Friday, April 24, 2015

Slow-Chewing Mornings - a conversation about Christian meditation

Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. How sweet are your words to my taste,  sweeter than honey to my mouth! – Psalm 119:97,103


The other morning as I sleepily made my way to the coffee maker, for whatever reason, something smelled just like my grandparent’s kitchen did when I was growing up.  Instantly I was transported into memories of waking up in their small valley ranch home where the mornings were warm and quiet and the aroma of  instant coffee shared the air with the newly-cut alfalfa next door.  I could picture my grandpa reading the newspaper in the kitchen next to their old formica table, and grandma standing at the stove-top where eggs were usually sizzling. She was always sure to tell my brother and I to fill up our belly and clean our plate.  I loved mornings like that.  They were grace-rhythmed, slow-chewing mornings.

Isn’t it funny how one whiff of the familiar can bring a person right back to something otherwise long forgotten?  As I stood 40+ years later in my own kitchen, I remembered things like the little wooden, pig-shaped plaque that hung above my grandma’s stove with the words, “Pigs is Pigs”.  I remember many laughs around that plaque and how it never came off the wall.  I recalled one of my grandfather’s more common mantras: “Michellie, just remember you don’t have to get clean to take a bath.”  That was his way of reminding us that God’s love was unconditional and we come best when we come to him just as we are. They are words that continue to shape me, even to this day.  That kitchen was a place where we took in some of the nutrients of living. 

I was recently asked why I put such an emphasis on meditative prayer.  My answer will be similar to these memories.  But before I go on, a brief clarification might be helpful.  Christian Meditative Prayer always has as its foundation the Word of God and worship.  It is not a random reaching for nirvana nor is it empty.  Much like the slow-chewing mornings shared in my grandparent’s kitchen, in meditation we sit with God and chew on his word.  We let it be digested for what it is, taking in its nutrients in shared community with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, until we are full.  It is where God’s Living Word mediates his written word.   Things otherwise long-forgotten, are recalled as the Spirit wafts what has, over time and careful thought, been made familiar. His Truth moves from mind to heart as God's love-mantra is remembered in quiet rumination...We are "filled up"... shaped by his word.

While I am genuinely surprised at the concern in our current western church culture around meditation, I understand it.  There are many spiritual cultures seeking to find deeper understandings about gods and humanity.  There are many that claim meditation as one of their primary modes of prayer, but they lack the foundation of the One True God and His written and Living word.   Scripture mentions meditation 20 times, so let’s not relinquish the term, and let's not assume it means the same in every circle.  Incorrect labeling can cause confusion and we will be tempted to reject it altogether.  It will starve the soul just like skipping those meals in my grandparents kitchen would have starved my body.  If we want to get to know God we will spend time slow-chewing with him.  We will read what he has to say, we will look close at each word, we will give it slow-chewing, prayerful time so that it becomes familiar and integrated.  

There is a video recently produced by Pandora Jewelry.  It shows children from the ages of 3-9 years old, blindfolded and guided towards a group of mothers. 



One by one they made their way through the group. Searching expectantly, for what would be familiar to them – hands, hair, face; each eventually found the one they knew as mom.  It was not only powerful, it was beautiful!  Those blindfolded children reminded me of seasons in my life when God seemed to disappear – The times when faith and truth are identified by what has been discovered in past nearness and carried in memory.  That is the gift cultivated through meditation - God becomes familiar.  And it happens as we search expectantly His Word, forging a God-mantra, drawing near, chewing slowly, being nourished.  So that even when all goes dark we are still finding the one we know as God.

Friday, April 3, 2015

GOOD Friday


 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. 'Get behind me, Satan!"'He said.  'You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns'" John 12:23-25

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and
follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. -  Mark 8:31-33


           Today is “good” Friday.  GOOD.  I wonder if the disciples would have called it good.  I wonder if they would have called it something different, like “unjust” Friday, or “disillusioned” Friday.  Maybe “Dark” Friday would have seemed fitting.  Yet it has come to be known as “Good Friday”, and while on the surface it does not make a whole lot of sense, upon a deeper look it does.

            It is a day that proclaims God's purpose of loving and redeeming the world through the cross of Jesus Christ. It is a day that is good because God was drawing the world to himself in Christ. As seen in John's gospel, particularly, God was in control. He was not making the best of a bad situation.  He was actually working out HIS intention for the world — winning salvation for all people.  He was making a way for you and I to be with him, and not just in Heaven when we die. He was also making a way for us to be in close proximity (abide) with him now!  Right here on this dusty place called earth, God drew near through Jesus and he still draws near because of the cross and resurrection of Christ. 

            But has Good Friday become lost in the clamor of Easter?  Sometimes a chocolate egg sounds a whole lot better than a Lenten fast.  And 350,000 watts of sacred cantata vibration is much more alluring than the clash of hammer and nail upon that which we hold sacred.  Oh how often I want the resurrection without the cross.  I don’t want to suffer, and often don’t want to be reminded of it.  I don’t think I am alone.  Over the past few days many Easter ads from well-meaning churches have been smattered on Facebook and websites.  “Come to our church on Easter Sunday!  We will entertain you with flashy music, our pastor will wow you with his inspirational sermon, and our members will blow you away with their hospitality.”  …somewhere in there is a story about the crucified, resurrected Jesus. 

            I’ve sang in a fair share of Easter programs where melodically I sang resurrection words externally, all the while internally I was asking God, “Why don’t I feel resurrected?  Where’s the life-abundant you promised?”   I comforted my personal inquisition with a quick, “Oh well, maybe next year.”  But next year would come with the same empty promises.  I desperately wanted something more than I was experiencing.  I felt like a big, fat fake...and I desperately wanted real life.   

            This morning I over heard a television news story talking about life after death. (I have no idea of its contents because I’ve been typing this.) The only phrase I heard was “two people, grateful for death, now living.”  How perfect for this post!

          All those Easters  I longed for life but skipped the cross.  I was compelled to protect what felt sacred – they were good things!  Health, financial security, relationships, ....  But resurrected life comes after death.  We must move through the surrender - into the unchosen sacrifices of hopes, dreams and aspirations - in order to live free.  We are not alone when we cry out in naked forsaken-ness.  The One who hung on a cross shares the sorrow and can be trusted with our pain.  We “suffer for a while but joy comes in the morning.”  A kernel of wheat must fall to the ground and die before it can serve its intended purpose and birth more life.  And it was not until I embraced the difficult pieces of my story, and laid to rest my ‘sacred-somethings’ that life started to showed up.  It has been through a path that includes disillusionment, frustration, and dark nights of the soul that has lead to a resurrection.  It often felt unjust.  Like Peter, I wanted (and sometimes still do) to rebuke Jesus for suggesting the path to real life means letting mine go.  And while I cannot drink the cup from which Christ drank (Matt 20:22), if I want to encounter his life, there is a cross involved - Jesus’ and mine.   Jesus unjustly hung on a cross for the sake of a restored relationship between God and us..   He rose again, to shatter the power of death and make right-now, real, eternal life possible.  Good Friday reminds me that life is found in “taking up my cross daily to follow him” …. Jesus’ resurrected life will lift a dead soul from the grave.  In the news caster’s words, we can be grateful for death because through it, we can now live.