4D Spirituality

Intro. Thank you.

Greetings from Kamloops - and Southwest Community Church. And Jesus Collective Hub.

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For me, the idea of rhythms helps me think about spiritual practices and realistic participation in something like a rule of life.

Reality’s commitment to articulate and explore a common RofL is really impressive. In a culture in which we are each on a “choose-your-own-adventure” of almost everything, I wonder how engaging in spiritual practices and doing so together, impacts you as individuals and as a community.

This morning, I would like to invite you to look at the 4 dimensions of spirituality.

The 4 directions that our spiritual practices will take us.

[SLIDE] Now, this is a slightly different way of looking at things than John presented last week.

I love the 4 directions of the Reality Rule of Life rubric… Love God, love neighbour, embrace, resist.

This helps you plot practices on a two dimensional plane and to take on practices that stretch you in more than one direction. And that counterbalance one another. Invites you to say no to something (resist) in order to create space for being able to say yes (embrace).

But this morning, I’d like to invite you to take a slightly different angle on thinking about spiritual practices. You could think of it as a different lens to look through. And I’m going to ask you to use your own bodies this morning to explore this. So, try this with me:

[SLIDE]

UP - hands up, reaching and surrender

IN - hands on chest

WITH - hands open, elbows in

OUT - arms open, cruciform

I owe this way of thinking about spiritual practices to a Vancouverite named Alastair Sterne. Alastair is an anglican priest and his book Rhythms for Life - you have lots of great resources that have been recommended to you already, but I’ll add this one to your list. I read it when it came out last year and then led a large group of folks from my congregation through it as a study.

Let’s read those two verses from Romans chapter 12 that John led you through last week...

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you:

Take your everyday, ordinary life—

your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—

and place it before God as an offering.

Embracing what God does for you

is the best thing you can do for him.

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God.

You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

When I was listening to John’s sermon from last week to get a sense of what would be covered and where I was jumping in, a sentence jumped out at me from the reading in Romans 12.

“Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.”

How do these directions help us to pay attention to God, to notice and become more aware of what God has done for us? What does growing in these four directions look like?

UP - hands up - a longing to connect with the Divine - and we discover that God is always reaching toward us, coming down; as seen most clearly in Jesus

IN - hands on chest - a longing for integration within ourselves. Body, mind and soul - God is moving towards us, even in our broken and shadow places - God knows us and delights in our flourishing (Ps 139 - knit together and often we unravel…God is intimately involved in our healing and growth and transformation)

WITH - hands open, elbows in - a need for connection with others - God meets us in one another. We are made by community for community.

OUT - arms open, cruciform - a desire to be part of something bigger, to join God in mission - God is love on the move…and we’re invited to join in!

I invite you to explore in these four directions - and to encounter God as you do.

As we seek to grow UPward - a longing to connect with the Divine - God is always reaching toward us, coming down; as seen most clearly in Jesus.

As we seek to grow UPward, we are invited into these three practices: [solitude,] gratitude and sabbath.

[UP: Solitude.

Solitude is about withdrawing from busyness and the regular demands of our lives to spend intentional time with God.

Solitude isn’t just being alone. We can be alone and not practice solitude. The idea here is around taking time (which will vary depending on who you are and what your life looks like) but taking time to notice that when you are alone, you are still in the presence of God.

It can look different for different people, but when we hear people tell us about how they do it, there do seem to be some common components: Scripture and prayer are basic building blocks, and setting a time and a place seem to be key factors.]

UP: gratitude

Gratitude is a practice that you may feel you’ve had some experience with. Give thanks…

Gratitude is not calling something good that is actually not good. It’s not starting sentences with “at least” in order to take something terrible and somehow how that by being thankful, the terribleness will dissipate.

But gratitude is a posture and a practice of noticing what is in our hands, what has been given, what has been provided. And gratitude changes us. Listen to what Ken Shigematsu writes in his chapter on Gratitude in Survival Guide for the Soul:

[SLIDE]

“When we give thanks to God… we will find God’s presence feels nearer to us. Even though God is everywhere, the Bible tells us that God mysteriously inhabits the praises of his people (Psalm 22:3). When we thank and praise God, his presence inhabits our lives more and more. We might think of thanksgiving as a portal to the presence of God.

To be clear, it is okay to complain to God (Psalm 13), even to scream and shake your fist like Job. God can handle our emotional honesty. But if the ONLY way we communicate with God is by complaining, cursing, or whining, we will feel alienated from God. Conversely, when we take time to thank God and affirm his goodness, we will draw closer to him. And as we draw closer to God, enjoying his presence and the gift of his friendship, we will be transformed.” (Shigematsu, 117-8)

Gratitude is a posture and a practice of noticing what is in our hands, what has been given, what has been provided. One might say that gratitude is rooted in paying attention to our own lives.

UP: Sabbath.

Sabbath is a tricky practice in our modern society.

But I would argue that Sabbath has never been more relevant.

To stop. To rest.

To take one day in seven to be a creature in a world we didn’t create and cannot sustain. Now, we are always such a creature, but God seems to know that work is to be bookended with rest. And so rest is woven into creation.

But where does Sabbath come from? Well, it’s right there in Genesis, in our origin story. God creates, God works. And then God rests. God rests...

Later, God gives the Law to God’s people and Sabbath is named there. Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy. But that’s not where it begins. Sabbath came before the Law. Rest precedes.

God rested. People are invited to rest. We are invited to take break from running the world. To wake up at least once per week in a posture of rest, rather than running things, rather than functioning as mini-deities. Back to being creatures. In her brilliant book Unfettered, Pastor Mandy Smith writes this:

“The more we practice [Sabbath], the more the rest stays with us even when we’re productive. We begin to do our work with an awareness that we’re not making this world but joining God in the work of remaking it.” (Unfettered, 28)

Rest. Creatureliness. In a world that is fixated on work and productivity, mastery and control.

This might look like: a day to play and rest, to do things that restore you, to take a nap or to go for a walk, to put down the to do list and maybe to turn off your email or your phone altogether. This will have to look different in different seasons. In retirement, it’s not seven days of Sabbath. There are still chores to be done, there are still things you need to do. But rest, that comes in some rhythm, some regularly repeated event is key to our flourishing.

As we seek to grow UPward - we are invited into these three practices: [solitude,] gratitude and sabbath where we will discover that God is always moving toward us.

As we seek to grow INward - hands on chest - we explore our longing for integration within ourselves. Body, mind and soul - And we discover that God is moving towards us, even in our broken and shadow places - God knows us and delights in our flourishing (Ps 139 - knit together and often we unravel…God is intimately involved in our healing and growth and transformation)

A quick word about this direction…

The goal of the inward movement is integration. Integration - where all the parts of us relate to each other as intended. Inward movement is not self-actualization or “finding oneself” but becoming the most authentic versions of ourselves. Discovering the truth of ourselves - in all of our beauty and dignity AND in all of our struggle and brokenness. Until we accept the reality of who we are, we can’t expect growth. Sterne writes in his chapter on the INward movements:

“Christian self-acceptance embraces the whole picture of who we are.

We can do this because God doesn’t shrink back from our failures and mistakes, our sins and transgressions. He always moves towards us, even the darkest parts of us, with love.”

When it comes to growth in this INward direction, we take our cue from God - if God can move toward us in love, in compassion, can we also relate to ourselves in this way? If we are to make any progress toward the goal of integration, or becoming the most authentic versions of our human selves… well, then I think we have to start from this posture. No one has hated themselves into authenticity. No one has disciplined themselves into integration. Acceptance comes first. Acknowledging and allowing ourselves to see who we really are. Then love draws us in. Invites growth. Shines light into dark corners and onto shadow selves. But transformation isn’t the first step.

The three invitations are to practices that help us get a little more practical. Let’s look at each one: [self-examination,] stewardship, and guidance.

[IN: Self-examination.

Self-examination is all about learning how to pay attention to our own lives, our own experiences so that we can become more aware even as we experience things in real time. It’s about reconnecting what can easily get disconnected.

Self-examination is an invitation to pay attention. To notice. But not in order to critique or to pass judgment. Just to notice so we are aware. And can live in a growing awareness of who we are and how we tend to approach things. (And, of course, how there are other legitimate ways to approach things as people will constantly demonstrate for us.)

Do you feel your way through a day? Do you act your way through a day? Do you think your way through a day?

Are you naturally focused on the present moment? The past? The next moment?

We don’t all answer those questions the same way. But also, sometimes we don’t even know the answers to those questions for ourselves. And self-examination helps us see and name the ways in which we most naturally move through the world.

There are many ways to engage in self-examination, but the one thing that they all have in common will be that they enable us to pay attention - and to grow in awareness. Self-examination leads us toward integration by helping us notice what’s going on internally.]

IN: Stewardship

Now, you might immediately think that stewardship is speaking about finances. And they are included, but stewardship is more far-reaching than just our money.

Stewardship is about how we relate to and handle all that has been entrusted to us. So yes, financial resources might well be included, but what about our time, our relationships, our work, our skills and talents...

Key to the practice of stewardship is the posture that it takes in relation to all that has been entrusted to us. All is actually God’s and we have been given access, opportunity, invited to STEWARD… going all the way back to Genesis 2 where the humans are put in the garden and asked to tend it, to cultivate it.

This principle extends to every part of our lives then.

These people you live with? They belong to God first.

This house? It’s God’s.

These hours of my day? God’s.

This body? God’s.

This money? These possessions? They are God’s first.

When we steward what belongs to someone else, we take their wishes into consideration. What would God have me do with my body, my possessions, my time, my relationships, my…

And a key way that we flourish is in how we relate to, how we handle all that has been entrusted to us. All of that is stewardship.

IN: guidance.

The practice of guidance involves hearing from others so that we can see ourselves more clearly and catch a glimpse of how God is at work in our lives.

Note that even though this is an INward practice, it requires other people.

Just as solitude is an UPward practice. Guidance requires another person in order for us to receive the gift of what other people can see.

This is a practice that will require relationship.

For many people, guidance comes in the form of a spiritual director.

“What exactly do spiritual directors do? The simple and most direct answer I can give is that they help others attend to God’s presence and revelation and prepare to respond to him. In other words, they help people attune themselves to God.” (David Benner, Sacred Companions, p.106)

Within the protestant tradition, there is such a focus on learning and getting more knowledge - and so spiritual direction stops the fire hose spray of things to know and allows us to slow down and attend to the things that often get overlooked.

We can experience this in certain friendships as well. And in letting the people God has placed in our lives speak into them over time.

As we seek to grow INward - we are invited into these three practices: self-examination, stewardship and guidance where we will discover that God is always at work in our integration and transformation. We meet God even in the broken and shadow places of our souls.

As we seek to grow WITHward - we encounter a longing to connect with others and we discover that one of the places we meet God is in relationship with others. The WITHward movement is all about the “one another”-ing… love one another, spur one another on to good deeds, accept one another, belong to one another, sharpen one another, ...

And let’s face it, the WITHward rhythms are the best of times and the worst of times. Experiences of community done well often end up being highlights of our Christian journeys. And bad experiences in community can do lasting damage to our souls - and to our willingness to try again. And understandably so.

But growing UPward to God and INward to self will always require also growing WITHward in community.

I’m sorry to be the one to say it. But when we meet Jesus, we get introduced to His friends. It’s not possible to remain a “lone ranger” Jesus follower. It’s just not how it works.

Let’s look at the practices of this WITHward movement - Spiritual gifts, [spiritual friendship] and the table.

WITH: Spiritual Gifts

We read from Romans 12 earlier - and they’re FULL of this idea that our gifts aren’t for us. God has placed unique abilities - and combinations of these abilities with our personalities and life experiences and … the YOU-ness of you. But the gifts God gives you AREN’T FOR YOU. They’re for the body…for the community of faith, for the living, breathing organism we sometimes call the church.

The list of gifts is an ever shifting one - depending on which texts of the NT you focus on. But they’re there. And you have at least one of them. But it’s not just for you, it’s for the common good of the community. When you don’t learn how to use it, WE suffer. The Body isn’t able to function the way it ought to. And yes, the Spirit is animating that gift in you, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to learn how to use it. (ie. teaching? well that gift is going to be pretty useless if you never learn anything to teach others; have the gift of faith? Well, it’s not to be exercised in having faith about your own life, your own family… it’s for the Body. Or the gift of mercy? Or the gift of helps? Well, all of those are excercised in a “one another” kind of space. It requires OTHERS.

[WITH: Spiritual friendship

The most basic definition of spiritual friendship is a relationship that is grounded in shared discipleship. Two followers of Jesus who walk together for a season - whether short or long. I have had friendships based on many different shared interests or pursuits. And we need different kinds of friends, but having at least one or two other Christians with whom we can share the ups and downs of our spiritual journey as peers - that is priceless.

Having a friend who is also a Christian won’t necessarily guarantee that you’ll have a spiritual friendship, but if you are willing to share a bit of your own journey, you might find yourself in one. Joining in a bible study or learning group, volunteering to help out in something, all of these give you opportunity to walk side by side with others and connections are likely to emerge that will give you opportunity to engage in this practice.]

WITH: Table

According to David Fitch in his little book Seven Practices for the Church on Mission, there are (at least!) three kinds of table experiences that we can participate in:

The Lord’s Table - which we’ll gather around in just a few minutes.

The household table - where we gather as Christians, but in ways that are always inviting others in…

The community table - where we show up not as host, but as guest.

In all three table experiences, the people of God are being shaped “to be present to God’s presence in Christ around the table, where we eat.

But that third kind of table is the one that I think it the least familiar to most of us… the tables we get invited to… and where we are not meant to show up as host, but rather as guest. Paying attention to how God is moving in the places where we’re not in charge.

As we seek to grow WITHward - we are invited into these three practices: spiritual gifts, spiritual friendship, and the Table where we discover that God meets us in relationship with other people.

As we seek to grow OUTward - we join in on the mission of God and discover “love on the move” The invitations of this OUTward movement are: hospitality, generous service [and faith all week long.]

Mission is love on the move.

Sterne helps us here when he writes this in a footnote about why he uses the phrase “Love on the move” to describe the mission of God:

One of the reasons I like to define mission as “love on the move” is because it captures how mission existed within the Trinity prior to creation and how it will continue after the consummation of new creation. The missio Dei (mission of God) is eternal. God’s love is always on the move within the Trinity and toward creation, and we join this movement now and forever.

OUT: Hospitality

This word might make you think about hostessing and Pinterest-perfect, magazine ready showhome - dining tables all fancy, house spotless, gourmet meal “effortlessly prepared”… and then we shrink away and say, “Oh, hospitality, that’s for someone else.” But that’s not thinking of hospitality rightly.

Sterne’s def’n of hospitality:  “always room for new people in our lives because there is always more room at God’s table”

By this definition, we can be hospitable in any location.

At home - whether our home could be featured in a magazine or not.

At work - or wherever you find yourself engaging with others - volunteering, interacting with actual neighbours, whatever.

Or as we’ve learned this year - out in a park, or on Zoom, or over the phone. Where do you encounter people? THAT’S where you’re invited to practice hospitality.

Hospitality. What we do when we realize that God always makes room… we join in.

OUT: Generous service

meeting needs of others (all types of needs) mimics how Jesus demonstrated love on the move in self-emptying generosity

Seeing needs and moving toward them. (Because this is what we see God do)

This doesn’t mean that we always meet every need we encounter. But it does mean that we know that sometimes when we see someone in need, it IS ours to respond. We can seek to always respond to the needs of people around us with grace and empathy, but we also have opportunity to sometimes go beyond being gracious and empathetic and actually meet the needs we enounter.

This can happen by serving within our church family -

And then of course, it also happens in the wider community. Often the needs of the city might feel overwhelming. What can we possibly do to meet ALL THOSE NEEDS? But when we actually look at what needs move us most, and at what we have to offer (whether time or skill or ??)

Generous service. It can look like a million different things. But it is love on the move.

[OUT: Faith all week long]

the integration of faith into our everyday lives. Not just a Sunday morning kind of faith, but all seven days a week. What does it mean to be a Jesus follower when I’m at work, at home, at the gym, on the soccer field, at the grocery store, in volunteer work (whether in the church or the community), at the bank, on the internet, with my kids or grandkids, etc.

The goal of the OUTward movement is to join God in mission. To discover, in Christ, that God is hospitable. To discover, in Christ, that God self-empties in generous service. To discover that God moves toward God’s creation in love and so God’s people move toward others and the rest of creation in love.

As we seek to grow UPward - a longing to connect with the Divine - gratitude, sabbath - we discover that God is always reaching toward us, coming down.

As we seek to grow INward - hands on chest - we explore our longing for integration within ourselves. Body, mind and soul - And we discover that God is moving towards us, even in our broken and shadow places - God knows us and delights in our flourishing (Ps 139 - knit together and often we unravel…God is intimately involved in our healing and growth and transformation)

As we seek to grow WITHward - we encounter a longing to connect with others and to discover that one of the places we meet God is in relationship with others.

As we seek to grow OUTward - we join in on the mission of God and discover “love on the move”

This is the best thing you can do for God…to embrace what God does for you…

Let’s pray