February 2018
A Contemplative Exercise
for February 2018
The following is a possible framework for the Witnessing of the Word. It
can be personalised, or altered: its purpose is to serve as an example of how
this Saying might be used primarily in the context of a Prayer Group, but it
may be used by individuals if so wished. It is not intended to be definitive.
In the context of a group: the periods of silence should be appropriate
for your group - probably not less than 5 minutes, or more than 15 minutes.
Saying for the month
“Even now, return to me with all your heart” Joel 2.12
(NIV)
To begin the exercise,
first spend a short while in relaxation and preparing to be still; become aware
of the sounds around you and put them aside; offer this time of prayer to God.
Say this introductory
invitation to prayer, then keep a further minute or two of silence:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will
give you rest" Matthew 11.28
Introduction to the first silence - a preparation for listening with the
mind:
“Even now, return to me with all your heart”
First of all, we receive this saying from the
Book of the Prophet Joel into our minds – hearing it as if we were hearing it
alongside those who heard it for the first time.
About Joel we know virtually nothing, except
that his name means ‘God is the Lord’.
In the short book, part of the material shows God as the speaker and
Joel his mouthpiece – the other part is Joel, the prophet, interpreting what
God is doing. But generally, Joel is far in the background –
he puts God and the Day of the Lord in centre place in his text.
The coming Day of the Lord is a great day when
God will show himself to the people, creating a sense of fear and awe. The divine energy of the Spirit will be
given, but it is also a day of judgement and anguish. But for Joel it will be a day of renewed
blessings – an invitation to return to God, to pray and to ask for mercy. It is a day when people move from darkness
to light, from suffering to joy, and from death to life.
Something specific has happened, an event of
unprecedented proportions which led the prophet to begin his words with a
question: Has anything like this ever
happened in your days or in the days of your forefathers ? Tell it to your children and let your
children tell it to their children to the next generation…
Was it a war – or a volcano – or an earthquake –
or a tidal wave ? What was it ?
It must have been quite something because it
made such an impression on everyone who experienced it. The event in question was a plague of locusts. In the early part of chapter 1, there
can hardly be any more words to describe locusts and what they can do ! Plagues of locusts must have been quite
common, but there is no other record from the ancient world which records an
attack as ferocious as this one.
Here was something so special they thought the
world was going to come to an end. It
led Joel to press his hearers for a day of prayer and fasting. He demands that everyone, class by class,
family by family, should pray and repent.
Joel is asking: Is this the coming Day of the Lord ? He is asking questions: What is the meaning
of it all ? Why has this happened ?
And the locusts ? This has devastated him and his people. Through Joel, God pleads with those
listening to him: Even now return to me
with all your heart. And Joel goes
on to beg us to remember that God is a God of compassion and of love, of
graciousness and peace.
Put yourselves in the shoes of those who
experienced the devastation of this terrible plague of locusts, eating
everything in their path … nothing left …
God says: “Even
now, return to me with all your heart”
A time is now kept for
silence of the mind - between 5 and 15 minutes
The silence concludes with
a short thanksgiving, and/or repeat the Saying:
Father, we thank you for
the gift of your Word.
“Even now, return to me with
all your heart”
Introduction to the second silence - a preparation for listening with
the heart:
“Even now, return to me with all your heart”
This is a good saying to take into the beginning
of Lent. We first recall some of the
great questions that are asked in the scriptures. For example, in Genesis when Adam and Eve
have tasted the fruit of the tree that they had been told about and forbidden
to eat. They now know that they are
naked and without any kind of excuse and so they hide. God calls to Adam: Where are you, Adam ?
And so, he calls to each one of us – not harshly
or with a biting edge to his words – not in judgement or with the threat of
punishment in his tone – not bleakly, as if we didn’t really matter
somehow. He calls us, warmly, with
love, compassion and generosity: Where
are you ? He asks us to reflect.
Consider another of great scriptural questions,
which Jesus asks of the disabled man: Do
you really want to be healed ? Well,
do we ? Or are we content as we are
? He asks each one of us, deep down in
our hearts: Do you want to be healed ?
And he says to each one of us: Even now return to me with all your heart.
Where have we been ? Rushing this way and that to get things done
? Anxiously trying to sort out a
problem that honestly hardly exists ?
Deceiving ourselves that we don’t need to be healed ? Imagining that we are ‘all right’ with God
because we did the flowers in Church the other week and put our stewardship
envelope in the plate last Sunday?
Where have we been ? Have we
been avoiding any real encounter with
God himself, listening to him, facing him with the realities of our lives ?
Even now, return to me with all your heart
Remind yourself of the Parable of the Prodigal
Son – read it over in Luke 15 afterwards.
Imagine yourself in the shoes of the prodigal son – go through the same
experiences – and then return … Feel
the loving arms of the Father around your shoulders.
Even now, return to me with all your heart
The summons is a loving one. What can we say about God’s love ? It is unconditional. God does not say: I will love you if … There
are no ‘ifs’ in God’s heart. God’s love
for you and for me doesn’t depend on what we do or say, on our looks or our
intelligence, on our success or our popularity. God’s love was there for us before we were
born, from eternity to eternity.
Does that mean that God doesn’t care what we do
or say ? No, because God wouldn’t be
God if he didn’t care. To love without
condition, doesn’t mean to love without concern, as any parent knows. He loves and wants our love in return.
So, as Lent begins, we can spend some time in
this act of ‘returning’. Repentance is
a strong word and it is the word we need to use. It includes saying that we are sorry. But that is not enough. It also involves determining that we are
going to do things differently. We are
going to change our lives in some way, large or small. We are going to deepen our faith, extend our
understanding of the love that Jesus showed us in his life and death and
resurrection.
And this returning means going back to the
source of everything, to the God of compassion and mercy, to the creator of the
whole universe. To meet with him – to
allow him to forgive us and to give us the experience of an encounter with him.
With all your heart means with
everything – no half measures, no lip service, no ifs and buts…
“Even now, return to me with all your heart”
A time is now kept for
silence of the heart - between 5 and 15 minutes
Conclude the silence with a
short thanksgiving and/or repeat the Saying:
Father, we thank you that your Word is alive and within us.
“Even now, return to me with all your heart”
Introduction to the time of intercession – we use our will to reflect
God’s word outwards.
“Even now, return to me with all your heart”
With this word in
mind we can now bring the meaning alive not only for ourselves, but also most
importantly for the lives of others, in our intercession.
Say the name of a person or a group of people, and
after a short pause, repeat the saying. For example:
‘Andrew ……… “Even now, return
to me with all your heart” ‘
Conclude the time of
intercession with words of thanksgiving:
Father, we thank you that your Word has gone out
through us
to those for whom we pray.
Use the Fellowship Prayer
or another closing prayer to conclude your time of contemplative prayer.
Loving Heavenly Father, we thank you for all your
unsearchable riches which pour forth from you as light from the sun, in
boundless profusion and generosity, whether received, ignored or rejected. And
now we offer to you, in so far as we are able, as an emptiness to be filled
with your divine fullness, ourselves, our souls and bodies; all that we are,
all that we have and all that we do. Amen
You may wish to say
the Grace together before departing.
This month's exercise was contributed
by AE