Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Some of you heard me say that I do not pray enough. I heard myself. And it took me back to seminary days when, with the pressure of our studies and other life commitments, Roberta Bondi urged us practice prayer daily at all costs. She also taught us about prayer in the life of faith and even proposed we practice praying the Psalms. Which I did for years and years. And then I didn’t. Mea culpa.

Our reading for Sunday is Luke 18:9-14, which may be familiar to you as “the pharisee and the tax collector.” This parable follows the parable of “the unjust judge” from last week (Luke 18:1-8). Both are about prayer and are unique to Luke’s Gospel. (I may have known this once but probably not recently.) The first is about “the need to pray always and not to lose heart” (18:1), probably the disciples and others. The second is for “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt” (18:9), apparently the Pharisees. I was not expecting to identify with both groups!

I easily recognized myself in the group that need to take heart. But I worried that, in all our concern for Christian Nationalists, I might not feel a bit “holier than thou” way down deep, buried in my heart. Do you ever worry about that?

All that to say this, I’m back to prayer. And happily revisiting my teachers over the years, including Roberta Bondi, Timothy Johnson, Howard Thurman, Mary Oliver, Luther Smith, the Taizé community—the list is long. And you can expect to hear about my discoveries in the months and weeks to come. (My copy of Bondi’s book, “To Pray and to Love: Conversations of Prayer with the Early Church,” came apart in my hands; I can hardly read it for all the highlights and notes.)

Please allow me to share two especially good nuggets from my sermon prep for this week: 

 For the desert fathers and mothers of the early church [third and fourth century BCE], the right answers to those questions depend upon the needs and personality of the person asking the question. Consider these very different images of prayer.

 Abba Macarius was asked, “How should one pray?” The old man said, “There is no need at all to make long discourses; it is enough to stretch out one’s hands and say, “Lord, as you will, and as you know, have mercy.” And if the conflict grows fierce, say “Lord, help!” [God] knows very well what we need and [God] shews us [God’s] mercy.

(Bondi, To Pray, p.7)

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The parables together do more than remind us that prayer is a theme in Luke-Acts; they show us why prayer is a theme. For Luke, prayer is faith in action. Prayer is not an exercise in piety, carried out to demonstrate one’s relationship with God. It is that relationship with God. The way one prays therefore reveals that relationship. If the disciples do not cry out…to the Lord, then they do not have faith, for that is what faith does. Similarly, if prayer is self-assertion before God, then it cannot be answered by God’s gift of righteousness; possession and gift cancel each other.

(Johnson, Sacra Pagina: Luke, p. 274; author’s italics)

 This is where some young people we know would say, “Busted!” I will keep at it. I will not lose heart. My mother cried, “Lord, help!” all the time. I know I can do that.

Come be with us in worship on Sunday where we can do our best together and encourage one another. You always encourage me whether Streamers or Gatherers, and you can tell how much I need that. In the meantime, I’ll be working on my prayers.

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz