So what this was, for those of you who know different practices of prayer, this was an Ignatian, a modified version of Ignatian prayer, imaginative prayer, these first two guided readings.
So one of the things we want to do on a retreat like this is to help us learn how to pray in different ways, maybe then we're used to in ways that can be helpful to bring in the scripture to let scripture fill us and form us because that doesn't just happen. That doesn't just happen. That has to, we have to practice that. We have to have some kind of practice of taking in scripture and letting it fill us in our imaginations and form us and change us and help us to see Jesus. This is how we do it. This is how we see with the eyes of faith.
So that's what this was about. Now we did this actually at Synod. Last year Synod is our diocese yearly gathering, which is coming up next week. A bunch of us are going back. So we did this together. So that is actually what we're going to do next. What we're going to do is we're going to imagine this scene together with, again, the eyes of faith. So it may help you to close your physical eyes.
So what we're going to do is we're going to enter into silence again. And then I'm going to walk us through this scene. It's going to take about 10 minutes. We're going to take our time. And then we're going to enter into silence again into prayerful reflection and contemplation as to what comes up. And then I'm going to share some things after that, especially focusing in on this last thing that Jesus says.
So let's enter into silence. Consider closing your eyes. And Lord, as we do, enlighten the eyes of our hearts.
It's early morning. The first light is breaking over Jerusalem's rocky hills. The air is cool and carries a faint smelt of lingering spices. Two women, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, are walking to the tomb to anoint the lifeless body of Jesus. They carry not only spices, but also a mixture of grief and love, holding memories of his voice, his words, his healing touch. And all they expect to find now is the cold, immovable stone sealing the tomb. And behind it, the body of their beloved friend, cold in death. He was gone and along with him all their hopes.
But suddenly, the ground begins to shake. An earthquake is shattering the silence, scattering dust and stones. A brilliant figure descends dazzling like lightning, his clothes blindingly white, like snow under the sun, the guards, paralyzed with terror, collapse, unable to withstand the sight.
For the women the scene is overwhelming, the stone has been rolled away, and this radiant figure now sits upon it. In an instant, their grief transforms into shock and fear. And the angel addresses that fear. With a message from heaven, his first words, do not be afraid. They are followed by a message that turns fear into joy, into unshakable hope. He acknowledges what has brought them here, their devotion to the one they saw crucified, the one they mourn. But now he invites them into entirely new reality.
He is not here. He has risen, just as he said. In that moment, their worst fears have been overturned. The empty tomb isn't an absence. It's a declaration of life. Their resurrection life. Their friend has risen from the dead.
The angel then urges them to see for themselves, to step closer and behold the proof that death has not held him. And just as quickly he sends them on a mission, go quickly and tell his disciples. The angel's words and the empty tomb have given them new, unimaginable hope, joy, purpose. They must tell the disciples for they are the first witnesses of what will reshape their lives and the world.
So they run. Their hearts pounding with a new mixture of emotions, lingering fear and unexpected joy. They run, trying to catch their breath, the angel's words daring them to believe, moving them to hope to rejoice with great joy that Jesus is alive. Suddenly, they're stopped in their tracks. Jesus himself stands before them and greets them with a single familiar word, one that seems almost too simple for such a moment. Greetings. Yet with this word, their lingering fear and doubt begin to dissolve. They fall to the ground, clasping his feet. The very feet once wrapped in burial cloths, now warm and alive. And they worship him, filled with awe, trembling with joy.
When they hear his voice again, repeating the words they've already heard, do not be afraid. But now, with the authority, insurance of the risen Lord himself. The one who died for every sin, their sin. The one who overcame death, their death, do not be afraid. Words from the risen Lord, words to receive, to fill and calm our trembling hearts.
Jesus confirms the message of the angel and expands their mission, go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, there they will see me. They are now responsible not only to tell the disciples about the empty tomb and resurrection, but where to encounter the risen Lord themselves. The mountain where he will relieve their fears and renew their lives. And meeting that will become the great and glorious commission of the church, the women go. And then the disciples go. Like Moses who went to the mountain to meet God, shrouded in the cloud to receive his commandments, the eleven go to Galilee, to the mountain, to meet the risen Jesus, to receive his new commandments, yet not in the cloud, but in the clear light of day, face to face with a manual. God with us, God is one of us, risen from the dead.
They go and they see him alive. And like the women, they worship him, and yet doubt lingers among them. Jesus draws near and declares, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. In this moment, he reveals a truth that should reveal, relieve many fears. The one who has been put in charge of everything, the one who determines how it will all turn out in the end, the one who can change anything in the present, is the one who is the brightest spot in human history. The one who heals the sick, justifies the ungodly and raises the dead, the one who humbled himself to the point of death, death on a cross, just to forgive us, to save us, renew us. He is in charge.
He tells the disciples not to step aside, but like the women, to go, to every kind of people with great purpose, to help them become his apprentices, to immerse them in the name, to try you name, to train them to do everything he told them to do, the way every life is renewed. And as he sends him, sends them, he promises to be with them, every day, every step, until the end. So the end they're going, he will be with them, and they will be following him. To be with him is to be relieved of every fear. To follow him is to be renewed in all things.
Center into silence, and prayerfully consider these things. If you have your eyes closed, you can open them down.
So a passage where we see the risen Jesus, relieving fears, renewing lives with new hope, new joy, new purpose. And hopefully that reminds us of times the Lord has done that for us. And the way that reminds us to come to Jesus again with current fears, concerns we have, to be relieved again, to be renewed again.
And maybe those current fears relate with things about to happen, who's going to be elected, what's going to come next? Maybe their fears around change, going to two services. Other ordinary fears, fears about our health, fears about suffering, fears about death, fears of being alone. There's all kinds of fears we can be coming with that we need to come again and again to Jesus to address, to have him relieve, to reassure us.
I think as we do this, it's important to think about what is fear. What is anxiety? We feel it. How often do we think about what is it exactly? We're doing. It's happening when that happens. Here's a short and simple definition. Fear anxiety is anticipating something terrible. It's a forward-looking, future-oriented emotion. We're looking into the future and we're seeing something that's threatening something or someone we love. And we are afraid that we don't have what it takes to overcome that threat by ourselves. And we're either alone or we're with people who just aren't able to handle and overcome that threat with us and for us. That's at the heart of what's going on with fear and anxiety.
Hope on the other hand is the opposite. Unlike anxiety looking into the future, anticipating something terrible, hope is looking into the future and anticipating something joyful. And Christian hope is looking into the future and seeing the most hopeful thing of all, the risen face of Jesus Christ. And seeing Him there not just as a static statue, but doing stuff. Leading and renewing everything and everyone. We're looking into the future and we're seeing Him with us, eventually overcoming everything that troubles us. Seeing Him renew us in His joyful way. As He can. As He is the one who's been given all authority, all power in heaven and on earth. He's also the one who has already overcome the world. Hope is looking into the future and seeing that.
I think it's important to recognize and name. In this age, I don't think we will ever fully extinguish fear and doubt from our lives. We see it lingering there in the women. The fear is lingering there with them. The doubt is even lingering with the disciples when they see Him face to face. We may not fully extinguish that, but we can grow in joyful hope. That can be more and more the reality of our lives.
And while we don't see Him physically face to face like the disciples did on the mountain, we still do see Him in a very real way with the eyes of faith, with our imaginations and our lives filled with scripture, immersed in scripture, scripture that fills us in our imaginations. That's why this Ignatian practice is such a good one. It's a way to help us grow in our vision of Jesus, that hopeful vision of Jesus. Not just for the future of what's coming, but also in the present and how He meets us in times of prayer.
So again, that's something we wanted to offer you as you come in your solo time, but this is something to consider incorporating into your prayer. And what we did here was actually offer you two versions of praying. So the first version was Ignatian prayer, those are the two guided readings. The third guided prayer was another version of prayer. There's a modified version of what's been called the Immanuel approach to prayer.
This approach is taking Jesus at His word when He said, I will be with you. Every step, every day, actually, I will be with you all the days as the Greek. Taking Him at His word there, praying in light of that, that He is Immanuel, that He is in fact present right here, right now, and praying accordingly. So this prayer was, I don't know, invented. It's not really a new prayer, but it was really crystallized with this guy named Carl Lehman. He's a clinical psychologist. He's got like 35, over 35 years of experience as a clinical psychologist.
But what he wanted to do was integrate insights he learned from psychology and neuroscience, and most of all, his Christian faith and this basic truth that Jesus is with us. So originally it was for people who have traumatic debilitating memories that they are afraid to go to. But really it's something that can be adapted and used for less intense fears in our lives. So I was going to get Jeff Banks to come and share about it because he's the one who told me about this and was where I first heard about it and it's had a big influence in the university and well beyond the university.
It's something that's been really powerful in people's lives because it's very simple. Because you're just remembering that Jesus is present and you're praying along those lines and it's mostly just relying on the real presence and ministry of Jesus. It's a beautiful thing that makes everything easier and lighter and wonderful. So this is how it works.
It was basically what you did in your solo time. But you start with a good positive memory of Jesus being present to you and ministering to you. It could be a recent thing. It could be something away from a long time ago. And you just spend some time remembering that and thanking Jesus for that. And what that does is it awakens that relational part of us, that connecting part, both in our spirits but also cognitively in our minds.
And what it does therefore is it helps us become more aware of Jesus' current presence with us. Wakens us to that. What it also does is it creates a secure and safe place from which to tend to other scarier things in our lives. It's got some overlap with attachment theory. But what you're doing here is you're getting a stronger emotional attachment to Jesus in your relationship with Him so that therefore from that safe secure place you can go to scary things in your lives and you're going there more aware that Jesus is with you.
And you're praying, Jesus, help me tend to this. Help me see minister to me with this fear I have. It's not something you're meant to force Jesus to do or you're just their attentive to see how He may be present to you and minister to you. And for some people they have experienced dramatic emotional healings. Sometimes it's more subtle. You're just reminded of the truth of Scripture of who Jesus is, who you are in Him, why you don't need to fear so much, why you can trust, why you can hope.
I have found that in my care times as I practice this. This teaching though it reminds me of, or this approach reminds me of a teaching you find in the charismatic tradition. If you spend any time in that tradition they draw on Psalm 100. I will enter his gates with giving. And his courts with praise. Right and there's a sense not only that that's the appropriate thing to do when you come into God's presence.
That's how we start. That's what our morning liturgy is all about. It's the great thanksgiving. But also in thanking God it enables us to be more aware of his presence. We're awakened it to it more. So there's some overlap here in this approach with the charismatic tradition. There's also an overlap here, similarities with the contemplative tradition that I've spent some time in as well. Where you either in personal contemplation or in spiritual direction you're beholding how Jesus has been present to you in your life, how he is currently present to you in your life and how are you responding to that.
So there's a potential here for like a blend of contemplative and charismatic what people are now there's new descriptions of the contemplative charismatic which I'm drawn to. I mean I have had some discussions along these lines and I think this is an approach that fits our church I think that could really work in our church. But regardless of how we call it or what we understand it it's really just coming back to this Jesus is with us. That's a real thing. Taking him at his word.
So I've incorporated this into my prayers and sometimes just the first five minutes if I'm on a prayer walk in our neighborhood or if I'm riding my bike into the office or sometimes when I'm sitting down with someone in a pastoral meeting I'll just start with the first five ten minutes. Thank you Jesus for this promise. Thank you that you are faithful to this promise. Then I just spend a few minutes just thinking of a recent beautiful time with Jesus. And then from there I go to some fearful thing I'm dealing with and there's usually every week some fearful thing to deal with. And same with the other person who I'm with up I'm praying with them and they give them a chance to do that.
And it just makes everything so much easier and later and I find I am just more aware of Jesus throughout my day and in that meeting because Jesus really is present. Jesus really ministers to us. Jesus really relieves our fears and renews our lives when we come to him and take him seriously. So I offer that to you as something potentially to become part of your prayer life. I highly recommend it.