Sermon 03-07-2010

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Scripture: Colossians 3:12-17
Sermon: SPIRITUALITY ALL THE TIME
with little time
Meditation
by Pastor Todd Buurstra

Problems aren’t your problem. Huh? Our reaction to them is our problem. For example,

Problem: You get a D.
Stinkin’ Thinkin’: I’m stupid. I’ll never get Calculus!
Qualification: Maybe, maybe not.

Problem: Your lover tells you: We’re thru!
Stinkin’ Thinkin’: I have so screwed up this relationship! Really?
Qualification: Sure?

Problem: Your boss says, Your services aren’t needed.
Stinkin’ Thinkin’: I’ll never get my kids through college.
Qualification: True?

Since Eve ate the kumquat, every human has suffered from stinkin’ thinkin’ because sin has affected us body (sickness), soul (selfishness), and mind (stinkin’ thinkin’). Paul’s mind must have been spiraling downhill as he sat there to rot in prison writing this letter to the Colossians. So Paul meditates, and calls us to the same, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, he says. How does Christ-centered meditation help us with stinkin’ thinkin’?

Well first, is what you’re doing Christ-centered meditation? In Paul’s words, is it the word of Christ that’s dwelling in you? I mean there’s a whole smorgasboard of meditation options out there. I remember hearing an otherwise pretty good reformed professor say once, Yoga is not Christian. What? I thought. I think yoga can be Christian, but what I think he was saying is that the act of just emptying your mind (like is popular now in yoga, or Transcendental Meditation, or any Eastern religion) is not Christian, per se. It’s what you fill your mind with.

Paul wants us to fill our mind with the word of Christ to purify stinkin’ thinkin’. So in his culture of many gods, he asserted, Christ is the image of the invisible God…all things have been created through him and for him… Christ is the head of the…church…so that he might come to have first place in everything… For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Nothing else, no other god, no empty mind compares to the word of Christ.

And Christ’s word is not just to dwell in us, it is to dwell in us richly. You’ve heard about the little guy who gave me a penny the other Sunday? I stooped down and said Thanks, buddy. What’s this for? He said, It’s for you. My daddy says you’re the poorest preacher in town. How do I become a richer preacher to nourish your spirits more richly? Like communion, we let Christ’s word nourish us–the richest of fare! The Hebrew word for meditate shares the same root as a cow chewing her cud. Guigo said: “Scripture… Reading, as it were, puts the food into the mouth. Meditation chews it and breaks it up. Not the empty calories of an empty mind yoga, it’s the nourishment of Christ-centered meditation, which could be yoga.

Say more about how I let the word of Christ dwell in me richly? You find a verse through which Christ speaks to you, and chew on it. Turn it over in your mind until you think:

Problem: You get a D.
Meditation’ Thinin’: I Cor. 2:16: I have the mind of Christ. Hmmm, God gave me a mechanical mind.

Problem: Your lover says, We’re thru!
Meditation’ Thinin’: Jer. 31:3: I love you with an everlasting love. I am still loved.

Problem: Your boss says, Your services aren’t needed.
Meditation’ Thinin’: Phil 4:19: God will supply my need. We’ll be ok.

The waitress picked up a quarter and said, this is the best tip I’ll get all day. Why? You see all the napkins on the floor? Just before you there was a group of headstart kids here. They get one meal a day from their headstart class and this was their meal. Then their teacher gives them each a quarter to play one video game over there. You see, these kids don’t have Xboxes at home. This one little boy had been living in a rusted school bus, but now his family has upgraded to a shack. But his mom tries to make her kids rich on the inside. She tells her kids often, I Thessalonians 5:18: Give thanks in all things. So he leaves his quarter to thank me.

That’s the power of letting the word of Christ dwell in your richly.

Service 02-28-2010

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Scripture: Mark 1:12, 13, 35-39
Sermon: Spirituality All the Time
by Pastor Todd Buurstra

with Little Time: Centering Prayer

I wonder if a typical morning for many might be: (ring) Gotta make lunches! Gotta finish my homework! Gotta finish the boss’ report! (Sigh) Everyone wants something from me!!

And then: I don’t like baloney sandwiches! You’re late! This homework is incomplete. This report isn’t thorough. Ah, everyone wants something from me, but no one is happy with me.

Since this is a typical for too many, our title admits that we have to fit our spirituality into little time. That is why we began last week with prayer on the go. Yet praying through the day on the way to school in a bus, or on the way to work in the car, can only go so far. Praying on the go can leave us a half a bubble off with a hyperactive spirituality. To balance this, we must be still and know that I am God. Now, if we only do centering prayer, and no ongoing prayer, then we are also a half bubble off. For then we may just check it off, with a compartmentalized spirituality. So ten minutes of centering prayer is the balance to pray through the day.

How do we let prayer center us?

Jesus, as always, is our model. Jesus had a very busy life. After all, God gave him the job to save the world–talk about responsibility?! You only have to launch a new product like an Ipad, or write five essays, or finish three loads of laundry, or keep looking for a job after your 77th rejection. Jesus said, I have come to seek and to save the lost (Matthew 18:11). Whoa! Remember how Jesus Christ Superstar portrayed Jesus on a pedestal with a crowd around him each pulling him in a different way? In the rendition that I saw, Jesus was doing one of these. Everybody wants something from me, and in light of the crucifixion, and no one is happy with me! Mark portrays this busyness with the word immediately, euqus. This word occurs 17 times in Mark’s gospel so Jesus is pictured as a man of action: preaching, teaching, healing—the carpenter remodeling the world. We see it in this Lenten passage of the temptations…

So how does Jesus show us how to handle our busyness? Even in this gospel of action Jesus retreats 9 times—twice in our passages. Once on his way to be tempted, we forget that he was camping in the wilderness, campers. The other time after a huge healing service that went late, he got up before light, to go to a deserted place. Don’t you hate it when you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep because something keeps circling through your mind? The comment at the meeting. That insult. Or how pitiful that blind man looked. (I bet that was what Jesus was experiencing!) I’ve begun to think of those times as a call to prayer. And, I find that I might as well because I can’t get back to sleep until I pray through what’s swirling in my brain anyway. I try to let go and let God to rest my mind in order to rest my body

Why is it so hard for us to slow down so we can let go and let God? I think because our pride likes to feel the importance of busyness. I’ll never forget the time that the kindergarten Church School bell rung in MI, and Jessica stayed in her seat talking to my Zach. Mrs. Assink, the teacher, told us later that Jessica said, Wow, Zach, it’s so cool that your dad is the preacher that owns this church. Zach, unimpressed didn’t miss a beat, Yeah, but he farts a lot. That let the gas out of my importance. Jesus, the very Son of God, could claim more importance than us all, yet he tempered his busyness with quiet times away, praying. He was centered in prayer.

What benefit did he get from this? Jesus had a clear sense of who he was and what he was to do. So critical to God’s mission! When Martin Luther was reforming the church and he had a particularly busy day of translating the Bible, teaching in school, fighting the pope, etc. he said that he was too busy not to pray—needing that laser focus. Jesus had it. That helped him tell Satan to shove his temptations of, in a sense, money, sex and power; and, to tell Peter that even though the people of Capernaum begged him to stay, NO. For his strategy said he needed to move on in his preaching tour of Galilee. I probably would have tried to stay and go.

So St. John Cassian, 4th century, developed a practice that he picked up from desert fathers and mothers, who picked it up from Jesus. He called it centering prayer. For two millennia this has been a way to tap into the Holy Spirit within—God’s breath So that your inner calm reflects the glassy sea from St. John the apostle’s vision of God’s throne in Revelation.

How do you pray in a centered way?
First, you sit in a quiet spot for 10 minutes—I do mine at 5:30 AM.

Second, you just breathe—remember breath is the same Greek/Hebrew word for Spirit.

Lastly, you may want to match a word to the rhythm of your breath—I do Jesus…

And then you get distracted. What will I make for lunch? Hmm, didn’t like baloney, so ham? The temptation is to say, Gee! There I go distracted again! Better to just let it go, and gently come back to your word and your breath. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And you start the day centered.

What’s the benefit of letting prayer center you? Like Jesus,

you see things most clearly that you look at most calmly.

The story, called 1000 marbles, is told of an elderly ham radio operator that was overheard talking to a younger ham radio enthusiast on the radio. Well, Tom it sounds like you have a very busy and important job, and well paying, too! Too bad that you have to spend so much time away from home that you missed your daughter’s dance recital. Let me tell you what’s helped me keep my focus. At 55 I was sort of meditating, or praying really, on how much time I have left. I’m a prayerful, or meditative, kind of guy. I realized that if I would live 20 more years, I’d have about another 1000 Saturdays in life. So I went to the toy store and filled a jar with 1000 marbles. Every Saturday since, I have taken out one marble. I found that there’s nothing quite like watching your time here on earth pass to really focus you. Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning I took the last marble out of that container. So if I make it until next Saturday, God will have given me extra time. Thanks for listening to my story, hope it helps. This is K9NZQ, clear and signing off.

Why not let prayer center you? Amen.

Newsletters and Calendar March 2010

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Service 02-21-2010

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Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Sermon: “All the Time with Little Time: Pray as You Go” by Pastor Todd Buurstra

What I love about the Warrior drama is that it takes prayer out of the monestary or sanctuary and puts it on the street, or in the house. That’s crucial for busy folks like us!

I once heard of this prayerful monk who would be so stressed after chairing his monestary’s business meeting (you know: Brother Jerome wants to paint the hall green for creation but Brother Ignatius likes black for his sins), that he needed to lock himself into his room for an hour of prayer after the meetings. I wish I had that luxury, you too? But God calls us to take prayer to the streets, of which Maid Marlene is our patron saint!

To this end, St. Paul challenges, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing and give thanks in all circumstance. In other words, pray always. How does ongoing conversation with God benefit us? First, make sure you get the verse right.

Prayer on the Go: Prayer anyway, anyhow, anywhere.

First, prayer anyway. God is saying that you don’t need a special posture to pray. Back in the dark ages when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was in Church School, the teacher would say before every prayer, Now fold your hands and close your eyes. When LeRoy the pastor’s son, came back from seminary he would play with us before his prayer by saying, Now fold your eyes and close your hands. There is nothing wrong with a certain prayer posture: kneeling, hands raised, whatever helps you, but most of my praying is with my eyes open—which I find especially effective while driving!

Second, prayer anyhow. Jesus is showing us that we don’t need special prose to pray either. Back in the day, adults prayed, O Thou who makest the heavens, we praise Thee… you know, hymn language. Up until the 19th century they thought that New Testament Greek must be a special, heavenly language since they didn’t find any written Greek like it. Until they discovered spoken, street Greek. Turns out its an exact match! Even today I find that most who are afraid to pray out loud really just need to learn what to say to take off and land. You know, Dear God,… Amen. But in between all you need to do is to have a conversation with God: love that snow, Lord! Be with Aunt Tillie’s cancer…Pray with Matt Brianik once, he’ll learn ya. The Black Sioux said, For the Great Spirit is everywhere; he hears whatever is in our minds and hearts, and it is not necessary to speak to him in a loud voice, or we might add, in perfect language.

Lastly, prayer anywhere. The Spirit teaches you don’t need a special place to pray. Cathedrals, sanctuaries, cathedrals of creation like Sedona or a lakefront, are all nice but not necessary. As Marlene, you can’t pray always without praying everywhere.

Why? Because ceaseless prayer is, like we say in the benediction, prayer with the Christ who goes with you… before, beside, above, below. The Benedictine monks have told us for centuries loaborare est orare: to work is to pray. What? Because prayer is life and life is prayer! So, if you see life as prayer then three things will happen:

In God’s presence you will receive the present of the present. I mean prayer has helped me reduce plaque. I am one who brushes my teeth thinking of my next two things to do. My dental hygenist keeps saying, slow down… brush for 3 minutes… use an egg timer. So I’ve tried to brush prayerfully by being aware of what I’m doing. Last time she said, I don’t know what you’re doing, but KEEP DOING IT! I told her I’m brushing prayerfully. She didn’t know what to say. The desert fathers said Unceasing prayer heals the mind. You know why? Because God lives in the eternal now—all time is accessible to God right now—so ongoing prayer lets us savor the moment. It gives you the present of the present where the Spirit then leads you to either give thanks or rejoice.

Constant prayer helps you see all life as God’s gift. The promotion and the job loss, the A and the C-, the baby born and the grandmother dying, if accompanied with thank you, Lord, all become a gift. Augustine reminds us that when we do not pray, our hearts are trammeled in the direction of ungrateful possessiveness. This is why I recommend you give thanks before every meal, even if it’s just a moment of grateful silence, because it helps you see, even your liver and spinach as God’s gift. And, I contend that if you say grace, it will reduce obesity. Why? Because the more gratitude that fills our hearts the less need to stuff our stomachs to feel full. Life is God’s gift.

Lastly, frequent prayer builds up a Christ-centered confidence to bless the world. I was so proud of your all-time highest mission offering of $5K+ to Haiti! You decisively answered that challenge! What builds up the confidence of a strong response to bless the world? Nehemiah tells us the joy of the Lord is your strength. Just enjoy God’s adventure of renewing the world! And this joy will embolden you to the end. The story is told of a pastor who visited a dying saint. As the pastor stepped into the hospital room he saw the son, daughter and wife in tears, with the dying man masked with oxygen. Pastor suggested they hold his hand and sing his favorite hymns. They started with Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever… and continued with Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father… and ended with Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. As they sang the mood lifted from despair to hope, and as they came to the last verse, When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun, the pastor noticed two things: confident smiles in the room and the saint’s heart rate flattening. They sent him off rejoicing.
So, I commend to you this week, prayer without ceasing. Amen.

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Estate Planning 101

ESTATE PLANNING 101:
Benefiting Yourself and Your Heirs
While Supporting the Work of God’s Kingdom through NBRC

Join us for an Estate Planning Dessert
Tuesday, March 16th
7:00 – 8:30 PM

PRESENTERS:
Jay A. Soled, Esq.
Professor, Rutgers University
Director of Rutgers masters in Taxation Program

Rick Fontana
Vice President – Wealth Management
Certified Financial Planner
Portfolio Manager

TOPICS

• Federal Estate Tax Issues
• NJ Estate Tax issues
• Probate and Administration

RSVP:
NBRC Office – 908-725-2313 or office@NBRC.com

Sponsored by the Finance Committee of North Branch Reformed Church.

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