Hundreds
of years ago people who took their faith very seriously went into the dessert
to achieve what is called HEYCHIA, which
means inner stillness. Inner stillness
is the ability to be a non-anxious presence in the midst of the noise and
activity of a busy life. There’s not a lot to look at outwardly in
the desert—which means there is more time to look inward…
….at the mustard seed or the Kingdom of
God or the Mind of Christ or the
Goodness of God or Praying Without Ceasing
….growing within.
Remember,
John the Baptist comes out of this desert tradition, and so does Jesus. They both spent time in the wilderness.
One
of the ways these desert dwellers practiced staying in the Still, Quiet, Strong
mind of God was to recite a little prayer called the Jesus Prayer several times a day.
The
Jesus prayer goes like this: “LORD Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” It’s a combination of two short prayers
in the gospel: the blind man in Jericho
prays “Jesus, son of David, Have mercy on me!”
The tax collector prays in the Temple, “God be merciful to me, a
sinner!” Put the two together and we get
“LORD Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”
Now, this wasn’t the only short prayer
the desert dwellers repeated several times a day, but the goal was this: to remember GOD, and by remembering GOD to
make GOD present. To want to be in the presence of God is to BE
in the presence of God.
While
saying the Jesus prayer the desert dwellers didn’t remember the events in
Jesus’ life—they felt him; they experienced him. They described it as a “sentiment of
tenderness.”
It
takes a little effort to remember God throughout the day—to return to God’s
still, quiet mind. In fact a story was
circulated about one of these desert dwellers named Abba or “Father” Isaiah and
it goes like this:
“It was said of Abba Isaiah that one day
he took a branch and went to the threshing-floor to thresh and said to the
owner, ‘Give me some wheat.’ And the
owner replied, ‘Well, have you brought in the harvest, Father?’ And Abba Isaiah said, ‘No.’ So the owner said
to him, ‘How then can you expect to be given wheat, if you have not
harvested?’ Then the old man said to
him, ‘Are you saying then that if someone does not work, they do not receive
wages?’ And the owner said, “of course I am.’
So the old man went away.
Seeing what he had done, the monastics of that place bowed before him,
asking him to tell them why he had acted in that way. And the old man said to them, ‘I did this as
an example: Whoever has not worked will
not receive a reward from God.’
Life
with God, we being to understand, must be worked at. Not by memorizing creeds and formulas, but by
opening to God’s very self.
Another
way the desert dwellers practiced staying in the Still, Quiet, Strong mind of
God was to sit quietly in the Presence and not think any thoughts so that God
could rise to the surface. This way of
praying is called contemplative prayer and centering prayer.
We’re going to practice contemplative
prayer this morning for three minutes.
The goal is twenty minutes. I invite you to get comfortable. Place your palms on your knees and close your
eyes. Focus on your breathing. If you think a thought observe it and let it
go. Return to your breathing until you
are not aware that you are breathing.
Ok—three
minutes.
Now
you might be thinking, “I don’t have three minutes to sit quietly in the
Presence of God every day.” And you might be thinking, “Even if I took the time
to memorize the Jesus prayer, or to write it down and put it in my wallet, I
don’t have time to whisper it and let it shape me. I move from activity to activity all day
long.”
This
reminds me of a joke or two or four:
What time is it when you sit on a pin? Spring time.
What time is it when an elephant sits on your car? Time to get a new car.
If twenty dogs run after one cat, what time is it? Twenty after one.
Customer: I d like a watch that tells time. Clerk: Don’t you have a watch that tells time? Customer: No, you have to look at it.
Time
is precious to us. It’s become more
important than money. We have arranged
our sleeping life and waking life to occupy all 24 hours we have been given in
our day. The question is, is all of this activity
working FOR us or against us?
I have a friend who suffers with LUPUS
and she is always telling me, “Pain is a great motivator.”
Our story from Mark’s gospel is a story
about pain.
The
disciples are in a boat with Jesus when a storm moves in. The disciples are fishermen. Since they are afraid this must be a terrible
storm. The disciples are flopping around
emotionally ---they accuse Jesus of not caring about them; the express fear and
plan their funerals.
Does
their behavior sound familiar to you when you are presented with sickness and
violence and loss and persecution and death?
When life gets difficult, do we flop all over the place? Do we accuse God of forgetting where we
live? Do we lay awake worrying? Do we express fear to anyone who will
listen? “Oh woe is me!” and “We’re going to die!” We render God useless.
After
hours of fear expressed as rage or tears or both—how do we feel the next day
when the alarm clock goes off? We move
about the day in a fog, correct?
In
our story from Mark Jesus is asleep in the boat tossed about by an angry sea. There are storms everywhere in his life
because he’s ushering in a new message:
God is WITHIN us, God is LOVE, and we all matter—loving our neighbor is
more important than attending a worship service, faith and justice go hand in
hand, nonviolence is the orientation of the faithful heart, and so on. His enemies are powerful, like the sea.
Interestingly,
Jesus’ is mind is quiet. The events OUTSIDE of his life—the storm, his
ministry, are not winning the battle for his attention.
He
has learned to stay focused on God.
When Jesus talks to his friends about
the absence of their faith the word he uses in the greek is “deilos.” He’s
referring to an inner defect. He’s
asking them where their heart is, or the center of their soul is. Had they learned to remain in God no matter
what the day’s events presented? Or did
the events in their lives determine their reality and knock them for a loop
emotionally?
He
wasn’t condemning them.
He
was pointing out the obvious. They
weren’t using their time well.
Trust
in God is work—discipline. We practice trust in God until we trust in
God.
“LORD
Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.”
Centering Prayer. Day after day
we practice the presence of God until the presence of God shows up—and inner
stillness is our response to an angry world.
We pray until we become prayer.
Makarios
the Great—another desert dweller—writes:
“A disciple
should always carry
The memory of
God within.
For it is
written:
You shall
love the Lord your God
With all your
heart.
You should
not only love the Lord
When entering
into the p-lace of prayer
But should
also remember him with great desire
When you walk
or speak to others
Or take your
meals.
For scripture
says: Where your heart is, there also is
your treasure; and surely, wherever a person’s heart is given, wherever their
deepest desire draws them, this is indeed their god.
If a
disciple’s heart always longs for God,
Then God will
surely be the Lord of the heart.
Prayer—teach us how to watch over our
heart’s integrity. Amen.
(This sermon was preached by Reverend Dana Keener at Billings Central Christian on June 21, 2015)
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