Spiritual Listening

Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God."

It is not enough to know God through the written word; we must also experience God as the Living Word in our hearts. If God knows all shouldn't we spend more time listening and less time talking in prayer? I was introduced to a form of contemplative prayer many years ago in which I would meditate on a central idea or phrase from a biblical passage for several months. This is a powerful form of prayer in that layers of meaning continue to unfold and deepen as we re-visit an idea repeatedly over time.

One of my first experiences with this kind of prayer focused on the above phrase from David's 46th Psalm. In this approach to prayer, one doesn't so much think about the meaning of a phrase as much as one opens up to the revelation of its meaning through the Holy Spirit. There is a specific attitude one must cultivate to attain this prayerful mindset. It is an attitude characterized by openness, receptivity and patient anticipation. This is not an intellectual exercise of deciphering meaning from Bible verse through clever deductions or interpretations. It is a surrender to the Revelatory Power of the Holy Spirit. By emptying out the voices in our own heads that typically dominate the "airwaves", we open ourselves to a deeper truth. "In the beginning was the Word" - God's first call to us is an invitation to listen! Later, the Living Word is revealed as Jesus the Christ. We are instructed to 'hear the Word and abide by it.' One can not happen without the other. We must first hear the Word deep within our hearts and souls for it to become alive in us.

How do we listen to God? We stop listening to ourselves! The mind will keep us occupied with fodder and filler for as long as we choose to listen to it. The Revelation of the Word happens when we stop talking and start listening. Spiritual listening is an act of faith and surrender. In the same way we are called to love God with the entirety of our being, we also must learn to listen with the fullness of our being. Before the fruit of love - compassionate service - can be harvested, the seeds must be firmly planted through listening. Listening is the internal, passive side of love that eventually grows into action.

Nature abhors a vacuum and a mind without focus will drift and attach to stimulus impulsively and compulsively. A prayer focus allows the mind to continually anchor itself on the island of prayer. Whenever my mind wanders during these month-long prayer sessions, it naturally seeks a return to the island. Like a seabird on a reconnaissance flight, the mind will return to its home-base time and again. The mind needs an anchor or it will wander aimlessly into troubled waters. In a world with endless noise and temptation, a prayer-anchor is essential for staying on course- ' the narrow path of righteousness.'

Gently, without the force of will, spiritual listening develops into a way of being. "Be still and know...." I carried that with me for six months and longer. Over time, my mind slowed and quieted around this central idea. I began to hear something beyond and behind the din of everyday life. God spoke! The Word became flesh. I felt the Living Word inside me and understood then how I could be the Living Temple. And I was saved {from the trappings of my own mind}.

Revolution through Revelation

Matthew 15: 10-19 “Hear and understand: not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of a mouth, this defiles a man......... what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.”

On the heels of so many economic crises - from the corruption in the banking and mortgage industries to environmental disasters such as the BP oil spill - the question presents itself: Can capitalism and Christianity co-exist? In Michael Moore’s movie, Capitalism, a Love Story, a Catholic Bishop, a priest, and Michael Moore himself seem to conclude that capitalism is inherently evil and therefore cannot be reconciled with Christianity. Certainly. when we juxtapose the present day version of capitalism with the gospel they seem like disparate bedfellows. Modern day capitalism is characterized by an impersonal, carnivorous pursuit of profit whereas the gospel emphasizes self sacrifice for the betterment of others. Nonetheless, the wholesale rejection and vilification of capitalism seems simplistic and perhaps a little too convenient. Reflecting on Jesus’ teaching about defilement, it is clear that corruption and evil develop from the inside out - from what comes out of our hearts and minds. Applying this principle to economics, we can infer that systems, institutions and organizations do not define us; we define them. If Jesus is the CEO of any company, or the leader of any commune for that matter, it will be a beautiful thing. On the other hand, place Hitler in the same positions and the system or organization becomes vile. We put too much stock, even misplaced faith, in systems. Jesus was deliberately apolitical. Despite the pressure on him to challenge Rome’s corrupt authority, he seemed disinterested. I believe his indifference towards political action is rooted in the profound wisdom that change must begin from within. Then and only then can our systems be transformed - ‘new wine must be poured into new wineskins’. Change, as a revolutionary gospel concept, is the transformation of a human being from one born of the flesh to one born of the Spirit. It is this rebirth that has the regenerative power to change everything in our lives. Jesus said, ‘You will know my true followers by their fruits’. Those who are truly born of the Spirit have their primary identity rooted in Christ. The “born again” experience has nothing to do with some form of demonstrative hysteria such as ‘speaking in tongues’ or fainting. It is the process, highly individualized and varied, by which a person’s primary identity becomes rooted in Christ. In the same way that a tree branch cannot work against its own trunk, those rooted in Christ cannot compartmentalize any aspect of their lives in order to exclude or undermine him. Doing business is simply an extension of one’s Christ-based self. Thus, we “do business unto others as we would have business done unto us”. Capitalism does not necessitate greed and corruption. People have defiled this system and many others throughout history by what comes forth from our hearts and minds. Real change, revolution, comes through the revelation of Jesus Christ as the core of our individual and collective identities. Only then will our human systems reflect the greatness of God’s will and the fullness of His glory.

The free will to choose God's will

“You can’t have your cake and eat it too” applies to the spiritual realm in a number of interesting ways. Many people express frustration with God for his apparent absence in human affairs. Interestingly, some of the angriest voices on this subject come from atheists. How can they be angry with something they don’t believe exists? You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you don’t believe in God, stop blaming him for everything that’s gone awry in this world. If you do believe in God, do your part to bring about His Vision for humanity.

If we value free will and recognize that it is a remarkable gift that elevates humankind to a unique position in Creation, is it fair to blame God for not stepping in and making everything right in our world? Free will cannot reign simultaneously with God’s Absolute Dominion. On earth, human will rules. Yet God is involved with “our” world and intensely interested in our affairs. But He will not impose His will upon us. This is not His way. A parent who loves his child does not seek to control her. He gently guides and nourishes the child to help her grow into the complete person she is able to become. A parent who squelches a child’s free will, crushes it even, in order to institute a more ‘perfect’ domain is a tyrant or abuser. To exercise total control over another being, no matter the reason, is oppression and dominance. Is this what we want from our god? If God were to sweep into the world right now wielding a sword of lightning and strike down all evil-doers and demand submission and devotion from us all, would he be the God of love? Is a parent who gains submission and obedience from a child by overpowering her, a loving parent? We want our cake and eat it too. We want free will – the autonomy, the joy, the power of it – without the responsibility. Our collective free will makes us responsible for the state of our world. This is hard too swallow even for atheists. We need a scapegoat and God has become just that.

So if we are responsible for the state of our world, does God have any role in this world? I believe that Jesus came to earth to reveal God’s will. Reveal not impose. What did He reveal? That God abhors injustice and loves peace. That God is unimpressed with outward appearance and status but knows and cares deeply about what is in our hearts. That God forgives and redeems all of humanity because of His Love for us. Jesus, the son of God, showed us a glimpse of his Father’s will. Jesus is the spiritual equivalent of Johnny Appleseed. Jesus, the Great Gardener, came to earth and planted the seeds of God’s Love among us. Jesus gave us a template, a road map if you will, pointing to where we need to go, pointing us to the kingdom of heaven on earth. Clearly, we are not there yet. 2000 years, I suspect, is a fraction of time in God’s plan. He is waiting for us to catch up with His Vision for humanity. Jesus gave us a glimpse of this vision – one in which the sick are healed, the dead are resurrected and prejudice, inequality, violence and hypocrisy are replaced with justice, harmony, love and righteousness. 2000 years later those seeds are growing and bearing fruit. Despite what the cynics may say, progress has been made and is being made. Yet we have a long way to go.

God’s fertile ground is our souls. In the soul-fields of humanity, God’s Love continues to grow. God’s love is the seed. Jesus is the gardener. We are the laborers who must cultivate the soil. We must pull out the toxic weeds of sin. We must continually assure that the seeds remain in the fertile soil of faith. And we must turn towards the Son to receive the Light that is necessary for spiritual photosynthesis to occur - the process by which sinfulness is converted into Holiness, corruptible matter into Eternal Life,..

God will wait for us in the same way a loving parent will wait for his child to grow up. The parent nurtures the child’s growth and waits faithfully for the child to become fully formed as to be capable of a deep and reciprocal relationship. God is waiting with patience and longing for our arrival and maturation. Then we could meet, in the Garden, without the distance our ignorance creates. Until then, God will not impose His will. While we are young – that is, unprepared, unyielding, defiant – God waits. We must grow towards His Light and be ready to embrace and enact His Vision as it is in heaven. Then we can say with the full conviction of our free will, “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”