Practicing the Presence of God

During the last several months, I have been posting thoughts about my spirituality regularly. I never seem to finish! In recent weeks, I arrived at the pinnacle of this exercise, claiming the joy of being the body of Christ. Amazing things happen when we live this mystery.

I would like to introduce you, perhaps, to a concept which has changed my life. Brother Lawrence wrote a book called The Practice of the Presence of God. He lived in the early 17th century. After serving as a soldier for a while, he entered the monastery but was uneducated so he entered as a layman. He served in the kitchens and as a cobbler for the remainder of his life. He had no exalted position, but he became known for his devotion and his ability to bring God into every aspect of his life.

He “practiced the presence” while doing dishes, cleaning floors, or whatever he was doing. He rejoiced in everyday tasks, prayed constantly, and became known for his kindness and willingness to help out.

As the body of Christ, the church has a real opportunity to help people learn to practice the presence in their everyday lives. How do you gain that constant, comforting connection to God in all that you do? This is the secret of being the body of Christ … knowing that Christ is here, Jesus shows up, God is present. Church is not about doing good things but about a pervasive love that is felt and shared. If we passionately believe that to be true when we gather, we also believe it to be possible wherever we go.

I think we are in a very difficult time in history to be in ministry. The culture is increasingly disinterested in church and mainline Protestant churches are declining. There is great divisiveness in our political culture, and there are ongoing hostilities across the world. Yet at the same time, people are searching and yearning for something more.

In the midst of this critical time to be in ministry, people are hungry and looking for a sense of real community, of relevant spirituality, and of relational missions. The church can help them practice the presence of God. It changes everything!

Love is the Measure of What is True and Good

During the last few months, I have continued to “introduce” my spirituality. Lately, I’ve arrived the pinnacle of this exercise, claiming the deep and abiding truth that we are the body of Christ. Amazing things happen when we live into this mystery.

I have already shared a few posts on the body of Christ. I shared about recognizing the presence of Christ in everything we do, that the church is not fundamentally an organization but an organism, and that conflict is a natural part of being human … in the church, disagreement is not a problem but an opportunity to love. I envisioned the “basic body parts” of the body as worship, evangelism, teaching, fellowship, and mission.

Today I continue to write on the body of Christ, having attended a few retreats lately. I love getting to know people in settings outside of Sunday mornings! This weekend, I got to attend a women’s retreat and lead music and liturgy. I found myself reading First John chapter 4 during worship.

John writes encouraging us to love one another, since love is of God and everyone who loves knows God. He reminds us that God IS love. He continues that true love is in Christ, who came to us. What we may not realize is that he was writing in the context of a church conflict. These weren't just warm and fuzzy words, but claiming what the true measure of proper teaching is … love. He prefaced these words on love with this: “From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

There were some in the church of John’s time who had separated themselves from the body over a theological dispute, probably an early Gnostic teaching called Docetism, since John says they did not teach that Christ had come in the flesh. It’s fascinating that John says the real measure of what is true is the measure of love itself … nothing more and nothing less. If it leads you to love as God loves, the teaching is of God. That’s it.

Is there a fellow Christian who challenges you, even drives you crazy? They are a gift from God, given to teach you how to love. They help you live the way of forgiveness. The greatest freedom to let go of your resentment and realize that the only thing that really counts is love.

My Ash Wednesday Prayer

This morning, I participated for the first time in an Ash Wednesday morning "come and go" imposition of the ashes. The space at the church was so holy and prayerful and vibrant.

Between the times people were coming in for prayer, I had the blessing of my own prayer time and journaling. What pregnant and powerful space for meditation. I contemplated how much I, too, need deep healing and grace. There is a stubborn place of despair within me that I go back to from time to time, as if I am still a little boy crying out in anxiety and pain.

I am so utterly human, and Ash Wednesday is all about being human. I composed this prayer for Ash Wednesday.

Draw me close to your heart, Lord Jesus ...
    Draw me close to your heart, Lord ...
        Draw me close to your heart ...
            Draw me close to you ...
                Draw me close, too ...
                    Draw me close ...
                        Draw me.

Body Parts

During the last couple of posts, I have continued to “introduce” my spirituality to you by sharing what is probably the pinnacle of my spiritual journey, as far as my ministry goes. It is the formative understanding that we are the body of Christ. It changes everything when we live into this mystery.

It might be simplistic, but over the years I have boiled this Pauline metaphor down to a way of understanding the basic purposes of the church and how they work together. Imagine for a moment the main sections of the human body. We have a trunk containing the heart and vital organs, plus two legs, two arms, and a head.

The very heart of the church is worship, which sends lifeblood into the whole body to make it grow and become. I have a passion for vibrant worship because I believe it feeds everything. I don’t think of us as consumers, coming to be entertained, but as the body of Christ, needing nourishment for the journey. The “legs” of the church, if you will, are teaching and fellowship. These two are so very important in taking us places where we need to go. Solid spiritual formation experiences and life-giving relationships both undergird us so that we might serve.

The “arms” of the church would then be evangelism and mission. As I shared in recent sermons, these are both core purposes, the left and right hands of the church. We are called to be radically hospitable, inviting people to a relevant relationship with Christ. We are also called to offer hands of mercy and work for justice in a broken world.

The head of the church, of course, is Christ. We believe in his pervasive and guiding presence in all that we do.

The Body of Christ and Decision Making

I continue to “introduce” myself with blog posts describing my spirituality.

Last week, I shared about my faith rooted in Paul’s theology of the Body of Christ. I wish I could put into words how much this mystery means to me. How do we let this simple idea of Paul’s become the “operative theology” of the church?

We are not an organization but an organism, a living and breathing body. That means two important things. First, all of us have an important part in the whole. Secondly, the health of the whole system is the key to growth.

My favorite line in the communion liturgy was phrased by my friend Dick Esslinger, professor of liturgy and contributor to the hymnal. The pastor presiding at the table says, concerning the bread and juice, “make them become for us the body and blood of Christ, that we might be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.”

The adage “we are what we eat” applies strangely to communion. We live what we take into our being. We don’t always get it right, but are always becoming the body of Christ.

Paul’s metaphor of the human body helps me to understand how to be the body during decision making. It’s inevitable that there will be opinions and even disagreements in God’s church. This is not because there is something about being the church that leads to disagreement. It’s because there is something about being human that is prone to conflict.

Being the body of Christ means embracing the truth that conflict is not a problem but an opportunity. This is how we learn. Just as the human body is always dealing with challenges, building a strong immune system is the key to growth. Strong churches are not measured by whether or not they have disagreements, but by how they deal with them. Learning the ways of grace - effective, direct, and loving communication - is what makes a church great!

There is no “us and them,” no winners and losers. We are all discerning God’s will together. On the front end of a decision, this means a lot of listening and transparency on the part of leaders. On the far end of a decision, we foster an atmosphere of trust in the process, and we let it go when things didn’t necessarily go our way. In the body of Christ, the process is more important than results.

The Spirituality of the Body of Christ

Over the last few months, I have been posting occasional articles describing my spirituality. You may have noticed some dynamic contrasts that developed along the way. My spirituality is one of both retreat and creativity, of both risk and roots, of both longing and incarnation.

Recently, I shared of my spirituality of mystery, one side of another dynamic contrast. The other side is experiencing, here and now, the self-giving love of God as revealed through the Body of Christ. God is mystery, but Christ is mystery revealed.

When Jesus said “where two or three are gathered in my name, there will I be,” he meant it. This amazing idea that he is present in our midst, that he is not only “around here somewhere” but that he is here in US and that we are his body redeemed by his blood, changes everything.

When this simple idea becomes the core of our operative theology of the church, it is life-giving. So I share today some of my spirituality of the Body of Christ, and I may continue with a couple of reflections in future posts.

The “Body of Christ” is one of Paul’s central themes in the New Testament. He used the metaphor of the healthy systems of the human body working together to describe the church. Yet we so often impose our secular understandings of “how to get things done” on church. We forget that this profound assertion in Paul’s writing leads us to a way of deeper love.

In short, I don’t think of the church as an organization. I think of it as an organism. Embracing the church as a body, rather than thinking of it as an institution, has changed my life. There is nothing wrong with using good business sense to help the church run smoothly. But the New Testament gives us an entirely different way of thinking than “us and them,” “get-er-done,” and “how to win friends and influence people.”

The church is a workshop for learning the ways of love that will only be fully realized in heaven. This is what church administration is all about.

No Lie Can Live Forever

This week, our nation paused to remember the life of a man who was a symbol of change in a time of turmoil, a symbol of courage in the face of the sin of racism. For me, Martin Luther King, Jr. has also been a hero I have looked up to in ministry, because he was passionate as well as articulate about the kingdom of God. He had embraced a vision from Jesus that compels us to change hearts and lives as well as address injustice everywhere. He was a magnificent leader, a great peacemaker in the spirit of Christ.

On Monday, I listened to the speech Dr. King made on the steps of the state capital in nearby Montgomery, Alabama. His “How Long?” speech was at the conclusion of the third March from Selma to Montgomery in March of 1965. The marches were to address the restoration of voting rights and the injustice of “legal” practices such as literacy tests that exclude.

I was moved to tears. This is in part because it occurred to me that this speech took place less than a month before I was born. I have literally grown up in a culture of change, and the change has not been easy. One phrase from his speech that rings into the depths of my soul is “How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.”

During the season of Epiphany, I am continuing my sermon series “Your Light Has Come.” I have a passion for the idea that Christianity pervasively changes our sense of who we are, of how we approach ourselves and how we approach each other. This enlightenment comes layer by layer in the journey of life, as we behold the light of who Christ is.

We have looked so far at the themes of “Living the Light” and “Remembering the Voice of Your Baptism.” It occurs to me that Martin Luther King, Jr. lived out his baptismal calling and claimed that voice that spoke when Jesus was baptized. He believed in the kingdom of God as one in which everyone is beloved, everyone is a child of God. And he certainly walked as a child of the very light that shone brightly into his own soul.


A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.