MEDITATION: “…AND HE TALKS WITH ME”
“Staying in Touch with God” --- A Lenten Sermon Series
“I think of you on my bed, & meditate on you in the
watches of the night; for you have been my help, & in the shadow of your
wings I sing for joy.”
Psalm 63: 6-7a (NRSV)
In
contemporary society our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, &
crowds. If he can keep us engaged in
“muchness” & “manyness,” (& I would add, “busyness”) he will rest satisfied. Psychiatrist Carl Jung once remarked, “Hurry
is not of the Devil; it is the Devil.”
If we
hope to move beyond the superficialities of our culture, including our
religious culture, we must be willing to go down to the recreating silences,
into the inner world of contemplation…[1].
Those are the words with which Richard
Foster opens his chapter on meditation.
I’ve drawn on Foster’s book, The
Celebration of Discipline, for each sermon in this series. Today, I will do more teaching, than
preaching, & want to credit Quaker Professor Foster for his contribution to
these efforts.
I also want to express gratitude to
the fire service that I so enjoyed for three decades. A firefighter’s responsibility is to engage
in life-saving help, then move on. We
extinguish the fire, but leave the rebuilding to contractors. We extricate accident victims from vehicles,
leaving the tow truck to remove the tangled wreckage. We perform CPR, but leave the cardiac specialists
to do their work of healing.
My approach today will be similar: to
give you the basics, a “crash course,” on meditation, so that you can apply the
learning yourself.
Let me start by drawing a distinction
between prayer & meditation. Prayer,
while it entails listening, involves more talking to God. Conversely, meditation, involves talking to
God, but does much more listening to God.
And “listening” means not only hearing God’s voice, but heeding what God
says. We listen for a reason. When parents & teachers tell children,
“Listen to me,” they mean hear & obey.
“Listening” is one word for
meditation. The Bible adds others:
“reflecting” on God’s works, “rehearsing” (in your heart & mind) God’s
deeds, “ruminating” (mentally chewing or considering) on God’s law.[2] The goal of meditation, then, is to change us
& our behavior in ways that put our lives in alignment with God’s Word
& will for us. We listen, then act
in line with what God’s told us.
As with the other sermons about spiritual
exercises, I once again will remind us that these practices are accessible to
everyone. Meditation, in particular, “involves
no hidden mysteries, no secret mantras, no mental gymnastics, no esoteric
flights into cosmic consciousness.”[3]
These disciplines, then, are not reserved for a spiritual
elite. Think about a basic tenet of the
Christian faith: In Christ, God was not
forever removed from us in heaven, like other gods, but came to us in basic human
form. While Jesus was physically on this
earth, he devoted his life to common folks, individuals in need, persons in trouble. He travelled on a plain, old donkey accompanied
by a cadre of ordinary, flawed people, not mounted on some magnificent white
stallion with an entourage of “Who’s Who” luminaries gathered ‘round. No elitist, Jesus.
Christianity does not possess a list
of literal spiritual “gurus.” God did
not speak to persons in the Bible & throughout Christian history because
they had a different DNA or psychic powers, but simply because they were
willing to listen. Listening can become
as natural as breathing for us, too.
If anything, too many persons give up
their spiritual rights & gifts to “professional religious practitioners.” They want faith to be done for them by their
pastor, priest, or rabbi. They are too
often content to hear from God second-hand, rather than directly,
themselves. In truth, while spiritual
leaders have an important role as resources & helps for you, Christians,
especially Protestants, & particularly UM’s, embrace the New Testament
concept of the priesthood of all believers.
As the Acts of the Apostles reminds us: not only does Christ continue to
speak, but often speaks to you & through you.
Frankly stated: I spent three years at
For the remainder of our time today, I
want to do three things: 1) explain the difference between Christian meditation
& meditation as practiced in other religions; 2) talk about how to prepare
to meditate; & 3) speak to the kinds/forms of meditation.
THE
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY & OTHER RELIGIONS. ---
1) Empty vs. Full. Eastern
meditation’s goal is to empty the mind.
Christian meditation’s goal is to fill the mind God gave us & fill
it with God’s goodness. As Jesus details
in Luke 11:24-26, an empty mind is easily filled with evil. We want our minds filled with what’s good.
2) Detachment vs.
Attachment. Detachment from the world is the purpose of
Eastern meditation. Christians, on the
other hand, desire attachment. Yes, we
want to be removed from confusion & sin, but we also want to achieve an
inner wholeness & peace that puts us in healthy connection with the world
God created, as well as one another & God.
As such, we do not value an unhealthy otherworldliness, but see
meditation as a way to redirect our lives in order to deal with this life better
& (more) successfully. As William
Penn wrote, “True godliness does not turn men (& women) out of the world,
but enables them to live better in it & excites their endeavors to mend
it.”[4]
Christians, then, expect meditation to help our
relationships, to correct societal injustices, to improve problems at home,
work, school, & neighborhood, not merely to escape from all of them.
3) Human
“Stuff” as the Goal vs. God as the Goal. This final difference is that Christian
meditation is not merely psycho-spiritual manipulation of our physical
bodies. Think of yoga or the kind of
meditation your cardiologist prescribes.
While lower blood pressure & decreased stress responses are genuine
benefits, they are not the end-goal for us.
Meditation is communication between the One who loves us most & the
object of that love, you & me. Eastern religions commonly stop short by
confining meditation to a solely human experience of “What’s in it for me?” The Christian method propels us into a
two-way, Divine-human, encounter that benefits all of our relationships – with
self & health (certainly!), but also with others, God, & all of creation.
THE
PREPARATIONS FOR MEDITATION ---
1) Meditation joins the other spiritual disciplines
(fasting, solitude, prayer,
simplicity, etc.) to help create a sense of balance,
rest, & wholeness in life) by imitating
Jesus & life in heaven. Meditation is best when accom-panied by these other
exercises – a synergy, like diet, plus exercise. We seek to cultivate an attitude of “holy
leisure,” amid life’s busyness. As such,
we intentionally make space in order to nurture the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22): love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, & self-control.
2) Find a
place that is quiet & free from distraction. Total silence is not
required, but for the beginner, it sure
does help.
3)
Is there a prescribed/preferred posture?
To some degree, yes, but this
is not yoga, so don’t fret over the need to be
in some pretzel-like or
lotus position. Find a posture that is
comfortable. Lying down or sitting
straight with legs uncrossed are often
best. This is not to say that one
cannot begin or end in other positions like
kneeling, or with arms raised.
THE
KINDS/FORMS OF MEDITATION ---
1) Meditate on
scripture: a word, a verse, a story,
or parable. This is not a lengthy
reading or Bible study that we’re talking about here. The goal is to internalize & personalize
the passage – what God is speak-ing to you.
Spend several minutes on it, or return to it each day for a week. Imagine yourself living those words. Imagine being a character in the story,
receiving a blessing, being with Jesus. Apply your five senses in a way that you enter
the Bible as an active participant, not as a passive observer or reader. Scripture is, after all, God’s living Word.
2) Another form is called re-collection or centering (down).
One begins
with palms down in the sense of dropping what we no
longer want, then inwardly giving to God one’s anger toward someone, releasing
fear over a medical procedure, surrendering anxiety over money, giving up a
frustration with something/one. After
several moments of silence, turn the palms up to receive what God mercifully
wants to give you. Again, remain silent
for a time to commune with God & listen.
3) How about meditating
upon God’s good handiwork in creation? Consider a flower, a robin perched in
the tree, a babbling brook, the sea’s crashing waves, a technicolor fall
landscape. God uses the simple to affect
us in powerful, sublime ways. Find
something in nature. Listen for God.
4) Another
form is to sit with the Bible in one
hand & the newspaper/
website at the other. Contemplate
the suffering in
Seek to gain a prophetic perspective, a
God’s-eye-view, on the issues
of the day. Listen to God’s leading
& guidance to compassionately &
wisely respond
our world’s tragedies.
Let me close by stating that spiritual
exercises, like physical exercises, begin with small steps & build. They are accessible, but take practice, like
any skill. Remember, one’s need for
immediate gratification is culturally taught, not biblically supported. We need not be discouraged, if we don’t get
what we want right away. These things
occur in God’s time & in God’s way.
God honors our sincere efforts.
Meditation helps us relate to Jesus in
a way that moves beyond religious dogma & into a genuine, radiant
friendship. We’ve often sung the wondrous
resurrection lyrics of In the Garden:,
“And He walks with me & He talks with me.” May it be so with you.
In the Name….
Copyright 2010 by G.D.Knerr at