Spiritual Formation or Spiritual Unformation?

Are you spirituality formed or unformed?  Perhaps I could also ask if you are spiritually uninformed.

I believe that the Anglican Church―at least the part I am familiar with―has been left behind in encouraging and assisting our members in spiritual formation.

An article in the current edition of the Anglican Journal by Bishop Mark MacDonald hit the nail of the head when addressing this situation; the article was entitled A Return to Spiritual Formation.

In the article, Bishop Mark notes that the Anglican Church has never completely given up on Spiritual Formation focusing on the preparation for baptism and confirmation.  There have been elements of it in the Proclamation of the Word in services especially in the preaching.  I would also add that it has always been a part of Christian Education; however, that has been to a great extent restricted to Sunday School for our children (where our congregations still have children). 

Bishop Mark notes that Anglicans have taken this rather laissez faire approach to Spiritual Formation because Christianity was to a great extent the foundation of our culture:

We leave much of the formation of attitude, spirituality and daily practice to our participation in the larger culture. It is not hard to understand why this is so. Our contemporary church is only a short time away from a period when the broader culture was much more influenced by Christian thought and practice. During those years, formation happened through regular and common participation in a number of different societal organizations and institutions. It was possible to approach spiritual formation in the church as a kind of finishing school, affirming much that was already there in the culture and adding a distinctive, often denominational, flavour to the whole.  Bishop Mark MacDonald February 5, 2018

As a result of our relationship to culture, in which we did not need to take a proactive approach to Spiritual Formation or evangelization, our church finds itself in in the position we are in today with dwindling, aging congregations which are closing in shocking numbers.  Our Diocesan announcement seem to have a notice about the deconsecrating of a church building most weeks. 

There are, of course, many reasons why this is happening beyond the lack of Spiritual Formation.  The forces of modernity and secularization are driving much of the change.  We Anglicans, as well as other mainline denominations, have not responded to these forces quickly and adequately enough.

As a Spiritual Director what I do is to offer companionship and guidance to my Directees in their spiritual journey in which their spiritual life will develop more fully and their relationship with God (however, they understand God) will become richer, deeper, and stronger. 

I believe that is the journey in which God invites each person to take regardless of their tradition or lack of tradition.  It is a journey which we are all intended to take.

Blessings on your journey.

God knit me together in my mother’s womb.

13For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139)

This verse is from the psalm appointed for yesterday which was the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany.  The theme for the day was “follow me”.  The Gospel tells of the call of Phillip by Jesus to follow him and Phillip’s response to that call.

For many years I have been engaged by the idea that God knew me before I was knit together in my mother’s womb.  In effect, God created me as a unique individual with my unique DNA.  The implication of this is that I was created to be a and live this life in a specific way.  I does not mean that I have only one specific calling in life. The possibilities for living out that calling are too diverse to restrict it to one specific path.  However, we are called to find the path that will best fit the purpose that God intends for us.  If you answer the call to follow Jesus you will have the opportunity to discover each day where Jesus is calling you and how you can best follow him.

The opening verses of the psalm states it so well:

1O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.

3You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

God does know all my ways; my going out and my coming in.  That is truly awful; awe-full in the sense that I am filled with awe when I realize it.  Of course, there are many days and many times in most days when I forget that awe-full reality. 

The challenge for me in following Jesus is to become a bit more the person that God created me to be when God knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Responding to Jesus’ call to follow him is only the first step.  It is to begin a journey that will have many rough places as well as some smooth places.  It will have its highs and its lows.  There will be dead ends or at least what seem like dead ends. However, Jesus will always be there as my guide and my comfort, my strength and my shield.

If I follow him goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life (to quote another psalm).

Blessings on your journey,

The Divine Child Born in Us

O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel

Merry eighth day of Christmas―I trust the maids are milking and the cattle are lowing.  As you can see my thoughts are still on Christmas being a traditionalist when it comes to that season of the church year.  It is a time to enjoy the Christmas decorations and sing the Christmas carols.

Advent was a time of kenosis, of emptying as I wrote two weeks ago, in preparation for the coming of the Christ Child.  Now the Holy Child of Bethlehem has been born in us once again.  How are we to respond to that gift and live in this world on sin?  How are we to cast out our sin and allow Jesus to enter dwell in us today?

What does it mean that the Christ Child was born in a lowly stable amongst the animals and was laid in a manger? What does it mean that there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the Inn?    I believe that many of us do not recognize that if the Christ Child is truly born in us today, it will be in the places where we don’t expect it and where we don’t recognize it or even want to acknowledge within us.

Don’t expect much from the Christ Child what you will receive―at least at this point.  After all every new baby must be given a great deal.  It is truly in our care and need to be nurtured and loved.  Even though we do not receive much directly we find that love is reborn in us when a child is born to us.  This is as true of the Christ Child as it is with any ordinary baby.  Of course there is no such ting as an ordinary baby; in the eyes of its parents and others each one is a reflection of the God being born in us.

To love and nurture this divine child which is born in us we must nurture those places in which it is born.  We must nurture those places which are not proper for an infant to reside; the stables amongst the animals with the less than nice smells.  These are the places which do not please our egos and those places in us that we find less than acceptable.  There is often no room in the places which are near and dear to us such as the comforts and gratification which we seek and desire so desperately.

However, it is into these lowly places, these stable places, that the divine child is born and offers us an opportunity to love and nurture what we would otherwise neglect, or ignore, or even despise.  These are the places in which the Christ Child comes to us and abides in us and invites us to nurture and embrace.

God bless us everyone; O yes and a Happy New Year,