Prayer and the Spirit--some thoughts on Romans 8

“…the Spirit comes to help us in our weakness,

for, when we do not know how to pray properly,

then the spirit personally makes our petitions for us

in groans that cannot be put into words; and He

who can see into all hearts knows what the Spirit

means because the prayers the prayers that the

Spirit makes for God’s holy people are always

in accordance with the mind of God.”

--Romans 8: 26-27

 

The prayers of the Spirit are always in accordance with the mind of God… I’ve never really pondered what that means.  What is the Spirit’s prayer?  I guess, that is something I’ve usually glossed over when reading Romans.  I think my focus has probably been on the beautiful assurance that even if I don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit does and will pray for me. And that has always seemed like enough for me.  I took comfort in the fact that if I was thinking I needed a new bright red Schwinn bicycle with gears and hand brakes and a bell on it, perhaps the Spirit would know I would do better with a blue one.  That was kind of how I thought this worked.

 

But after a Pandemic year and a Pipe-Freezing Snow-mageddon, I began to wonder, what’s going on here?  Is it me or is it the Spirit? Somebody sure seems to be praying wrong.  Because I sure wasn’t praying for a pipe-bursting freeze and a state-wide power outage and a week without running water.  Maybe it was my wife! She had been wanting to go camping, so maybe God was answering her prayer—because that’s what we were doing. Camping in the living room, gathering snow and rain water to flush the toilets, melting bags of ice that a friend bought for us so we’d have drinking water.  We were –at least for these city-folks—roughing it.  Living the Little House on the Prairie dream, so to speak. Heck, we even made molasses candy in the snow, like Ma and Laura used to do!  And so, yes—we might admit that there was something of a blessing in this weird break from our normal lives.  We were a little quieter and a little more intentional for a few days.  We were a little more dependent on each other and on our neighbors.  And even in the evening as the world grew dark and the battery powered lanterns came on, we would sit listening to a battery powered radio and playing games by candle-light in the growing dark. And just when it was getting to be too much and our nerves were beginning to fray and the charm of roughing it was wearing thin, the power came back and stayed on.  And we all cheered. It felt like a prayer had been answered.  But then, the phone rang; it was my mother-in-law. She was in the ER. The doctors weren’t certain what was going on, but she seemed to have some internal bleeding. In the end, this was only the beginning. After more than a week in the hospital we learned she has cancer in her stomach and possibly other places, and according to the doctors, only months to live.  It felt like a sucker punch. Like we’d been tricked into thinking everything was finally okay, getting back to normal, and suddenly—wham!

 

Is this what it means to be in accordance with the mind of God?  As St. Teresa of Avila famously said: If this is how God treats His friends, no wonder He has so few…

 

 

 

And so, suddenly the world has stopped. And all the headlines and talk about freezes and pandemics and Ercot and elections and masks and ZOOM and re-openings, it all seems like so much nothing.  Looking into the eyes of a person who knows she is dying, seeing that fear and confusion and that helplessness seem to grow in the quiet of her exhausted gaze… Suddenly everything seems to be put into perspective. And suddenly I want to cry out—but I don’t have any words.

 

And yet, according to Paul, that is exactly when the Spirit intercedes for us “in groans that cannot be put into words…” 

 

Looking into my mother-in-law’s eyes, that is the prayer I see; that prayer that cannot be put into words.

 

In the book of Job, there is that wonderful, strange prayer of his; standing before his friends, Job turns to God and cries out, “Please just leave me alone long enough that I may swallow my spit!” (cf. 7:19).  We all feel that way sometimes. The world, our life, our trials overwhelm us and all the prayer we have left in us is to cry out: Leave me alone! But if we offer even that to God, we can trust that the Holy Spirit will set it right in the translation.

 

For us, for the moment, all our prayers are for my wife’s mother. For a miracle, for healing, for comfort, for hope… that she won’t be afraid and that she will know she is loved, by her family, and by her Lord. And the rest we just have to leave to God.

 But now, as I finish this, I think I might have an idea just exactly what it is the Spirit prays:

 Our Father, who art in Heaven

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come.

Thy will be done,

on earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day

our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil…

 

Amen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why pray? thoughts for the fifth Sunday of Easter

“If you remain in Me and

My words remain in you,

ask for whatever you want

and it will be done for you.”

–John 15:7

 Is it true?  This passage from John; is it true? If you think about it for any length of time, do you think: Yes. It is confirmed in my own experience. When I pray, I do get what I want! Or, are you like me.  How often have I prayed for strength, for peace, for help, for healing and yet still felt alone, weak, and broken?  How many innocent children have prayed sincerely and desperately for help yet never received it? Or the addict who prayed for help, for courage, even for a cure, but finds himself slipping back into drink, or drug, or self-destructive habit.  Or the parent who prayed for the suffering child? Isn’t even one, proof enough[1]? How many do we have to list to disprove this statement?

And so, I ask myself: Why pray? Why do you pray? Why do I pray? Why should we bother?

“…ask for whatever you want

and it will be done for you.”

            If it isn’t true, then it certainly makes me wonder: isn’t it evidence against itself? Evidence that either the scriptures or the Lord cannot be trusted?   Who can believe a word this “man” says?   

            Certainly, after any number of apparently unanswered prayers, one can understand why a person, even a Christian, would stop praying.  It ends up seeming like nothing more than “magical thinking,” as some atheists have called it.  And how often do we hear people say: Our thoughts and prayers are with you?  As if prayer were just a kind of thinking, equal to daydreaming or wishing or hoping for something.  Is it?  Are they the same?  Or is there more to this question of pray than meets the eye?

            If the Bible is the Word of God, and if –as Christian maintain—it is unerring, then what does it mean, what does Jesus mean when He says: “…ask for whatever you want, and it will be done for you?” So bold a statement, and one so easily disproved… what does it mean? And this isn’t just a weird promise found in John (cf. 14:13; 16:24). It also shows up in Matthew 21:22, and Mark 11:24, as well as passages in all 4 gospels that could easily be interpreted as promising the same (cf. Mt. 7:7; Lk 11:8-10).  Apparently, it was really part of the teachings of our Lord. And if we are supposed to believe it, then what is Jesus really saying? Why is Jesus so bold in His promises about the power of prayer and particularly prayer in His name?

            I can honestly say this: the vast majority of times when I have prayed for help or guidance or strength or will power or courage (this isn’t asking for a new electric football set, or a ninth inning homerun for Jimmy Wynne), I can honestly say that even after invoking the name of the Lord, at the minimum 99.9% of the time I feel no immediate consolation, no more hope or strength or courage or will-power --sometimes I even feel discouraged because nothing changed, nothing miraculous happened. 

            So, why do I continue to pray?

            Because prayer --for me—anymore—isn’t about getting what I ask for, it’s about getting what I need (which is almost always: less of myself).  I have come to believe that prayer isn’t even about getting, but about giving. I give myself to God; put myself in His hands, submit myself to His will; and in doing so, conform myself more to the body of Christ.

            If prayer is really only about getting what we want, and what we want is a new job, new car, easier life, healthier body, win the lottery, then perhaps it really is just magical thinking. Seen in that way God becomes a kind of magical or spiritual vending machine.  I put in my coin (my prayer) and turn the knob (cross myself and mention Jesus name), and out comes a healed wife, a happier child, a more obedient cat, or my name atop the Nobel Prize list[2]. 

But, in my life, that isn’t how prayer works –and not how God seems to work, either.  In my life, prayer changes me more than it changes God.  I have come to think of it like planting a garden; those first desperate pleas and prayers are seeds planted in the dark silent earth –the cold of the grave, one might say—but as with a garden, with time, with some attention and care and nurturing, even some neglect (perhaps most of all this)—little by little tendrils green begin to appear, a tender leaf unfolds, new life appears, and without realizing it suddenly one morning flowers are blooming.

This is why I keep praying –not to plant a seed in God, but that God might plant a seed in me. So, prayer is my way of turning the earth, preparing the soil, stirring in some compost. Ask any serious gardener --pulling weeds is a constant effort.

Instead of thinking of prayer as a vending machine, think of it as gardening; as the original “slow” movement. It’s the original alternative life style.

I’m struck by that image in Genesis: walking in the garden with the Lord in the cool of the evening…

And it was good…

That’s why I pray.  To find a piece of that – a peace like that—growing in the soil of my being. That, like the soil in that original garden, the soil we were first formed from, my soil, my being, might bring forth much life. 

That doesn’t mean I don’t pray for what I need, what I want, what I hope for.  I still get on my knees and bring it all to God. Every bit of it. The selfish and the selfless, The mundane and the miraculous, I still ask for it.  I give it all to Him.  It just means I can’t measure the results in a bank book or on a tally sheet.  In fact, I’m not sure I can measure them at all. What I can do, is watch for stirrings of green.  Signs of new life.  And celebrate each and every one.

Dear Lord,

You took a vine out of Egypt,

planted it, cleared the ground,

it took root and spread…

Give me the patience, Oh Lord

to wait for the precious fruit

of that vine, and the courage

to continue to pray, and to wait

like the farmer for the early and the late rains…

And let me walk beside You always

in the cool of the evening, in Your fruitful garden…

           

---

[1] I won’t mention the unsuccessful poet who prays for a poem to be accepted by the New Yorker or the beleaguered football fan who prays for the Oilers to go to the Super Bowl or the struggling student about to take a test…

[2] Or Bum Philips stays in Houston and Earl Campbell wins the Nobel Prize for football.

Praying for hunger: Corpus Christi & the food of God

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His blood, you do not have life within you.”
--John 6:53

 “Brothers and sisters: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not
a participation in the blood of Christ?  The bread that we break, is it
not a participation in the body of Christ?  Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.”
--1 Corinthians 10:16-17

What does it mean to eat the flesh of the Son of Man? What does it mean to participate in the blood of Christ?  What does it mean to hunger after the body of Christ?

Here in the 21st century, as we struggle with all the issues of our day, how do we live out this calling? How do we truly participate in the blessing of His blood? His body? Those are questions that are key to the solemnity of Corpus Christi. We are called on this day to give special attention and adoration to the sacramental presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.  And the church has selected these two readings from Corinthians and John's Gospel to help us remember that we are called to participate in the blessing that is the body and blood of Christ.  And so, some churches will have processions and set aside time for adoration of the exposed Eucharist: the body of Christ. It is a call we must not ignore, because it is a call for us to grow not only in our faith but in our hunger for God.

The first reading for today's mass is the one that spoke to me today.  The Old Testament reading  from Deuteronomy. And especially this passage:

“…He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger, and then fed you
with manna, a food unknown to you and your fathers…” (8:3)

In my New Jerusalem Bible, this verse reads:

"He humbled you, He made you feel hunger..."

I think that reading it I was reminded of poor Abram (in Genesis) being called out of his homeland and away from his kinsfolk and lead to a foreign land. Humbled and probably feeling a bit afflicted by God asking so much of him. And, of course we see the same kind of reaction from the Jews wandering in the desert for 40 years, complaining to Moses that He led them out of Egypt (where at least they had food and shelter) only to let them die of hunger in the desert.

  When God leads us away from the familiar and the safe, He leads us into a kind of hungering --and certainly it is  (as far as I can tell) always a humbling experience. God leads us out of our safe space and allows us to be afflicted with hunger, if not for actual food, then for safety and security, for friends and family, for comfort and reassurance.  And God lets us be afflicted by this hunger, not to test us or prove to us He's the boss, but in order that He might feed us with a bread unknown to us and to our parents. 

What is this bread that we do not know? This manna? That is my question?  And how do we get it? I think there is a clue in a famous scene in John’s Gospel.  When the apostles return to find Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, they offer Him something to eat, but Jesus tells them He has food to eat that they don’t know about.  And when they are puzzled by that, He explains:

“My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete His work…”
–John 4:34

I wonder if that doesn’t tell us something about Heavenly food, about manna, and also about the importance and the work of prayer. We tend to think about prayer as a way of filling our tank. We go to God in prayer so He can fill our spiritual tank up for the work we have to do, or the world we have to face, etc. etc.  We go to God because we need grace and we have a spiritual longing for the divine.  I certainly don’t deny any of that.  But, I also wonder if the paradox of prayer is that instead of filling us up, the real work of prayer is to empty us out. And that by emptying us it prepares us to be filled by the real food of God’s blessing; the real manna; that food that Jesus is talking about.  We go to prayer not to be filled, but to be emptied, so we can be made hungry for  the will of God, the work of God.  To be made ready for this meal, we have to be humbled, and perhaps a sign of this humility, of the process of being humbled is a growing hunger, a longing for something we cannot achieve on our own; something we cannot even imagine for ourselves: a food unknown to us and to our parents.

Like Abram, lead to a strange land, when we kneel in prayer we are emptied of all our earthly resources, all our powers and glories and achievements; humbled; we are emptied so that God can fill us with grace and make of us a blessing to the world –That is how we participate in the work of God. We pray not to be filled up, but to be emptied, so we can be fed by the work of God.
Want to know what work God has for you? Empty yourself in prayer. Let God afflict you with hunger through prayer. And then let God feed you with the food that Christ spoke of: the Work of God. 

Are you listening, Mr. Sutter?  Put down those chips and that bowl of dip, something better awaits you.