New Thing: Drew Day Two- Lectio Divina for the Church.
Inspiration: Doctoral Program at Drew, Lectio Divina
Cost: A lot
Time: About 45 minuets
Bottom Line: "...and they will come in and go out and find pasture." -John 10:9
Reflection: As I mentioned yesterday, I am back for my second semester here at Drew and I am taking a class centered on "The Contemplative Tradition & Contemporary Preaching." So far it has been a really energizing look at the history of contemplation almost as its own school of thought. Some of our "homework" (along with papers) has been to take these traditions and and put them into practice as a way to enrich our sermons and make us better pastors. If that wasn't awesome enough, our teacher is a Dominican Nun who has the gift of turning her life into a sermon (which would be very typical for Dominicans who carry the title of "O.P." after their names for "Order of Preachers").
One of our assignments today was to practice Lectio Divina (which I have written about before on this blog) holding both ourselves and our congregations up to God during our meditation and prayers. As you may remember, (and if not, Wikipedia is here to help us):
In Christianity, Lectio Divina (Latin for divine reading) is a traditional practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's Word. It does not treat Scripture as texts to be studied, but as the Living Word. Traditionally Lectio Divina has 4 separate steps: read, meditate, pray and contemplate. First a passage of Scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the Word of God.
My piece of scripture came from John 10:7-18 Jesus the Good Shepherd:
So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’
As I read that over a few times, the phrase that stood out to me was the later half of John 10:9: "...and they will come in and go out and find pasture." For me personally, this was a real answer to a tangible prayer. As you know, I practice a style of yoga which has a deep emphasis on the breath. When you hold each pose, you are supposed to take 5 FULL breaths and that includes both the intake and the release of the breath. However, I have found that at times my breath can be very shallow or even rushed. That means that I do not always dwell in the place of learning through the posture that I am engaged in as long as I could it is as though I rush in and out of the pasture that God has lead me to. Yet, this line felt like the cadences of a breath to me and as I sat and meditated upon it, I found my breath slowing down and creating a space for the Holy Spirit within my soul. Simply by breathing in "they will come in" holding it a beat and then blowing out " and go out" and pausing over "and find pasture." I can already tell that this will help my go further in all postures of learning (both in yoga and in life) as a mantra that reminds me that where every I am, if I go there in Christ, I will be in pasture of peace and growth.
The second part of the reflection was for the church that we are caring for. I was struck by the idea that the same idea of dwelling where Jesus leads us goes for the Church as well as my yoga practice--that we are invited into a sacred place at St. David's (a pasture of rest) and then we go out into the word to help create places of pasture for others. In particular I started to think about the people who I know in St.David's and the broader church who need healing, and those who are about to move in and out of new spiritual places in their lives (especially my friend and co-worker, Matt, who will be ordained a priest as well as Andy and Kim who will be married this week.). It became my prayer as I breathed this mantra that they would be ushered into a pasture of peace and then go into a place of growth for themselves and for the whole world.
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