On the Road to Emmaus

“Christianity is not a religion, its a relationship,” is a mantra I occasionally hear. The more I hear it, the more I am taken aback, wondering what exactly people mean. Whatever they specifically intend, the implication is that “religion” is something negative which we would not want to be in any way associated with. However, when I look up the word “religion” in the dictionary, this is what I get:

1) the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods

2) details of belief as taught or discussed

3) a particular system of faith and worship

I am honestly at a loss to discern which of these three definitions cannot be applied to Christianity? Is it not belief in and worship of a personal God, with beliefs and a system of faith? What is wrong with these things? Is Christianity just a “relationship” without reference to “details of belief” or a “system of faith?” Interestingly enough, the church in Corinth were enriched in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 1:5), had exuberant and passionate worship services (1 Cor. 14) and were extremely “spiritual” (1 Cor. 3:1; 14:12). However, Paul understood that if they did not believe in the resurrection (i.e., “details of belief”) their faith was useless. Furthermore, he asserted that there needed to be “order” in their worship services. In Paul’s mind, it was not enough for the Corinthians to “have a relationship with Jesus,” they also needed what the dictionary defines as “religion.”

When Christians use the term “religion” pejoratively is such a manner, they generally do not mean any of the definitions used in the dictionary. This means they are using a standard word in a non-standard or technical manner. Religion has become for them a jargon word meaning everything (or something) they dislike about how the last generation (or last sixty generations, or some other group) has practiced Christianity. It often has different meanings for different people. For some it means traditional styles of music or traditional religious language (“thee,” “thou,” etc.). For others it refers to structured patterns of liturgy and worship in which the people say and do certain things at certain specified times. For others, it means fixed and rigid rules for behavior. Still others speak of it as referring to a system of “earning your salvation,” and by this meaning doing enough good works to get into heaven. In none of these cases does it actually mean fundamentally what “religion” means. It only refers to someone else’s religion that the speaker doesn’t like. Everyone has a religion whether they think so or not. One’s religion may be atheism, but that is still their belief about God. Everyone has systems of belief or practice whether they use a historic liturgy to shape worship or think everything in worship is spontaneous (even though the “spontaneity” routinely uses the same limited set of elements).

My heart and motivation here is three fold.

First, rather simply, using the term “religion” as a “bad word” is offensive to a lot of people in the Body of Christ who value and treasure their religion (i.e. their faith in God, their beliefs and practices). For many people, using the term “religion” negatively is entirely outside their frame of reference. Its use is thus not helpful in fostering love and unity between various streams within the Church. My hope is that a growing love for the whole Church and a hunger for its visible unity will lead to tempered speech and ultimately an affectionate engagement with one another.

Second, it is not the most helpful way of communicating, and can lead to confusion amongst growing believers. Since the meaning generally depends upon the speaker, and the word is being used in a non-standard manner, it could have a whole range of meanings which are generally unclear to the hearer.

Third, I am concerned about a growing trend in Western Christianity, in which neo-romantic, existentialist and post-modern ideas are being confused as Christianity. Some of these ideas are not necessarily anti-Christian (some are), but they should not be confused as being one and the same. Namely, I am referring to an ideal of self-determination and self-expression without any external restrictions, structure or authority. I am free to be who I am with no restraints. This can sound and look Christian, but should ultimately been seen for what it is  – the spirit of the age (idolatry), a conglomeration of various nineteenth and twentieth century philosophies (for more on this click here).

Remarkably, the Bible itself speaks very positively about “religion” (as defined in the dictionary). Here are just a few examples:

1) God is the kind of person who establishes systems, forms, patterns, procedures, places and regulations for worship and gives extensive guidelines for behavior (Heb. 9:1-4). Check Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy for this one. Even if we pull a “we’re in the New Testament now, not in the Old,” besides the fact that I don’t have clue what that possibly means, God is the same god yesterday, today and forever. He didn’t try “religion” for a while and then give up on it and become a free-spirited neo-romantic existentialist, giving everyone freedom in the New Testament.

2) Daniel had set times for prayer each day (Daniel 6:10), as did the Psalmist (Psalm 119:164)

3) Jesus, in order to teach his disciples how to pray, gave them a standardized written form of prayer. While often understood as merely “a list of topics,” Jesus was simply doing what many other Rabbis during that period of time had done – taught his disciples a specific prayer they could memorize and pray.

4) Jesus participated in the liturgical synagogue worship (Luke 4:18ff). Rabbinic literature from about a century or two later explains that the person who read the “haftorah” portion of Scripture (i.e., the prophets), would also to some extent preside over the liturgy and prayers. If this tradition was in effect at the time of Jesus, he may have fulfilled this capacity. Additionally, the fact that he was known and trusted by the leaders in the synagogue to read the Scripture and give the subsequent address very likely means he participated in the services and possibly in this role quite regularly.

5) The early apostles participated in the liturgical worship life of temple/synagogue (Luke 24:53; Acts 2:42 (the prayers); 3:1; 16:6. Notably, this continues after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Of note is that in Acts 2:42, in the description of the life of the early apostolic community, it says they committed themselves to “the prayers.” Not every translation includes the definite article, but it is surely there in the Greek text. This means the apostolic community did not simply value something called “prayer,” but they joined themselves to “the prayers,” namely, the liturgical prayer services of the temple and synagogue.

6) The early church established rituals (baptism and the Lord’s Supper) – cf. 1 Cor. 11 – the Lord’s Supper was not just a meal they shared, it was a distinct ritual by the time Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. This is seen in that Paul makes a distinction between the “meal” and the “Lord’s Supper.” There was something specific about the Lord’s Supper that was above and beyond simply sharing a meal together. If the evidence we have from the early and mid second century is anything reflective of the practices of the early church (I’m going to put my money on that they were closer to the apostles than we are 19 centuries later), this was specific and structured ritual which was central to Christian worship.

7) Paul thought the Law (i.e., the contents of the regulations for behavior and worship) was holy, just and good (Rom. 7:12) as well as spiritual (7:14)

8 ) Paul and James use the term “religion” in a clearly positive sense:

1Tim. 3:16 Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great:  He was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels,  proclaimed among Gentiles,   believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.

James 1:26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.  27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

9) Paul has creedal-like statements that systematize belief. These beliefs were requisite on all (cf. 1 Cor. 15:3-8; 1 Tim. 3:16)

All in all, I am proposing the following:

-We cannot continue using the term “religion” in the jargonistic negative fashion described above. We are using it to describe what the word itself does not mean in normal usage, so one needs to understand each person’s usage in order to understand them. It is a useless word if it doesn’t communicate. Let’s just say what we mean in each instance.

-We must stop categorically judging other religious traditions and streams within Christianity, especially with a catch-all label of “religious.” To some people it is a given that “the traditional church” is completely dead and all of their “forms of religion” need to go out the window. This is an example of pride to the hilt. I appreciate that you may have ways you wish to personally express your faith and work it out in community. Please, however, do not imagine you possess the right, duty or ability to single handedly judge 1800 years of church history and tradition, as well as the majority of Christians worldwide (and incidentally the majority of charismatic/Pentecostal believers worldwide) who are Roman Catholic. Until you can worship alongside them, love them and pray for them, please refrain from critiquing them. For others, any type of spirituality that doesn’t give them complete and total freedom of expression to do whatever whenever is “religion.” Actually, you are manifesting a massive problem with authority that needs to be named and owned. Please repent.

-Let’s find alternate ways of talking about what we actually mean when we use the term “religion.” Here I have four proposed terms to at least begin discussion:

-religiosity – the suffix at the end of the word “religion” now gives it the meaning “excessively religious, often for its own sake.” Religiousness will not really do because that simply means someone is religious. According to our definitions above, this cannot in itself be a bad thing.

-legalistic – here’s where the excessive and unbalanced emphasis on laws comes in, particularly if one thinks they need to get “good enough” for God through them.

-formalism – when certain modes of worship are used for their own sake, not because they lead one to God. This one can get tricky, because to use your standards of worship to judge another’s can lead to great misunderstanding and sinful judgment.

-will-worship – I first saw this term used by Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline. It means essentially, to worship your will power – to believe that strenuous effort will in itself produce spiritual growth. It gives priority to my exertion over trust in God.

I would appreciate any further contribution to this discussion, along with suggestions on how we can accurately discuss problems we identify, without falling headlong into name-calling and unrighteous judgement.

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It is not so much sin that plunges us into disaster, as rather despair (John Chrysostom)

Revelation 21:7-8 – “The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. ⁸But as for the cowardly (timid, fearful), the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

“That which leads people to sin, seems not only to be a sin itself, but a source of sins. Now such is despair, for the Apostle says of certain men (Eph. 4:19): “Who, despairing, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, unto the working of all uncleanness and covetousness.” Therefore despair is not only a sin but also the origin of other sins.” Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica 2.20

The Lord is wanting to confront the sin of despair. This woeful resignation to the status quo, this reconciliation with the deplorable condition of the present world order, is like a cancer in individuals and communities. Despair (with its corresponding lack of vibrant hope) destroys the uplifting, forward-looking, revolutionary aspects of the Christian eschatology and replaces it with an insipid acceptance of what is. “Whatever shall be shall be” becomes the mantra of a hope-less Christianity.  We guard our hearts from the pain of disappointment and disillusionment by burying our hopes under the spiritual guise of “contentment” or the philosophical guise of “realism.”

In such despair, especially when theologically or spiritually justified, we testify to a God who is not powerful, not loving, not faithful and not near. He is powerless in the face of the overwhelming forces of the present world. He does not care enough about humanity to create and lead us into a reality different than the present world of suffering. He is not faithful to come through to all the dramatic and seemingly “unrealistic” promises given in the Scripture. He is not near –he is so far off and disconnected to even consider the plight of fallen humanity.

In the name of “realism” we join with Camus in his goal of “thinking clearly and hoping no more.” To think clearly, to adequately assess our situation is to not hope for very much, to expect very little, to reconcile ourselves with the way all currently exists – to rescind to a “utopia of the status quo.” We then develop theological reasons as to why every bad event occurs. We do this in order to guard ourselves from the terrifying realization of the person we perceive God to be, or what kind of person to which the unfolding of history testifies. If there is not some “higher divine reason” for all the bane and blight of my life, and indeed the universal suffering around the world which at times becomes sickeningly grotesque and wicked, then there is no other conclusion to come to than that God is some combination of weak, cold, unfaithful and distant.

Such an admission would be so painful to the core of our being that we would rather live in the depression of theological despair. Everything is thus thought to be the way it was meant to be. Every act of evil, every event of suffering is thought as God giving to us as a wonderful and precious gift. In doing so, we move the conflict and tension from between our witness to the Kingdom and the contradictory present existing reality and make it into a conflict within God – God has two “wills” – he says he is the source of a good and perfect gifts, but then seems to be the source of all evil as well.

When we reconcile ourselves with the way things are, when we passively comply to a “utopia of the status quo,” nothing is required of us. We are never called up into anything great and grand, nothing other that which is and that which we already are. We never feel the need to embrace a valiance that shapes our present world by the power of the Gospel and the life of the Spirit.

We give up and give in. We surrender to the powers that be. In doing so we give credence and even allegiance to the powers of this age. We live safe lives, marked by mediocrity, complacency and dull indifference. With resignation we accept what is, while the Spirit is calling us up into something greater.

While “hoping no more” may sound like “thinking clearly” to Camus, an atheistic existentialist, for a Christian such borders on insanity if we take the testimony of Scripture to be serious. We do not need to give theological justification, and thereby give a state of permanence to the “sufferings of the present age.” We should not ask, in all things, “why did this happen?” Rather, we can answer the question Scripture does: “what will happen?” We then proclaim the Christian hope over and against the darkness of the present.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship. ²Do not conform to the pattern of this world [age], but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:1-2

Throughout Romans, Paul has been calling the people to understand the work of new covenant and New Creation that God is effecting in Jesus. He is the New Adam. He breaks our solidarity with the family of Adam and the reign of sin and death that it entails (Romans 5:14ff). We are members of family of the Messiah, who frees humans from the powers of this age (Romans 6) and will one day liberate the entire creation from the curse of the fall (Romans 8:19ff).

In this famous passage, Paul urges the people that the manner in which we serve God in the present time is by living in non-conformity with the present age. The common translation “do not be conformed to the ways of the world” means literally, “this age,” the present evil age of sin, suffering, sickness and death. The way to offer our lives to God in light of His mercy is not to accept all that is, but to live in resistance to it, to refuse to go along with the sin, death and suffering that so often prevails. This begins with our personal lives but immediately then moves outward as the remain thrust of Paul’s letter the Romans focuses on the implications of thus in how one lives in community.

Hope as Theology of Resistance

“The messianic hope can act in two opposite directions.  It can draw the hearts of men and women away from the present into the future.  Then it makes life in the present empty, and action in the present empty – and of course suffering over present oppression too.  But it can also make the future of the messiah present, and fill that present with the consolation and happiness of the approaching God.  In this case what the messianic idea enforces is the very opposite of ‘deferred life’.  It is life in anticipation, in which everything must already be done and accomplished in a way that is final, because the kingdom of God in its messianic form is already ‘nigh’”[1]

The presence of the Messiah’s future also brings an awakened sense of the contradiction between that future and the brutal darkness of the present. Rather than minimize the tension, the brilliant colors of Messiah’s dawning reign bring the darkness of the present into sharper contrast. That evil which we had grown accustomed and indifferent to is now manifest as viciously unnatural and grotesque. After we encounter the resurrected Messiah, we cease seeing injustice as a social phenomenon, death as a phase of life and suffering as our inevitable lot. We see them as in opposition to God’s kingdom and as a betrayal of the Father’s name.[2]

Thus while in one sense, hope is a stabilizing force in our lives, empowering us through difficult circumstances, at the same time hope is a de-stabilizing force. Hope draws believers into the contradiction between the Kingdom of God and the anti-kingdom and issues forth from the deep heart as a protest against suffering, sin, injustice and death.

“If Paul calls death the ‘last enemy’ (1 Cor. 15:26), then the opposite is also true: that the risen Christ, and with him the resurrection hope, must be declared to be the enemy of death and of a world that puts up with death. Faith takes up this contradiction and thus becomes itself a contradiction to the world of death. That is why faith, wherever it develops into hope, causes not rest but unrest, not patience but impatience. It does not calm the unquiet heart, but is itself this unquiet heart in man. Those who hope in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is, but begin to suffer under it, to contradict it. Peace with God means conflict with the world, for the goad of the promise future stabs inexorably into the flesh of every unfulfilled present.”[3]

To live in this contradiction by nature brings with it the experience of deep and profound pain, because we open ourselves to the concrete suffering and evil that pervades our age, the groan of creation and the tragedy of God in the midst of it.

This inexplicable mourning is not despair. Despair leads to reconciliation with that which is opposed to God’s Reign, the anti-kingdom. The acknowledgment of pain maintains the presence of the contradiction. If all is as it is supposed to be, there is no pain. Hence the presence of pain indicates the presence of at least an incipient resistance against darkness. It is by hope that we remain unreconciled to the world and yet maintain an “unresolved openness to the world” “until the great day of the fulfillment of all the promises of God.”[4]

[2] Carlos Bravo, “Jesus of Nazareth, Christ the Liberator,” in Systematic Theology, ed. Jon Sobrino and Ignacio Ellacuria (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996), 106.

[3] Jurgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope, 21.

[4] ibid, 22.

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• Jesus the Crucified and Resurrected Lord Part 2 (0)
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In the atmosphere of contemporary Western Christianity, when someone voices a lament with the intensity frequently found in the Psalms, it is not uncommon for them to be looked at aghast or derided for their deficient faith and concept of God, which has produced such a so-called absence of trust. “If you really knew who God was,” they might say (or one might tell themselves), “you wouldn’t feel this way.” Yet when we look to the Psalms themselves, it is indeed the biblical and thoroughly Hebrew concept of God which provides fertile ground for the most poignant and unsettling of complaints. That our concept of God results in a lament-less spirituality, while the Hebrew faith invariably gives rise to lament, should indict us of our own deficient concept of God.

Allow me to illustrate.

Verses 1-13 of Psalm 10 voices a gut-wrenching cry to God, including the charges that

• God is standing far off (v. 1)
• He is hiding (v. 1)
• He is not lifting a finger to help us (v. 12)
• He is forgetting the afflicted (v. 12)

These near blasphemous claims, to a Western Christian, would obviously arise from a lack of understanding concerning God’s sovereignty (he is in total control), omnipresence (he can’t technically be “far off”), and omniscience (he can’t forget). Yet, these complaints do arise from a concept of God, albeit, a somewhat different one. Verses 14-18 give the justification, the rationale so-to-speak, for verses 1-13.

• He sees, specifically trouble and grief (v. 14) – a corollary would be that he identifies such as trouble and grief, not as a “blessing in disguise”
• The purpose of his “seeing” is not an abstract omniscience, but “so that you might take it into your hands” – i.e., act on behalf of the afflicted
• He is the helper of orphans – he helps the helpless (v. 14)
• He is King (v. 16)
• He he hears the desires of the afflicted (v. 17)
• God hears in order “to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed” – he is a God of justice who vindicates the downtrodden (v. 18)

Interestingly, the notion that “God is King” (v. 16), which is essentially what the concept of “sovereignty” means (i.e., God is the “sovereign,” the king), does not produce an apathetic acquiescence to divine pre-determination as it so frequently does in Western Christianity. Rather, it undergirds a cry for God to change what he is doing–don’t sit there continuing to do nothing – get up, lift your hand to help us! The Western deterministic concept of God (God determines how every event unfolds) leads us not to lament in the face of suffering, but to “trust” God in all things, that is, accept everything that happens, good or bad, as a blessing from God. After all, since he is all-knowing, he knows better than our limited understanding. Yet the Hebrew concept of sovereignty (God is King), or divine omniscience (he sees and hears all things), does not produce an acceptance of everything that happens (including evil), but rather, a resistance of all we know to contradict God’s revealed nature. God is the helper of orphans, therefore I cannot reconcile myself with any event, circumstance or person that promotes evil, hatred and violence towards people God loves. While faith can stabilize us in perseverance towards God’s yet unfinished future, true biblical faith refuses to ignore the open wound of humanity in the name of any theological construct, but rather suffers under it. In anticipation of God’s faithfulness to his Word and revealed character, faith and hope rejects any conciliation with a world marred by sin and death. In such we lament – with a cry both loud and strong, bearing an inexplicable mourning as we await, with all the saints and the entire creation, the future of God’s faithfulness.

While the Psalms abound with such examples, one further illustration could be taken from Psalm 74. Here the lament includes:

• God has rejected us (v. 1)
• His anger smokes against us (v. 1)
• God has not remembered us (v. 2)
• Our land has become a perpetual ruin (v. 3)
• Our adversaries have roared in our midst (v. 4)
• God is holding back his hand (v. 11)
• God is keeping his hand in his bosom (v. 12)

In verses 12-17, the mood seems to completely change, recounting the history of God’s mighty acts:

• God is King (i.e., “sovereign”) (v. 12)
• He works salvation and deliverance for his people (v. 12)
• He divided the Red Sea to save his people (v. 13)
• He destroyed the enemies of his people (v. 14)
• He is the mighty creator (vv. 16-17)

This kind of belief in God – a confession of God’s mighty deeds – the Hebrew concept of God – does not reduce the lament. It does not invalidate the previous expression of sorrow. Neither does it produce a response of apathy like “well now this is true, we have nothing to worry about” (and nothing to care about either). Rather, verses 18 and following of the Psalm go back into lament, pleading with God to act and not forget those who are oppressed as targets of violence. In all, this pattern we see in the Psalms should tweak the way we neatly package God in theological terms bearing the prefix “omni” or any other prefix for that matter. The God of the Bible is the God Who Acts, specifically on behalf of his people. He is the God of Justice. When these dear beliefs are contradicted, we do not sink into the swamp of apathetic malaise which we can call “trust” if we are so inclined. Rather, we allow a cry to well up from the depths – a shattering protest and earnest appeal, mourning the absence of this God of Justice. All is not well, all is not okay, and in such we feel, and feel deeply. This pain of godforsakenness is not a wonderful place to be. However, I would much rather be there, than in the catatonia of a faith that shuts its eyes to trouble and misery and closes its ears to the cries of the afflicted, rattling off some theological platitude in the stead of sorrow. For in the agonizing depths of godforsakenness, the crucified Jesus is always present – suffering with us – our friend and companion in grief.

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• Being a Prophetic Voice in Times of Disaster (4)
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Whenever there are times of great difficulty, pain or suffering, we naturally ask God questions. I once heard someone remark that in a certain instance people were “asking God the wrong questions.” The notion of asking God the “wrong question” struck me, so I made a quick breeze through the Psalms exploring what the God-inspired Scripture indicates are the “right questions” to ask God. The “right questions” might shock the refined sensibilities of affluent Western (i.e., quasi-gnostic, quasi-Victorian) spirituality. I’ve often heard that when going through a difficulty the right question to ask God is “what are you teaching me through this trial?” Strangely, I did not find that one in the Psalms. The Psalmists are rather uninhibited in their gritty and unvarnished processing of pain before God. Granted, these questions are not the entirety of this process. But they are where the process must start. Giving an answer is a meaningless abstraction apart from the concrete and often disconcerting question to which it corresponds. Comfort that denies the problem is merely delusion. The Psalmist does not simply “surrender to the sovereignty of God” or “discern what God is trying to teach.” The right question is the question that allows the full release of lamentation which is lodged in the soul whether it is expressed or not. Failure to express such reality only brings our relationship with God into the placid oblivion of unreality. The honesty modeled in the Psalms is the gateway into a deeper relationship with God and true Biblical spirituality.

My soul also is struck with terror, while you, O LORD—how long?

For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who can give you praise?

Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

Why do the wicked renounce God, and say in their hearts, “You will not call us to account”?

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?

“What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?

How long, O LORD, will you look on? Rescue me from their ravages, my life from the lions!

I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?”

For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you cast me off? Why must I walk about mournfully because of the oppression of the enemy?

Have you not rejected us, O God?

O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?

How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?

“Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?
Has his steadfast love ceased forever? Are his promises at an end for all time?
Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah

How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?

Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes.

O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?

Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you?

Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you? Selah
Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness?

O LORD, why do you cast me off? Why do you hide your face from me?

How long, O LORD? Will you hide yourself forever? How long will your wrath burn like fire?

Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?

Have you not rejected us, O God?

My eyes fail with watching for your promise; I ask, “When will you comfort me?”

How long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me?

(Psalm 6:3, 5; 10:1, 13; 13:1; 22:1; 30:9; 35:17; 42:9; 43:2; 60:10; 74:1; 74:10, 11; 77:7-9; 79:5, 10; 80:4; 85:5-6; 88:10-12, 14; 89:46, 49; 108:11; 119:82, 84)

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The most significant aspect of being a prophetic voice is deeply knowing and clearly articulating the heart of God.

From the time when a major natural disaster strikes, one can hold their breath until people have quickly announced that such a tragedy (which incidentally, happened in a place far, far away and did not remotely touch the speaker) was the direct judgement of God for this or that act of wickedness. This decree is usually accompanied by a montage of clippings from the Old Testament prophets, explaining how such is surely the case. However, it strikes me that there is a tremendous difference between repeating the words of the prophets and embodying the lifestyle and heart of the prophet, no less going on the journey with God of compassionate solidarity with the those who are now suffering. The former seems fairly easier and a trifle more convenient than the latter.

Consider this excerpt from Jeremiah, which is rarely used in such a prophetic montage:

My sorrow is beyond healing, my heart is faint within me! Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not within her…Harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken; I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored? Oh that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! (Jeremiah 8:18-9:1)

Or this:

Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter—my people—is struck down with a crushing blow, with a very grievous wound. If I go out into the field, look—those killed by the sword! And if I enter the city, look—those sick with famine! (Jeremiah 14:17-18)

Or this one from Lamentations:

For these things I weep; my eyes run down with water; because far from me is a comforter, one who restores my soul. My children are desolate because the enemy has prevailed. Zion stretches out her hands; There is no one to comfort her…” (Lam. 1:16)

Each of these passages deals with a situation in which the suffering is clearly caused by a judgement of the Lord and was directly related to the sin of the people. Yet consider how the prophet speaks – not as an outsider standing on moral high ground. Not as a detached arbiter of divine knowledge. Not as a coveted source of clarity. Rather, they speak primarily as those who mourn. They speak of “my people.” They cry out in bitterness of soul. They identify themselves as among those who suffer. The prophet only speaks in compassionate solidarity with the suffering. From a privileged vantage point the “wise men” claim to give counsel. They announce that all is in fact well. But Jeremiah rebukes them saying, “They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. (Jer. 8:11)” Those who lounge in affluence and with dry eyes declare that a disaster is in fact a blessing (peace, peace – this is a good thing), have more in common with Jeremiah’s enemies than Jeremiah himself, even though they might quote his writings. They also have more in common with those asking Jesus to explain whose sin caused certain suffering (John 9), rather than Jesus himself, the ultimate prophet, who in response to suffering “bore our griefs and carried our sorrows,” making the ultimate act of sympathetic identification with us by enduring crucifixion and through his resurrection, opened the way for suffering to be overcome. It is much easier to sound like a prophet, then to have the quality of soul a prophet possesses, which feels deeply for the suffering and leads one to suffer alongside them.

To help discern one’s readiness to be a prophetic voice in times of disaster, I’ve come up with a check list:

• If your first thought when a disaster strikes, is a one sentence explanation that allows your life to largely remain undisrupted, you are probably not a prophetic voice.
• If your first thought when a disaster strikes, is to figure out what horrible sin the area affected was committing, you are probably not a prophetic voice.
• If your first thought when a disaster strikes is anything other than broken-hearted compassion, you are probably not a prophetic voice.
• If you have not even skipped one meal between the time of the disaster and your pronouncement, you are probably not a prophetic voice.
• If you are emotionally unaffected by the suffering of people whom God loves, you are probably not a prophetic voice and are likely in a seriously sinful state of hardness of heart.
• If you find yourself talking about “them,” you are probably not a prophetic voice.
• If you think it is good that “they” finally learned about the “futility of man,” you are probably not a prophetic voice.
• If your prayers do not sound like the book of Lamentations, you a probably not a prophetic voice.
• If your eyes are dry and heart unmoved, yet you can manage to have enough “insight” and moral high ground to size up the situation, your soul is in grave danger.
• If you have no input or role to actually help the people in the disaster make sense of the situation, yet you feel compelled to neatly explain the situation in trite one-liners, not only are you certainly not a prophetic voice, but you need to take serious stock of your motives.

The question is, why would someone who has no voice or opportunity to help the actual people in crisis make sense of their situation, feel compelled to conceptually solve the problem? The answer cannot be altruistic concern, because by nature of their location and reach, their explanation cannot be of help to them. They are not a prophetic voice in the situation merely in light of their geographic proximity or lack thereof. So why do people feel so great an urge to explain such occurrences? Who does such an answer help? The only solution I can discern is this impulse comes from one’s own unsettled heart and the desire to assuage it. These answers serve to help ourselves. We all have “small-scale” issues of pain and suffering – a failed relationship, a moral deficiency, financial uncertainty, an abusive past, insecurities, fears, disappointments and regrets. The pain we experience from these are often strong enough to drive us to utter despair. Christians will frequently use trite explanations to eliminate this emotional upheaval – God caused this trial to teach me a lesson, or to test my faith, God is setting me up for an even greater blessing down the road, God is letting me go through this so I can relate to others and reach out to them, God is preparing me for my calling, or the tribulation, etc. These easy explanations help turn a painful experience into one that is apparently not so painful. The once-thought tragedies are actually a blessing-in-disguise. Thus the “explanations” help us maintain an even-keel status quo of emotional stability. In essence they serve to anesthetize the pains of life so we can continue to give off the image that we mostly “have it together.”

But suddenly something extremely terrible happens. Intuitively we know that things are amiss. The impropriety of our rabid and de-humanizing anesthetizing is exposed and so rises the utter need – the compulsion – the addiction – to apply the same logic we used for ourselves on a massive scale. That is the only way we can continue to justify our state. This disaster is truly a blessing because now people will turn to God and be saved. This disaster is truly a blessing because the “pride of man” is being revealed. This disaster is truly a blessing because it is better to suffer now than in hell. But this explanation-addiction does not arise from a compassionate solidarity with those in suffering, such as characterized weeping Jeremiah or the crucified Jesus. Rather, it comes from the selfish desire to maintain a status-quo in which we narcissistically can continue in our mental and emotional sanity and perpetuate the delusional image of our non-savior-needing state. Jesus did not respond to suffering with cliches – he responded by suffering and dying for those in need. The apostle Paul tells us the Christian response to the groaning of the entire creation – the sufferings of the present time – is groanings that are inexpressible (Romans 8:26).

To me it seems likely the reason we so often respond to the sufferings of others with obtuse cliches, is because we respond to our own suffering with cliches. We cannot feel the compassion of God for the hurting, because the god we worship does not have compassionate solidarity with us. He despises and scorns us in our suffering, giving us explanations rather than friendship. How radically different is the true God revealed in the Bible. In all our afflictions, he is afflicted (Isa. 63:7). He truly is the one who weeps with those who weep. His compassions (literally in Hebrew the feelings a mother has for those in her womb) are over all that He has made. In the midst of a world marred by suffering and grief, where is God? In your deepest pain, loneliness and sorrow where is God? He is not far away, untouchable off in his heaven. No, he is among us, suffering with us. The presence of the Holy Spirit is himself an inexpressible groaning within us, suffering alongside us (Rom. 8:26), reminding us of how the crucified Lord drew near to our pain in the deepest way. We do not have a great high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who became like his brothers and sisters in every way. He knows us. He is with us. He has drawn near, in the depths of our darkest despair.

The Scripture gives us clear precedent in the prophets for moments when an explanation for a crisis is given by direct revelation. The Scripture also tells us that before the coming of the Lord there will be untold upheaval like the world has never seen. However, this does not require us to give an explanation for all suffering out of a selfish desire to remain in denial about our own pain. Indeed, if we might even purpose at one time to give that explanation to a world in desperate need, our central concern in the present must be to become the kind of person God would want to give such a message, someone who enters into compassionate solidarity with the suffering, someone whose life has been conformed in passionate likeness to the crucified Lord.

As I have been thinking about this, I find myself remarkably convicted. I see my own dearth of compassion and my need to draw near to the crucified Lord and hear his heart – to know him in an ever deeper way. What capacity of soul drove the Lord of Heaven to endure such shame and ignominy, such rejection and abandonment, by the world he fashioned with love, by his people Israel, by his closest friends, and by His very own Father? What depth of compassion courses through his veins? What manner of self-giving consumes such a one that does not scorn the sufferings of my pathetic state and bows so low to be near me, to know me in my deepest pain? I find myself wanting to be a prophetic voice, yet reduced to silence as I sense the inexpressible groanings in solidarity with the travail of creation ever so subtly begin to emerge within my soul.

Holy God

Holy and Mighty

Holy Immortal One

Have mercy upon us.

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If you like music to meditate, pray or simply rest to, this is the best one I’ve found. It is simple and serene, a masterpiece by one of the twentieth century’s greatest (IMHO) classical composers, Arvo Pärt. He is an Eastern Orthodox believer from Estonia and spent a long season of his life in contemplative quiet, seeking the Lord and studying Gregorian chant and other early music. After he emerged from this period, his music had been remarkably transformed, the music of his former period unrecognizable in comparison. He now wrote in a style termed “mystic minimalism,” a description also applied to Christian composers such as John Tavener and Henryk Górecki (whose works are also well worth exploring).

The CD is entitled “Alina” and is a five track disc with two of Pärt’s works, repeated interlocking each other (Spiegel im Spiegel three times, Fur Alina twice). Each time a piece is repeated it is an entirely different performance played with different nuances. The end result is work of exquisite beauty and simplicity. As I’ve listened to it at home, I feel such a stillness in my soul, an ability to dial down and connect with God. To me it is by far and away, the best CD for prayer/meditation/soaking I’ve ever heard.

The album cover below is linked to its respective page on Amazon.com for more info.

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Love of God is not something that can be taught. We did not learn from someone else how to rejoice in light or want to live, or to love our parents or guardians. It is the same – perhaps even more so – with our love for God: it does not come by another’s teaching. As soon as the living creature (that is, a human) comes to be, a power of reason is implanted in us like a seed, containing within it the ability and the need to love. When the school of God’s law admits this power of reason, it cultivates it diligently, skilfully nurtures it, and with God’s help brings it to perfection.

For this reason, as by God’s gift, I find you with the zeal necessary to attain this end, and you on your part help me with your prayers. I will try to fan into flame the spark of divine love that is hidden within you, as far as I am able through the power of the Holy Spirit.

First, let me say that we have already received from God the ability to fulfill all his commands. We have then no reason to resent them, as if something beyond our capacity were being asked of us. We have no reason either to be angry, as if we had to pay back more than we had received. When we use this ability in a right and fitting way, we lead a life of virtue and holiness. But if we misuse it, we fall into sin.

This is the definition of sin: the misuse of powers given us by God for doing good, a use contrary to God’s commands. On the other hand, the virtue that God asks of us is the use of the same powers based on a good conscience in accordance with God’s command.

Since this is so, we can say the same about love. Since we received a command to love God, we possess from the first moment of our existence an innate power and ability to love. The proof of this is not to be sought outside ourselves, but each one can learn this from himself and in himself. It is natural for us to want things that are good and pleasing to the eye, even though at first different things seem beautiful and good to different people. In the same way, we love what is related to us or near to us, though we have not been taught to do so, and we spontaneously feel well disposed to our benefactors.

What, I ask, is more wonderful than the beauty of God? What thought is more pleasing and wonderful than God’s majesty? What desire is as urgent and overpowering as the desire implanted by God in a soul that is completely purified of sin and cries out in its love: I am wounded by love? The radiance of divine beauty is altogether beyond the power of words to describe.

From the Detailed Rules for Monks by St. Basil the Great, bishop

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Scripture speaks repeatedly of a coming “great reversal” when God will right all wrongs and heal all hurts – the justice or “righteousness of God.” This will affect all areas of life and society – ecological, agricultural, economic, political, physiological, relational, etc. The New Testament tells us this time of God’s favor, though remaining future, has mysteriously broken forth in the present: it has already begun through the life and ministry of Jesus as he healed the sick, raised the dead, cleansed the lepers, welcomed the outcasts and restored the penitent. This restorative nearness is consequently present through the life and ministry of those who follow in the faithfulness of Jesus (cf. Lk. 4:19; 2 Cor. 5:17-6:2). As we begin to taste tokens of this “righteousness of God,” and become agents of it in the lives of others, our hearts swell with hope, anticipation and inexpressible longing for the full advent of God’s Kingdom when the Messiah is fully manifest at his glorious appearing.

The following is simply a list of Bible quotations describing this “great reversal,” meant to fire the prophetic imagination, inspire hope and motivate further study, meditation, compassion and action based on their contents. It is by no means a comprehensive list, so if you have something to add, please mention it in the comments.

You raise up the poor from the dust and lift the needy from the ash heap (1 Samuel 2:7)

They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks (Isaiah 2)

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore (Isaiah 2)

You have shattered the yoke that burdened them, the collar that lay heavy on their shoulders (Isaiah 9)

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and leopard shall lie down with the kid (Isaiah 11)

The calf, the lion and the fatling together, with a little child to lead them (Isaiah 11)

They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain (Isaiah 11)

The Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of rich food, a feast of well-ages wine, of rich food full of marrow (Isaiah 25)

He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces (Isaiah 25)

the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth (Isaiah 25)

The wilderness and the dry land shall rejoice, the desert shall blossom and burst into song (Isaiah 35)

The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped (Isaiah 35)

The lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute shall sing for joy (Isaiah 35)

Waters shall break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert (Isaiah 35)

Joy and gladness shall overtake them, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away (Isaiah 35)

Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low (Isaiah 40)

The rough ground shall become level and the rugged places a plain (Isaiah 40)

Bring out the captives from the dungeon, from the prison, those who sit in darkness (Isaiah 42)

I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground (Isaiah 42)

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old (Isaiah 43)

Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it (Isaiah 43)

I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert (Isaiah 43)

…to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances (Isaiah 49)

to say to the captives, “Come out,” and say to those in darkness, “Be free.” (Isaiah 49)

They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill (Isaiah 49)

They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them (Isaiah 49)

I will turn all my mountains into roads and my highways will be raised up (Isaiah 49)

The LORD will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places. (Isaiah 51)

her wilderness He will make like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the LORD (Isaiah 51)

the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing (Isaiah 55)

all the trees of the field shall clap their hands (Isaiah 55)

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle (Isaiah 55)

Violence will no more be heard in your land, ruin or destruction within your borders (Isaiah 60)

He has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted (Isaiah 61)

To proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound (Isaiah 61)

To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Isaiah 61)

To give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit (Isaiah 61)

They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. (Isaiah 61)

You shall no more by termed Forsaken and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you will be called “My Delight is in Her” (Isaiah 62)

I am creating a new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind (Isaiah 65)

No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress (Isaiah 65)

The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox (Isaiah 65)

I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow (Jeremiah 31)

I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety (Hosea 2)

Do not be afraid, you wild animals, for the pastures in the wilderness are becoming green. The trees are bearing their fruit;   the fig tree and the vine yield their riches. (Joel 2)

The threshing floors will be filled with grain; the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. (Joel 2)

And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine,  the hills shall flow with milk, and all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water;  A fountain shall flow from the house of the LORD and water the Valley of Acacias. (Joel 3)

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the one who plows and the planter by the one treading grapes. (Amos 9)

New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, (Amos 9)

They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. (Amos 9)

I will gather those of you who mourn, so that you will no longer suffer reproach (Zephaniah 3)

I will deal with all your oppressors, I will save the lame and gather the outcast (Zephaniah 3)

I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth (Zephaniah 3)

I will take away the chariots and the war horses, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations (Zechariah 9)

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. (Psalm 68)

God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing  (Psalm 68)

The LORD upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. (Psalm 145)

[the Lord] executes justice for the oppressed; and gives food to the hungry. (Psalm 146)

The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. (Psalm 146)

The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. (Psalm 146)

The poor will receive the kingdom (Matthew 5)

Those who mourn will be comforted (Matthew 5)

Those who are lowly will inherit the earth (Matthew 5)

Those who hunger for justice will be satisfied (Matthew 5)

Those who are persecuted will receive the kingdom (Matthew 5)

…the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them (Matthew 11)

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly (Luke 1)

He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty (Luke 1)

In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us (Luke 1)

To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace (Luke 1)

Just as one trespass led to condemnation for all, so one vindication [the resurrection of Jesus] leads to the rectification of life for all (Romans 5)

Where sin abounded, grace abounds all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life (Romans 5)

…in hope that the creation itself will be set free from the bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8

…he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet (1 Cor. 15)

The last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Cor. 15)

…this corruption must put on incorruption, and this mortality must put on immortality… (1 Cor. 15)

…then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15)

He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more (Rev. 21)

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away (Rev. 21)

No longer will there be any curse (Rev. 22)

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Christ is bathed in light; let us also be bathed in light. Christ is baptised; let us also go down with him, and rise with him.

John is baptising when Jesus draws near. Perhaps he comes to sanctify his baptiser; certainly he comes to bury sinful humanity in the waters. He comes to sanctify the Jordan for our sake and in readiness for us; he who is spirit and flesh comes to begin a new creation through the Spirit and water.

The Baptist protests; Jesus insists. Then John says: I ought to be baptised by you. He is the lamp in the presence of the sun, the voice in the presence of the Word, the friend in the presence of the Bridegroom, the greatest of all born of woman in the presence of the firstborn of all creation, the one who leapt in his mother’s womb in the presence of him who was adored in the womb, the forerunner and future forerunner in the presence of him who has already come and is to come again. I ought to be baptised by you: we should also add, “and for you,” for John is to be baptised in blood, washed clean like Peter, not only by the washing of his feet.

Jesus rises from the waters; the world rises with him. The heavens, like Paradise with its flaming sword, closed by Adam for himself and his descendants, are rent open. The Spirit comes to him as to an equal, bearing witness to his Godhead. A voice bears witness to him from heaven, his place of origin. The Spirit descends in bodily form like the dove that so long ago announced the ending of the flood and so gives honour to the body that is one with God.

Today let us do honour to Christ’s baptism and celebrate this feast in holiness. Be cleansed entirely and continue to be cleansed. Nothing gives such pleasure to God as the conversion and salvation of men, for whom his every word and every revelation exist. He wants you to become a living force for all humankind, lights shining in the world. You are to be radiant lights as you stand beside Christ, the great light, bathed in the glory of him who is the light of heaven. You are to enjoy more and more the pure and dazzling light of the Trinity, as now you have received – though not in its fullness – a ray of its splendour, proceeding from the one God, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.

From a sermon by St Gregory Nazianzen

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Among Evangelical and Charismatic Christians, reactions to liturgical aspects of worship and prayer vary greatly from intrigue, to delight, to bewilderment, to straight up scoffing. This series will attempt to explain some of the reasons behind liturgical prayer aimed at people with little or no (positive) experience with it, though ideally it will also be an encouragement to those already versed in such tradition. I will give lists of reasons for various aspects with (hopefully) brief explanations. Today we’ll look at written prayers, pre-written prayers that is. Many people have a hard time seeing why someone would ever want to repeat pre-written prayers as a part or even a significant part of one’s devotional life. Here’s a few thoughts, though by no means exhaustive:

1) They teach us how to pray – most people learned to write by copying letters printed in a book, or even tracing over them. We learned math by repeating “times tables” over and over until they were automatic. Using written prayers works in the same way. We “trace over” the prayers of the Saints, and over time, they become a part of us.

2) They “prime the pump” – written prayers solve the dilemma of what to say while praying. Instead staring off into space or daydreaming during our prayer time, we can “prime the pump” using written prayers to get us started.

3) They remind us what “we ought to pray” – when left to our own devices we could easily pray only for that which immediately concerns us, kind of like a “tyranny of the urgent,” only in prayer. As C.S. Lewis says, “The crisis of the present moment will always loom largest. Isn’t there a danger that our great, permanent, objective necessities—often more important—may get crowded out?”

4) They infuse our prayer life with rich biblical and theological content – My own spontaneous prayer can only possibly be filled with whatever biblical content I have in retrievable memory and am able to string together into coherent sentences on the fly. On my own, lets count on that being rather limited and as C.S. Lewis remarked, in danger of quickly dispersing into “wide and shallow puddles.” Written prayers make instantly accessible a rich depth of content in prayer without requiring the least bit of ingenuity on my part.

5) They connect us to the wider church, both geographically and historically – I can pray in unity with believers all over the world and throughout history by praying the same words with them.

6) They are time-tested – of course not all are, but many written prayers in historic liturgies are over a thousand years old. These have stuck around for reasons that are well worth exploring.

7) They are short and stay focused – this helps people engage with them over against the rambling or “stream-of-consciousness” praying that so often occurs when one person prays for a long time. So many topics are covered in no organized or coherent fashion that it is nearly impossible to stay connected. The other people attempting to pray often zone out because they can’t keep track of what is going on. Written prayers are shorter and to the point. They are unified around a coherent theme and with a specific objective. This helps either an individual or a group connect and agree with them.

8 ) They spare us from narcissism (i.e., idolatrous idiosyncrasy) – we naturally gravitate around our pet doctrines, ideas, passions, and concerns. We are certainly entitled to them. However, when we only entertain and accept our own premises, we are moving into dangerous ground. If prayer only bears the mark of my uniqueness, it may keep me locked up in the bubble of that same uniqueness. Written prayers call us out beyond the confines of our limited understanding and perspective, to a participation in the thoughts, issues and concerns of the wider church.

9) They are easy and accessible – no spiritual acumen is needed, no special experience, talents, gifts, anointings, or education, simply the ability to read. You can be a complete novice in prayer, or a veteran believer who is overwhelmed with frustration concerning their prayer life, and instantly access an incredibly rich prayer life. Written prayers are for everyone and accessible immediately.

10) They are unifying – Because they are so easy and accessible, they can be immediately unifying for people of all different “levels” in experience of prayer. Everyone is on an equal playing field. There are no “prayer experts” who must lead the way as the “novices” sit in befuddled silence. All engage, all participate, all are one.

11) They help us relax – It is remarkable how much anxiety people have about what and how they pray and worship, especially in public. With written prayers, all you have to do is say the words that are already given to you, with no other expectations. In other words you can spend less time worrying about what you are going to say, what other people are going to think about it, how to have a really good prayer, etc., and focus your energy on actually praying and connecting with God.

12) They teach us grace – this is ironic considering the frequent accusations of written prayers being stiff and “religious.” Written prayers teach us that prayer is about God and not about our effort. Many people try so hard to have a prayer life and feel so defeated. The Church’s treasury of written and liturgical prayer is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. It is sheer grace that we can have such an easy entry-point into prayer of unspeakable wealth and depth. Thus prayer is not so much about how disciplined, spiritual, discerning, passionate, contemplative, etc. we are – it is about God’s grace freely given to us who are in such desperate need.

I think in conclusion it is more than appropriate to end with a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, who pours out on all who desire it the spirit of grace and of supplication:  Deliver us, when we draw near to you, from coldness of heart and wanderings of mind, that with steadfast thoughts and kindled affections we may worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

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