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by Lisa McIntosh

Christian meditation is an ancient practice dating back thousands of years, to the first days of the church. And it was part of the tradition of those of the Jewish faith long before that. There are many biblical references to meditation, from Genesis through the New Testament, with many specific mentions in the Psalms.

In fact in Psalm 1, God’s people are urged to meditate on his word – on his law – ‘day and night’.

Martin Luther, too, practised, taught and wrote on meditation. He reformed and simplified the medieval monastic model as he did so, according to LCA Pastor Tim Jarick, in his paper ‘Mysticism, Monks and Marty: Meditation in the Lutheran tradition’.

Pastor Tim, Chaplain at Pacific Lutheran College at Caloundra in Queensland, explains that Luther put praying to God for guidance first before reading the Scriptures in his model and made the cross of Christ central to the Lutheran tradition of meditation.

And yet, as Lutherans in Australia and New Zealand, many of us have grown without much knowledge of what Christian meditation is and how and why it is an important, even central, element of our faith journeys.

Indeed, until recent times, many modern Christians have shied away from the practice, says Lutheran Pastor Stephen Abraham. Pastor Stephen, who was already teaching Christian meditation when a spinal injury left him with permanent debilitating and chronic pain and forced his retirement from full-time ministry in his early 30s, uses meditation whenever his pain is severe.

He has developed his own style of Christian meditation over three decades, which draws on a range of influences including the Desert Fathers (early Christian hermits, ascetics and monks, who lived in the Egyptian desert from the 3rd century); Roman Catholic priest, Benedictine monk and spiritual writer John Main; the French ecumenical monastic fraternity Taizé, Martin Luther and, of course, the meditations present in the Bible.

Pastor Stephen says that in other religions meditation is about ‘controlling your mind’ or ‘mindlessly losing yourself’, whereas, in Christianity, it is about ‘giving your thoughts to God’ and ‘giving him control of your thinking’. ‘It is letting your mind-space be governed by God’s word so that the Holy Spirit can direct your daily life’, he says.

‘Meditation is something all humans share: a relaxed focus, a tool to calm mind and body, a place of solace in a busy world.

‘Muslims pray, but we as Christians aren’t afraid to pray or use Christian prayer in our daily life just because Muslims pray. Hindus sing, but we don’t write off all singing us “un-Christian” or an evil practice. Likewise, Buddhists meditate, but for 3000 or more years meditation has been part of the Judeo/Christian experience, even if modern Christians have shied away from it.

‘Just as Christian prayers and music are uniquely Christian, Christian meditation flows from our encounter with the Trinity as revealed in the Bible. In practice, it is a place where the Holy Spirit can guide our reflection as we focus on God’s word.’

Pastor Stephen says there is no ‘one right way’ to do Christian meditation. ‘We are free in the gospel and there are no biblical instructions on exactly how to practise meditation. We only have the command to meditate (Joshua 1:8) and references to meditation throughout Scripture, especially in the Psalms.’

Pastor Anthony Price, who serves the worshipping communities of Gawler Lutheran Church north of Adelaide and is accredited as a Spiritual Director and Retreat Leader, teaches Christian meditation and offers spiritual direction. He believes there are several reasons why meditation may have become a ‘lost’ practice in the Lutheran church.

‘Firstly, maybe that’s to do with the New Age movement and that people have a perception that it’s a bit weird’, he says. ‘That’s the unhealthy forms of meditation that take us off of the word, and Jesus and the Triune God.

‘I also think there’s a fear of the unknown – people just don’t know about it.

‘And I have to think about my role as a church leader. If I wasn’t really experiencing it myself, I wouldn’t have been teaching it. So while we as pastors may have learnt about it, if we haven’t experienced it in a life-transforming way, we may not have taken on board the centrality of meditation. And Luther is a fine example, who tells us and teaches us how important it is for us.’

Kathy Worthing, a member of the World Community for Christian Meditation state executive for South Australia and leader of a Christian meditation group, believes this contemplative ministry form is having a revival among everyday Christians – including in the LCA/NZ.

‘Recent spiritual writers such as John Main, Laurence Freeman, Joan Chittister and Richard Rohr have been at the forefront of the resurgence in the practice of Christian meditation, taking it beyond the monastery walls and into the lives of everyday Christians’, she says. ‘As Laurence Freeman said in A Pearl of Great Price, “Our world sorely needs the silent infrastructure of contemplation woven into the institutions and frenetic schedules. It needs the healing and transforming power that only the spirit can set free in us and among us”.’

Pastor Anthony, who had a life-changing experience through attending a retreat based on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius in 2009 says he came to realise that it’s an important element of our faith-life to have a heart – or experiential – connection with Scripture, as well as a head – or intellectual – one.

‘When I came out of seminary I was very focused in knowledge and doctrine, so that came easily to me’, he says. ‘But when we’re talking about meditating on Scripture, these are matters of the heart. So I needed to grow in that and exploring traditions, such as those of the Jesuits who specialise in meditation and prayer, has really just opened up to me the matters of the heart. It was interesting for me later on to do some research on Luther and discover an experiential emphasis in relation to Scripture from him that some people miss out on.’

Pastor Anthony took a year out of parish ministry in 2012 to complete a Master’s degree in Spiritual Direction with the University of Divinity. He has led retreats using his Lutheran adaptation of The Ignatian Exercises, a retreat program written by Ignatius of Loyola, a Spanish Christian layman at the time who would later become the founder of the Jesuits. The program features Christian meditations centred on the Scriptures, the gospels and various prayers.

He believes the main benefit of Christian meditation ‘is to experience Christ himself’. ‘He says, “I am with you always”, so it enables us to experience him and his love and helps us to grow in faith, to grow in hope, to grow in love – real love in action as we join Jesus in his mission’, Pastor Anthony says.

‘The word meditation literally means “to chew on”, so it belongs to all of us as human beings. Jesus says, “Do not worry”, and worry is a form of meditation; it’s something that we ruminate again and again. So we all naturally meditate, but in terms of Christian meditation, the all-important aspect is, “Where’s the emphasis? What’s the content that we’re meditating on?”

‘For us as Christians, it’s the God that we believe in, the Triune God, Father, Son and Spirit, and where we experience him most centrally is in Scripture, through God’s word.’

Pastor Stephen has written a Christian meditation program with the hope of making the practice easy for time-poor people. For a copy, you can email him at stephen.abraham@lca.org.au

He also has produced YouTube meditation videos, which can be watched and heard at www.youtube.com/c/StephenAbrahamMusic/videos and songs on online social audio platform SoundCloud, which are available for free at https://soundcloud.com/stephenabraham/sets/breathing-scripture/s-pv895

What is Christian meditation?

• Christian meditation is a verbal activity – literally saying God’s word to one’s self.
• It’s a different way of abiding in God’s word, resting with him, and receiving the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
• Meditation is not a means of salvation. It doesn’t make you ‘better’ than other Christians.
• There are two broad types of Christian meditation – guided meditation and self-guided meditation.
• While guided meditation is a relaxation exercise in which someone else’s voice guides your awareness and focus, self-guided meditation involves just you and words from Scripture, a prayer or a song.
• Generally, any Bible verse which encapsulates a key theme of that passage/chapter and that lends itself to breathing and memorisation can be used.

Some important tips for meditation

• Make it a daily routine and dedicate time to meditation in your calendar
• Find a quiet place, away from distractions, get physically comfortable and mentally relax.
• Have a scriptural point of focus.
• Always start in God’s name: ‘In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen’ – thereby claiming your baptism and identity as a forgiven child of God.
• Meditation opens you up spiritually, so ask for God’s protection as you begin by quoting Scripture.

From ‘Christian Meditation’, by Pastor Stephen Abraham

by Pauline Simonsen

‘Look how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these’ (Matthew 6:28-29).

Can you see Jesus, sitting on the hills above Lake Galilee, people all around him, listening? Can you see him gesturing towards a scattering of wildflowers, drawing people’s attention to the flowers’ simple beauty? I wonder where Jesus got this idea from – to compare the wildflowers with King Solomon’s regal finery, as an example of God’s loving provision.

Jesus was a contemplative! He spent time looking, noticing and reflecting on what he was seeing. He gazed at God’s creation and noticed how it demonstrated so much from God’s word. He reflected on what he learnt at the feet of the rabbis in the synagogue, considering how God outworked that teaching in human lives. In his father’s carpentry business, he pondered as he sawed and sanded.

He connected God’s Torah truths with everyday life and so could speak parables of God’s kingdom.

Remember all those times in the gospels when Jesus withdrew by himself to pray (for example, Luke 4:1, 4:42, 5:16, 6:12 and 9:18)? I’m sure a lot of that time was sitting silently in his Father’s presence, listening, looking, pondering … contemplating!

Contemplation has been described as a ‘long, loving look’: slowing down to ponder what one is looking at – whether a Bible verse, an idea, or a flourish of lilies. Contemplation is countercultural in our world. We are people of the fast click, of ‘surfing’ the net, skimming over images and text. We pause briefly on what catches our attention but click on immediately if it doesn’t hold us.

Perhaps many of us read the Bible that way, too. Quickly read my devotion or verses for today, then go! Contemplation isn’t that. It’s going in slowly, with an open, noticing attitude and pausing on something that grabs our eye, ear, mind, or heart. Stopping there; giving the Spirit of God time and space to speak. Waiting quietly, patiently, receptively.

Contemplation, like meditation, has a long Biblical heritage. Do a word search in Psalm 119 for the number of times the psalmist says he will ‘meditate on God’s law’! Think of young David, up there in the hills around Bethlehem, tending his father’s sheep. What did he do in those long solitary hours? Reflected on the Hebrew scriptures, pondered the creation around him, thought deeply about God, wondered how it all related to his life … and wrote songs and psalms expressing these personal meditations. David contemplated!

These words – contemplation and meditation – have been taken over by western culture dabbling in New Age and Eastern religions and we as Christians are often understandably wary. It’s good to clarify that we are speaking of Christian meditation. So what is it?

In New Zealand we have lots of dairy farms and I often drive past and see cows lying down, chewing their cud. That’s the best image of meditation I can think of. The cow has spent the morning eating grass and now sits quietly, regurgitating semi-processed grass so it passes more readily through the cow’s four(!) stomachs. Cows usually spend more time chewing during rumination than when they eat, breaking down grass so it can be absorbed and nourish them.

This describes Christian meditation: ruminating on God’s word. Taking in a portion of Scripture and pausing; chewing on it, re-reading it (several times, maybe in different translations), waiting with an open heart for the Holy Spirit to highlight truths from those verses that God wants you to hear today. Allowing the living word to speak life to you right in the middle of your busy day.

Why? Because God wants you to hear his word. He is always speaking, but we so rarely pay attention. Prayerful Christian meditation slows us and opens us to hearing and receiving God’s word.

All this is, of course, the work of God’s Spirit in us and through his word. Inevitably we humans turn it into our ‘work’: I must meditate to ‘hear God’! But it is the Spirit who draws us, opens the word to us and gives us receptive hearts. It’s like any Christian practice we do in response to God giving us new life: prayer, regular devotions, worship, service … These too are the Spirit’s work in and through us, growing us to be more like Jesus. This is the grace and kindness of a God who wants to communicate with his beloved children.

Christian meditation has many forms. One ancient practice is lectio divina or ‘holy reading’, encountering Christ the Word in Scripture. It is simple, word-centred, Spirit-directed and leads us to Jesus.

A helpful introduction to this form can be found at https://bustedhalo.com/ministry-resources/lectio-divina-beginners-guide. Through it, the Holy Spirit fills me with stillness and peace. This is the joy and delight of Christian meditation!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained meditation well in his book Life Together: ‘Silence is nothing else but waiting for God’s word and coming from God’s word with a blessing, but everybody knows that this is something that needs to be practised and learned, in these days when talkativeness prevails … Often we are so burdened and overwhelmed with other thoughts, images, and concerns that it may take a long time before God’s word has swept all else aside and come through. But it will surely come, just as surely as God has come … and will come again … This stillness before the word will exert its influence upon the whole day … Silence before the word leads to right hearing and thus also to right speaking of the word of God at the right time.’

Dr Pauline Simonsen is Dean and a lecturer at Christian training provider Emmaus at Palmerston North in New Zealand. She is also a guest speaker, spiritual director and retreat leader and a member at St Lukes Lutheran Church.