meditations: March 2016

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Pilgrimage to Easter: Thank you

Thank you for your company ...

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
Psalm 118:24

Thank you for joining me on this pilgrimage - whether for a day, a week, or the whole journey. I hope you enjoyed the walk - and came a little closer to Jesus and our God.

To those of you who encouraged me along the journey - thank you. Although the meditation took time, it was time that I enjoyed and learned from. I have a number of themes that I will explore over the next few weeks either as meditations - or on my insights blog.

Travel well.

John

Saturday 26 March 2016

Pilgrimage to Easter: Easter Sunday

Meditation for Sunday 26 March: Easter Sunday
... from the readings of the day:

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
Psalm 118:24

The Empty Tomb

MARY
I couldn't sleep, just wanted to be near. I knew
I wouldn't get in: that huge rock at the opening!
But needed to be on my own, to be close.
It was a full moon, quite bright for walking,
but the black of the entry was all the darker.
Suddenly I needed the others. It was so silent.
It was only later, in the light, he said my name.

PETER
I was still awake. The sun was almost up, first
cockerels crowing, when Mary burst back in. John
and I ran down first. The boy waited, and I went
in. Just enough light to see now. He was gone.
All the cloths rolled and neatly stacked, but where
was the body? Stolen? Had I let him down? again!
But he knows I love him. I love him. I love him.

JOHN
I won, but waited for the old man. The first ray
of the sunrise hit the wall as he went in, so we
could see clearly. Peter was an elder, examining
the evidence - but I saw it was empty, and knew,
knew! in that instant, it was full! The universe
froze, anchored in a moment touching eternity,
blinding white light whirled in new dawning.

Suggestions for meditation

Always begin by offering your time to God and asking for the grace to grow closer: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time as I reach out to you, and ask that you guide me now, and each day, closer to you".

The exact words of the prayer are not important but you do need a firm intention to open yourself to God's input.

Read the mediation over slowly a couple of times.

Listen for the personal message for you. There will always be one word or phrase that will reach into your heart. Think of it as the personal meaning God has for you alone!

If you would prefer a more authoritative reading to focus your meditation, try this from one of today's readings, Paul's first letter to the John 20:1-9

On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
“They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don’t know where they put him.”
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead.

Focus on a significant word or phrase in this passage or the meditation for a few moments.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LIGHT or DAWN.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Friday 25 March 2016

Pilgrimage to Easter: Day 46

Meditation for Saturday 25 March
... from the readings of the day:

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Psalm 51:19

THE NEW DAY (Romans 6)

When you send out your Spirit Lord, there is
new life, and you renew the face of the earth.

The deal has changed, our reason for living remade;

we are not who we thought we were! Life has

changed, death has changed; death brings life! We

have joined our brother Jesus in his death - and,

baptised in him, risen to a new life in Christ.

Life has changed. Gone is our former life alone and

ruled by fearful thoughts; we live now in Christ, one

body, one spirit, in God. As children, we lived in fear

of pain; adults now, we live in the mind of God.

Free now, we live for love and unity and peace.

Don't you get it? Don't you see? We live a new life:

it's all new! We lived by rules, in fear. Now we see

more clearly: we live in the glorified body of our

messiah. Death and sin behind us, we live not for
ourselves, or in ourselves, but for God in Christ Jesus.

When you send out your Spirit Lord, there is
new life, and you renew the face of the earth.

Suggestions for meditation

Brothers and sisters:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.
For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his,
we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.
We know that our old self was crucified with him,
so that our sinful body might be done away with,
that we might no longer be in slavery to sin.
For a dead person has been absolved from sin.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more;
death no longer has power over him.
As to his death, he died to sin once and for all;
as to his life, he lives for God.
Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin
and living for God in Christ Jesus.

Focus on a significant word or phrase in this passage or the meditation for a few moments.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LIGHT or SEPARATION.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Thursday 24 March 2016

Pilgrimage to Easter: Good Friday

Meditation for Good Friday, 24 March
... from the readings of the day:

For all my foes I am an object of reproach,
a laughingstock to my neighbours, and a dread to my friends;
they who see me abroad flee from me.
I am forgotten like the unremembered dead;
I am like a dish that is broken. Yes, I am yours!

Psalm 31:12-13

MAN OF SORROWS 2

Others I choose and call for their songs, their
stately bearing, men and women who hear me
and share me with eloquent tongues and courage.

Surely not this ordinary child, burst from the
dry earth like a weed, poor and without
learning, clumsy and mocked and spurned.

This least of men - a nobody from a nowhere town,
pocked and plain, crooked teeth, short and ordinary,
awkward and without graceful or courtly manner.

Chosen because he is ordinary, but unwavering in
belief, faith inspiring courage, courage inspiring
certainty, born to be touchstone for my children.

Empowered to break free each one held in thrall
to the world you think you control with strength,
blind to the world you actually see with your heart.

This ordinary man shows ordinary people the way
to life in me. This man of sorrows suffers willingly,
and willingly gives it to me to transform to my peace.

This plain man sings to the world of what is,
and one by one, other ordinary people join and
sing strange harmonies that renew the world.

This ordinary man shows the world that suffering
can be turned to joy, compassion changes nations,
that each person can know me, hear me, share me.

This man of sorrows dies gladly to transform their
pride and blindness. He opens the book of sacrifice
and proves that sorrows kindle joy, a sign I am near.

This sad man suffers willingly because others refuse
to hear me, refuse me in their lives, fully
committed to their life in the world they create.

They are blind to the world I make, even now, each
day, for them. This man, never doubts his heritage
in me, seeing, healing, restoring, inspiring, dying.

This is your God who speaks: you are mine, my child,
my child of sorrow and pain. But I am your father:
I made you in my image to light my children's way.

Suggestions for meditation

He grew up like a sapling before him,
like a shoot from the parched earth;
there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him,
nor appearance that would attract us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by people,
a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,
one of those from whom people hide their faces,
spurned, and we held him in no esteem.

Though he was harshly treated, he submitted
and opened not his mouth;
like a lamb led to the slaughter
or a sheep before the shearers,
he was silent and opened not his mouth.
Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away,
and who would have thought any more of his destiny?
When he was cut off from the land of the living,
and smitten for the sin of his people,
a grave was assigned him among the wicked
and a burial place with evildoers,
though he had done no wrong
nor spoken any falsehood.
But the LORD was pleased
to crush him in infirmity.

Focus on a significant word or phrase in this passage or the meditation for a few moments.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LIGHT or PAIN.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Pilgrimage to Easter: Day 44

Meditation for Thursday 24 March
... from the readings of the day:

This day shall be a memorial feast for you: a pilgrimage to the Lord.
Exodus 12:14

WASHING FEET WITH PETER
I came to bring you to Life. You think you are alive, but you walk in dreams. That is not the Life you were born for. You need to wake up.

You cannot come to Life unless you can sacrifice each of the things in yourself you think define you. You will Live only when you can take into your heart your crosses, your shames and poverties.

You must be humble; let go your pride and wash feet with me. You think your little list defines who you are, and why you are loved. God knows you are so much more. Let go your rank and stature; they are unheeded shackles, worn so long you think they are part of you! Kneel with me.

I will show you how to be born again, how to be resurrected into a full new Life.

You must be your Father's little child - not rapt in your own glory beginning to think you are all-powerful, knowing all. I am on my knees washing your feet, my friends, so that you stay my friends and do not become my worshippers, pushing me away - no longer one of you. We are brothers and sisters: what I do, you can do - you must do - to gain Life.

I submit to whips and thorns, pain and shame so that I do not become the angry man leading a revolution of spears and swords and breaking. I go tonight to those who hate me and show them, and you, that I love them. I forgive them. They too are my brothers and sisters.

My cross, my death, will set me free and give me Life - will show you how to free yourself too, and how to wake the world.

Suggestions for meditation

Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
So, during supper, fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”
Jesus answered him,
“Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”

Focus on a significant word or phrase in this passage or the meditation for a few moments.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LIGHT or SONG.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Pilgrimage to Easter: Day 43

Meditation for Wednesday 23 March
... from the readings of the day:

I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving
Psalm 69:31

Man of Sorrows 1

You people, you who who yearn in your hearts for

the Lord, to you I speak. To you whose hearts long
for peace, for completion, for home, for you who
are weary of shadows and masks: only to you I come.

My word is a bell to awaken you that my psalm may
sing in your heart and dance among your dreams.

My song is not my own: the whole universe resounds
in harmony. The Lord sings to me each morning
when I wait; the Lord has given me ears to hear
God's song - and a voice to sing God's words.

My word is a bell to awaken you that my psalm may
sing in your heart and dance among your dreams.

Rely only on the Lord. Listen to the Lord's words in
your heart and walk in the light first made. Rebuff
your thoughts that seem to light your path: they are
flares that blind, their shadows hide stones to trip.

My word is a bell to awaken you that my psalm may
sing in your heart and dance among your dreams.

Suggestions for meditation

The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
That I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.

Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
And I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.

Focus on a significant word or phrase in this passage or the meditation for a few moments.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LIGHT or SONG.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Monday 21 March 2016

Pilgrimage to Easter - Day 42

Meditation for Tuesday 22 March
... from the readings of the day:

Hear me, O islands, listen, O distant peoples. I was born for this. Isaiah 49:1

AND IT WAS NIGHT John 13:30

And it was night. Dark. Don't think of the dark as
evil; it is not. The dark is not evil - but there is the
absence of light. And that is the choice: light or not
light. That was Judas' choice, our choice. Daily.

It was night. Shutters closed, lost and alone; good
mind in control, but direction gone with the sun.

It was dark. He had turned off the light: pinched
the wick, snuffed the flame, closed the lantern ...
all sorts of ways; but somehow he had light - and
then he didn't. Dark: colours faded to shades of black.

It was night. Shutters closed, lost and alone; good
mind in control, but direction gone with the sun.

There are times we each choose that. But there
is always a glimmer: torch held aloft, cellphone
screen lit for a call, a star, God's brightening horizon.
And if we turn that way, and walk, the light sparkles.

Opening to the light, at peace with Creation.

Light is always there - but the choice to turn,
or turn away, is ours. The choice to walk, is ours.
It is possible to turn our backs - but take just
one step to the light; light does the rest.

Opening to the light, at peace with Creation.

Suggestions for meditation

“Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.
One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,
was reclining at Jesus’ side.
So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.
He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him,
“Master, who is it?”
Jesus answered,
“It is the one to whom I hand the morsel after I have dipped it.”
So he dipped the morsel and took it and handed it to Judas,
son of Simon the Iscariot.
After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him.
So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”
Now none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him.
Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him,
“Buy what we need for the feast,”
or to give something to the poor.
So Judas took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.

Focus on a significant word or phrase in this passage or the meditation for a few moments.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LIGHT or NIGHT.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Sunday 20 March 2016

Pilgrimage to Easter: Day 41

Meditation for Monday 21 March
... from the readings of the day:

I have grasped you by the hand

Isaiah 42:6

In an incredible moment of extravagance in a country
sunk in poverty, Martha's sister Mary is yet again
lost in the moment with Christ, lavishly
pouring exotic Eastern oil on Jesus' feet.

Do not fear for I am with you;
do not be dismayed,
for I am your God, who gives you strength;
I will help you always.

More than Judas would have been confounded by
Mary's extravagant thoughtlessness, but all breathe
air rich in the musky memories of far-off
places, palaces and wealth, and death.

Do not fear for I am with you;
do not be dismayed,
for I am your God, who gives you strength;
I will help you always.

As the world watched the arrival in Jerusalem,
Jesus scouring the Temple, Passover, betrayal, trial
and crucifixion play out, waves of the lingering
scent from Mary's hair filled their house and prayer.

Do not fear for I am with you;
do not be dismayed,
for I am your God, who gives you strength;
I will help you always.

Suggestions for meditation

Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany,
where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.
They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served,
while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.
Mary took a pint of costly perfumed oil
made from genuine aromatic nard
and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair;
the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.
Then Judas the Iscariot, one of his disciples,
and the one who would betray him, said,
“Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days’ wages
and given to the poor?”
So Jesus said, “Leave her alone.
Let her keep this for the day of my burial.
You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

Focus on a significant word or phrase in this passage or the meditation for a few moments.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word LOVE or the phrase LOST IN JESUS.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Saturday 19 March 2016

Pilgrimage to Easter - Sixth Sunday of Lent

Palm Sunday - Passion Sunday

Meditation for Sunday 20 March
... from the readings of the day:

... the whole multitude of his disciples
began to praise God aloud with joy ...

Luke 19:37

BETRAYAL
Betrayal has been coded into our DNA. Literally. It is most often seen in our little lies of self-protection, or when we lie to make ourselves look good.

Our protective mechanisms, survival instincts hard-wired by 40 million years dodging threats and defeating enemies, always demand we protect ourselves. And suddenly - before we realise - we have denied the person we most love and admire three times.

Peter, man of action, willing - maybe even eager - to draw his sword and strike, was snared by a serving girl with words that might make him an easy scapegoat for the soldiers.

No-one's proud of it, don't mean it, just happens.

But it wasn't the kiss of betrayal - a much more cynical act.

And it wasn't the betrayal of tired bodies at the end of a long and emotion-filled day, suddenly at rest in a garden.

And it wasn't a betrayal hidden by darkness and the swarming bloodlust of the pack.

Peter's survival instincts take over his thinking: regret it, weep, make up for it for the rest of your life. Easy.

And there are two crowds in action this week, or maybe one crowd with two faces.

One - in the light - welcoming Jesus, smiling, spreading palms, singing blessings and praise, hoping for one of their own to stand up to the priests and make trouble for the occupying army; a charismatic spokesman making them forget poverty.

They welcomed Jesus in daylight, but later in the week, chanted his death in darkness and shadows.

We might have been there: lazy, going with the flow, on the wagon with a band (always better than in the wagon with the bars!).

A crowd often turns human beings created in the image of God into faceless puppets: too lazy to think, too cowardly to stand alone, too motivated by stereotype and fear to make ethical decisions, enthralled by the bloodlust of the hunt.

We thank God there was third group, almost a congregation. Luke notes them: within speaking distance, not hiding wrapped in ego, just there. A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him.

We thank God there is a place for us this week, maybe with Peter (near but ruled by fear), certainly not with Judas, we pray not with the Passover night pack - but maybe standing quietly, steadfast, true, grieving: the congregation on the way to Calvary.

Suggestions for meditation
Always begin by offering your time to God and asking for the grace to grow closer: something like "My loving God, I love you with my whole heart and above all things. I give you this time as I reach out to you, and ask that you guide me now, and each day, closer to you".

So they brought it to Jesus,
threw their cloaks over the colt,
and helped Jesus to mount.
As he rode along,
the people were spreading their cloaks on the road;
and now as he was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives,
the whole multitude of his disciples
began to praise God aloud with joy
for all the mighty deeds they had seen.
They proclaimed:
“Blessed is the king who comes
in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heaven
and glory in the highest.”

... and/or read Luke 23:20-23

Again Pilate addressed them, still wishing to release Jesus,
but they continued their shouting,
“Crucify him! Crucify him!”
Pilate addressed them a third time,
“What evil has this man done?
I found him guilty of no capital crime.
Therefore I shall have him flogged and then release him.”
With loud shouts, however,
they persisted in calling for his crucifixion,
and their voices prevailed.

Focus on a significant word or phrase in this passage or the meditation for a few moments.

Is there a word or phrase that jumps out to speak to you?

Why? Try to put yourself into those words. Maybe imagine Jesus speaking, and reply.

Then spend 5, or 10, or 15 minutes with your word from Jesus, or the word TRUE or ALONE.

You need a clear intention to empty your mind of random thoughts (you won't be entirely successful but you need the intention).

You might want to begin the meditation using the breathing exercise I suggest in We have two minds.

After a minute or two focused on your breathing, move your focus to the word/s you have chosen.

Each time your attention moves away from the word/s, push the distraction gently aside and return to the word ("without the intervention of analytical thought" as The Cloud of Unknowing puts it).

You may need a countdown clock.

At the end thank God, and return to your day.

Tuesday 29 March 2016

Saturday 26 March 2016

Friday 25 March 2016

Thursday 24 March 2016

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Tuesday 22 March 2016

Monday 21 March 2016

Sunday 20 March 2016

Saturday 19 March 2016

Readers