Message from Bishop Chilton Knudsen
DIOCESAN CONVENTION: A CONTEMPLATIVE EXPERIENCE. Huh? You mean all those endless pages
of budget figures and reports and resolutions and nominations? That relentlessly formal
parliamentary procedure, those endless committees (when I don’t know what half of
them really do), those hard chairs and sleepy post-lunch hours trying to stay awake...all
of that, a CONTEMPLATIVE EXPERIENCE?
Stay with me for just a few paragraphs. Maybe you’ll still be scratching your head by
the time you’ve read this, wondering if I’ve succumbed to the fabled
"Bishop Travels Too Many Miles" syndrome you warned me about when I first came
here. Or maybe, a new perspective will emerge and you’ll have a fresh and different
impression of our Annual Convention this October 29-30 in Bangor.
Within the tradition of Christian Spirituality, many labels are attached to the rich
varieties of spiritual experience. Two that are common (and often misunderstood, or
confused with one another) are:
MYSTICISM and CONTEMPLATION
MYSTICISM, as Christians have experienced it down through the centuries, is an experience
of God’s "otherness." Mysticism takes us out of the daily, ho-hum-ness of
life and grants us a taste of the Realm of God. Mysticism is like a telescope. Mysticism
takes us into unseen realms, and pierces the fragile curtain between this world and
God’s consummate Reign. If you have ever been driving or praying or sitting in nature
or listening to a beautiful piece of music, or gazing into the face of someone you love,
and you’ve felt transported to some larger and more radiant dimension of life;
you’ve had a mystical experience. The New Testament is full of mystical experience.
Jesus had many such moments, when his feet were, in a sense, straddling heaven and earth.
One of my favorites is St. Paul’s description of his prayer experiences (see Second
Corinthians 12, a passage most scholars agree is autobiographically about Paul himself).
In mysticism, we are "carried up," and ordinary life fades behind.
CONTEMPLATION is quite different. In contemplative prayer, we experience THIS reality ever
more fully. We are, in contemplative experience, "pulled deeply into" life as we
know it. We are not "carried up," we are "drawn deeper into".
Contemplation is an experience of God’s "with-us-ness." Contemplation is a
careful attending to what is right at hand; it’s a microscope, showing us more of
what we are already perceiving. If you hear a countermelody which you never heard before
in a piece of music, if you suddenly realize that you are seeing the colors of a mid-coast
sunset more vividly than ever before, if you can truly listen BENEATH someone’s words
the deeper truth of what they are trying to say, then you are contemplative. If you can
see the face of Jesus Christ in the person who upsets you mightily, that is a contempative
moment. Jesus was profoundly contemplative. He paid attention. He saw into a crippled
man’s yearning, into the truth of a Samaritan Woman’s life, into the betraying
heart of Judas.
I invite you to our Diocesan Convention: a Contemplative Experience. See, under the budget
figures, hands stretched out to receive the Body and Blood of Christ. Trace any budget
line item all the way down to the Gospel Message which will be spread because we allocate
those dollars of ours (yes, they are OUR dollars). See, beneath the reports and
resolutions, the yearnings of faithful people for the kind of Christian Community which
God calls us to be. Look deeply at the people who agreed to be nominated for leadership in
our diocese: contemplate their courageous response to the call of Jesus Christ...for being
a leader is no easy task. See — under all of the paper and procedure and discussion
and debate — a community of believers who love and follow Jesus Christ, all in our
so-human, so-imperfect ways. If you won’t be with us in Bangor, pray for us, that we
may gather in a spirit of contemplation. Then we shall see deeply into what it’s all
about. It’s all about Jesus Christ our Savior, alive and active, calling us to offer
all that we have and all that we are, that we may become what he told us we are to be: The
Body of Christ.
In Jesus Christ, risen and alive,
+CHILTON