June 28, 2015

The following is Connie Ridgway’s contribution to a 3-part sermon by members of the New Creation mission group.

Scriptures:  

Lamentations 3:22-26; 28-29.  

The Lord’s true love is surely not spent,
nor has your compassion failed,
they are new every morning,
so great is your constancy.  

The Lord, I say, is all that I have;
therefore I will wait for you patiently.

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.

It is good that one wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord, to sit alone in silence when the Lord has imposed it, to put one’s mouth to the dust (there may yet be hope). 

Mark 5:25-34

Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years.  She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all she had; and she was no better, rather grew worse. She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she said, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”  Immediately her hemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.  

Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said “Who touched my clothes?” The woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth.  He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”  

I chose these two lectionary scriptures because of the importance of Silence in my life and the importance of Healing, both of being healed and being a healer. [Meade and Flo will also read scriptures from the lectionary that have spoken to them.]

Definition of a Mystic in the Modern World:  My direct experience of God propels me to act in and for the world.  This experience is not detached or in my head; it is real and integrated in our common life.  My role as a Healer is what I take on to be that bridge between my own mystical experience and my reaching out to others.  

The Route to this direct connection with God is Silence.  In the silence, I then get direction for Right Action.  

A Brief History of Mysticism in my life:

I left Eighth Day in the mid-1980s, not sure of all the reasons, but that something was missing for me.  A few things happened that led me to my path today:

  • I studied Massage Therapy in 1985-86, and discovered a powerful energy that I and my clients felt.  It came between my hands and the person’s body.  It was amazing, and I felt that this energy was God, and that “energy work,” or healing, was a direct experience of God’s spirit. [As an aside, I continue to be bowled over by this direct experience of healing and God.  In my current work, I use “Focusing,” which links people’s emotional struggles with feelings in the body, and usually by the end of the session, people feel a softening of tension and easing of pain.  The authors of this form of Focusing ask people to name their inner healing as the work of the spirit inside of them.]
  • I got cancer for the first time in 1991.  Even before then I sought alternative healing because of some chronic conditions.  The power of healing from illness, and indeed, of being ill, was a very clear connection to God’s power and energy.
  • I began attending a Quaker meeting in 1992, and experienced the power of silence to connect us and enable us to reflect.  I had a direct experience of God in the prophetic words and songs that came to me in the silence, and the “covered meeting” we often shared, and that’s a Quaker term for a direct experience of the Holy spirit in which everyone in the meeting was alive and humming with a spiritual energy we all sensed.  
  • I returned to Eighth Day in 2004, when Stefan Waligur was here, and was forming an idea for a mission group focused on Taize-style music and silence, with Carol Marsh and David Hilfiker.  This form of worship continues to be very healing for me. I also note that chanting is one way of getting into an altered state.  An altered state may be considered a way in which many of the prophets and apostles directly experienced God.

I continue to experience the powerful energy of God in many ways in Eighth Day, not only in silence and chant, but also in other singing, praying, laying on of hands, and shared joy and grief.  

Currently, I face several challenges and questions to being a Mystic in 8th Day and in the modern world:

1.  My fear of cancer returning dominates my life at times, including now. In order to be a healer, I need to let God channel the energy, the forces of the universe, that are behind these fears and let them be washed by God’s spirit.

2.  I am unsure how to be with others in worship who may not want or need silence.

3.  I am wondering how to be a healer not just in my work, but in my church.  Jesus’ energy drained out of him when he was touched.  He needed replenishing and usually sought a quiet, deserted place to restore himself.  I need this as a model to live my life in 8th Day.  

And finally, a word about the Power of Silence:

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is nopt worth living.”  In order to gain wisdom, it is important to PAUSE and BE SILENT in order to listen to God, and to EXAMINE one’s life.  If we do not do this, our actions will probably be more out of fear.  For me, to be a Mystic in the Modern World is to be a Healer, who has examined my own life in silence, and then given my gifts to others.