Spiritual Disciplines- Meditation

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We continue this week with our sermon series on the Spiritual Disciplines. This week we are looking at the discipline of Meditation. We usually have an image that comes to mind when we think about meditation and it usually involves eastern religions and sitting in a certain position. But, meditation has always been a part of Christianity. Meditation is an umbrella word that houses a huge variety of mental activities. When Christians use the word “meditation” it is usually meant as a prayerful contemplation of God, Scripture, and the world God created.

We see meditation mentioned in our reading from the book of Joshua. Moses has died and Joshua is taking over as the leader of the Israelites. What we are reading are the instructions Joshua is receiving as he takes on this new role. That instruction includes this verse, 
“This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful” (Joshua 1:8).
 To become the person Joshua needs to become, he needs to not only read the Scriptures, but they have to sink into his bones. They have to become a part of him.

This kind of meditation is a way of internalizing Scripture. It becomes more than a set of rules and stories. In meditation, we start to see the deep wisdom of the Scriptures. For example, we read Jesus’ words, “love your enemy”, but it is in meditation that we see the face of our enemy. It is in meditation that we contemplate how it goes for those who hate their enemies, and we consider if we want their lives. In meditation the words of Scripture go from being external to us to being internal to us.

There is a book called The Empty Mirror. In it there is a man who goes to a monastery and he sits before the head of the monastery and asks him questions about the meaning of life. He says, 
“The master shook his head. ‘I could answer your question but I won’t try because you wouldn’t understand the answer. Now listen. Imagine that I am holding a pot of tea, and you are thirsty. You want me to give you tea. I can pour tea but you’ll have to produce a cup. I can’t pour the tea on your hands or you’ll get burnt. If I pour it on the floor I shall spoil the floormats. You have to have a cup. That cup you will form in yourself by the training you will receive here” (Janwillem van de Wetering, p10-11).
 Within a monastery, meditation arises almost naturally as a consequence of the context. Studying Scripture can be done as an intellectual exercise, but that emphasis is relatively recent. To truly unlock the wisdom of Scripture if must be done in the context of meditation. Scripture can pour the wisdom, but you have to have a cup. Meditation is the cup. … And this is useful in receiving more than Scripture.

Jesus’ words in Matthew 7 come at the very end of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. We read, 
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven. …Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock” (Matt 7:21, 24, 25).
 To meditate on the words of Christ is to internalize them. It is to see the wisdom in them. To meditate on the words of Christ is more than to see his words as laws to follow, it is to see his words as the wisest way to live, the true reality on which to build a life. When we understand his direction as the wisest way to live it is not a struggle to live that way, in fact, we become baffled by why people would want to do otherwise.

In Colossians 3 we see another kind of meditation. It is similar to meditation on Scripture, but this is meditation on the person of Christ. We read, 
“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory … And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col 3:1-4, 15-16).
 … We meditate on Christ as a real person, a divine person. Someone who connects us to God and transforms us. And as we meditate, Christ moves from being a person in a history book, or a character in a story, to being real and present to us. His eyes are present to our mind. We see him gazing at us- smiling as us. Not as a painting, but as a real person. And to live in that gaze is to be drawn into transformation and holiness. It is to reorient our lives. To meditate on his presence puts the problems of our life into a new light. Our petty annoyances are suddenly lifted. Things we felt too busy for, like our friends, suddenly come to mind with a new weight and love.

There are many ways of meditating, more than we have time to talk about. But I would like to mention a few others. An ancient way to meditate on Scripture is called Lectio Divina, which means “sacred reading”. To do this, find a place to be quite and alone. Then open to a text of Scripture. You don’t want a long piece of Scripture. First, you want to read the text and understand what the words are saying- don’t read into it at this point. Don’t look for hidden meanings. Look for the surface meaning of the words. Then, second, you allow some part of the reading to highlight itself to you. It might be a word, or a phrase, but allow your mind to be drawn to some part of the reading. Allow your curiosity and imagination to start drawing you into that word or phrase. Then, third, consider what God might be trying to say to you through that part of Scripture. Where does it connect to your life? What memories or emotions are triggered by this part of the Scripture? And, forth, consider how you might apply this to your life- is there something you should do? Is there some way you should change your thinking? This is a quite ancient way of meditating on Scripture- something like this was probably practiced by people like Origen in the 2nd century and by St. Benedict and his followers in the 6th century. It has been an important part of many monastic traditions ever since.

There are other ways of meditating on Scripture. For example, St. Ignatius emphasized allowing the Holy Spirit to use your imagination. See yourself in the story. Take the time to imagine yourself in the place. See yourself in ancient Israel. Smell the air. Feel the dust under your feet. See the crowds. Consider the story where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. What is it like to be Mary in the story? What are the smells? What do you hear? Feel the emotions of having your brother having recently died. Consider what your life looks like without him- what does it look like to be a single woman in the Middle East? See Jesus’ tears. What does it feel like to see Jesus give your brother back to you? What is it like to embrace your brother again, after thinking he is gone forever? … Maybe go back to the story and go through it again, but this time imagine yourself as Lazarus- feel Jesus resurrect you- feel him breathe new life into you.

You can also meditate on a current event or issue. Pick something that has been hitting the news and invite God to help you consider it and help you to know God’s wisdom regarding it. Consider a modern conflict, like that between Israel and Palestine, and try to see it through God’s eyes. Or, pick a topic like euthanasia and meditate on it. Allow God to shape your perspective. Take your time and allow your mind to drift into the various aspects of the topic. Don’t hurry and allow yourself to go into uncomfortable places.

Some forms of meditation are about digesting some topic. It is a bit like being a dog and chewing on a bone. … There are other forms of meditation that are more about embracing the presence of God in the midst of stillness. Centering Prayer might be considered a type of meditation. In Centering Prayer you sit silently and repeat a word or phrase you yourself to keep your mind from drifting. Your mind will drift, that is a given, but the word or phrase will draw you back to focus. Sometimes we drift to all kinds of places in our minds that we are rarely here and now with God as God made us. The experience of just sitting with God silently can be surprisingly transformative. We learn a lot about ourselves. We learn about our patience. We become more aware of our body. We become more aware of what is going on in the back of our minds that we are usually too distracted to pay attention to.

Those are a few that you might want to try, but don’t get lost in techniques. If you will just quiet yourself down and remove yourself from distractions, you will almost begin meditating automatically. It is part of the way God made you. We are made to contemplate God, and what it means to live as God’s creation. May you seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, that the word of Christ might dwell in you richly (Col 3:1, 16). AMEN.

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