July 22, 2007
The Word Read
Amos 8:1-12
This is what God showed me—a basket of summer fruit.
God said, 'Amos, what do you see?' And I said,
'A basket of summer fruit.'
Then the Sovereign said to me, 'The end has come upon my people Israel;
I will never again pass them by.
The songs of the temple shall become wailings on that day,' says the Sovereign God;
'the dead bodies shall be many,
cast out in every place. Be silent!'
Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying,
'When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain;
and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?
We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances,
buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals,
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.'
The Sovereign has sworn by the pride of
Jacob:
Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?
On that day, says the Sovereign God,
I will make the sun go down at noon,
and darken the earth in broad daylight.
I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only child,
and the end of it like a bitter day.
The time is surely coming,
says the Sovereign God,
when I will send a famine on the land;
not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Sovereign.
They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Sovereign, but they shall not find it.
Luke 10:38-42
Now as they went on their way,
Jesus entered a certain village,
where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.
She had a sister named Mary,
who sat at Jesus’ feet
and listened to what he was saying.
But Martha was distracted by her many tasks;
so she came to him and asked,
'Sovereign, do you not care that my sister has left me
to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help m But Jesus answered her,
'Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted
by many things;
there is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part,
which will not be taken away from her.'
Lectio Divina is Latin for divine reading, spiritual reading, or "holy reading," and represents a method of prayer and scriptural reading intended to promote communion with God and to provide special spiritual insights. It is a way of praying with Scripture that calls one to study, ponder, prayer and listen.
The principles of Lectio Divina were expressed around the year 220 AD by Origen. He affirmed that to read the Bible profitably it is necessary to do so with attention, constancy, and prayer. Origen also emphasized the value of reading scripture with attention to possible different levels of meaning.
A number of monastic rules including the Benedictines made the practice of divine reading, part of their monastic life.
The systematization of spiritual reading into four steps dates back to the 12th century. Around 1150, a Carthusian monk, wrote a book entitled “The Monk’s Ladder” setting out the theory of the four rungs: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation.
Rather than just preaching about Lectio Divina though, I’m going to lead us through one way to pray the scripture.
So I invite you to prepare to hear the scriptures again, just by relaxing and focusing on your breathing, perhaps inviting the Holy Spirit to move through you as you prepare to hear the word again.
I’ll read the scriptures again you just heard. You can just listen or follow along. But I invite you to see if there is a specific word or phrase that jumps out in your hearing this time.
This is the Lectio part of the practice, the reading by yourself or someone else. Today it’s Vic and me. There are two scriptures, both from today’s lectionary. One is a longer harder scripture, the second shorter and more familiar. Pick out the word or phrase that jumps out at you from one of the passages.
Read the passages slowly.
That was the lectio part of the practice, the reading. Do you all have a word or phrase? If not, you can re-read the scriptures in the bulletin until one jumps out.
Now comes the Meditatio part of the practice.
If you have a word or phrase that caught you, take a few minutes now to meditate on that word or phrase. What comes to mind in your mind? What does it remind you of? What reactions to you have to it? How does it make you feel? Just roll the word or phrase over in your self, play with it, ponder it and come at it sideways. How does it apply to your own life?
The third movement of this practice is Oratio. I invite you to start by telling another person the word or phrase that jumped out and you. Then if you want, tell them how that word or phrase connected to your own life.
Now spend some time in prayer conversing with God, telling God the same thing. Just talk in the quiet of your mind to God - about how the word or phrase connected to you.
The final part of the practice is Contemplatio.
Listen to God. This is a practice of freeing oneself from one's own thoughts, both mundane and holy. It is about hearing God talk to us. Opening our mind, heart body and soul to the influence of God. Any conversation must allow for both sides to communicate, and this most unfamiliar act is allowing oneself to be open to hearing God speak. So be still and listen to the still small voice of God within you.
I invite everyone to take a breathe and let it out with a sign. That ends the practice of Lectio Divina. Are there any noticings anyone wants to share?
You can practice lectio as an individual by yourself and in a group. Practice with the Hebrew or Christian scriptures or another reading you choose. If I could have only gotten my hands on the new Harry Potter book earlier, we would have used a passage from that. Not.
