Christian Disciplines: Meditation
Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Dr Fiona J. Tweedie
21 September 2003

In half an hour or so, the service will be finished, we might spend a few minutes in prayer, or listen to Dennis playing the organ, or chat to a friend. We might be rushing through to the Halls to find what our children have been up to in Quest or Next. Sooner or later we'll go through to the Pillar Hall, and join the queue for tea or coffee. The person in front or behind us in the queue turns; “Good morning” they say, “How are you?” “Fine, thank you” we reply. We might then talk about the weather, a golf match, the football results, how nice and clean the Pillar Hall carpet is now it's been cleaned – nothing too serious, nothing too important. We're always “fine, thank you”

Often we don't want others to know, we don't want to know ourselves if we're not “Fine, thank you”. We don't want people to know if we're not coping, if we're having problems at work, an argument with neighbours, if we're facing illness. We're “fine, thank you”. We prefer to keep our friendships or relationships on the surface, superficial, we want people to believe the image we'd like to project, that we're “Fine, thank you.”

Sometimes we're faced with someone who is clearly not “Fine thank you” - a women struggling on to a bus with a buggy and small children, we offer to help, but she's “fine, thank you”. A victim of domestic abuse, when questioned, they're “fine, thank you”. Children are starving in North Korea, but the country is “fine, thank you”, a friend is looking frail and ill, but they're “fine, thank you”. You can see clearly that something is wrong – you want to help, you ache to help, you would do anything to help, but all they say that they're “fine, thank you”. We don't want to impose ourselves on them, we don't override their wishes. We let them be.

This must be a small part of what God feels when he looks at us. We keep our relationship on a superficial level. We read what he's said, we talk to God, we pray for others, people throughout the world, people in the UK, even people at Barclay, Us? Me? I'm fine, thank you.

But, in that most famous verse, John 3:16, we read “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son” Why? So that we could say “I'm fine, thank you”? NO! “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God did not allow his Son to be tortured and killed so that we could say “I'm fine, thank you”. He didn't raise Jesus from the dead to have a superficial relationship with us. God did these things so that he could have the deepest of relationships with us, that his Spirit could live within us, could be part of us.

If you have acknowledged that Jesus has died for you, repented of your sins and accepted him as your saviour, then the Holy Spirit will be within you. If you don't know Christ as your Saviour and Lord I would invite you to do so today – tell God that you're sorry, ask him into your life, and he will come. Whatever we have done, he WANTS to have a deep, meaningful, close relationship with us. He knows all that we've done, we can't surprise him. He won't go away in shock and horror when we admit our darkest secrets – he already knows them. He knows all about us, and incredibly, he STILL wants to be our friend.

But how do we go about being friends with God? How do we get into a deeper relationship with him? Well, how do we get into good relationships with friends? We spend time with them, we talk to them, we listen to them. We might do the things they like to do, we could do things for them, we could ask other people about them, nowadays we could search the Internet for them, read about them.

And these are all things we can do to get into a good, deep relationship with God – spend time with Him, talk to Him, listen to Him, do the things He would like us to do, do things for Him, learn about him from others.

Developing a friendship with someone isn't trivial it doesn't happen overnight, it takes time, it takes energy, it can take perseverance. It also takes both parties – our friend has to interested in developing a relationship too. Fortunately, God has promised that if we draw near to Him, he WILL draw near to us – he will spend time with us, talk with us, listen to us. He will develop a relationship with us, and such a relationship with our Creator God is surely something worth spending time, energy and perseverance on. The rewards are greater than anything we can know.

Time, energy and perseverance can be combined into the word “discipline” - a word that is rather unfashionable today – it usually refers to the discipline of going to the gym, or doing revision before an exam, or to whether or not the Scottish Executive will ban smacking. But a discipline is also a habit, a way of doing something, as we may discipline ourselves to learn something, to develop ourselves, to develop a relationship. The Christian disciplines are ways of developing our relationship with God, of setting us free from slavery to what the world demands. They include prayer, meditation, solitude, service, worship and celebration.

The Christian disciplines are NOT laws – they're not here to make us feel like incompetent Christians because we don't do them all every day. The Disciplines have been described as perceptions into life, not regulations for controlling life. They're also NOT just pious exercises for “really good Christians”, they're to help us into a deeper relationship with God so that we can engage with this world. The disciplines are not holy in themselves – doing meditation does not give us spiritual “brownie points”, but it might help bring us before God and allow us to listen to him. They are not the focus of what we do – Christ is the focus, the disciplines help us focus on Christ, not only on the worship or celebration. The disciplines don't give us a deeper relationship with God, but they bring us to the place where a deeper relationship with God can develop – the rest is up to us.

I'm going to be leading the morning services on the third Sunday of the month, when our locum, Shirley Fraser will be leading an evening communion service. Over the next few months, I'd like to look with you at a few of the Christian Disciplines – today we'll look briefly at Christian meditation, in October at Simplicity and in November at Celebration. Some of the material will be based on a book by Richard Foster called Celebration of Discipline, I can give you the details, or they are on the web page if you are interested.

Christian Meditation

The discipline that I'd like us to look at this morning is that of meditation. Meditation isn't something that we often associate with Christianity – it's usually mentioned in connection with eastern religions or New Age practices. When we think of meditation, we usually think of people sitting cross-legged with dreamy, out-of-this world expressions on their faces. In Eastern forms of meditation, people try to empty their minds – to detach themselves from reality and lose their personality in a cosmic mind. In Christian meditation, rather than emptying our minds, we fill our minds – we detach ourselves from the hustle and bustle of the world, but then attach ourselves to God.

In developing a friendship, we usually spend time with the other person, we talk with them, and and quiet to LISTEN to what they say to us. Often we treat our prayers like going to the doctor, telling them about all our aches and pains, asking them to help, and instead of listening to what the doctor thinks might help, we rush out the door again! God's voice is still and small – we won't hear it if we drown him out with the world. We need to take time to listen to God, to concentrate on Him, and not on the world.

Christian meditation isn't new. In Genesis [24:63] we're told that Isaac “went out to the field to meditate”. In the reading we've just heard, the blessed man meditates on the law day and night, in other Psalms the writers stay awake to meditate on the promises of God [Ps 119:148; 63:6]. Eli knew enough about listening to God to advise the boy Samuel, and other prophets learned to discern the voice of God – Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the list goes on. They were willing to spend time listening to God. Jesus himself, while involved in an incredibly busy ministry often withdrew to a quiet or lonely place to be with his Father, to talk with Him, and listen to him. If Jesus thought that prayer and meditation were important enough to take time out to do, so should we.

So, how do we do it? What do we do? Do we have to contort our bodies into uncomfortable looking positions? How can I focus my mind on one thing, while it insists on going off wondering about what's for dinner, or what I'm going to be doing tomorrow? How can I fit yet another thing into my already packed-out day??

When we start, it might be helpful to try to set aside a particular time of day to listen to God, but don't get caught thinking, “Oh no, it's four o'clock – not meditation time again”. Fit it in when you can – don't get tied up in recriminations if you don't always manage it. Getting together with a friend once a week is much better than never speaking and listening to them at all.

Some people find that they need to be somewhere completely quiet to meditate – as long as you are somewhere where you're not going to be interrupted for a wee while, and if you can shut out the noise, then that is fine.

And no, we don't need to contort ourselves into a cross-legged position – find a position that is comfortable for you, and that won't distract you. Some people like to sit, others to lie down, others to stand. Somewhere your body isn't going to get cramps after five minutes.

Now what? We've found some time, some peace, we've got comfortable. How do we actually do this meditation thing?

Like conversations with friends, meditation can take a number of different forms, and as we don't speak and listen to our friends in the same way each time we see them, there's no one way of meditating.

Having said that, in Christian meditation, the most important way of meditation is to focus on Scripture, to take a verse or two and make it yours – realise that God is addressing it to you – see how it can be applied in your life, store it up and ponder it in your heart as Mary did. Or you might find it helpful to take a parable, say, and try to imagine what it would have been like to be there – you're sitting by the lake side in Galillee, the hot sun shining down on your head, the dust, the lapping of the waves on the lake, the crowds and crowds of people, trying to hear Jesus down at the front. You realise that your food has run out. But this teacher is so interesting, but I'm getting hungry, just stay a bit longer, but I'm so hungry, where will I get any food? Huh, now Jesus has stopped talking, we're all sitting down on the grass – it's nice and green down by the lake here – Hey food is coming – great! I'm starving, yum. Hey more food, No thanks, I'm full. But where did the food come from? How did they get so much – no one brought a boat full of food, what happened? You look up, look around, your eyes meet those of Jesus. And you know, you are completely sure that he can, and he will provide for all your needs – he will be there for you.

Another form of meditation is to focus on the creation – the heavens do declare the glory of God! Look at a tree – really look at it – or examine a flower or sit and enjoy a sunset. The God who will come near to us is the same God who created the universe and everything in it – as we can learn about a friend by seeing what they've done, we can learn about God in considering his works, his creation.

While many works of creation seem permanent, another way of meditating is to consider current events – Foster describes this form of meditation as being best carried out with a bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. In this age of “spin”, it's important to get behind the cliches and the shallow reporting to understand what is going on. We can ask God for insight into situations, and ask him what our individual reaction should be – how can we best be salt and light in current society.

But however we meditate, whenever and how often, the most important thing is to listen, to develop, to deepen our relationship with God – it's not about us – it's about putting us aside and listening to God, as we put ourselves aside when we listen to our friends. If you find that you can't sit still, or concentrate on something for more than 2 minutes, keep trying, ask God for help, try different things – it takes practice. In time, like the blessed man in the Psalm, our delight can be the word of the Lord.

I've spoken this morning about getting into a deeper relationship with God and I'd like to close in quoting from an American author, this quote is also on the prayer diary for September. He talks non-discipleship – not being in a relationship with God.

NON-discipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated through by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God's over-riding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, it cost exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring.

(Dallas Willard. 'The Spirit of the Disciplines'. Harper & Row, 1988)

May we move with God to find that abundance of life Jesus promised.

Amen