Hello friends,
Welcome to the 22nd episode of Christian meditation with me,
Anita Mathias.
Let's begin to detach from our beloved broken world and return to the gentleness and the love at the heart of the universe.
Sit comfortably,
Raise your shoulders to your ears,
Roll them forwards,
Backwards,
Stretch your arms upwards,
Clasp your right wrist with your left hand and bend towards your left.
Then reverse the motion.
As you sit,
Breathing,
Just notice your breathing,
Its space,
Its depth.
Perhaps place your left hand on your abdomen and notice its rise and fall and your right hand on your heart.
Can you feel it beat?
Gradually begin to deepen your breath,
A longer exhale,
Breathing out carbon dioxide and any stress and then a longer inhale,
Filling your lungs with oxygen and the love of God which is around us like light waves which is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Breathe out your stress,
Breathe in the deep peace of the stars and of Christ who calls himself the Prince of Peace.
Sit quietly breathing through this poem on mindfulness of nature.
It's called The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry.
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night of the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water and I feel above me the day blind stars waiting with their light.
For a time I rest in the grace of the world and am free.
The gospel writer Luke tells us about a man who asked Jesus to command his recalcitrant brother to share the inheritance with him but instead Jesus lectures him.
Be on your guard against all kinds of greed Jesus says.
Jesus please engrave these words on our hearts,
Words which will improve our health as we stop eating when we're not hungry,
Stop working or shopping when we have enough and stop worrying about money in all its manifestations.
Jesus suggests that we deal with our greed forever and ever more and our anxiety by considering the natural world created by God.
Let's breathe through this mindfulness practice that Christ takes the disinherited brother through.
Do not worry about money Jesus says.
Instead see the happy singing birds with no pantries,
Closets,
Savings or pensions and yet God feeds them.
You are far more valuable to the Father Jesus adds.
Visualized and naturally beautiful poppies,
Cornflowers,
Primroses blooming under the eye of the Father.
Jesus says God will look after us even more.
Jesus increase our faith,
Give us a bigger vision of your love for us.
Who of you by worrying can add a single R to your life Jesus continues since you cannot do this very little thing.
Why do you worry about the rest?
Jesus help us to change our worries to prayers and to leave them in your hands.
So don't worry about money Jesus says for the Father knows what you need.
But seek first his kingdom,
Seek his kingship over your life and he will give you the things the unbelieving world runs after.
And so Jesus fills the brother's angry,
Resentful,
Helpless heart with energy and purpose.
He commissions him seek first the kingdom of God.
Let Christ be king of this minute,
This hour and it will flood outwards into your weeks,
Months,
Years and decades.
And now to Segue to Matthew chapter 20.
Then the mother of Zebedee's sons,
James and John,
Two of Jesus's twelve apostles,
Came to Jesus with her sons and kneeling down asked a favor of him.
What is it you want?
He asked.
She said,
Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other to your left in your kingdom.
You don't know what you're asking,
Jesus said to them.
Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?
We can,
They answered.
Jesus said to them,
You will indeed drink from my cup,
But to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant.
Those places belong to those for whom they had been prepared by my father.
When the ten heard about it,
They went dignant with the two brothers.
Jesus called them together and said,
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them.
Not so with you.
Instead,
Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be like your slave.
Just as the son of man did not come to be served,
But to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
How to lead an extremely significant life.
Jesus came from a kingdom of voluntary gentleness in which Christ called the line of Judah,
Stands at the center of the throne in the guise of a lamb looking as if it had been slain.
No wonder his disciples struggled with his countercultural values.
Oh,
And we too,
The mother of the apostles,
James and John,
Asked Jesus for a favor.
That once he became king,
Her two sons got the most important prestigious seats at court on his right and left.
And the other ten,
Who would have liked the fame,
Glory,
Power,
Limelight and honor themselves,
Are indignant and threatened.
Oh,
Oh,
Jesus says,
Who gets five talents,
Who gets one,
Who gets great wealth and success and who doesn't?
That the father controls.
Don't waste your one precious and fleeting life seeking to lord it over others or boss them around.
But in his right kindness,
He offers the ambitious twelve and us something better than the second or third place.
He tells us how to actually be the most significant person to others at work,
In our friend group,
Our social circle,
Our church.
Use your talents,
Gifts and energy to be a blessing to others.
And we instinctively know Jesus is right.
The greatest people in our lives are the kind people who invested in us,
Guided us and whose wise,
Radiant words are engraved on our hearts.
Wanting to sit with the cleverest,
Most successful,
Most famous people is the path of restlessness and discontent.
The competition is huge.
But seek to see people,
To listen intently,
To be kind,
To empathize.
And doors fling wide open for you,
You rare thing.
The greatest person is the one who serves,
Jesus says.
Serves?
How?
By using the one,
Two or five talents God has given you to bless others.
By finding a place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.
Writers,
Write what is a blessing.
Entrepreneurs,
Let your products bless.
And serving includes hospitality,
Walking with a sad friend,
Tidying up a house.
And that is the only greatness worth having.
That you yourself,
Your life and your work are a blessing to others.
That the love and wisdom God pours into you lives in people's hearts and minds and blesses them.
May the Lord bless us as we seek to follow Him.
Amen and Amen.
