Draw Near
“Draw Near”
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B September 23, 2018
Mark 9:30-37 James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, Idaho
Pastor Andy Kennaly
In Assisi, Italy, just outside the Basilica of St. Francis, on the edge of the yard just inside from the road, there is a statue of a soldier riding his war horse. This statue is depicting the young Francis returning from his time as a prisoner of war with neighboring Perugia. His head is drooping low, he’s not watching where he’s going in his ill state, his arms down while his hands barely hold onto the reigns; he’s wearing his uniform, but he is defeated in mind, body, and spirit. Even his horse has head drooped low under the burden of armor and the weight of weariness. On the macro level, this statue shows the futility of war and violence, and how they violate our created uniqueness as human beings. In the quest for security and dominance we imprison ourselves as we seek through violence to defend and project our own inner chaos and the boundaries we create. At the micro level, the statue reminds us that St. Francis died to himself before God lifted him up, the true pattern of any authentic spiritual journey.
Francis learned through experience, the hard way, the lesson of this morning’s letter from James as he writes, “but if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind.” Like most young men from Assisi, he went off to war with arrogance and violence in his heart, wanting to prove himself and push his way into the world, a child of privilege guided by the assumption that he was right and God was on his side. But taken prisoner, tortured, and ill, he returned a broken man. Perhaps these next words from James finally resonated as they share the light of God’s higher purposes, saying: “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.” As Francis learned hard lessons, he gained wisdom, revealing the heart of God.
In Mark we hear Jesus telling the disciples difficult things that will take place: he will be arrested and killed, rising three days later. “But they did not understand what he was saying, and they were afraid to ask him.” This loaded sentence shows us a few things. That “they did not understand what he was saying” reveals that some lessons need to be experienced or lived through in order to learn. Only through suffering do we get jarred enough to loosen our assumptions. What Jesus says doesn’t match any frame of reference they held or hoped for. They were not in alignment with God’s work in Jesus, even though they were his closest followers. That they “were afraid to ask him” shows that fear, not love, was filling them. Fear comes from judgment, from dualism, from their false self. Their ego is protecting itself by not asking, and not exposing itself because if they asked, this would display their lack of trust in who Jesus is and what God is doing through him. The next part, about them arguing who is the greatest, shows their ambition rather than their humility.
Clare W. Graves was a professor of psychology and originator of a theory of adult human development, later known as Spiral Dynamics. Don Beck and Chris Cowen in 1996 wrote a book that helps explore this as they explain states of consciousness and levels of spiritual development. This cultural evolving has different levels, quadrants, and types. This emergent process gives general assistance in realizing that everyone in some way has a reason for where they are in the dynamics of development or maturity. It helps draw out what the value systems are for people at different levels, and shares the pros and cons, the benefits or strengths, as well as the liabilities or downsides of each level in the connected spiral.
(http://www.spiraldynamics.net/about-spiral-dynamics-integral.html).
The reason I’m pointing out the existence of Spiral Dynamics as a system of understanding development is because the disciples did not understand what Jesus was telling them. Jesus was speaking from a very high level, integral and beyond, from the standpoint of unitive consciousness and embodied love. The disciples were at a different level, and from a lower standpoint that was very ego-centric and almost magical, they couldn’t see aspects of higher levels. Generally, moving to the next level is often prompted by hardship, where life as you know it doesn’t work anymore and something needs to give, there must be an adjustment to find a new equilibrium. Like my pastor friend, Paul Rodkey says,
“Truth works, until it doesn’t.”
In James you get a sense of higher levels compared with lower levels by the descriptive words he uses to describe behavior, actions, attitudes, and results. Words like: envy, selfish, ambition, wickedness, disorder, unspiritual, boastful, defensive, false, bitter, hypocrisy, cravings, disputes, conflicts, murder, and covet. These are weaknesses, from the shadow side, especially of lower level spirituality.
To get a sense of higher levels in the spiral, or the more positive side of each level, we see words like gentleness, truth, pure, peaceable, willing to yield, full of mercy, good fruits, harvest, righteousness, sown in peace, make peace, born of wisdom. With all these words, these descriptions, they also move us from the brain to the heart to the body. “Who is wise and understanding among you?” is how it starts. But then it analyzes the heart, where selfishness can lay below the surface shaping the bitterness and envy that comes out. That word, “cravings” is almost digestive as it seems like it comes from the gut. These cravings are at war “within you” and this leads to conflict and disputes.
So what do we do to not live with the type of fear those disciple had, even as they follow Jesus? How do we focus on the strengths of where ever it is on that spiral that we may be living? One of the first things, most essential, is shared near the end of this passage as James calls the people of the church to, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you.”
Submitting ourselves to God sounds great on Sunday morning, and we may even show up to church to put our best effort forward. But what about the rest of the week? How do you stay spiritually minded when you’re not in a room with stained glass windows, hymnbooks, and other trappings of traditional religion? How do you listen for God’s voice in a noisy world?
One way is to invite God to teach you through Spiritual Disciplines, such as scripture reading and prayer. The group called, Contemplative Outreach started by Father Thomas Keating, provides resources to help with prayer and spiritual reading as we deepen faith.
One of the distinctions they make with experiential faith practices, for example, is between receptive and active. Prayer, for example, can be listening, or talking, both, or neither. We can try and quiet the mind by letting go of all thought, or we can focus our attention, intentionally, by concentrating our awareness through words or an object. There are lots of varieties and options when it comes to spiritual disciplines, contemplative practices, or experiential faith.
One recent Question and Answer resource shared online has Father Carl J. Arico teaching about a form of prayer called Active Prayer. Here’s the question: “The active prayer is my daily "go to" practice along with Centering Prayer. Can you please clarify the differences and similarities between receptive and active contemplative practices, and how they can complement each other? Can the active prayer actually become a receptive practice?”
In case you don’t get the question, here’s another angle. In other words, one of the risks with active practices, such as prayer that involves talking, is that our ego and our desire for control are still in charge. We think we know what we need. But even our most sincere self image or understanding can be misplaced or misguided. If we’re full of ourselves, we may miss what God is trying to share. Or we really don’t know how to ask or pray because we got things handled anyway, so who needs God’s input? Like James says, “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.” The ego is still in charge, more than we think.
Yet, active prayer is a way to concentrate the mind. The question involves how do you pray in active ways and yet really remain humble and submissive to God? How do you not “ask wrongly” as James puts it? Can the active prayer actually become a receptive practice?”
Father Arico answers,
“Receptivity is like holding out an open hand, waiting patiently to receive what is desired. There is no additional activity; the real activity is within our steady intentionality. So a receptive prayer of intention could be expressed as “Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will.” The intention is one of resting in God. The active part of receptivity is the hand in motion. It is the inner gesture of keeping my intentions and awareness in the present moment, living from my center – my Source -- as I go about the business of the day. This includes responding and participating as needed in the moment. The similarity between Centering Prayer and the active prayer is in celebrating one’s center -- one’s Source. And both of these practices are different ways to express the intention to consent to God’s presence and action.” (What James calls, “submit yourselves therefore to God.” It’s really, consenting to God’s presence and action). “In Centering Prayer, you experience it in darkness and with the active prayer, you experience in the light. So the essence of active prayer is already receptive and this receptivity grows over time, where you see and experience all things in the framework of the bigger picture. (The Active Prayer Practice, Contemplative Outreach, Father Carl J. Arico, https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/article/active-prayer-practice?utm_source=All+Constituents&utm_campaign=0b96bd8abb-Sept+enews_2018&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b11e0b2045-0b96bd8abb-309612761&mc_cid=0b96bd8abb&mc_eid=4ab9e291c2).
We all get older and face decisions in life. We don’t have a choice when it comes to our bodies aging, to circumstances changing, or to time marching onward day after day. But growth in terms of spiritual maturity or development is optional. We can settle in at whatever stage feels good. Or, we can have our hand open in a posture of intentionality, trusting that even those things about Jesus which we don’t understand will be revealed through a deeper wisdom and experience infused with love.
Try something new this week. Look for a prayer practice or spiritual exercise that you’ve not done before. Contemplative Outreach is a good group that has lots of online resources for this. Even if you just sit outside in the Peace Garden for 30 minutes and see what God brings your way, you are opening yourself to experiential faith as you invite the Holy Spirit to be active and leading. Try something new as a way to submit yourself to God, to intentionally consent to God’s Presence and Action.
Jesus did something new when he took a little child in his arms when meeting and teaching his disciples, saying, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcome me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” What a cultural scandal that a child would be in this group of men with their teacher! That child should not have been near, yet Jesus holds the child and says, this is God in our midst. You welcome this child, you welcome God. The child, Jesus, God, all are connected and in relationship, just as God is in all things and all things are in God. Just as God is good, All the Time, and All the Time, God is good. Do something new to wake up, to awaken and invite this newness to reveal ancient wisdom rooted in the goodness of God. Open your heart and draw near to God, and God will draw near to you, because God is already there, in your heart.
As we let God live, through us, may God be glorified NOW, even as forever. Amen.