"Lord I believe; help my unbelief." Mark 9

There are particular times and circumstances in life that find us in a prayerful state, whether or not we believe in prayer, whether or not we’ve resolved any of our issues with prayer. Wait! What do you mean, "whether or not we believe it, or we’ve resolved" it? Even though we live in a time of intense spiritual seeking the answers to timeless questions and assumptions about prayer are elusive. Does God hear our prayers? Does God even exist? Where is God today?

Sam Keen, theologian, psychologist, and pundit, found himself praying as his daughter sat watch beside a friend in a coma. Of that experience he wrote, "It is with some embarrassment that I admit that on certain occasions I have been unable to keep myself from praying. Like a shipwrecked sailor, I have hurled my petitions into the void…. I don’t believe in prayer. I only do it. Or perhaps it does me in spite of myself. I can’t make intellectual sense of prayer…."

He concludes, "Much as my mind rebelled against prayer, my spirit could not abide living in a world where science and self-sufficiency were the last word…. My spirit, like love, cannot be contained within the horizons of my mind. It soars above reason and swoops down into the chaos beneath rationality. It travels with its own passport and freely crosses the frontiers of the known and explainable world."

Richard Foster, a leading voice in spiritual disciplines, has a different take on prayer. He advises his readers, "As Christians we walk by faith, and faith and prayer are inseparable. Faith fuels prayer. Prayer expresses faith. The two are intertwined. Faith is not believing something. Faith is believing someone. So as you read this, take a minute right now and tell the King of Kings and Lord of Lords what is on your heart. Just trust Him, just trust Jesus."

If Keen and Foster represent opposite poles, where do you find yourselves? How do you have a meaningful inner life in dialogue with the Divine? Are you like Keen, praying even if you think you are not? Or, are you like Foster, intentionally praying to the One whom you trust? Or, is your form of prayer falling silent before beauty or majesty with a resounding "ahhh"? Do you pray when something good happens or if something truly bad has befallen? Or are you like the father who hears Jesus say that his son’s illness can only be resolved with prayer, and responds, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief"?

In nearly all religions, prayer is the bridge that unites the head and the heart with God in both silent prayer and in dialogue. Experiencing that union, neither God nor the one praying is an object; instead there is a genuine I-Thou encounter. In dialogue, human heart and holy heart open, grow together, and love is freely expressed, frailties shared, brokenness and separation confronted, sadness and grief comforted, and wrongdoings overcome. In silent prayer I-and-Thou listen for and sense each other in pure presence – no words, only the clearing of mind and soul, and the listening union of holy and human.

There is a place in Christian spiritual disciplines for diverse styles of prayer. Jesus encouraged the formulaic ‘Lord’s Prayer’ that has been repeated uncountable times for centuries. Ironically, typical "Protestants" think of such recitations as being so automatic and repetitious that they’ve lost meaning – a view based on Jesus’ condemnation of rote prayers, "When you pray, do not use vain repetitions, as the heathens do; for they think that they shall be heard for their many words" (Mt. 6:7). In typical "monastic" style, we think of the calm and centering that come with heartfelt repetitions that bring new insights. In typical "spiritual" style, we think of meditation, minds quieted, and the soul emptied of distractions and focused on internal consciousness. Of this style, there is a sweet Zen story about a pupil meditating near her master. One day she runs to the teacher exclaiming, "I just had a vision of a golden Buddha!" Without interrupting his consciousness the master replied, "Just keep meditating, it will go away."

In the forthcoming teachings on prayer we will focus on several thoughts about devotional practices that support a meaningful and sustaining inner life in dialogue with the Divine:

• First, authentic prayer, silent or dialogic, must come from a genuine I-Thou encounter. Prayer is a relationship that is all about presence not submission and domination.

• Second, when Jesus prayed, "Thy will be done," he taught us that prayer does not insist on its own way. And yet Jesus bids us to pray without ceasing and to ask for what we need.

• Third, authentic prayer is not groveling before God, nor self-humiliating. Prayer does not flatter God as if bolstering the Divine ego might help the cause.

• Fourth, prayer is honest, forthright, unflinching, and trusting, as between partners or very best friends who share the same concern, passion, and hope. Prayer does not have those qualities when it is treated like an order blank on a heavenly "e-bay".

I do not pretend to understand the mechanism of prayer, but I experience it as meaningful, centering, quieting, and heartful. Prayer is listening, and sensing, and communicating.

Whether I am speaking or listening or sensing, my prayers are somehow always a ‘Yes’ in the face of life’s ‘No’.

Whether speaking, listening, or sensing, prayer always seems to move me toward what I am to become and what I am to make of my life.

Curiously and most powerfully, prayer replaces the troubles in my soul. Prayer helps us empty ourselves of hatred and anger, impatience and self-righteousness, and the burdens of guilt and shame. I don’t know how it happens but the Spirit fills the vacuum left by the troubles that we pray about.

Rumi tells this story that gets right to the heart of prayer – silent or sensing or dialogic, intentional or habitual. "Moses once heard a shepherd praying, ‘O God, show me where Thou art, that I may become Thy servant. I will clean Thy shoes, and comb Thy hair, and sew Thy clothes and fetch thee milk.’ Moses rebuked the shepherd: ‘God is a spirit, and needs no such ministrations.’ Thereupon the shepherd rent his clothes in dismay and fled to the desert. Then Moses heard a voice from heaven, ‘O Moses, wherefore have you driven away my servant? I regard not the words that are spoken, but the heart that offers them.’"

As we begin this series, I hope you will sit this week with a few questions and sense where you are in relationship to prayer. There is a practice sheet in the entry hall to help guide you. As you are invited to a life of prayer:

• What is your style of prayer?

• How is it working for you?

• Do you feel that you have what you need to pray?

• Do you feel inadequate to pray?

• What helps, supports, encourages your prayer practices?

STANDING IN THE NEED OF PRAYER: A Reflection Guide for the Week (9/6/04)

Texts: Matthew 6:5-8 and Luke 11:9-13

Questions for Reflection AND Journaling:

What is my experience of prayer?

How is my life, thinking, working, relating to others different when I pray?

What is my style or range of prayers?

How is praying working for you?

What physical environment do I need for prayer?

What mental, emotional, and spiritual environments do I need to pray?

Do I feel adequate to pray – do I know how, am I worthy?

What are the things in your life that block your prayers?

What supports and encourages your desire to pray?

Where do you want to be in your prayer life?

What will it take to get there?

A Practice

A common prayer/meditation practice to open the heart and mind to a regular discipline of prayer and to the experience of God’s presence is the recitation of an Aramaic expression which means "Our Lord, come." The Aramaic word is Maranatha (pronounced, Mara – natha). The Benedictine monk, John Main offered the following directions for this practice. Try it for a week and each time, afterwards, sense what was happening to your mind, your body, your soul – make some notes in your journal so you have a benchmark.

Sit down. Sit still and upright. Close your eyes lightly. Sit relaxed by alert. Silently, interiorly begin to say…the prayer-word Maranatha. Recite it as four syllables of equal length, Ma – ra – na –tha. Listen to it as you say it, gently but continuously. Do not think or imagine anything, spiritual or otherwise. If thoughts and images come, these are distractions at the time of meditation, so keep returning to simply saying the word. Meditate each morning and evening for between fifteen and thirty minutes." (From, Smoley, Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition)

Remember: you are inviting and allowing God to come into your presence. Let the Divine take root in you through this practice and sense the nearness of God.

Prayer always creates a new reality, transforms the circumstances,

opens hearts, frees the mind because prayer flushes out the difficulties we carry and

the Holy Spirit comes in to fill that vacuum with God’s presence and love.
 

THOUGHTS ON SOME QUALITIES OF PRAYER

• If prayer, silent or dialogic, is to be authentic, it must come from a genuine I-Thou encounter. Prayer is about a relationship that is all about presence not submission.
 

• When Jesus prayed, "Thy will be done," he taught us that prayer does not insist on its own way.
 

• Authentic prayer is not groveling before God, nor self-humiliating. Prayer does not flatter God as if bolstering the Divine ego might help the cause.
 

• Prayer is honest, forthright, unflinching, and trusting, as between partners or very best friends who share the same concern, passion, and hope. Prayer does not have those qualities when it is treated like an order blank on "e-bay".
 

• Whether we are speaking or listening or sensing, our prayers are somehow always a ‘Yes’ in the face of life’s ‘No’.
 

• Whether speaking, listening, or sensing, prayer moves us toward what we are to become and what we are to make of our lives.
 

• Prayer helps us empty ourselves of hatred and anger, impatience and self-righteousness, and the burdens of guilt and shame. I don’t know how it happens but the Spirit fills the vacuum left by the troubles that we pray about.