One of the edges that we seem to be treading right now - our staff, our leaders, our congregation - has to do with this question: how do modern people do spiritual practice? Is modern life compatible with it? And how do we support each other as a community of faith to "prepare room" for the God-who-comes?
As Advent begins on Sunday (gee whiz, feel like I'm still cleaning sand out of my ears), we once again contemplate the question: how do we prepare ourselves to meet the God-who-comes, in the least likely clothing: flesh. The flesh of a most vulnerable child, born in the backwoods of the Roman empire. How do we attune our hearing to discern that cry, to see the trace of the divine, in the traces of our daily lives?
I will likely be focusing this Sunday on the text from First Thessalonians, but this cheery text from Luke may also make an appearance in this week's brief (promise) Communion homily.
But the focus of the reflection this Sunday is this: how can we together prepare room for God - especially when our lives are so often seem stuffed full of...stuff? How can we encourage each other to practice...spiritually? If Christianity were a marathon you ran tomorrow, how would you fare?
So...do you pray? And if so, how?
Do you pray on the road? Doing the dishes? In your prayer closet? With the scripture? With your breath? Looking for ideas, folks....
(By the way, I find I do a lot more conversation by email than I do here - but I wish folk would bite the bullet and do sign on to the blogger system...).
Have a blessed Thanksgiving, all!
Jeff
Posts
4 comments:
I always pray just before a meeting with the pastor. :-)
But more seriously ...
I started praying regularly after attending the Montreat Youth Conference two years ago with our youth. After the events of that week (one in particular) I felt closer to God and was called to pray. I think the idea was also aided by the small group practice of trading rocks with another member's name on it - so that we'd remember to pray for that person throughout the year(s). I still remember and pray for Gavin.
Now I normally pray daily, often more than that as events and news warrant. I do admit to getting a bit lost in my bedtime prayers as I lie there and my mind wanders. I figure God understands.
In my current jobless situation, the amount of prayer has dropped as my surety of my relationship with God and His support has fallen.
(You are welcome to use any or all of this in the sermon - particularly the first line - but keep in mind that I'll be sitting down front to serve Communion.)
Thanks for your thoughts, Mark.
I have gotten a lot of comments via my Facebook page...Here's one from my good friend from California days Ellen Steele.
"To pray unceasingly would be impossible if it meant to think constantly about God...As soon as we begin to divide off our thoughts from thoughts about God and thoughts about other things, like people and events, we separate God from our daily life....Prayer can only become unceasing communion when all our thoughts - beautiful or ugly, high or low, proud or shameful, sorrowful or joyful - can be thought in the presence of the One who dwells in us and surrounds us."
That, and the great theologian Alison Krauss: "Take my life and let me be a living prayer, my God to Thee...."
And...I was in such haste, didn't remember that I wanted to comment on your note, Mark.
I certainly understand your comment about it seeming as if God's support has fallen. I think of the Psalmist, who laments, "How long, O Lord, shall I cry...?" (Psalm 35).
I wonder if folk out there find praying with the Psalms of lament -- in just such circumstances -- helpful. I know that in my down times, they have been a tremendous help.
And in good times, I think of Psalm 30. "I said in my prosperity, 'I shall never be moved.'" Such security often precedes that dry time when God's face then seems suddenly hidden.
Hang in.
Prayer is the most critical ingredient in my Christian life. I learned the most about prayer, when I joined a recovery, 12-step group in the early 1990's--Al-Anon. I wrote in a little primer book that God answers prayers in the following ways:
1. Yes,
2. No,
3. Not yet,
4. you got to be kidding!
when I don't pray duriing the day, it feels like exercising without breathing! I use a small inventory sometimes that helps me remember where I experienced God, where I struggled and where I need God's grace to become more whole.
I love prayer and incorporate it with writing. Sometimes I begin prayer with just imagining God holding me. I think of people who I love and people who I do not love. I imagine God holding them in the same way. I write prayers, think of prayers and try to listen. I am grateful in believing that if we (just) pray it is how we come to know God is with us--Emanuel, Immanuel.
Post a Comment