Planting seeds Romans 8: 25-57, Mark 4:26-34

Bruce and I have the privilege of sitting in our sunroom and watching the neighbor come out with his tractor and planter and plant little seeds into the ground. And then to watch as somehow, like magic, little green plants, this year it’s corn, come growing up out of the dirt. The farmer, for the most part, just waits and watches too. 

It is the miracle of the season. Everywhere we drive we see fields that just a month or so ago were barren, now green with corn and beans. Yards are filled with colors from flowers–trees are covered in leaves–and lawns, well they need mowing.

And although it is true that we might help the process along with some watering, none of it really occurs by the power of our own hands.  It is all so miraculous.

And this is how Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God. The kingdom to which Jesus refers is not a geographical realm but rather in Aramaic it refers to the power of God, the presence of God, the heartbeat of God, within us.

For me, this is something I yearn for. I long to feel the breath and heartbeat and lifeforce of God. And honestly, I have tried to find God in many ways. Knowledge is a wonderful thing. I love to read and learn more and more about that which we call scripture as well as other inspired writings. Studying scripture is like planting seeds. But it takes something more than head knowledge, than planting a seed in the ground, to make it grow.

I do a short Facebook video of lectio divina or Holy Reading. By the way, I have been told my pronunciation is a bit off. Nonetheless, in lectio one reads a short passage, scripture or some other inspired reading, and then in silence allows some word or phrase to simmer,take root within. There is then a second and third reading of the same passage and time for silent meditation for each reading. 

Lectio is a powerful way of planting a seed and letting it take root. By God’s grace, it grows on. By the way, I have been trying to do these videos on Friday morning around 9, but they can be viewed anytime after as they remain in cyberspace throughout eternity I suppose. Or at least until Facebook dies.

And then there is Centering Prayer. Another powerful spiritual practice. I am involved with a once a week, online centering prayer group. I can’t tell you I get to participate every week, life is like that. But at least twice a month I sit with several others in 20 minutes of silence. Sounds kind of odd. But let me explain.

Centering Prayer is a practice that has been around for ages.  Monk and priest, Thomas Keating developed the modern form out of a desire for more Christian contemplative practices. 

The Contemplative Outreach Center writes this:

The method of Centering Prayer is drawn from the ancient practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, notably the traditional monastic practice of Lectio Divina and the practices described in the anonymous fourteenth century classic The Cloud of Unknowing and in the writings of Christian mystics such as John Cassian, Francis de Sales, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, and Thomas Merton. Most importantly, Centering Prayer is based on the wisdom saying of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:

“…when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will repay you.”      

https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/history-of-centering-prayer/

Have you ever wondered what Jesus prayed about all night? I can't see him seeing with a laundry list of requests.

Anyway,I Love their definition:  Centering Prayer is a receptive method of Christian silent prayer which deepens our relationship with God, the Indwelling Presence …  a prayer in which we can experience God’s presence within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself.

I can picture the man Jesus doing this. Even needing this.

The practice is simple, but often challenging. To keep from reinventing the wheel (so to speak) I will simply use the instructions from the Contemplative Outreach website. https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/centering-prayer-method/

1 Choose a sacred word as the symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within. (Over time mine has gone from “shhhh” to “Lord” to “Ruha”, amongst others. It shouldn’t change in the midst of the practice however.)

2 Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed (or not), settle briefly and silently introduce the sacred word as the symbol of your consent to God’s presence and action within.

(The goal is to quiet your mind, no lists, no to-do’s, just a quiet peaceful mind ready to listen to God, to receive God. Without fail, thoughts will enter your mind. That’s ok. Let them glide through or float away.)

3 When engaged with your thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.

4 At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes.  (Our online group ends by praying the Lord’s Prayer together.)

For those of us always busy, this can feel like a waste of time at first. But I promise, sitting quietly with our Lord is never a waste of time.

What happens as one continues in this practice is much like the seed the farmer plants. Slowly, without effort on the farmers' part, the seed grows. And it produces the fruit it is genetically predisposed to produce. 

What fruit does such prayer produce? The seed is the Holy Spirit. And as Paul writes to the Galatians: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

This is what grows and ripens. This is the heartbeat of God, the kingdom of God.

I would love to start a local centering prayer group. One that meets every couple of weeks or once a month. But in order to do that I would need to begin to talk about it and teach about it. When I saw the gospel reading for today I knew that I knew God was giving me the opportunity to do that.

I encourage you to consider this practice on your own, and I also offer the thought of gathering a group together. Please let me know if  you would find this practice helpful and would like to talk about it more. Either for personal practice or in a group.

It seems only right to end this with a time of silence. To give space for a seed to begin to take root. I'll set my timer.

And so…as the scripture declares…be still and know I am God. Be still and know God. Be still.

The Sabbath Rules Mark 2:23-3:6

Mark 2:23-3:6

When I first started this gig of preaching I knew exactly what to preach. I knew what the theological declaration was supposed to be. I knew exactly what Jesus was saying and exactly who Jesus was and why he came to earth. 

Now I have a lot more room in my theology to wonder and listen and learn. I have a lot more questions but I am also much more at peace with God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. 

I was raised with all the rules and all the way church was supposed to be and look. I knew what prayers were to be said and when. I knew exactly what communion and baptism meant. I knew what was required.

Somewhere along the line I learned that things are not always how we have been taught. I learned that more people were acceptable in the eyes of God than I had originally been told. I learned that the Holy Spirit shows up in places I had not expected. Like the surprised disciples who found the Spirit working in the Gentiles, I have seen the Spirit alive and well and working in gays and trans folks. I have seen the Spirit working in Catholics, Unitarian Universalists, and non church goers. I believe Jesus equated the Spirit to one who blows like the wind and goes where she will. How silly of us to try to confine or define her.

I believe that baptism is a beautiful expression of our God but not a requirement to live as a Child of God. I have learned that communion is a wonderful beckoning of the Spirit to touch God but not the only way. 

I have learned that God is much much bigger than I ever imagined and the Spirit a whole lot more free than I was once told.

I truly believe that this is what Jesus is trying to make known to those around him in our gospel reading.

The Sabbath is a gift from God, reminding us that we don’t need to work 24/7 to make the world go round. We are created to work but to also rest and enjoy the fruits of our labors.  The preacher writes in Ecclesiastes:

So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.

The Sabbath is offered as the opportunity to do so. An opportunity to bring joy to rest and to work.

But what happens when humans get ahold of these gifts and add all their rules to them? Suddenly they become hardships. Suddenly they become obligations. Suddenly they become limited in who they might bless. Suddenly they lose all their blessedness.

I am convinced this is what Jesus wants us to see. A gift, a blessing, an act of love becomes a burden under the shortsightedness of humans, out of the need to control. Perhaps out of a need to know what they know or do or say is THE right way.

Jesus shows us that God is so much bigger than the religious boxes we have built. 

If Sabbath is a gift of love from Love itself, remember we understand that God is love, given for humanity to enjoy, then how can we layer it with all the restrictions and chains that make it burdensome? Is that anyway to treat a gift?

If communion is a gift of love from Love itself then why do we layer it with restrictions? Perhaps when Paul speaks of taking communion in an unworthy manner in 1 Corinthians, he is reminding us it is a gift of love. A gift! One that offers a means of touching God. Layering it with rules and laws is then the unworthy manner of accepting the gift of Christ’s body and blood.  

I suggest that when we require ourselves to be other than who we are created to be, we become unworthy. 

God is bigger than we can imagine. God acts in ways that are outside of our rules and understandings. God is not limited by our shortsightedness and prejudices. This, I sincerely believe, is what Jesus wants us to see. 

AW Tozer writes:

We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church.

How can one know how we view God? Watch what we do and say and then you will know what we believe about God. 

Of course we need something as human beings, as sheep in the pasture, to direct us and keep us from going off the cliff. Structures make a foundation. But when we make these gifts of guidance for our lives our absolutes, instead of the God that gave them in love, then we have created false gods.

When I approach a message,I try to remember that I do not know much for certain. That it is the Spirit, always moving as the wind, that must lead. Sometimes It seemed easier to preach when I thought I knew the answers. But so much less alive!

What a joy it is to seek out God in the midst of life, in the midst of a growing relationship, in the midst of Love, in the midst of the breath–the wind of the Spirit.

That is how Jesus lived. Always looking to, seeking out, moving with God, Abba, Father.

I would like to offer you this song by Peter Mayer. I am learning that God is so big, so immense, so all encompassing that Everything is Holy Now.

https://youtu.be/KiypaURysz4?si=TKNnBVe3yvZNavTU