Worship & Meditation: What Is The Root Of Suffering?

Our work is to recognize suffering and to bring up our awareness of what is real, difficult, and hard and not to cling to what SHOULD have been. This is not easy; it is difficult, but it does not have to lead to suffering. After recognizing suffering, we can move to the action of Love. When we can offer honesty about the reality we are living, we can then see the diseased portions of our lives, and allow, through prayer, connection with Christ, for the Lord to raise us up.

Transcript

Welcome to First United Methodist Church of Dallas.

We are so glad that you're worshipping with us in this way today.

A space for us to create a time of focusing our lives on God,

And also focusing our lives on the world.

How we as disciples of Jesus Christ may be activated for the world around us.

Today,

Our worship focus is the word together.

Together with God,

How do we lean into,

Into the very near presence of what God may be doing in the world.

Now it's a little different today as we're opening up our scripture text to the letter of James.

At first glance,

The letter of James is this text of pastoral admonitions.

These invitations to live life as you should.

And the closer you read,

The more clearly you begin to see that the writer of the letter of James is inviting not only themselves,

But also you and me into really considering how God may be activated in our lives,

In our world,

And those closest to us.

So as we lean in to what James has to say for us today,

I invite you to,

To listen deeply to the longings of your heart as together we will uncover the many ways God is already speaking in our lives,

In our world,

And within.

Welcome to worship.

We begin our worship service with an arriving meditation.

You've already set aside the time and space for this moment.

So I invite you now to find a seated position if you're comfortable and close your eyes or rest your gaze on an inanimate object and find the inflow and outflow of your breath.

The experience of your constant companion,

The breath,

Is a reminder of God's presence with and for you.

Leaving behind these moments of what you might have been picking up in this moment.

Tasks,

Lists,

To-dos,

All of those things have their place at another time.

For you now,

You are engaging in worship,

An act of service,

An act of love.

So take a moment now to recognize what it feels like to be present in your body in this time and in this place.

You are a human being,

Not a human doing.

Be here now in your body.

What does it feel like to have your feet planted on the ground?

Your hands at the tops of your thighs.

The chair allowing you to be held.

Your neck,

Your facial muscles relaxed.

Being fully here in this body.

There is no other place for you to be than right here and right now.

Now I invite you to take three deep,

Full breaths.

Resting more comfortably where you are.

As we pray.

Pray,

Longing for God's attention as we unite our lives together with the one who created us.

Let us pray.

In the elegant grace,

Help us to see as you see with love and grace instead of fear and judgment.

Help us notice the wonderfulness in imperfections.

The joy in irregularity.

The elegance in uniqueness.

Guide us to let go of assumptions of what perfection looks like,

What life should be like.

And turn our attention to what you look like.

And what we're to look like through your eyes.

Make space for us to see,

Make space for us to be just as you made us to be.

Enable and empower us now,

Oh God.

To be fully here in this moment.

As we pray together the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples.

Our Father,

Who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

Before we read our scripture text today,

Let me provide a little bit of context.

The letter of James is in many ways an enigma.

A rich tapestry of early Christian teachings,

Reframing and interpreting our Jewish parentage.

Through the lens of the person and work of Jesus Christ.

This letter is written to those who are scattered.

Referring to persons of the Jewish faith who have been scattered across the Roman Empire.

This letter then reveals a sequence of pastoral admonitions,

Advice and calls to action.

One commentator invites the reader of this letter to think of James as a necklace.

The first chapter is like threading a string of colorful beads of the necklace.

And each successive chapter sharpens the color of each bead.

Now,

Think of the beads of the necklace from chapter one.

Shaping the context of the rest of the letter.

Trials,

Faith,

Endurance,

Perfection,

Wisdom,

Generosity,

Humility,

Self-control,

Compassion and action.

Each one of these beads threaded together creates this beautiful,

Beautiful piece of jewelry for our discipleship.

Now,

Staying with the metaphor here of the necklace.

The jeweler of the letter draws from a rich source of Hebrew scripture and gospel text.

As a matter of fact,

Today's scripture draws on Jesus's teaching of bringing back a sinner.

And includes a story of Elijah and a drought.

Referencing,

Referenced also in Jesus's own teaching.

So looking at our text today.

It is the bead of compassion to see religion,

Spirituality as caring.

The activity by which we cultivate compassion is prayer.

Whether suffering or cheerful,

Our best first step is prayer.

Hear now these words from James,

Chapter five,

Verses thirteen through twenty.

Are any among you suffering?

They should pray.

Are any cheerful?

They should sing songs of praise.

Are any among you sick?

They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them.

Anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.

The prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise them up.

And anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.

Therefore,

Confess your sins to one another.

Pray for one another so that you may be healed.

The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a human being like us.

And he prayed fervently that it might not rain.

And for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.

Then he prayed again.

And the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

My brothers,

Sisters,

All of my siblings.

If any among you wanderers from the truth.

And is brought back by another.

You should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death.

And will cover a multitude of sins.

And now let's focus in on one verse here.

As part of our passage meditation.

The passage on the screen will be the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise them up.

I'll slowly repeat this line three times.

Let the words wash over you.

And imagine how these words and this scripture text.

May begin the process of you recognizing.

The love that God has for you.

And the healing you need in your life.

Let us pray.

The prayer of faith will save the sick.

And the Lord will raise them up.

The prayer of faith will save the sick.

And the Lord will raise them up.

The prayer of faith will save the sick.

And the Lord will raise them up.

There is suffering.

This is where many of the world's religions have started.

Since humans have been interpreting life's difficulties.

There have been a myriad of theories about suffering.

Religions,

Economic systems,

Social norms have been cultivated to minimize suffering.

And yet suffering remains.

And sadly,

So does the truth of the phrase.

There is suffering.

For James,

There is a faithful response to the suffering of the world.

Prayer.

Now,

Prayer here is not some passive practice where the faithful withdraws from others.

Instead,

Prayer is the activity by which we more deeply relate to God and God's activity in the world.

And the interpretation of God's activity was embodied in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

So when we pray,

We become channels through which Christ can become real in others lives.

Now,

I'm convinced that the church has done a far better job of teaching those new to the faith.

Of prayer as something that occurs outside of us.

And for others.

Then teaching those new to the faith on how to become aware of what's happening within ourselves.

To listen more deeply within to God.

I know that I've been taught that prayer is a head activity only.

Whereas over and over and over again in the gospels,

Jesus is praying while walking,

Sleeping,

Crying,

Laughing,

Eating,

Speaking,

Listening.

Prayer as reflected in Jesus is interconnected with the present moment.

He is living.

Prayer starts not in our headspace,

But rather in our bodies.

So what if prayer was our staying attuned to ourselves?

The divine spark within us,

The image of God,

However you'd like to imagine it.

Listen to your own wants and needs.

And listen less to the messages,

Distractions and dissuasions outside of you.

Listen more deeply to understand how we ourselves are connected to God within.

The spiritual teaching of this text,

I believe,

Is twofold.

Yes,

There is suffering and there is the cessation of suffering.

First,

Suffering is seemingly a frequent visitor in life.

Comedian Norm Macdonald,

In an interview with Conan some years ago as a lead into a joke and the interpretation of the joke,

Said,

Life is hard,

You know.

In his own show on Netflix,

He would frequently visit the subject of death with his guests.

And in an interview in the Rolling Stone three years ago,

Norm Macdonald said these words.

So it's not that death gnaws at me,

It's just that I'm not in as much denial as other people.

There are things people just don't want to hear or talk about,

And one of them is death.

Little did many know that Norm was asking questions of his guests on death as he himself was having an internal dialogue about his own cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The second spiritual teaching of our scripture text today is that there is a cessation to suffering.

When we can name and claim,

Maybe face the denial of a difficult situation,

Then the power of the unknown,

The undiscovered,

The unexpl,

Loses its grip on us and no longer captures our attention as it once did.

In my opinion,

Suffering is clinging.

For Norm Macdonald in facing his own mortality,

Bringing up death with guests was a means of naming and claiming what was already arising within him.

Likewise,

Given all that we're facing in the world around us,

Not one of us,

I believe,

Including me,

Is dealing with our current reality,

With our imagination as our lives as they should have been in a healthy way.

This is the definition of clinging,

Of suffering,

Which is clinging to a reality that is no longer present.

So our work as disciples is to recognize suffering and to bring up our awareness of what is real,

Difficult and hard,

And not to cling to what should have been.

This is not easy.

It's actually difficult,

But it does not have to lead to suffering.

The work of disciples after recognizing suffering is to move to action,

The action of love.

Consider those around you whom you struggle to love.

Is there a source of that struggle?

Is it because there was a disagreement with your positions?

Is it because you were believing a narrative about them that may not have been verified?

Is it because you see a part of yourself in them that you don't like or appreciate?

So our question for reflection this week is how do we move to love those whom we struggle to love?

Sometimes can be ourselves.

Could this be the source of our suffering?

James's pastoral advice in the form of the bead of compassion is this.

The prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise them up.

When we can offer an honesty about the reality we're living in,

We can see the diseased portions of our lives and allow through prayer a connection to Christ for the Lord to raise us up.

I'm going to do a little something that's outside of the norm.

That is,

I want us to enter into an exercise right now.

An exercise of letting go of resentment.

This practice was introduced to me by my spiritual teacher Jack Kornfield.

So I invite you to do something maybe a little different so that we can come in contact together with our own suffering and our own clinging and discover all over again that there is a cessation to this suffering and clinging.

I invite you to find a comfortable place to sit.

And I invite you to close your eyes or rest your gaze on an inanimate object.

A space and place that won't cause any distraction.

And I invite you to bring quiet attention to your body and to your breath.

I invite you now to bring into awareness a story,

A situation,

Feelings,

Reactions that causes suffering or a narrative to come up within you.

A story or a situation that needs to be let go of.

I invite you to name silently,

Gently,

The feelings and reactions that come up.

Anger,

Disappointment,

Shame,

Guilt,

Fear,

Grief.

Hold them compassionately as if holding this bead of compassion and continue to breathe.

And as you're holding this bead of compassion,

I ask you to gently ask yourself.

Do I have to continue to replay this story?

Do I have to hold on to these feelings?

Is it time?

To let go.

If it's not time to let go,

It's OK.

Give yourself compassion for not being ready to let go.

If now is the time.

To cease the replay of the story.

To let go of the feelings that you've held on to.

The reactions that have come up for you.

Then say to yourself,

Letting go,

Letting go.

Softly repeating the phrase.

Letting go,

Letting go.

Letting go,

Letting go.

Soften the body.

Feel any space that arises as you let go.

As you're sitting quietly,

Notice if any of the feelings or thoughts return.

It's OK if they return.

Maybe upon their returning,

They have less power.

They have less veracity.

Because you brought compassion to the story,

The situation,

The feelings,

The reactions.

And as the feelings and thoughts return,

Simply return.

Return to softening.

And repeating the phrase.

Letting go,

Letting go.

By letting go,

We have an opportunity to then open our hearts,

Our minds,

And our lives,

Not only more deeply to ourselves,

But to the world.

So we ask God now to bless us.

Bless us in this process of recognizing suffering.

Realizing there is a cessation to our suffering.

And inviting us to a deeper understanding of who we are and how we are to live out our lives.

As disciples of Jesus Christ.

And so we pray.

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers and half truths and superficial relationships.

So that we may live deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger at injustice,

Oppression,

And the exploitation of people so that we may work for justice,

Freedom,

And peace.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain,

Rejection,

Hunger,

And war.

So that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world.

So that we can do what others claim cannot be done.

To bring justice and kindness to all children and all who hurt and are in pain.

Or live on the edge of poverty.

Poverty of relationships,

Poverty of connection,

Poverty of wholeness.

May God bless us as disciples of Jesus Christ.

To reach inward with deep compassion for and with ourselves.

So that we can more fully,

Holistically turn to the world around us.

And offer the bead of compassion.

And call the world to respond in praise.

For we pray these things in the name of the one who calls us together.

Amen.

Our benediction today comes from Mother Teresa.

Throughout her life,

She faced many difficult problems and many difficult people.

She recognized that there was suffering.

And she also realized that there was the cessation of suffering.

And in this prayer,

She invites us to continue to be in this world.

For us to continue to live lives becoming of Christ in all that we do.

Hear now these words of inspiration.

Hear now these words of great grace and hope for our lives together.

People are often unreasonable and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

If you're kind,

People may accuse you of ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you're honest,

People may cheat you.

Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness,

People may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.

Give your best anyway.

For you see in the end,

It is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway.

Dear friends,

Make it about you and God this week.

For together,

New emerging powerful ways of being will be in your life in every moment.

God bless you.

We'll see you next week.