Merton portrait by Victor Hammer

One of the books I will be reading and meditating upon during my sabbatical is Thomas Merton’s Thoughts In Solitude.

A well-known passage from this book has been called, “The Merton Prayer” (see below). This prayer acknowledges that, despite our human tendency to think we know what life is about and how we can manage it, we really have no clue. As the Jews say, “Man plans; God laughs.”

“The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.” (Prov 16:9)

In the chapter following this prayer, Merton writes, “In our age everything has to be a ‘problem.’ Ours is a time of anxiety because we have willed it to be so. Our anxiety is not imposed on us by force from outside. We impose it on our world and upon one another from within ourselves.

“…Contradictions have always existed in the soul of man. But it is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and objective values which make them trivial by comparison.”

Merton suggests that it is learning to live in “silence” that enables us to live at peace with the contradictions that lie within us. The contradictions remain, but they cease to be a problem for us.

The prayer that precedes this counsel expresses the peace that comes from knowing and trusting in God’s presence in a life with so many unknowns and irresolvable conflicts.

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

• Thomas Merton, “Thoughts in Solitude”

© Abbey of Gethsemani

On the one hand, I believe that I should pray and pray frequently. We are told to pray unceasingly. We are to pray for those in authority over us and even pray for our enemies. And so I do—but when a prayer is answered, I’m shocked and surprised. In other words, I’m just not used to God actually answering my prayers.

So when I spent time reading Jesus’ last discourse with his disciples in John’s Gospel (chapters 14 through 16) on a recent retreat and saw that four times in that teaching he says for me to ask anything and it will be done for me, it really stood out to me. Does Jesus really mean anything? And does he really mean that all I have to do is ask? There has to be a catch to this.

Or at least I have always thought so. I’ve heard these words before, but they always come with some disclaimer. “You have to ask according to his will.”  ”It has to be something God already wants to do.”  ”You have to ask according to what is in the Bible.”  You get the idea. Yes, you can ask for “anything,” as long as that anything meets certain requirements.

But what if Jesus really means what he says? What if “anything” really does mean anything.

You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father (John 14:13, NLT).

But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father  (John 15:7-8, NLT).

You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name  (John 15:16, NLT).

You haven’t done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy (John 16:24, NLT).

Yes, Jesus says we must ask in his name. But he doesn’t seem to make that the focus of what he’s talking about. His focus is our asking, not on meeting a list of qualifications. His emphasis is on us taking the step forward to make a request of our Father. What we request doesn’t seem to be important. It’s the fact that we ask the Father for something, anything, just so he can answer us. Why? So that:

• the Son can bring glory to the Father
• we can bear much fruit
• we can be filled with joy

Does this sound too good to be true? It does to me, and that’s why I have so much trouble with this.

Andrew Murray addresses me and my trouble believing God will really answer prayer in this way. (I updated his Bible verse to the New Living Translation.)

Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened (Matthew 7: 7-8, NLT).

That the Lord should have thought it needful in so many forms to repeat the truth, is a lesson of deep import.  It proves that He knows our heart, how doubt and distrust toward God are natural to us, and how easily we are inclined to rest in prayer as a religious work without an answer.  He knows too how, even when we believe that God is the Hearer of prayer, believing prayer that lays hold of the promise, is something spiritual, too high and difficult for the half-hearted disciple.  He therefore at the very outset of His instruction to those who would learn to pray, seeks to lodge this truth deep into their hearts:  prayer does avail much; ask and ye shall receive; every one that asketh, receiveth.

It is one of the terrible marks of the diseased state of Christian life in these days, that there are so many who rest content without the distinct experience of answer to prayer.  They pray daily, they ask many things, and trust that some of them will be heard, but know little of direct definite answer to prayer as the rule of daily life. And it is this the Father wills:  He seeks daily intercourse with His children in listening to and granting their petitions.  He wills that I should come to Him day by day with distinct requests; He wills day by day to do for me what I ask.  It was in His answer to prayer that the saints of old learned to know God as the Living One, and were stirred to praise and love.  Our Teacher waits to imprint this upon our minds:  prayer and its answer, the child asking and the father giving, belong to each other.

I have read of the lives of men like George Mueller and Rees Howells, marveling at how they simply asked God for what was on their hearts and Bam! it was answered. Are men like these exceptions, or does God really want all of us, including me, to ask anything and he will give it? Is Jesus pleased just by the fact that I ask him for what is on my heart without judging it right or wrong?

What if I ask him amiss, as we read in James’ epistle? I spend so much time trying to figure out if what I want to ask is right or not that I sometimes never get around to asking. And when I ask, I already have a ready list of reasons why God is not going to answer me. I didn’t ask in the right way. I didn’t ask for the right thing. I didn’t do this, or I did do that, and so that’s why God isn’t answering me. With all the excuses I add to my feeble prayers, why should I even bother to pray in the first place?

Lewis addresses Jesus’ call to ask for anything in Letters To Malcolm: Chiefly On Prayer.

The New Testament contains embarrassing promises that what we pray for with faith we shall receive. Mark 11:24 is the most staggering. Whatever we ask for, believing that we’ll get it, we’ll get. No question, it seems, of confining it to spiritual gifts; whatever we ask for. No question of a merely general faith in God, but a belief that you will get the particular thing you ask. No question of getting either it or else something that is really far better for you; you’ll get precisely it. And to heap paradox on paradox, the Greek doesn’t even say “believing that you will get it.” It uses the aorist, which one is tempted to translate, “believing that you got it.”

So here I am, faced with very simple words from Jesus: “Ask, and you will receive.” Simple, yet so incredibly challenging. It seems I have to force my way through a jungle of “what ifs” just to get to the point where I can ask. “What if I ask for the wrong thing?” “What if I ask and it isn’t answered?” And “What if I ask and it is answered? Will I have faith to ask for something even more impossible?”

It really would be easier if there really were a list of requirements to be met before God would answer an “anything prayer.” That way when the answer didn’t come, I would have an excuse. Yet Jesus doesn’t give me that option. He says, Ask. Ask me anything. Come and ask and believe and it’s yours. I want you to be fruitful and joyful.

So, where does that leave me? I must come and ask. It is exciting, but it somehow is the most frightening excitement I have ever experienced. I feel I am entering into a world where I am really, truly going to know God as he knows himself to be. I’m not sure what all that means. But I see the door in front of me, and the only way to enter in is simply to ask. I have a feeling nothing will ever be the same once I do.

Here I go.

What is Prayer?

Can we agree that prayer is fundamental to the life of faith?  It’s more fundamental even than humility or obedience or work, because it is partly through prayer, and the grace that God accords us in prayer, that we begin to grow in all the other virtues.  We’ve already commented that the Christian life is not something that we live by our own strength but is the natural growth of the branch on the vine.  Prayer is the daily renewing of the connection of branch to vine.  Prayer is our dinner table, classroom, and porch swing conversations with God.  Prayer is speaking, and it is listening.

Having agreed that prayer is fundamental, those of us who want to pray well, in a manner pleasing to God, may then ask “How?”  As far as I can see, there are many different ways to pray, and it would probably be a good thing if we don’t argue about which are better and which are worse.

Composed Prayer Versus Spontaneous Prayer

Composed prayer – previously scripted words recited with reverence to God – certainly seems to be biblical.  The Psalms are prayers used by both Jews and Christians to address God.  Jesus gave us the Lord’s Prayer as a model, and all Christians have prayed it, in their own languages, as Jesus gave it to us.

The prayers of our fathers and mothers in the faith are inspirations to us.  They give us words when we don’t know what to stay; they inspire us to pray for more than we might have thought of in our narrow understanding.  They are no substitute for a more personal communication with God, but they are a part of our heritage.

The mystical writers who see the spiritual life as a ladder assign the prayer of prepared words to the lower rungs.  Meditation, contemplation, the prayer of quiet, the prayer of union are later stages.  Yet periods of aridity come to all, even the saints, when meditation is empty and unreal or even distasteful, the mind wanders, the heart is earth-bound, and spontaneous prayer is difficult or even impossible.  Then verbal prayer becomes a support for the flagging spirit, a frame for our vague and reluctant reaching toward God.  The old prayers, beautiful and true, composed by people who have understood the struggle and found victory, used over and over by praying hearts, have acquired a sort of patina.  They speak to God, and also to us, disciplining our irresolution, informing our imagination, directing our will, inducing a reverent awareness from without, when the inner doors appear to be closed or lost.  (Elizabeth Gray Vining, pp.21 and 22)

Composed prayers are like the conventions of daily life.  Conventions make interactions with other people easier; they give us things to say and ways to be polite and respectful.  They are especially important when we don’t know what to say but don’t want to seem uncaring, or when unity is more important than individuality.  Conventions – and composed prayer – are therefore wonderful things, but true intimacy, with people or with God, won’t grow if there are only conventions and no spontaneity.

Spontaneity characterizes the prayerful meditation of those who frequently contemplate God in private.  Those who are deeply involved with contemplation have high regard for the church’s prayers, and they use them regularly in the manner prescribed by earlier generations.  Their personal prayers, however, are spontaneous, rising directly to God without external prompting. . . .

[A] little word of only one syllable is enough. . . .  In pain or terror, we do not use complete sentences, and probably not even an actual word of one or two syllables. . . . We break out in a loud and shocking scream.  Perhaps we will shout, “Fire!” or “Help!”

In the same way that little shouts and gasps catch the attention of bystanders, a little word, spoken or thought, bursts upon the attention of God. . . .  Short prayer pierces heaven. . . .Though I highly recommend brief prayer, there is no limit on the frequency of prayer.  Pray in the dimension of the Spirit, never stopping until you find what you are seeking. (The Cloud of Unknowing, from Chapters 37-39)

So we may use composed prayers, we may pray spontaneously – but what can we do when we are in the depths, without words and even without knowledge of what to pray for?  We can at least say this:

O Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of thee; . . . I am silent; I offer myself in sacrifice; I yield myself to thee; I would have no other desire than to accomplish thy will.  Teach me to pray.  Pray thyself in me.  (Francois de la Mothe Fenelon)

When and How Often to Pray?

Should we have set times for prayer, or should we strive to pray at need throughout the day?  The most basic answer is this:

Pray as you can, don’t try to pray as you can’t. . . . The only way to pray is to pray, and the way to pray well is to pray much.  (Dom John Chapman)

Excellent advice, but I do think it’s good to have a time and a place to pray, especially as we are training ourselves into the new habits of the resurrection life.  Prayer is not easy, and we delude ourselves if we think it is.  Prayer is contact with the living God, and most contacts of that sort in the Bible result in the person falling face downward in terror.  Our flesh, our habits, our constructed selves do NOT want to expose themselves to God, because they know on some level that such exposure will result in their death.  They invent excuses and manufacture reasons to get away.  The flesh’s chief weapon in shielding itself from prayer is busy chattering.

How difficult this is!  When we sit down for half an hour – without talking to someone, listening to music, watching television, or reading a book – and try to become very still, we often find ourselves so overwhelmed by our noisy inner voices that we can hardly wait to get busy and distracted again.  Our inner life often looks like a banana tree full of jumping monkeys!  But when we decide not to run away and to stay focused, these monkeys may gradually go away because of lack of attention, and the soft gentle voice calling us the beloved may gradually make itself heard. (Henri Nouwen, pp. 27 and 28)

This inner stillness is an essential part of prayer, since prayer is even more profitably listening than it is speaking.  And in most of our lives, stillness is not just going to happen on its own.

We simply need quiet time in the presence of God.  Although we want to make all our time, time for God, we will never succeed if we do not reserve a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, or whatever period of time for God and him alone.  This asks for much discipline and risk taking because we always seem to have something more urgent to do and just “sitting there” and “doing nothing” often disturbs us more than it helps.  But there is no way around this.  Being useless and silent in the presence of our God belongs to the core of all prayer. (Henri Nouwen, p. 98)

How to Begin to Pray

We can begin anywhere, with any kind of prayer.  The Book of Common Prayer, in its catechism, gives these types of prayer:  adoration, praise, thanksgiving, penitence, oblation (or offering ourselves), intercession, and petition.  Any drawing nearer to God is good.  He promises that “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”  (Jeremiah 29:12)  But one good place to start, one discipline that helps us work through the temptation to pray only selfishly, is commanded by Jesus in Matthew 5:44: praying for our enemies.

If you wish to learn the love of God, you have to begin by praying for your enemies. ( Henri Nouwen, p. 35)

If you have no words to offer for your enemies – and sometimes we are too hurt to be able to pray well – here are some you may borrow.

Merciful and Loving Father, We beseech Thee most humbly, even with all our hearts, to pour out upon our enemies with bountiful hand, whatsoever things Thou knowest will do them good.  And chiefly a sound and uncorrupt mind wherethrough they may know Thee and love Thee in true charity and with their whole heart, and love us Thy children for Thy sake.  Let not their first hating of us turn to their harm, seeing that we cannot do them good for want of ability.  Lord, we desire their amendment and our own.  Separate them not from us by punishing them, but join and knit them to us by Thy favorable dealing with them.  And seeing that we be all ordained to be citizens of one Everlasting City, let us begin to enter into that way here already by mutual Love which may bring us right forth thither.  (Prayer for Our Enemies, 16^th century England)

What If We Are Driving Ourselves Crazy about Prayer?

Instead of approaching contemplation compulsively, discover how to love God joyfully with a gentle and peaceful disposition of body and soul.  Wait patiently for God.  Be courteous.  Don’t tear into it like a hungry dog, no matter how eager you may be. (The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter 46)

This has to be said. We don’t want to approach prayer like a dog in a feeding frenzy. We sometimes try so hard we get a little nutty. The danger then is that we will give up altogether on trying to be closer to God.  Let me finish with a marvelously sane piece of advice.  Anthony Bloom, author of Beginning to Pray, tells of a conversation he had with an elderly woman.

The old lady said, “These fourteen years I have been praying the Jesus Prayer almost continually, and never have I perceived God’s presence at all.”  I said, “If you speak all the time, you don’t give God a chance to place a word in. . . . Go to your room after breakfast, put it right, place your armchair in a strategic position. . . .Just sit, look round, and try to see where you live, because I’m sure that if you have prayed all these fourteen years it is a long time since you have seen your room.  And then take your knitting and for fifteen minutes knit before the face of God, but I forbid you to say one word of prayer.  You just knit and enjoy the peace of your room.”

She didn’t think it was very pious advice but she took it.  After a while she came to see me and said, “You know, it works. . . .  I got up, washed, put my room right . . .then I settled in my armchair and thought ‘How nice!  I have fifteen minutes during which I can do nothing without being guilty!’ and I looked round and for the first time in years I thought ‘Goodness, what a nice room I live in.’ . . . I remembered that I must knit before the face of God, and so I began to knit.  And I became more and more aware of the silence . . . I had no need of straining myself, and then I perceived that this silence was not simply an absence of noise, but that the silence had substance. . . .  All of a sudden I perceived that the silence was a presence.  At the heart of the silence there was He who is all stillness, all peace, all poise.” (pp. 92-94)

Why Do We Pray?

“O God,” I said, and that was all.  But what are the prayers of the whole universe more than expansions of that one cry?  It is not what God can give us, but God that we want.  (George MacDonald)

“I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time—waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God—it changes me.” (C.S. Lewis)

Sources:

The quotations of Fenelon, Chapman, the 16^th century prayer for our enemies, and George MacDonald, as well as the direct quotation of the author herself, are from Elizabeth Gray Vining, The World in Tune.  Wallingford, PA:  Pendle Hill Publications, 1954.

Anonymous 14^th century English author, The Cloud of Unknowing, Bernard Bangley, ed.  Brewster, MA:  Paraclete Press, 2006.

Henri Nouwen, The Essential Henri Nouwen, Robert A. Jonas, ed.  Boston, MA:  Shambhala Publications, 2009.

Anthony Bloom, Beginning to Pray.  Mahwah, NJ:  Paulist Press, 1970.

Yeonpyeong Island (AFP/Getty Images)

By Chaplain Mike

Last week’s provocative bombing of Yeonpyeong Island by North Korea made us all feel a little more insecure, even as we read words about beating swords into plowshares on the first Sunday of Advent. Those who welcome the Prince of Peace at this time of year should be on the front lines of praying for peace in this dangerous situation.

At the ministry Open Doors, whose mission is to serve persecuted Christians worldwide, they quote their founder Brother Andrew, who says one question believers should always ask when a crisis occurs somewhere in the world is: Is there a church there?”

Certainly we are concerned for all the people of North and South Korea. Certainly we are concerned for all their neighbors in the region, who must be deeply distressed at this turn of events. Certainly we are concerned for our own country and our policy and national interests in that part of the world. Certainly we have concern that is worldwide, knowing that the North Koreans possess nuclear weapons, and that they have the capacity to unleash apocalyptic-like destruction that would have disastrous consequences for generations.

In the middle of all those legitimate concerns, we must not forget that our family is there, in both South and North Korea. Open Doors reports:

Whereas South Korean Christians worship God freely in their churches, their approximately 400,000 North Korean brothers and sisters struggle for survival and are persecuted mercilessly. For eight straight years North Korea has held the No. 1 spot on Open Doors’ World Watch List of countries where it’s most oppressive for a Christian to live. Even the possession of a Bible can get an entire family killed or sent to a prison camp. Usually no one leaves the camps alive.

Many Christians can only worship God when their entire household is Christian. Singing and praying aloud are too dangerous. Telling your children about Christ is too risky. Parents tell their children Bible stories as if the stories were fairy tales. It’s the only way parents can share some of their faith. Meeting Christians outside your family is virtually impossible. Only on rare occasions can Christians worship or share together.

Between 50,000 and 70,000 Christians are in labor camps because of their faith. In total there are hundreds of thousands of prisoners in political camps, prisons and re-education camps. In September many prisoners and people sentenced to labor camps were pardoned because of the Party Congress held that month. But the empty camps needed a new workforce. The People’s Safety Ministry arrested many others and created a fresh population for the camps.

In October the U.S. State Department released its annual International Religious Freedom Report. North Korea was again listed as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for its severe violations of religious freedom, along with seven other nations. The report states:

The government deals harshly with all opponents, including those who engage in religious practices it deems unacceptable. Religious and human rights groups outside the country provided numerous reports in previous years that members of underground churches were arrested, beaten, tortured, or killed because of their religious beliefs. An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 persons were believed to be held in political prison camps in remote areas, some for religious reasons. Prison conditions were harsh, and refugees and defectors who had been in prison stated that prisoners held on the basis of their religious beliefs were generally treated worse than other inmates.

In the harsh, repressive environment of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (N. Korea), many of our brothers and sisters are getting the worst of it because their faith marks them as enemies of the state.

Massacre of the Innocents, Giotto

We would do well to remind ourselves of the dark side of this Advent and Christmas season we have now entered.

Jesus was born into a country ruled by a brutal foreign power. His people had returned from exile only to find themselves under the thumb of the occupying Roman authorities. In addition, pretender “kings” like Herod and other local governors cooperated with the invaders to guarantee their own personal safety and self-aggrandizement. The threat of a new ruler’s birth prompted Herod to slaughter innocent children in Bethlehem. Jesus’ own family fled and were forced to dwell as refugees in Egypt until the danger subsided. Within a generation after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome’s armies after the Jews rebelled in The Great Revolt and sparked the First Jewish-Roman War.

As you think about these things, take a few moments to read Jeremiah 31. Matthew quotes this verse from the prophet in Matthew 2, when he tells of Herod’s cruel decimation of Bethlehem’s male children:

Thus says the Lord:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
she refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more. (Jer. 31:15)

Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem, Rembrandt

But don’t stop there. This verse has a context. All around this vivid description of suffering and sorrow you will find God’s loving promises:

I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Again I will build you, and you shall be built (v. 3-4)

See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north,
and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,
among them the blind and the lame,
those with child and those in labour, together;
a great company, they shall return here.
With weeping they shall come,
and with consolations I will lead them back,
I will let them walk by brooks of water,
in a straight path in which they shall not stumble (v. 8-9)

Their life shall become like a watered garden,
and they shall never languish again. (v. 12)

I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. (v. 13)

Keep your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears;
for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord:
they shall come back from the land of the enemy;
there is hope for your future, says the Lord:
your children shall come back to their own country. (v. 16-17)

With these words and promises of hope fresh in mind, let us pray for our brethren in North Korea, and in all parts of the world where injustice is the rule and persecution the accepted practice for the treatment of our faith family and neighbors.

Almighty God, heavenly Father…

Let our hope not be put to shame when we pray to you for all who suffer at this time.

…Go through bars and fences to those who are imprisoned for the sake of your name; strengthen them for a good witness, and let them not waver in the confession of Your name. Teach us through their example, and the example of so many holy martyrs, to be ever watchful of the confession of Your Son’s name. Let us not be put to shame when the evil foe lays his hand on us. But if it is Your will that we be persecuted for confessing Jesus as our Lord and only Savior, then support us in Your grace that we may withstand all trials, and grant us peaceful rest; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

• From The Treasury of Daily Prayer, p. 1307

Garden of Gratitude, Caroline James

A Prayer of Thanks
By Chaplain Mike

Thank you, Lord,
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…

For life itself, the gift I take most for granted.

For my baptism and introduction to the Gospel when I was but a helpless, trusting infant.

For my family and my heritage.

For my birthplace and upbringing in a good, prosperous, and free land, as part of a generation that lacked for little.

For an incredible variety of friends and experiences over the years.

For protecting me during the foolishness of my youth.

For guiding my steps, though I have been almost totally clueless when it comes to making choices in my life; somehow a way has always been set before me.

For my teachers, formal and informal, who have been second only to my family in shaping my life.

For a spiritual awakening in my teen years that kept me from being a statistic.

Course for Gratitude (detail), Spurrier

For my family—my wife, children, and grandchildren—for whom my heart aches and breaks and prays each day.

For baseball, game of my life.

For the Marx Brothers, Bogart, the Wizard of Oz, Woody Allen, It’s a Wonderful Life, and all the characters I’ve met and alternate worlds I’ve entered through darkened rooms.

For music, joy of my life.

For Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and all my muses.

For a calling to ministry, the never-ending well of the Bible from which to teach, and the many opportunities to serve that have come my way.

For all the churches that taught me how to be a pastor more than I taught them how to be congregations.

For Luther, in all his tenderness and storminess, and his unyielding focus on Christ.

For the life-affirming privilege of working with the dying and their families on a team of remarkable people.

For hearing me when I pray Kyrie Eleison at the beginning of each worship service, and for Word and Sacrament to nourish me with all pilgrims as we journey on.

For one true holy catholic and apostolic church—even when it looks hopelessly shattered in a billion pieces.

For grace beyond measure, hope without end, and a Savior to whom none can compare.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Chaplain Mike

P.S. My list would not be complete without saying “thank you” for Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk. Without his gracious gifts of friendship and trust toward me, you would not be reading these words.

May God bless Denise, Clay and Taylor, Noel and Ryan on Thanksgiving Day and every day to come.

And thanks for Jeff and all our IM contributors, and you our community of readers. I’m grateful for each and every one of you.

Hear my prayer, O God;
Give ear to the words of my mouth. (Psalm 54:2, ESV)

You can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it. (Matthew 21:22, NLT)

They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. (Acts 2:42, The Message)

Hold a square dance night at church and prepare to have to push back more tables to make room for everyone. Having a chili cook-off? Set up twenty more tables than you were counting on. The guest preacher with a bestselling self-help book coming to your church this Sunday? Expect a packed house.

Announce a time of prayer, and all you’ll need is the toddler Sunday school room. And you’ll still have room for a couple of overflow tables of chili-eaters.

Are we not commanded to pray without ceasing? Is our Bible not filled with verses exhorting us to pray? Do we not see Jesus taking time away–often–to pray? Then why is prayer such an afterthought in American churches and for American Christians? I add the qualifier “American” because of the stories I hear firsthand of Korean Christians packing churches nationwide every morning for 5 am prayers. What is that they know that we don’t know? Or, more to the point, do they believe something we don’t believe?

If we American Christians really believed God hears and answers our prayers, we would be praying. We would be spending our time and energy in a much different manner if we thought Jesus meant it when he said anything we pray for we will receive. Why wouldn’t we? Annie Dillard laments the lack of belief in her essay, An Expedition To The Pole. “On the whole I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it?”

We must not believe. Or, if we believe, we must not care. Because if we believe and we care, we would pray. Right?

Is prayer emphasized in your church, or is it an afterthought? You know, after the last song is sung and everyone is gathering their stuff and ready to head to lunch, someone announces, “If you need prayer for anything, one of our elders will be up front to meet with you.” Maybe someone goes up for prayer, usually not.

Does your church have a regularly scheduled time of prayer separate from a regular worship service? If so, how many participate?

Has your church ever had a time of 24/7 prayer for a week or more? Were all of the time slots filled?

How often does your teaching pastor speak on prayer?

Am I the only one who wonders why we are not a praying people?

I just don’t get it.

On Sundays, we hear the Gospel reading from the Revised Common Lectionary. Sometimes, I share a message based upon this text. On other weeks, I ask you to share your observations for us all. Today, we’ll be teaching one another again.

Today’s Gospel
How many times have we had this desire in our hearts, if not on our lips—“Lord, teach us to pray!”? As Jesus leads the way to Jerusalem, and as his friends learn what it means to be his disciples; as the opposition increases and the road gets more challenging, there comes a point where it becomes absolutely necessary to talk about this all-important aspect of life.

This is what it means to be a Christian—to have a conversational relationship with the living God. From the earliest chapters of the Biblical story, when people “called upon the name of the Lord” and “walked with God,” to today, his people live in this world while maintaining communication with the One who dwells in invisible reality all around us.

Luke 11:1-13 (GNT)—

One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.

Jesus said to them, When you pray, say this:

Father:
May your holy name be honored;
may your Kingdom come.
Give us day by day the food we need.
Forgive us our sins,
for we forgive everyone who does us wrong.
And do not bring us to hard testing.

And Jesus said to his disciples,
Suppose one of you should go to a friend’s house at midnight and say,
Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread. A friend of mine who is on a trip has just come to my house, and I don’t have any food for him!

And suppose your friend should answer from inside, Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything. Well, what then? I tell you that even if he will not get up and give you the bread because you are his friend, yet he will get up and give you everything you need because you are not ashamed to keep on asking.

And so I say to you: Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For those who ask will receive, and those who seek will find, and the door will be opened to anyone who knocks. Would any of you who are fathers give your son a snake when he asks for fish? Or would you give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? As bad as you are, you know how to give good things to your children. How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Teaching One Another
Some observations and comments on today’s Gospel for you to think about as you study and meditate on this text:

• The “Lord’s Prayer”. . . is a prayer for people who are following Jesus on the kingdom-journey. . . . This is a prayer which grows out of the mission of Jesus himself. (Tom Wright, Luke for Everybody, p. 135)

• The prayer Jesus teaches his disciples authenticates his prophetic mission, for it shows that what he proclaims and performs in his ministry expresses the deepest reality of his own relationship with God. (Luke Timothy Johnson, Sacra Pagina: Luke, p. 179)

• Life is lived more effectively when one appreciates where history is headed. In the context of eternity, our temporal requests make more sense. (Darrell Bock, NIV Application Commentary: Luke, p. 309)

• So how should one approach prayer? Jesus has told us what to pray, but how should we come to the throne of grace? Since God is holy and the Creator of the universe, should he perhaps be approached rarely and only in moments of dire need? Such thinking is dead wrong. We should pray with a spirit of dependence and humility, looking for God’s gracious provision. Jesus therefore goes on to present a parable that emphasizes that God is approachable, gracious, generous, and ready to hear our requests. (Bock, p. 310)

I hope this has primed the pump. Now it’s your turn to help us learn what it means to pray. “Lord, teach us to pray!”

Editor’s Note: Alan Creech is a longtime friend, sponsor and contributor to the Internet Monk community. I asked Alan, in light of recent news stories about celebrities and gang members wearing rosaries, to help us understand the true usage of this oft-misunderstood piece of Christian “gear.” You can visit

By Alan Creech

First of all, I want to say that I’m honored to have been asked to write a little something on the actual Internet Monk blog. I guess I have been a part of this little “family” of sorts for a while. It’s just cool to be able to put up a post.

Michael Spencer was my friend. He was always very supportive to me, and I’m grateful for that. Even though he certainly had his issues with the Catholic church and some of her belief systems, he was, as I liked to call him, the great “Pimp” when it came to my little rosary business. He went so far as to rake in quite a number of negative comments and posts written about him for his support of the “demon beads.” He was persecuted for his support of me. Thanks, Michael. Oh, and pray for me.

So – the Rosary – that’s what this is supposed to be about. Jeff Dunn asked me to write a bit on what the rosary is all about, or how it is really supposed to be used, in light of a couple of recent articles he passed my way. For some context, you might read through these two articles:

Heavens! Will this lot of crucifix-wearers enter the Pearly Gates?

Rosaries a popular gang tool, not often for prayer.

I won’t try to write a review, really, for both these articles. I did read them. The first, I didn’t care for much. The tone was a bit harsh and judgmental for me, and from someone who didn’t seem to know enough about what he was talking about to even be mild and judgmental. A rosary is not a “crucifix,” man, and a crucifix has a Jesus on it, therefore making it not simply a “cross.” A little homework might help.

And I don’t care to discuss who may or may not be going to heaven because of what they wear around their necks. I’ll say this:  it doesn’t offend me to see celebrities or whomever wear these items. I have no idea if they know what they mean or if any faith accompanies them inside the person, and neither does anyone else. I hope so, but I have no way of knowing and am certainly not in any position to pass judgment on anyone.

Maybe it’s like people who come to church only on Easter and Christmas (we see this a lot in Catholic circles). I’ve personally sat near some of them who were drunk at the time, presumably from parties they had just been too before Midnight Mass. Here’s what I think – better they come to church even with the smell of alcohol reeking from their pores. It says something:  Perhaps that they have at least some acknowledgment of God inside them. Better they are there for at least a little while, to hear His Word, to maybe feel His Presence, who knows. It could be one small part of an opening of their hearts to a real relationship with Him. Maybe it’s the same with wearing a rosary as jewelry or a cross or even a crucifix. I’d like to think so.

Rosaries aren’t typically meant to be worn as jewelry, by the way. They are for holding in your hands to use in prayer. You see them hanging from some monk or nun habits sometimes, big ones. That’s not really “jewelry.” I’m sure it’s symbolic and perhaps they actually use them for prayer. Some might wear them as a faith symbol, if even to themselves, under their clothes, but again, typically this is not how they’re used.

The other article was a bit more intelligent. Someone did a bit of research, it seemed. Of course, I know nothing of Latin gangs and how they identify themselves to each other and rival gangs. Wearing a rosary seems an unfortunate way to make yourself or your rank known as a gang member. I suppose they’re just grabbing something that’s a part of their culture, something not so obvious to police and school officials, and using it in a new and “creative” way. Was the rosary developed to be used in this way? Well – no. I think I can safely say they were not. Bad boys, bad boys, whatchya gonna dooo? Wear a rosary, I reckon. Silly.

So, what are they for – rosaries I mean? Basically speaking, the rosary is a prayer and meditation tool. That’s it. That’s what it is – what any set of prayer beads is, whether you call it a “rosary” or not. My understanding is that long before St. Dominic and his vision played a role, there were simpler forms of prayer beads developed for use by monks who were reciting the 150 Psalms… daily – used in order to count them off. They were also used by illiterate brothers and sisters in some of these communities in order for them to help pray 150 Our Fathers while the others were reading the Psalms. This is likely the origin of a set of beads known as the Pater Noster cord, “Pater Noster” meaning “Our Father” in Latin.

The Orthodox also use prayer beads in sets of different numbers, usually used to pray the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, have mercy on me, a sinner.” There are different forms of that prayer, some even more simple. It’s a wonderful, simple, meditative prayer to use to focus your mind on Christ and Who He is to us.

Many Anglicans also use a form of the rosary of their own. I believe this is a much later development. The full Anglican rosary is set up in four “weeks” of seven beads each, separated by four “cruciform beads,” named so because they form a cross when connected as you look at them. There are several ways to pray the Anglican rosary.

The Catholic rosary, typically, is a set of five “decades” (sets of ten beads), separated by “Our Father beads.” There is a crucifix, usually, at the end of another section of two Our Father beads and three more standard beads. On these decades, on each bead, is generally prayed the Hail Mary: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the our of our death. Amen.” While praying the decades, one is supposed to be meditating on the story of the Gospel, the life of Jesus. These are called “mysteries.”There are “sorrowful mysteries,” meditating on particular sorrowful events in the life of Christ, “joyful mysteries,” and several others. So, as I said, it’s a tool for prayer and meditation.

Another interesting factoid:  Catholics are in no way obliged to pray the rosary. It’s a very popular devotional tool, approved by the Church, but it’s not something we have to do. Some Catholics are rosary people and some aren’t. And so, though there may be a set way to pray the rosary, in general, you may use the tool in a number of ways.

I’m a fan of using it in a very abbreviated way – not necessarily saying all the little prayers in between the beads or even necessarily using the “mysteries,” although they are a very helpful thing. I have no problem asking for the Blessed Mother’s intercession, for myself or for someone else as I pray for them too, so yes, I pray the Hail Mary. The Our Father (the Lord’s Prayer) is something I believe we can all agree on, thinking about what we’re saying as we pray. And I love the Glory Be: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.” I personally use a one-decade rosary that I keep in my pocket, and that’s how I pray it. Sometimes I start as if I’m praying the Divine Office – “O God, come to my assistance. O Lord make haste to help us.” Then to the Glory Be, the Our Father, the ten Haily Marys – Our Father and Glory Be again. Sometimes I use the Jesus Prayer on the ten beads – again, a great meditation prayer.

I hope that was at all helpful in sorting out what rosaries, or any prayer beads for that matter, are for. Like any kind of devotional practice, some can and will become a little too fixated on that one thing as the greatest way of all to pray, etc. Whatever the tool we’re using to help us pray, we should probably avoid such fixations. Balance is a good thing. There are many ways to pray, and many tools to help us pray and focus our minds and hearts on God. The use of prayer beads is one of them, and a good one for many of us.

In conclusion, let us pray something we can all pray together, I hope…

“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.”

Noted by Chaplain Mike.

I’ve been distracted lately from my reading of Eugene Peterson’s new book, Practice Resurrection, a conversation about spiritual maturity from Ephesians.

Tonight, I came back to it, and found this story. Sublime illustration.

Two friends, Fred and Cheryl, went to Haiti twenty-five years ago to pick up a child they had adopted. Addie was five years old. Her parents had been killed in a traffic accident that left her without a family. As she walked across the tarmac to board the plane, the tiny orphan reached up and slipped her hands into the hands of her new parents whom she had just met. Later they told us of this “birth” moment, how the innocent, fearless trust expressed in that physical act of grasping their hands seemed almost as miraculous as the times their two sons slipped out of the birth canal 15 and 13 years earlier.

That evening, back home in Arizona, they sat down to their first supper together with their new daughter. There was a platter of pork chops and a bowl of mashed potatoes on the table. After the first serving, the two teenage boys kept refilling their plates. Soon the pork chops had disappeared and the potatoes were gone. Addie had never seen so much food on one table in her whole life. Her eyes were big as she watched her new brothers, Thatcher and Graham, satisfy their ravenous teenage appetites.

Fred and Cheryl noticed that Addie had become very quiet and realized that something was wrong—agitation…bewilderment…insecurity? Cheryl guessed that it was the disappearing food. She suspected that because Addie had grown up hungry, when food was gone from the table she might be thinking would be a day or more before there was more to eat. Cheryl had guessed right. She took Addie’s hand and led her to the bread drawer and pulled it out, showing her a back-up of three loaves. She took her to the refrigerator, opened the door, and showed her the bottles of milk and orange juice, the fresh vegetables, jars of jelly and jam and peanut butter, a carton of eggs, and a package of bacon. She took her to the pantry with its bins of potatoes, onions, and squash, and the shelves of canned goods—tomatoes and peaches and pickles. She opened the freezer and showed Addie three or four chickens, a few packages of fish, and two cartons of ice cream. All the time she was reassuring Addie that there was lots of food in the house, that no matter how much Thatcher and Graham ate and how fast they ate it, there was a lot more where that came from, she would never go hungry again.

Cheryl didn’t just tell her that she would never go hungry again. She showed her what was in those drawers and behind those doors, named the meats and vegetables, placed them in her hands. It was enough. Food was there, whether she could see it or not. Her brothers were no longer rivals at the table. She was home. She would never go hungry again.

My wife and I were told that story twenty-five years ago. Ever since, whenever I read and pray this prayer of Paul’s [Eph 3:14-21], I think of Cheryl gently leading Addie by the hand through a food tour of the kitchen and pantry, reassuring her of the “boundless riches” (Eph 3:8) and “all the fullness” (3:19) inherent in the household in which she now lives.

Practicing the Resurrection, pp. 159-160

And that’s how a pastor teaches and illustrates the Scriptures.

A classic IM post by Michael Spencer (4/07), presented by Chaplain Mike.

Every time I feel like I have lost my way in the Christian life, I find myself back looking at monasticism, and the lessons I learned in two decades of reading Thomas Merton.

I’m not attracted to Catholicism, but I am very much attracted to the tradition of self-conscious, disciplined spiritual formation into a disciple of Jesus Christ. This is a great failing of our side of the church.

As much as we Protestants talk about being shaped by the Bible alone, most evangelicals are thoroughly formed and shaped by the communities where the Bible is handled, taught and practiced according to a “rule” or accepted authority, and by the media that supports and communicates the values of that community.

It is, without a doubt, one of the most appealing and positive aspects of Catholicism that it is self-conscious about its “rules” and authorities for spiritual formation. (Rule as in “way,” as in The Rule of Benedict.) It surely must be humorous to knowledgeable catholics to look at the various sects, denominations and varieties of evangelicalism and fundamentalism, all claiming to “just read the Bible.”

For a large portion of my recent evangelical journey, I have found myself wandering between three varieties of evangelicalism:

1) Southern Baptist fundamentalism
2) Evangelical Calvinism
3) Generic contemporary evangelical revivalism

All of these communities could be characterized as shaping the spiritualities of believers according to largely unwritten rules and authorities.

The closest thing you get to self-conscious spiritual formation among most evangelicals: Jabez, PDL, or an evangelism course. Or a cruise.

It’s occurred to me that at least two of these streams have done much to shape me in the belief that pursuing polemic argument is a primary expression of discipleship. I have been affected by this kind of spiritual “rule,” and when I step away from it, the effects are very obvious.

Lots of time is taken up in finding error, pointing out error, justifying the seriousness of the error (even if it is in a non-essential area), and responding to the error with the proper arrangement of Biblical material.

It’s amazing how many Christians conceive of almost the entirety of discipleship in terms of argumentation. This is seen in the pastoral models they choose, the books/blogs they write and the spiritual activities they value most (debate and classroom lecture.)

These largely unarticulated forms of spiritual formation can be seen in what is not important. I note with interest that one simply cannot say enough bad about most kinds of contemplative prayer, and any sort of silence among many of the reformed particularly. Any kind of intentional approach to spiritual formation, and any kind of intentional approach to discipleship (Dallas Willard, for example) is undertaken amidst a barrage of criticism. If the imagination is mentioned, all fire alarms are pulled and a search for Oprah Winfrey ensues.

Me thinks the lady doth protest too much.

The “fully formed” Christian in these traditions is not a person of silence, but of much talking, talking and more talking. Worship is lecture, a rally, or an emotion-centered event. The primary encounter with the Bible is exposition and lecture. Correcting theological error, moral error and ecclesiastical error is the main business of the church.

In other forms of evangelicalism spiritual formation is done under the guise of church growth and using ones “gifts” to grow the church. Or perhaps in the cause of righteous, upright living in the culture war. Again, the kinds of prayer, worship, community life and worship that are generated by these priorities are obvious to most observers, but largely invisible to the participants.

In all the years I was reading Merton’s spiritual direction writings, I can’t recall anything I would call polemic of any kind. He simply didn’t waste his life arguing with others. He read scripture constantly, but as the stuff of prayer, liturgy and meditation, not as the raw material for debate. He went through the “political years” when he was critical of his church for not living up to his standards of peacemaking and justice, but in the end it was the ancient life, the deep life of monastic rhythms that sustained Merton and made him a man and a monk. He worked on himself for a lifetime. Some will say because he didn’t believe in the reformation doctrine of justification. Perhaps. Maybe, however, the path of personal spiritual formation isn’t as instant, passive or automatic as we’ve been told.

I’m not holding Merton up as an ideal. Far from it. I’m simply saying that when one’s spirituality is formed by the pronouncements of pastors who are constantly chasing church growth, the culture war or the latest challenge to Calvinism, you are going to get one result, and when you go back to the sources, find the value of the ancient paths of formation, value silence, read, meditate, contemplate and seek to grow in love, you will get another result.

I can’t help but think there is an “internet Christian” spirituality as well. Formed by reading blogs. Expressing itself in writing. Concerned with all the perceptions of reality that run rampant on the net. I’m sure this isn’t a good thing either.

Spiritual formation happens in the real world. It’s not just reading, but it’s discussion and asking questions of those further down the road. It’s having leaders who are humble before the Word, and not leaders who take the word and become the pictures of arrogance. It’s seeing your sin in the light of holiness, not excusing your sin in the light of the latest crisis.

Much evangelical spirituality has become like fantasy baseball. We have our own league, our own team, our own statistics, our own insulated world in which all of this matters. We can give great speeches and write long posts (and I am the chief of sinners here) on what doesn’t matter much at all. These days, we don’t all get our 15 minutes of fame, but we can all worship a pastor, go to a winning church, opine on a blog, imagine our arguments are significant in the world.

Meanwhile, we start to look and act more like a fantasy league junky, and fewer and fewer people have any idea what we are talking about.

Here’s where I have come out on this:

Get the devotional books out. The old ones.

Read Peterson, and Nouwen, and Groeshel, and Bonhoeffer and Whitney. With a group of others who care about the same things.

Turn it all off for a couple of hours every day.

Find the silence.

Chew up, meditate over, digest the scriptures.

Repent of living in the community of unaware evangelicals who devalue spirituality and overvalue polemic, argument and debate.

Look for the sins that grow in this mess, and root them up.