1 Kings 19:11-12

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

Matthew 10:40-42

“Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

Meditation

 Good morning, everyone; thank you all for being here, and thank you for the opportunity to share some thoughts with you this morning.  No, that isn’t a typo in the bulletin; this morning’s Meditation is on — Meditation.  Some time ago, I spoke here about the subject of prayer, and this is something of an addendum to those thoughts. For those of you who were not here, or who did not happen to commit that sermon to memory, let me repeat the main point of one way to think of prayer:

So when we “take our burdens to the Lord”, what exactly are we doing? Are we just dumping it in His lap to deal with? I think the essential core of what we do in prayer is to be found in the Serenity Prayer,…

“God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The Strength to change the things I can, And the Wisdom to know the difference”

It’s like putting all our “stuff” on the table with God, and asking him to help us sort it all out, and either act where we can, or adapt and comfort each other where we need to do that. So often, the simplest prayer is the most helpful: “Good Lord, show me the way”.

Which brings us to the question: how do we go about perceiving God’s guidance?  Prayer, after all, is a two-way conversation if it is to have real impact in our lives.  As Mother Theresa has said, “Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”  Or as Fulton Sheen phrased it, “Prayer begins by talking to God, but it ends by listening to Him. In the face of Absolute Truth, silence is the soul’s language.”  Or as Kelsey Grammer put it, “Prayer is when you talk to God. Meditation is when you’re listening.  Playing the piano allows you to do both at the same time.”  Maybe for you, Kelsey—of course, anyone who’s heard my piano playing knows just how much prayer is involved—by me and by anyone within earshot…

Listening for God’s guidance. This is what the meditation part of prayer is about.  Let’s just take a minute—literally 60 seconds, to close our eyes and listen for what God has to say to us. Go ahead, now.

                         ————– 60 seconds  ——————

 Good. I’m going to guess that what you heard, or what you were aware of, unless you are very lucky or very good at this, was something short of the Voice of God.  If you’re anything like the vast majority of people, what was actually going on was a lot of thinking, and a lot of words.   A LOT of words. Not God’s words, but our own. Not God’s thoughts, but our own thoughts.  I’d like us to try it again, and this time, we’re not going to try to stop the thoughts, or to stop thinking in words, but try to observe them, be aware of them going on around us.  A friend who had been working at this came back from a Caribbean vacation and couldn’t stop talking about the revelation she had while snorkeling.  She was just floating on top of the water, watching everything floating and swimming by underneath her, completely independent of her, needing no input or effort on her part. She realized that was what she needed to be doing during meditation with her thoughts and the words in her head; separating herself from them, observing them, and not managing them. Let’s try that for a minute. Start now.

                                    ———–  60 seconds  ——–

 Hopefully, you might have experienced a couple of very short intervals of feeling separate from the thoughts going through your head. This is usually followed immediately by an internal discourse on how you felt separate from your thoughts and how different that was and how good you are at this and you have to show your friends especially that nosy neighbor with the funny thing on his nose—what is that, anyway; could it be cancerous?, all of which ended the sensation of observation pretty quickly.  You may have even felt some anxiety about the idea of feeling separate from your thoughts.  It’s not something we are taught to do in this part of the world.  We judge ourselves on what we produce, and the verbal part of our brains feels kind of guilty if it isn’t generating something ALL THE TIME, every millisecond.  We often feel as though, if we stopped having thoughts and generating words, we might cease to exist.

 But there is a problem with this, if we want to receive God’s guidance.  Does this sound familiar:

“Breaker 1-9, Red Dog to Dr. Fatso in the bobtail Mack north on 95^th street, you might wanna back it down a bit and peel your eyes for a Kojack with a Kodak, over.”  If you’re much younger than me, get someone who knows to explain CB radio to you.  I remember at my first paying job at 12 years old, working for a small truck company, I had to try to figure out how to use the radio one day when I ended up alone at the shop and someone was trying to call in. It took the LONGEST time for me to figure out that if I wanted to talk, I should push the red button on the microphone, but then I HAD TO LET GO OF THE BUTTON to hear someone else.

That’s what is going on inside our heads when we try to listen for God’s input. We’re too busy generating thoughts and words and we can’t seem to tear our thumb off that red button long enough to hear Him.

 Ecclesiastes, Ch. 3: (KJV) “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”

 Psalm 62: (ESV) “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation.”

 Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.”

 But –HOW?? How do we let go of the constant barrage of stuff coming out of our brains long enough to let Him in?

Don’t worry, I’m not going to make us all sit here until we stop thinking.  But if this is something you would like to pursue, I’ll give you some simple suggestions:

• Find a quiet space where you can sit comfortably, in a position that is both relaxed and healthy, where you can breathe easily with good posture and minimal tension.
• Set a timer if you like, or plan to spend 5 to 10 minutes at a session.
• Close your eyes and breathe. Focus your awareness on the air coming in and going out of your body. Resist the temptation to comment on it; just feel it.
• It may help to focus on an image in your mind; I like to picture a candle flame in the dark, moving naturally. It needs to be something without words; you want the verbal parts of your brain to take a well-deserved vacation.
• Allow the thoughts that your brain generates to float by you; don’t try to shut them off, just let them go and float away from you. Now you are starting to be aware of a separation between the quiet core of You and the verbal, analytical tools that you use.
• Every time you realize that words have grabbed your attention again, gently guide your attention back to the nonverbal focus – the candle, your breath, or whatever you choose. Frustration and disappointment have no place here; every time that you recognize that your attention has switched to words and thoughts, and you return to your focus is a victory. It brings you one step closer to being able to eventually achieve this state of mind more or less at will. All of these “failures” are just necessary steps in the learning process; welcome each event of losing and regaining focus.
• If you feel the urge to smile as you start to find this quiet part of your inner self, please follow that urge.
• When your planned time is up, gently open your eyes, look around you, and stretch a little, and ease yourself back into your day.
• It is good to be able to do this at a consistent time daily if you can; try it out for yourself and do whatever works for you.

 What kind of results can you expect from this kind of

meditation? You probably won’t have your meditation time interrupted by trumpets and a voice announcing what you need to do to fix things.  I know that many of you have experienced some kind of Divine communication in your lives; we often don’t discuss these things with many people.  When I do hear people talk about the experience of feeling God’s guidance, one thing keeps coming up: stillness. This morning’s reading from 1st Kings is a favorite, so I’ll repeat it: Elijah went out into the desert to seek out God, because things were not going well in the prophecy business. He was told

 ¹¹ … Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

¹² And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

So often when someone speaks of receiving an insight, they describe it as intensely quiet, small, and still.  I remember finally acknowledging that I couldn’t quit smoking on my own, and needed God’s help at 3 am many years ago.  After a time, I was just aware of a single word in my mind, silent and small, and incredibly still and solid. “Yes.” At that moment, I knew that it was going to happen. It would not be easy, and there was a lot to do, but it would happen, and it did. On another occasion, I was feeling overwhelmed by my parents’ aging issues, and at a loss as to what to do about my Dad’s cognitive decline.  Our pastor asked us to spend a few minutes praying on something that was troubling us by asking God a question, so I asked, “God, what am I supposed to do with my father?”.  In my imagination, a Magic 8-Ball appeared, with the little window, and in a minute, the little triangle came up and said, “Love Him.”  Again, that incredible quiet, calm, stillness.

Events like these are usually few and far between, but they do happen. A more predictable result of this kind of meditation is that decision making often becomes easier, our thinking is clearer, our priorities less muddled.  People often find that they are able to do the things that have seemed hard to get around to. In Matthew 26, when Jesus chides the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane for not being able to remain awake while he prayed, he notes, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”.  You may find that, having spent a little more time with your Core Self in meditation, you are more able to use your verbal and analytical tools to serve your deepest values, instead of being used and run by them. You may find, like Isaiah, in chapter 30,

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

Whatever you choose to do with this, I hope you will explore ways to make room for God’s influence in your life, and share that journey with the people here and elsewhere in your life.  And I hope above all else, as Paul wrote to the followers at Philippi, that

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen, and God Bless.