Friday, March 27, 2009
Val J. Peter
INTRODUCTION:
St. Paul says we are mere strangers and pilgrims passing through this life on the way to eternity. We are made in the image of God, but that image has been so dulled that we need to learn how to pray, how to worship, how to meditate, how to think.
This is a shorter version of the first chapter of Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline. It is more or less a paraphrase. The good stuff is his. Stuff that is not so good is mine.
Superficiality is the curse of our age. We know in our hearts we are like the Platte River, having almost no depth at all, very shallow. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for gifted, intelligent people, but for deep people.
The classical Disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths. They invite us to explore the spiritual realm beneath the surface. They urge us to be an answer to a hollow world. John Woolman counsels: “It is good for thee to dwell deep, that thou mayest feel and understand the spirits of people.” The Disciplines are not only for spiritual giants, although many think they are. If you think they are, they are beyond your reach. Far from it. God intends the Disciplines of the spiritual life to be for ordinary human beings, people just like us who have jobs, go to work, raise children, do the laundry, mow the grass.
Too many think of the Spiritual Disciplines as some dull drudgery aimed at chasing laughter off the face of the earth. Yet joy is the keynote of all the Disciplines. Why? Because the purpose of the Disciplines is to free us from the stifling slavery to self-interest and fear. Inner spirit needs to be liberated from all that weighs it down. When that happens, singing, dancing, even shouting characterize the Disciplines of the spiritual life.
The primary requirement is a longing after God. “As the deer longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, oh God. My soul thirsts for God, the Living God” writes the psalmist (psalm 42,1-2).
Most of us, every now and then, have glimpses, hints of something more than the surface in our lives. And inwardly we all, at times, want to launch out into the deep. To launch out into the deep, we are immediately faced with two difficulties.
The first is this: The consumer society and the materialism of our age have become so pervasive that it has given many people grave doubts about their ability to reach beyond the physical world. It’s hard to overestimate how saturated we are with the mentality of our times. For example, meditation, if allowed at all, is not thought to be an encounter between a person and God, but psychological manipulation. We need the courage to move beyond the prejudice of our age and affirm that more than the material world exists. The spiritual life cannot be summed up by psychology or sociology. It is far deeper than that.
The second difficulty is a practical one. We simply do not know how to go about exploring this inward world. That was not always true. In fact, at the time of Jesus and the time the New Testament was being written, there was no need to give instruction on how to do the Disciplines of the spiritual life. The Bible called people to the Disciplines of fasting, prayer, worship, celebration and gave no instruction how to do it. That’s because these Disciplines were so frequently practiced in that culture that the “how to” was common knowledge. Fasting was so common, for example, that no one had to ask what to eat before a fast or how to break a fast. Every one already knew.
This is not true of our age. There is an abysmal ignorance of the most simple practical aspects of all these Spiritual Disciplines. One word of caution here if you know the mechanics of meditation, that does not get you to the depths. What gets you to the depths is to experience a life of relationship and intimacy with God, “the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1,17)
The Slavery of Ingrained Habits
We are accustomed to thinking of sin as individual acts of disobedience against God. This is true enough as far as it goes. But Scripture goes much further. For example, the Hebrew language has eight different words for sin and all of them are found in the Bible. It’s a complex thing.
In Romans, the Apostle Paul frequently refers to sin as a condition that plagues the human race. (Romans 3,9-18) Sin, as a condition, works its way out through the “bodily members.” That is the ingrained habits of the body. (Romans 7,5) There is no slavery compared to the slavery of ingrained habits of sin.
In Isaiah 57,20, we read: “The wicked are like the tossing sea. For it cannot rest. And its waters toss up mire and dirt.” The sea does not need to do anything special to toss up mire and dirt. That’s the result of its natural motions. That’s also true of us when we are under the condition of sin. The natural motion of our life produces mire and dirt. Sin is part of the internal structure of our lives. No special effort is needed to produce it. No wonder we feel trapped.
Our ordinary method of dealing with ingrained sin is to launch a frontal attack. We rely on our will power and determination. Whatever the issue may be - gluttony, pride, abuse, fear, anger, addiction - we determine never to do it again. We pray against it, fight against, set our will against it. But the struggle is all in vain. We find ourselves, once again, morally bankrupt or, even worse, so proud of our external righteousness that “whitened sepulchers” is a mild description of our condition. Heini Arnold says: “We want to make it quire clear we cannot free and purify our own heart by exerting our own will.”
In Colossians, Paul lists some of the outward forms that people use to control sin: “touch not, taste not, handle not.” He then adds these things “have indeed a show of wisdom and will worship.” (Col. 2,22) “Will worship”…what a telling phrase and how description of much of our lives. The moment, we feel we can succeed and attain victory over sin by the strength of our will alone is a moment we are worshiping the will. Paul looks at our most strenuous efforts in the spiritual life and calls them idolatry, “will worship.”
Willpower will never succeed in dealing with the deeply ingrained habits of sin. Emmet Fox writes: “As soon as you resist mentally any undesirable or unwanted circumstance you thereby endow it with more power – power which it will use against you, and you will have depleted your own resources to that exact extent.” Arnold concludes: “As long as we think we can save ourselves by our own willpower, we will only make the evil in us stronger than ever.” All the great writers of the devotional life have experienced this: St. Augustine, St. Francis, John Calvin, John Wesley, Teresa of Avila and Juliana of Norwich.
The Spiritual Disciplines Open the Door
When we despair of gaining inner transformation through our own willpower, we are open to a wonderful new realization: inner righteousness is a gift from God to be graciously received.
In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul goes to great length to show that righteousness is a gift of God. He uses the term 35 times in this letter insisting that righteousness is not attained or attainable through human effort. This is also found throughout Scripture and is a cornerstone of the Christian faith.
On the other hand, once we grasp this breathtaking insight, we’re in danger of an error in the opposite direction. We’re tempted to believe there is nothing we can do. Should we wait for God to come and transform us? Strangely enough, the answer is no. The analysis is correct (human striving is insufficient and righteousness is a gift from God), but the conclusion is faulty. Happily, there is something we can do. We do not need to be hung on the horns of the dilemma of either human works or idleness. God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving His grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that He can transform us.
The apostle Paul says: “He who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh. But he who sows to the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit.” (Gal. 6,8) Paul’s analogy is instructive. A farmer is helpless to grow grain. All he can do is to provide the right conditions for the growing of grain. He cultivates the ground, plants the seed, waters the plants and then the natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain.
This is the way it is with the Spiritual Disciplines, they are a way of sowing to the Spirit. They are God’s way of getting us into the ground. They put us where He can work within us and transform us. By themselves, the Spiritual Disciplines can do nothing. But they can get us to the place where something can be done. They are God’s means of grace. The inner righteousness we seek is not something that is poured on our heads. God has ordained the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means by which we place ourselves where He can bless us.
Foster then uses a very good picture or analogy. He says we should picture a long, narrow ridge with a sheer drop-off on either side. The chasm to the right is the way of moral bankruptcy through human striving for righteousness. This historically has been called the heresy of moralism. The chasm to the left is a moral bankruptcy through the absence of human striving, going with the flow. Politically correct behavior. This has been called the heresy of antinomianism. On the ridge, there is the path, the Disciplines of the spiritual life. This path leads to the inner transformation, to the healing which we want. We must never veer off to the right or the left, but stay on the path. The path is fraught with severe difficulties, but also incredible joys. As we travel the path, the blessing of God will come upon us and reconstruct us into the image of Jesus Christ. We must always remember the path does not produce the change. It is only the places where the change can occur. Once we live and walk on the path of disciplined grace for a season or two, we will discover internal changes within ourselves.
As we enter the inner world of the Spiritual Disciplines, there will always be the danger of turning them into laws. And then the Spiritual Disciplines are used to manipulate and control others. But we are not left to our own devices. Jesus Christ has promised to be ever present to us as teacher and guide. His voice is not hard to hear. His direction is not hard to understand. We can trust His teaching. If we are wandering off towards some wrong idea or unprofitable practice, He will guide us back. If we are willing to listen to the Lord, we will receive the instruction we need.
Leo Tolstoy says: “Everybody thinks of changing others and nobody thinks of changing himself.” Let us be among those who believe that the inner transformation of our lives is a goal worthy of our best effort.
If you like this chapter, why not go to the bookstore and buy Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline (Harper Collins, San Francisco: 1978)
INTRODUCTION:
St. Paul says we are mere strangers and pilgrims passing through this life on the way to eternity. We are made in the image of God, but that image has been so dulled that we need to learn how to pray, how to worship, how to meditate, how to think.
This is a shorter version of the first chapter of Richard Foster’s book Celebration of Discipline. It is more or less a paraphrase. The good stuff is his. Stuff that is not so good is mine.
Superficiality is the curse of our age. We know in our hearts we are like the Platte River, having almost no depth at all, very shallow. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for gifted, intelligent people, but for deep people.
The classical Disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths. They invite us to explore the spiritual realm beneath the surface. They urge us to be an answer to a hollow world. John Woolman counsels: “It is good for thee to dwell deep, that thou mayest feel and understand the spirits of people.” The Disciplines are not only for spiritual giants, although many think they are. If you think they are, they are beyond your reach. Far from it. God intends the Disciplines of the spiritual life to be for ordinary human beings, people just like us who have jobs, go to work, raise children, do the laundry, mow the grass.
Too many think of the Spiritual Disciplines as some dull drudgery aimed at chasing laughter off the face of the earth. Yet joy is the keynote of all the Disciplines. Why? Because the purpose of the Disciplines is to free us from the stifling slavery to self-interest and fear. Inner spirit needs to be liberated from all that weighs it down. When that happens, singing, dancing, even shouting characterize the Disciplines of the spiritual life.
The primary requirement is a longing after God. “As the deer longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, oh God. My soul thirsts for God, the Living God” writes the psalmist (psalm 42,1-2).
Most of us, every now and then, have glimpses, hints of something more than the surface in our lives. And inwardly we all, at times, want to launch out into the deep. To launch out into the deep, we are immediately faced with two difficulties.
The first is this: The consumer society and the materialism of our age have become so pervasive that it has given many people grave doubts about their ability to reach beyond the physical world. It’s hard to overestimate how saturated we are with the mentality of our times. For example, meditation, if allowed at all, is not thought to be an encounter between a person and God, but psychological manipulation. We need the courage to move beyond the prejudice of our age and affirm that more than the material world exists. The spiritual life cannot be summed up by psychology or sociology. It is far deeper than that.
The second difficulty is a practical one. We simply do not know how to go about exploring this inward world. That was not always true. In fact, at the time of Jesus and the time the New Testament was being written, there was no need to give instruction on how to do the Disciplines of the spiritual life. The Bible called people to the Disciplines of fasting, prayer, worship, celebration and gave no instruction how to do it. That’s because these Disciplines were so frequently practiced in that culture that the “how to” was common knowledge. Fasting was so common, for example, that no one had to ask what to eat before a fast or how to break a fast. Every one already knew.
This is not true of our age. There is an abysmal ignorance of the most simple practical aspects of all these Spiritual Disciplines. One word of caution here if you know the mechanics of meditation, that does not get you to the depths. What gets you to the depths is to experience a life of relationship and intimacy with God, “the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1,17)
The Slavery of Ingrained Habits
We are accustomed to thinking of sin as individual acts of disobedience against God. This is true enough as far as it goes. But Scripture goes much further. For example, the Hebrew language has eight different words for sin and all of them are found in the Bible. It’s a complex thing.
In Romans, the Apostle Paul frequently refers to sin as a condition that plagues the human race. (Romans 3,9-18) Sin, as a condition, works its way out through the “bodily members.” That is the ingrained habits of the body. (Romans 7,5) There is no slavery compared to the slavery of ingrained habits of sin.
In Isaiah 57,20, we read: “The wicked are like the tossing sea. For it cannot rest. And its waters toss up mire and dirt.” The sea does not need to do anything special to toss up mire and dirt. That’s the result of its natural motions. That’s also true of us when we are under the condition of sin. The natural motion of our life produces mire and dirt. Sin is part of the internal structure of our lives. No special effort is needed to produce it. No wonder we feel trapped.
Our ordinary method of dealing with ingrained sin is to launch a frontal attack. We rely on our will power and determination. Whatever the issue may be - gluttony, pride, abuse, fear, anger, addiction - we determine never to do it again. We pray against it, fight against, set our will against it. But the struggle is all in vain. We find ourselves, once again, morally bankrupt or, even worse, so proud of our external righteousness that “whitened sepulchers” is a mild description of our condition. Heini Arnold says: “We want to make it quire clear we cannot free and purify our own heart by exerting our own will.”
In Colossians, Paul lists some of the outward forms that people use to control sin: “touch not, taste not, handle not.” He then adds these things “have indeed a show of wisdom and will worship.” (Col. 2,22) “Will worship”…what a telling phrase and how description of much of our lives. The moment, we feel we can succeed and attain victory over sin by the strength of our will alone is a moment we are worshiping the will. Paul looks at our most strenuous efforts in the spiritual life and calls them idolatry, “will worship.”
Willpower will never succeed in dealing with the deeply ingrained habits of sin. Emmet Fox writes: “As soon as you resist mentally any undesirable or unwanted circumstance you thereby endow it with more power – power which it will use against you, and you will have depleted your own resources to that exact extent.” Arnold concludes: “As long as we think we can save ourselves by our own willpower, we will only make the evil in us stronger than ever.” All the great writers of the devotional life have experienced this: St. Augustine, St. Francis, John Calvin, John Wesley, Teresa of Avila and Juliana of Norwich.
The Spiritual Disciplines Open the Door
When we despair of gaining inner transformation through our own willpower, we are open to a wonderful new realization: inner righteousness is a gift from God to be graciously received.
In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul goes to great length to show that righteousness is a gift of God. He uses the term 35 times in this letter insisting that righteousness is not attained or attainable through human effort. This is also found throughout Scripture and is a cornerstone of the Christian faith.
On the other hand, once we grasp this breathtaking insight, we’re in danger of an error in the opposite direction. We’re tempted to believe there is nothing we can do. Should we wait for God to come and transform us? Strangely enough, the answer is no. The analysis is correct (human striving is insufficient and righteousness is a gift from God), but the conclusion is faulty. Happily, there is something we can do. We do not need to be hung on the horns of the dilemma of either human works or idleness. God has given us the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means of receiving His grace. The Disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that He can transform us.
The apostle Paul says: “He who sows to his own flesh will reap corruption from the flesh. But he who sows to the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit.” (Gal. 6,8) Paul’s analogy is instructive. A farmer is helpless to grow grain. All he can do is to provide the right conditions for the growing of grain. He cultivates the ground, plants the seed, waters the plants and then the natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain.
This is the way it is with the Spiritual Disciplines, they are a way of sowing to the Spirit. They are God’s way of getting us into the ground. They put us where He can work within us and transform us. By themselves, the Spiritual Disciplines can do nothing. But they can get us to the place where something can be done. They are God’s means of grace. The inner righteousness we seek is not something that is poured on our heads. God has ordained the Disciplines of the spiritual life as a means by which we place ourselves where He can bless us.
Foster then uses a very good picture or analogy. He says we should picture a long, narrow ridge with a sheer drop-off on either side. The chasm to the right is the way of moral bankruptcy through human striving for righteousness. This historically has been called the heresy of moralism. The chasm to the left is a moral bankruptcy through the absence of human striving, going with the flow. Politically correct behavior. This has been called the heresy of antinomianism. On the ridge, there is the path, the Disciplines of the spiritual life. This path leads to the inner transformation, to the healing which we want. We must never veer off to the right or the left, but stay on the path. The path is fraught with severe difficulties, but also incredible joys. As we travel the path, the blessing of God will come upon us and reconstruct us into the image of Jesus Christ. We must always remember the path does not produce the change. It is only the places where the change can occur. Once we live and walk on the path of disciplined grace for a season or two, we will discover internal changes within ourselves.
As we enter the inner world of the Spiritual Disciplines, there will always be the danger of turning them into laws. And then the Spiritual Disciplines are used to manipulate and control others. But we are not left to our own devices. Jesus Christ has promised to be ever present to us as teacher and guide. His voice is not hard to hear. His direction is not hard to understand. We can trust His teaching. If we are wandering off towards some wrong idea or unprofitable practice, He will guide us back. If we are willing to listen to the Lord, we will receive the instruction we need.
Leo Tolstoy says: “Everybody thinks of changing others and nobody thinks of changing himself.” Let us be among those who believe that the inner transformation of our lives is a goal worthy of our best effort.
If you like this chapter, why not go to the bookstore and buy Richard J. Foster’s Celebration of Discipline (Harper Collins, San Francisco: 1978)
posted by Fr. Peter | 4:57 PM
