The Practice of Prayer for Non-Pious People
3/9/03

Prayer can be a troubling topic, can’t it?

I have yet to ask a parishioner “How’s your prayer life?”
and hear “Great! I can’t wait to tell you about it!”

And yet, I have rarely been turned down when I’ve said
“ I’ll pray for you if you’d like.”

In fact, most people seem pleased.
As if I have a special connection that they don’t.
Or I know how to string words together better than you.
Or, no one will look excessively religious if I pray,
because I’m the minister and that’s my job, after all.

I know that prayer can seem awkward and difficult and weird,
for all kinds of reasons ---

Prayer can be . . . . embarassing.
We’re afraid to look too churchy, right?
And, with some good reason.
Jesus did warn his disciples not to be like the hypocrites
who wore fancy robes in the marketplace,
and said long prayers for show
(while cheating the poor, by the way).1
You can look it up in Luke 20.

Also, for those of us educated in a scientific and rational framework,
the whole notion of prayer can seem downright silly -
especially the kind of prayer that asks for specific things.
One friend confided that he feels like he’s saying
” Oh God, please suspend the natural laws of the universe for my personal benefit. Amen.”

And, of course, there are many, many of us who have prayed specifically
for an outcome, perhaps we’ve prayed desperately for an outcome,
and it didn’t happen.

Or we prayed for guidance and it seemed like it didn’t come.
What are we to think?
Am I not good enough for God to hear me?
Am I so good God that doesn’t need to answer,
and I should work this out for myself?
Maybe I’m not saying the right words in just the right way....
sort of like forgetting my p.i.n. code at the cash machine.

In my twenties I prayed until I was blue in the face as I
sought guidance on whether to become a lawyer
or study theology.
I struggled still in seminary,
and in one paper quoted Woody Allen saying

”If only God would give me some clear sign!
Like making a deposit in my name in some Swiss bank!”

Quite seriously, one of the difficulties of my role is watching over time
as some people’s prayers are apparently answered and some are not;
as some have health restored and some do not;
as one person is cured of cancer and the next several dozen are not.

But then I stop and remind myself just what I said to the children last week:
that prayer is not the same as punching the correct numbers into an ATM
and then holding out my hand to get the payoff.
Prayer is not driving up to the menu board at Coffee People
and placing my order for a non-fat half-caff cappucino.

Prayer is much more like talking on a telephone,
or, better yet, engaging in wordless communication with someone you love.
Prayer is about relationship and connection;

prayer is about a reliable way of entering into that
holy space, tha t mystical experience,
that divine union we discussed last week.

Prayer is about experiencing God.
Not just intellectually believing, but coming to know God.

So I suppose it should not surpise any of us to find
that Jesus was big on prayer.

And yet every year on the first Sunday of Lent I am still surprised
when I read that just as soon as Jesus was baptised,
immediately after the heavens opened and God’s voice was heard
saying “this is my beloved son”
immediately after that wonderful act and affirmation
the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness,

where Jesus spent 40 days fasting and praying
and connecting and processing and prioritizing
and only after all that did he go out preaching and healing
and teaching.

The gospels tell us that throughout his ministry Jesus repeatedly
spent time, lots of time, off by himself praying.

The gospel of Luke is infused with the rhythm of Jesus acting,
then Jesus praying. Jesus praying, then Jesus acting.
Jesus turning to God through prayer again and again and again
to be recharged and revived, to be informed and illuminated.

And so can we. So can we.

I know this.
In fact, let me share a couple of stories from my own experience.

1. Church in College - “Seeker” prayer group -
always recruiting - I called them “Sneakers.”

I imagined they sat in circles and sang songs
and prayed together and I wanted no part of that.
Every Sunday I left - no Sneaker was going to sneak up on me!
No one could accuse me of having a well-developed prayer life.
(What an irony! Here we are in a circle....singing...praying....)

2. Fast forward many years - spent an entire autumn on sabbatical.
I discovered the chapel service in Harvard Yard,
and started every morning there. (Describe).
Prayer flowed naturally out of that chapel experience.

As you can imagine, the journey from Hubbard to Harvard
had been exhilirating
and the journey back from Harvard to Hubbard......
was extraordinarily deflating.

And to my great surprise, mor than anything else
I missed that routine of chapel;
that reliable daily shot of
connection with the divine.

It was a grayer than usual Oregon winter that year,
finally, in desperation or despondancy or something
I fell to my knees
in the most drastic and disciplined kind of prayer I knew:
Zen meditation.

And, for me, it was like sinking into God’s featherbed.
Or, as the Sufi poet Rumi so exquisitely wrote:
“ break the wineglass -
and fall into the glassblower’s breath.”

And to this day it remains my most reliable connection with God.

And when I am consistently disciplined about connecting to God
through prayer and meditation,
other marvelous connections unfold:
-I’ll make phone calls......
-The hospital visit. . . .
It’s like an unseen hand is writing in my Palm Pilot.

That’s my experience.
I’m not saying that you should try Zen meditation.
I’m not saying that each of us should spend 40 days in the wilderness.

I am confident that each of us has found, or will find,
our own best ways of forging
reliable, daily, deep connections with God.

Of course, we do have this 40 days of Lenten “Spring Training”
to practice, to experiment, to learn something new.

If you’re just starting:
1. Prayers at meals
2. Lord’s Prayer 3X day (early church suggested that)
3. Anne Lamott’s suggestions for essential prayer:

“ Help me, help me, help me,” and
“ Thank you, thank you, thank you,” or better yet
a woman she knows says for her morning prayer “Whatever”
for her evening prayer, “Oh, well.”

And also:
1. Lenten suggestions
2. Lenten booklet

3. Seeking more structure?
You will seldom go wrong meditating onPhilippians 4:4-8
with it’s fourfold practice:
Rejoice always- remember that God is near.
Relax.
Give thanks.
Focus your thoughts on what is excellent & delightful.

4. You might want to consult with a spiritual director, Cathy Tinker, for instance.
Or someone else whose faith you admire.

Whatever route you choose, I urge you to choose something
and practice it daily. Not out of guilt or duty
here’s Rumi again:

Submit to a daily practice.
Your loyalty to that is a ring on the door.
eep knocking, and the joy inside
will eventually open a window
nd look out to see who’s there.

There is nothing you can do that will make more difference
to your inner peace and joy and well-being as a person,
there is nothing you can do that will make more difference
to your growth as a person of faith,

then taking the leap
from thinking about God to connecting with God;
from talking about prayer to praying.

Or again, as Rumi put it:

” Last year, I admired wines. This (year),
I’m wandering inside the red world.

Last year, I gazed at the fire.
This year, I’m burnt kabob.”

Take the leap.

1. Luke 20:45-47 Then, within the hearing of all the people, Jesus said to [his] disciples,
“ Be on guard against the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and love greetings in
marketplaces, seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets. They devour
the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very
severe condemnation.”

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