SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES AND

PRACTICES, #3

The Spirit of the Disciplines

Counting the Cost• Christianity has not so much been

tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried—G. K. Chesterton

• Lk 14:25-33

The cost of discipleship

• Crushing burdens, failures, disappointments

• Unresolved problems• Mt 16:24-26

The cost of nondiscipleship

Character Transformation

Solid beliefs and

doctrines

Definitive actions

A Holistic Salvation

Provides deliverance leading toward an abundant

spiritual life

Invites participation in the reign of God

through bodily action

Spiritual Life - Willard

That range of activities in which people cooperatively interact with God and with the spiritual order, which flows from and through God’s personality and action.

Spiritual Person - Willard

One whose life is correctly integrated into and dominated by God’s Kingdom.

What spirituality is notA

lifestyle

A commitment

A social or political stance

An attempt to correct social and political

injustice

Christian spirituality includes…

Activities of mind and body purposefully undertaken to bring personality and being into effective cooperation with the divine order;

Bringing fulfillment to the body as well as to the spirit.

The idea that a lack of the disciplines associated with spirituality damages the body as well as the spirit

History of the Disciplines

Elton Trueblood

What we are beginning to learn is that asceticism is a valid part of religion or of any other important enterprise.

Contemporary Western Thought

• To do what I want when I want

• To pursue happiness at all costs

• To feel good• To be successful• To enjoy the “good life”

I have

a right

Contemporary Western ThoughtThis has come to be a natural and accepted way of life promoted by

Popular media

Political rhetoric

Educational system

Contemporary Western Thought

If I am not experiencing the “good life”• I am a failure• I have been treated unfairly

Contemporary Western Thought

• Not wholly sane• Irrational• “Holy” or a

“saint”

Those who choose not to work toward a “happy and successful life”

The Call to Discipleship

Lk 14:25-30Mk 8:34-37

The Call to Discipleship

How can a call to move forward in

one’s apprenticeship to Jesus fit with the

“good life”?

This may be an indicator of where our

culture’s negative attitudes or

misunderstandings about spiritual

disciplines have arisen.

Dallas Willard

Somehow, the fact that “mortification”—self-denial, the disciplining of one’s natural impulses—happens to be a

central teaching of the New Testament is conveniently ignored. . . . The result is

our almost universal inability to understand what the disciplines for the

spiritual life are.

Abuse of the Disciplines

Old Testament• Isa 58:1-8• Mic 6:6-8

New Testament• Mt 23:1-12• Rom 2:25-29• 1 Cor 13:1-3

Abuse of the DisciplinesThe abuses occurred when

such practices were conductedAs

expressions of fear and hatred of

the material world

As attempts to

manipulate or impress

God

As attempts to

manipulate or impress

others

DisciplineHistorical context

“The discipline” was a whip that

was used to chastise the body during

acts of penance in the Middle

Ages

In the 13th century,

flagellation was used for

penitential processions of

the laity and the religious orders

Christ never engaged in

practices such as these

DisciplineBiblical Models

Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, John the Baptist,

Jesus, Paul—

People who fasted, prayed, sought

solitude…

And gave themselves to

humankind and God in

ways that are ascetic in nature.

However…Jesus showed that spiritual strength is not manifested by great and extensive practice of the spiritual disciplines but by little need to practice them and still maintain full spiritual life

Dallas Willard

The Spiritual DisciplinesHave no value in themselves

The aim of the spiritual life is in the effective and full enjoyment of

active love of God and humankind in all the

daily rounds of normal existence

The spiritually advanced person is

not the one who engages in lots and lots of disciplines

The Spiritual DisciplinesMissing the point

If it is easy to engage a certain discipline, it is no

longer a discipline

The “disciplines” to practice are

those one is not “good at” and

hence does not enjoy

The Spiritual DisciplinesMissing the point

Those who think they are

spiritually superior because they practice the

disciplines

The need to extensive

practice is an indication of

weakness, not strength

The Spiritual Disciplines

The spiritual disciplines, then, are

those practices which, when “endued with

power from on high” (Lk 24:49), enhance the

spiritual walk and help apprentices become more like the Rabbi

The Spiritual Disciplines

The spiritual disciplines bring the

whole self into cooperation with the divine order, so that

apprentices can experience vision and power beyond

oneself

The Spiritual Disciplines

The spiritual disciplines cease to be disciplines when they are fully integrated

into one’s spiritual life.

The Outward Disciplines

Simplicity Solitude

Submission Service

Simplicity What do you think of when you hear or

see the word “simplicity”? An attempt to define

Brings freedom and generosityCultivates the great art of letting goAims at loosening inordinate attachments

Simplicity Why should disciples practice simplicity?

To live an uncluttered lifeTo live out of the “Divine Center”To stake one’s identity in God’s love rather

than in possessions

Simplicity “True simplicity makes us conscious of a

certain openness, gentleness, innocence, gaiety, and serenity, which is charming when we see it near to and continually with pure eyes”—François Fénelon

The practice of simplicitySpiritual Classics (114, 137)Spiritual Disciplines (74-77)

Solitude What is solitude? An attempt to define

An inner fulfillmentThe other side of the “loneliness coin”A “container discipline” for the practice of

other spiritual disciplinesA companion to “silence”

Solitude Why should disciples practice solitude?

To give God time and space without competing distractions

To rest and refreshTo think with GodTo allow for the experience of the “dark night

of the soul”

Solitude “Settle yourself in solitude and you will

come upon Him in yourself”—Teresa of Ávila

“Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. . . . Let him who cannot be alone beware of community”–Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Solitude The practices of solitude

Spiritual Classics (149-50, 156-7)Spiritual Practices (107-13)

Submission What is submission? An attempt to define submission:

The ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to get one’s own way

The attitude with which one views and values others

The giving up of one’s rights

Submission Why should disciples submit to one

another?To be freed from the need to controlTo esteem and honor othersTo be set free from a rebellious spiritTo lose one’s life in order to find it in ChristTo learn to deny oneself, take up one’s

cross, and follow Jesus

Submission “Never think [that] in lowering yourself

you have less power for good”—Charles de Foucauld

“A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all”—Martin Luther

Submission The practices of submission

Spiritual Classics (178, 194)Spiritual Practices (118-120)

Service What comes to mind when you hear the

word “service”? An attempt to define follows:

A way of offering resources, time, treasure, influence, and expertise for the care, protection, justice, and nurture of others

The outworking of the grace of humilityThe ministry of the towel

Service Why should disciples practice

servanthood?To say “no” to the world’s games of

promotion and authorityTo abolish the need for a “pecking order”Not to do away with leadership and authority

but to allow them to be redefined and rearranged

Service “When we choose to be a servant, we

give up the right to be in charge. There is great freedom in this. If we voluntarily choose to be taken advantage of, then we cannot be manipulated. When we choose to be a servant, we surrender the right to decide who and when we will serve. We become available and vulnerable”—Richard Foster

Service The practices of service

Spiritual Classics (217-23)Spiritual Practices (144-7)