God, then is present always, in every situation, ‘in hope’. He is the insertion of hope in all the textures of our lives- including the apparently dull, boring, repetitive, unsensational and the apparently hopeless. The spirituality of the undefended life has room for repetition, and, indeed, values traditions where patterns of worship are ritualised and where the present moment is sublimated within a history of deeper obedience and older form. Such liturgies hold us in the now, and prevent us infantilising the present moment as some mere source of immediate, emotional fix.
Perhaps, then, we need to retrieve the word ‘liturgy’ from the narrow, specific context of corporate worship. Liturgy, in a broader sense, is the rhythm and pattern we establish within our lives to give a sense of orientation and alignment. To get up each day for a time of bible study on our own is liturgy; so too the saying of grace before each meal, the crossing of our self before the altar, the praying of a simple word or sentence throughout the day. Such activities punctuate our day, giving time rhythm and order, reorienting our focus from the things that repeatedly ‘snag’ us and pulling us back to a deeper posture and movement. They are like repeated patterns that, through discipline, we learn to dance, in order that our own movements would not descend into shambolic and eccentric incoherence.
As I have made clear, such liturgies must not in themselves, become the centre of the dance. They are not the dance, they are movements by which we may be drawn back into the dance. It is likely that they will be coloured by culture and history and we should beware of imposing them as norms. The beauty of the dance is perhaps in the diversity of movements and gestures, patterns and forms which have been artistically cultivated over the centuries. This variety of forms enrich one another, qualifying each other so that the dance does not become dull or overly repetitive and closed. They draw us back to the still point within the movement.
Developing a liturgy for one’s life, therefore, seeks a way of moving through the world, in time, which constantly opens itself up the movements of God. We find ourselves coming close to the historic notion of a ‘rule of life’. Such ‘rules’ were cultivated in the main by religious orders to provide structure for the community life. They were often enshrined around some central vows, which denoted the radical commitment the individual was making to live this kind of life. Poverty, chastity and obedience as in the Benedictine or Franciscan orders represent specific postures in regards to money, sex and authority around which a kind of life can be cultivated.
If we were to extend the fundamental posture of being undefended into three central ‘vows’ one might reach for the following: Receiving, Welcoming and Stewarding. Receiving expresses the primary orientation of child receiving the world as gift. It is the antidote to owning the world as possession or exploiting the world as commodity. It is also, one notes, the antidote to ‘serving the cause’ of God as some forms of Christianity have become. Welcoming expresses the responsive orientation of trust in which the other is experienced not as threat but as friend. It does not equate to being a walk-over or door mat. Instead, it seeks to create a hospitable space within ourselves for the other. Such hospitality always, inevitably, leads us to the third movement: that of Stewarding.
Stewarding is more active that Welcoming. It infers proactive movement to protect, look after and improve the world that we are given. Because we Steward, we seek to preserve those things which are precious. We protect that which is vulnerable. We cultivate that whish is growing. We renew that which is being depleted. We seek to give the world back as gift to those who follow after us.
I prefer to read Receiving, Welcoming and Stewarding less as vows and more as movements we are to commit to. When I was an athlete, I would repetitively rehearse the same movements over and over again; jumping over a hurdle till my movement was ingrained, improving my stride pattern until I could hit the long jump board from my forty metre run up every time within a centimetre of the edge. Such rehearsal was a mark of my dedication to the sport and perhaps there is a similar dedication required for us to ingrain the movements of Receiving, Welcoming, Stewarding.
Our bodily movements, to extend the metaphor, are largely untrained, thus our participation in the divine dance is largely unskilled and unrefined. We would perhaps benefit from articulating a set of repetitive actions which pattern this movement into our lives. Once again, such repetitive actions are not ‘rules’ in that we are excluded or punished if we fail to live up to them. Rather, they have the potential to draw us deeper into the dance. Like anything, they too can become a substitute for the dance, giving us technical security if we mistake them for the dance itself. But with these qualifications, I have chosen to suggest some actions which may be helpful to us in patterning these movements into our lives.
Value 1. RECEIVING
....a daily rhythm of receiving at the start of the day before giving or taking- through simple, personal acts of prayer, contemplation, meditation or praise
....a practice of pausing before taking meals in thanksgiving for gift to be received
....a weekly discipline of setting aside time, at the start of the new week, to look ahead and receive the forthcoming tasks, work, pleasures and encounters as opportunities for growth.
....a practice of receiving the gifts, fruits and character of each season in one’s consumption of food, one’s activities and work.
.... an annual discipline of beginning each forthcoming year with a day (or more) of retreat
.... an attitude of thankfulness throughout the day for the little things in life that we take for granted (rain, fruit juice for breakfast, a warm bed, a job, income, family....etc)
...a freedom to enjoy the delights, riches and goods of the world when they come to us without guilt
...a conscious check on our impatience, frustration or even rage when circumstances appear to conspire against us.
.... a decision to try to seek the learning and growth that may lie behind the difficulties, obstacles and painful inflictions which we have, from time to time, to endure.
.... a pattern of planned fasting from time to time (from such things as TV, food, alcohol etc) as a way of mastering our desires.
Value 2. WELCOMING
... cultivating patience and stillness to listen attentively to those we meet so that each person feels heard and not ignored, used or passed over
... resisting the temptation to condemn others who hold different beliefs; rather choosing to listen and understand their perspective and concerns in order to find ways to live as friends
... communicating clearly and authentically the beliefs we, or our community, hold so that it is apparent to others how they can relate to us, understand us and accept us.
... developing a commitment to help others understand the impact of their actions and beliefs on those around and themselves, so that they can better take responsibility.
.... choosing to consider encounters with strangers as potential meetings with friends- a gift, rather than a bind
... choosing to be particularly attentive in our lives, our use of time, our skill and our use of money to the vulnerable, dispossessed, homeless and lost in the world
... choosing to welcome visitors, both expected and unexpected, with generosity, as far as possible willing to share our home, time and food so that we might bless them as we have been blessed
... choosing to offer back a proportion of our time and/or money as a gift to be given away freely with no stake in the return, as an act of dependence, trust and generosity- as a sign that we are not mastered by greed.
... developing a practice of confessing to, asking for and receiving the forgiveness of those we may hurt
... seeking to hand over our anger at what has been wrongly done to us, rather than allowing it to fester and harden into bitterness. In this way seeking to find the will, resources and love to forgive those who hurt us.
Value 3. STEWARDING
....choosing to engage in cultivating and creative industry such that our net impact is positive not negative- social enterprise, creative or intellectual innovation, authorship etc...
...adding to the social capital of our neighbourhood through visiting the vulnerable
...strengthening bonds in our family as a peacemaker
....deepening the relationships we have committed ourselves to so that they are sustained, with integrity and richness.
....working to protect social structures and institutions which deepen social capital and trust in society and resisting the agendas of those that would exploit the world
... cultivating our own skills as ‘gifts’ entrusted to us for the good of others, so that we can make the best contribution we can to the world
... choosing to limit our consumption of resources in line with what we need- energy, food, consumables etc. through efficiency, care, self-discipline and restraint.
...considering the impact on the environment of our means of transport.
....choosing to reduce the impact of our consumption on the planet by reducing waste and packaging and, as far as possible, repairing rather than replacing- including white goods, electronics, cars etc
...choosing to consider the origins of our goods and energy, the conditions of those who manufactured them, the impacts of the processes and chemicals used in their production (switching to renewable energy supplies, or buying local produce for example)
(c) Simon P Walker 2010 The Content of The Undefended Life, in its final e and hard format will be considered the intellectual property of Simon Walker. He will acknowledge by name any whose contributions on this site have been used directly in the final work.
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