An intimate book with prayer and lectio divina as goal

For some time now I have owned the title, “Too Deep for Words: Rediscovering Lectio Divina” by Thelma Hall. I have used it for prayer, and I have used it for lectio. The hallmark use I have put the book to is its selections of scripture readings for prayer. This is not to say that the purpose of the book, lectio divina and its prayer form, its reading form of the scriptures is to be ignored. No, the author’s writings regarding this method of intimacy with scriptures is worth the time to read.

A comfortable book, and by that I mean it is an inviting read, one can enter into the monastic method of prayer. Here, in the introduction, the author calls lectio an entry way to contemplation. It is “…generally accepted that contemplation was an extrordinary grace…” but here the intent is to open lectio and also contemplation to Christians as part of their spiritual life.

If I may interpret a little bit, the writer says that with this people can enter more loving relationships with others, and with God. A means to accomplishing this is through lectio divina. She says, “…we grow in love of God as we grow in any intimate love relationship…” A prerequisite is to trust God and know he is faithful to us. The practice of lectio divina is fourfold, and I have learned this method a number of times from others and Thelma Hall is right on the money as I know it. In fact, one may rely on her for this kind of prayer and relationship in prayer with God. The book has an integrity to it.

Though not specifically a how-to book, this is a mini-retreat and not so long of one in text form. The text part, not counting the scripture readings, is only 55 pages. Most people will find their way through that and find it fruitful.

The four parts to lectio: Read the word of God; reflect on the word; where the word touches the heart, or meditation on the word; and, contemplating the word of God. Through this we may come through the night to a new dawn. Or as I read it, we may leave behind some of our darker side and come to a lighter side of inspiration with scripture, and illuminated so gain a special relationship with God. This is reachable, to some degree, by most people who are so willing to be devotional.

To stretch the idea more, as an invitation, the writer says this is what to do:

“–To receive, and place no obstacle to the Holy Spirit.

“–Follow attraction to interior silence and remain in loving attentiveness.

“—Abandon all activity and let oneself be drawn into the darkness of God’s love, forgetful of self.

“–When it becomes possible to meditate again, do so, until and unless interior silence becomes habitual.”

The book is a traditional teaching, and Thelma Hall, a retreat leader is a religious (member of the Religious of Cenacle) in Bedford Village, New York. A book recommended to me by monks of New Camaldoli in Big Sur, the book is recommended by others interested in similar spirituality. The publisher is Paulist Press, a Catholic Church publishing house. I think anyone interested in expanding their horizons of prayer life and entering more fully into scripture will find this an interesting and worthwhile book that leads to a more fruitful life of the spirit.

–Peter Menkin, Mill Valley, CA USA

How beautiful! I can’t believe it! How beautiful! I mean, you just can’t drive down the street without knowing this is a church, a house of God! And the lighting! And it faces, what, east, south east, almost like it’s supposed to so the morning sun rises upon the worshippers. Everything is so new—the preschool attached to the church, the huge acreage, the parsonage right across the driveway. How beautiful! A million times more beautiful than the barren scrap of desert that was here in 1998 when Beautiful Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church got started. How beautiful this church on its day of dedication!

But it isn’t the building itself that is so beautiful. Here’s what I mean. Instead of the cross built into the outside of your building with the cross shaped windows, let’s turn it into a Star of David, or instead of having Beautiful Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church on the sign, let’s put Church of Latter Day Saints of Jesus Christ-Silverado Ward in its place. Then this building wouldn’t be so beautiful, would it?

A striking bride who loves her groom is a beautiful woman. A striking bride who sleeps with all the men in the wedding party is a tramp.

What is here at this corner of Bermuda and Frias which makes Beautiful Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church beautiful?

How Beautiful!

1.The message.

2.The messengers.

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Our text for this beautiful day when we dedicate this beautiful church is all about beauty. It is rare for a passage to be used twice in the Bible at climatic junctures. The Apostle Paul, after reviewing the great teachings of Jesus, how all, Jew and Gentile, have sinned and are freely justified by God’s grace, how this forgiveness is applied to us through baptism into Christ and gives a new life to live, the apostle to the Gentiles opens his heart in sorrow over his own people, the Jews, who daily rejected Jesus as Savior. It wasn’t as if they hadn’t heard. They had prophets and priests sent to them by God, beautiful feet bringing good news.

Paul lifted that verse from the prophet, Isaiah, who used it in an equally climactic moment. In chapter 52, Isaiah stirs the people of God to rise and meet their Savior, wake up and hear his message, for the watchmen are already calling, those beautiful feet are already bringing the good news to your town! Then he talks about the suffering of Jesus on the cross, stricken, smitten and afflicted.

Like I said, it is some Bible passage to be used so successfully in two places in the Bible. It is before us today, I pray, with some of its power intact on the poor, stammering lips of this preacher.

“Did I hear that right?” some of you might be thinking–did he say, “beautiful feet?” There’s more than meets the eye, here. I’ll save that for the end. It may just be the best part that makes this beautiful.

How beautiful! How beautiful the message!

From all the time I spent on Paul and Isaiah’s train of thought, you can see the message is important. The message is what makes this church beautiful. That message, Paul says, is “good news.”

You, the members of Beautiful Savior, thought it was good news the day you got word that your building project had received approval from the Mission Board and then the county. You thought it was good news the day you had groundbreaking. You are probably thinking right now this is good news that you are finally in. That news isn’t good enough to be compared to THE GOOD NEWS that Paul is talking about. It is THE GOOD NEWS of the Gospel.

The Good News is that God still loves people who daily sin much and deserve only punishment. The Good News is that the Holy Spirit does not flee from the heart which fills itself with garbage—lustful thoughts, hateful words, evil inclinations. The Good News is that the payment for our sins, Jesus’ death on the cross, has not been stopped, like a person angry over home repairs never begun might try to stop payment on the check he gave a con-man contractor as earnest money. The Good News is that God wants us in heaven, not as servants, not as stowaways, but as his dear children gathered around the family table.

If we think THE GOOD NEWS isn’t that great a news, well, look at what some other houses of worship are spreading. Some come right out and encourage people to be their own saviors, to make themselves worthy enough for a celestial kingdom or better. Some urge their people to do the right thing by living up to the Law as the way to ennoble their lives. Many don’t even consider life in the hereafter certain enough to talk about! A majority of the Christian churches will talk about faith, but then they add you have to be good, too. Believe and be good. The most deceptive will so vandalize the good news with an emphasis on human decisions, holy living, confidence in man-made teachings, that the you can’t even see the good news for all graffiti they’ve spray-painted over it.

It all boils down to sinful human beings wanting to be religious, but not wanting to listen to God in his Word.

What makes Beautiful Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church beautiful is that it displays THE GOOD NEWS in all its beauty. We don’t have to do the impossible, to earn heaven. Jesus earned heaven for us. We don’t have to be good enough for God. God was good enough for us. We don’t cherish the thought that we are going to heaven because of what we are. It’s because of what God is, undeserved, loving forgiveness for all, young and old, for you and me.

How beautiful! How beautiful the message! How beautiful the messengers!

Here is where it gets interesting. When Paul talks about those beautiful messengers, he is talking about you, the people of Beautiful Savior! You are the beautiful feet bringing the beautiful Good News to this part of God’s creation.

“Ach! You got it wrong, Pastor Pieper! That’s Pastor Guse’s job! That’s what we’ve got elders for! They do that preaching and teaching stuff. They do the evangelism visits!”

Oh, really! Pastor Guse and your council is footing the bill for this church! The only ones who are going to be here for Sunday morning worship are Pastor Guse and the elders! Gee, if that’s the case, couldn’t you have just run it all out of the garage of that first parsonage near Silverado Ranch and Spencer?

See my point? You, the members of Beautiful Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church, have put your shoulders to the work. You have strained and prayed and stretched to make this beautiful day of dedication possible. You have even stolen! You’ve stolen time from your families, time from your rest and relaxation, to hang flyers, make phone calls, move in furniture and I don’t even want to hazard a guess as to what else you’ve done. Every pastor knows that and that is why your willing works of service are so appreciated. Every time you walk into this building, yes, the beautiful feet of Pastor Guse your preacher will lead you, but it will be your beautiful feet bringing you into this church to praise Jesus, to pray to the Father for others, to be moved by the Holy Spirit to serve God here in the organized programs for worship, evangelism and education and out there as you talk up your beautiful church with its beautiful message of a Beautiful Savior to others.

Can I give some advice, advice gathered from years of bitter experience? It will be your beautiful feet that will beat the path for others to follow. This past week I had a wonderful lady in our Religious Orientation class. She was sending her daughter to our preschool—and what a treasure you will find your beautiful preschool to be!—and she had actually come to our church last March. She was looking for a place that had a strong ministry to children, but when she looked among the church worshippers, she saw hardly any children! So she went to the Baptist church down the street!

Put
an extra load on your beautiful feet by bringing your children not only to Sunday School, but also to worship. Your schedule is designed to get adults and children into worship. Yes, it will take extra time. Yes, it will take extra effort. On some Sundays, because it was hard getting the little ones ready, you will look like a train wreck, but don’t let that stop you. If you are going to be a little late, don’t let that stop you. In this church, it ain’t going to be the first time somebody was late and everyone, including the Lord, will be glad you made it.

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

Why the feet? I guess it is the most humble part of our body. Those feet get calloused and cracked, the toe nails get all goofy looking after a while. Maybe some toes are crooked from the time you kicked the parking meter when you saw a ticket tucked under a wiper blade. And they smell. Oooo-weeee!

But it is in the humble acts of service that the Bride of Christ is her most beautiful. It is in the daily, ordinary looking things that you will be doing that you will be most beautiful to the Lord and to the people the Lord has put in your life. The best service those feet can bring is not to run away to Mexico and build some homes for strangers. The best service those feet can render is not to trot around the globe on some vacation pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The best service those feet can offer is not to skip town to sneak into Nepal as a tourist and hand out Bibles. That’s the flash people who are pretending to be Christians display to keep everyone riled up.

Those humble feet teach the children their prayers. Those humble feet shake a hand at the church entrance and get to know the new comer. Those humble feet hang door flyers and teach Vacation Bible School and Sunday School. Those humble feet sit at the feet of the Teacher and hear him speak to them through his Holy Word.

How Beautiful!

1.The message.

2.The messengers.

How beautiful! How beautiful is the head, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

How beautiful are the messengers! How beautiful is the body of Christ!

In Cambodia, a church might consist of 10 Christians gathered beneath a sugar palm, its trunk still bearing shrapnel scars from the battles that have been fought around it. Or it might be 40 worshippers who congregate in the house of a Bible trained church planter.

In either case, Cambodian Christians cannot erase the deep scars that have been left by decades of brutal violence.

Years of atrocities and political turmoil have gouged out a spiritual void in the hearts of Cambodians. It is a void that the national religion of Buddhism, with its unattainable path to enlightenment, has failed to fill.

In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Cambodia was left with socialist groups fighting for control. Millions of innocent people were executed, and civil war raged for decades.

Although a democratic government has begun with the help of the UN, the painful scars still remain. And the wounds reopen every time another mine explodes, planted years ago by the warring factions.

The vast majority of Cambodians have looked to Buddhist rites to try to heal their wounds. But Christians in Cambodia know that the peace their country aches for is a peace that only Jesus Christ can impart.

Eager to impart that peace to their fellow countrymen, Cambodian Christians are enthusiastically entering church planter training. And church growth is exploding.

Cambodia is the first Buddhist country in Southeast Asia to show such a mass movement toward accepting the Gospel message. In a country shrouded so long by Buddhism, it is remarkable to see hearts being opened, one by one, to the light of the truth.

The people of Cambodia are on their way to discovering that the only true refuge from turmoil and trouble is found in the saving blood of Jesus. And Bible trained church planters long to shepherd them with an eternal, unshakable comfort.

Cambodian Christians have a vision for their nation and a heart for the whole world. Fire burns in our heart! one pastor says. We long to bring our nation, every community, into His heavenly kingdom.

And God is using them to do just that. As they impact their communities with the love of Jesus, their nation is changing, one soul at a time. The body of Christ is growing, as local gatherings of believers are established in areas where there were no churches before. It is exciting to be a part of what God is doing in Cambodia.

The Lord uses trained Christians here in Cambodia, another pastor explains. It is really a great help to our hungry nation and us. His living Word enables us to be fully fed, and will help us bring our whole nation to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ our Lord in the near future. May the Lord bless these people to carry on this good ministry until we reach the whole world for Jesus. Amen!

As more Cambodians are brought into fellowship with Jesus Christ and His Church, please pray for the shepherds who care for this tender new flock. Pray that God would call more Christians to labor in this teeming harvest field, as the indigenous church planting movement spreads throughout the country.