CELEBRATING:
SERMONS
"Praying Hearts, Hands,
Minds" Jan 19th
Prayer:
May our words and our thinking; our hopes and our longings
be touched by your Word of truth, revealed in Christ.
AMEN
Prayer and meditation, contemplation and mystical experiences
- all of it has been on the edge of our super-sophisticated,
enlightened society. But nowadays we realize that the
edge is too far out. As novelist Iris Murdoch once wrote:
"Prayer is the most essential of all human activities."
We sense - even when we can't articulate the reason
- that the spiritual, the mystical, the divine is much
closer to the core of being humanity than previously
acknowledged.
We realize that physicists and mystics have more in
common than we thought. We understand that too much
of western culture has been superficial distraction
or addiction to consumption or
busy-ness that sterilizes the soul, and degrades our
humanity.
The story about the boy Samuel reminds us that even
when we don't know God or have lost touch with God,
God knows us and calls us: Samuel, Rochelle, Jay, or
Hans - whatever your name - if we have ears to hear,
God calls us into dialogue - hearing and speaking -
the essence of prayer.
In our Protestant tradition we have diminished prayer
in two ways:
First, we professionalized prayer. In the Reformation,
we fought for the principle that all the people of God
can pray and experience the Spirit. They don't really
need go-betweens.
But in practice, clergy were afraid of losing control.
So we said: this is how you should pray and we're best
equipped to do it. So prayer became a clergy reserve,
with lay people saying: "I am not trained, equipped,
practiced, competent to pray." And people stopped
praying.
The second thing we did was make prayer too mental.
We acted as if prayer was mainly a matter of correctly
applying our brain and saying the right words - often
too wordy without enough silence and feeling. Prayer
became an arid activity.
But we know that real prayer springs from the heart.
When we see a glorious sunset or are confronted by a
tragic accident, our hearts exclaim: "Oh, my God!"
It is the most authentic prayer.
We reach out to God, intuiting that God is there for
us.
When we feel guilt or burdened, we exclaim: "God,
help me." And deep within know that God will respond
to our plea.
When we know ourselves incredibly blessed, our heart
bubbles over to give thanks not to ourselves but to
others and to the Holy Other.
Prayer is a lot more than correct words said by a professional!
We also understand that prayer too easily dissolves
into hypocrisy.
Jesus calls this "practicing your piety before
others."
Praying to be seen and to impress is hollow and futile.
It's not a popularity contest. Nor is it a word-smith
project.
God is not bought by false piety, as the Hebrew Scriptures
so frequently reveal.
Prayer is being in a truthful relationship with God.
It involves dialogue - our words, God's Word - our longings
meeting God's yearnings, God's vision engaging our hopes.
Sometimes we have things to say. We need to express
ourselves to God. Sometimes we have nothing to say,
but need to open ourselves to the Word that comes as
a still, small voice within us.
Many times we need help to pray.
We may use a scripture text and just meditate on it
- quietly, expectantly, patiently, persistently. A text
like: "we live and move and have our being in God."
Or "you lead me beside still waters" or "And
God said: it is good."
We could sing a phrase: "Be still and know that
I am God" - repeating it many times in order to
clear our too busy minds of mental static and distraction.
Or simply hum a note to help our brain slow down to
make way for the heart.
Some find it helpful to kneel and in that posture trigger
the desire to pray. Others pray standing. Many sit.
A Chinese prayer says: "Change the world and begin
with me." That's a good reason to pray. We know
that deeply rooted, embedded prayer joins us with God
and we grow in harmony with all people and nature.
The chapel here is usually available for prayer. There
is a kneeler. Or chairs. There are Bibles to use. You
can light a candle to focus your praying and to acknowledge
Christ's presence.
But prayer can happen anywhere. "Prayers-on-the
run" are something busy people need to cultivate.
At the photocopy machine in the church office, there
is good advice. When the machine is warming up to print,
enjoy the mini-Sabbath, say a prayer.
When reaching for the phone, speak a brief prayer that
this conversation may be blessed. As you say farewell
to someone, send them off with a silent prayer: "God
go with them and keep them safe."
I want to commend to you a little and inexpensive book
called: "Learn to Pray" It is written by Marcus
Braybrooke and helpfully informs and teaches ways of
prayer from many faith traditions. You can buy it from
Vine & Fig Book Store at 23rd and MacDonald at $5.99.
Our church library has good resources on prayer as well.
There really is no excuse, of course, for not knowing
more about prayer and how to do it.
Except, of course, if underlying everything, we don't
really believe in God.
And I hunch that that is the main reason why prayer
has become such a minority activity in our time.
Is our lack of prayer, a sign too many of us have become
functional atheists? Probably, and we need to rediscover
the living God - the Creator, Redeemer, and Spirit -
in order to enter into the dialogue we call prayer.
One of the ways we can be helped both to renew our
relationship with God and discover the art of praying
- a way to deepen our spiritual life - is through the
Labyrinth.
[Thanks to Lauren Artress' book: Walking the Sacred
Path - Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool,
New York, Riverhead Books, 1995. ISBN 1-57322-547-9
for many ideas in the following.]
In the gym of the church today we will dedicate a labyrinth
based on the labyrinth of the French Cathedral of Chartres,
outside of Paris.
A labyrinth is nothing magic, but an ancient tool for
meditation, prayer, and personal transformation..
Research tells us that labyrinths have been passed
down through the ages, created in a place deep within
the human psyche. Around the world, people of faith
are finding that the labyrinth can help to address the
great spiritual hunger of our time.
[The difference between a maze and labyrinth is important.
A maze is a bewildering array of paths, and includes
dead ends.
A labyrinth is a single path leading to the centre and
back out again. Carol Shields in her book "Larry's
Party" uses a mixed labyrinth-maze metaphor to
describe the odysseys of Larry's life with "their
teasing treachery and promise of reward."]
As a tool, the labyrinth allows us "to walk a
sacred path" (Lauren Artress' book title). Very
simply: we enter the labyrinth path - in a sense leaving
the world, are led along the path and eventually wind
up in the centre.
The centre serves as destination - a place to pray,
to rest, and to prepare for the return route. At the
end of the path, we are delivered back into the world.
Labyrinth prayer is a body prayer. It involves our whole
being.
It non-threatening - we can do it at our own pace -
we set the agenda .
All we need to do is walk and open our heart and mind.
What can the labyrinth do? Just the walking quietly,
meditatively will be beneficial to still the troubled
mind and soul. We know the benefit of walking in general,
and here being led safely in our walking can allow us
to open ourselves to spirit, or as Lauren Artress, the
foremost advocate of the labyrinth today, writes: "the
labyrinth offers a blueprint for psyche to meet soul"
- a psychological benefit.
Even more, I hope walking the labyrinth will help more
of us grow our relationship with God and make us more
whole people - more human. That as we engage in more
meaningful prayer - more heart-felt praying - our humanity
will be enriched.
And the more human we become, the more Christ-like we
will be to share with Christ in transforming the world
into a place of love, justice and peace.
In your order of service (which you can take home and
review, in the hope that you will come and walk the
labyrinth some time) you have some suggestions - prepared
by Lois Saad - for using the labyrinth. Don't expect
miracles immediately. But do open yourself to the possibilities
that the labyrinth offers.
The aim in prayer is not to focus on our selves, but
to open ourselves to the sacred, to God. I believe that
Jesus knew and experienced the power of this encounter
and therefore invites us all to learn more deeply how
to pray.
I hope that the labyrinth we dedicate today will be
just one of many tools that will help us all to become
a praying people - encountering God, the creator, redeemer,
and sustainer of us all.
On the path of prayer, may we learn this Celtic Prayer:
God ahead, God behind
God be on the path I wind.
God above, God below
God be everywhere I go.
AMEN
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Shaughnessy Heights United Church
congregation is a Christian faith community respecting
each other in our diversity and reaching out to all
who seek God’s love.
1550
West 33rd Avenue,
Vancouver, BC V6M 1A7
Canada SEE
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Tel:
604-261-6377
Email: admin@shuc.ca
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