December 2021


A Contemplative Exercise for December 2021

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 too. 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: December 2021: ‘You are the light of the world’… ‘A city built on a hill cannot be hidden’ (Matthew 5.14 NRSV)

In your time of contemplation, you may like to shorten this to: ‘You are the light of the world’ or ‘A city on a hill cannot be hidden’.

To begin the exercise, first spend a short while in relaxation and preparing to be still; you may want to relax your way through your muscles or you may find it helpful to become aware of the sounds around you and then put them aside as you 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:

‘You are the light of the world… a city built on a hill cannot be hidden’

We take this Saying into our minds, allowing the saying to speak to us: ‘You are the light of the world… a city built on a hill cannot be hidden’

Matthew’s gospel paints a vibrant picture of Jesus and his ministry. For him Jesus is the Jewish Messiah of Israel, the great king who will save and rule the world. Matthew presents him as the teacher who is even greater than Moses the law-giver. And Jesus is the Son of Man living as one of us and sacrificially giving his life for us all.

Our word comes very early in Matthew’s presentation of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus has only just called the first disciples and begun his wandering healing and teaching ministry. A few verses earlier Jesus has begun the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes, the encouraging values of God’s kingdom which turn the world upside down and proclaim good news to the impoverished in mind, body or spirit. He tells the crowd they are the salt of the earth to stop the world going bad and bring colour and savour to life and warns them not to lose their saltiness and be discarded. Then we have our parallel Word: ‘You’re the light of the world. A city can’t be hidden if it’s on top of a hill’.

Jesus explains this further: ‘People don’t light a lamp and put it under a bucket; they put it on a lampstand. Then it gives light to everyone in the house. That’s how you must shine your light in front of people! Then they will see what wonderful things you do and they’ll give glory to your Father in heaven’.

In this season of Advent we are used to hearing Jesus proclaimed, as he is elsewhere in the gospels, as the Light of the World. In this season of winter darkness proclaiming Jesus as the Light brings hope and echoes the beginning of all life when God’s Spirit hovered over the darkness of the waters and God proclaimed: ‘Let there be light’, and so the universe came into being and then life on earth was established in God’s good time. Light brings life – the Light of Christ brings life in all its fullness.

But in our Word it is we who Jesus says are the light of the world. It is we who are life-givers and hope-bringers. It is we who must shine the Christ-light of hope and life unwaveringly to others. But for now let us receive the Word into our minds and let it illuminate our thoughts and our thinking.

A time is now kept for silence of the mind – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.  The silence concludes with a short thanksgiving, and/or feel free to repeat the Saying.

The first silence ends with the words: Father, we thank you for the gift of your Word.

 

Introduction to the second silence - a preparation for listening with the heart:

 'You are the light of the world’… ‘A city built on a hill cannot be hidden’

As we emerge, staggering, from the global pandemic and as our world leaders have met in Glasgow to take further action to address climate change and its deadly consequences for some of the world’s most vulnerable people, our world sorely needs the light of hope and the light of life. We know Jesus to be the Light of the World, but in our Word Jesus says to us: ‘You are the light of the World’. So as we turn to listening with the heart we must each reflect on how we can shine the light of love on our neighbours whether near or far. The Light is not for us to bask in and enjoy merely for ourselves. The light of the loving presence of God is for us to shine out and share so that it can illuminate and bring warmth and hope to others.

What Jesus says we cannot and must not do is to keep the light we have to ourselves. We must not hide it under a bowl or bushel, we must each find our own way under God to shine our light of love to bring hope and life to others. How we do that is for each of us search and pray about ourselves. But shine our light to the world we must – with boldness and confidence knowing that the light we shine is the Light of Christ, the light of God who commanded light into being at the beginning of all things.

And the city on the hill that cannot and must not be hidden? Surely we can see that as the Church, the collective people of God, whose mission is to proclaim the light and love of God by what we do and say. And doing the Word is where the rubber hits the road. Remember how Jesus explained our word: ‘People don’t light a lamp and put it under a bucket; they put it on a lampstand. Then it gives light to everyone in the house. That’s how you must shine your light in front of people! Then they will see what wonderful things you do and they’ll give glory to your Father in heaven’. It is by what we do that people will see our light. It is by how we show love and care in practical ways that help and support others that people will see the light of Christ in us – and so glimpse and ultimately give thanks to our heavenly Father’.

So in the stillness let us open our hearts to receive the light and the love of Christ afresh, and be brave enough to ask him to show us how we must shine our light, as individual children of God and collectively through our church.

Now we take this word into our hearts, as we allow Jesus’ words to speak in us, to let it touch us and let it work more deeply upon our lives.

 A time is now kept for silence of the heart – perhaps between 5 and 15 minutes.

 The second silence ends with the words: Father, we thank you that your Word is alive and within us.


 Introduction to the time of intercession – taking God’s word outwards into the world.

 ‘You are the light of the world’… ‘A city built on a hill cannot be hidden’

 Say the name of a person or a group of people, and after a short pause, repeat the saying. For example:

‘Alison and your family       ……       ‘You are the light of the world’… (if you are shortening the saying).

or 

Leaders of the nations: ‘You are the light of the world’… ‘A city built on a hill cannot be hidden’

As we allow the word to speak through us we might direct Jesus’ word towards those people and situations where there is suffering, hurt and an absence of joy and where abiding in Christ would bring comfort.

Conclude this 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.


The Conclusion

Feel free to use the Fellowship Prayer (below) 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.