St. Patrick's Adventerous Prayer -- Bruce Epperly

It is St. Patrick's Day, and since an eighth of me is Irish, I should be ready to celebrate!  St. Patrick may be the patron saint of Ireland, but he is also the inspiration for Celtic spirituality.  With that in mind, Bruce Epperly has provided a brief essay that shares with us some of St. Patrick's own Prayer.   May your St. Patrick's Day not only be green, but blessed as well.

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St. Patrick’s Adventurous Prayer

Bruce Epperly

Life is adventurous and filled with surprises, whether or not we seek them out. According to legend, Celtic missionaries set off on voyages, without a rudder for steering, in order to find their place of resurrection, the place where they would experience God’s calling for their lives. They trusted God’s movements in the winds and waves.

St. Patrick shared that same adventurous spirit as he spread the good news of Jesus as Healer and Savior. Like Columba, he used the language of druid religion. Celtic Christians often described Christ as their “druid,” teacher, guide, and healer.

As legend has it, Patrick was being pursued by a local chieftain, who was planning to capture and kill him. Just as the chieftain’s troops were bearing down on him, Patrick disappeared. All they saw was a deer bounding across the pathway. God was at work, Patrick believed, in providing him shelter along with insight for the journey.

In the spirit of Patrick, Celtic Christians often rotate in a clockwise direction, drawing a circle around themselves whenever they left on a journey, whether across the neighborhood or into unknown lands. They recognized the adventure of each day, and their need for God’s guidance and protection. I use the prayer of St. Patrick, along with the Celtic caim, or encircling prayer, whenever I feel anxious or at risk. If you are in a public place or hospitalized, you may say this prayer in your imagination.

Here are some of the words of Patrick’s “Breastplate” or “Lorica.” Take them as a companion on today’s adventures.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through the belief in the threeness,

Through confession of the oneness

Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today

Through the strength of heaven:

Light of sun,

Radiance of moon,

Splendor of fire,

Speed of lightning,

Swiftness of wind,

Depth of sea,

Stability of earth,

Firmness of rock.

I arise today

Through God's strength to pilot me:

God's might to uphold me,

God's wisdom to guide me,

God's eye to look before me,

God's ear to hear me,

God's word to speak for me,

God's hand to guard me,

God's way to lie before me,

God's shield to protect me,

God's host to save me.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the threeness,

Through confession of the oneness,

Of the Creator of Creation.

On this St. Patrick’s season, embrace God’s circle of care and inspiration. You are always in the dynamic circle of divine adventure. Your life is a holy adventure in companionship with an adventurous God.

Bruce Epperly is a theologian, spiritual guide, healing companion, retreat leader and lecturer, and author of nineteen books, including Holy Adventure: 41 Days of Audacious Living; God’s Touch: Faith, Wholeness, and the Healing Miracles of Jesus; and Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry. He has taught at Georgetown University, Wesley Theological Seminary, Claremont School of Theology, and Lancaster Theological Seminary. He is currently theologian in residence at St. Peter’s United Church of Christ in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He can be reached for lectures, seminars, retreats, or comments at bruceepperly@gmail.com

Spirit-Centered Progressive Christianity (Bruce Epperly)

Bruce G. Epperly returns today with the third of a series of guest posts lifting up the potential and possibilities of a progressive Christianity.  He began with a call to a "passionate progressive revival" and then offered a response to Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Life."  This morning Bruce describes ways in which Progressive Christians, who are good at developing the mind and the hands, can develop their spiritual hearts.

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A recent Pew Center Religion and Public Life found that 50% of mainstream Christians claimed to have had mystical experiences or experiences of self-transcendence. The study suggests that there is a mystic next to you in church each week, or that you might be a mystic yourself. Yet, despite the reality of deep spiritual experiences within their congregations, moderate and progressive Christians seldom share these experiences publicly in church. And, seekers who are looking for spiritual growth often discover that progressive churches are the last places to find it! In progressive churches, people come out of the closet about everything – except their spiritual experiences and witness to God’s presence in their lives.

I believe that the future growth and impact of progressive Christianity involves claiming a holistic spirited-centered faith, which overcomes the current dualism of spirituality and social justice among progressives. Progressive Christianity typically sees itself as a faith involving head and hands, that is, creative theological reflection and committed social activism. To complete the circle of faith, progressive Christians need to reclaim the “heart” of Christianity (to paraphrase Marcus Borg) found in intimacy with God and the natural or non-human world. Progressives need to claim their vocation as spirit-persons, to quote Borg, as a complement to their vocation as prophetic activists. A truly dynamic, life-transforming faith over the long haul depends on a creative synthesis of head, heart, and hands, or theological reflection, spiritual experience and practice, and social activism.

The prophetic tradition and the ministry of Jesus provide inspiration for the holistic, spirit-centered faith that progressives need in order to confront the current cultural and global challenges. The prophetic ability to imagine an alternative reality to the current unjust social structure, as Walter Brueggemann asserts, often was the result of profound mystical experiences. When Jeremiah protests his youth, God whispers to him, “don’t be afraid, I am with you.” Isaiah’s mystical experience in the temple – his encounter with the Holy One and his vision of God’s glory enlivening the whole earth – gave him the courage, despite his sense of distance from God, to say “yes” to God’s call. In line with this tradition, Jesus regularly took time for prayer and meditation as essential to his ministry of radical hospitality, healing, and spiritual transformation.

Martin Luther King once said that the church should be a headlight and not a taillight in the quest for social justice. Today, progressive Christians are called to be leaders, shining a light on the creative integration of spirituality and justice, and the quest for personal, social, and global healing. Progressives have a theology that encourages spiritual experience: a sense that God is still speaking, that God is present throughout the world, and that the world reveals God’s presence. What we need is to claim this theology in life transforming ways. We can go beyond Enlightenment rationalism to embrace God’s revelation in all things – in our daily lives, in our quest for justice, in the non-human world.

Progressives need to claim practices of spiritual transformation to complement and deepen their commitment to social transformation. A transformed world requires a renewed and transformed mind, or vision of reality, as the Apostle Paul says. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in spiritual practices such as prayer, healing, hospitality, service, etc. Persons such as Diana Butler Bass, Dorothy Bass, Stephanie Paulsell, Barbara Brown Taylor, Philip Newell, Craig Dykstra, and Bruce Epperly have provided insightful and accessible resources for personal and congregational transformation.

But, where shall we progressives begin our quest for a holistic integration of spirituality and social transformation? Let me suggest a few guideposts in spirit-centered progressive spirituality:

• A recovery of prayer as a pathway of awakening to the sacrament of the present moment. Although we do not expect supernatural violations of the laws of nature in response to our prayers, we can pray with the expectation that the act of prayer joins us with God and those for whom we pray, awakens us to new perspectives, and (I believe) creates a positive field of force around those for whom we pray, thus, enabling God to be more active in their lives. 
•  A commitment to easily learned meditative/contemplative practices such as breath prayer (simply breathing in God’s spirit, exhaling stress); centering prayer (focusing on a prayer word, such as “peace,” “joy,” “love”) 
•  An exploration of imaginative prayer (experiencing the world as reflecting God’s presence, including those with whom we contend in the current political, theological, and culture “wars”) Seeing Christ in those with whom we disagree moves us from “polarization” to “contrast,” that is, to affirmation without divisiveness. 
•  A discovery of Christian affirmations that transform our minds and actions. (Short sentences aimed at transforming the way we experience reality, such as “I am God’s beloved child,” “Nothing can separate me from the love of God,” “God’s light shines in all creation, even those with whom I contend.”)
•  An openness to God’s healing touch through acts of prayer, healing rituals such as laying on of hands, and global energy techniques (such as healing touch, therapeutic touch, and reiki healing touch.) 
•  A commitment to joining heart and hands in social activism – praying our political action and seeing Christ in those whom we serve. 
•  A commitment to reading the bible imaginatively through Benedictine lectio divina (holy reading) and Ignatian spiritual exercises/imaginative prayer.

Progressive Christianity, following 19th century liberalism, has proclaimed the continuity of God and the world and humankind and non-human life; naturalistic theism (God works within causal relationships rather than supernaturally); and the universality of revelation. These claims open the door for truly practicing God’s presence – truly opening to divine revelation in our lives and seeing God at work in the transformation of society and our lives. A spirit-centered progressivism can give us the energy, perspective, and patience to confront injustice while maintaining our spiritual, physical, and relational well-being.

Bruce Epperly is a seminary professor and administrator at Lancaster Theological Seminary and, pastor and spiritual companion. He is the author of seventeen books, including Holy Adventure: 41 Days of Audacious Living, a response to Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life. His Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry, written with Katherine Gould Epperly, was selected Book of the Year by the Academy of Parish Clergy. (http://www.bruceepperly.com/)

Learning and Living Scripture -- Review

LEARNING AND LIVING SCRIPTURE: An Introduction to the Participatory Study Method. By Geoffrey D. Lentz and Henry E. Neufeld. Gonzalez, FL: Energion Publications, 2010. ix + 116 pp.

The Bible has been for some time, the best selling, but least read book in history. It is no secret that while the Bible remains influential in western society, the people, including church people, have little understanding of its content or meaning. Survey after survey confirms the observation that we are a biblically illiterate people. Despite that reality, all manner of social and cultural claims are made upon the scriptures that are holy to both Christian and Jew. The problem is that there is little hope that this tide can be turned. Our school systems are not in a good position to fill the void, in large part due to political activists with religiously motivated agendas. At the same time churches are finding it difficult to attract audiences that are willing to commit themselves to serious biblical study. Indeed, preachers find it difficult to attract audiences that wish to truly engage the text in a responsible manner.

We face a dilemma as a society and as a Christian community – how do we resolve this problem of biblical illiteracy? The good news in all of this is that there are a number of resources out today that could be of help. There are up-to-date translations, study Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries, and more that can aid the serious student of the Bible. One needn’t be trained in the languages or have advanced degrees to do serious study, one simply needs a commitment and guidance, so that they can tackle what is an ancient text that has stood the test of time. Yes, it has been misused and abused, but its value remains strong. What is needed is a method that will serve the student well.

Henry Neufeld is a publisher and Bible teacher, with degrees in the biblical languages. He developed a program called the Participatory Study Method, a method that Neufeld describes as “designed to invite people who wish to study the Bible to become a part of the community of faith that produced the texts we now have as scripture by studying them empathically and with an aim to learn and grow spiritually” (p. iv). Neufeld then set up a publishing company, Energion Publications, to produce study guides and other resources, that would aid would be students of the Bible in their study. In this book, Neufeld joins with Geoffrey Lentz, a United Methodist pastor, to write a manual that would introduce interested people to this method. It is a method that can be used in both personal study and in group study. It is intended to bring together the devotional use of scripture with an intensive engagement with the text as a historical, literary, and theological document.

This introductory manual is divided into two sections. Section one, entitled “Learning,” provides an introduction to the Participatory Bible Method. The second section, entitled “Living,” provides an introduction to the genres/literary types that one would encounter in reading and studying scripture. In each of the chapters found in section two, the authors introduce readers to the way in which one would read and understand those parts of scripture that would be defined as story, history, parable and allegory, poetry, letters, prophecy, visions, and wisdom. In each chapter, one is given both description and exercises that allow one to engage the text in an appropriate manner.

Returning to the first section, the authors provide an introduction to a method that is firmly based in the principle of “Lectio Divina,” though in this method the intent is to look not simply at a small passage of scripture, but an entire book. This is not simply a devotional methodology, but it is assumed that one will read the text with God – with prayer involved at every point in the process. The authors note that it is their conviction “that Bible study should be about experiencing God.” That is, it’s not just a matter of learning about God or learning doctrines, but experiencing relationally the God revealed in scripture. Thus, study of the Bible is not the end game. An experience of the presence of God is the intent of the process. That said, deep learning is part of the process. It is not an either/or situation. They assume that in order to truly experience God through biblical study you should seek to understand the text in its context, using the best tools available.

The method as laid out in the book involves these steps: Preparation (making sure you have the necessary resources at hand before you begin), Prayer, Overview (reading the passage through at least once, but preferably three times, to get a sense of the text, along with checking out the historical context of the book under consideration). From there the study moves to what they call “The Central Loop.” This is the point at which the student dives deep into the text. It is here that one seeks to meditate on the text. As one seeks to understand the text, the student will go through a repeatable process that begins with the study of the background, moves to meditation, questioning, researching, and comparing. To get the best sense of the text and its application to life, one will go through the process several times. From this process, the student will move on to sharing what they have learned and experienced in handling the text. The authors suggest that this final step is part of the “contemptlatio” experience. With regard to the step of sharing, the authors write that this step includes not only sharing what one has learned, but also involves living out what one has learned. Chapters four through eight take the reader through each of the steps, again providing exercises that one can do as individuals and as groups, so that they might understand and make use of the method.

The book is written in such a way that it can be a useful tool for a wide variety of Christian expressions. The authors take a moderately conservative approach to the text, but one could make good use of this method even if one was much more liberal than the authors. The key element here is the attempt to integrate prayer and meditation with deep and even critical biblical study. They don’t assume that prayerful reading is contradicted by healthy questioning of the text. If one were to engage in this kind of study, then the unfortunate illiteracy that plagues the church might be overcome.