RECONNECTING WITH EACH OTHER & JESUS COLLATED BY PETER & KERRYN CHRISTENSEN IMAGE: BARBARA HELGASON
w th ach oth r & w th J sus Now, it s not that we re saying you re disconnected (if you re here it probably means that you are connected). But in this retreat we re hoping that you are able to make use of the space and time available to refresh & strengthen that connection. To do that, you are encouraged to spend some time re-connecting with Jesus in one story from John s gospel. There are five stories to choose from, and the materials given in this booklet help you to connect with each story. The stories are: John 2:1-12 - The wedding at Cana John 2:13-25 - Jesus cleanses the temple John 5:1-18 - Jesus heals on the Sabbath John 6:16-21 - Jesus walks on the water John 19:17-37 - The crucifixion of Jesus You are encouraged to prayerfully choose one of these stories to reflect on asking God to direct you to the one He wants to speak to you through this day.
u st o s or ra w th cr tur Choose one scripture and try all of the steps in this process. Pra r ull ck a assa to mull over today. Think of this passage as the background music to the day just like when we get a song in our head and it plays over and over. It s the title track to our experience today that God can speak to us through as we immerse ourselves in it. ad th assa several times slowly...preferably aloud. It may be a very familiar passage, and your understanding of the passage and it s background serves as a useful frame around the picture that God is drawing for you at this particular moment in time. As you read, notice what stands out for you: Is there a particular word or phrase that sticks out? Is there an invitation to you? What personal struggle or longing in your life today is God speaking into? (Be specific.) What do you sense God might be saying to you? Mull ov r what God has been saying to you. Engage your mind with the words, make connections with our life and concerns, see what thoughts arise as you look at these words from all angles. You may find it helpful at this stage to write or draw what you have been hearing. s o d to God in whatever way is appropriate for you. The key is to be honest and real. As you do this, gradually move from talking to God to more and more silence and listening, getting ready for... o t m lat o more on that on the next page... The key is to take your time. We need to slow ourselves down to listen. It s not like freestyle swimming where you make a big splash in your effort to get somewhere. Rather it s like free-diving, where the aim is for depth not horizontal distance.
co t m lat o Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. Psalm 27:14 Have you ever felt God may not be wanting more words, but just your presence? This is contemplation: sitting with God as we would sit with a friend. It is moving from talking to listening to simply being with. It s a time when we put aside our agenda and just be with God. In contemplation: You will gradually and gently move from active involvement to quiet reading. Let go of thoughts, words, and images; simply rest in God and trust God to pray in you. Use a single word to focus your attention or let your breathing be your prayer. (Luther called this the "oratio mentalis," the prayer of the heart, as different than the oratio vocalis, the prayer of the voice.) This is often hard for us: we want to do something, and it s tempting to miss this step. But time spent in contemplation makes our action the doing' so much richer and fruitful. If you re game, on the next page there s a few suggestions to help you slow down enough to listen, such as (more details on each of these are found on the following pages): Going for a contemplative walk. Sometimes it helps our mind settle if our body is moving. Contemplatively drawing something, letting the process of drawing help you to stay aware of God s presence. Finding something from nature to help you contemplate God s glory in creation. Contemplate an artwork, looking with expectancy for God to speak to us through this image and what we notice in it. a d rom co t m lat o to act o
Contemplative drawing: gratefulness Take a large sheet of paper and with crayons/markers draw things for which you are grateful (symbols & stick figures are fine). Do this for as long as you can, filling the page if you are able. Talk with God about what you are drawing. Don t rush, take your time and linger where you want to. What is going on for you as you do this? Write down words/feelings/questions you have. What are you particularly thankful for? What do you find hard to be thankful for? Don t censor yourself! Be free and open to what and how God wants to lead you in this prayer time. To finish, draw a border to represent God encircling your life and those you care about. Don t rush away when you re done. Sit and just be with God for a while. If the only prayer you say in your whole life is thank you that would suffice. Meister Eckhart Contemplating nature Find a small object of nature. Pick it up and consider the hand of God creating this stone, leaf, stick etc. As you look & touch the object, notice it s unique texture & feel. Don t rush...take time to really absorb all that you can see and feel. Think about how God wants you to enjoy what he has created. Finish by spending some time quietly saying thank you to God for all the things you enjoy.
Contemplating an artwork Choose one of the gospel stories and the accompanying painting. When you have selected an image find somewhere quiet and look at the photo and talk to God about it... Spend some time just looking at the image and absorbing it. Look at the big picture, the details, the mood, the setting. After a while you might like to ask yourself some of the following questions: What thoughts/feelings/reaction does this painting evoke in you? What would it be like to be in that situation? Would you want God to disrupt your life in this way? What is God inviting you to through this painting? What do you want to say to God about what you are thinking/feeling right now? Keep the image you might like to write some of your reflections on the back or paste it into your journal. Walking contemplatively First of all, walk slowly. The slower pace allows us to be open to the wonder of the environment around us. We become alert to God reaching out to us through what we see. Think of it as walking with a good friend in deep discussion you don t care where you end up, you are just enjoying their company. You may find it helpful to start by thanking God for all that you see around you...especially the little things we don t usually notice. It helps to regularly stop, look, listen. Turn your head in all directions: as far behind you as possible, then to both sides, then up, then down. With each turn of your head, invite God to let you see with God s loving eyes other people, nature, or whatever else surrounds you.
John 2:1-12 The Wedding at Cana On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus mother said to him, They have no more wine. Woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied. My hour has not yet come. His mother said to the servants, Do whatever he tells you. Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, Fill the jars with water ; so they filled them to the brim. The Marriage at Cana, Marten de Vos (between 1596 and 1597, oil on panel) Then he told them, Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.
John 2:13-25 Jesus Clears the Temple Courts When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father s house into a market! His disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal for your house will consume me. The Jews then responded to him, What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this? Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days. They replied, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days? But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person. Christ Driving the Money Changers from the Temple, El Greco, 1541 1614
John 5:1-15 The Healing at the Pool Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirtyeight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, Do you want to get well? Sir, the invalid replied, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. Then Jesus said to him, Get up! Pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The Pool of Bethesda, James Tissot, 1886-1894 The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat. But he replied, The man who made me well said to me, Pick up your mat and walk. So they asked him, Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk? The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.
John 6:16-21 Jesus Walks on Water When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. But he said to them, It is I; don t be afraid. Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. Jesus Walking on Water, Gustave Doré, 1832-1883
John 19:17-37 The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). There they crucified him, and with him two others one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, Do not write The King of the Jews, but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written. When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. Let s not tear it, they said to one another. Let s decide by lot who will get it. This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said, They divided my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment. So this is what the soldiers did. Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, Woman, here is your son, and to the disciple, Here is your mother. From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty. A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, It is finished. With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: Not one of his bones will be broken, and, as another scripture says, They will look on the one they have pierced. The Dead Jesus, Gustave Doré, 1832-1883
ts & c s When [our] work becomes frustrating, many good and zealous souls fail to see the Lord in the frustration...[some] merely charge ahead...[others] give up the work, and perhaps spend their lives in hurt incomprehension, unable to understand why the Lord did not bless and look kindly on the gift they chose to give him. In neither case do they discover the real meaning of their frustration. They never realise that this dark hour is perhaps the most precious gift of their lives. It is an invitation to true poverty of spirit to have no will of my own in all I do for love and as such it is the real beginning of eternal life. (p. 53) Thomas Green, Darkness in the Marketplace If only we knew how to look at life as God sees it, we should realize that nothing is secular in this world, but that everything contributes to the building of the kingdom of God. To have faith is not only to raise one s eyes to God to contemplate him; it is also to look at this world but with Christ s eyes. Michel Quoist, Prayers of Life, p10 (1963) Father God, Why is it that I think I must get somewhere, assume some position, be gathered together, or separated apart in the quiet of my study to pray? Why is it that I feel that I have to go somewhere or do some particular act to find you, reach you, and talk with you? Your presence is here in the city on the busy bus, in the factory, in the cockpit of the airplane, in the hospital in the patient s rooms, in the intensive care unit, in the waiting room; in the home at dinner, in the bedroom, in the family room, at my workbench; in the car in the parking lot, at the stoplight. Lord, reveal your presence to me everywhere, and help me to become more aware of your presence each moment of the day. May your presence fill the nonanswers, empty glances, and lonely times of my life. Amen A Thirty-Day Experiment in Prayer, Robert Wood
Hints for making the most of the silence 1. Do nothing at all... just be... sit or kneel or lie down and wait for God to lead, to speak, to put ideas and thoughts and pictures and prayers into the mind. Rest and relax in the Lord. 2. Weather permitting go and enjoy being outside. 3. Use something to spark off your prayer : meditate on a Bible passage related to the theme, or use some of the material provided; pray the words of a favourite hymn or song or prayer. 4. Use the time to have an honest talk to God about where you are at... face up to yourself and your particular needs, trusting that God will deal with these if you give Him time and room. 5. Think about your current prayer life and ask God if He desires to show you any new ways of praying. 6. Spend some time journalling... writing or drawing your ideas and explorations about your life and where God seems to be... or about His absence... then talk to God about what you have written. 7. Use coloured pens or crayons to express what is happening for you at this particular time in your life. 8. Feel free to spend time talking with one of the retreat facilitators if an issue arises which you want help to explore. Be still and know that I am God