Some Thoughts on Spiritual Practices

-- Read Genesis 28:10-22

Like Jacob...“We wanted more. We wanted a deeper sense of purpose. We wanted a stronger sense of God’s presence. We wanted more reliable ways both to seek and to stay in that presence -- not for an hour on Sunday morning or Wednesday afternoon but for as much time as we could stand.

And yet the only way most of us knew to get that was to spend more time in church. So we volun- teered more, dreamed up more programs, invited more people to more classes where we could read more books. The minute we walked back to our cars, many of us could feel the same old gnawing inside. Once we left church, we were not sure what to do any more. We knew some things we could do to feel close to God inside the church, but after we stepped into the parking lot we lost that intimacy. The boundaries were not so clear out there. Community was not so easy to find. Without Tiffany windows tinting them blue, people looked pretty much the same. From the parking lot they looked as ordinary as everything else. The only more out there was more of the same.

That, at least, is how it looked to those of us who had forgotten that the whole world is the house of God. Somewhere along the line we bought -- or were sold -- the idea that God is chiefly interested in religion. We believed that God’s home was the church, that God’s people knew who they were, and that the world was a barren place full of lost souls in need of all the help they could get. Plenty of us seized on those ideas because they offered us meaning. Believing them gave us purpose and worth. They gave us something noble to do in the midst of lives that might otherwise be invisible. Plus, there really are large swaths of the world filled with people in deep need of saving.

The problem is, many of the people in need of saving are in churches, and at least part of what they need saving from is the idea that God sees the world the same way they do. Like Jacob, people seem willing to look all over for this treasure box marked ‘GOD’. They will spend hours launching prayers into the heavens. They will travel halfway around the world to visit a Monastery in India or to take part in a mission trip to Belize. The last place most people look is right under their feet, in the everyday activities, accidents and encounters of their lives.

No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggests that the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it. The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are. Many years ago now,a wise old priest invited me to come speak at his church in Alabama. ‘What do you want me talk about?’

‘Come tell us what is saving your life right now,’ he answered. It was if he had swept his arm across a dusty table and brushed all the formal china to the ground. I did not have to try to say correct things that were true for everyone. I did not have to use theological language that conformed to the historical teachings of the church. All I had to do was figure out what my life depended on.” -- from “An Altar in the World”, by Barbara Brown Taylor.

Based on the following texts, what do you think the spiritual practices that sustain our life in community should be?

-- Micah 6:6-8 -- Matthew 22:34-40