Hi folks, i hope you are doing ok, this week we are meeting at 7.30 at the Shiremoor House Farm, I hope you will be able to join us.
This weeks blog is written by Sue.
Since the beginning of the year I have been reading the daily meditations from the Centre of Action and Contemplation of which week 2 was entitled “Engaging with a World on fire”. I found these reflective meditations to inspire, challenge and offer hope of what could actually be done while maintaining the strength, motivation and focus to do it.
I am going to attempt to give you the highlights of these seven days in reflections written by Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren and others.
The word engaged was inspired and contemplated after Richard Rohr and Brian McLaren read and learnt from Buddhist friends about their term of engaged Buddhism. This in turn came from the great Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hahn, who when entering the religious community at the time his nation was entering into a civil war, he found that he did not want to be on the sidelines of disengagement so he began to create what he called engaged Buddhism.
Another inspiration was Thomas Merton who become a Trappist Monk, and wrote two books, “New seeds of contemplation” and “Seeds of Destruction” because he too believed in an engaged contemplative Christian faith.
Richard Rohr set up the Centre of Action and Contemplation to help others to engage with both action and contemplation. Richard writes,
“I have witnessed how many of us attach to contemplation or action for the wrong reason. Introverts may use contemplation to affirm quite time; those with the luxury of free time sometimes use it for ‘navel-gazing’. On the other hand, some activists see our call to action as an affirmation of their particular agenda and not much else… By contemplation, we mean the deliberate seeking of God through a willingness to detach from the passing self, the tyranny of emotions, the addiction to self-image and the false promises of the world. Action, as we are using the word, means a decisive commitment to involvement and engagement in the social order.
Richard further writes that contemplation is our fixed point to stand, be steady, centred, poised and rooted. This gives us a minor detachment from the world to withdraw from ‘business as usual’ and to enter into that scared/secret place that Jesus talks about (Matthew 6:6). But he continues with the importance to remain very close ‘to the world at the same time, loving it, feeling its pain and joy as our own pain and joy, otherwise our distance becomes a form of escapism.’
Brian McLaren writes that Jesus followed this same rhythm by withdrawing and then engaging with the society, the communities he was ‘within by healing, feeding, caring, welcoming, binding up the wounds of this world and implanting in people the vision of resilience, engaging with the world on fire.’
When Brian wrote his book “Everything Must Change”, he studied the global crises which led to him understanding the four deep problems that we face:
- We face a crisis with our planet
- We have a crisis of poverty and unequal distribution of wealth and power
- The crisis of peace
- A crisis of religious communities remaining on the sidelines.
Sallie McFague is quoted “Facing the world’s crisis is the first step towards loving action and change.”
She continues ‘It will not be a world simply of less water, more heat, and fewer species of plants and animals; rather, it will be one of violent class wars over resources, the breakdown of civilisation at all levels and the end of certain facets of ordinary life that we have come to expect…’
The weeks reflection then consider that the most difficult task facing us in being engaged in carrying the message of hope and asks ‘is it possible to have any?’ And that to enable us to carry hope to others we need to overcome our own lack of hope first.
I do find hope in how this daily reflection is concluded “
… this faith, not in ourselves, but in God, can free us to live lives of radical change, Perhaps it is the only thing that can. We do not rely on such hope as a way to escape personal responsibility – “Let God do it” – but rather this hope frees us from the pressure of outcomes so that we can add our best efforts to the task at hand.”
Lerita Coleman Brown is quoted to give a practical example of the Civil Rights Movement of the many roles, responsibilities people engaged to ensure change was no longer a dream but an action to be engaged in.
“Yet not all participants in major human rights struggles like the civil rights movement marched. People cooked meals, babysat children, wrote and filled legal briefs, trained marchers, and became community organisers. Others who were unable to march prayed, made phone calls, and hosted movement gatherings.
Activism can be anything that helps to heal people {and other beings] and the world. The call one hears in a unitive moment might involve work on gender or environmental justice concerns or humanitarian crises. It might mean working in a soup kitchen, or connecting with the military veterans or tutoring children. Or it might mean playwriting, choreography, painting or sculpting.”
To conclude, When we take the inward journey of contemplation it is to come into the presence of God, to connect with Him through His love for us as individuals and others. There is then a point where concerns are acknowledged, contemplated and prayed about. As we journey back out and engage with society, people and the world beginning to make connections with others, where creative can flow to being hope for change, the equality and love for all and to remove that which blocks God and individuals connecting with each other.
Questions
- What contemporary stories from books, movies, TV does it bring to mind?
- If you think about contemplation and action, what bible characters do these terms remind you of?
- What do you think about the balance of contemplation and action?
- What are your thoughts on the four deep problems of global crises which Brian McLaren talks about?
- How can we overcome the lack of hope to be able to take hope to others?
- What do you think about the main roles it took for the Civil Rights movement to happen?
- Does this have an effect on how you might be able to engage with making change in the areas that concern you?
References:
Radical Resilience: Weekly Summary — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
Engaging with a World on Fire — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
Contemplation, Love, and Action — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
What Is Our Task? Care and Hope. — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
Engaged Christianity — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
Mysticism and Social Change — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
A Lever and a Place to Stand — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
Engaging with a World on Fire: Weekly Summary — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
Rob Wylie is the founder of BeachcomberFX and guides its leadership team. He has worked in the North East for over 20 years and has vast experience from various roles he has held. He has a passion for Fresh Expressions of Church and Pioneer Ministry as well as beer, beaches and Miniature Schnauzers.