The Prayer Bicycle (Essentials*Red)

For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt.

As we reflect on the languages of public prayer and public reading of Scripture in our Essentials*Red class, I’ve been led to a few thoughts:

The first is how self-focused our spirituality is. Rarely will we see our faith as a living dynamic between those of who journey around us. Yes, the reality of personal salvation and redemption is true, as well as the fact that each of us will individually stand before God on judgment day. However, we must also remember that God has called to himself a people (not a person), a building (not a brick), and a body (not a specific body part). Each of us uniquely plays a role, but let us not arrogantly assume our faith exists apart from community. Communal activities remind us we are not alone. As we find ourselves strong, we are called to lift those around us. As we find ourselves weak, we are called to be help up by those around us. As we hear each other speak, we are reminded of how big a God we serve is and how vast his attributes are. Without those around voicing their praises and perspectives, we would find ourselves with a less comprehensive vocabulary of worship.

Secondly, public prayer and public reading help remind us of their role in our personal lives. So often, I’ll find myself dry and unaware of even how to approach God. My words feel short and inadequate. Doubts surprise my faith with their strength. Whatever the case, something happens when a group of people get together to pray and read God’s Word. It’s almost as if there’s a cumulative “faith pot” in the middle of the room, and as people come in and pour out their hearts to God and others, that faith builds and becomes bigger than that individual person’s faith. We hear someone gratefully utter, “You are so so good to me…” Something in their voice strikes you as genuine and you too are reminded of God’s goodness to you and your family. Someone else speaks out of his faithfulness, and you’re in agreement again. Something grows within your heart, restoring lost trust, and as you leave that room and that group of people, it’s almost as if that cumulative faith is not left behind but taken with you. When you come home to pray in your room and your “closet”, suddenly your requests and cries and praises have more substance and weight to them. Public fuels the private.

Thirdly, private prayer feeds into public prayer. What do we have if it’s not truly a part of our lives? Jesus complained that people would worship God with their mouths but their hearts would be far from him. Private prayer and scripture reading increase our faith as we come back into the public settings. Maybe the week before, you dropped a mustard seed into the cumulative faith pot, but the week after you might throw 3 seeds in. I know it’s perhaps a lame analogy, but we must grasp how important it is for us to fast and pray and give to the poor not because we’re seen by the public eye but because we love God and want to serve him when no one else can see us and will acknowledge it (Matt. 6:1-18). There’s something beautiful and right about that, something I hope to do more. From that place of private interaction, we can come into the public places with more confidence because it’s a continuation of your life instead of something you’re trying to convince yourself of. Often I feel like I’m jump starting a car as I lead people in worship, or doing mouth to mouth resuscitation. There was no activity there to work from and build off of. Imagine a church completely surrendered to God in the public places as well as the private places!

So what do bicycles have to do with any of this? As you pedal a bicycle, imagine only having one leg, or one pedal for that matter. It’d definitely be an interesting sight. It would be awkward to start pedaling if the bike were stopped, needing much more force than if you had two. I wonder if our prayer life is similar to pedals on a bike. We need private prayer (one pedal) and public prayer (the other pedal). Each one feeds into the other and helps maintain balance and strength. Both legs are built up instead of just one. Would we learn how to continually live using both pedals!

Priest at St. Paul's during Ash Wednesday Service

"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Lent is beautiful because I need these reminders.

Quote from D. Maddalena

(In response to David’s question in Psalm 79:5, “How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?”)

"Easter was the once-for-all-time answer to this question. Jesus took our place on the cross to appease God’s righteous anger. He went alone to be punished: separated from God and deserted by his friends. The drama of how this happened is the story of Lent… Before the Resurrection comes crucifixion; before crucifixion comes prosecution; before prosecution comes betrayal, doubt, fear, rebellion, and sin. Lent helps us experience our part in the Passion (suffering) of Jesus. We face our humanity during Lent: we learn that sin still dwells in us, that we still carry darkness. We learn that we would likely have fallen asleep as Jesus prayed for deliverance in the garden, and we would likely have denied knowing him as he silently accepted his death sentence."

Lent Prayer

I read this prayer from Walter Brueggemann’s book of prayers “Awed To Heaven, Rooted In Earth” yesterday:

“Loss is indeed our gain”

The pushing and the shoving of the world is endless.
We are pushed and shoved.
And we do our fair share of pushing and shoving
in our great anxiety.
And in the middle of that
you have set down your beloved suffering son
who was like a sheep led to slaughter
who opened not his mouth.
We seem not able,
so we ask you to create the spaces in our life
where we may ponder his suffering
and your summons for us to suffer with him,
suspecting that suffering is the only way to come to newness.
So we pray for your church in these Lenten days,
when we are driven to denial-
not to notice the suffering,
not to engage it,
not to acknowledge it.
So be that way of truth among us
that we should not deceive ourselves.
That we shall see that loss is indeed our gain.
We give you thanks for that mystery from which we live.
Amen.

Most of this book is posted here if you want to read more:

http://books.google.com/books?id=RMQxm2o0-zUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:Walter+inauthor:Brueggemann

Thoughts On Creating Cathedrals Of Time (Essentials*Red)

For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt.

Time. What a strange creation that every human is plagued by! Similar to gravity, we are born under its spell that is only to be broken upon death. How do we even deal with it? What a gift, and what a curse… We hear statements like, “Time flies by so quickly, ” and, “I wish I had more hours in the day!” Each second that ticks brings us closer to our graves, reminding us how mortal and finite we really are.

Throughout history, every civilization has developed their own unique way of interacting with time. The Jews have offered us a very interesting perspective on time and how we can use it in our worship as well as how to be shaped by it. In the book “The Sabbath”, Abraham Heschel says that, “Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events, to learn how to consecrate sanctuaries that emerge from the magnificent stream of a year…” He elaborates later by saying, “Jewish ritual may be characterized as the art of significant forms in time, as architecture of time. Most of its observances – the Sabbath, the New Moon, the festivals, the Sabbatical and the Jubilee year – depend on a certain hour of the day or season of the year. It is, for example, the evening, morning, or afternoon that brings with it the call to prayer. The main themes of faith life in the realm of time.”

In the Old Testament we read about their 3 yearly festivals where they would gather in Jerusalem to worship as a people and re-tell essential parts of their story as a nation. We learn about their 3 daily fixed hour prayer times as they recited the Psalms and other prayers like the Shema (“Hear O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One…”). This was a powerful prayer in a time where polytheism and pagan gods dominated the spiritual landscape. We also discover how crucial a weekly Shabbat (or Sabbath) was to their existence. This day of rest absolutely separated them from other civilizations at the time. It was a day connected to their understanding of creation as well as their redemption from Egypt. Shabbat was the climax of their week and ordered their lives. On the 3 days following Shabbat they would thank God for giving them that gift of rest, while the next 3 days were spent preparing their hearts for the next. In talking about this sacred day, Heschel said, “The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals; and our Holy of Holies is a shrine that neither the Romans nor the Germans were able to burn…”

What an interesting idea! The thought that similar to how we shape matter, we can shape time. Add to that the notion that how we shape time ends up shaping us… Think about it. Everyone has a “life liturgy”, regardless of their spiritual inclinations. Picture your whole day as a liturgy that plays out. Each part of that liturgy ascribes worth to something. What does our culture’s liturgy say about time and what we prioritize? What cathedrals have we built? What shrines have we bowed down to?

Then I consider my own life. I look over my day from when I rise till I lay my head down. Are the things I say I value and hold dear reflected in how I relate to time? What sort of buildings have I built of time? Are they beautiful and majestic or stained and dingy? Are they sturdy on a rock, or sinking in the sand? Is there substance to them or am I surrounded by thin paper walls? Help me be an architect of time, so that at the end of my days I live in a city whose buildings are forged of gold and not straw!