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Crescent Hill Baptist Church

Louisville, Kentucky

Pentecost 14
August 17, 2008
W. Gregory Pope

Series: THE NEW MONASTICISM

ON BEING MONKS AND NUNS IN THE WORLD: THE CHURCH AS ABBEY

AND MONASTERY

Genesis 45:1-15; Psalm 133; Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32; Matthew 15:10-20

A Personal Word

I want to begin this morning with a personal word about my own life. Like so many of you, my life is full
of responsibility and demand. With work and family and a desire to make a difference in our community,
our minds and our bodies can become exhausted. Over the past few years, I have become increasingly
frustrated with my ability to do what I feel I need to do and at the same time to live the life God is calling
me to live in the way God is calling me to live it. I don’t believe I am alone in this struggle. I think there’s
always been just enough selfishness within me and sense about me that I don’t do myself in completely by
trying to do everything.

About five years ago I turned my Sabbath from Friday into Monday because come Friday there was
always something still to do - a visit to make, a sermon to prepare. And I have been pretty good about
reserving Monday for relaxation usually in a bookstore somewhere. But Tuesday through Sunday is where
the struggle comes in. My life often feels scattered and disordered. My spiritual life at times seems empty.
And I don’t believe that’s how God wants any of us to live.

About three years ago I made my first trip to a monastery, St. Meinrad’s Abbey, northwest of here in
Indiana. I lived for a week in the beauty and serenity of that place, and even fantasized about life as a
monk.

A little over a year ago I stumbled upon several books about monastic spirituality. And though I’ve not
been able to put as much of it into practice as I would like, I have found myself being drawn to the order
and rhythm of monastic spirituality, and I want to share some of that with you.

I want us to spend this Fall learning from the monastery how to order our lives and in a sense live as
monks and nuns in the world. The thought of my daughters becoming nuns excites me. The idea of my
wife becoming a nun - not so much!

I also want us to think about how our church could be a reflection of an abbey or monastery. And I want
to spend some time this morning trying to explain what I mean.

The Monastic Movement

It is often assumed that monks and nuns enter monasteries to escape the world and that their lifestyles are
completely irrelevant to life in the real world. However, monasteries began around the fourth century
when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and authentic Christianity was
replaced by nationalism and the church pledged its allegiance to the state.

Individual Christians took off for the desert because the church and culture were so corrupt, the desert

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was the only place they could grow as human beings and reflect the image of God. It was not otherworldly
as much as it was counter-cultural.

Throughout history, the church has often reflected the culture so much, endorsing the government’s
self-serving policies of progress and empire, you could no longer tell the difference between the church
and the culture. The church really offered no alternative to culture’s greed and excessive individualism.

Protestants often look back to Martin Luther calling a corrupt church to truth and faithfulness. But we
easily forget he was a monk who learned the gospel he preached in a monastery. We forget that much of
the so-called Protestant Reformation was driven by the monastic impulse. [1]

The Anabaptist vision from which we spring has monastic roots as they called for voluntary membership
in community, a common way of life, a disciplined pursuit of holiness, and leaders elected by the
community. They wanted a church that looked like a monastery. [2]

In 1930, German pastor, theologian, and prisoner Dietrich Bonhoeffer experienced in Germany what
happens when the church weds itself to the state. And he said, “The restoration of the church will surely
come from a sort of new monasticism with the uncompromising attitude of a life lived according to the
Sermon on the Mount in the following of Christ.”

In every era God has raised up new monastics to pledge their allegiance to God alone and remind the
church of its true vocation. Monasticism has served as a renewal movement for the church, calling it back
to faithful living, helping the church be the church by recovering its life and witness in the world.

There is a great deal of writing these days about what Bonhoeffer called “a new monasticism.”

Over the past several years, new monastic communities have been forming all over the world in England,
Australia, North Carolina, San Francisco, Memphis, and just down the road in Lexington, Kentucky. Some
who live in these monastic communities live together in large houses. Some live in the same geographical
area. Most of them have relocated into areas of poverty. Most of them work regular jobs. Some live from
a common purse, making sure no one among them is in need, like the early church described in the book
of Acts. Others share their possessions in other ways. What they most share in common is a desire to
escape the prison of materialism and greed and individualism and make sure everyone has the basic
necessities of life. These are communities centered in prayer and discernment. And most make decisions
by consensus.

There are monasteries in many different religious traditions - Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and
non-denominational. As I was studying this new monasticism I came upon a Baptist monastery in
Australia, Holy Transfiguration Monastery (or HTM), which is connected to a local Baptist church and is
a member of its local Baptist association. They uphold traditional Baptist principles of the centrality of
scripture, religious freedom, priesthood of the believer, and a personal relationship with God. Paul Dekar,
a professor of religion at Memphis Theological Seminary is a Baptist and a covenant member of that
Australian Baptist monastic community.

Imagine my surprise when I read that in October 2006, members of that monastic community traveled to a
place on the Thai side of the border between Burma and Thailand and engaged Karen refugees in
conversation and partnership. [3]

Monastic Spirituality: Personal and Communal

So now, what is the nature of this monastic spirituality that binds these communities together? And what
do they have to say to us as we ponder what a congregational monasticism might look like? And how can
such a spirituality renew our own personal lives?

These are the questions we will we seeking to answer in the weeks ahead, but in our remaining time

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together I want to give you some idea of what a monastic spirituality is and what it has to say to us.

In his book A Monk In the World Wayne Teasdale writes, “Without doubt, there is great value in
spirituality that emphasizes and supports withdrawal from society. But in our time, with its special needs,
we require a spirituality of intense involvement and radical engagement with the world. It is in the world
that people live their busy lives, and it is in the world that the wisdom of the monks must be made
accessible.” [4]

The Rule of Benedict

All monastic communities are bound together by a rule of life or covenant. The most significant monastic
rule is The Rule of St. Benedict. [5]

Before I share the nature of Benedict’s Rule, it might help overcome our resistance to a daily rule that
governs our lives by acknowledging that we each have a rule of life whether we know it or not. It may be
as simple as getting out of bed, picking up the paper, eating breakfast, taking a shower, brushing your
teeth, getting dressed, waking the children, going to work, checking your emails, the routine of the work
day, coming home, eating dinner, changing clothes, putting the kids to bed, watching TV, reading a book,
going to sleep - or some variation thereof. It is our rule, the pattern for our living. The question is: Are we
guided by a healthy, balanced, integrated rule and pattern for living?

Benedict wrote in an age that was, in many ways, a world not unlike our own. Benedict was born around
the year 480. Rome was sacked for a second time in 455, and in 476 the last emperor was deposed. He
grew up watching the demise of the Roman Empire, years of social and economic insecurity. Order had
broken down. Institutions that had worked in the past were collapsing. The securities on which people
believed they could count were crumbling. Markets were failing, and there was a huge social imbalance by
which the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. The Church too was being torn apart
by internal disputes. [6] Any of that sound familiar?

Saint Benedict entered his cave in Subiaco seeking to make sense of his Christian commitment and to
discern God’s way in a torn-apart, troubled society pervaded by a sense of chaos and meaninglessness.
Benedict chose to simplify his life in order to be more available to God, to listen and to learn the way of
Truth. [7]

Borrowing from previous Rules of other communities, Benedict penned his own Rule, the most famous by
far, and it has been guiding monastic communities and personal lives for almost 1500 years. I have one
here in my hand. It is a small guide of roughly 9000 words serving to give shape to particular monastic
communities. It also has much to say to those who do not live in monasteries.

“The Rule of Benedict is a commentary on the gospel, and it is woven out of quotations from the Bible.”
[8] Benedict begins his Rule with a quote from the Psalms: Is there anyone here who yearns for life and
desires to see good days? (Psalm 34:12) [9]. What a beautiful invitation!

The Rule calls us to ask the question: “What kind of life does my heart want?” [10] Buechner says, “We
live our lives in search for a self to be, for other selves to love, and for work to do.”

Here is a spirituality that helps us in that search, grounded in questions that are inescapable: How do I live
with myself? How do I live with others? How do I relate to the world around me? How do I find time and
space for God? [11] “How do I grow and fulfill my true self? Where can I find healing and grow into
wholeness? [12] Am I being changed by the power of the Gospel? Am I being changed by the presence of
God in my life?” [13]

Thomas Merton, the most famous of monks in the past few hundred years, who spent his monastic life just
down the way in Gethsemani, Kentucky, said the whole purpose of the monastic life is to teach people to

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live by love. [14] Ultimately that is [Benedict’s] question to each of us: Am I daily becoming a more
loving person? [15]

Benedict deals with so many issues that touch our lives today: attitudes toward work, the need for
recreation, appropriate quantities of food and drink, adequate rest, respect for one another, time for
silence, the place of study in order to grow as faithful Christians, and a willingness to listen attentively to
other members of the community so that shared wisdom and gifts enrich all. [16]

Billy Joel sings that he doesn’t know why he goes to extremes. [16a] We can relate to what he’s saying.
Many of us often wonder what’s wrong inside of us that keeps us from getting a grip on ourselves.

Benedict can help. Five activities are rhythmically woven together in one chapter of the Rule - prayer,
work, rest, study, and eating - all to be done in proper measure. Benedict prohibited extremes. He says,
“Moderation in all things except in zeal for Christ.”

A high school girl back from a week at a Christian camp and told her father that she knew it was time to
come down from the mountaintop and enter back into the real world. Her wise father answered her, “You
were in the real world!” That is, the mountaintop experience of Christian community that she found at
camp more closely approximated the world as God intended it at creation. What we have made of “the
world” into which that young girl reentered after camp is not the way it was meant to be. In fact, most of
us in “the world” live on the surface of life without really knowing the true depth of life.

So to those who would say that the monastery is not the “real world,” one could say that the monastic life
actually takes us far deeper into the real world than life outside the monastery. It is certainly more
significant than flipping hamburgers eight hours a day and asking customers if they want to super-size that,
or spending four hours a day the average American does watching television. Is the monastic balanced
life, which puts possessions and relationships and the life of the soul in proper perspective, less real than
our consumptive preoccupation with gadgets, television, celebrities, war, and spirit-numbing work? Who
has distorted reality? Who lives in the real world? The monk or the materialist? [17]

It has been said that the Rule’s strength is “to be a witness to normalcy.” [18]

Mike Yaconelli said, “What keeps many of us from spiritual growth is not sin but speed.” [19] And in a
world that keeps asking us to go higher and faster, how do we begin to go deeper, into the place where
God lives and moves and has his being within us? [20]

Benedict insists that since body, mind, and spirit together make up the whole person the daily pattern of
life in the monastery should involve time for prayer (for the spirit), time for study (for the mind), and time
for manual work (for the body). All three should command respect and all three should equally become a
way to God. The days of Benedictine monks are patterned on the rhythmic succession of these three
elements: prayer, study, work. Four hours each day were devoted to liturgical prayer, four to spiritual
reading, and six to manual work. It is surprising to many that monks actually spend more time in manual
labor than prayer. The framework of each day is shaped by the opus Dei, the saying of the offices, daily
prayer, the worship of God, which is at the center of the monastic life. [21]

Journey Inward, Journey Outward - Alone and in Community

Christians yearn for a way of life that is whole and holy, a form of life that is rooted in Christ and deeply
connected with others. [22]

Monasticism, old and new, leads us on a “journey inward, journey outward” - alone and in community.
There is the inward journey toward prayer and solitude, study and contemplation; and the outward
journey pointing us toward mission in the world through lives of service, compassion, and the work for
social justice.

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Elizabeth O’Connor said that we make the journey inward so that we can make the journey outward. She
was talking about our being drawn to a deeper sense of communion with God that will somehow equip us
and strengthen us and shape us so that we might be more like the Christ that we are to be for those who
are given to us. If there is not time set aside for the journey inward, then there will soon be not enough
energy left for the journey outward. [23]

Living as “active contemplatives” is the balanced role most monastics communities strive for. [24]

Other Rules/Covenants of New Monastic Communities

Monastic communities have not all been uniform. They have been shaped by the historical circumstances
in which they live. But common to them all is a rule of life or covenant that binds them to one another and
shapes their life together as they seek a faithful life, deepening their own relationships with God, with
others, and in service to the world.

These rules of life are marked by the rhythm of the early church where we read in the book of Acts they
were devoted to the apostles’ teachings and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. They
impacted the city around them, enjoying the favor of all the people (which would have been the poor),
and many others were joining them.

Holy Transfiguration Monastery (HTM) in Australia is a community rooted in

- prayer
- Bible study
- accountability in the use of time and money
- working for peace, justice, and the integrity of creation.

At the heart of its vision, the Caritas Community in Memphis, Tennessee seeks:
- to form relationships with neighbors and experience their joys, celebrations, and struggles;
- to help all people - not just Christians - to recognize how God is working in their lives;
- to assist members of the neighborhood open to empowering themselves;
- to identify and develop the leadership capabilities of the people;
- to assist in the spiritual transformation of the neighborhood;

- and to establish and encourage partnerships that will provide economic opportunities in the
neighborhood. [25]

A monastic community in Melbourne, Australia made up of members from Clifton Hill Baptist Church
identified four principles that would shape their common life:
- a community whose devotion is centered on Jesus Christ,
- members who acknowledge their dependence on God’s grace and seek to share it with others,
- a community that exists for the sake of others, notably, “the little people of the world,”
- members who understand community as a place where they can discover their God-given gifts, develop
them, and use them within the context of the community’s developing mission in the world. [26]

Pete Greig from England has put out a call for “third millennium monasteries”
- where people would pray 24-7
- where the poor would be served,
- the gospel shared
- and arts and hospitality practiced. [27]

These are Christian communities that desire to be places of prayer, mission and justice centered on Jesus.
They know prayer without mission is empty. Missionary C. T. Studd said, “Some want to live within the
sound of church or chapel bells - I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” A monastic model of
an abbey church allows us to do both. There are the bells that call us as monastics to prayer. And there are

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the cries of the suffering and poor that call us to engage the world with the good news.

Monasticism has much to offer people who live their lives outside a monastery:
- a rhythm to life of prayer, study, rest, and work,
- a strong sense of community
- a lifelong commitment to conversion and transformation

As followers of Jesus we are all of us seeking a rhythmic life of prayer, study, rest, and work in
community with the goal of personal transformation in the image of Christ for the sake of the world.

Monasticism provides a model for us.

A Baptist Abbey in Crescent Hill?

So: Is it possible for a congregation like ours to serve as a new monastic community? A type of
congregational monasticism? Could we be a Baptist Abbey here in Crescent Hill?

I am drawn to the monastic image of congregational life for a couple of reasons:

One is personal. I love monasteries and I need the rhythm it provides. My life too often feels chaotic, and
I think the monastery has something to teach us about creating a rhythm to our lives in a world outside a
traditional monastery.

And two, we are as a congregation more contemplative in nature. So are monasteries. And I think many of
us would feel at home there. However, the monastic life can also stretch us because monks and nuns
spend more time in actual work and service to others than they do in prayer.

To become monks and nuns and to establish an abbey and monastery here is not to cloister us in from the
world. It is a place where we learn to listen to the voice of God, intentionally give ourselves over to
transformation, live in community, as a witness to the kingdom of God, seeking to transform the world.

I do not know where this will take us. I only know it is a place I am feeling led. I am longing and I sense
among you a longing for transformation and a desire to minister in our community.

I want to invite those of you who would like to consider engaging in personal monastic practices to join
me in a small group exercise this fall. Send me an email or give me a call this week if you are interested.

The Communal Nature of a Faithful Spirituality

Let us never forget the communal nature of monastic spirituality. Rare is the monk who spends his day
alone. It is about living in community and sharing a common life. That’s because of the communal nature
to scripture: almost all the you’s are plural. The New Testament calls us to be a holy priesthood. The
psalmist proclaims, “How good and pleasant and beautiful it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in
unity.”

The “Mon” in Monasticism: Seeking God

Monasticism is also deeply personal.

I think for most if not all of us, there is a monk soul deep inside longing to be fed. It is that solitary place in
every human soul. Monasticism isn’t about achieving some sort of individual or communal piety. The
“mon” in monasticism points to one purpose, singleness of heart, which is seeking God.

We don’t come to a church or a monastery to follow techniques and methods and schedules; we come to
seek and find God. [28]

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Prayer. Work. Silence. Simplicity. Solitude. Humility. Conversion. Community. Faithfulness. These are
stepping stones on our path of seeking God. [29]

The prophet Jeremiah said: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the
good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls” (6:16).

So, in the words of St. Benedict: Let us set out on this way with the Gospel as our guide. [30]

_________________________

1. Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, New Monasticism: What It Has to Say to Today’s Church, Brazos, 2008,
51
2. Ibid., 52
3. Paul Dekar, Community of the Transfiguration: The Journey of a New Monastic Community, Cascade,
2008, 62
4. Wayne Teasdale, A Monk in the World, New World Library, 2002, xxii
5. St. Benedict, The Rule of St. Benedict, ed. Timothy Fry, Vintage Spiritual Classics, 1998.
6. Esther de Waal, A Life-Giving Way: A Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict, The Liturgical Press,
1995, vii, x
7. Elizabeth Canham, Heart Whispers: Benedictine Wisdom For Today, Abingdon, 1999, 56-57
8. Abbot Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary: Monastic Steps for Everyday Life, Liturgical Press,
2006, 7
9. St. Benedict, Prologue, 14-16
10. Canham, 149
11. de Waal, vii
12. Esther de Waal, Seeking God: The Way of St. Benedict, Liturgical Press, 2001, 29
13. de Waal, A Life-Giveing Way, x
14. Thomas Merton, The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton, New Directions, 1975, 333
15. de Waal, Seeking God, 13
16. Canham, 12
16a. Billy Joel, Storm Front album, "I Go to Extremes", 1989.
17. Dennis Okholm, Monk Habits For Everyday People: Benedictine Spirituality for Protestants,
Brazos, 2008, 31-32
18. de Waal, Seeking God, 92
19. Mike Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality, Zondervan, 2002, 96
20. Robert Benson, A Good Life: Benedict’s Guide to Everyday Joy, Paraclete Press, 2004, 5
21. de Waal, Seeking God, 89
22. Jon Stock, Tim Otto, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Inhabiting the Church: Biblical Wisdom for a New
Monasticism, Cascade, 2007, viii
23. Benson, 40-41
24. Linus Mundy, A Retreat with Benedict and Bernard: Seeking God Alone - Together, St. Anthony
Messenger Press, 1998, 60
25. Dekar, 25
26. Ibid., 37
27. Andy Freeman and Pete Greig, Punk Monk: New Monasticism and the Ancient Art of Breathing,
Regal, 2007, 53
28. Mundy, 39
29. Mundy, 105
30. St. Benedict, Prologue

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