Loving God in Solitude & Simplicity Connecting with God: Finding Your Soul s Path to God Part 6 July 12, 2015

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1 INTRODUCTION: BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. 3 o clock a.m. Boom! My eyes could barely open. Why was I getting up so early? Oh yeah, I had signed up for this prayer time-slot at our 24-hours of Prayer retreat at church. The goal was to have the entire 24-hours covered. I tumbled out of bed, dressed and walked down to the church and entered our designated prayer room, promptly got onto my knees, knowing if I got comfortable in the easy chair I would fall back asleep. Folding my hands, I began to pray. I was sure 4 o clock would not come fast enough. Then I could go home and go back to sleep. But when it did, I felt like I could keep going. Just me and God, in the middle of the night, praying on others behalf. If this sounds exciting to you, you may have the spiritual temperament of the Ascetic. Slide #2 & 3 RECAP: The sermon series I am sharing with you is an exploration of various spiritual pathways different and equally acceptable ways of demonstrating our love for God. I am using Gary Thomas s book Sacred Pathways; Discover Your Soul s Pathway to God as my major resource for this series. In the book, Gary defines 9 different pathways. We ve already taken a look at three: the Traditionalist, the Naturalist and the Sensate. Today, we re going to explore the Sacred Pathways identified as the Ascetic pathway. Slides #4-8 In today s world, we acknowledge that times of alone-ness are fleeting and temporary, and we must return to the world and the battle for God s kingdom. But as we strive to be more like Christ, we note that He sought solitude many times: Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed (Mk. 1:35). In fact, Jesus even instructs the disciples, in general terms, about the ascetic state of mind as a pattern for prayer [READ Mt. 6:1-6]. Slides #9 CONTENTMENT COMES FROM WITHIN: John Rosemond ( the syndicated columnist and also a family psychologist, likes to take an informal poll of parents. He asks parents, Do your kids complain about boredom? Without exception he s always been told No by parents who live outside of this country. In fact, parents in other cultures look at him with incredulity, as if to say: Boredom and kids just don t go together! Rosemond also asks parents who raised their kids in the United States, but did so in the 1940 s or 50 s. And they express that their children were rarely bored. In another survey, Rosemond asks middle-aged parents, How many toys did you have growing up? The answers range from zero to 10, but mostly these folks respond with something like, Toys? We took a cardboard box, and we made something out of it. In contrast, Rosemond says the typical American child of five years of age, in today s society, has accumulated some 240 toys! Now, since five-year olds have only lived for 260 weeks, they re apparently accumulating almost one toy per week. And yet, they re bored! Where does contentment come from? Does it come from having more toys? From going to more movies? From eating out more often? From enlarging our wardrobes? From escape of any kind? No, contentment comes from within. It s an internal disposition, and I think most of us know that intuitively. We just don t live as if we know it. The Sacred Pathway we re talking about today is an example of living as if we understand that growing closer to the divine is not about doing and having it s about being. So, how does one become content? Or, at the very least, comfortable gratified? Perhaps the path of the ascetic can inform us As implied above, Ascetics want nothing more than to be left alone left to be alone to pray and meditate. Take away the liturgy, the trappings of religion, and the noise of the outside world. Let there be nothing to distract them no pictures, no loud music and leave them alone to pray in silence and simplicity. Ascetics live a fundamentally internal existence. Even when they are part of a group of people, they might seem to be isolated from the others. Frequently introspective, sometimes to a fault, they are uncomfortable in any environment that keeps them from listening to the quiet. 1

2 Singer and writer Michael Card ( is a good example of the ascetic temperament. He lives in a Shaker-inspired home on one hundred acres in a rural part of Franklin, Tennessee. Michael admires the Shaker emphasis on simplicity in architecture and lifestyle. His dream was to establish a small, silent retreat center on his land where pastors, artists, and songwriters could spend time with God in prayer and fasting. Here are the lyrics of the song of his we listened to earlier, lyrics that advocates the simple life: Every heart needs to be set free, From possessions that hold it so tight Cause freedom s not found in the things we own It s the power to do what is right With Jesus, our only possession Then giving becomes our delight And we can t imagine the freedom we find From the things we leave behind. ( Slides #10 & 11 SET APART: The monks didn t just make up the idea of living life set-apart. God instituted the lifestyle of the Nazirite. The person made a vow of separation unto the Lord and kept rites in order to create a picture of holiness and be set-apart until the time when they would come out and fulfill their vow (Numbers 6). Probably the most famous Nazarite from the O.T. was Sampson. The Bible gives several examples of ascetics. The Psalms provide treasured passages for the enthusiasts, who love to celebrate. But ascetics also know they are called to mourn. And Lamentations, Daniel, and Joel offer rich passages for ascetics too. Daniel writes of fervent prayer in which he pleads with God, fasts, and sits in sackcloth and ashes. Joel challenges spiritual leaders to wear sackcloth, to mourn, wail, fast and spend the night watching prayer, crying out to God. These texts, by the way, are the basis upon which many Ash Wednesday services developed. Gary Thomas, author of Sacred Pathways, writes, Certainly then, there is a time and place for the role of austerity and solitude in every Christian s worship. For those with this particular spiritual temperament, however, these two qualities may be the most cherished forms of worship (page 110). The spiritual temperament of the Ascetic, then can be divided into two worlds : SOLITUDE & AUSTERITY: Slides #12 & 13 SOLITUDE: When the church was being remodeled at the turn of the century, Ken VandenHoek requested a storage closet be built and made accessible in his new office. The closet ended up getting finished with painted walls, tile flooring and lighting. Without realizing it, he was creating a space for the future pastor, that s me, to get away and spend time with God. He didn t know it but he was building a prayer closet where I could pursue the solitude of the ascetic. Remember what Jesus taught? Here s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace (Mt. 6:6). Now, you may not have much opportunity to get away ; the important thing is to have a sense of apartness. Maybe you could arrive early to work, or ask for keys to our church s sanctuary. Slide #14 AUSTERITY (SERIOUSNESS): Austerity is being severe in manner or appearance. Many monks would choose environments with low levels of sensory input so they wouldn t be distracted. This is where the ascetic differs from the naturalist and the sensate. Clothed in sackcloth is the response of some people who reported what they had seen to king, Ahaziah: So they answered him, 'A hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist.' And he said, 'It is Elijah the Tishbite (2 Kgs 1:8). John 2

3 the Baptist is described: Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locust and wild honey (Mt. 3:4). So Elijah and John the Baptist both wore sackcloth. Being clothed in sackcloth has several meanings in the Bible. They are all somewhat similar, but they have nuances that we need to consider: Sackcloth was worn by those who were in mourning. In Ezekiel 9 that the angel was supposed to mark all those who sighed and cried for all the troubles of Jerusalem. That is a sign of woe, of mourning, or of being sorry for the fall of this once great nation or for their sins. Sackcloth also can mean repentance, as an outward sign of the inner repentance of a person. Therefore, it also has another meaning, that of being humble. A repentant person should be a humble person. He/she has seen his/her sins and turned from them. Another meaning is being poor. This is one that the world often sees in John the Baptist and Elijah, that they were poor men. However, that is not necessarily the case. Austerity does not necessarily mean that one is poor. It can mean though that a person leads a simple lifestyle, and that he has removed the frills that complicate his life. Wearing sackcloth, then, could mean a person has stripped down to the simplest essentials of his physical life. Of course, the one that goes with this would then be poverty, yet not necessarily physical poverty (a lack of money) but spiritual poverty (poor in spirit). This is a fine way of looking at the wearing of sackcloth as seen by Elijah and John the Baptist. They were ready to be filled and given the riches of God because they had considered themselves lowly and needy. They knew they needed what only God could give. They were poor in spirit. By the way, here is a simple and practical (and kind of funny) example: Susanna Wesley, mother of brothers John and Charles, famous hymn writers and church founders. Susanna would throw her apron over her head and pray as a way of meeting God in a solitary place. Her kids learned not to bother her during this time. The Ascetic, thusly, can be very strict with him or herself. This can be self-denial or sacrifice in order to be free to contemplate and pursue God. Gary Thomas likens this to a lover who starts denying himself use of his money in order to save for a ring and sacrifices every weekend to spend time with his love. It is willingly done, and marked with a gentleness towards others. Slides #15-17 ACTS OF DEVOTION (Practical Application): These worlds of solitude and austerity are lived out the following ways My prayer in the middle of the night I spoke of earlier was an example of watching in the night. There is a stillness and expectancy, a waiting for the dawn to overtake the night, which can invite the presence of God. And getting up to pray and worship God is the perfect thing if you re having trouble sleeping. This ties in with being still, another act of devotion: Be still and know that I am God (Ps. 46:10). In being still, you let or battle distractions away, and meet God with full focus. This can be accompanied with a vow of silence for a time. Like stillness, fasting reveals to us just how caught up we are in transitory matters (page 118). We can fast from food, media, music, social media, the phone, etc. In order to squash dependency on these things, we may need to be willing to give up for a time the delights and consolations of this world (page 118), to enjoy the delights and consolations found in God. Taking retreats can be as simple as going for a few hours hike, stealing away to a church sanctuary, or scheduling a weekend stay at a near-by monastery or Christian camp. You ll be surprised how many there are. Putting ourselves under the authority of another is important because it assaults human pride and invites us to live in humility (page 119). Thomas declares we live in an age where relativism says my opinion is just as valid as yours, regardless of a person s wisdom. The act of submitting to authority in order to honor God (even if leaders are not worthy of being obeyed) is something we should be able to practice quite readily. (In the instance when God s will disagrees with man s will, God s will is to be obeyed: Acts 5:29). 3

4 Working hard can be worship. Jesus did it for 90 percent of his life. Thomas writes, When we recognize the strength and ability to work are God s gifts to us to help us provide for our needs and the needs of our families, the use of that energy and skill becomes an affirmation of the God who created and sustains us (page 121). Ascetics will also like to live simply, avoiding packed schedules and preferring barren quiet rooms as a call to worship over ornate cathedrals. Enduring hardship calls us to press into God the whole goal of the ascetic temperament. We can either stunt our spiritual growth when sickness, heat, cold, hunger, tiredness, stress or cranky kids come, or we can embrace them, learn from them, and mature in our faith (page 123). The ascetic may also seek out harsher environments for their spiritual training. Slide #18 TEMPTATIONS OF THE ASCETIC: Pressing into God through acts that cultivate solitude and austerity is rewarding, but there are temptations as well. One can overemphasize personal piety (religious devotion): In Zechariah 7 the Israelites fasted and mourned, but God saw through their self-service and called them to serve others. Jesus taught and modeled ministry followed by rest (Mark 6:30-32). Over-spiritualizing being alone: An ascetic will need to be intentional in seeking out other Christians with whom to fellowship. We need feedback from our brothers and sisters to be able to see ourselves clearly. Seeking pain for its own sake can also be a temptation: Masochism is an illness, not a spiritual path; it s an idol you are the end goal, not God. Strictness is a means to a different end a romance with God. Finally, seeking to gain God s favor will never work: It is futile to try to win God s approval or forgiveness by developing extraordinary holiness (page 124). His love is absolute and His forgiveness is based on a prior work completed by Jesus, not our current spiritual practices. Slide #19 CONCLUSION: Ascetics call for a life of the spirit, a sense of separation from the world to seek God. We are also called to live in the world. So we seek justice and love mercy while walking humbly with God remembering our relationship with Him is our highest priority, and only when we are loving Him can we love others. So take the plunge try some of the acts of the ascetic deliberately, humbly, and with an open heart. 4

5 QUOTES: Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! Henry David Thoreau Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Confucius Simplicity is the glory of expression. Walt Whitman Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication. Leonardo da Vinci Complexity creates fog; simplicity clears it. Simplicity is the key to brilliance. Bruce Lee Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful. John Maeda In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow In the outer life, simplicity is beautiful. In the inner life simplicity is invincible. Sri Chinmoy Out of clutter, find simplicity. Albert Einstein I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity. Albert Einstein The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind. Albert Einstein Solitude is the place of purification. Martin Buber It is easy in the world to live after the world s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. Ralph Waldo Emerson Only the person who accepts solitude can place himself under the deep laws of the universe. All that is not him falls away, although he stands in the teeming midst of life. A Year with Rilke Solitude and Silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say. Thomas Merton In silence and solitude is your strength. 5