A Prayerful Life
This Sunday is a significant Sunday - the Sunday after the Presbyterian and the Anglican Churches in the United States concluded their Conventions and voted for freedom and equality on the gay issue.
The Presbyterian had in 1978 banned gays and lesbians from being clergy persons. After 28 years of struggle they have voted to grant freedom to the local bodies to allow homosexual clergy in their churches.
The Episcopalians elected for the first time a woman to be a Presiding Bishop of 2.3 million members. Jefferts Schori publicly said that she is "fully committed to the full inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians in this church,"
In responding to a question from CNN she said that she believes homosexuality is not a sin and that homosexuals were created by God “with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender.”
In a press interview she declared: “we firmly believe that all people need to be included in the reign of God that is being built; that people of all colors and races and nations and language groups and sexual orientations are fully part of this creation that God has blessed us with.”
The majority of Anglicans around the world demanded that US church repent for the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson and have a moratorium on further consecrations of gay people to the episcopacy.
After days of intense debate the Convention rejected those demands.
The Convention approved a resolution that calls on bishops and Standing Committees to "exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life (euphemism for gays and lesbians) presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion."
In her homily in the closing Eucharist service she said:
What do the godly messengers say when they turn up in the Bible? "Fear not." "Don't be afraid." "God is with you." "You are God's beloved, and God is well-pleased with you."
When we know ourselves beloved of God, we can begin to respond in less fearful ways. When we know ourselves beloved, we can begin to recognize the beloved in a homeless man, or rhetorical opponent, or a child with AIDS. When we know ourselves beloved, we can even begin to see and reach beyond the defense of others.
... we can claim our name and heritage as God’s beloveds and share that name, beloved, with the whole world.
This is the word of encouragement and hope for all of us here this morning.
Now for the assignment given to me to wrap up this sermon series on prayer with the title “A Prayerful Life.” It was a good series for we were able to look at prayer from different perspectives. Those who preached have raised questions for us and forced us to reflect upon our own understanding the habits of prayer. Let me begin by contrasting what I mean by a life of prayer and a prayerful life.
I Thessalonians 5:17 reads “Pray without ceasing” or in RSV “Pray constantly” seem to suggest a life filled with prayer. Pray without ceasing may mean for many literally engaging in prayer all the time and keeping prayer vigil all night long and even all day and even all of one’s life.
When I was a young theological student a friend and I were interested to experience monastic contemplation and spent some time in a Trappist Monastery. At mealtime we ate in silence while a brother monk reads from sacred writings and we meditate on them. They worked in silence.
I visited also a convent in the heart of the city of Boston where upon entering the sanctuary off the busy city street I saw two nuns kneeling before the altar and praying. The nuns were on prayer shifts 24/7 throughout 365 days a year and 366 days in leap year. I suspect the prayer cycle is still going on for the nuns dedicated themselves to a lifetime of devotion in prayer.
It does good for the monks and the nuns to set the example of praying. It does a lot of good for people to emulate and cultivate the habit of prayer. But to spend the whole lifetime in the discipline of prayer is another question altogether.
A few years ago a group of us from the Inter-Religious Organisation visited the Carmelite convent. The Carmelite Order traces its origin to a group of 13th century hermits who lived on Mt Carmel in the Holy Land. They took their vows to devote themselves to a lifetime of prayer and contemplation in solitude and silence. They withdrew completely from the world and turned their backs to the world. They understood it as separation “from the world for the sake of the world. The Order later spread to Europe and the first monasteries of nuns were founded in the 15th century.
The call to Carmel is a call to a life of deep, personal friendship with Jesus Christ, expressed and nourished through prayer. It is an eloquent symbol of a radical commitment to a life of unceasing prayer and intercession. Each day is spent in silent personal prayer and in the reading of the Bible and other spiritual books. There are set periods of prayer and reading in supporting each sister in her desire to make every moment of her life a communion with God and to continue in her heart the prayer of silent adoration.
The image we had when we visited this group of Carmelite nuns was that of a group of old nuns who made the decision to shun the world and never be engaged except when they have to vote or see the doctor. We saw them through a window with and iron grill which separated them from us. For the rest of their lives they will live in a world of their own.
We were pleasantly surprised that it was a group of young women and of course the handful of older women. It was a sparkling cheerful group who were obviously happy to relate to this rather odd bunch of men and a couple of women representing the different faith communities. One of them is a former SIA hostess. Another young and lively nun had inherited the responsibility of an older one to pray in particular for Kang Ho Soon. They have committed their lives to pray unceasingly and again it did them a lot of good.
Initially we have to ask ourselves as to who is imprisoned. Some of us realized that we are confined and conformed to the world and those nuns have been liberated from the world and have been transformed to live in an ideal world. We tend to feel sorry for them but in fact they feel sorry for us when they look across the fence that separated us.
These are examples of a life of prayer and I wonder whether this is what we are called to do. Then I remember the Story of the Transfiguration. Peter suggested to Jesus: “Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (Matthew 17:4) But the wish of Jesus was not to remain on the top of Mount Transfiguration with his disciples but to go down to the valley of human suffering. We are not called to set up altars and stay on the mountaintop of our religious experience in prayer and devotion. We are called to go back to the valley of need and service in devotion to the loving and compassionate God.
Prayer is not done in isolation of the individual or the community. Prayer in essence is not a separate or detached activity. Prayer is related to life. It is not a life only of prayer but a life filled with prayer – a prayerful life.
Last month when Susan preached on this Prayer series she reminded us about the different theological worlds that we inhabit in FCC. The Stranger, Warrior, Orphan and the Fugitive. She has placed me of course in the world of the Warrior and Hakkas are warriors for survival. It is in our history as a clan fighting for survival. Within an inclusive Church we are committed not to war with one another and to welcome differences and embrace conflicts in the spirit of love. But this does not mean that we continue to live in our separate worlds and just being in a condition of peaceful co-existence. The challenge to us as a church is to develop mutual respect for differences, interact with one another, influence one another and discern how our faith relates to sexuality in particular.
In her analysis of Significant prayer I was struck by the attributes of prayer that she identified – humility and honesty, common sense, and practical compassion and especially of common sense. To me common sense is plain and simple. We don’t need to use our brains too much, tire one out with the powers of reason. It is just common sense WHAT. It is very straight forward when we come across the teaching about prayer and we don’t have to interpret too much. Clear and transparent. We need to be coherent. One teaching should not contradict the other and see the overarching principle that illumines our understanding of prayer. To me the guiding principle is who is this God that I address my prayer to. What is the nature of this God that we address our prayers to Is God a punitive God waiting to judge or condemn or a loving God willing to forgive when we repent. Is God one who needs us to placate and offer sacrifices of praise in worship. We need to praise and worship God but for what purpose or motive. Does God withhold his intervention until we pray to God. Will God give us what we want when we claim it and in faith ask for it.
Prayer is generally seen as a means of contact with God and because we have so many needs in our daily life we want to make our requests known to God so that God will address our needs and concerns.
When I was serving in Christ Methodist Church we had our prayer and healing services. People with prayer requests and aches and pains come with their expectations of being whole and be healed and we in groups entertained the requests and click the forward button to send it heavenward to God and lay our burden upon God’s feet to take over and perform the miracles requested.
In serving in Pentecost Methodist Church we have weekly prayer meetings in the home and the leader works out a prayer list for each session. They were printed out and each one of us look at the lists and identify certain specific prayer items and before the session ends she make it point to see that all the prayer items have been prayed for and she will run over them and prayer for those remaining items in the long list. That completes the prayer session when the entire list is faxed up to God and not a single item is missed out.
Mathew 6 has very simple and direct teaching on piety and prayer. It makes sense and do not require too much interpretation. It calls for humility in piety. It calls for economy of words and brevity. It is not piling up of many words and heaping up of empty phrases. For your Father knows what you need before you ask him. My favorite Psalm 139 reminds me that “O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up; thou discernest my thoughts from afar. Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.” Psalm 139:1-4. Do I remember the all-Knowing God – the Omniscient God when I open my mouth to form words to pray to God?
I have particular problems with petitionary prayers. No amount of faith and diligence will result in God answering my particular petitions. As sinful as I am I have desires and I wish for them to be satisfied. In weakness I am to petition to God. But what makes me sure that what I ask is good for me and the community. God knows and in his love and care for me will not answer my prayer in the way I wanted. I am glad that what I ask is not given to me most of the time. It is not because of my lack of faith but lack of wisdom and discernment in asking for the right things.
In response to the disciples request: “Lord, teach us to pray” Jesus gave the elements of the Lord’s Prayer. While He taught: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you.” It does not take too much common sense to realize that this is too simplistic and how complicated life is when different people only need to ask, seek and knock and they will all receive.
I have just read about the Korean soccer team in the World Cup. Four years ago they had seven Christians but this year they have twelve. The Koreans at home have been praying for success for their team. More Koreans were praying for victory than the last time. But last night they lost to Switzerland 2-0 and were knocked out of the tournament.
How do I relate prayer to my recent fall when I could not walk for three months. I asked for healing but aware that it will take time. Does it mean that if I have more faith and more of you praying for me that there will be an instant healing miracle and I would have risen up and walk without going through the phases of crutches and walking stick. Without the help of Jo and total reliance on faith healing. As I said before I believe in miracles for the whole healing process is a mysterious phenomenon and miraculous.
After Jorg preached about silence and contemplation I was taken aback of the contrasting images of prayer. Here we are most of time banging on the doors of heaven and talking and listing our prayers to God to do this and to do that as if God does not know our needs and will not intervene unless we wake God up and get God going about the Godly business. We don’t stop look and listen and hear God knocking gently at the door of our hearts and wanting to come in and commune with us.
But there is so much more to experience when we see prayer as a lifestyle - a relationship. Prayer is essentially establishing a relationship with God and raising our own consciousness of God’s presence.
Last Sunday Jean Lee passionately preached on radical prayer as a movement of God’s compassion expressed in intense love for all. Our human response is to regard prayer as a movement to relate to this compassionate God and to live a life of compassion for all of God’s creation, In spite of whether we pray or not God is present with us. So I have difficulty with asking God to come by us and for the Holy Spirit to descend upon us. God is always here and always near and in and around us in the presence and power of the Spirit. We only need to acknowledge and relate to God’s Presence – the Omnipresent God.
This leads not so much to a life filled with prayer but a prayerful life. So that we live a life - whether sleeping or waking, working or playing that God is with us loving us and caring for us. Pray without ceasing does not mean that we have to verbalize our prayers all the time but that our relationship with God on God’s part never ceases and is ever abiding. It is only we sinful human beings who forget about God when happy and gay and remember God when trials and tribulations occur. God is eternally connected to us when we connect and do not turn off.
It is not a life of prayer but a life in prayer a prayerful life. So whatever we do we are to be in touch with God’s abiding presence. , it is the continual practice of the presence of God in the terms of Brother Lawrence who is praying in the washing of dirty pots and greasy pans in the kitchen just as much as in the acts of worship in the sanctity of the chapel. What Brother Lawrence tells us about prayer is to make prayer our life and our life a prayer by discerning God in all that we do. A prayerful life is a life, he teaches, in which all we do - eating, drinking, working, resting, playing and praying - is done for the Glory of God and God alone.
A woman in a class on prayer, when asked to remember her first spiritual experience, told the instructor that she could not remember anything about a time of prayer, but what was flooding her mind and heart was a school girl's memory. When asked to describe the incident that had come into her awareness, she told the following story:
I was nine years old and playing with my friends at recess. I noticed a Jewish classmate sitting under a tree and crying silently. She had not been accepted in our school and was often teased. I hadn't paid much attention to her until that day. I remember seeing her all alone and without hesitation I left my friends and what we were doing to go and sit beside her. We did not speak, we just sat together for the rest of the playtime.
When she finished her story the instructor said softly, "Your compassionate response to a person in need was a spiritual experience. Action can be a form of prayer."
We have prayer with words, and we can also make our entire life a prayer, a sacrifice of consecration to God, a prayer without words, which is perhaps the most significant and meaningful.
Prayer has ceases to be a separate activity I do as it is the very fabric of my being. It manifests itself in various forms and modes in my daily routine of living.
It has been said "God does not respond to our prayers. God responds to us: to our whole life. What we say to Him cannot be separated from what we think, feel, will and do. The key to living a life of prayer is obedience – offering our bodies as living sacrifices to God as our spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1-2). This then is a prayerful life.
As friendships grow and deepen and trust is built between people, periods of silence become comfortable and even a vital part of the relationship. So it is in our relationship with God. Most forms of prayer teach us ways to speak to God, not ways to listen to God. To listen effectively we must be willing to be silent. Centering prayer is a form of prayer that helps us be still and listen to God.
Let us now spend three minutes to listen to God and experience God’s presence. Be silent. Be still and know that I am God.
