does it?

But this is the reality of the city – then and now.

The Lamb of God struggles by with his execution stake,
and the world is interested in securing an income, avoiding layoffs,
and making a good bargain.

Once when I was leading a group of pilgrims along the Via Dolorosa,
the indifference of the world to the significance of Christ’s crucifixion
was painfully clear.

Carrying a large cross through the street
helped give coherence to the group,
identified us as pilgrims engaged in a religious ritual.
But that was no protection.

There were hawkers pushing postcards in our faces.

There was a professional photographer flashing shots of us
so that he could come and sell us the photos later.

One of his pictures caught four of our pilgrims
following the cross, but all of them looking sideways
into a shop that seemed particularly enticing.

Oh, how this describes us all,
even the faithful and dedicated church goer.

This is what Jesus has to deal with
from us, from his own disciples, as well as everyone else
as he undertook his ultimate work
so huge it would go beyond
what any spiritual master had done before or since.

So huge – this intention not just to heal individuals here and there,
not just to liberate oppressed souls from their inner demons,
not just restore life here and there for the sake of grieving families,
not just feed a few thousand with bread from a boy’s lunch,
not just to say words that would astound listeners.
No – this ultimate work of healing, liberating, feeding,
giving life and salvation
was to take all the suffering, all the human condition of sin,
which is wrapped up in the despair that comes from
believing and living the lie
of separation from the Source of our being.

-- This ultimate work of salvation by taking upon himself all suffering and sin and death for all time --

Other great spiritual masters have demonstrated
the ability to absorb others’ pain, illness and suffering.
But Jesus was taking this incredible spiritual action
to the cosmic, universal level
in one full, sufficient and perfect sacrifice.

And no one recognized this.

In the limitations of their own personal agendas
for those around Jesus,
no one saw this coming in quite this huge scope of action and outcome.

Nor do we.
In the limitations of our own personal life perspective
focused on our immediate issues
we miss the hugeness – it is beyond anything we know how to ask.

Well, this is part two of the Triduum,
a liturgy begun last night and continuing through the Easter Vigil.
What we commemorated yesterday in the Maundy Thursday Eucharist
is intertwined with what we commemorate today
and what will come after sundown tomorrow.

That last night at table Jesus did something
that would connect us all to the cross,
that would forever link us spiritually and physically to the cross,
that would demonstrate a means of oneness in his huge heart.

He did this by taking some bread off the table,
holding it up, tearing it into pieces,
and giving a part of that bread to everyone there.

“Eat this,” he told them,
and then he said, “This is my body.
“Every time you gather and eat, you are eating me.”
one with bread and one with all life,
all that is created in him, the Word, present at Creation, through whom came life.

And then he took a cup of wine from the table
and had them all drink from that,
and then he said, “This is my blood.” MY BLOOD
words that would have chilled those present to the bone,
because of the great prohibition on blood.

All kosher meat is drained thoroughly of the blood
because the life of that animal is in the blood.
Slice it’s neck open and let the blood out and the animal dies.

Only God gives life, the blood is reserved for God alone.

For the animals sacrificed at the Temple,
the blood was collected in bowls and thrown on the altar.
The altar of God dripped with blood that belonged to him.

And the Lamb of God said, “Drink this, all of you.
“This is my blood, shed for you”
like an animal sacrificed at the altar
the life blood – here not splashed on the altar for God’s eyes only
but poured out into an infinite number of chalices.

Drink this in recognition that you gathered here,
you who have drunk this week after week, year after year,
now have flowing in your veins MY very blood.


Jesus says to us today, let me do the big, important work
of taking on your sin and suffering, your death.
You, simply drink my life blood,
and let that work intimately within you.

This is the glory of the cross,
the precious weight that hangs upon it,
precious beyond all counting,
the grain of wheat falling into the earth and dying
producing the fruit of salvation and resurrection
and new life for us all.

Glory.