Prayer

I hadn't thought about it much until our cell group met and prayed last night.

In the past several months, prayer has become different for me. I find that i just don't know what to pray. There are lots of "things" and people that need prayer. Obviously God needs to work in my life and other people's lives and in situations all over. I used to spend hours praying for people and situations in specific ways. But i haven't been able to do that, lately.

I don't know what God wants, apart from what has been clearly revealed in the scriptures. I can't even pray for myself or my wife with much specificity. Sure, i can tell God what i want, but i want to want what God wants and i've discovered that i don't know what i once thought i knew.

But i do pray. I pray using the Psalms. I pray using the prayers that other saints have written. I pray using prayers from the scriptures. It's not just sitting down and reading these things like i'm reading a novel or the newspaper. I really do enter into prayer. Using the Liturgy of the Hours, i pray this way several times a day. And throughout the day, there are prayers both from the Liturgy and other places which i have memorized that well up within me spontaneously:

"Our Father who art in heaven..."
"Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit..."
"You are God, we praise you..."
"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord..."
"Come, let us sing to the Lord..."
"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy..."

These, among others, are the prayers I pray throughout my day.

More on Liturgy

I met with my friend Dan, yesterday, and, among other things, talked about the need for certain elements of corporate worship to be regular and routine. We talked about how routine is not only not a bad thing but essential in our lives. Routine helps us persist on a particular course. Of course, routine can be bad if it takes us on a wrong course. But routine - especially in worship - seems to be "routinely" criticized as if nothing good comes of it. Diversity and spontaneity seem to be the crucial elements.

But i "routinely" tell my wife i love her. I try to take every opportunity i have to tell her. Why? First of all, because I really do love her. There is no on else in this world i would rather be with - even when there is tension between us. There is no one else I want to do more for than her - even though i so often act quite selfishly. And, yes, there are times when i say, "I love you," rather unthinkingly... but does that mean i shouldn't say it? Because it does become routine for me to tell her, "I love you," should i stop telling her that? Of course not! what i need to do is not change what i'm saying but the reason, the attitude, the heart behind it. Obviously just saying it is completely insufficient. But not saying it at all is not the solution. Rather i need to bring my heart and mind and life back to the reasons i tell her, "I love you."

And I need to tell her, not only so she can hear it from me... I need to tell her so I can hear it from me.

There are certain disciplines that are vital to the Christian life. We talk about the importance of being "in the Word" daily, of prayer, of confession, of obedience, of "simplicity, purity and humility." We talk about the importance of knowing and reminding ourselves of just who God is, of our constant need of his mercy and grace, of his righteousness and justice, of his never-ending love for us, of his holiness... and numerous other things.

Yet these basic elements are being forgotten or deliberately ignored in much of what is passed off as Christian worship, today. Things like the Lord's Prayer, the Doxology, and the Gloria Patri are seldom used on a regular basis - if ever - in many churches. The Eucharist/Communion also falls into disuse... or, at best, minimal use. The public reading of scripture is deemed as not only unnecessary but even intimidating and offensive. Acknowledgment and confession of sin is often perceived as pedantic and "overly negative."

The issue is not that we shouldn't do these things routinely but that we should routinely teach and talk about what these things mean and why they are important. It seems to me we're in too much of a hurry to "get to the good stuff" (the stuff that makes us feel good) and so miss why and what it is that makes the good stuff so good!

Although it may very well be a gross over-simplification, half the Church is told "just do it" while the other half is told "just feel it." But seldom is there discussion about what "it" is or why or what or even how "doing" or "feeling" is connected to "it."

Liturgy, all by itself, certainly is not the answer. But being left to "whatever" isn't the answer, either. That's just being left to fall of one end or the other of the same plank. The awareness and development of a life rooted in spiritual reality doesn't just happen. It takes not only cultivation but also perseverance. It is a long journey that requires a commitment to the pilgrimage... and a map. Liturgy is the practice of referring to the map... even when you're sure you haven't gone off it.

More On Pentecost

I've been doing more thinking about Pentecost. It seems to me that a lot of Evangelicals look at Pentecost as the time in which the Holy Spirit initially came down upon believers so that they could "get the job" done (the job of evangelism). While i would grant that there is some credence to that understanding, i would grant only some credence. If that is the only understanding of the purpose of the Spirit's coming then it is a very myopic and, consequently, dangerously limited perception.

When Jesus told his disciples that the coming of the Holy Spirit would give them power, he added, "And you shall be my witnesses..." Many Evangelicals will put those two phrases together (not that they are too terribly separated logistically in the scriptures) to mean that Jesus was giving them power to do the "evangelistic thing." While that is, in part, true, we must not get the cart before the horse.

To be a witness of/to Jesus Christ, one must die with Christ. The Greek word that is translated "witness" is the word from which we get our word "martyr." A true Christian martyr is the most powerful witness of Jesus Christ. But not all Christians are physically killed for their faith. What they/we (I) must do is, as Paul the Apostle put it, "die daily." (1 Cor 15:31)

Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was "a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 6:5) He was "full of grace and power" and was "performing great wonders and signs among the people." (Acts 6:8) Yet he was not chosen to lead an evangelism team or a healing and deliverance ministry. He was chosen to serve food to widows. He was chosen to be a waiter!! There was something about Stephen that got the attention of some Jews who began arguing with Stephen even though their arguments were powerless against the wisdom given him by the Spirit. (As i recently heard, "It's tough to go against a Spirit-filled man.") The upshot of the whole thing is that Stephen, his teaching, his work, and, it would seem, his very presence were determined to be a threat. He was taken before the Sanhedrin, accused (falsely) of blasphemy, judged and sentenced on the spot.

The point is that Stephen simply was as faithful as he could be, living the gospel and manifesting the Kingdom of God in his everyday life, dying to self and comfort and pleasure. Nothing else mattered but that Jesus Christ be fully honored in his life - in his deeds as well as in his words.

The stories (in Acts) prior to this one about Stephen give testimony to the Church at that time of how the values of simplicity, purity and humility - the very characteristics of Jesus Christ, himself - dominated the lives of Christians to such a degree that most of the Church today (at least in the western world) would find it, at best, odd and extreme... or perhaps even irrelevant. Yet it is precisely these qualities for which people in the world who are seeking an alternative to this world's attitudes and values yearn - even if they don't see it clearly, yet.

Sure, Christians need to verbally share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people - but let us not imagine that this is the full extent of what it means to be a witness for Christ. How we live our lives speaks volumes more than what a few words can, but a few words backed with a life of integrity that flows out of faith in Christ becomes not only a message but a means of grace to others by the power of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers believers to be witnesses of Christ because it is the Spirit who literally makes Christians what they are - people reborn in the image of Christ. And what does it mean to be "reborn in the image of Christ"? THAT is what those first even chapters of Acts tell us.