Christian Spirituality

Christian Spirituality: Theology in Action

by Dr Alex Tang

1.                  Definition of Christian Spirituality

The word spirituality has become popular to describe those attitudes, beliefs, practices that animate people’s lives and help them to reach out towards the supra-natural realities. The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality notes that ‘ Christian spirituality is not simply for the ‘interior life’ or the inward person, but as much for the body as the soul, and is directed to the implementation of both the commandments of Christ, to love God and our neighbors.’

Christian Spirituality is the process of spiritual formation of a disciple of Jesus Christ for an authentic and fulfilled Christian life in the present world; involving bringing together the fundamental tenets of the Christian truths and the experience of living in God’s presence, grace and love in our daily life. It is Trinitarian, incarnational and grace-filled living. It is theology in action.

Christian spirituality as defined by others:

“[Spirituality] is a useful term to describe how, individually and collectively, we personally appropriate the traditional Christian beliefs about god, humanity, and the world, and express them in terms of our basic attitudes, life-style and activity”

Philip Sheldrake, Images of Holiness

“Whatever else may be affirmed about a spirituality which has a biblical precedent and style, spiritual maturity or spiritual fulfillment necessarily involves the whole person – body, mind, soul, place, relationships – in connection with the whole of creation throughout the era of time. Biblical spirituality encompasses the whole person in the totality of existence in the world, not some fragment or scrap or incident of a person”

William Stringfellow,  The Politics of Spirituality

“Spirituality is a lived experience, the effort to apply relevant elements in the deposit of the Christian faith to the guidance of man and woman towards their spiritual growth, the progressive development of their persons which flowers into a proportionately increased insight and joy”

George Gauss, Ignatius of Loyola: Exercises and Selected Works

“Spirituality has to do with our experiencing of God and with the transformation of our consciousness and our lives as outcomes of that experience”

Richard O’Brien, Catholicism

“…we are to love God, we are to be alive to him, we are to be in communion with him, in this present moment of history. And we are to love men, to be alive to men as men, and to be in communication on a personal level with men, in this present moment of history”. (italics his)

Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality

Hence our spirituality begins with God. It begins with a divine call, rebirth and conversion (John 3:3-8; Acts 2:38-39) and continues with sanctification or spiritual formation. It requires divine grace and our willing co-operation. It involves our inner and outward lives. It involves the integration of ours lives as we are being restored by the Holy Spirit. The goal is to become more like Christ (Eph 4:13-16).

2.                  Essentials of Christian Spirituality

2.1              Knowing God, not just knowing about God.

2.2              Experiencing God to the full.

2.3              Transformation of existence on the basis of the Christian faith and truths.

2.4              Attaining Christian authenticity in life and thoughts.

3.                  Characteristics of Christian Spirituality

3.1              Christian spirituality is about totality of the whole person.

3.2              Christian spirituality is about the Trinitarian God of love and grace.

 It is a prophetic spirituality.

3.3              We are sustained in the journey of faith by grace.

 It is an empowering spirituality. It is a self-affirming, aware, and grateful for God’s gifts to us giving us a healthy self-esteem. It is also mutually empowering, affirming other people and facilitating their blossoming.

3.4              The spiritual life is a journey from achievement to rest.

It is a contemplative spirituality. It emphasizes moments of reflection, meditation, and contemplation – being present to the Present, a constant awareness of the absolute within us, who is the inexhaustible source of joy, love, and energy and makes us committed but carefree.

3.5              Christian spirituality is a healing spirituality.

It is a process of healing one’s own wounds and using one’s own experience to heal others.

3.6              Christian spirituality is Christian spiritualities.

Christian spirituality is not monolithic. As each person is different, even with the identical theological beliefs and emphasis, his or her spiritualities will be influenced by his or her temperament, social, financial, educational, denominational and cultural context. Hence on one hand, we can speak of Christian spirituality and on the other hand, we speak of Christian spiritualities.

3.7              The cauldron of an enduring spirituality is suffering and conflict.

3.8              We are not alone on the journey.

3.9              Christian spirituality is an Easter spirituality.

It is a spirituality that transcends Good Friday and is infected with the fearless joy of Easter. It resists the forces of death and promotes the enhancement of life. It feasts more than it fasts. It is not so much control as surrender. It is not cold asceticism but a celebration of life.

4.                  Biblical Basis of Christian Spirituality

4.1              The Spirituality of the Word.

“Contemplation, far from being opposed to theology, is in fact the normal perfection of theology. We must not separate intellectual study of divinely revealed truth and contemplative experience of that truth as if they could never have anything to do with one another. On the contrary, they are simply two aspects of the same thing. Dogmatic and mystical theology, or theology and ‘spirituality’ are not set in mutually exclusive categories, as if mysticism were for saintly women and theological study were for practical but, alas, unsaintly men. This fallacious division perhaps explain much that is actually lacking in both theology and spirituality. But the two belong together. Unless they are united there is no fervour, no life and no spiritual value in theology; no substance, no meaning and no sure orientation in the contemplative life.”

                                                                                     Thomas Merton,  Trappist monk

4.2              The Bible in Christian Spirituality

(a)                Any Bible exposition must pays close attention to the correct interpretation of the passage.

It is very important that any passage in the Bible must be interpreted correctly. The common error is to take a passage or a verse out of context to support our ideas. Someone said that ‘ a verse out of context is a pretext’.

James 3:1

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teaches will be judged more strictly.

God will hold us responsible for how we interprete the Bible. We must allow the Bible, which is the Word of God to speak for itself.

JN 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

Eugene Nida, executive secretary for translation of the American Bible Society was responsible for shaping 200 translation of the Bible in various languages. He was influential in the translation of Good News Bible (1976), Contemporary English Version (1995) and New Living Translation. He coined the word dynamic equivalence  to describe a ‘meaning-based’ approach – one that looks for functional equivalence rather than formal resemblance in translation. He warns of ‘word worship’. In an interview with Christianity Today (Oct.7, 2002), he was asked, What do you consider your most important contribution to Bible translation, he answered “To help people be willing to say what the text means-not what the words are, but what the text means…Language is part of culture. Therefore, we have to understand the cultures of the New Testament period if we are going to understand what the writers were trying to say…. in most of Africa, sheep are regarded as very bad animals! Goats are greatly appreciated. If a woman were exchanged for a number of goats, she would have prestige. If she were exchanged for a number of sheep, she could never live it down.”

(b)               The Bible has a fundamental unity, which includes the Old Testament and the New Testament.

2 Tim. 3 :16a

¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 

There is a strong tendency for Christians to place more emphasis on the New Testament than on the Old Testament. We preach more from the NT, do more quiet time from verses in NT and encourage each other with verses from the NT. We must remember that the NT is the continuation of the OT. It is one book.  The writer to the Hebrews contrasts the ‘many and various ways’ in which “God spoke to our fathers by the prophets” (Heb.1:1-2). Paul traces God’s dealing with the world through successive stages associated with Adam, Abraham, Moses and Christ. The fact that Jesus quotes from the OT shows that OT is still relevant.

(c)                The Holy Spirit has a fundamental role in understanding the Bible.

1 Cor. 2:10-14

¹⁰ but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  ¹¹ For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  ¹² We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.  ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.  ¹⁴ The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

(d)               The Bible must be understood in relationship to what it leads us to do.

2 Tim. 3:16,17

¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,  ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

James 1:22-25

²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.  ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror  ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.  ²⁵ But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

5.                  Prayer and Corporate Worship and Christian Spirituality

5.1              The Spirituality of Prayer.Prayer is communion, spirit speaking to Spirit. Prayer can be aided by the use of images

                                   

5.2              Forms of Prayer

5.2.1        The Jesus Prayer

The Jesus Prayer comes to us as a gift of the Eastern Orthodox tradition. It was transmitted in its earliest version as lectio divina. The Jesus Prayer is more narrowly focused than lectio divina because it always uses the same biblical words. The words is the combination of the pleas in Luke 18:38 and Luke 18:13.

The first phrase-“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” – comes from the lips of a blind man outside Jericho. The second plea comes from the story of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee in his prayer listed all his pious practices. The publican prayed a simple, heartfelt prayer: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner”.

Across the ages, Christians have prayed. “Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me a sinner.” One of the shorter versions is: “Jesus Christ, have mercy”.

The Jesus Prayer is called a prayer of the “mind in the heart”. In the beginning your body prays the prayer. Your mouth repeats it as your mind concentrate on physically reciting it and the meaning of the words recited. Eventually, after thousands of repetition, perhaps over a number of years, you no longer repeat the words with your mouth but your mind keeps praying the prayer. Finally comes the prayer of the mind in the heart. You no longer consciously think about the words of the prayer. Now your whole life prays the prayer without your thinking about it. Or the prayer prays your life.  Unconsciously, you focus your deepest attention-the attention of your entire life- on God.

5.2.2        Walking Prayer

Walking prayer is prayer in which we allow God to lead us. There is a place for vigorous intercession and laying our requests before Him. But allowing God to speak and place requests before us has a place. It  may leads us to repentance, celebration, intercession, introspection and many other things. Walk with God and let the Holy Spirit  leads you as you pray.

5.2.3        Centering Prayer

Centering prayer focuses on being, and aware of God.

5.2.4        Prayer of the Heart

Prayers that concentrate on emotional attachment or adoration of God.  It develops and matures the emotional faculty of our souls. Its aim is to love God; to have our hearts enlarged so that God owns more and more of us. It is ‘being’ prayer rather than ‘doing’ prayer.

5.2.5        Stations of the Cross

Praying through the Stations of the Cross has traditionally been a popular method of contemplative prayer. Christians simply pray through the various events surrounding Christ’s crucifixion”

(1)   Gethsemane

(2)   the sentence of death given to Jesus

(3)   Jesus receiving the cross

(4)   Jesus falling

(5)   Simon helping Jesus carry the cross

(6)   Jesus falling a second time

(7)   women mourning for Jesus

(8)   Jesus falling again

(9)   Jesus being stripped of his clothing

(10)           Jesus calling out to John and Mary

(11)           Jesus dying on the cross

(12)           Jesus being taken down from the cross

(13)           Jesus being laid in the tomb

5.2.6        Meditative Prayer

Ignatius of Loyola in The Spiritual Exercises talks about the reflection on a biblical text, prayerful reflection of a particular theme or prayerful use of an object (something you can see, taste, touch, hear or smell) and reflection on its particular lessons. Each time of prayer begins with a humble submission to God and ends with a return to God.

6.                  Reflection Questions

6.1              How would you describe your own spirituality? Write out your answer in full. Then review what you have written in six months. Do you expect any changes as you re-articulate your own spirituality?

6.2              How do you think the study of the Word and prayer will influence your spirituality?

Soli Deo Gloria

A Christian’s Perspective on the Ethics of Genome Editing

 

The Ethics of Genome Editing

A Christian Perspective

 

Christian Biomedical Ethics Theological Framework

We need a framework to look at the rapidly advancing challenges of emerging new technologies. Technologies such a genome science, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and the Digital Person will redefine the structure and nature of our civilization within the next few years. Are these technology helpful or harmful? What should be the Christian faith communities’ respond to them? These new technologies would not be found in the Bible, a text that was written more than two thousand years ago. Where then are Christian to seek guidance for their discernment? A framework to guide our thinking is needed.

I suggest that a Christian biomedical ethics framework should include these four pillars.

1. The Sovereignty of God
2. The Sanctity of Human Life
3. The Stewardship of Man
4. The Way of Love

 

The Sovereignty of God

1 Chronicles 29:11 (NIV)

Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.

Our foundational belief is that God created everything and he is in control of everything. Any scientific experiment will only succeed with His permission. Since it is his creation, we cannot bend the rules of physics and biology without his allowing it.

 

The Sanctity of Human Life

Genesis 1:27 (NIV)

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

 

Exodus 20:13 (NIV)

“You shall not murder.

Human life is sacred because we are made in his image. In certain circumstances, we are allowed to kill other human beings.  Just War is argued by Augustine and other church fathers that is ia llowed to kill enemy soldiers in a war. Even Bonhoeffer reasoned that it is justified to kill Hilter during the Second World War. He was caught and executed. Murder, however is condemned.

 

The Stewardship of Man

Genesis 1:28 (NIV)

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

 

Also called the Cultural Mandate, mankind is to reproduce and populate the then empty earth. The second part is that we have dominion over God’s creation. This means that we are allowed to improved and manipulated God’s creation for the good of mankind. Scientific and technological advances have improved the quality of living and living standards of mankind.

 

The Way of Love

Matthew 22:37–40 (NIV)

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

 

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is a beautiful illustration of this principle by Jesus. A Jewish man was mugged and left for dead by robbers. His fellow tribal people step aside and refused to help him. It was finally a Samaritan, an outsider and outcast who helped the injured man out of altruistic reasons. The guiding principle for bioethics is the way of love. It is not to do harm but do good to others.

A Pastoral -Theological Approach to Christian Biomedical Ethics

As we look at genome editing through the lens of the Christian framework, there is much support for it. However, it needs to be regulated. This need for regulation is also an ethical consensus among scientists who suggest the following:

(1) Promoting well‐being

(2) Transparency

(3) Due care

(4) Responsible science

(5) Respect for persons

(6) Fairness

(7) Transnational cooperation

 

This is comparable to the Christian framework. It is unfortunate that ‘rogue’ scientists for whatever reasons failed to abide by these guidelines.

 

 

Genome editing research

Genome editing is recent and research was carefully regulated. It is only recently that certain human applications were allowed:

1. (2015) Treatment of CD19+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia in an 11-month old child. Modified donor T cells
2. (2015) remove gene, Beta-thalassemia, China
3. (2017) remove gene, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, USA
4. (Feb 2019) in vivo with Hunter Syndrome, California

In December 2018, there was a public outcry when a ‘rogue’ scientists revealed that he had enabled the birth of a set of twins, Lulu and Nana, on whom he had disabled their gene for CCR5, a protein vital in preventing HIV infection.

 

Genetic Engineering

1. Animal husbandry

Humans have been cross breeding their animal stocks or cross-fertilizing their crops for better and healthier stocks or crops.

2. Genetic Modified Organism (GMO)

Where there were some initial reaction to GMOs, these seem to have died down when there is more acceptance of them. In 2009,  Atryn, an anticoagulant which reduces the probability of blood clots during surgery or childbirth was extracted from the goat’s milk. Human alpha-1-antitrypsin is another protein that is used in treating humans with this deficiency

3. Genetic Modified Animals

Creating pigs with greater capacity for human organ transplants (xenotransplantation)

 

Ethics of Genome Editing

What does the ethics of genome editing covers?

1. Modifying the human genome –genetic correction and enhancement
2. Safety and effectiveness
3. Existence of alternative approaches
4. Off-target results
5. Epigenetics
6. Future generations

 

Each point is important but the key is in the difference between genetic correction and genetic enhancement.

Genetic Correction

By genetic correction, we mean editing a rare mutation that has a high probability (penetrance) of causing a severe single-gene disease, with the aim of converting the mutation into the DNA sequence carried by most people. Assuming that it can be done without errors or off-target effects, genetic correction could have a predictable and beneficial effect.

Genetic Enhancement

Genetic enhancement, by contrast, encompasses much broader efforts to ‘improve’ individuals and the species. Possibilities range from attempting to modify the risk of a common disease by replacing particular genetic variants with alternative ones that occur in the human population, to incorporating new instructions into a person’s genome to enhance, say, their memory or muscles, or even to confer entirely new biological functions, such as the ability to see infrared light or break down certain toxins.

Genetic correction is lifesaving as most genetic diseases are lethal. It is also localized to certain abnormal genes so editing them should not have much effect on other areas. Genetic enhancement is often an option. The danger is germline modification in which an editing down is passed onto future generations. In other ways, we could be creating an inheritable disease.

A Christian Perspective on Genome Editing

My perspective at this moment is

1. Research and clinical studies on genetic correction should continue with adequate oversight
2. A moratorium on genetic enhancement (includes germline editing)

A moratorium maybe for 5 years and a review whether the issues of safety and effectiveness; existence of alternative approaches; off-target results; epigenetics; and consequences on future generations have been settled with future improvement in technologies.

 

16 April 2019

Technology and the Gospel

 

a printer workshop (Gutenberg Museum, Mainz)

Technology plays an important role in religions. Aside from technologies such as husbandry and farming, the invention of writing, writing materials, printing and digital recordings has an important role in the growth and development of Christianity and the spread of the Gospel.

Oral traditions have a significant place in the formation of concepts and ideas of a monotheist God during the early days of ancient Israel. The limits of oral traditions require practitioners with exception memories and the ability to recall verbatim. Often, this is not possible as additions and omissions affect the narratives. The invention of writing from its initiate scratches on bones or shells to a formalised cuneiform marks the end of the oral tradition. Writing necessitates the invention of a medium to write on. Initial writing materials were bones, which makes way for animal skins where were made into parchment. Pergamum, a city mentioned in Revelation was a centre of parchment production until the introduction of papyrus from Egypt. This technology leads to our modern paper. Paper is a stable medium and writings were bound up into codex (like our modern books) instead of stored as scrolls (parchment). The Bible and its various commentaries are the results of this technology of writing and writing materials. Books became the medium for the use in churches. Unfortunately, the early Bibles were written in Greek and Latin and hence incomprehensible to the common people.

Books were laboriously hand-copied by scribes until the introduction of the movable printing press. Printing was invented in 593 in China using carved wooden blocks. The movable printing press was developed in China in 1040. In the west, Lauren Coster from Denmark was the first to develop a movable printing press using wooden types but German Johannes Gutenberg was more well known for his movable type printing press using metal types in 1447. This date was significant because this was around the time when an unknown Augustinian monk, Martin Luther argued with the Roman Catholic Pope, and to his surprise cause the Reformation. Gutenberg’s press allowed enormous reprints of the tracts of the arguments (some of which were in German) to be printed and distributed widely in the Holy Roman Empire. Later in the Reformation, Luther and his friends translated the whole Bible into German. With printing, many people in Germany were able to read and understand the Bible in their own language.

facsimile of The Babylonian Captivity of the Church by Martin Luther,              Lutherstadt, Wittenberg

Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (Latin: De captivitate Babylonica ecclesiae, praeludium Martini Lutheri, October 1520) was the second of the three major treatises published by Martin Luther in 1520, coming after the Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (August 1520) and before On the Freedom of a Christian (November 1520)

The invention of the modern computers in the 1960-70s with its increasingly sophisticated word processing software marked another important milestones in the development of technology and religion. The move from analogy to digital and the interconnectivity provided by the Internet allows production and transmission of an enormous amount of religious knowledge. The number of platforms and devices in which this knowledge may be downloaded have also increased exponentially.

There seem to a close relationship between the introduction of new technologies and the expansion of the Gospel. Hand copied Bibles and books seem to limit the spread of the Gospel around the main European cities. With the Reformation and the printing press, the Gospel spread is wider to the rest of Europe, North America, certain parts of Asia and North Africa. The digital media seems to herald the expansion of the Gospel to the Global South. The smartphone has become the main platform for evangelism. It is now possible to bring the Gospel to the ends of the world. It will be interesting to see what the next technology brings.

The Luther Bible (German: Lutherbibel) is a German language Bible translation from Hebrew and ancient Greek by Martin Luther. The New Testament was first published in 1522 and the complete Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments and Apocrypha, in 1534

God is Cloud

Tags

Easter, Jesus

 

 

rainbow on a cloud. Photo captured during a retreat

 

Today is Transfiguration Sunday

Luke 9:28–36 (The Message)

^28–31  About eight days after saying this, he climbed the mountain to pray, taking Peter, John, and James along. While he was in prayer, the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became blinding white. At once two men were there talking with him. They turned out to be Moses and Elijah—and what a glorious appearance they made! They talked over his exodus, the one Jesus was about to complete in Jerusalem.

^32–33           Meanwhile, Peter and those with him were slumped over in sleep. When they came to, rubbing their eyes, they saw Jesus in his glory and the two men standing with him. When Moses and Elijah had left, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, this is a great moment! Let’s build three memorials: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He blurted this out without thinking.

^34–35           While he was babbling on like this, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them. As they found themselves buried in the cloud, they became deeply aware of God. Then there was a voice out of the cloud: “This is my Son, the Chosen! Listen to him.”

³⁶                When the sound of the voice died away, they saw Jesus there alone. They were speechless. And they continued speechless, said not one thing to anyone during those days of what they had seen.

 

The theme of the transfiguration is a powerful theme affirming that Jesus is the Christ who is the Glory of God transcending Moses who represent God’s Laws and Elijah, God’s Prophets. Jesus is the Son of God and deserves to be followed. While most attention is focused on Jesus, Moses and Elijah, and sometimes unfairly on Peter, John and James, it is sometimes missed that another person is also on the mountain. He is there in the form of a cloud.

Clouds are stuff when you look up at the sky or look down when you are on an airplane. They come in different colours and shapes. Clouds also cover the top of high mountains such as the Himalayas and the Andes. It is not actually known on which mountain, the transfiguration took place. Some suggest Mount Horeb (because Moses was there) or Mount Herman near Syria. What was fascinating that God took the form of one of his creation- a cloud. Not a mist or fog. Why a cloud? I will suggest some things that may happen inside a cloud,

1. There is a sense of disorientation. This is especially true in thick clouds where we cannot see anything and feel anything. We are so dependent on our senses that without them we become lost. This disorientation can be frightening. It can also be liberating. Without the input of our senses, we can be open to the voice of God. Often, the input from our senses is so distracting that we cannot hear the soft whisper of God’s voice. This is especially so in our loud, noisy and neon culture where there are overstimulation and supersensory saturation all the time.
2. There is a sense of Mystery. In a cloud, our self-constructed sense of reality often crumple. Together with it goes the God which we often constructed in our own image. Most of us put God in a box because it is easier to understand him. And we love to have the certainty that we have had God all figured out. God is much more that our finite minds can comprehend. That is why God is still Mystery. A walk in the cloud will remind us of that important perspective.
3. There is a sense of unknowing. Closely allied with Mystery is ‘unknowing’. The Cloud of Unknowing is a 14^th-century book on Christian mysticism. Also using the metaphor of a cloud the unknown author explains that it is impossible for us to really know God, let alone understand him. The only way know God is to abandon all our preconceived ideas about God, to let go and enter into a state of ‘unknowing’. Hence are we then ready to understand the nature of God. Even then we can only know what God has chosen to reveal to us.
4. There is a sense of presence. Cloud is composed of water vapour. We get wet in a cloud. If God is a cloud, we will similarly feel his presence. God’s presence permeates all of creation. Enclosing the disciples in a cloud reminds them of his presence.

The Transfiguration event happened following questions about Jesus’ death. It highlights Jesus’ path of suffering and death on the cross. In Luke 9:31, Moses and Elijah appeared to speak to Jesus about his departure. The word departure may also be translated as exodus, linking back to the Israelite’s history. Luke document this to affirm that the Christ is to die and resurrect. This is so important that even God came down in a cloud, something that has not happened since the exodus event! As a cloud, God reveals much of himself. May we draw wisdom from this reflection.

 

Soli Deo Gloria

Spiritual Formation Peanuts

Tags

Christian spiritual formation, discernment, spiritual discipline, spiritual formation

Some maxims of spiritual formation with their authors

Calling, Vocational Holiness and Spiritual Formation in the Workplace

Tags

Christian spiritual formation, discernment

Calling, Vocational Holiness and Spiritual Formation in the Workplace

9-13 September 2015

Malaysia Bible Seminari

Lecturer: Dr Alex Tang

 

Committed Christians are often concerned about discovering God’s will for their lives in terms of what occupation to take up or who to marry. The deeper question will be to discern what God wants them to be and become. Another concern is how they are to live and have their being in their workplace and marketplace. Central to this is how to maintain the vitality of their spiritual life and growth in the modern lifestyle that is extremely hectic and exhausting. This course will deal with Christian discernment or decision-making and the theology of God’s calling and vocation. It will examine Ignatian and Wesleyan approaches to discernment. The issue of hectic and busy lifestyles will be examined and approaches developed to nurture the spiritual life. The concepts of Missio Dei and Sabbath in their vocations will be developed.

While there will be some overlap with my previous MBS courses, this is a different course which deals with different aspects of our spiritual lives. My previous courses are 2012: Soul Care-The Art & Science of Spiritual Direction (caring for one another in ‘persons-in-formation’); 2013: Leading Change in Spiritual Formation Communities (leadership in a spiritual growing community – ‘persons-in-community formation’); and 2014: Dynamics of Spiritual Formation (understanding spiritual growth – ‘person with Christ-in-formation’). You do not need to have attended my previous courses to attend this.

Suitable for people who are making important life choices or are interested to know more about Godly decision-making and who are also interested to learn about spiritual maintenance and growth in busy and stressful lifestyles: pastors, lay leaders, church members, and seekers of truth.

Contact: Malaysia Bible Seminari Address: Malaysia, Selangor, Kuang, Lot no. 728 Jalan Kg Sungai Serai邮政编码: 48050

Phone:+60 3-6037 1727

The Busy and Hurried Soul

Tags

Christian spiritual formation, retreat

I have often be queried why I titled my book Spiritual Formation on the Run. It was suggested that it should include ‘…run away from the busy life’ or ‘…run to silence and solitude’. It puzzled me for a long time until it dawned on me that to many people, spiritual formation or spiritual growth is incompatible with being on the run or movement. To many, spiritual formation will only occurs when we are still and silent, like on a retreat in the mountains in the middle of nowhere. I do not know where this idea comes from but it seems to me that too many of us are exposed to Chinese kungfu movies where the grandmaster or sifu only attain enlightenment (usually implied a higher level of martial skills) by meditation while sealed in a cave on top of some misty mountain. I often wonder how he (usually it is a he) handle his toilet needs. I guess this is reinforced by the Christian division of hyperactive Martha who was busy being hospitable to her guests, and her quiet contemplative sister Mary who was sitting and listening to Jesus.

Luke 10:38–42 (NASB95)

               38Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. 39She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. 40But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” 41But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; 42but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Interestingly, this account was only found in Luke and happened immediately after Jesus told the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37). The parable highlighted doing good to all people irrespective of caste, religious afflictions and stations in life. Martha is associated with the active life while Mary with the contemplative one. Jesus seems to praise Mary’s choice as the correct one. If this is the only lesson from the passage, then Martha should come and sit at Jesus’ feet and everyone will go hungry without supper!

The houses in New Testament times are rather small so even when preparing food, both the ladies will be able to hear Jesus. The passage seems to imply that initially both Mary and Martha were involved in the food preparation. Then suddenly Mary left the preparation to sit at Jesus’ feet to focus fully on what Jesus was saying. Martha’s ire was that her sister was not helping her in the food preparation. Martha was busy and in a hurry. Maybe she wanted to produce an exception meal for her special guest. In her hurriedness, she was distracted and was not listening to Jesus. Jesus was speaking to everyone in the house, not just Mary. Jesus’ rebuke to Martha may be because she was not listening to him. This was because she was so distracted by her busyness. Martha should be preparing the food and listening to him at the same time as women are wonderful at multi-tasking. I am sure Jesus wanted to eat too. Jesus did not say, “Martha, stop what you are doing, sit down and listen to me!”

We all live very busy lives. From the moment we are rudely awakened by our alarm clocks to the time we fall asleep, we have to perform many tasks. Our ‘to-do’ list often runs to two or three pages. If being busy means that we have not chosen ‘the good part’ that most of us are in trouble. Not many of us have the opportunity to take time away to be in a retreat, to just sit and listen. There are bills to pay, houses to clean and kids to bring up.

There is a difference between being busy and being hurried. We can be busy without being in a hurry. Busy is an external condition where we have many tasks to complete. Hurry is an inner state where we are distracted because of the external busyness. This inner state of distraction means that our soul is confused, fragmented and disconnected with our minds, hearts and spirits. What is more significant is that the hurried or distracted person cannot hear the voice of God. What Jesus was trying to teach Martha (and us) is that it is not wrong for us to be busy (for which one of us is not busy) but not to be hurried and distracted. This is because when we are hurried and distracted, we cannot hear him.

This means that Christian spiritual formation and transformation may occurs in a busy life. However the process may be difficult in a busy and hurried life. Dallas Willard notes, “Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” Is it possible to live a busy but unhurried life?  Gregory the Great was the first monk to become a pope. He became Pope Gregory 1 from 590 to 604 AD. Gregory was a Doctor of the Church and a Latin Father. He contributed a lot to church services and is known as the father of Christian worship. In his busy schedule, Gregory was able to maintain a powerful devotional life. John Calvin mentioned Gregory in his Institutes and praised his contribution to the church.

How do we become unhurried in our busy life? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Do not be a perfectionism

Martha may not be so distracted if she was not in such a hurry to prepare a gourmet meal for his visitors. Perhaps a simpler meal may allow her to slow down and listen to Jesus as she worked. Our home need not be so clean and tidy to be featured in Ideal Home magazine. We do not need to have that complete set of Minions from McDonald Kiddy Meals. Being less of a perfectionist may remove the strain of being a hurry.

2. Prioritize your to-do list

Not all of the things on our to-do list needs to be completed. The world will not come to an end if we do not complete it. If Christ comes again then we do not need to complete it. Prioritize and do the most essential things first. Be realistic in assigning the amount of time to complete each task. Group similar tasks together. A bit of forward planning can help to eliminate hurry from our schedule.

3. Take ‘minute’ retreats

A ‘minute’ retreat is to take a minute of your time during a busy period, close your eyes and calm your mind, slow your breathing and take deep breaths. Visualize a quiet room within your heart where you can meet with Jesus and say hello. This will break the vicious cycle of stress caused by your business. Stress tend to induce hurry in our inner life. You can close your eyes and do a minute retreat at any time and in any place. Except maybe when you are driving or skydiving.

4. Keep things in perspective

In a particular busy period, ask yourself will what you are doing matters in five years’ time? Will it matters in a year’s time? Next month? Often answering this questions bring things into perspective. Having things in perspective helps to eliminate hurry. One of my favorite quotes from Facebook is a paraphrase of the Serenity Prayer: “Lord, give me coffee to change the things I can change and wine to accept the things I cannot, and chocolate while I figure out the difference!” Not taking ourselves too seriously and having a sense of humor helps us to slow down and not to hurry.

5. Let go and let God

The need to be in control and a busy life is a guaranteed recipe for a hurried life. Most of us are control freaks. We need to learn to let go and let God take control of our life and of our schedule. Learning to let go means learning to say no. Letting go means focusing on things that has eternal value rather than chasing after things that offer temporary satisfactions. This also helps us to be more patient with events and people.

A hurried life is a distracted life. We can be hurried even when we are not busy. Even during our vacations we are hurried and busy. A distracted life is an unhealthy life. It harms our bodies leading to hypertension, diabetes, obesity and heart problems. Our souls are also being harmed. We are restless. We feel disconnected and lost. There is lacking a sense of being anchored or grounded. We became swayed by every events that come our way. We are irritable and short fused. And we cannot hear the voice of God. Listening and hearing to the voice of God is what Jesus said as ‘only one thing [is] necessary’. So, take a deep breath and stop being in a hurry to finish reading this post!

 

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Slow Me Down Lord

“Slow Me Down Lord”

 

Slow me down Lord
Ease the pounding of my heart
by the quieting of my mind.

Steady my hurried pace
with a vision of the eternal march of time.

Give me amid the confusion of the day,
the calmness of the eternal hills.

Break the tension of my nerves and muscles
with the soothing music of the singing streams
that live in my memory.

Help me to know the magical restoring power of sleep.

Teach me the art of taking minute vacations,
Of slowing down to look at a flower,
to chat with a friend,
to pat a dog,
to read a few lines of a good book.

Slow me down Lord
and inspire me to send my roots
deep into the soil of life’s enduring values
that I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny.

Author: Wilfred A. Peterson

Spiritual Retreat

Tags

Christian spiritual formation, retreat, spiritual discipline

Taking Spiritual Retreats

A military retreat is often considered as losing ground as the soldiers are involved in moving back or withdrawal. However, not everyone sees it as that. General Oliver Prince Smith during the Korean War declared, “Retreat, hell! We’re not retreating, we’re just advancing in a different direction”! A spiritual retreat is not losing ground. It is taking a step sideways to reflect upon and to consolidate the advances of our spiritual life.

Our lives are very busy. We are swept away by its non-stop demands. The insistent attention-grabbing noise of the mobile phones, television and social media drowns out the voice of God. Our bodies are stressed resulting in hypertension, heart attacks and strokes. Our souls are fragmented and disjointed. Our lives feel disconnected and surreal. We feel as if we are drowning in a strong flowing river, being swept away with no control over our lives. All we can do is to try to keep our heads above the water. And when we do have a moment to take stock, we wonder where the months and years have gone.

It is essential for those who are serious about their spiritual life to take time out for retreats. As mentioned, retreats are when we intentionally step aside to reflect about our life in Christ and to listen to Him who is speaking into our lives. Retreats are opportunities for us to
• assess the state of our spiritual life
• making important decisions
• pray
• listen to God
• rest
• recharge
• recommit
• renew
• reassess our ministries

Retreats are of many different forms. There are the formal guided retreat (usually under a spiritual director), informal group retreat, and personal retreat. Personal retreat may be conducted by a person on his/her own. Frequency of taking a retreat depends on individuals. The length of a retreat may varies. It may be a 3 days retreat, a one week, one month or three months. In silent retreat, speaking is kept to the minimum. There are no fixed place for a retreat. We may have a retreat at a retreat center (which is ideal because they provide accommodation and food), a hotel/resort, a caravan or a tent. Or even in a home. Example of a personal retreat in 2011 here

The focus of a retreat is not in how it is structured but in spending time with ourselves and with the Lord. The keyword is listen.

• In a retreat, we listen to our bodies. Some of us are not very good custodians of our bodies. Often I find that most people sleep a lot during their retreat. This is because many of us are not aware of how tired we really are.
• We listen to our lived experiences. Many of us need time to process our experiences. There are grief processes that need closure. Issues of deep hurt and wounds need to be identified and undergo the process of healing. There are areas of forgiveness that needs to be worked through.
• We listen to the silence in our lives. These silence which is found between words speaks of our deepest needs, and of our innermost demons. Silence allows us to name and face these needs and demons.
• We listen to the sound of our prayers. Our prayers reflect our inner spiritual life. This is especially true of our prayerlessness. Though we give a lot of lip service to prayer, time for prayer is the first to disappear in a busy life.
• We listen to the word of God by reading the bible. Bible reading is an essential component of a retreat. In a retreat, we have time to read the bible slowly and reflectively. In normal days, many of us read the bible either to prepare a sermon or for cell group bible study.
• We listen to the voice of God. This may be an inner strong impression, a strong conviction or even an audible voice. The whole process of a retreat is to slow us down so that we can heard the small still voice of God. As Elijah cannot hear God during the noise of wind, earthquake and fire, we often cannot hear him in the earth shaking and stormy events of our everyday life.

In a retreat, we step aside to listen to the whisper of a small still voice, to reevaluate our lives, pray and to obey. That is why it is essential for us to make time for retreats. This is especially if our lives are very busy. Allocating time for retreat should be part of our planning and ministry. I recommend that we plan for at least two retreats a year. We must realize that we serve out of our being. There is always the danger that we run on empty. We may get away by serving when we are spiritually empty but it will be a matter of time before we crash and burn. We must realize that when we fall, not only we will be hurt, more importantly many others who depend on us and look up to us will be hurt too. So take time out to step aside in our busy life and listen.

Bible Message in Manga Format

The series of Manga bible stories by Ryo Azumi and Shinozawa Kelly gave me hours of interesting reading. More about them on their website NEXTmanga. It is close enough to the biblical text for our children to read. More like a modern illustrated bible.

 MANGA MUTINY is the story of the beginning, the creation of the world, the struggle in the heavens, the deception of humanity, and the corruption to follow. With the fall of man, the world becomes a hostile environment where no one can find rest. But new hope is born through one who believes…

MANGA MELECH continues the drama of Abraham’s descendants right where MUTINY leaves off. The people are a desperate band of wanderers. Homeless and weary in an unforgiving desert, they march toward a new land rich with green fields and abundant harvests.

MANGA MESSENGERS is the mind-bending drama of the kings and prophets of Israel. Continuing right where MELECH leaves off, the descendants of Abraham have not only found their peace in the land but have ascended to become the greatest kingdom in the world…

An unknown king enters the world under the cover of night to begin a seemingly unimpressive work. He soon becomes one of the most powerful figures in the land; intensely hated by some and emphatically loved by others. His work is unlike that of any king before or after him, and his words, strength, and life are unlike any the world has ever known. 

At first bewildered after their leader’s departure, Yeshua’s followers quickly see there is little time for reflection as the forces of their enemies bear down hard and fast upon them. Every ounce of courage and strength is required as this newly endangered team holds on to their faith and to each other.

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Random musings and reflections on life, God and all that stuff (movies, comics, science fiction, spiritual formation, Christian education, biomedical ethics, post modern parenting, books, theology and philosophy)