Lenten Season Reflections from Pastor Barnett
“Blessed is the man… [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law doth he meditate day and night.” What does it mean to meditate? Of course, the Psalmist does not have in mind a New Age practice of sitting cross-legged and chanting. We know that Christian meditation is not merely the emptying of the mind, but the filling of the heart and mind with a specific object: the Word of God. But what does this look like in practice?
Luther, drawing on an older tradition, often relates meditation to “chewing the cud”—rumination—much like a cow that chews its food, swallows, and then chews it again. He writes: “Rumination is taking up the word with affect and meditating with the greatest diligence so that one does not permit it… to fall into one ear and out the other, but tenaciously keeps it in the heart, swallows it down, and transfers it into his guts.”
Elsewhere, he notes, “Whoever does not firmly stick the works of God in his memory by rumination is able to draw out neither understanding nor affect.”
Meditating on the Word of God, therefore, involves internalizing the text through repetition and memorization. This creates a foundation for understanding and feeling the words in your gut. When Luther mentions “affect,” he refers to pathos—the goal of rhetoric to move a person beyond simple cognition and influence their deepest fears and loves.
Luther suggests choosing a small section of Scripture—even a single verse—and probing its interior. He encourages readers to take one small bit, well pondered and understood, and chew sweetly on it before bed so that leftovers may be found upon waking. He suggests that one verse can serve for meditation over the course of a week until you have learned to make it breathing and living in your emotions.
The words begin to breathe when you visualize the narrative circumstances in your mind and apply them to concrete incidents in your own life. In this way, you experience the words as they drive you toward repentance and prayer.
This rumination happens when the words are visualized, spoken aloud, sung, or discussed. On the basis of these verses—and other passages of Scripture they call to mind—you preach to yourself and draw from the text the very content of your prayers.
Throughout this Lententide, as you read through the Scriptures (especially the Passion narrative), slow down. Select small bits to memorize and meditate upon, so that those verses become well-digested and fruitful.
Pastor Barnett
