The Daily Disciplines
Everything we do is practice for the next time. When we cease to practice, we lose our fluency, and memory becomes imperfect. Some things are practiced by default- when did you last consciously practice eating? Other things require conscious effort. My handwriting is slow, laborious and has lost its fluency. I type without thinking.
When we took our young children back out to the desert where we had lived, they were profoundly uncomfortable with the open spaces. We noticed our son was happier and less fractious whenever we went walking in the enclosed space of mountain gorges. We become used to, and are affected by our environment. Years before, leaving the desert, my wife and I were depressed, dislocated and disoriented by urban life. A day out walking in the hills begins to resurrect memories and instincts which have been lost to our consciousness.
As urban westerners we live in a profoundly artificial environment. It is possible, even easy, to avoid the outside world for days at a time! Enter the garage by an inside door from the house, drive out using the automatic door opener, drive to the underground car park, and take the internal lift up to work. Leave before it is properly light, and return home after dark. We live in a world which we Australians especially, think we control. In truth, we are irradiated with uncontrolled advertising and other stimulation, rarely alone enough to be in silence, and uncomfortable if we are. We live in a noisy, crowded and driven world, which is the anathema of all that our spiritual ancestors learned is necessary for health. We have stepped out of reality into an artificial place.
The spiritual disciplines are designed to bring us back into the real world from our artificial place. They create time, silence and space for us to re-engage with the depths of life. They patrol the corridors of the mind, as someone has said, re-minding us of what is really important. Religion without practice becomes merely an idea, caught in the currents of the ideas round about, without the anchor of reality.
Great Prayer - Elijah and Jesus
This prayer is written for the Sunday reading where the disciples James and John wish to call down fire on the Samaritan village that did not welcome Jesus. (Luke 9:51-66) They had good precedent for this, because Elijah had brought down fire upon recalcitrant Samaritans. Jesus rebukes them and introduces them to a very different vision of God's realm.
I began this prayer standing at the break in the communion rail, that fence between us and God, which Jesus breaks down. The congregation is welcomed into the "holy of holies" to take Communion together.
The Words of Insitiution
On the night on which Jesus was betrayed,
he sat at supper with his disciples.
While they were there eating,
he took a piece of bread,
said a blessing, broke it and gave it to them with the words,
"This is my body
It is broken for you
Do this to remember me"
Later on he took a cup of wine, saying,
"This cup is God's new covenant,
sealed with my blood,
Drink from it, all of you, to remember me."
The Call
This is a day which the Lord has made...
a day of Communion.
Come freely through these broken rails-
Jesus removes any barrier
between us and God.
Let us stand at Jesus’ table
sisters and brothers, all
loved by God
seeking God.
We are all welcome.
The Prayer.
In the beginning there is God...
You have always been with us.
Always with us,
constantly inspiring one more Moses
to call us out of slavery
and bring us to the river.
And we
constantly
drift back toward wilderness
failing to listen. Yet
always there has been One from God
constantly a Deborah who
arose as a mother in Israel
and judged fairly and well
if we only would listen.
You sent Elijah and Elisha
brave and fierce
uncompromising in their calling us.
Constantly calling us back to the ways of God
outspoken against the high and mighty,
and the kings who would make themselves God.
But lastly you sent us Jesus
cloaked in the mantle of Elijah
breaking open the heavens when he came to Jordan...
not merely parting Jordan’s waters...
allowing love and compassion to flow down
Fire no longer rains down from the heavens
but love, justice, and peace...
a new consciousness of compassion.
Elijah’s uncompromising calling
has now become
Jesus uncompromising compassion...
mercy full
a new light
Love.
Dear God…
Unknown beyond all we can conceive…
Deepest longing in our small and fragile hearts…
More than we dare hope for…
Gentle beyond all we deserve…
Generous without measure…
We thank you for the gift of the Christ
whom we find in our hearts
and in living out our love for each other.
We thank you that in him
we find you…
and life, meaning, and salvation.
In gratitude for our lives
in wonder at your love
we eat his meal together. Amen
Fraction and Elevation
The bread we break is a sharing in the body of Christ
The cup we take is a sharing in the blood of Christ
These are the gifts of God for you and for me
the people of God.
Distribution
Prayer after Communion
Surprising God
Renewing God
Fill us with courage
to go out and live your good news in all the world.
Amen.
Andrew Prior
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