Pastor's Lenten Message
Lent at Faith



Thanks for coming last night to get your glittery ashes.  I enjoyed watching you all run off with sparkly, colorful ashes.  This was certainly a contradiction that makes the sensibilities of the traditional uncomfortable but I thank you for embracing something new.  

And there's another contradiction I know:  As Stephen walked us through lectio divina (divine reading of scripture) last night, I'm sure some of you were thinking as I often do, "what is accomplished by this silence and repetition?"   It's about becoming more mindful.  The idea that becoming more mindful might lead us to become more compassionate and just in our actions is a leap.  The reason we often resist this kind of suggestion (becoming more mindful) is that Western thought has long considered the spiritual to be passive and the rational to be active.  We assume if we think harder, we will work harder and working harder we believe makes us more effective.  But Eastern thought may well work smarter and truly be more effective in the process.  

Thomas Merton withdrew from the world.  His hermitage and contemplative, silent existence can seem like such a waste of time and loss of opportunity for red blooded Americans like ourselves.  But Merton's time alone in solitude led him to a surprisingly active place.  The more he was able to focus, really focus on the meaning of scripture and his existence, the more loving toward the world and it's people he became.  

His time in solitude led him to that conversion experience at the corner of busy 4th and Walnut (now MLK, Jr. Blvd) in Louisville, Kentucky where he was overwhelmed with the emotion that he truly loved every person his eyes took in.  It was a love for humanity he had never known to that point.  Herein, he knew, was the key.

It truly was the retreat into the wilderness that would lead Merton to begin his quest to find commonality, as a Roman Catholic monk, with Buddhist monks who shared this contemplative activism with him.  His work bringing Zen Buddhism together with Roman Catholicism made him a threat in the 1960s.  Remember that at the time, Roman Catholicism was decidedly western geographically, politically, and economically.  Buddhism was decidedly eastern geographically, politically and economically.  And, the east was then being consumed by the communist promises.  

Although never proven, it is commonly believed that Merton was murdered by the CIA in his accomodation in Thailand just before he was to bring together eastern and western religion, and with it, presumably bring together east and west, capitalism and communism, perhaps even the Soviet Union and the United States.  

Merton was assumed to be bringing together a world that we are learning is still divided to this day along very similar lines...

So I hope you will join me in Mindful Christianity sponsored by the Center for Progressive Christianity and written by Jim Burklo.  This week, it begins on the Thursday after Ash Wednesday but the rest of Lent it will begin on Mondays (starting March 13).  Allow yourself to become more mindful as a Christian and let's see if we can bring the world together picking up on the revolution where Thomas Merton left off in 1968.

Kyle



Mindful Christianity by Jim Burklo

Week One - March 2-12 

"He said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.' Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'" 1 Kings 19:11-13, NRSV

Lectio: Read this scripture passage aloud, slowly. Release any interpretation or opinion you may have about this passage, as you read it.

Meditatio: Let the passage "sink in" for two minutes. Sit with the passage. Hold it lightly - don't force any attempt to interpret it.

Repeat "lectio" and "meditatio" three more times.

Oratio: Pray aloud: "May I receive from the scripture what my soul needs for today."

Contemplatio: 
Get into a comfortable physical position in which you will be unlikely to fall asleep, and for 20 or more minutes, be mindful of your body. What bodily sensations do you experience in the moment? What emotions are associated with these sensations? How do these emotions affect your breathing, as well? Remember: suffering equals pain times resistance. So strive to observe carefully any physical pain you experience, stay open to it, surround it with loving attention, and gently release ideas or opinions about it.
Something that can help with this practice is "progressive muscle relaxation". Tighten and then relax your body's muscles, one group of muscles at a time, being mindful of each of the sensations that result.

As part of your practice, try "urge surfing". When you feel an urge to do to take an action or solve a problem, explore it by paying attention to it. Let the urge be. Delay acting on it long enough to fully experience it. Where and how does the urge manifest in the body? What emotions go with it? What does this urge feel like? Ride it out for a while. See what happens!

In mindful Christian prayer, who are you? The observer, or the personality and body consisting of the experiences that were observed?

Meister Eckhart, a mystical German Catholic Christian priest of the 14th century, preached that "The eye with which I see God is the same with which God sees me. My eye and God's eye is one eye, and one sight, and one knowledge, and one love." (Meister Eckhart, Sermon 4, True Hearing)
Teresa of Avila, the Spanish mystic of the 16th century, advised her fellow nuns: "mire que le mira" - "see that you are seen". (Vida, 1562, 12: 22)

Mindful Christian prayer practice begins with this experience of spiritual union with the Divine, seeing that we are seen with the same eye. The observer within you, when you are deep in mindfulness meditation, is God. This divine seer directs loving attentiveness toward your every sensation, urge, and thought. God is compassionate awareness of all that manifests within you.

Your true Self is God, experiencing your particular, unique life on a particular planet in a particular time. Through mindful prayer practice you experience God directly and personally.

"Mindfulness is "paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally." Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. To be mindful is to be aware: observing what is happening right now in the changing flow of experience. It is to be open: allowing what is happening right now simply to be, and to observe it without judgment. It is to be kind: responding compassionately to whatever arises before one's attention. This definition is used both by non-religious and religious people. You don't have to be a Christian or otherwise be religious in order to maintain a practice of mindfulness. But Christianity has throughout its history been a very special container for this experience, enriching and enhancing it, giving it a context in a wide, deep spiritual tradition.

Faith Presbyterian Church | faithchurchaustin@gmail.com | 512-444-1314 | www.faithpresaustin.org
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