Just Breathe

Genesis 2:7 NRVSA

7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.

Psalm 107:43 NRVSA

4 Let those who are wise give heed to these things,
    and consider the steadfast love of the Lord.

Has you ever felt short of breath? It's a natural experience when walking upstairs or out for a run / jog or at the gym? Funny that, how it's good for us to exercise to the point where we need more air, more respiration, more heart beats, it's how we get fit.  

Lots of us have felt short of breath in not so healthy ways. Remember that time during our experience of covid 19? Not good! Frightening to see those of our loved ones needing specialist help and even machines to preserve breathing to save life itself. Remember the gratitude we felt deep down for the carers, the technology, the application of medicine, the existence of an NHS and the gratitude we felt for the scientists in the Universities and research labs that developed a vaccine. 

All that care and effort so we could breathe again and continue life with our loved ones. Remember the grief at the loss and separation for those who did not make it through? Breath, breathing, just breathe. It's where it all begins for each one of us, that first breath when we enter this world. The cessation of breath is the sign that we have left this life and we have returned to the origin of all life. Mostly we are unaware of our breathing it just happens for us. It's taken care of by our physiology and our environment. However, there's more to breathing. Breathing is affected by our relationships. You know what I mean, the way our breathing changes in a challenging situation when we meet someone we are fearful of perhaps someone we are angry with, or how about meeting someone we love and loves us. Our breathing changes when our thoughts, feelings reflections change. This is one reason why we begin learning to live as a reflective disciple with learning to be aware of our breathing. Learning to just breathe. If there is a problem with just breathing then we need to seek help. Difficulty in just breathing needs medical attention so, presuming we have a healthy physiology and there is no illness preventing us just breathing we can use some simple techniques to get control of those resistance experiences to just breathing.  If we can just breathe we will be able to access the energy for change.   

Some of us experience shortness of breath when we are in a heightened state of anxiety or fear. You know the feeling, the gasp for air, the thumping heart, the cold sweat and the aches and pains.  In this situation our energy is drained and we begin to feel exhausted.  The first step then is to learn to breathe; we are created to breathe.....

This leads us to a second question. What experience will we cultivate to replace the experience of 'Breathlessness'? The answer is love. The word is so overused in English. I love my children but I also love cake; hardly the same thing. The cultivation of love, lovingkindness, a steadfast love is what Jesus is talking about when He tells us to love God and love our neighbour. This kind of love has to be reflected upon, understood and acted upon. So the second reflective skill is that of cultivating lovingkindness, that is a love that cares enough to act in the best interest of others. 

Reflective Lifestyle

2 Timothy 3 NRSV

16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

Beginning a 'reflective lifestyle' can be daunting. Let's face it, 'reflective lifestyle' is not exactly the language that we use in everyday life, at least not in Lanarkshire where I live. In fact, it can sound a bit 'New Age', a bit odd, something someone with fewer concerns than an ordinary person trying to cope with the cost of living crisis would spend time doing.  However,  if we simply examine how we successfully deal with questions / issues in our lives in our contemporary period it will follow, that taking some sort of assessment of the situation we are in and how we got here, identifying the root issues, making some sort of plan to deal with the issues, identifying things that help and hinder, getting down to making some change, reviewing what works and then move on to the next part of our lifeplan is going on. We use guides and templates, internal and external sources of help to assist us in making the change in our life we desire or simply need. We draw on our cultural resources to make sense of what needs to be done. In the culture in which I live this is made up of both 'scientific' assistance (E.g. consult a G.P. over a medical issue and thereby access their very specialist scientific knowledge and advice). We will also use our traditional cultural forms of knowledge (E.g. faith perspectives, humanistic perspectives, rituals, politics, economics, sources of identity, lived experience and so on; 'Embodied Intelligence'). These two forms of knowledge are both cultural and interdependent on one another. For example, our values, attitudes and beliefs including the historical experience of accumulating them will modify what we prioritise and do, even if there is a good scientific basis or not for doing so.  How we act is governed by complex interrelationships of the physical, social, psychological, environmental and developmental space that we occupy. All of this stuff is going on all the time and we are hardly aware of it. That's why, for the writer of Psalm 1, the overt identification of reflection as a conscious process is so important. It provides us a way of increasing our awareness and control over our lives. 

For the disciple of Jesus of Nazareth reflection is rooted in the sacred writings that Jesus knew and that He used to guide Him and that He used to teach. We also have the writings that have become scripture for us. These are the writings of the first disciples who knew Jesus directly or knew those who knew Him directly. The scriptures are, what the writer to Timothy states as 'useful for teaching'. Here, the word teaching comes from the word used as 'wisdom'; the scriptures are 'wisdom literature'. For the disciple, a healthy life, community and family summarised for us as the  'Love of God and Neighbour' are rooted in  the reflection on this wisdom literature and on the One of whom they speak; Jesus of Nazareth. In summary then, Reflection will have two sources: the scientific / social scientific sources of knowledge and the sacred writings of our faith. They interact through reflection producing meaning, understanding and action leading to what Jesus called in the Sermon on the Mount: 'Wisdom', 'Wise Action', 'Hearing and Doing'. 

The Suffering Servant; Thoughts, Feelings, Reflections...

 

Reflection as a practice of discipleship

 Reflection  

Psalm 1 (NRSVA)

'Happy are those
    who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
    or sit in the seat of scoffers;
2 but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law they meditate day and night.
3 They are like trees
    planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
    and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.'

Have you ever been mentally and emotionally stuck, frozen in your decision making? I have. Advice seems to come to us from every source; family, friends, politicians, pastors, churches, advice books, our 'holy books' not to mention the plethora of 'life-interpreters' queuing up with their version of our lives. We need a process for becoming ourselves, a process for making decisions, asking questions of ourselves, a way of expressing doubt, peaceful disagreement and a way of discussing with ourselves / others the stuff that matters. Processes are needed for working things through and making more sense of things as we plan for the future and become more like our authentic selves. 

I love Psalm 1 because of the opportunity it promises us for a deep rooted experience of wellbeing.  This wellbeing is situated in the changing seasons of life; the metaphor of a tree next to a life sustaining river is obviously a nod back to the Genesis garden and a nod forward to the Revelation rest. The tree, in the fullness of time, produces good fruit and when fruit is out of season the tree remains healthy with its green leaves. The picture is of abundance, of blessing of happiness. 

The question must surely be what are the means for this blessing, this abundance to be realised in our lives? Two elements need to be present; a world view rooted in the 'Law of the Lord' and the process of meditation, musing, reflecting on this 'Law'. When Jesus was quizzed about this He maintained that the Law could be summed up as 'love of God and love of neighbour'. Values, attitudes and beliefs expressed in neighbourliness and a commitment to mutual wellbeing. 

So here we are, stuck in crisis and needing a way to move on to a better place.  The way forward is facilitated by the process of reflection on the world view of God. Seeing, perhaps for the very first time, the circumstances of our lives from God's perspective. This is a process of reflecting on the natural law of wellbeing based on love and solidarity. It requires to be meditated upon, churned over, thought about, discussed, decisions made, plans and actions taken. We have to somehow incorporate the process into our daily lives to produce the fruit of wellbeing. This wellbeing will last throughout the seasons of our lives until we find ourselves again back in the garden, resting and rooted next to the river of life. 

Over the next while a small group of disciples of Jesus are going to reflect on these things and we are going to meet on a Wednesday evening to catch up on how we are all getting on. You are welcome to join us here on this page or in person or both. Whats the alternative? Scoffing, cynicism, giving up, turning our face away from hope and solidarity with our neighbours? Must we accept as inevitable a 'death and taxes'  world view and a loveless life of profits before people?  

Hope to see you around the conversation table sometime soon.     

 

Enjoy learning how to read the bible as one unified story leading to Jesus

 

Hope Shines On...

Genesis 32: 22-30 (NRSVA)

²⁷ So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ ²⁸ Then the man^[a] said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,^[b] for you have striven with God and with humans,^[c] and have prevailed.’ ²⁹ Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And there he blessed him. ³⁰ So Jacob called the place Peniel,^[d] saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 32:28 Heb he
2. Genesis 32:28 That is The one who strives with God or God strives
3. Genesis 32:28 Or with divine and human beings
4. Genesis 32:30 That is The face of God

John 12: 27-32 (NRSVA)

Jesus Speaks about His Death

²⁷ ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. ²⁸ Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ ²⁹ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ ³⁰ Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. ³¹ Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³² And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people^[a] to myself.’

Footnotes:

1. John 12:32 Other ancient authorities read all things

‘If God exists, how does He make Himself known to us?’ Life is a struggle at times. It is for all disciples and has always been so. It’s not that there are not times of ease and rest, there are, but in the middle of family, work and the messy stuff of life, it does feel that the sense of struggle overshadows any sense of peace. In the wider world we recognise that for many people ‘life struggle’ is their life. At present our lives are full of news stories of workers losing the jobs, people struggling to feed their families and having to use food banks, homelessness, health and social care shortages and refugees living in squalor camps and in the shadow of war and violence. In everyday conversation it’s not unusual to hear refugees and immigrants being blamed for the decision of our elected representatives to impose on communities the misery of austerity, health and social care shortages and for rises in crime. It feels that struggle and discrimination trumps solidarity. In this persistent experience of life it is understandable to doubt the promise and hope of Jesus of the Nazareth discourse. Jesus promise of liberation was claimed to have come in the Luke 4 discourse of Jesus and to be actively renewing our diverse worlds of struggle.  It is part of the process of discipleship to be consciously aware of this struggle for change and the feeling of contradiction and doubt that the process of struggle gives, especially in the face of apparent persistent defeats for inclusion and solidarity.  The two passages we examine today are rooted in such situations. Jacob and his family struggle with unpredictability and the very real threats to life. In the struggle of life Jacob struggles with God and His promises. Yet it is in the struggle that Jacob finds God, his own true self, identity and positive hope for his family’s and our future. He is part of a great liberation story and although that does not improve his immediate situation, he does gain the hope to keep going with his family in the long trek towards home, freedom and justice.  In the life of Jesus we see the same themes. As Jesus approaches His own death He faces the option to reject being part of a liberation story and embrace a role of cold and distant sovereignty mirrored in the religious elite of His time and the Roman Empire. ‘No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour’ is the conclusion that Jesus comes to. Jesus accepts the ‘liberation of the struggle’; the freedom to resist non-violently the powers that struggle against us and God.  Jesus achieves the final ‘liberation from the struggle’ in the securing of the promise of the Kingdom of God that we will all inherit. The struggle against ‘the powers’ of war and violence, poverty, lack of health and social care, hopelessness, homelessness, discrimination and poor educational opportunity is the exercise of freedom. The process of non-violent resistance and struggle will achieve full freedom as we realise the Kingdom of God in its fullness within our lives as Jesus’ soon return approaches. God makes Himself known in the middle of the struggles for life, freedom and justice as Jesus demonstrated and taught.

         

 Saint Patrick's "Breastplate" Prayer

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three. 

Belong before you believe....

Genesis 21: 15-19

¹⁷ And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, ‘What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. ¹⁸ Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’ ¹⁹ Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

John 17: 20-24

²⁰ ‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us,  so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (NRSV)

Yet another story where God reveals Himself in the troubled questions and situations of life: The bible has many stories of exile and exclusion. Some folks have misused these stories to define their own reasons for excluding people from their own lives personally, socially, and economically not to mention geographically. Insiders and outsiders, those who belong and those who are out, union versus separation challenge us every day. How does God reveal Himself in terms of the insider outsider debate? What principles are available to us as disciples of the ‘Jesus of the Nazareth discourse’ to apply to our practical living? Our starting point is Jesus. It is through Him, His teaching and how He lived that creates the focus for us, to see clearly, what are the possibilities for God and our practical lives together. At the point of His final rejection, Jesus prays for those close to Him and for those not yet close to Him, but to whom He is close. In the story of Hagar and Ishmael in Genesis, rejection and outsider status from family and community is experienced and death is close; but God, life and inclusion in the promises of God is closer. Rejection and exile are powerful but being present, being concerned, being actively involved, through the practice of inclusion are far more powerful. God reveals Himself as the One who is present and active even in the lived experience of exclusion. In John, Jesus prays and is committed to those who have included Him but also to and for those who have excluded Him, those, we, as followers of Jesus, might be tempted to exclude. Jesus reveals God as the One who is the prime mover in ‘belonging before belief’. Hagar and Ishmael had a place in the story of God even if Sarah and Abraham excluded them. And so it is that God chooses us, He believes in us; we belong, long before we believe; even if we ever do truly believe. Jesus reveals God as the God who incudes all of us in His plan for recreation and redemption. Exclusion comes in many forms: physical, social, psychological, economic, environmental, racial, sexual, and so the list goes on. But what are the starting points for followers of Jesus in the divine but practical project of inclusion and embrace. Our small community of disciples and followers Jesus is exploring this at the moment as part of our ‘Epiphany’ series.  We are re reading together Stuart Murray’s book ‘The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith’; published by Paternoster in Milton Keynes. Here is an extract that we are working through as a framework for our collective reflections together. If we recognise that Jesus is the revelation of God how should this belief effect how we live?  Perhaps you will reflect on these principles also.

    

1.      Jesus is our example, teacher, friend, redeemer and Lord. He is the source of our life, the central reference point for our faith and lifestyle, for our understanding of church and our engagement within society. We are committed to following Jesus as well as worshiping him.

2.      Jesus is the focal point of God’s revelation. We are committed to a Jesus Centred approach to the bible and to the community of faith as the primary context in which we read the bible and discern and apply its implications for discipleship.

3.      Western culture is slowly emerging for the Christendom era, when church and state jointly presided over a society in which almost everybody was supposed to be Christian. Whatever its positive contributions on values and institutions, Christendom seriously distorted the gospel, marginalised Jesus, and has left the church ill equipped for mission in the post Christendom culture. As we reflect on this, we are committed to learning from the experience and perspectives of movements such as Anabaptism that rejected standard Christendom assumptions and pursued alternative ways of thinking and behaving.

4.      The frequent association of the church with status, wealth, and force is inappropriate for the followers of Jesus and damages our witness. We are committed to exploring ways of being good news to the poor, powerless and persecuted, aware that such discipleship may attract opposition resulting in suffering and sometimes ultimately martyrdom.

5.      Churches are called to be committed communities of discipleship and mission, places of friendship, mutual accountability, and multivoiced worship.  As we eat together, sharing bread and wine, we sustain hope as we seek God’s kingdom together. We are committed to nurturing and developing such churches, in which young and old are valued, leadership is consultative, roles are related to gifts rather than gender and baptism is for believers.

6.      Spirituality and economics are interconnected. In an individualist and consumerist culture and in a world where economic injustice is rife, we are committed to finding ways of living simply, sharing generously, caring for creation and working for justice.

7.      Peace is at the heart of the gospel. As followers of Jesus in a divided and violent world, we are committed to finding nonviolent alternatives and to learning how to make peace between individuals, within and among churches, in society and between nations.        

(Murray S, (2010) The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith. Paternoster, Milton Keynes. Page 45-46)

Father God, by your tender mercy, be our dawn from on high, break upon us,  give light to those of us who sit in darkness and the shadow of death and in your compassion guide our feet into the way of peace; through Jesus Christ your Son, Amen