PRACTICING OUR FAITH: DISCERNMENT

Proverbs 2:1-11; Luke 4:1-11

February 21, 2010 – Rev, Jerry Duggins

Two people meet and begin to spend time together. After a few months, they both wonder, “Could this be the one?” Another couple, after a few years of marriage ponder whether this might not be the right time to begin a family. Still another couple has just found out that they can’t have children and are considering adoption.

A college Junior begins to feel the pressure of choosing a major. A recently unemployed office manager contemplates a career change. A woman, after years of living in an abusive marriage, considers how to go about leaving her husband. A teenager struggles with what to do about a drinking problem.

In moments of crisis or serious decision-making, people sometimes turn to God and ask, “What should I do?” They don’t often “bother” God with the little things. Where to go on vacation, what movie to see, what to have for dinner are questions somehow beneath God’s notice. But we want to know that we’re marrying the “right” person. We want God’s blessing on our family. We want God to open doors for our “life’s work.” We want to know and feel that God is with us when we’re in a jam.

But how do we know what God wants us to do? In uncertain times, we can ask this question with a great deal of passion. After a series of unsuccessful relationships, “How do I know if this is the one that God intends for me” may feel like the pivotal question of a life-time.

The intensity behind these kinds of questions used to bother me a little. I always felt that God offered us many good choices, that God would never limit us to just one right choice. But as I think about the practice of discernment, I realize that this is beside the point. I realize that in saying there are many good choices, I have already opted out of seeking God’s leading and am trusting to just my own judgment.

The truth is that I take a very secular approach to much of my decision-making. My first rule of thumb is: If someone else will make the decision, let them. Sometimes, especially if it’s someone who cares about me, this works out well… in the short run that is.

But as a regular practice, allowing others to do all the decision-making leads to a passive kind of existence. Eventually one notices a loss of control, a sense that someone else is calling all the shots.

Imagine if Jesus had adopted this approach. He might have all the food he ever wanted, but he’d be doing the devil’s bidding. He might have glory, but only in the service of the devil. And if he’d listened to the devil on the last temptation, can you see a Jesus going around testing the limits of God’s patience like children who rely on their parents to bail them out of every scrape? Is that the model of faith that would transform the disciples?

Instead, we see a Jesus who knows what he’s about, that his life is not about food, that faithful service to God is far more important than fame, and that attempts to manipulate God can only distract us from the faith-filled abundant life which God intends.

Ironically, the practice of discernment does not resolve this “passive existence” by encouraging us to make more of our own decisions. Jesus’ response to temptation is not an assertion of his own will but a consideration of God’s desires for his life. These he learns from a knowledge of the scriptures. Robert, a member of an Episcopal church in California, who is quoted in Diana Butler Bass’ book describes the practice of discernment this way:

…discernment is not some sort of secular “weighing the pluses and minuses, or evaluation of desired outcomes.” Rather, discernment is “serious reflection on scripture, grounded in prayer and informed by experience. It is both deeply personal and entirely communal.” (Bass, p.92)

According to Frederick Schmidt, an Episcopal priest, “discernment is fundamentally a practice of asking ‘God-questions’ instead of ‘I-questions’” (Bass, p.94). Instead of relying wholly on our own wisdom, discernment invites us to see our lives in the context of God’s desires for us and for the world in which we live. According to Frank Rogers(a Catholic professor of spiritual formation):

The practice of discernment makes intentional a process of reflection on and participation with God’s Spirit as the fundamental context in which we live and make choices. (Rogers, p.115)

This is not just shifting the responsibility for making decisions from others to God, from a secular passivity to a spiritual passivity. Instead, it acknowledges the genuine partnership that we have with God in the living of our lives. So when I said earlier that I believed that God often provides many good choices, implying that there was no “right” answer, I was in one sense turning my back on the process of discernment. Instead of looking for God’s leading, I was trusting only my own judgment as if it didn’t matter to God which option I picked. In taking the pressure off of making the right choice, I inadvertently denied God’s participation in the process.

When we practice discernment though, we remind ourselves that God is active in our lives and cares deeply about what happens to us. Rogers writes:

Our decisions and our search for guidance take place in the active presence of a God who intimately cares about our life situations and who invites us to participate in the divine activities of healing and transformation. (Rogers, p.104)

Rogers regards discernment as a practice both for individuals and for faith communities. Whether we are talking about our personal lives or the church, discernment connects us to the fundamental purposes of our faith. It is a practice through which the gospel gives shape to our lives. It enlarges our lives. Again he writes:

It trusts that resolution based on something larger than self-interest and partisanship is possible. It orients the conversation and imagination of communities toward participation in God’s activity by inviting members to share in the goal of that activity: the new creation. (Rogers, p.109)

Given this fact, you can see why Diana Butler Bass found it a prominent practice among the flourishing churches she studied, and why she claims that “vital Christianity necessarily involves the practice of discernment” (p.92)

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So what’s involved in the practice of discernment? It hardly seems possible but over seven years ago, the worship team pulled together a small group of people to do some reflection and engage in prayer around our worship life. We began with the question, “What would please God?” We met weekly for prayer and studied scripture. We talked about the things we were hearing from various people in the congregation. For ten months we met as a discernment group, eventually communicating to the session our conviction that God was leading the church to consider some changes in our worship practice. The session then continued this discernment process, appointing a task force to study it and bring back a recommendation. The task force met, invited input through a number of open meetings. Even after we implemented their recommendations, we continued to listen and respond to concerns, keeping in mind the question with which we began the whole process: What would please God?

Of course, it’s very easy to convince oneself that what one wants is the very thing that would please God. The potential for discernment to be self-serving or self-deceiving should always be born in mind (Rogers, p. 111). According to Bass, practiced with integrity,

Discernment does not simply confirm our hunches or intuitions. Instead, it is a perilous practice that involves self-criticism, questions, and risk – and it often redirects our lives. (Bass, p.95)

It takes a certain kind of person to take an interest in discernment from this perspective. Rogers describes three “predispositions” for the practitioner of discernment. Such a person should in the first place have “a passionate commitment to follow God.” Discernment aims at the “fullest possible participation in the work of God in the world.” In the second place, this person must be willing to adopt “an attitude of indifference toward all other drives and desires.” Since the goal is to come in line with God’s purposes, Rogers writes, “we must first detach ourselves from our own desires for wealth, prestige, and security.” In the third place, the practitioner of discernment will have “a deep sensitivity to the ways and being of God. This sensitivity is cultivated through prayer, reading, and meditating on the scriptures, worship, and faithful acts of mercy and justice” (Rogers, pp. 105-6).

A strong commitment to following the lead of God, a willingness to set aside personal gain, and a deep awareness of the character and ways of God: these are the qualities of the person who practices discernment. They are also the qualities reflected in the faith community that builds its life around the things that please God.

Rogers goes on in his essay to list six distinguishing marks of discernment. It maintains a “fidelity to scripture and the tradition.” Actions deriving from the process are consistent with the fruit of the spirit. Many people report a sense of inner “peace.” Discernment promotes “communal harmony” and “an enhancement rather than extinction of life. Finally, as I’ve already mentioned, maintaining integrity is crucial to the practice of discernment (Rogers, pp. 113-4).

We practice discernment here at Westminster. The two listening campaigns we’ve done were part of discernment. The consultation with Dr. Arn contributed to the discernment of where God may be leading us next. I’ve mentioned recently that we have a mission statement task force that will be asking all of us to participate in defining more concretely our purpose. In many ways, the upcoming sabbatical time will be a time of discernment for pastors and congregation. We’ll all be engaged in activities and reflection that asks about where God may be leading us together.

There are many things we might do. This is a very talented and diverse congregation. God has richly blessed us. We might just pull our collective wisdom and choose a path for ourselves. But this would not be discernment. Discernment remembers that God cares concretely about our lives. It reminds us of the folly of asking God to bless the plan that we made, and encourages us to consider a path that fits into God’s purposes. We seriously impoverish our lives when we try to fit God into our plans rather than seeing our lives and actions in the context of God’s life and love for creation.

We can be an independent and stubborn people. We will settle for bread if it can be got by our own efforts rather than reach for the abundant life that we can have, but only in partnership with God.

Discernment is not a passive waiting for God to tell us what to do. It is rather an active engagement with the character and ways of God that aims at transformation.

It may be that you don’t need help in choosing a spouse or a career. You may be doing fine with raising your children, managing your time, or planning for retirement. Maybe you don’t need God’s help. And you certainly can’t subject every decision you make to a lengthy discernment process. But it seems to mean that the world does not make it easy to practice our faith. There are many distractions. It’s easy to lose one’s way, to get lost in the bells and whistles of life or in the unexpected disappointments. Discernment invites us back to the core of faith, reminding us that life, its decisions and activities take place in the context of God’s love and care for you and the world. Amen.

Resources:

Christianity for the Rest of Us, Diana Butler Bass

“Discernment,” Frank Rogers, Jr. in Practicing our Faith, Dorothy C. Bass, ed.