On Discernment, by Michael Gibson

By Michael Gibson.

Introduction:

I recently led worship and spiritual discernment sessions at the annual meeting of the Education and Leadership Ministries Commission, one of five commissions of the National Council of Churches. I was very honored to be asked, and very blessed in the doing. It was a good meeting with some rich worship and worship sharing.

I used the Lord’s Prayer as a focus, using one phrase each day to highlight and ground various aspects of spiritual discernment. Folks were very appreciative of the learning opportunities and the modeling and several said that as denominational staff members they would be taking back to the committees they support or head some of the methods we used, such as experiental worship sharing. This was all very exciting.

On Saturday morning I gave a brief talk on spiritual discernment, below. All quotes are from Grounded in God: Listening Hearts Discernment for Group Deliberations, by Suzanne G. Farnham, Stephanie A. Hull, and R. Taylor McLean, Morehouse Publishing, Harrisburg, PA, 1996. This was an invaluable resource.

On Discernment, by Michael Gibson, January 10, 2004

I’d like to share a few loving reminders about the nature of spiritual discernment to help set the tone for our work this weekend. I do not believe any of this will be new for you, but it may be expressed here somewhat differently than it is in your tradition.

“Our Father in heaven, thy will be done.”

This is not as much a plea for God to do something, as it is our commitment to faithful obedience. God’s will is done when we worship and serve as God’s people of faith, hope, and love. God’s will is done when we seek the mind of Christ—conscious that Christ is in our midst, in each of our lives, and in the community—and then act in alignment with Christ’s way. This requires discernment, which is in large part about listening with the heart. It is interesting to note that our English word “obey” has its deepest roots in the Latin word for “to hear.”

Spiritual discernment is “a grace-filled gift from God” (34). It is not rational problem-solving, although the analytic component is vital. It is not seeking the lowest common denominator among various possibilities and opinions, nor is it simply a matter of praying that God would give us all the answers without any effort on our part. It is “a prayerful, informed, and intentional effort to distinguish God’s voice from other voices that influence us” (1). These voices may be internal or external. This separating out is how we get the word “discern,” which comes from the Latin words for “two” and “to separate.”

The various voices we need to sort through in order to hear God’s Word for us are not necessarily bad. It is not a matter of sorting out the good from the bad, like sheep from goats, but of distinguishing God’s voice from the other voices and in and through those other voices, when applicable. God often speaks to us through people, things, and situations indirectly, and we need to listen carefully, but with awareness that our primary source of guidance is not the vehicle but the Spirit speaking through the vehicle.

When any matter is before the community for discernment, we collaboratively listen for how God’s Spirit is at work in that situation. This can open to us a felt sense of the direction in which the Spirit is leading. I say “felt sense” because God’s will is often more intuited than understood. Answers may not come, but even then we can be receptive to the Spirit’s presence in the questions themselves and in our discerning. This keeps the process worshipful. Most often we take action without complete assurance that we are following God’s will. After all, faith does not require dramatic gestures from God, but acts in trust. Acting on the answers that are clear to us, we move forward in faith, confident that God will continue to guide us as we are able to hear and understand.

Sometimes when discernment seems to get bogged down it can help to provide space. Focusing too tightly on one question or direction can cramp our listening, just as standing too close to a wall limits our vision. Having the openness to step back, turn away, or let go, can create the space for hearing new possibilities and deeper questions, questions which may take us closer to the heart of the matter being addressed. When space is provided, new light may shine on the issue at hand, and God’s way may begin to open to us.

You may have noticed that during our time here this weekend we have set aside four periods, ranging from 15 to 30 minutes each, for spiritual discernment. We know we cannot wait until those set times to engage in spiritual discernment without putting this commission in enormous trouble. Spiritual discernment means seeing the entire business session as focused worship where our work together is an expression of our love for God. One reason why we don’t have a table designated as our worship center this year is that in my tradition, the Religious Society of Friends, the gathered community is our worship center. Each of our hearts is a worship center. And one seeks to live, listen, love, serve, and engage in activism out of these centers. This perspective may be helpful to us as we discern together. The lit candle on the table reminds us of two things: that the Spirit, which came upon the apostles as tongues of fire, is always with us, and that all our discerning and service is worship.

There are a number of prerequisites for good spiritual discernment. I’d like to lift up three of these: humility; inner stillness, or centeredness; and love. Spiritual discernment requires humility. We know that each individual “has limited vision, that even collectively we see but partially, that only God sees everything” (33). Humility recognizes that God may speak through the lone dissenter, even through the one whose message we would really rather not hear. Humility allows the more assertive ones to hold back. Humility allows silences to be opportunities for prayer; without humility we tend to fill all the silences with our own thoughts, words, and images, and discernment—genuine listening—is hampered.

Discernment requires an inner stillness. This is not a passive state, nor is it a blank slate on which God is supposed to write the divine will. This inner stillness is being at home, being settled, being centered in God, not just while praying but while engaged in our various activities. This is the kind of inner stillness Brother Lawrence referred to when he wrote “The time for business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament.”

Finally, spiritual discernment is about love. Because God is love, God will not direct us to do what is unloving, nor does God’s will come to us in the spirit of contention, arrogance, or driven busy-ness. In this, love is one of a number of tests of discernment. And for there to be genuine listening to another, there must be love for the one speaking, a love which is open to recognizing Christ in the other. To listen deeply to another, we need to hear not only the words that are spoken, but the spirit behind those words, and the often poignant communications between the words and in the words that are not voiced. I am not speaking of the listening of psychoanalysis, but, again, the listening of the heart. In this, love is a primary condition for spiritual discernment.

Spiritual discernment is focused listening. It is humble obedience. It is faithful loving. It is operating out of an inner stillness which is the fruit of a life grounded, or centered, in God.

Gracious God, may your will be done in all we set out to do this weekend. Give us listening hearts. Show us the way of holy obedience. Center us. Teach us your love. Amen.