Contemplation – Open for Prayer

Diana Butler Bass writes ( in Christianity for the Rest of Us) her next chapter about Contemplation. She notes a sign in front of one church that said simply, “Open for Prayer.” On the face of it, the sign indicated that the building was open for people to enter so that they could pray there. But she notes that in that particular church, it also says something about the congregation: they are also “open” to the effects of prayer.

In a way, the focus on prayer as a primary expression of contemplation can be misleading. At the very least, it can distract certain “seekers” into less than helpful discussions about who God is and whether or not there are “answers” to prayer. In my reflections, I’m going to stay with the notion of contemplation itself.

There are two common understandings of contemplation: thinking deeply about something for a period of time, or meditation on matters of a spiritual nature. A bit of linguistic context might be in order. The word has two parts. The first part means something like with or together, while the second part refers to the temple, or more specifically, the space set aside where “auguries” took place. (I’ll let you look that one up yourself if you so choose.)

In short, auguries could be seen as “spiritual answers” to life’s questions. To get such answers is the reason many people go to church. I think healthy contemplation goes far deeper than simply seeking answers, however. Healthy contemplation is a complex activity that requires the presence of several factors.

I want to borrow a particular frame of reference that has been ascribed to John Wesley, founder of Methodism. He indicated that healthy religious experience took place in relationship to four perspectives: Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Personal Experience. I am suggesting here that we understand his four perspectives as broadly as possible. As I understand it, scripture is a cumulative record over many generations of the experiences of human beings in relationship with the divine. Some would maintain that only the Judeo-Christian Bible qualifies as scripture, but for the sake of this discussion, I will assume a wider definition. Either way, scripture gives us a time-tested perspective.

Tradition is not about institutional authority. Tradition includes those practices and those formulas of belief that people have found useful. The ten practices articulated in Bass’s book make up a tradition in Christian circles. Tradition includes the activities people practice that they find effective in enhancing their spiritual lives and connections. Tradition includes the presence and activities of the individual’s spiritual community, too.

Reason is the use of a logical approach. Contemplating as thinking things through is an example of the use of reason. Wesley may not have known this, but even our emotional lives have an intrinsic logic, and therefore qualify as a kind of reason.

Finally, Personal Experience is just that. It is an individual’s accumulation of first hand encounters in relationship with seen and unseen realities.

I think contemplation needs all four of these In our noisy and busy world, contemplation is very difficult. I could argue that much of the noise comes from strident promotion of just one of the four perspectives at the expense of the others (but that’s a good topic for some other time).

Some thinkers, like Ken Wilber, for example, believe that religious gatherings are uniquely suited to provide opportunity for, and training in, contemplation, meditation, and prayer, that lead to first-hand experiences of a less materialistic, more spiritual dimension of reality. I tend to agree.

With so much pressure from governments, businesses, and the media that shapes our thinking and our beliefs, we need a safe place to set all that manipulative noise aside. We need a place where we can embrace and be embraced by a much wider and less self-serving perspective.

One example will have to suffice. If (bear with me on this) God is love and therefore embraces all creation with that love, then what do life and our decisions in it look like from that universal loving perspective? Contemplation gives us a way to try it out.

One final thought. Contemplation is not exclusively an individualistic activity. Groups, including churches, also can benefit from embracing that wider view of reality. But watch out – what you encounter may well transform your individual life, and it may well transform the life of your church or group, too.

What do you think?

“Our faith is 2000 years old. Our thinking is not. God is still speaking.”
The United Church__of Christ