Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
1 John 5:9-13
John 17:6-19
“Praying Wholly”
Last week I began to speak of prayer as an integral part of our lives as faithful Christians. I talked of how we can share the ways we connect with God. We can share the ways in which we connect so that people who need to understand God can see other ways to know God. The scripture texts today continue to reveal ways in which people within the biblical witness have connected with God—or pray to God.
Jesus words in the gospel lesson today are a part of the great intercessory prayer of John’s gospel. In it, Jesus prays a prayer that sums up much of his teaching—expressed in a prayer to God, but obviously meant to teach those who read it later. Jesus prayed, “and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.”
Last Sunday, I shared that I use some traditions that have come out of ancient Christian practices collected and published by a group in northern England. Because I tend to pray with words and communicate with words, I tend to focus on using words and ideas as the way I communicate. But I also feel that my spirituality is informed by how I connect with the body of Christ through my physical activity—working toward God’s vision of justice in the world. So I read devotions, pray aloud—reading prayers and readings by others, and reading scripture. I also feel that communication with God can happen if I am working to help others. I believe that it is important to have more than one way of connecting—even one way is the most comfortable to us.
I believe this because there are a variety of ways in which we can practice spirituality or prayer, experiencing God’s presence and God’s influence within us. If we use our minds, we may neglect God’s influence within our bodies—if we rely only on the physical prayer or mission, our minds or hearts may suffer from neglect, our emotional selves may not connect. And even if we use mind, heart and body—or intellect, emotions and the physical self—we may not involve the community, focusing only on self to the neglect of others.
Praying with the mind
In Psalm 1, we read that:
The blessed are those who follow the advice of the Yahweh,
meditating on the word of God.
Then they will thrive like trees by streams
—bearing fruit, staying green, so they prosper in the spirit.
We can pray with our minds through the reading of scripture and other devotional materials. There are many traditions that are primarily intellectual, but one I enjoy is called Lectio Divina, or divine reading, “holy reading.” And though it uses the words of scriptures, the heart is also clearly involved.
Lectio
This first moment consists in reading the scriptural passage slowly, attentively several times. Many write down words in the scripture that stick out to them or grasp their attention during this moment.
We simply note the words that touch us without dwelling on meaning or from focusing on defining words. In this first phase of reading, we simply take note.
Meditatio
The reader maintains focus on around the passage or one of its words, takes it and ruminates on it, thinking in God’s presence about the text. He or she benefits from the Holy Spirit’s ministry of illumination, i.e. the work of the Holy Spirit that imparts spiritual understanding of the sacred text. It is not a special revelation from God, but the inward working of the Holy Spirit, which enables the Christian to grasp the revelation contained in the Scripture.
Next we take those words or phrases that we have noted or written down and focus on how that fits into our particular lives. If words about preaching or teaching catch the eye, then perhaps we are to find a way talking about God—even if it isn’t from a public pulpit. We may have been given a chance to talk about faith to someone or we need to pay attention to those opportunities. Focusing on those words and phrases helps us to internalize the scripture. One way of doing this is journaling about those words—and each time one journals, one may find something new and different. We may even hear the scripture differently with different words and phrases coming to our attention.
Oratio
This is a response to the passage by opening the heart to God. It is not an intellectual exercise, but an intuitive conversation or dialogue with God.
Here we simply hold the passage with us—internally or keeping our mind focused on it. In my experience, this process can happen over days. When I read a text—for a sermon, for example, I allow it to stay with me through the week. It’s one of the reasons I don’t write a sermon for several days after selecting a text. But it is also one of the ways I meditate. I tend not to write things down immediately when I focus on scripture, but I live with it for awhile. I allow the words to simmer, so to speak, for several days.
Contemplatio
This moment is characterized by a simple, loving focus on God. In other words, it is a beautiful, wordless contemplation of God, a joyful rest in [God’s] presence.
Finally, we come to a place where a particular text exists with us always, help us to focus not on the words, but on how it allows us to experience God’s very being. To me, this is not a destination for a text, but a place to rest within the text for awhile—perhaps for years, but always with the openness that we may learn and experience other ways within the text.
Praying with the heart
The first letter of John contains these words, “Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts.”
When we pray with our hearts, we allow our deepest and most vulnerable places to be exposed to God. My belief is that this is the way we pray in our most private times—when only God is witness to us. We express our doubts and fears, allowing God into those places. We expresses what we protect most fiercely from even our friends and family. We probably don’t even use words—this may be the most sincere kind of prayer. It may also be the most difficult. We may pray with the heart in public, behind all the words and actions, it still means facing the truest feelings we have. We face who we loathe in our hearts; we face who we love most within our hearts; we face the evil we have done and the good we have done.
It also means taking on the practice of compassion as a way of connecting to God. The spiritual practice of compassion is often likened to opening the heart. First, allow yourself to be feel the suffering in the world, including your own. Don't turn away from pain; move toward it with caring. Go into situations where people are hurting. Identify with your neighbors in their distress. Then expand the circle of your compassion to include other creatures, nature, and the inanimate world.
Praying with the body
Happy are those
who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
or sit in the seat of scoffers;
The psalmist describes physical prayer from the negative—happy are those who do not live as the wicked, walk as the sinner, sit as the scoffer. I might phrase it this way. Happy are those who listen to the fulfilled and healthy, imitating their actions; those who walk with the loving and those who sit and eat like those who take joy in life.
In my experience and understanding, when we take the opportunity to pray with our physical selves, it means taking the knowledge or wisdom and sincerity or compassion we have experienced and expressing it through action. Doing the word of God after exploring it and ourselves is physical prayer. That may come about in any number of ways. In many people, hospitality is a way of expressing prayer physically. Cooking, hosting, welcoming, preparing a place for others is hospitality. Another way to pray physical is simply to be present with someone who needs to share their joy or sorrow. Celebrating or mourning with another person is physical prayer.
Play is another way of praying physically. Play is the exuberant expression of our being. It is at the heart of our creativity, our sexuality, and our most carefree moments of devotion. It helps us live with absurdity, paradox, and mystery. It feeds our joy and wonder. It keeps our search for meaning down to earth.
Most of us don't play enough. We're either too "busy," a code word for workaholism, or we're too serious, mistaking earnestness for accomplishment. We're predictable, too, equating free-spiritedness with irresponsibility. The best treatment for these conditions is play. We need to lighten up.
Praying with the body in whatever way is taking our physical selves into a place or time for the purpose of connecting with God in some way. We may take physical exercise or other action seriously without realizing that it can feed us spiritually as well. It may be a time when we listen best to what God is saying to us. It may be the time when we can clear our minds most effectively so that God doesn’t have to compete with so much mind traffic.
Praying with the community
In the book of Acts, Peter and the other apostles pray about replacing Judas to fill the allocation of twelve apostles that Jesus had appointed. They prayed about the replacement, found a few candidates and then followed their tradition and cast lots, or rolled dice to choose the right one. Lots, at the time, were seen as one way that God helped people make decisions between equal candidates.
I understand that prayer within the community is meant to guide and enhance the work that we do in community. Whenever Peter and the others made decisions for the newly forming church in the book of Acts, they brought together the community to pray before they did anything as a group. The decision making process itself was not particularly spiritually, one might think—they cast lots. What was important about the decision making was that they stayed in prayer for a long time before making any decision. They allowed God to influence their hearts, minds and bodies inside the group before they decided in any way.
I wonder sometimes if we try and make decision too quickly within the church because we are afraid to stop and wait what God has to say to us. I don’t believe we should wait forever—God does know that we are creatures with limited life—but we do need to give God time to work on us and give God a chance to work with us. Prayerfully discerning God’s desire and will and then prayerfully deciding how to put that into practice is vital to prayer within community.
I would invite all of us to take up a new practice of prayer—of some kind. Add praying with your mind—reading one of the lectionary texts listed on the insert in your bulletin. I have inserted the process for lectio divina in your bulletin as well as suggestions for the other methods. They aren’t written in stone, adapt them to fit your life.
Find a way to pray—pray for me, pray for you, pray for this congregation and pray for the church everywhere. Let us bring glory to God—let us be the people in whom Jesus is glorified each day as we seek God’s voice, Jesus’ way and the fire of the Holy Spirit within us.
Amen.
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