This is the invitation to you:

“Be still and know that I am God.” or as the NASB puts it:

“Cease striving and know that I am God.”

Romans 8:38 reads: “I am convinced....” This verse talks about the vital importance of being convinced that nothing can separate us from the love of God. But first we have to be convinced that He, in fact, loves us. We may need to be convinced of the importance of experiencing that love, as well as, know that it is a truth in our minds. We may need to be convinced that a part of this journey is one that demands that we take time from our busy lives and that there is a link between being still and knowing God. We may need to be convinced that we must ‘cease striving’ and simply accept God’s love and presence.

May we take that time today - to be still and know that He is God and to be convinced of his truths by experiencing the fulfillment of his promises.

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Be still exercise:

LISTEN - it is his voice inviting you... this is a five step exercise that leads us from our whirling, swirling, restlessness into quiet and stillness - into God himself - into a place where we can begin to simply BE - in His presence.... in His love... It an exercise based on a scripture most of us are familiar with... “Be still and know that I am God.” Focusing on this verse starting with the full sentence and then reducing it each time until we end up with simply “Be.” The invitation is to just BE present to God. There is no need to try to achieve anything, to do anything except to be present. This is a promise - Ephesians 3: 21-22 “God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us” (The Message).

Settle downPut anything you’ve got in your hands downGet comfortablestretch your neck - your shoulders - flex your anklesTake a deep breath - let it out slowlyTake another deep breath - Close your eyes and open your heart

Prayer: “Lord - you are here. You are God and we are stopping everything right now to just be still. To cease our striving. To just be ourselves with you. Present to you. Open to you. Ready to listen. Please meet every one of us in this room in these next few minutes. Help each one of us to let go of everything except You and your love. Place a protection around each of us. Don’t allow anything that is not of You to enter as we open ourselves up. Lord, I ask you to enable each of us to simply sit at your feet and listen. We may not “hear” anything but the sound of our breathing or we may hear you speak to us in the depth of our being. But we are accepting your invitation, obeying your command, to be still and know that you are God. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

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Be still and know that I am God

Be still and know that I am

Be still and know

Be still

Be

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How you might spend the time...In the following pages there are some ideas of how to spend these next hours, but in whatever manner you choose to do so - please accept the invitation to spend them with God. It is important to process our experiences, so there are also some ways to respond included. Think through what you might want to share with one or two others before we bring the morning to a close.

1. Spend some time in the Scriptures - listening to what God might say to you. There are several brief stories in the gospels that tell us or indicate that those near to Jesus sometimes chose to be still and know that he was God and how that encounter changed them. One of these three stories might help lead you into a time of stillness and listening: “Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, choose to sit at the feet of the Lord and listen” (Luke 10:38-42); I imagine Simon Peter listened, when Jesus asked him to shove his boat out into the water a little so he could continue to teach without the crowd pushing him into the water (Luke 5:1-10); and two of John the Baptist’s disciples (one of whom was Andrew the brother of Simon Peter) spent a day with Jesus after they heard John the Baptist proclaim “There goes the Lamb of God.” (John 1:35-42a).

Choose one of these three passages and consider what it might have been like to sit with Jesus and to listen to him. Read the short story several times. Try to imagine what it might have been like to have been there - the smells, the sights, the sounds etc. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you and spend some time listening.

Something profound happened to each of these three when they spent time with Jesus - Andrew went to Simon and told him “We have found the Messiah;” Simon was willing to let down his nets after just having cleaned them AND having had a fruitless night of fishing; Mary later on anointed Jesus with nard - a very expensive perfume - as a way of showing her love for him (John12:3). The passages are printed out for you below, but feel free to use your Bible and your version.

Ask God to speak to you. Circle or underline words that stand out to you. Make some notes. Draw a sketch of the scene. Imagine being there and seeing this incident take place - what do you see, hear, smell, touch, feel?

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Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus: Luke 10:38-42As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain

village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary,

sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big

dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to

you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”

But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset (distracted) over

all these details!There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has

discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

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Simon Peter: Luke 5: 1-10One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee,great crowds pressed

in on him to listen to the word of God. He noticed two empty boats at the water’s edge,

for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. Stepping into one of the

boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So he sat in the boat

and taught the crowds from there.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and

let down your nets to catch some fish.”

“Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if

you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” And this time their nets were so full of fish

they began to tear! A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon

both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.

When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and

said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m too much of a sinner to be around you.” For he

was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him. His

partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.

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Andrew: John 1: 35-42aThe following day John was again standing with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked

by, John looked at him and declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!” When John’s

two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.

Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?” he asked them.

They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

“Come and see,” he said. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went

with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him the rest of the

day.

Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of these men who heard what John said and

then followed Jesus. Andrew went to find his brother, Simon, and told him, “We have

found the Messiah” (which means “Christ”). Then Andrew brought Simon to meet

Jesus.

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2. Having considered one of these instances, take steps to become still. Do what Mary, Simon and Andrew did - spend time with Jesus. Sit and listen. Take a walk and listen. Be still and know that He is God.

If distractions rise up:There space below, list these distractions, it can sometimes help our minds set them aside for a time. Knowing that you have noted them, that you will return to them later, enables us to let go of them. You may want to put these distractions at the feet of Jesus - take the time to briefly offer them to the Lord. If you find the distraction(s) won’t settle down or simply would like to approach it this way, Viv or I would be happy to pray with you regarding them - in general or specifically.

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3. You might also take some time to say thank you... Anne Lamott says there are really only two prayers: “Help me! Help me! Help me!” and “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

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4. In order to be able to become still, you may need to take a Contemplative Prayer Walk

Creation itself, the physical universe, can provide a pathway to God. When we regard reality with awe, we open ourselves to appreciating the traces of the Divine Artist in the handiwork of God. We can often hear God speaking through the created world if we will but be open and attentive to listen. Jesus reflected on God’s creation and gained insights which He included in his teachings (the birds of the air, the lilies of the field, the fig tree, the chicks…) One of the great spiritual writers remind us that God reveals God’s self in the Book of the Scriptures and Book of Creation. God’s revelation is on-going in and around each of us today!

The following is a simple prayer exercise which invites us to deliberately slow down and open ourselves to God. Allow at least thirty minutes for this contemplative walk…

• Begin your walk alone, deliberately slowing down your pace, Take a few deep breaths…

• Now open yourself to God, asking God to speak to you either concerning a specific question or conflict you may have, or about something God wants to show you…

• Keep open to the outside world rather than simply mulling things over in your mind. Use your senses to become aware of what is going on around you. Use your eyes to look at things close up… and at a distance. Become aware of shapes, colors, textures… Look at things in relation to each other…

• Does anything particularly attract your attention? If so, pause and take it in…Is God saying something through it?

• Use your ears and really listen, both to sound… and to silence… Be aware of sounds going on inside yourself hear your inner self but then move out again…

• Use touch to become aware of different textures - the bark of a tree, the earth, grass, a wall… Again, if something attracts you, pause and explore it… Become aware of anything God might be saying…

• You may want to bring back something you have picked up - and spend even more time allowing it to reveal God to you…

• When you finish your walk, pause for a moment and raise your heart and body in praise to a God who is so extravagant, bodacious and intimate!

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5. After a time of reflection you may want to take time to do a Contemplative Collage

NOTE: collage & other art materials will be out all week in the Royal Wing LoungeA collage is essentially a selection of pictures or words usually gleaned from magazines, old calendars, cards or newspapers. These are arranged on a blank page or piece of cardboard and glued down. It's as easy as that! You may well ask: “How can that be contemplative?” Fair question... Read on! Collage is about letting the truth be revealed. Sometimes it is hard to stand back from our own life and see it from a more objective perspective. Collage is a contemplative way to allow this to happen. Both conscious and unconscious aspects of life find their way into the collage and remain there for ongoing discernment. To use collage as a contemplative discernment tool allow a good chunk of relaxed, uninterrupted time. Have all the equipment at hand. Begin with a few moments of prayerful centering then browse through the magazines, cards, calendars etc. Tear or cut out pictures or words that somehow “grab” you. Don't analyse or censor your choices. Next survey what has “chosen you” and do a bit of sifting and sorting. Play around with layering the pictures (and maybe words) on the page. Keep adding, discarding and arranging until you feel satisfied. Then glue it all down. The collage that has emerged will reflect back to you some aspects of yourself that may be well known to you and some that may surprise you. Some clear insights will emerge immediately. However, some choices on the page may reveal their truth only over time. Sit with the collage and open yourself to the wisdom of your spirit and God's Spirit. Come back to it from time to time and see if new layers of insight unfold. Someone I know who often uses collage as a way of praying looked back months later on a collage which featured blue tea towels drying in the sun in a lovely garden. It had not made sense at the time but now it fitted with a growing sense that God was calling her to take pleasure in the simple things of life and let go the feeling that this wasn't enough. Collage is a way of getting under the radar. In our very wordy world most of us try to “figure things out” cognitively and logically. Even our prayer can be couched in language we “know” is the way to pray. The well travelled tracks of theological language and concepts can make it hard for any new creative revelation to break through. Collage is one way to “get under the radar” of our left brain control and allow the right brain to show us things for which we may not previously have allowed space. Just as the symbols in dreams reveal more than we consciously “knew”, so the pictures in collage serve as symbolic messengers. In one retreat where collage was used as the way to spend a contemplative morning one person reported that she couldn't get away from choosing faces all kinds of faces, happy and sad, old and young, faces from many cultures. Her prayerful reflection on her finished collage was that her heart's desire was to take the risk of working with people rather than in the safe, behind the scenes job she currently held.Collage is art for non-artists! Most of us agree that artistic expression plumbs the depths of the creative spirit within us. But some of us feel “artistically challenged”! Take heart! Collage is the perfect way to create a beautiful finished product without using a paintbrush or a pen! This will happen whatever is your initial motivation for making a collage. But you may want to have a specific idea, scripture or concept in mind and create an intentional collage to convey its meaning. Suppose for instance that you are pondering what it really means to “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10). Try holding that phrase in mind as you sift through your resources and select pictures and words that exemplify that attitude. The finished collage can be a visual invitation continuing to call you to stillness. Practical hints.• A collage you want to keep for future display or reflection can be laminated quite cheaply. • Taking a digital photo of a collage is a good idea if you want a copy small enough to put in

your journal.

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Questions to help you process a collage...

1. What do you see? Describe the key images...

2. What attracted you to these images? Are they linked?

3. Is there anything that repels, frustrates, confuses you? Is there an image that you don’t understand what it is doing in your collage? Are you ok with that?

4. What did you discover anything about God and/or yourself through the collage?

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5. What was the process of doing the collage like? Any surprises? struggles?

6. What might you take from this exercise into your spiritual life? Is there message, insight, though here for you to consider? Perhaps something God wants you to think about or is inviting you towards?

7. If you can, give your collage a title.

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5. One of the following poems (and the one on the back cover) may bless you:

If thou could’st empty thyself of self,Like to a shell dishabited,Then might He find thee on the ocean shelf,And say, “This is not dead.”And fill thee with Himself instead.

But thou are all replete with very thouAnd has such shrewd activity,That when He comes He says, “This is enowUnto itself -- ‘twere better let it be,It is so small and full, there is no room for Me.”

Sir Thomas Browne

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Silence us, that we may hear

Amid the crowds that clamour,Amid the demands that call,Amid the things that shout,Silence us, that we may hear.

Amid the ceaseless rounds,Amid the hurried pace,Amid the countless journeys,Silence us, that we may hear.

Amid the hasty thoughts,Amid the speedy reactions,Amid the swift communications,Silence us, that we may hear.

Amid the powers that threaten,Amid the people who manipulate,Amid the robbers of our freedom,Silence us, that we may hear.

Amid all our fellow workers,Amid all our leisure-sharers,Amid all our homes and families,Silence us, that we may hear.

David Adam "Power Lines: Celtic prayers about work"

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Word

I, who live by words, am wordless whenI try my words in prayer. All language turnsTo silence. Prayer will take my words and thenReveal their emptiness. The stilled voice learnsTo hold its peace, to listen with the heartTo silence that is joy, is adoration.The self is shattered, all words torn apartIn this strange patterned time of contemplationThat, in time, breaks time, breaks words, breaks me,And then, in silence, leaves me healed and mended.I leave, returned to language, for I seeThrough words, even when all words are ended. I, who live by words, am wordless when I turn me to the Word to pray. Amen.

Madeleine L’Engle

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Your response(s):Take at least 15 minutes before it is time to return to share and close this time with God by processing how it went and what you might want to share with another person or the whole group.

Q: How did it go today? What was it like to “be still and know that I am God”? Were you able to become still? Were you able to be like Mary, Simon or Andrew and simply sit at Jesus’ feet and listen?

Q: Or were you more like Martha - what distracted you? Were you able to set those distractions aside in order to choose ‘what is better’?

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Q: Do you have a sense for what this time of listening may have done for and in you? (You may not, and that is ok. To have obeyed the command, to have accepted the invitation to be still, to sit a Jesus’ feet and listen what all that was asked of you. The rest was up to God and sometimes He chooses silence too.

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You might want to try to express what this experience was like in a drawing:

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OR by writing a cinquain (see the instructions below):Line 1: one word - the title (a noun usually)

Line 2: two words (two adjectives or a two word phrase) that describe line 1

Line 3: three words (action verbs - participles (-ing)) that relate to line 1

Line 4: four words (feelings or a complete sentence) that relates to line 1

Line 5: one word (a synonym of line 1 or a noun that sums up what the poem is about)

Here is an example:

stillnessstop, motionless

quieting, settling, waitinglisten to the heartbeat

know

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Closing: from The Celtic Daily Office - the Northumbria Community

Call to worship:Ps 46:10 & 11:

“Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation.

I will be honored throughout the world.”

 The LORD of Heaven’s Armies is here among us;       the God of Israel is our fortress.

My soul waits for the Lordmore than those who watch for morning,more than those who watch for morning.

Declaration of Faith:I will wait for the Lord.My soul waits,and in His worddo I hope.

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Expressions of faith:Lord, You have always givenbread for the coming day;and though I am poor, today I believe.

Lord, You have always given strength for the coming day;and though I am weak, today I believe.

Lord, You have always given peace for the coming day;and though of anxious heart, today I believe.

Lord, you have always kept mesafe in trials;and now, tried as I am, today I believe.

Lord, You have always markedthe road for the coming day;and though it may be hidden, today I believe.

Lord, You have always lightenedthis darkness of mine;and though the night is here, today I believe.

Lord, You have always spokenwhen the time was ripe;and though You be silent now today I believe.

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Sharing:

Canticle:In the shadow of Your wingsI will sing Your praises, O Lord.

The Lord is my light, my salvation;whom shall I fear?The Lord is the refuge of my life;of whom shall I be afraid?

In the shadow of Your wingsI will sing Your praises, O Lord.

One thing I ask of the Lord,one thing I seek:to dwell in the presence of my God,to gaze on Your holy face.

In the shadow of Your wingsI will sing Your praises, O Lord.

I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.O wait for the Lord!Have courage and wait,wait for the Lord.

In the shadow of Your wingsI will sing Your praises, O Lord.

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Benediction:

May the Creatorbless you & keep you-

May the Beloved Companionface you & have mercy upon you-

May the eternal Spirit’s countenancebe turned to you & give you peace.

May the Three in One bless you.

from “A New Zealand Prayer Book”

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Resources:Adam, David. 1992. Power Lines: Celtic prayers about work. London: Triangle.

A New Zealand Prayer Book. 1997. Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. San Franscisco: HarperSan Francisco.

Browne, Sir Thomas. http://browne.classicauthors.net/Ifthou/

Celtic Daily Office from the Northumbria Community

L’Engle, Madeleine. 1978. The Weather of the Heart. Wheaton, IL: Harold Shaw Publishers.

Pritchard, Sheila. Contemplative Collage. in ‘Refresh’, Spiritual Growth Ministries Journal of Contemplative Spirituality, Summer 06/07. (http://www.sgm.org.nz/Refresh%20Archive/refresh_6_2.htm#25)

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