Creating sanctuary in a busy world
Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.
In his opening address he said,
We can't keep Christians from going to church.
We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth.
We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their Saviour.
Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken.
So let them go to their churches; let them have their housegroups, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.
This is what I want you to do, said the devil: Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!
How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.
Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds, he answered. Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade them to go to work for long hours and for 6-7 days each week, so they can afford their empty lifestyles.
Keep them from spending time with their children. As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!
Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the radio or MP3 player whenever they drive. To keep the TV, DVDs, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays unhelpful music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.
Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their post boxes and inboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogues, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes. Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives.
Keep them tired so that husbands and wives spend little time in intimacy.
Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted. Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead.
Keep them busy, busy, busy!
And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences. Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause.
"It will work!"
"It will work!"
It was quite a plan!
Silence and Contemplation
This is the second talk in a series on creating sanctuary in busy lives. In my introduction last week I drew attention to the fact that our busyness today is caused by our choices of yesterday and that sometimes we have chosen to listen to the wrong voices as we make our choices.
I said that it is God’s voice we need to hear. We looked at the way God calls to us, the way he comes looking for us, and the way that he wants us to create, to build, a sanctuary. A place where he can live in the centre of our life and of our community.
We noted that sanctuary is not somewhere you find but somewhere that needs to be created. And creating sanctuary is not easy but takes time and effort and sacrifice.
The first step in creating sanctuary - according to the Benedictine rule which I am using as a guide to this theme – is to create silence and learn contemplation. To use the metaphor of the building, this is the laying of the foundations and the floor. It is the base on which we build.
Psalm 46:10 says (in one of the most annoying verses in the bible)
Be still, and know that I am God.
Luke 6:12 tells us about how Jesus sometimes sought out silence.
At about that same time he climbed a mountain to pray. He was there all night in prayer before God. (Message)
Now what is your reaction to that? To the thought of silence and contemplation?
Silence
- We fear silence, we find it uncomfortable, in company it can be slightly rude – you can’t sit side by side in silence.
- Silence is difficult. It takes time to achieve. How about trying to teach our children to spend time in silence with us! How long can you sit in silence?
- But silence is essential. Everything starts with silence – by definition. Before God created the world there was, silence.
- Let’s just stop for one minute’s silence
- Creating sanctuary, finding God, serving others, a good and balanced life, all begin in silence.
- Sometimes it is better to leave good words unsaid out of respect for silence. (St Benedict)
- We need inner silence, not just outer silence. Silence is not the same as going for a walk, or other relaxation.
- Silence goes together with good speaking. A first step towards silence is to cut the crap out of our conversation – gossip, vulgarity, slander, grumbling, ‘just for a laugh’.
- Silence doesn’t bring tranquillity; on the contrary, silence leads us to wrestle with our inner demons. Tranquillity is for beginners. Note Jesus going into the desert for 40 days and nights. It may have been quiet but tranquil it wasn't.
Silence then leads to prayer
Good prayer – lays the carpet, dampens down the sounds that distract us from God.
- Prayer is difficult too. We need not worry about being good at it, just honest.
- The meaning of prayer is to relate to God as someone familiar – parent or friend – to focus on God as “You”.
In old English, as in French, there is the distinction between “You”, formal and distant, and “Thou”, intimate and familiar. God is “Thou”, intimate and familiar.
- Therefore prayer can be both in words or without words. Note that when the bible tells us that Jesus is in prayer before God it doesn’t say he was speaking. Somehow I don’t picture Jesus, on the hill, talking all night long. There were long periods of silence and listening.
- There are several sorts of “prayer” but in really deep prayer we eventually become constantly aware of God as “You” (not him or it but you) in our lives. We are turned towards him at all times. When we carry the consciousness of God’s presence in our minds at all times, we pray constantly. So, prayer is a way of life, not a technique.
- What Brother Lawrence called "continual conversation with God".
We wake in the morning with the thought, “What shall we do today, Lord?”
How do we reach prayer of that depth and permanence?
- Prayer is made up of meditation or reading, and contemplation.
- We start by creating space in our heart and mind that is free of habitual thoughts and worries, free of distraction. Free even of the things you want to ask God for. Needs time and application.
- We can create this space, for example, by speaking a simple prayer, like the Jesus Prayer – “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner”. Focus on these words to the exclusion of everything else, until they fill your thoughts. Seek to make them part of yourself, here and now, as you are.
- Then begin reading a text, usually the Bible but can be something else that points you to God as “You”. In Latin, this type of reading is called “lectio divina”.
- We are used to reading for information or entertainment – and doing it fast. This is neither information nor entertainment nor is it fast. Instead we read the Bible expecting an encounter with God as “You”.
More like reading a letter from a loved one.
- Treat the words of the bible as a gift to be received, like the letter, not a problem to be solved or a lesson to learn.
- Like a letter you read it and then read it 2 or 3 or more times – each time more slowly.
- When you read the bible words let those words question you, let them open you up, take you away from your own thoughts and point you to God. Expect God’s Holy Spirit to speak to you through them.
Contemplation
- The aim of silence and prayer, of meditation and reading, is to reach a point of contemplation, of deep prayer. The point when we are completely open to God and he speaks directly into our hearts.
- We will not always get there but it is important to try. We must make time for silence and prayer precisely because we are busy – we are too busy not to pray. We are too tempted to listen to the voices of materialism. And God is gracious and understanding of our weak attempts. He steps eagerly into the space as we allow silence to expand around us. He speaks as we listen and he listens as we speak.
- The way to test my use of silence and prayer is to see my readiness to live with integrity in my life; for this silence and prayer and contemplation to be reflected in a life which demonstrates patience, sensitivity to others and has integrity.
- As I learn to be silent and to pray deeply, to know His presence as “You”. As I learn to enjoy contemplation and to be able to hear His voice I am laying the floor of the Sanctuary and a first step to creating sanctuary in a busy world.
Challenge
This issue of silence is much harder for some of us than others. Not just because we find it difficult not to make noise but because as we refuse to turn down the other voices we have lost the ability to hear the voice of Jesus.
This takes an active decision of repentance.
We stand at a distance from God and can’t hear what he is saying – occasionally at times of crisis we shout to him and he hears us. But it isn’t conversation, it isn’t the shared silence of friends.
It’s as though I met Alison for the first time across the car park – I was shouting directions to her across the noise of traffic and people. She heard enough to be able to find her way.
The next time I am in the same room with other people but we talk more easily and share some information and thoughts with each other.
Eventually after many years of marriage we can happily sit next to each other without needing to say much and just being close.
The relationship has moved from “her” across the car park to me and “you”. What shall we do today?
We can stand at a distance and shout for help from God across the noise and distraction of our materialistic world – or can we choose to cut back on all the other voices and come close to him and listen to him.
It is a clear choice – it is what the bible calls repentance and forgiveness – and you have that choice today whether for the first time or the hundredth time. You can choose to say sorry for cutting God out of your life and for listening to other voices. Instead you choose to turn toward him receive his forgiveness and acceptance.
Take the first step of silence; pray and move to contemplation. Come close to your creator and maker. Create a sanctuary in your life with him at the centre.
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.
David Flowers
16 September 2007
David Flowers, 30/09/2007