CONTEMPLATIVE
Incarnational: The Sacramental life.
A Sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible reality. We could also describe sacramental moments as power or grace encounters between the "I AM" Lord of Creation and His Created. Jesus is THE Sacrament par excellance. He is The Word made Flesh which dwelt among us.
Pentecost was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Followers of the Way of Messiah, which made them into Sacrament for the World. This outpouring of God Himself created an incarnational Messianic Community. It was incarnational because the Word of the Prophets became flesh in their lives. They became Sacrament, because they allowed themselves to be conduits of Divine Life and Revelation to others. Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Ecclesia, or Church, becomes as Bread that is Broken for a hungry & wounded humanity.
Traditionally the Church recognized seven sacramental encounters within the life of the Community of the Kingdom. They are Baptism, Reconciliation, the Eucharistic Meal, Confirmation, Marriage, Ordination, The Laying on of hands & Anointing with oil, sometimes called the sacrament of the sick or extreme unction. These are more than a symbolic reenactment of past spiritual realities. They bring to the Community the release of the self same realities they celebrate. The Trinity ministers to the Body of Christ in these mystical 'Now' moments. Through these regular encounters with grace the fragmenting influence of sin is healed and the Body reenters its experience of its Oneness with Christ.
In it's deepest sense, all the Christian Life is both Sacramental & Incarnational. It is the constant miracle of "Christ in us, the hope of glory". It leads us towards the center of our mystical Christian calling to be One with God, One with each other, and One with all whom God loves. "That they may be one, as you and I are one".
Spirituality - Drinking from the Rivers of God.
Evangelical: The Word-Centered Life.
The Word of God, the Holy Bible, carries our lives and consciousness beyond the realm of what we can see or touch through our senses. A Word-centered Life is a life grounded in, and lived through, revelation knowledge.
The Church has been entrusted with the Gospel of mankind's reconciliation to the Father by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Each Christian lives as Disciple of Christ through their inner listening & obedience to His Word. For the Word of the Master is inseparable from the Master Himself. It is the verbal expression of His intention and heart communicated through the living parable of the spiritual journey of the Hebrew People and the subsequent birth of the early Messianic Community.
Therefore we discover our God through His Word. We also discover the account of His dealings with humanity. In Scripture we hear the answer to the inner questions of our lives. "Who am I?", "Why am I here?", "What is the meaning of life?", Where does consciousness originate from, and what is my origin?", "Is there life after death?", "Who is my brother?", "How may I know God and enter into relationship with Him?" etc.
Mystery is communicated, the veil that hid ultimate reality is drawn back, and we may hear and see, and therefore experience the mind and heart of God.
This journey of read, hearing, applying, and living the Word is made possible by the constant ministry of the Holy Spirit. He opens our hearts, quickens the Word to us, and teaches us its secret. He is the key to fruitful Bible Study.
Social Justice: The Compassionate Life
Moltman described the Church as "the presence of the future". A place where heaven's values and consciousness are lived out in a counter -culture human Community on earth. This is the visible Community of the Christ, present in each generation, embodying and announcing His message until He returns in glory.
Historically, we as Church institutions have been vulnerable and have fallen before the very temptations offered to Christ in the wilderness so long ago. Each of the desert temptations was aimed at denying the absolute necessity of radical dependance upon God. Why did we think that the servant could be different than the Master? Perhaps because we were tempted to marry the empire so as to gain peace, influence, and acceptance from the society that surrounded us. But the empire of Constantine, like today's empires of men, cares little for the Way of a crucified Messiah of the poor. There is no political power or state that can add anything to the Church. But the Church, when it is truly in it's right mind, the mind of Christ, brings to each nation the gifts of Divine Presence, Compassion, Shalom wholeness, Peace, Equality and true Justice. When we deny our true self we withold from society these blessings.
We need to listen with humility to the enlightened words of Gandhi, "Be the change you want to see in the world". He once said, reflecting on the witness of western colonial Christianity in India, " I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. You Christians are so unlike your Christ". His council is wise, "Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected".
It is precisely in how we relate to each other, and to humanity, that we bear witness either to the reality or illusion of our discipleship. Our spirituality is only as real as our relationships. We are each the wounded on the Jerico road and the Samaritan who listened to his heart. Henry nouwen described us as "Wounded Healers". Our Master taught us to pray, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven". He also taught us in the same prayer, "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us". If I say I love God, but I hate, or am indifferent, towards my brother, I lie, and the truth of Christ is not yet in me. My "neighbour" is the person in front of me, the child on the TV, the people in the Newspaper.
How do I love? As I am loved! As I love & care for myself. I feed myself, and cover and shelter myself, I nurture myself, therefore I must accept that my brother and sister also needs as I do. We have only two commandments from Jesus. Love God & Love Others as He first loved us. When we stand before God, He will not ask us about our alliances and institutions, denominations and politics. He will only ask how we loved & served "the least of these". Faith without actions is meaningless, and professed love without obedience is false!
Charismatic: The Spirit Empowered Life.
Communion or Friendship with the Holy Spirit is the greatest gift of the Father to accompany our walk here on earth. We are no longer servants not knowing our Master's will. He has called us Friends, a covenantal title conferred only on those who have been graced with communion with His heart and family through the Blood Covenant of Christ.
The Charismatic experience embraces, yet is greater than, the Charismatic Movement. The Charismatic Movement refers to the various restorations of Charisms/Spiritual Gifts, Fivefold Ministries, Covenanted Community life, and Power encounters of the last thirty years of Church history. The Spirit empowered life refers to that quality of Sonship, Ministry, and Relationship enjoyed by Jesus in His earthly life. Truly the Father has withheld no good gift from us!
The Holy Spirit is the promise of Jesus to His future Bride, the Church. He is the "Friend of the Bridegroom", the One who prepares and leads out the Bride to meet her Divine Spouse. Jesus considered the Holy Spirit's ministry to be indispensible for the Church. The Holy Spirit is called "Parakletos" meaning the "one called alongside to enable". A Spirit enabled life is therefore a Divinely enabled human existence. His ministry is the key to living as a Son or Daughter begotten of God.
Because of the perfection of Christ's sacrifice, the veil of separation between us and God is torn forever! Reconciliation means restored Oneness, Intimacy, and Relationship. The only separation remaining is in our darkened mind. The Mind or Egoic state is by its nature dominated by fear and the negative interprations we place on the experiences of our past. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and true enlightenment. His Mind is the mind of the Father, the heavenly perspective on reality. In His Presence we commune with Divine Life. His presence is also called the Anointing in Scripture. The Anointing was that fiery outpouring that transformed the Apostles and the women at Pentecost. They were literally immersed in God. The Word reveals that God is total Unconditional Love and that that love is a Consuming Fire.
Jesus, our Master, counseled His Church, His Bride, to wait on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As risen Lord of the Church it is one of his continuing ministries to personally immerse/baptize each believer in the Holy Spirit and to pour out on each one the first fruits of the mighty anointing He personally walked in. He works in harmony with the Father and the Spirit in this endeavor. At no time did God intend to found an institution that would work independently on His behalf. We may be His hands & feet, but He must be our new Mind and Heart. (Rom.12:2).
The Holy Spirit enables the believer to be a conduit of God on the earth, while He also teaches, guides, and disciples that same believer in the Way of Divine Sonship. It is a total illusion to believe that we can walk in the Way of Jesus without total dependence and surrender to the Holy Spirit.
Holiness: The whole or complete Life.
Train yourself in godliness, for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come (1 Tim. 4:7b-8).
Holiness implies wholeness, communion with God, and harmony within oneself and towards others. One can perceive the call to holiness as a stringent call to virtue, or as a journey into the heart and mind of Christ. Each Christian is Born Again to see the Kingdom, and to enter the Kingdom. It is a journey that begins after justification. We have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, but if we wish to enter into communion with the God who has so graciously saved us, we will experience the Holy Spirit leading us into a restorative walk of holiness. For the Kingdom of Heaven is not there or over here, it is within! It within our hearts that we will need to see and enter it's manifestation.
Holiness is the journey from the mind and heart of an orphan to the experience of being a desired Son and dwelling peacefully and fully in the house of your Father. In the parable of the prodigal son, both sons are in fact Prodigal. Their sin differs only in form and opportunity. Neither feels He is one with the Father, neither is free enough to love the Father as the Father loves them,. Their sin is not what separates them from the Father. It is symptomatic of its root of fear, alienation, perceived separation, and ego. They are simply in their wrong mind because they are in a wrong belief system in their hearts. Therefore their lives could not possible bear other fruit. One "returned to himself" or "came to the end of himself". The other resisted even the tenderest of implorations from the Father.
Both were sons in reality, children of the same Father. Both were always loved, always cared for, always graced with presence and favor. Only in his brokenness could the younger see reality. Holiness begins in a crisis to see and enter reality. Divine reality IS the Kingdom of God. Holiness is therefore a life without duplicity or contradiction lived out through God's thoughts and belief systems. In other words, in God's absolute reality of love. Holiness is a life surrendered and opened to love. Without love observance of the Law is futile, while love itself is the fulfillment of all Laws.
So the way to Holiness is through humility. To admit to ourselves that we know little if nothing of pure unconditional love. in this openmindedness we approach God allowing Him to love us unconditionally. "This has thought us love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His life for us, when we were still lost in sin". We discover love by permitting ourselves to be loved when we sin or when we walk in virtue. Jesus said of the woman who washed His feet, "She love much, because she has been forgiven much". Only grace can break our fear encrusted heart and set it free. Once free, we can love ourselves as we are loved, and love others therefore as we love ourselves. This surrender to the giving and receiving of Agape love, is the Way of Holiness.
“What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.” - M. Teresa -
Contemplative: The prayer-filled life.
The Word exhorts, "Be still and know that I am God". The central purpose of prayer is communion with the Divine. Prayer is on one level a sharing of our lives and needs with our Father. He delights in our presence and openness towards Him. On a deeper level Prayer can become a Ministering of Thanksgiving, Praise, Worship, and Adoration (Acts 13:2). Thus we unite with the swelling prayers and choruses of Heaven and lose ourselves in devotion to God.
As beautiful as that is, Prayer can be even more. Our relationship with God often follows the pattern of our human primary relationships. We could say that level one of love is, " I love you because you complete me, and make me feel good about myself". Though a young love, it is a real love, although somewhat narsistic and immature. It is the right love for a first love of our youth. "I love you Jesus, because you died for me".
Level two love, is a maturer love. "I love you Jesus, because you are beautiful in yourself and you have captivated my heart". Here the love has transcended the benefit received, and the young lover of God can see his beloved and therefore loves Him for Himself.
The third level of maturing in love could be expresses thus: "I love you more than I love myself". Here we are willing and enabled to lay down our most primal fears concerning the loss of self, life, property, relationships, security etc. It is a liberation from the knowledge of evil through being immersed in the knowledge of good, the knowledge of love. In this freedom we may peacefully echo the word of the martyr Jim Elliot, "He is no fool who give what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose".
Though there is no greater human love than "laying down ones life for ones friend", there is still a higher love that we may enter into. This love is not ours, it is the Father's love for the Son resonating through the ministry of the Holy Spirit through our hearts ( Rom.5:5).
This is the forth and final level of matured love. Loving Jesus as the Father loved Him. Loving self as the Father loves self. This is a love of union and oneness where nothing is held back from the other. In fact, the experience of the union is so absolute that there is no sense of dualism or the Other being separate. " The Father and I are One" "I in Him, He in me". " "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you, abide in my love." " I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you"...."If anyone loves me he will keep My Word and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make our home with him".
You may well ask, "What has all this got to do with Contemplation?". This journey into union IS the contemplative prayer journey. We make ourselves vulnerable and available, just like Mary of Bethany. We sit at His feet, in His presence, whether we "feel" His presence of not! Our own heart or spirit is always present to our "feeling" soul, whether we are aware of it or not. How much more God, who is omnipresent! We are simply there ... available ... aware ... alert ... receptive ,,,s till ,,, silent ,,, breathing.That child-like openness is called Poverty of spirit. In the stillness and silence we learn to let go our our pathological need to control all relationships, even our relationship with God. We learn to be present. We learn stillness, We learn the to listen, inwardly. to hear, inwardly. To commune, inwardly. We enter into the Kingdom of God within our own heart. First we will search for signs of the Other. Then we will perceive the indwelling other. Finally we will experience union with the Other. This is contemplation. We meditate so as to facilitate a contemplation. Augustine wrote in 450AD, "Our hearts were made for you O Lord, and they will not rest, until they rest in You".
EVANGELICAL
CHARISMATIC
