Hello friends,
Welcome to the 23rd episode of Christian Meditation with me Anita Mathias.
Let's begin to detach from our beloved broken world and return to the gentleness at the heart of the universe,
The Lamb upon the throne.
One way to settle down,
Focus and tune into the streams of the life of God within us is,
Ironically,
By re-entering our own bodies.
Become aware of your breathing and slowly begin to deepen your breath.
A longer exhale perhaps,
Breathing out carbon dioxide and any stress,
And then a longer inhale,
Filling your lungs with oxygen and the love of God poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit.
Breathe out some of your restlessness,
Breathe in some of the deep peace of the stars.
As we continue this very brief opening body meditation,
Also known as a body scan,
Turn your attention to your feet,
Clench your toes,
Wriggle them,
Release.
Dear Lord,
Please protect our feet and our ankles,
Which keep us moving and walking,
Which is so important for our health and happiness.
Lord,
Watch over us.
Do not let our feet slip.
In the words of Psalm 121,
Protect us from damaging falls.
Help us to do any necessary ankle-strengthening exercises.
Send your breath upwards to your hips,
Your low back and your stomach,
All of which can be reservoirs of unresolved emotional tension,
Which can also cause sciatica and back pain.
Perhaps place your right hand on your heart and your left hand on your abdomen,
Noticing its rise and fall as you breathe.
Lord,
Preserve our bodies,
Energy and strength as long as we have good work to do on this earth.
Help us to be like Caleb in the book of Joshua,
Who said,
So here I am today,
85 years old.
I'm still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out 45 years ago.
I'm just as vigorous now as I was then.
Raise your shoulders,
Which are other reservoirs of tension and stress,
To your ears.
Roll them forwards,
Backwards,
Again.
Stretch the arms upwards.
Clasp your right wrist with your left hand and bend towards your left.
Then reverse to motion.
Breathe.
And here's a short meditative poem by the poet William Stafford.
Yes,
It could happen any time.
Tornado,
Earthquake,
Armageddon.
It could happen.
Or sunshine,
Love,
Salvation.
It could,
You know.
That's why we wake and look out.
No guarantees in this life,
But some bonuses,
Like morning,
Like right now,
Like noon,
Like evening.
Let's speak at the opening of the Gospel of Matthew,
Which reads,
This is the genealogy of Jesus,
The Messiah,
The son of Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac.
Isaac,
The father of Jacob.
Jacob,
The father of Judah.
Judah,
The father of Perez,
Whose mother was Timah.
Perez,
The ancestor of Boaz,
Whose mother was Rahab.
Rahab,
Great-grandmother of King David,
The father of Solomon,
Whose mother was Bathsheba,
Uriah's wife.
Solomon,
The ancestor of Ahaz.
Ahaz,
The ancestor of Joseph,
The husband of Mary.
And Mary was the mother of Jesus,
Who was called the Messiah.
I'd like to share my abridged and read-written meditation on this passage with you.
For scoundrels,
Scallywags and rascals,
Christ came.
Jesus came for everyone,
Offering us joyful life in its abundance.
And he descended from many nations,
Tribes,
Peoples and languages.
From Abraham,
Who came from Ur in Iraq,
And who,
Impatient at God's unfulfilled promises,
Raped his slave Hagar.
He came from tricky Jacob,
Who scammed his brother Esau out of his inheritance.
He came from Judah,
Who impregnated his daughter-in-law Timah.
He came from Rahab,
A Canaanite prostitute,
Ancestress of King David.
He who spotted the very beautiful Hittite woman Bathsheba bathing,
Raped her,
Then had her husband Uriah killed.
He came from their son Solomon,
Whose 300 concubines and 700 wives included the Ammonite princess Nema,
Ancestress of wicked King Ahaz,
Who sacrificed his children to Moloch.
Ahaz,
Ancestor of Joseph,
Husband of Mary,
Mother of Jesus,
The Messiah.
From all of them,
Christ came.
And he came for everyone.
All can dive into the cascades of his love.
He is Jesus for everyone.
For the brilliant and the shallow,
The selfish and the kind.
For those who memorise their Bibles and those who rarely open them.
For those whose prayers move mountains and those who worry instead.
For the theologically erudite and those with childlike faith.
Liars,
Embezzlers,
The avaricious,
Psychopaths,
Sociopaths,
The sad and those who sadden others.
To all his redemption is offered.
He came for people from every nation and language.
For those we respect and find interesting and those we secretly dislike,
Judge and are threatened by.
He came for the pushy and the gentle,
For strivers and the lazy,
For the ethical and the dishonest.
He comes bearing gifts,
The ability to give and to receive love,
Answered prayer,
His guidance,
His presence,
His wisdom,
His peace.
Nothing separates the thirsty heart from his love.
Not our stinginess,
Vengefulness,
Malice,
Untruthfulness,
Selfishness or manipulations.
Things he understands.
For he lived among us and loved us and left us the inheritance of his Spirit to change us.
And we come to him through the narrow gates of repentance,
Of surrender of all that we have and are to him,
Of soaking in sections of his ancient,
Sacred Book.
We come humbly,
Breathing and praying.
Come into my heart,
Lord Jesus.
There's room in my heart for you.
And he will come again,
With grace,
With transformation,
As he did all those years ago,
When he came for everyone.
And he came for you.
Maranatha.
Come,
Lord Jesus.
