Series 1 of the good stuff. Wholiness

In this series of videos we reflect on the subject of wholiness; an invitation to move away from a view of God as one who demands moral purity or perfection and who struggles to tolerate our presence, and instead toward a reframing of God and wholiness (in light of the story of Jesus) that moves us toward love, grace and acceptance of self and others.

 
 

Wholiness - Part 1. What’s with the “w”?

In this first session we explain why understanding holiness through the lens of wholiness is helpful in understanding the nature of God, God’s design for us and our relationships and the implications this has on how we live a life of faith.

Reflective Practice.

An invitation to attentive presence:

· you may want to place your feet flat on the floor if you’re able, to sit with your back straight but in a comfortable place, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths and slowly become aware of your breath rising and falling in your chest.

· pay attention to the feeling of your feet on the ground, of the sounds around you, and then return to your breath

In this moment of attentive presence, spend a moment reflecting on these questions:

· Has my spirituality ever been shaped by a fear that I don’t measure up – not good enough either for God, for others, or even for myself?

· What would it feel like to let that fear go? Even if you don’t think its possible to let it go just yet, you can imagine what it might feel like to let it go.

· What could it mean to see inclusion as a defining characteristic of holiness – rather than it being used as a marker for exclusion?

 
 

Wholiness - Part 2. Wholiness and the Imago Dei

In this video we explore the idea that all humans image the divine. This has implications for universal human dignity and value, for the affirming of our humanness as a good and beautiful thing, and for seeing the interconnectedness of all things - a call toward harmony and wholiness.

 

Reflective Practice

Take a couple of minutes to slow down, close your eyes, and take a few deep breaths. As you sense your own breath coming in and out, be reminded that in the biblical story the breath was a central metaphor for understanding God’s Spirit and presence. God’s Spirit – just like the breath – gives life. 

And in this moment of stillness, here is your benediction/blessing to reflect on and to engage with as you need

For those who feel far from God – may you come to know the closeness of the divine, in whatever way makes most sense to you.

For those who feel far from others – may you come to find a sense of home in the company of kind and generous souls, who make space for you as you truly are.

For those who feel far from creation – may you come to sense the rhythm of life and the Spirit humming beneath the surface of things, and may you be surprised by a sense of connection to all that surrounds you.

For those who feel far from themselves – may you come to make friends with your own soul, seeing the best and the beautiful when you’re tempted to look past it, that you might be able to acknowledge the image of God that is within you.

 

Wholiness - Part 3. Wholiness and the self

In this video we explore how wholiness is related to the self. Sometimes religion can be sold to us as needing a kind of self-rejection or the suppression of our selves – because then God can be sold to us as the cure. But our suggestion is spirituality at its best will help us become ‘more ourselves’ rather than less. This is not just good vibes religion – it is a deeply counter cultural narrative that invites us to begin with embracing the self rather than amplifying the inner critic. We also look at how this is not just an individualistic spirituality – to know (and to love) the self requires a grounding in the context of our relationships and connections with others, with those who have gone before us, and with the ground beneath our feet. 

 

Reflective Practice

Today’s invitation is into a palms down/palms up exercise. So firstly, take a moment to get comfortable, sit with your feet flat on the floor, your back straight, your hands resting on the tops of your thighs. Take a couple of deep breaths and then close your eyes. In this place of comfortable alertness, take some more deep steady breaths and pay attention to the rhythm of your chest rising and falling with each breath. Allow yourself to slow down for a moment. If your mind is racing – that’s okay, it’ll do that, but here you are, giving yourself some space to pay attention to what matters.

Palms Down

Now take your hands and turn your palms so that they’re facing downward. They may still be resting on your legs, or held in the air, or even down by your side. This physical posture of palms downward is a symbol of putting down, of letting go, of giving over to God that which you don’t need to hold on to. You may have some things on the top of your mind that you would like to give over – even just for these few minutes. In light of today’s reflections, you may also want this opportunity to consider letting go of:

- harsh judgements you have of yourself, the voice of the inner critic who tells you you’re not enough, that you’re an imposter, or that you simply need to suppress who you are in order to be “okay”

- criticisms or judgements other may have said that have stuck with you and play in a loop over and over in your head

- any pressure or anxiety you feel to have to ‘make it on your own’

Palms up

Now take your hands and turn your palms so that they’re facing upward. This physical posture of palms upward is a symbol of openness, or receptivity, of accepting that which you need from God. This place might be an invitation to ask:

- for divine presence

- to receive a felt sense of grace

- to be reminded of your place in the interconnectedness of things

- for the gift of being at ease in your own skin

 

Wholiness - Part 4. Wholiness and rest

Our society is defined by a kind of restlessness, and its a kind of restlessness that leaves us in a constant state of some kind of fatigue; the hyperactivity of 21st century Western life, the unlimited choices many of us experience, the explicit and implicit messages we receive about keeping up, about making it, about proving our worth through the things we produce and consume. So what does a spirituality of wholiness offer us in the midst of this? How and why does rest matter to our sense of self, to our relationships, and to the sense of our place in the world?

 

Reflective Practice

Take a few minutes to write down your responses to these 3 questions:

Is it possible for us (individually and communally) to give up some progress in order to experience a life of rhythm and rest? What could that look like? What would that feel like? Why might we resist this?

Would I be able to say no to advancement if I knew it would rob me of the rhythms and rest that I need?

What would it feel like to say “I’m not busy” when someone asks me (if it was actually true!)?

 

Wholiness - Part 5. Wholiness and The Body

To be human is to be an embodied creature and yet we can often have complicated relationships with our own bodies. Sometimes our religious traditions have given us negative attitudes toward our own bodies - seeing the body as the site of temptation or sin, seeing emotions as something to be suppressed, seeing sexuality as something to be suspicious of, or simply denying the ways our bodies tell us so much about what is going on for us at any given point in time. So a spirituality of wholiness must help us to move toward a more positive view of embodiment and our spiritual practices should help us move toward integration and wholeness, rather than reinforcing an unncessary splitting between what is spiritual and what is physical. 

 

Reflective Practice

Here are the 5 questions that have been drawn from Hillary McBride's excellent book - Practices for Embodied Living: Experiencing the Wisdom of Your Body. Use these sentence starters to think through, explore and express something of your own relationship to embodiment:

-  “My relationship with my body is...”

- “I am grateful my body can...”

- “When my mind and my body are friends, then...”

- “Right now I can feel...”

- “My body deserves nurturance in the form of...”

 

Wholiness - Part 6. Wholiness and community

"In this final reflection in this series on Wholiness, we explore how wholiness should transform the way we see and treat one another, and the kinds of communities we build together.”

 

Reflective Practice

Take this blessing (or benediction) and sit with it for a few minutes. Take some deep breaths, allow yourself to slow down and feel present. Pray the words of the benediction over yourself. Then after a couple of minutes, allow someone else to come to mind and pray this blessing for them too.

So may you come to know the God that is with you, and for you, and in you

And may you come to know your self too, and not just your self as known, but your self as loved

And that if you are loved, then you can offer yourself kindness, compassion and grace

And may you come to see the ways we are connected to each other,

our interconnections filled with the presence of the divine

and that while we may be different, there is no “other”

and so may you come to love your neighbour as you love yourself

And may you see the ways that we are of the earth

That to be human is not a calling to be “more” than creation

But to be deeply connected and to help her flourish

And so may you come to accept and inhabit wholiness as a gift from God

In all of your real humanness – beautiful and flawed, whole and a work in progress

All of it loved and known and embraced by a God who is good.