When you pray ...
Bishop MacPherson's May 2008 message
"He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray ...'" [Luke 11:1] In the scriptures we find a multitude of examples of Jesus praying. Christ lifted his heart in prayer to God in a myriad of ways and places, and the disciples witnessed this. "Lord, teach us to pray..."
Jesus' prayers were offered for himself, the disciples, the church, and for many with whom he came in contact. Prayer was at the heart of his ministry and to this he was so very attentive.
How attentive is our prayer? Charles Frances Whiston wrote of being in Peking and observing 40-50 monks chanting. Their lips kept moving, he wrote, but their attention appeared elsewhere. He reminds us that we must be mindful and to really speak to God with undivided attention. This is the model that Jesus taught, and Jesus' relationship with God is what he desires of our relationship with God.
The disciples were told to hallow the Father's name-to make holy. We are called to make holy, to live under the kingship of Jesus, and to form our wills in accord with his will. Yes, for us to hear and accept his call to pray his prayer, and in turn to permit the Holy Spirit to transform our lives.
Over time, we find that through prayer our lives are truly and mysteriously transformed. This transformation enables us to experience the essence of prayer. The Gospel of Matthew confronts us almost from the beginning with the very essence of prayer. The Magi saw the long expected star; they set out without delay to find the king; they arrived at a manger; they knelt; they worshipped; and they presented their gifts. They expressed prayer in its perfection, which is contemplation and adoration.
Often, in more or less popular literature about prayer, we are told that prayer is an enthralling adventure to which we are called. As one piece that I read expressed it, "Come, learn to pray; prayer is an interesting, thrilling discovery of a new world. Come, meet God and find the way to a spiritual life."
As this is heard, and acknowledged to a degree true, something far more reaching is being forgotten. Prayer is a dangerous adventure and we cannot enter upon it without a risk. For as the author of Hebrews has written, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." [Hebrews 10:31]
Therefore, to set out deliberately to confront the living God is a dangerous adventure. Whenever we come into the presence of God, whether in the Sacraments or in prayer, we are doing something full of danger because according to the words of scripture, God is a fire. Unless we are ready to surrender ourselves without reservation to the divine fire, and to become that burning bush of the desert, which was burned but never consumed, we shall be scorched-because the experience of prayer can only be known from the inside. [Exodus 3:1-12]
As we seek in our individual ways to come nearer to God, we will learn that coming closer to God is a discovery of both the beauty of God and the distance that is between him and us. Distance is an inadequate word, because it is not determined by the fact that God is holy and we are sinful, but rather, the distance is determined by the attitude of the sinner to God.
We can approach God only if we do so with a sense of coming to judgment. If we come having condemned ourselves; if we come because we love him in spite of the fact that we have been unfaithful; if we come to him loving him more than godless security; then we are open to him and he is open to us, and there is no distance. The Lord comes close to us in an act of compassionate love.
If we stand before God wrapped in our pride, in our assertiveness; if we stand before him as though we have a right to be there; the distance between the creator and the created becomes greater, and when this happens, it is we-or as the old bumper sticker states, "Feel far from God? Guess who moved?"
C. S. Lewis in Screwtape Letters, suggests that distance, in this sense, is a relative thing. "When the archangel came before God to question him, the moment he asked his question, not in order to understand in humility-but in order to compel God to give account, he found himself at an infinite distance from God. God had not moved, nor had Satan, yet without any motion they were infinitely apart."
My brothers and sisters in Christ, as we seek to draw nearer to God in our lives and the ministry we share, may we always be mindful of the gift of prayer, and as we come before God, come with expectant hearts that are open to his will and not ours.
"O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray you, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." [BCP p.832]
With prayers and blessings, I remain faithfully yours in the Risen Christ,
The Rt. Rev’d D. Bruce MacPherson,
D.D.
III Bishop of Western Louisiana
