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Good
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 Sermon
07/18/10
Lectio Divina: Divine Reading, Life-Changing Prayer ~ by Reverend Thomas Cary
Kinder
July 18, 2010 Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
First Congregational Church in Thetford, Vermont, UCC
Psalms 130 & 131; Luke 10:38-42
Every year when I give our third graders their
Bibles I tell them the same thing.
I say, “This is a book with mysterious powers. Sometimes when you need help most
you can open it anywhere and start reading and soon come to just the
help you need. The best way to
use it is to read a little bit of it every day, so you have its power
with you all the time.”
Every
year when I say you can open the Bible anywhere and find the help you
need, I think I hear a snort or chortle or two come from the
congregation. Maybe I am just
imagining it, but I could see why someone would be skeptical. What if the child opens to a long
list of who begat whom, or a list of unclean animals? What if the child opens to the
R-rated Song of Solomon, or worst of all, an X-rated account of God
telling Israel
to commit genocide?
But
I believe that the scriptures, like all inspired works of art, have
mysterious powers, and that the Spirit’s power can work through
even the most unlikely passages. Jesus said that those with ears to
hear would hear. It is not
that every part of scripture is intellectually appealing or useful or
even good, but that every part has the potential to yield some
insight about our life someday.
In order to gain that insight when we need it, we need to
train our ears to hear beneath the surface of the scriptures to the
hidden depths that speak to our depths.
In
J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books there is something called a
room of requirement. You have
to know where to position yourself to find the door, but the only
other thing you need is to need it to be there to open to you, and
you will find exactly the room and contents you need. The scriptures are a little like
that. If you know how to
position yourself and you have a need, the door will open for you.
Another
useful image from the same fertile imagination is the portkey. A portkey can be anything, an old
boot or rusty tin can or a great trophy. It doesn’t matter what it is,
what matters is the magical power it has been given. All you have to do is touch a
portkey and it will transport you any distance to a designated
place. The Holy Spirit can
make a scripture passage into a portkey for us. It doesn’t matter what
section we are reading, suddenly we will touch a sentence or phrase
or word that transports us to a different perspective on life or a
whole new spiritual place.
Today
I would like to give you a key to the room of requirement. I would like to show you how to use
the scriptures as a portkey as the wizards, the wisdom seekers, of
our Christian tradition have done for at least fifteen hundred
years. This key has been
passed down from generation to generation behind Benedictine
monastery walls, but now in this time of earth’s great need for
insight and new direction, those walls have opened like a seed pod
and this gift of the Holy Spirit has been released for us to use to
change our lives and change the world.
Like
all good wizard spells, this one has a Latin name, Lectio Divina, which means
divine or sacred reading. It
works quite simply. The image
that the monks often think of as they sit down to do it is of Mary,
sitting and listening at Jesus’ feet. It is a process of opening
ourselves like Mary to hear at deeper and deeper levels as we sit at
the Holy Spirit’s feet and listen to it speak to us through
scripture. There are four
levels, and if you take the advice I give to the children and do a
little bit of this every day, you will find that there is no set
sequence to the deeper levels.
You may jump to any one of them as soon as you hear the
passage. But today I will lead
you through them in a progression from head to heart to soul.
I
am going to describe the four levels to you once all the way through,
and then we are going to go through them again and practice them.
The
first level is called lectio,
or reading. At this level, you
open the scriptures and start reading a short passage. As soon as a sentence or phrase or
word catches your eye, you stop right there and read it again several
times. It helps to say the
words aloud and let them resonate in your ear and body. There should be a physicality about
it. The monks talk of
ingesting scripture. We are
what we eat, so we want to take this small bite of scripture in like
food and savor it at this first level.
The
second level is called meditatio,
and it means to meditate on the passage, or ruminate on it. You chew on it a while. This is not about intellectual
analysis or literal meaning—those have no place in lectio divina. The question is not what the
passage means to anyone else or what it means in terms of doctrine or
whether it is factually accurate, the question is what does the
passage mean for your life right now.
There is no right or wrong interpretation, there is only the
question of what the Holy Spirit is trying to say to you through
this. You want to read your
sentence or phrase or word intuitively, opening yourself to free
associations. Look at it as a
metaphor or allegory, allowing yourself to be inspired to make
connections to your life in a creative way, similar to the way Terry
Barker looks at nature in her Big News messages.
For
instance, if you take the story of Mary and Martha, at this second
level you might wonder why you selected the part of it you did when
you were on the first level.
Say you zoomed in on Jesus saying, “Martha, Martha, you
are worried and distracted by many things.” On this second level you would ask
yourself why that spoke to you, and what it means about your life,
and what you feel you should do about it, and what changes it is suggesting
you make. You watch to see
what seemingly random images to mind, and what they come to mean to
you as you reflect on them.
As
you ruminate, at some point you move from exploring ideas to having
an impulse of intention for your life, you move from the act of
thinking to the act of deep feeling and willing. Then you are ready for the third
level, which is called oratio,
or prayer. At this level you
communicate your heart-felt emotions and will to God and ask for help
doing what you feel moved to do.
You read the passage
in the first level, you think
about it in the second level, but you live it, you make it your own, in the third level. You actively open and consent to
the transformation the Holy Spirit seems to be inviting you to make
through the passage. The more
deeply you feel this prayer, the better.
The
fourth level is called contemplatio. The ancient monks described this as
resting in God. The image they
had for it was from Psalm 131 of being like a weaned child with its
mother, a child who is not anxiously reaching for the breast but can
just rest on it and find comfort and security in the loving care it
represents. At the fourth
level we let our thoughts go, we let our feelings be, and we are like
Mary gazing up at Jesus when he is done speaking, just being fully
attentive to his presence, not needing to be anywhere else or do
anything else in the world, just letting the moment be what it is,
consenting to it, letting it happen without reaction.
It
seems as if nothing is
happening at this level, but in reality the Holy Spirit is moving in
depths within us beyond our ability to fathom. The most profound words God speaks
to us are in the language of silence when we have stilled our hearts
and minds, when we have calmed and quieted our soul. That is where we hope to end lectio divina today.
We
will be doing this whole process in quick succession, but at home you
can take as much time as you have and you can flow from one level to
another more naturally.
I
invite you now to turn to the passages printed at the end of this
sermon. Please choose to work
with either the psalms or the gospel passage. Choose one or the other now and
read it through slowly until a short sentence, phrase or word speaks
to you. Then repeat that
sentence, phrase or word several times, whispering it to yourself, if
you are comfortable doing so.
Reading your chosen portion aloud can keep you from thinking
about it. You don’t want
to think, but ingest and internalize the words, savoring them. I will give you a couple of minutes
for this level and tell you when to move on…
Now
allow yourself to go to the next level and ruminate on that sentence,
phrase or word that spoke to you.
What about it connects to your life in what ways? Where does it lead you? What is the Holy Spirit trying to
say to you through it? I will
give you a few minutes for this…
How
does this make you feel, and what does it make you feel like
doing? What do you want to ask
God or say to God from the depths of your heart? What help do you need? What promise or lamentation or
thanksgiving do you want to make?
Close your eyes and pray from your heart for a few minutes,
and let the tears flow if they come…
And
now, as you pray, try to let your thoughts go and let your feelings
be and just rest in God, trusting that God has heard and that now the
Holy Spirit needs you to be quiet while it does its deepest, most
transformational work, making adjustments in you that you may not be
able to feel happening, but that can change your life. Rest in silence of mind and heart,
and trust, and be at peace…
Psalms 130 & 131
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord.
Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my supplications!
If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you,
so that you may be revered.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord more than those
who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord!
For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
and with him is great power to redeem.
It is he who will redeem Israel from all its
iniquities.
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time on and forevermore.
Luke 10:38-42
Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village,
where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a
sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to
what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so
she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my
sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to
help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you
are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one
thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away
from her.”
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