Sermon for March 08, 2020 Lent #2

Sermon for March 08, 2020 Lent #2

What does it mean to be grounded? Last week we heard about the spiritual disciple of getting lost. By nature we are routine we have our  familiar behaviour patterns, want to get what we are after we want to get from A to B as quickly as possible. If we veer from the norm we find ourselves in a position of less control and familiarity, and that leads to vulnerability making us uncomfortable. But choosing to adjust our usual patterns can awaken  from our unconscious state of routines. We can lose ourselves, & discover something new or different.

Whatever the spiritual discipline we are talking about throughout Lent, the objective the goal is to grow toward Christ, to enable us to walk more closely in His presence, His ways, drawing us from where we are right now.

The Spiritual discipline of being grounded means being in touch with and connected to our surroundings and standing on firm footing. 

We don’t always feel like w e are standing on a firm footing, things happen that causes the ground to crumble beneath our feet.

This past week, for a long moment I found myself alone with 20 plus 4 & 5 year olds, assisting them to dress for the outdoors. There was lost mits, zippers that couldn’t be done up, there were tears and squabbles and pressure to get out before it was time to return in & each one needed by full attention for those few seconds to attend to their needs and send them on their way. While this was happening I was thinking of this passage and the need to be grounded in the presence of a whirlwind  and it helped.

You know what it is like being pulled in many directions, trying to juggle any number of balls in the air. Could be kids, customers, patients, livestock, list of things that just has to be done or any number of things requesting your focus

You know what it is like to be pulled in many directions, trying to juggle any number of balls in the air all at once.

Similarly, in the gospel today Jesus is having a day like we can identify with. He is being pulled and dragged in many directions with a number of things happening all different, all really critical, all requiring His full focus and attention.

The crowd surrounds Jesus as he climbs from the boat, this just after Jesus has rescued Legion the demon possessed man & sent his demons into the pigs that ran off the  land into the sea, leaving the farmers upset at him & Legion saved from himself. Crossing the sea & just as Jesus steps on land again Jairus is kneeling at His feet pleading with Him to rescue his very ill daughter from death.

The crowd grows bigger and draws closer as Jesus begins to moving toward Jairus’s home when suddenly He is taken back. His body feels weakened, like someone had turned off His power source, He turns and asks who touched me. The woman who had touched His robe, trembling fell down in front of Him now, like only a moment ago Jairus had done, she shares with Jesus her whole life story; the truth of her health and her haemorrhaging. Jesus reassures her that her health will be restored.  All these needs take time and understanding, Jesus does not become troubled or impatient. His feet continuing to walk in the direction of Jarius daughter, His mind His attention focused on the needs of the people around Him as He goes.

Practicing being grounded means when worry creeps up on us or distractions call to us, we focus on God’s presence in the here and now. So often we are focused on where we have to be when and concentrating on when to go.  Many times too we think about the past and what happened remembering and recalling and distracted from the present, the place in which we are in the moment. How often do we really live in the moment? How often are we having a conversation with someone, but our thoughts are somewhere else? They are not grounded or rooted in the present.

When we put our feet to walking, we rarely think about our feet or where they are, only where we are going, how soon before arriving to our destination. We get in our cars, it is not the journey to get there that we remember much about, it is getting there, that we focus on.

Taylor in her book speaks of labyrinths. The labyrnith is an ancient spiritual practice that has had a revival. It is a circular path that does  not go anywhere but the emphasis of walking the path is the journey. There are no walls or division on the path, one entrance and you can walk right to the centre if you want to,  or you can walk the labyrinth for a hour and end up where you started. Your concentration becomes not your destination but the travel, the journey you experience. Taylor soon realized for her experience the first time she walked a labyrinth, after years of delaying the experience, that once she had skipped to the centre and looked around and discovered the view was much the same as elsewhere she began to notice a whole lot more when she wasn’t focused on getting somewhere. It is an experience that takes you, you don’t have to know where you are going in order to start out, and the doing teaches you and possibly you discover realities that we each need when we set out on a walk with no destination or time commitment in mind. (I think I might be more tempted to try one now myself.)

A labyrinth is a very different experience to a tread mill that gets our heart rate going pitter patter and over time we can predict certain results, but not really what we would call a spiritual experience. Sometimes, we just need to cease working the mind, from asking the questions and let ourselves our bodies just experience, speak to us.

If you or I are doing something for the first time, we have a lot of questions, that we want answered before we begin,  Sermon for March 08, 2020 Lent #2

What does it mean to be grounded? Last week we heard about the spiritual disciple of getting lost. By nature we are routine we have our  familiar behaviour patterns, want to get what we are after we want to get from A to B as quickly as possible. If we veer from the norm we find ourselves in a position of less control and familiarity, and that leads to vulnerability making us uncomfortable. But choosing to adjust our usual patterns can awaken  from our unconscious state of routines. We can lose ourselves, & discover something new or different.

Whatever the spiritual discipline we are talking about throughout Lent, the objective the goal is to grow toward Christ, to enable us to walk more closely in His presence, His ways, drawing us from where we are right now.

The Spiritual discipline of being grounded means being in touch with and connected to our surroundings and standing on firm footing. 

We don’t always feel like w e are standing on a firm footing, things happen that causes the ground to crumble beneath our feet.

This past week, for a long moment I found myself alone with 20 plus 4 & 5 year olds, assisting them to dress for the outdoors. There was lost mits, zippers that couldn’t be done up, there were tears and squabbles and pressure to get out before it was time to return in & each one needed by full attention for those few seconds to attend to their needs and send them on their way. While this was happening I was thinking of this passage and the need to be grounded in the presence of a whirlwind  and it helped.

You know what it is like being pulled in many directions, trying to juggle any number of balls in the air. Could be kids, customers, patients, livestock, list of things that just has to be done or any number of things requesting your focus

You know what it is like to be pulled in many directions, trying to juggle any number of balls in the air all at once.

Similarly, in the gospel today Jesus is having a day like we can identify with. He is being pulled and dragged in many directions with a number of things happening all different, all really critical, all requiring His full focus and attention.

The crowd surrounds Jesus as he climbs from the boat, this just after Jesus has rescued Legion the demon possessed man & sent his demons into the pigs that ran off the  land into the sea, leaving the farmers upset at him & Legion saved from himself. Crossing the sea & just as Jesus steps on land again Jairus is kneeling at His feet pleading with Him to rescue his very ill daughter from death.

The crowd grows bigger and draws closer as Jesus begins to moving toward Jairus’s home when suddenly He is taken back. His body feels weakened, like someone had turned off His power source, He turns and asks who touched me. The woman who had touched His robe, trembling fell down in front of Him now, like only a moment ago Jairus had done, she shares with Jesus her whole life story; the truth of her health and her haemorrhaging. Jesus reassures her that her health will be restored.  All these needs take time and understanding, Jesus does not become troubled or impatient. His feet continuing to walk in the direction of Jarius daughter, His mind His attention focused on the needs of the people around Him as He goes.

Practising being grounded means when worry creeps up on us or distractions call to us, we focus on God’s presence in the here and now. So often we are focused on where we have to be when and concentrating on when to go.  Many times too we think about the past and what happened remembering and recalling and distracted from the present, the place in which we are in the moment. How often do we really live in the moment? How often are we having a conversation with someone, but our thoughts are somewhere else? They are not grounded or rooted in the present.

When we put our feet to walking, we rarely think about our feet or where they are, only where we are going, how soon before arriving to our destination. We get in our cars, it is not the journey to get there that we remember much about, it is getting there, that we focus on.

Taylor in her book speaks of labyrinths. The labyrnith is an ancient spiritual practice that has had a revival. It is a circular path that does  not go anywhere but the emphasis of walking the path is the journey. There are no walls or division on the path, one entrance and you can walk right to the centre if you want to,  or you can walk the labyrinth for a hour and end up where you started. Your concentration becomes not your destination but the travel, the journey you experience. Taylor soon realized for her experience the first time she walked a labyrinth, after years of delaying the experience, that once she had skipped to the centre and looked around and discovered the view was much the same as elsewhere she began to notice a whole lot more when she wasn’t focused on getting somewhere. It is an experience that takes you, you don’t have to know where you are going in order to start out, and the doing teaches you and possibly you discover realities that we each need when we set out on a walk with no destination or time commitment in mind. (I think I might be more tempted to try one now myself.)

A labyrinth is a very different experience to a tread mill that gets our heart rate going pitter patter and over time we can predict certain results, but not really what we would call a spiritual experience. Sometimes, we just need to cease working the mind, from asking the questions and let ourselves our bodies just experience, speak to us.

If you or I are doing something for the first time, we have a lot of questions, that we want answered before we begin, 

instead of letting the experience teach our bodies while our minds takes a rest.

While a group of people were walking the labyrinth in the Chartres Cathedral in France, an older couple came along and stood and watched at the entrance to labyrinth for about 20 minutes. They then walked to the centre of the labyrinth where they bowed in prayer. Then the woman took off her shoes gave them to her husband along with her purse and began walking the labyrinth, while he watched her. He cried just watching her. When they had subdued themselves, someone approached them.

They had come to celebrate the end of the woman’s breast cancer treatment. Never had they heard of a labyrinth before, when they came to the cathedral that day. But there it was. The woman spoke of being drawn to it and they decided to enter in, her husband decided he would hold down the centre giving thanks for her life while she found her way along the path.

The woman explained that as she walked she began to feel a sense of peace in her body again. For so long she had been very angry with it for letting her down. While walking she found herself remembering all the people who had walked with her through the surgery and the treatment and she understood why they had come to the cathedral that day.

She found herself again that day, God had guided them to the Cathedral where she was able to find her way grounded again in who she was, where she was, and who to thank. So often we need to learn where we actually are for Jesus sake.

Jesus knelt a the beside of Jairus’s daughter, after being present with others along the way. As He enters he is told it is too late that his daughter has died, Jesus reassures them she is but asleep. They laugh at His remarks. Jesus very present with the girl, the Spirit of God with Him, He takes her by the hand and says :little girl get up. She does.

In that moment so much change for Jarisus ‘s family, moments before the woman’s health was restored, in a moment Legion was released from the demons that had possessed him for years.

The Lord our God is present here in this moment, let us not neglect to share it with Him.

Main source of content from Barbara Brown-Taylor An Alter in the World, A Geography of Faith

Reformed Worship Dec 18 Issue, Article entitled Everyday Jesus Spirituality – Customized Spiritual Disciplines submitted from Peter Schuurman who is director of Global Scholars Canada.

Bible refs NRSV & NIV