LENT 2013 - 6 Passionate Spirituality Exercises

FASTING IN LENT

Isaiah 58 is quite blunt about God's attitude towards fasting. He says “put your money where your mouth is”. Well, OK, not in so many words but religious observance, however extreme, without a passionate engagement with the way we live, is mere hypocrisy.

So instead of giving up chocolate or alcohol or meat this year. I'm challenging you to redirect something that you have already into more godly channels.

Look in your kitchen cupboard

Look in your wardrobe

Look in your linen cupboard

Look in your purse or wallet

Look in your diary

If you have anything you don't really have a use for at the moment, consider giving it away to relieve the poor, the hungry, the ill clothed, the oppressed. Do it every week of Lent.

Then look in your diary and set aside an extra hour for time with God. Maybe an hour a day, or an hour a week, but make it regular and significant for the next six weeks.

SPIRITUALITY IN LENT

For the six weeks of Lent we will introduce six different types of spirituality.

Some of them will feel “natural” to you. They will involve doing familiar and expected things. This probably comes from your upbringing as a Christian. That's a good thing.

Some of them will come easily to you, even if they are new and different. This probably means that they are in tune with your personality. This is a good discovery.

Some may be difficult to grasp, strange and unrewarding. Don't worry. It's not a bad thing. They may be outside of your experience or unsuited to your personality. Just rejoice that other people will find them helpful. Give them a try – you may be pleasantly surprised what perseverance will do.

Each week we will try one activity which will help us to discover what this sort of spirituality might encompass. You can use this in the week. After six weeks you should have six arrows in your quiver to use to keep your walk with God fresh. Some will be used more often than others. But they can all be ways to inject more passion into our spiritual life. For more ideas get: “40 Creative Worship Ideas” from www.celluk.org.uk

1. Evangelical: This puts God's Word at the centre of life and proclaims the gospel to us and through us. It is always asking “Where is the good news in this?”.

True Story

Read: Jesus' journey through the wilderness Luke 4:1-12.

Look Back: What about your own journey with God? Remember:

• an answered prayer
• a time of healing
• comfort & strength in troubled times
• wisdom for a hard decision
• a prompting of the Holy Spirit you followed.

Tell: Psalm 145:4. Look for a chance to tell someone else one of these good news stories this week.

2. Charismatic: This develops our awareness of the immediacy of God's presence among His people. It tries to allow the “spring of living water” that Jesus puts within us to bubble up and flow out from us.

God's Presence

Wait: Sit somewhere comfortable. Set the scene, a lit candle, flowers, bread & wine, instrumental music (whatever helps). Try to become aware of God's presence.

Notice: Complete this phrase: “Father/ Lord/ Jesus, I am aware of your presence in …...................” Maybe a sense of love, order, peace, warmth, well-being, joy, or his finger on something that need to be put right. Do this as many times as you want. Be honest. Be patient.

Read: Psalm 145:18 “The lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth”. Thank him.

3. Holiness: This addresses our need for personal transformation and trains us in godliness. It will include times of self examination, confession and forgiveness as well as seeking amendment of life.

Safe

Q. What can stop God loving you?

A. Nothing at all, if you are in Christ Jesus.

Read: Romans 8:38-39.

Imagine: picture each of the potential threats to your security. Then imagine them each dissolving before the power of God's love.

Apply: Picture a current insecurity, fear or worry in your circumstances or relationships. In a time of silence bring these personal details to God and speak God's word from Romans “..nor any other thin in all creation” to the situation.

4. Incarnational: This encourages us to see God active in the ordinary and the everyday. It appreciated that the creator is alive and active in his creation and the the saviour is alive and can be encountered in all God's children.

When Life Hurts

Where is God when things are all going wrong?

Think: Where are things painful for you

• personally, family, community,
• national or international situations?

Tell: Try to express your feelings to God.

“When I see …. I feel......”

Read: Luke 2:33-35. Just because there is pain, it does not mean that God's will is not being done. Think about Mary. Luke 1:38.

Cross: look at or hold onto a cross. Remember that Jesus dies to take all our sin and shame. He knows how you feel. He is with you in this.

Jesus: How might you “be” Jesus, getting along someone else in pain?¹

5. Contemplative: This focusses on personal prayer and intimacy with God, our longing for a deep and vital Christian experience. It's more about looking, listening and being aware of God's presence and less about talking.

Lectio Divina

Read: Colossians 1:15-20 or John 12:1-8. Read it very slowly. Read it several times. Just take it in.

Meditate: Read it again, phrase by phrase, first asking the Holy Spirit to point you to particular words or phrases, note those that stand out.

Pray: Ask God why those words stood out to you. What is he saying to you personally?

Contemplate: Just sit quietly and let it all sink in. Try not to talk

6. Social Justice. This is based upon seeking compassion and justice in our relationships and in the wider society and culture in which we live. It recognises the promise of the coming Kingdom and seeks to discover and encourage its coming.

Take Care

You can do this as a real or a memory journey about how you get to church or cell group. Read Luke 19:28-40. The disciples had to look out for the colt. This is spirituality with open eyes.

Praise: as you “walk” the route. Note all the good things you see or remember – safe housing, water, drains, transport, power, gardens etc. and thank God for them and for those who maintain them.

Pray: Note the things that are not right – neglected homes, streets, litter, graffiti, social inequality or exclusion, decay. Pray for justice and righteousness to thrive.

Plan: Is there anything God would ask you to do as an individual, cell or church?

1(“Heaven in Ordinary” by Angela Ashwin, McCrimmon Publishing Co Ltd (Mar 1985)

Passionate Spirituality 6 – Look At You!

Luke 18:9-14 The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

This parable is not for everyone....its for those who are:

1. Confident of your own righteousness?

What is it that makes you righteous?

Stood – on his own two feet

Alone – self sufficient

Thanksgiving – good self image

Comparative – well better than all the rest

Negative – look at what you don't do

Positive – look at what good things you managed

Self justified?

What is wrong with being confident?

Isn't spiritual assurance a good thing? Many Christians are not sure that they are loved by God, acceptable, useful, called – and it hamstrings them. They are like someone in a relationship who suffers from pathological insecurity: jealous, testing, offended. I think its that word “own”. Your “own” righteousness is not so good. When we share our experience of God (see PS Lent #1) we are not bragging about ourselves, but about our God.

2. Condemning Everyone Else?
   It's not just about being righteous, or trying to be. It's not just about being confident. It's about seeing life as a race – even spiritual life. The sort of righteousness that is based on being “not as bad as them” is very popular. Its where we get Jeremy Kyle from. The News of the Word. Phone hacking. OK Magazine. Big brother TV. We love things that allow us to sit back and say “Well, I'm not as fat/ stupid/ lazy/ dirty/ hoarding/ embarrassing/ violent/dishonest as that person – so I'm OK!” At least I'm not a tax collector/ or a Pharisee for that matter... Jesus said that he did not come to condemn the world but that world might be saved through him. If sharing your story will help save someone else – share it!
3. Convicted.
   God have mercy on me a sinner – says the sinner.
   The best that we can hope for is mercy – not justice. A famous leaders son went off the rails and was often in trouble with the police. He had run out of second chances and was to appear on a charge that usually held a custodial sentence. At the support prayer meeting before the case another church leader prayed vehemently for “justice”. “Stop!” called the beleaguered father in horror, “I don't want justice. Justice means prison. I want mercy!”

We know that, however much we succeed in living God's life, we will fail. And we won't therefore be surprised, disappointed, dispirited, despairing. We will allow him to pick us up and keep going. As Michel Quoist puts it in his Prayers for life: “Isn't it mostly your pride that is hurt?”

Make sure that you go home justified.

Passionate Spirituality 5 - Christology

PASSIONATE SPIRITUALITY – CHRISTOLOGY

Luke 9:28-36

Intro: How do we get those “Mountain Top” experiences where our passion is fully engaged with Jesus?

“There are many things in life that will catch your eye but only a few that will catch your heart -pursue those.” Passion is when something catches your heart.

Passion Follows The Confession Of Faith:

Peter’s confession, in Luke 9:20 changes something. Who is Jesus? It is only when Peter has made this discovery that Jesus moves on to a new phase of mission. Have you made it yet? Jesus is the one sent from the father to reconcile the world – and you - to himself. He lived, died and rose again and sent his Spirit to lead us – you - into all truth. He is the Christ of God and He is alive today. Yes? There can be no passion without this relationship. Jesus has to catch your heart.

Passion Comes To Those Who Are With Jesus.

“He took Peter, James and John with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.” 9:28

The baby is up and following the parent straight away. It has to hold on. It gets under her feet. It must keep up – or die.

Jesus' leading, Dedicated time & place, Praying.

Follow the promptings of the Spirit. They may be gentle.

To be with “the Christ of God” Luke 8:20

Passion Outstrips Understanding: “He didn't know what he was saying” 9:33

Jesus Moves in Heavenly realms – Moses & Elijah.

He is the completion of both ~Law and Prophets.

You may not get it all – but you must know that He is alive & with you.

Then you can be an apprentice and learn His ways by doing.

Passion Is So That We Will Listen To Him.

“This is my Son, whom I have chosen. Listen to Him” 9:35

Above all they learn that Jesus wants to speak to them – so they must listen.

We can be wary of listening – or presuming to hear God: Prince Charles suffered at Gordonstoun because of his Big Ears. We can be afraid of sticking out, being lampooned, setting ourselves up for a fall, or hearing something we don't want to hear. But its not optional.

This experience is not the end. It is not even the high point. Listening is.

We must expect to hear Jesus and be affected by our meeting with him.

The Son Is To Be listened To. Heard. Obeyed. Followed. Served. Loved.

This is where the rubber hits the road

Passionate Spirituality is not what happens on the mountain top. It's what happens when you come down and when the rubber hits the road. That's when you feel it. That's when things are changed. That's when you hear, in the heat of action, the Lord speak to you.

Conclusion: Passionate Spirituality depends on us first answering the question: “Who is Jesus” (= Christology) – its at the heart of our faith and therefore our spirituality. He is to be our passion.

As you ponder this story, ponder also that God’s son comes for you, and to you. You are part of this new covenant to be changed by Him”transformed into His likeness with ever increasing Glory” 2 Cor 3:18. You too are part of His mission to Transform Communities. Let us pray that this is not only something for which we wait, but also also for which we look and work towards today to reflect His Glory. Now. Let the rubber hit the road!

Passionate Spirituality 4 - The Word of God

Passionate Spirituality & The Word of God

Genesis 2:4-25

Passionate Spirituality is about living out our relationship with Jesus whi is alive.

How do we use the written Word of God as part of our Passionate Spirituality?

Spirituality is bringing “as much as I know of myself to as much as I know of God”

The Word – the written word – is like a loaf of bread.

If you take the ingredients individually they won't kill you – but they are not palatable. The choosing ingredients, the proportions, the mixing, the kneading, the rising, the timing, the temperature, the cooling – they are all essential elements of the bread. So the Scripture is formed by God's interaction with his people in history, in story , in worship  in writing, in collection, in argument, in experience – and only then is declared the Word of God. It is helpful to investigate the ingredients so that we can understand more – but in the end the proof is in the eating. Then it becomes the staff of life.

This means that we can't escape awkward teachings and ideas by simply going back into the past and by corralling them into a different time. “That was then...” write them off. But neither can we really understand them without asking how and why they were written. What was it about God and His relationship with creation that is being spoken about here? How does that play out in my life today? You have to take it seriously.

Insisting that it is an all verbatim instruction book is not taking it seriously.

Insisting that it is all outdated history is not taking it seriously. But how do you know what's what?

What do you do when there are different stories for the same thing? Gen 1 & 2.

The order of creation in Gen 1 is this: Adam– Vegetation – Animals – Eve

In Genesis 2 it is – Vegetation – Animals – Adam – Eve. How's that? How did that get through the proof reading?

If there is such a degree of uncertainty about creation order, what do you do about creation ordinances such as “ a man shall leave his Father and his mother” which we do use as our Christian understanding of marriage. So there can be no same sex marriage, can there? There is a danger of “text seeking” which seeks to defend a strongly help opinion of our own by isolating texts that seem to support it and saying “There you are. God says!” Well, do we want reassurance – or truth? Do you want to understand the world – or to know God, and yourself?

How are we to read these early scriptures?

Paul says in 2 Tim 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness”. Of course the New Testament was not written when he wrote this so he must include the Old Testament. Jesus said Matt 5:1 “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” So we are to take them seriously.

Regularly – thoughtfully- prayerfully – purposefully - together

Regularly: Plan? Notes? Cell? Web? Books? Church? Bulletin? Know yourself – your way of engaging. Be prepared to change your habits. Know God – He is revealed in the scriptures and through others.

Thoughtfully: What did the writer or compiler seek to indicate to the reader?

Genesis is not written to tell you how the universe was created but how we relate to the creator of all things. “Know God – know yourself” First: The idea the God dictated to Moses the first five books of the Old Testament and that he wrote them down as an accurate scientific or chronological account copy for all time is not only implausibly naïve, but a serious and determined attempt to misinterpret what God has given the Scripture for. “Together they form a continuous account of the early period of Israelite history up to the time of the settlement in Palestine. But scholars agree there there is a great variety of material in these books which came from different sources, and was gradually gathered and put together until the writings reached their present form.”

Prayerfully: Genesis teaches us that God is not only the creator who brought everything to be – but that He has an ongoing relationship and participation in that creation. This matters because he does not “intervene” from outside, He is engaged already. He is “passionate” in the true sense that what happens in it affects Him. So when we read, we are opening ourselves to His presence. We can expect Him to speak to us.

Purposefully: “As much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of God” - because you want to know Him so that you can love and serve Him to the best of your ability. Gen 2 says that human beings are stewards of creation – to reproduce and to ensure that the creation is fruitful. What is to be received – what is to be eschewed – is God's bountiful provision. Is it our desire, our passion? Or do we have the ego-centric view that God is here for our peace and pleasure?

Together: “As much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of God”

“It is not good that man should be alone” says God. This is not an instruction to marry. It's much deeper. We are not to be individualistic. We are to be one body, one flesh. We need on another. We learn about ourselves in relation to one another. We change as we grow. Other people learn about God and can show us and teach us. They we take that on board and discover more. Opting out impoverishes us and them. Because our society is heavily ego-centric we need to remember that we are not alone. We are part of a history (His – Story) where many other human beings have learnt about God and how he relates to his people. This is where Scripture and Tradition can play a part in our Spirituality. It stops us from just doing whatever feels good at the time which, any lover of Mars bars will understand, is not always the healthy option.

Genesis 2 poses the question: “How Are We To Live In Relationship With God our Creator?” - Answer:

“In God’s world – with God’s creatures – on God’s terms – because we are significant in His plan.”