Sermon Library
“Prayer and Practice”
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
March 01, 2009
Service Theme: Lent I-2009
Source: Matthew 6: 5 – 9 and Luke 18: 9 – 14
Lent I-2009 March 1, 2009
Prayer and Practice
By Gregg Anderson
Matthew 6: 5 – 9 and Luke 18: 9 – 14
Prayer and Parking Spaces
Maxine was already late driving toward an important meeting downtown and became even more frustrated when she could not find a parking place. Looking up toward heaven, she said, “Lord, take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to church every Sunday for the next year.” Suddenly and/or miraculously, a parking place appeared. Maxine looked up again and said, “Never mind. I found one.”
I am not sure what to make of this story, but I thought it was food for thought. It has something to do with the power and expectations of prayer and/or doing things on our own. It could also be a good story about God and people working together like being co-creators. The purpose and philosophy of prayer is manifold. There are no two religious or spiritual people alike and I suspect there are no two perspectives of prayer alike.
Drummond’s Bar and the Baptist Church
Here is a story about the differences of prayer which if it isn’t true, certainly could be true. In a small Texas town, Drummond’s Bar, a popular “watering hole” as they would call it, began construction on a new and larger building to accommodate their growing clientele and increase their business. The local Baptist Church only a couple blocks away started a campaign to block the new bar from opening with petitions and prayers. Construction progressed, however, right up till the week before the grand opening when lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground. The church members were rather smug in their outlook after that, until the bar owner, Mr. Drummond, sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means. The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the building’s demise in its reply to the court. As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork. At the hearing the judge commented, “I don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but as it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and an entire church congregation that does not.”
Not Talking To God, But Listening to God
This is another humorous story which brings up more questions about the power and purpose of prayer and particularly how we interpret prayer. I am not an expert on prayer. In fact, when I said I was going to talk about prayer and practice this Sunday to a friend, I added that listening to me talk about prayer and practice would be like listening to a speech on financial responsibility from Bernie Madoff. Well, I am not a criminal, but I just have more questions about prayer than answers. I particularly question prayers of petition. What I do feel, however, is that prayers ‘r’ for us, more than they are for God. I have also learned that prayers of silence and meditation are often more worthy than dramatic prayers from a pulpit. Our society typically thinks of prayer as “talking to God.” In reality, however, prayer is more about “listening to God.”
Definitions
If one looks up the definition of prayer in our contemporary English dictionary we will find words such as to implore, supplication, humble entreaty and even the word ask. This, however, seems to be an unfortunate evolution of the meaning of the word prayer. Let’s go back to the original – you know just in case. The Hebrew word for prayer is Tefillah. It is originally derived from the Hebrew infinitive Lehitpallel. Pallel or Palal means to fall or to fall down to the ground in the presence of one in authority. Tefillah essentially means to judge oneself or to simply know oneself. And another meaning is communion as in to be with one another. There are a few words in Hebrew which get defined as prayer in English. The mindset for prayer in Hebrew is Kavanah and is translated as concentration, focus and intent. Rabbi Morris Adler says that “Jewish prayer is a way of waking up the soul, clarifying the mind and summoning up strengths for doing well in the world. Our prayers are answered not when we are given what we ask, but when we are challenged to be what we can be.”
In Greek the primary word is proseuchi and that primarily means a place of prayer, in adherence and constantly devoted to or unremitting attention. Another Greek word is deasis which means to seek as well as entreat. It appears in these earlier definitions that prayer was more of a meditation than a supplication. I am suspicious that it became more of supplication than a meditation within our Westernized and contemporized culture.
Piero Ferrucci in his book Ineffable Grace and quoted by Cynthia Bourgeault states, “Prayer is not a request for God’s favors. True, it has been used to obtain the satisfaction of personal desires. It has even been adopted to reinforce prejudices, justify violence, and create barriers between people and between countries. But genuine prayer is based on recognizing the Origin of all that exists, and opening ourselves to it . . . In prayer we acknowledge God as the supreme source from which flows all strength, all goodness, all existence, acknowledging that we have our being, life itself from this supreme Power. One can then communicate with this Source, worship it, and ultimately place one’s very center in it.”
Centering Prayer Meditation
Cynthia Bourgeault divides her book The Wisdom Jesus into three parts; the teachings of Jesus, the mysteries of Jesus, and the practices of Jesus. She begins her first chapter under practices with Centering Prayer Meditation. She quotes this beautiful Byzantine hymn, “Serene light shining in the ground of my being, draw me to yourself. Draw me past the snares of the senses, out of the mazes of the mind. Free me from symbols, from words that I may discover the signified: the word unspoken in the darkness that veils the ground of my being.”
She continues, “How do I move beyond ‘the mazes of the mind’ and into a deeper wisdom knowing? The answer is simple, though perhaps not easy: through meditation. Meditation is one of the most ancient and universal of all spiritual practices and it is the cornerstone of the wisdom encounter with Christ. You may already be familiar with the benefits of meditation in terms of relieving stress or relaxing the mind or the body, but its real value in terms of wisdom is to transform the way you think. Its immediate and obvious effect is to break the tyranny of your usual mind, with its constant compulsive thinking. Its underlying and far more powerful effect is to catapult you into a direct experience of being itself, unmediated by thinking, and to give you a strong taste of what heart perception actually feels like. Meditation is the tool you use to ‘upgrade your operating system,’ to move from that ‘either/or’ thinking of the binary mind into the more spacious heart awareness that sustains the wisdom way of knowing.”
“In essence, contemplative prayer is simply a wordless, trusting opening of self to the divine presence. Far from being advanced, it is about the simplest form of prayer there is. Children recognize it instantly because of its naturalness and simplicity. The sixteenth-century mystic John of the Cross intimates, ‘Silence is God’s first language.’ The Psalmist boldly states, “Be still and know that God is God.” Silent centering prayer can bring one to a place unlike any other place one can go. St. Augustine once said, “God is closer to your soul that you are yourself.” Cynthia writes, “What goes on in those silent depths during the time of silent centering prayer is no one’s business, not even your own; it is between your innermost being and God. It is that very still small voice that we know is there and was clearly heard and understood by Elijah.
Our Texts Today
In the gospel lessons this morning we heard Jesus giving us instructions about prayer. In Matthew we hear Jesus’ preface to what we call today The Lord’s Prayer. Jesus said to not pray like the hypocrites who like to be seen and heard by all when they pray their lofty words, but go into your own room, shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:5) Father Thomas Keating of our own monastery here in Snowmass always reminds people about “going into your room” when you pray which can have many metaphorical meanings to us. It is about centering ourselves and our mind in a place of peace and quiet before we pray. Prayer is more about silence and listening than it is words of petition and expectation. Think about the actual relaxation we all realize when we literally go into the solace of our own home, room, even bedroom. Centering prayer, wherever we may be, can literally allow our mind to take a break from the noise of the city and our day to day anxieties. Just think of this purpose of prayer being of even greater personal value than the petitions we typically make.
In the gospel of Luke Jesus relates the story of two men who went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee spoke up and out and yelled, “Thank God, I am not like others and am a better person and do everything according to the law. But the tax collector, standing far off, could not even lift his head and could only beat his breast and humbly whisper, “God be merciful to me.” Jesus concludes, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18: 9 – 14)
Perhaps now is a good time to confess to you and myself that I am often concerned about the words that I say in the so called pastoral prayer each Sunday. Recently, I have tried to preface such prayers by saying that I do not want this to be a time of a preacher praying from the pulpit for the people in the pew, but for it to be a participatory prayer and for us to think and pray together within our minds and fill in our own gaps. To think of prayer as a special time of inner silence is more relieving for me than one which is supposed to be filled with all the right words.
With the help of Spiritual Paths and all the exemplars of the different faiths I have learned more about prayer and meditation. My personal practice of meditation has, shall I say, a long way to go, but within a group of friends and loving people, I have managed to meditate enough over the years to realize the significant benefit. I am barely a novice, but I respect these people who have made meditation a part of their daily practice. The gong is most often used to denote the beginning of a moment of meditation and we did this often last month during our week in Santa Barbara. It is interesting to note that when the gong rings and makes its distinctive and engaging sound, how these regular practitioners of silent prayer and meditation can go into their state of silence so quickly and deeply. It is like a hypnotic suggestion and they react in accord. It is similar to the introduction, “Let us pray,” which also elicits an immediate reaction to our psyche. And when the gong more quietly denotes the end of the time, the tranquility is literally felt in the room. This western white Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, always too busy, minister has a lot to learn from this great practice from all the religions of the world.
Three Basic Practices of Prayer
Cynthia mentions three basic practices of centering prayer. The first is the intention of the prayer. Essentially, the intention is to simply be, be with God, so to speak, rather than to get something. It is to be available to God – that is, available at the depths of your being, deeper than words, memories, emotions, and sensations; deeper even than your felt sense of “I am here.” You are simply asked to attend, to give yourself completely into that deeper, mysterious presence.”
Second is to just let your self go, to release the thoughts for this moment. This is not easy to do, of course, but with practice it can become clearer. Thomas Keating tells the story of helping a nun with centering prayer and after twenty minutes the nun lamented, “Oh, Father Thomas, I’m such a failure at this prayer. In twenty minutes I’ve had ten thousand thoughts.” Father Keating’s response was, “How lovely,” without missing a beat, “Ten thousand opportunities to return to God.” Centering prayer is a pathway of return, but for us human beings it is a process of returning again and again and again. Just let it be and I understand with practice it improves with time.
Third is to use a sacred word or mantra to help. I guess one could say “ohm” out loud by oneself, but mostly it is just said silently in our mind on occasion. And you can have your own word like spirit, peace, Jesus, come Lord, open, return, deep, be here, or simply yes. These words can help us erase what she calls the “Monkey mind.” I guess this is the mind which is always “monkeying” around. Practicing spirituality takes, well, practice. Start with just 5 minutes every now and then and see and feel what happens even within this five minutes if you do it intentionally.
You know we can make fun of people who sit cross legged on the floor chanting “ohm,” and depending on just what is going on maybe some of it is funny, but for the most part there may very well be a billion people on this planet who meditate daily in various ways and a billion people can’t be all wrong. I have learned enough to know how important this is. Jesus went off to pray often and he was probably not just praying words, but praying in silence and meditation.
Meditation and Confirmation
You know some people expect miracles when they pray and I think that can be disappointing sometimes. And I am saying today that petitioning for miracles through prayer greatly minimizes the purpose of prayer. That being said, however, I have a genuine miracle which I would like to reiterate to you that happened this week in my office. I believe it was initiated with Matthew Wills in the Tuesday School Confirmation class. A couple of weeks ago I was talking about the mutual practice of meditation among most religions of this world and Matthew spoke up to say that he has learned the art of meditation at a camp that he had attended. He even showed us his position for meditating. Matthew laughed and the other kids laughed along with him. Then they said and I thought it was jokingly, “Let’s meditate next Tuesday.” I said that will be great we will meditate for the whole hour next Tuesday. I thought that was that. Last Tuesday, Emily Bonds reminded us that we were going to meditate. So I took them up on it. Now keep in mind, keeping about ten kids quiet and focused for more than five minutes is a challenge. I actually work pretty hard to keep their minds occupied. If I let up for a second, they are off creating their own agendas that have nothing to do with our purpose at Tuesday School. This time I said, Okay, let’s meditate at the beginning of the class. I talked a little more about this practice and encouraged them to take this seriously. I got the gong, bribed them with a Hershey’s chocolate kiss, which I often do, for everyone who could indeed be completely quiet and meditate for a full five minutes. We all got in position, I sounded the gong, and miracle of miracles, every one genuinely and sincerely meditated for more than five minutes. We even talked about that brief experience. And they all want to do it again and longer next Tuesday. May miracles never cease? And you know what is even more of a miracle – because of that seven minute meditation at the beginning of the class, everyone was more relaxed and focused for the rest of the class. Okay, it wore out toward the end, but there was a definite difference and I am looking forward to it again this Tuesday. Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for such belongs the kingdom of God.” Amen.