Jan Hus Presbyterian Church and Neighborhood House
July 22, 2012
Be a Pray-er
Imagery is
not always kind to the soul. Think about it, what could ever accurately reflect
a soul, anyway?
Keeping up
appearances, perceptions, to “show people” who you are, we are -- too often
becomes a source of deception, instead. In the process, what is and is not real
gets confused, lost, and blended in ways that can create the strangest of
actions.
Aside from
positive or negative campaigning, consider the way our nation receives the
example of mental, spiritual, and physical help modeled by the presidential
candidates.
As we
approach the elections, the images of these folk will be even more carefully
crafted than they have been, making it difficult to get to know people if all
we watch or listen to are sound bites and commercials. And even if we do the
work to research these folks more carefully – it’s hard to tell fact from
fiction.
My comments
today that flow from our gospel reading about Mark and are centered about rest
and prayer, and how both are presented as a model or witness, if you like. Back to campaigning...
While
prayer in this campaign seems to be more of a tag line “God Bless You! God
Bless America!
(forget the rest of the world) – a tag line that is generally accepted and
being either a good thing or without any value as if everybody just sneezed! – the image of rest produces an
extreme response in the opposite direction. And play? Even worse.
You may
remember the kerfuffle that Candidate Romney experienced over being seen jet-
skiing with his wife; not a bad thing by any means – but considered a bad thing
for a presidential candidate when the great majority of the country is under
economic duress. It’s bad imagery.
Or remember
the beer in the Rose Garde; the golf games; and such of the President.
These days,
even the president, mindful of the images and their potential impact, canceled
his annual vacation to Martha’s Vineyard,
instead delivering a speech that forced him to address the dismal news of less
than 80,000 new jobs being created in June.
What’s real
what’s not. Please one side anger the other. Where are we supposed to go in our
thinking, let alone our voting?
But really…
When did family time or rest, within the budget you can afford, become a bad
thing? When did it become something that came to mean being out of touch; a
zealot; or just plain lazy?
It most
likely has something to do with Americans wanting a “working president,” with
few Americans really having any idea of what being the president entails – and a sense of resentment by the many who
have to work day in and day out – watching others who “seem to have it all;” as
somehow better than they; seeming to have no idea of the extreme hardships of
others - outside of sound-bites.
I guess we
don’t want a president who looks like he or she is having fun – especially if
we are having little fun. In fact, I think that is where the place of “anger”
in these campaigns has found some of its footing. “How can they be enjoying
themselves when we are so miserable?”
Or is it
jealousy and greed, using the outsides of people and forgetting their insides.
In the process we become superficial and caught up in the anger and the
polarization and the nihilism, the sense that, well, everything is soon going
to be shot to hell. And we all get angry!
Whatever it
may be, it is unfair to expect presidents, presidential candidates, or any one
of us to be a “working machine, living on the surface only, discounting time by
looking for everything now – willing to trade down the future results of
consistent, steady effort.
And the
struggles and tragedies are real and daunting. The shooting in the theater in Colorado is real and,
yes, somehow incrementally fostered by our society’s anger and divisions. Or so
I think. And, we do have struggles and many of us do work more than one job to
make ends meet, including the work to find a job or just get through a day.
Even so. Does
that mean we don’t pray or rest? Is there any situation or condition that means
we don’t rest? Meditate? Pray? I remember thinking as a kid that I had to be
perfect in order to pray. Work hard to get to someplace where I could be
“good.” As for rest, well it always seemed I had to do more or better, in work
around home or studies in school.
With this
in mind, the question for me today, from the fringes of Mark’s gospel, is “Am I
a pray-er”? Am I someone who rests,
stops, prays, meditates – suspends, with practice – the noise around me. Drops
below the surface, enters into the space that produces no products or
calculable outcomes…but feeds me and guides me in who I really am in relation
to God.
“Oh, I
can’t stop! There’s too much to do!”
“I don’t
have time to pray right now, maybe later.”
“I will be
late…this is silly…I have too much on my mind…I am too worried.”
“I am too
anxious to pray right now…”
Yet Paul in Philippians 4:6 says: “Do not be anxious about
anything. Instead, tell your requests to God in your every prayer and
petition—with thanksgiving.”
Pause.
Rest. Pray. Listen. Be guided. Be thankful.
In today’s
reading of Mark, the passage is a familiar one about the feeding of the 5,000.
It is, in fact, where our offertory response comes from. That passage is so familiar,
that it overshadows the parts before and after –
Just
before,
-
the
disciples return from going out into the villages and communities spreading the
Good News, returning they tell Jesus “all they had done and taught.” They had
been working, cold-calling if you will – entering into places not always
friendly, not always ready to listen and they had achieved some wondrous
things. And Jesus’ first response according to Mark wasn’t “Great job!” It was
compassion for these faithful disciples, whom he loved and who were exuberant and exhausted and Jesus says,
- “Come away
to a deserted place all by yourselves (away from the crowds) and rest a while.”
Take a
break. You deserve it. You need it. There is more to do, but first, eat, rest,
pray.
And still
the crowds pursued them, so much so that by the time Jesus and the disciples got
to the other side of the lake, the crowds had rushed there to be with them, in
their presence. And Jesus had compassion on the lost souls and taught them, fed
them, and in the end collected more food than they had started with, for the
generosity of those present began to flow…and there was abundance for all.
And when
they had finished, Jesus “immediately” made his disciples get into the boat and
go on to the other side to Bethsaida
to rest, while he remained with the crowds so that they could get away for a
while.
There is an
expression in 12 step meetings that hinges on the word “HALT.” It means that if
you are starting to feel anxious, nervous, troubled, or tempted to do something
you don’t want to do…stop. HALT! Get away from the situation for a minute or
two and think about whether you are:
Hungry
Angry
Lonely or
Tired
Because one
or more of those conditions can “change your thinking and behavior” just as
they can impair your health, well-being, or interaction with others.
It seems
Jesus knew this and part of his teachings, in fact much of his teachings
intersect and interconnect with each of these time and again.
Eat. Rest.
Pray. Listen. Be guided. Be with others in rest. Prayer. Compassion.
These
things, too, are teachings of Jesus.
Above all,
Jesus emphasized the personal aspect of prayer with God, so intimiately that he
referred to God as Abba.
And he
taught this to us.
When you pray, don’t pray in fancy, public ways for everyone
to see. Pray behind closed doors to God: “do not be like the hypocrites,
because they love to pray while standing in synagogues and on street corners so
that people can see them. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But
whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your God in
secret. And God, who sees all in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6: 1-4
In other
words however you pray, however your prayer develops changes and grows, or even
forms into moments and times of silence…it’s just fine.
In other words,
public worship such as this brings us together and is important, just as the
disciples came and rested and prayed together, but so too important is the
quiet place between you and God, where we can be heard and listen and be
guided. Refreshed, reconnected, and feel God’s love.
No showcases here. No carefully crafted images to spin opinion or perception. Just
real, deep, uncertain - Rest and Prayer.
Prayer and Rest.
There will
be plenty to do when done resting and praying, and the plenty will be better
done once we are rested and filled with prayer.
Simply put:
Be a pray-er and life will become ever nearer to being a prayer.
Amen.
