Hi,
Friends.
Welcome to the 28th episode of Christian Meditation with Anita Mathias.
I am Anita Mathias,
A writer,
Memoirist,
And Christian meditation teacher living in Oxford,
England.
I'm glad you're here.
Let's sit quietly breathing as our spirits,
Minds,
Emotions,
And heart rates slow down along with our breath.
Breathe in long and deeply.
Breathe out fully.
Again.
Treat yourself to the relief of the deepest in-breath you have taken all day.
And an equally deep exhale.
As you close your eyes,
Visualize Christ in front of you.
The Apostle John,
Who had seen Jesus in the flesh,
Had a vision of the resurrected Christ,
Which he describes in the first chapter of the Book of Revelation.
I saw among the seven golden lampstands someone like a son of man dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.
His eyes were like blazing fire.
His voice was like the sound of rushing waters.
His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
When I saw him,
I fell at his feet as though dead.
Then he placed his hand on me and said,
Do not be afraid.
I am the first and the last.
The Alpha and the Omega.
I am the living one.
I was dead and now look,
I am alive.
Forever and ever.
Visualize this king,
This friend,
With eyes like blazing fire,
Whose face is like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
A no-nonsense God.
A no-nonsense friend.
And then,
Place your biggest longing in his hand.
Breathe.
Place a question or worry into his hand.
Breathe.
Place a deep desire into his hand.
Breathe as you leave it there.
And that thing you know you should do,
But cannot quite bring yourself to do just yet,
Place it in his healing hands.
His fingers close over all these things you are placing in his hands.
That worry,
That ambition,
That longing,
That incapacity.
He's working on them.
Leave them there.
As we segue into our meditation from the Gospel of Matthew,
Let me pray over you a blessing that the Apostle Paul prayed for the Corinthians.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
The love of God,
And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.
It's a beautiful prayer.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Charis is the Greek word Paul uses,
Meaning kindness and favour,
And the agape,
The pure love of God,
And the koinonia,
The fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
Be with you.
So,
Go into your day protected.
You have the koinonia,
The fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
Who walks at your side through your day,
Helping you make good decisions.
You have the kindness and favour of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Strengthening your soul,
And you are wrapped in the love of God,
Who can make all things work together for good.
Amen.
And here is a meditation from the Gospel of Matthew.
The kingdom of God is here already,
Yet not yet here.
The Son of Man will come on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
This knowledge hums in our bones.
Our life on earth will end,
And we shall be happy with Christ and with the beloved people and creatures we have loved and lost.
This kingdom in which God reigns and his will is done,
Which we try to establish in the tiny kingdom of our own lives,
Is here already,
Yet not yet here.
Christ,
Who rose from the dead,
Is now forever,
Vibrantly alive.
He stalks the earth.
His presence hums in the joy of creation,
Birds caroling in the cold,
Trees swaying in the cosmic dance,
The leap of a dolphin,
The ecstatically wagging tail of a dog.
In flashes and snatches,
We glimpse this shimmering kingdom,
Great palaces of peace deep within and all around us.
On invitation,
Christ walks into our rooms with his clarity and wisdom,
And things change.
Sometimes we experience wave upon wave of the love of God deep within and all around us.
Our prayers are answered.
Sometimes we are healed.
Sometimes we feel our hearts strangely warmed with loving-kindness and warm fuzzies.
Sometimes.
Sometimes.
But we also experience sin deep within and all around us.
Our biting words,
Our unkindness,
Our laziness and selfishness.
I do not do the good I want to do,
But the evil I do not want to do.
This I keep on doing.
The Apostle Paul wrote that.
Yes,
Me too.
And we are bruised by other people's greed,
Stinginess,
Bossiness,
Carelessness and deceit.
And then there's the sin of the world.
The cruelty,
Pride,
Unbridled greed and environmental destruction.
And yet,
Some people live in a kind of heaven right now,
As Pastor John Mark Comer writes.
The kingdom,
God's presence,
Is always available.
It's peace,
It's guidance,
It's wisdom and it's joy.
We can leap sideways into it sometimes.
At other times,
It takes hard wrestling with our own traumas,
Grudges,
Habits and neurology.
Repentance is one portal into the kingdom.
As is our slow,
Meditative breathing.
As is gratitude and absolute surrender.
Our eyes still perceive the glory of the coming of the Lord.
In surprising joy and shalom well-being,
Which envelops us like sudden sunshine.
In glacially slow but unmistakable personal change.
In the acceleration of coincidences and answers,
Once we start praying.
In the glory of creation,
New species evolving,
Even as others die.
And so we,
With quivering voices,
Sing our broken hallelujahs.
As we observe Christ's kingdom,
Inextricably,
Infinitesimally,
Appear on earth too.
As Christians have prayed for 20 centuries.
Thank you.
