Introduction.

Prayers are a significant part of public church services. They can also form an important part of one’s personal life. Some people engage in praying frequently and regularly. For some it is a formal, repetitive experience, performing the same ritual at the same time each day; for others it can be a long or short intimate time of spontaneous, deep reflection/sharing. For some it can involve significant searching for a way through the maze of life, while for others it may be the outpouring of grief, sorrow or thanksgiving. For many it is a time of self-reflection or contemplation of one’s particular situation.

This paper concentrates on prayers used in public church services and how these might impinge on individual worshippers. There are many different sorts of prayer we use in public worship. I comment on prayers of intercession, thanksgiving, confession and adoration.

My background includes leading worship regularly as a clergyman for many years. I have now retired but I attend worship regularly and still conduct worship infrequently. I believe we need to re-think the content of our public prayers and re-word some of the commonly used phrases that have become so familiar to church congregations. I refer to some of these at the end of this paper.

I offer these comments for your thought.

Intercession

I have been involved in a ‘Prayer chain’, praying for someone in a life threatening situation. I have, on very rare occasions, experienced the feeling that ‘something’ beyond myself has been ‘present’ with me in a traumatic situation. Like many of my friends, I have, in the past, sent a ‘quick prayer up to wherever’ when I have been confronted by an urgent situation of stress, hoping for some flash of insight, for some calming of my spirit, for some quiet guiding to see me through. Whether these feelings or longings have made any physical or material difference I have no idea. But I think they made a psychological difference and who knows what other difference. I and many others have experienced comfort and support in times of strife, comfort and support that comes from who knows where. Many would answer that it comes from God.

When people know they are the subject of prayers by others, when people know that they are being prayed for by a ‘chain’ of concerned people, when people realise that they are the centre of other peoples’ positive thoughts and silent prayers, it may sometimes make an important difference. It may even contribute to the ‘healing’ or ‘calming’ process. Who knows? It is all a total mystery to me. That is why I remain open to various ways of thinking and practice regarding prayer, especially private prayer. Who am I to discourage people’s desire, in whatever way may be helpful, to seek some personal support and comfort, be of support to their family, to their friends or even to strangers in times of trauma?

Some have lived all their lives with the belief in a loving god who ‘comes’ in times of trouble. Many have experienced the ‘everlasting arms’ of this love upholding them, ‘renewing their strength’, enabling them to face tomorrow. Who am I to question this experience of support and comfort? Who am I to query such a connection between beliefs and the way people tackle life’s difficulties? Many of us remember verses in the gospels where Jesus, according to the gospel writers, said such things as, “Come unto me all who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Numerous believers have gone to such verses and found in them an assurance and a promise that may have been the difference between ‘giving up’ and ‘enduring to the end’. Who am I to suggest this is not authentic living?

I have baptised infants who have been in imminent danger of dying. Mothers have come to me on a few occasions, frightened that their newly born baby might go to hell if not baptised. [What an absolutely disgraceful teaching by parts of the Christian church!] As a matter of pastoral concern I have, without question, baptised the unfortunate infant and in the process, I believe, brought comfort to the mother. I have, at times joined in the ‘laying on of hands’ in a ‘healing’ service when a person has requested that I be involved. Again, as a matter of pastoral concern, I would never separate myself from such a demonstration of compassion and concern for the one who is stressed or in need of support.

I would not go so far as some clergy who say they no longer believe in intercessory prayer but I think we need to be as clear and as unambiguous as we can, when we talk about such things. For me there are intercessory prayers and intercessory prayers. I have experienced in public worship that some can be like a basket of requests for a god to intervene and ‘fix up’ things. Some of these intercessory prayers are little more than a Father Christmas wish list. Some seem to be cajoling or urging a god to do something and to do it quickly. Some of these intercessory prayers are a ‘coverall’ prayer asking this god to bless everybody and make everything right. I don’t believe in these sorts of intercessory prayer and I will not participate or lead worshippers in such.

However, if the intercessory prayer encourages us to think positively about someone, if the prayer invites our love to surround that person, if the prayer in acknowledging the suffering of the person, challenges us to do whatever we can to stand with that person in their suffering, if the prayer suggests ways of possible prevention of similar suffering to others in future and/or if the prayer alerts us to situations of suffering we may not otherwise be aware of, then I would participate and lead worshippers in such an intercessory prayer.

I was once told that the only intercessory prayer that is effective is the prayer that challenges us to be responsible and sensitive in our time, place and situation and to enjoin others that they may be the same in their time, place and situation. I personally find that helpful but I think our prayers for others can go a bit further than that.

Having already canvassed the request for, and the participation in prayers for others when actually in the situations of trauma and suffering, and having stated that I believe pastoral concern is absolutely paramount at such a time, I wish to look at such prayers more dispassionately when we are not emotionally caught up, when not immediately confronted by a grieving mother or a family who are searching for comfort and support. Although dangerous to do so, because it could be misunderstood as lacking compassion, I still wish to look at these prayers dispassionately, particularly from the perspective of those for whom ‘the prayers have not worked’.

In doing this, I think we need to speak a lot about God because our beliefs about and our approach to God determine to a great deal what we think about prayer and what we think we are doing when we pray. We often hear in church services, ‘Let us come to God in prayer.’ or ‘Hear our prayer, O God, and in your ….. answer us.’ What lies behind these statements? What concept of God underpins our approach to prayer? Throughout this paper I will take time out to present my underlying beliefs about God and how these affect the basis on which I continue to pray.

On this point, one modern writer of theology, Gretta Vosper, in her book With or without God on page 28, states:

“We are not forced to deal with big issues if our created belief system designates a divine being as the origin of all blessing and curse in our universe. With such a being in place, we can passively turn to it with either thanksgiving or lament, depending on what the day has unfolded for us.”

Some people turn to this ‘being’ for all manner of reasons however, I’m not sure that believing in such an almighty God who is a separate supernatural being, in control of everything and who dishes out rewards and punishments, necessarily leads that believer into thinking that this absolves them from the responsibility of living a loving life, caring for others, etc. However, there are many people in our churches today, who attribute to God the good things that happen and they give thanks to God for them. It seems however, that many of these people are reluctant to also blame this same god when bad things happen.

Gretta Vosper continues:

“Following any natural disaster, newspapers are filled with stories and pictures of people thanking God for their survival. The feeling is natural but the attribution is problematic. It is as though they are utterly oblivious to the loss or death of their neighbours, of children and the elderly – who have succumbed to the conditions…. We must listen to the words we so commonly use, and hear within them the silent implication that if God chose to save us from the flood, God must have also chosen not to save the person who drowned next door.”

That seems to me to be a totally reasonable conclusion for those for whom intercessory prayer ‘has not worked’, even if they do not attribute to a god the bad things that happen. It is not that this god has done something bad. It is just that this god has not done enough good. If this god has saved certain people from disaster or has healed certain people miraculously or has enabled certain people to escape injury, why then has this same god chosen others not to be ‘protected’ or healed or escape injury? It is not that people attribute curses to this god. But this reasonable analysis remains – If this god chose to save/or heal some then this god has also chosen not to save or heal others.

Whenever some are chosen, in any situation for whatever reason, then there are always others who are not chosen. Choosing always creates a ‘them and us’ situation.

Inevitably, then comes the question – Why? We humans are always looking for causes or reasons for things. We are always asking the question, Why? – even from childhood. We want to solve the mystery. We don’t like unanswered questions, uncertainty.

If this god is thanked for survival or healing or whatever, it is presumed that this god had something to do with it. Otherwise why thank this god? For some people this god is the whole answer and for others, at least part of the answer as to – Why? If there is an answer or at least part of an answer as to why some are saved/healed, it is most reasonable for the same question be asked about those who were not saved/healed. This, I think is where some church people, usually unconsciously, un-thinkingly can be unhelpful or even cruel.

The argument can sometimes go this way:-

It cannot be God’s fault that some person was not saved or remains un-healed, because God is all-loving. God always wants the best for all God’s children. It must therefore be the fault of the person not saved or the fault of the people praying for the person who was not saved or remains un-healed. It can’t be God’s fault.

Recriminations can begin. Not always, maybe not frequently, but by no means rare. “The person suffering didn’t have enough faith.” or “You’ve got to pray believing.” or, “Those who were praying didn’t have enough faith.” Even if this is not actually said, by implication it is often understood to be present. It’s called: ‘Blaming the victim’.

However well-meaning this approach may thought to be, it is cruel! The person suffering or the people standing by and trying to support the suffering one, do not need guilt heaped onto them as well. They have enough to cope with as it is. But because we continue to ask the question – Why?, because we wish to solve the mystery, at least partially, and there are no clear and unambiguous answers that are satisfying, some find themselves going deeper into their pain because just maybe they are the cause of the lack of saving/healing. It just might be their lack of faith. It just might be that they are not praying in the right frame of mind. Etc., etc. Guilt is added to pain. It happens! This depends on what one believes about God, at least to some extent. What sort of god are we talking about?

I think that one of the reasons for some insensitive beliefs about this matter are still abroad in the church today, is because of the reluctance of some church leaders to confront these difficult questions even when far away and significantly separated from the emotionally charged situations.

Most people, most of the time, want to be helpful and considerate of others but unfortunately, sometimes their beliefs get in the way of this happening. Some beliefs are based on the ‘rewards and punishments’ approach to God. The above cruel, insensitive attitudes often arise from an emphasis on the ‘judgements’ of God. Good faith, strong faith, right faith is rewarded. Lack of faith, wrong faith is not. Often lack of reward can border on punishment. I do not believe this is the Gospel nor do I find it in the teachings of Jesus.

An important reason to risk thinking more deeply about this issue, I believe, is that people for whom intercessory prayer has ‘not worked’ are often forced into silence. We are told that it is not a good thing to question a person’s belief if those beliefs are a source of strength and comfort. It is deemed unhelpful to diminish or question the comfort others receive from ‘wherever’. Beliefs are sacrosanct. They should not be questioned. So most of these people for whom intercessory prayer has ‘not worked’ are forced into silence; they remain mute. Sometimes they suffer in silence, unable to accept their situation but also not able to voice their feelings for fear of upsetting someone for whom such prayers ‘have worked’.

Recently in a church weekly news sheet there appeared – “Thank you to all who have prayed for the recovery of my husband from … Our prayers have been answered. He has recovered.” Others in the same congregation have partners with serious conditions and for whom many prayers have been prayed, have not recovered. I have been told by these people how guilty they feel, how inadequate their faith must be because their prayers have not been ‘effective’ – like those mentioned in the news sheet.

If we do confront these situations and attitudes/beliefs we are calling on people to look again at the question of God ‘intervening’ and this can be very threatening to many church people. If God doesn’t make things happen or prevent other things from happening, who or what does? Someone must be driving the bus! If we can’t pray to God for help what can we do?

If we can’t answer these questions we are left with too much uncertainty. We are left without the security based on what we have believed and what the church has taught us. After all many of us remember the regularly quoted ‘saying’ of Jesus, “Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you.”

To continue with the quote from Gretta Vosper’s book:

“We explain the tragedy of death by assuring ourselves that God, in love, took the deceased home to heaven. It is crucial that we peel away the interventionist deity concept from our belief system and face reality. We are the origin of blessing and curse in our world, not some otherworldly deity – not in Christianity, not in Judaism, not in Hinduism, not in Islam, not anywhere.”

That is hard! And because it is so hard, I think, we avoid thinking this way. I believe the above quote puts the issue in cold hard terms but these are the terms in which this complex issue can be properly addressed. I believe very firmly that we are responsible for much of the blessing and curse we experience in this world.

Another suggested part of this picture is the behaviour of nature. Nature is sometimes thought of as being the source of blessing and curse in our world. We don’t control nature but surely God does!! God, we have been taught, is almighty. As stated before, ‘If God doesn’t make things happen or prevent things happening, who or what does?’ Someone has to be driving the bus!

To quote from Gretta Vosper again:

“Some might look at hurricanes and landslides and want to add nature as co-creator of blessing and curse, too; despite the fact that lately we’ve been found to be terribly responsible for what Nature has been handing us. I would agree that what nature doles out is neither blessing nor curse – it just is.”

What is, is just what is. I think we need to accept this. This is not fatalism – that everything is pre-ordained – but it is an acceptance of the things we cannot control, as just happening, maybe for no particular reason, certainly with no consideration of what the implications are for humanity. Nature behaves according to the ‘laws of nature’, those dictates which have evolved with the earth, our solar system and the rest of the cosmos over many billions of years. Now, it just is, and when we humans ‘get caught up’ or affected by nature, chance or luck is at play. To think otherwise and give a decision-making ability to nature, whereby it can decide to punish or reward, is nonsense. Again, some dangerous religious leaders suggest that God who rewards and punishes, uses nature to execute these judgements. The results of the so called ‘Acts of God’ in nature are so random, that to suggest that God has a decisive hand in them, is to suggest a type of god that I would have nothing to do with at all.

As Rabbi Harold Kushner says in his book ‘When bad things happen to good people’:

“When bad things happen the question is not, Why?, but, Now that it has happened what are we going to do about it?”

Gretta Vosper then asks a few piercing questions:
“Can one’s concept of a guiding, loving God be a source of help to them in difficult situations? Absolutely. Does everyone experience it this way? Of course not. Should the church declare and guarantee not only that an omnipotent, omniscient god helps everyone in this same way (When clearly it does not) but that everyone should seek guidance from it? Absolutely not. Could the church help us to figure out how to choose to be a blessing instead of a curse? How to open ourselves to another’s plight instead of retreating into a guarded self-protection? How to open our hands instead of closing them whether we believe or not in God? I certainly hope so. If not, we might be sunk.”

I believe that we are the channels of love to the world; we are those who can bring about justice and equality; we can give comfort and support.

From Process Theology – A basic introduction by C. Robert Mesle. “Every person incarnates the divine call – i.e. incarnates God – to some degree.” I try to say this in the following lyrics.

God’s Incarnation
 
Tune Lauda Anima (Praise my soul) VU 240, 312, 399

We can be God’s incarnation
When we live in love and peace;
God’s own kingdom is reflected
When all wars and conflicts cease;
With the promise
Of true justice
We may see God’s reign increase.

We can be God’s incarnation
When we care for all around;
God’s own kingdom is reflected
When in kindness we are bound;
In our living
And our giving
God’s own action can be found.

We can be God’s incarnation
When we link with Galilee;
God’s own kingdom is reflected
In our life and ministry,
When with Jesus
We find purpose
Bringing love to victory.

If we don’t decide to live lives of compassion there is no point talking about a god of love. If we don’t work for justice there is no point talking about a god of justice. If we don’t support those who are suffering, there is no point talking about support a god can give.

I need to say more about my concept of God and in particular how this affects my approach to prayer and praying. I make a few quotes from the New Testament but I do not do this as using ‘proof texts’.

‘Yet He is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being’ Acts 17: 27b-28. ‘One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.’ Ephesians 4: 6. ‘Though God has never been seen by any man, God Himself dwells in us if we love one another…’ 1 John 4: 12 and ‘God is love; he who dwells in love is dwelling in God and God in him.’ 1 John 4: 16b. There are many other New Testament comments about ‘Christ’ being in us; etc. etc.

I make these quotes, not to try to prove my approach to God is correct, but to demonstrate that it is consistent with at least some Biblical teachings.

If we speak of God within the human situation, I wish to use the word ‘involvement’, not ‘intervention’. I think the two are very different. If God is ‘involved’ then ‘intervention’ makes no sense at all. It has no place. If God is within us all then God is involved when we are involved and God may not be involved when we are not. We participate in the decision as to whether God is involved through us, or not. We limit God’s involvement or extend and enhance God’s involvement by what we do.

If we no longer attribute happenings to the ‘intervention’ of God then we need to start again when thinking about God. This is not easy; it’s hard!!

In my paper, ‘A Trinity’, I speak of God as being Beyond, Within, and Between. I try to explain what these words mean in terms of my personal experience of God. In particular God Within for me, is the totally and continuously inherent mystery in all life, in my life and yours, by which we experience the promptings and guidance to live abundantly and responsibly.

I do not think of God as a separate being, creator, etc. and often spoken of as though God was a person. In relation to prayer this raises serious questions. These include: Who do I pray to if God isn’t a person? How can I pray to a mystery, an abstract? Can I thank God if God is not a person? How can I thank a mystery, an abstract? Can I ask God for anything if God is not a person? Can an abstract, a mystery comfort, guide or support me? These are very serious questions.

I suppose I have arrived at a similar place that most people of faith and an open mind arrive at: that place where one is lacking complete answers but where one still has questions and wishes to ‘grow in their faith’. Here it is that one can state what one believes, what one experiences. If one does not arrive at the place where one is confronted by mystery with a capital M, then possibly one’s questioning needs to go deeper.

I can’t give comprehensive answers to these above questions but I am suggesting a different way of continuing ‘the journey’. I address them with my different beliefs about God – different to what I have been taught over many years by the church. Those pervious beliefs are now totally inadequate for me. They are inadequate because of the flood of scientific information now available to us about the cosmos, the profound new insights of modern Biblical and theological scholarship and because of my rejection of dualism – heaven and hell, as well as the anthropomorphic (human-like) pictures of God. This extra information and new insights as well as these rejections have led me in a very difficult search for a ‘new starting point’ regarding my beliefs. While respecting the theological imperatives of the Bible and most orthodox teachings within the church as being helpful and instructive for past centuries, most of them no longer bear fruit for me in my search for relevant set of beliefs regarding prayer and the practice of praying. However, I believe growth and maturation has occurred.

I now build my beliefs about prayer on my concept of God Within. I quote from my paper on the Trinity:

“God within is my experience of God as my conscience, the good inner voice prompting me to generosity and thankfulness, challenging me to be thoughtful and sensitive to others, guiding me to make loving decisions, gently affirming that I am OK, helping me to forgive my ‘dark’ side and try again, encouraging me with energy to live abundantly. Jesus tells me about all this. He struggled, doubted, was tempted, was insecure and became disillusioned like the rest of us. He was happy when things went well. He grieved. He was human but he and the stories about him also point to a true humanity that cooperates totally with, and completely uncovers God within. And so, because I can involve myself in decision making, I can co-operate with this intrusion/influence, God within, or work against it. I can let it be exposed or I can keep it inoperative and hidden.”

And again I quote from my paper on the Trinity:

“If I live and move and have my being in God, as I believe, and God lives and moves and has being in me, then this announces God within. There is a divine dimension to humanity, my humanity and yours. This is universal and not the possession of just a few. There is a divine dimension of me, you and all that exists.”

When we use the word ‘God’ we can be referring to an external being, almighty and in control of everything, but separate and ‘other’, whom we call upon particularly in times of stress and difficulty. Many people do. But we can also use ‘God’ when referring to that good, mysterious internal influence/experience that we all have from time to time. It is that ‘divine/sacred’ dimension of our own being as a human. This understanding/concept of ‘God’ is what I mean when I refer to God Within. Both these different beliefs, I think are individual beliefs about God and not ‘objective’ definitions of reality or the absolute nature of God – not to be proven but experienced. Both try to address the Ultimate Mystery. Neither explain it fully.

Regarding, the bus and who is driving it; I do not think of God as the driver but as a co-passenger, in and with each one. Whether, in this metaphor, the bus is being driven through the beautiful countryside with lovely views on each side that we enjoy, or whether the bus has just crashed through a safety rail at the top of a cliff and is plunging to a rocky, tragic disaster below, God is in and with each one. We, the passengers, are not alone. God is not the author of the accident but God is in us, with us in the event. God suffers. God is ‘involved’ in our suffering and our good times. If we die, we die into God. If we live, we still have our life, our moving and our being in God. This for us, I believe, is God Within.

I wish to develop this idea of God Within to the extent of suggesting that God Within is present when we involve ourselves in ‘self-talk’. And we are all involved in ‘self-talk’ all the time. We sometimes say, “I talked myself into it.” I believe this is literally true. After thinking about a matter for some time, we eventually come to a decision. It might take some internal debating with ourselves, but ‘We talk ourselves into it.”.

Sometimes I have said, “Well. Part of me says that I agree but another part of me isn’t so sure so I’m not altogether convinced by your argument.” I am involved in ‘self-talk’, not audibly but certainly internally. Sometimes we might say, “Well. I had better think about that before making my decision.” We become involved in self-talk.

To take this ‘self-talk’ idea to somewhat absurd extremes – We are always talking to ourselves when driving a car. Instantaneously, most of the time, but we go through the process of self-talk. We say to ourselves, “There is a 60 km restriction sign. I had better slow down a bit. I will take my foot off the accelerator.” It happens in an instant, automatically. We take our foot off the accelerator and we slow down.

We don’t think of it as talking to ourselves but that is what is actually happening. Many of these sorts of actions are performed so often that they become automatic and our mind is, one might say, in neutral.

We go through this process every time we do something. Our brain has to tell the various parts of our body to do something and they do it, hopefully. We go through this process every time we make a decision. I understand this to be ‘self-talk’.

The more important the decision, the more significant is the ‘self-talk’. Forming our opinions, I believe, involves us in ’self-talk’. Taking significant action in our lives may involve discussion with other people – to get advice or more information – but I believe it also involves us in significant ‘self-talk’ – taking on board or not, new information, etc.

So to prayer.

Prayer is very serious, intentional ‘self-talk’, and God Within for me, is totally involved in this. This talking goes on internally, between myself and that good inner voice which is inherent in me. I call this inner good voice, God Within. It is the sacred part of what makes me human. This conversation/reflection goes on most times before any action I might take. I am talking to myself; the inner part of myself, the divine dimension of me. This ‘self-talk’, conversation with God Within, may lead to action but it may lead to taking no action.

Prayer as ‘self-talk’ is very intentional. If we regard prayer as ‘self-talk’, it is a human exercise which does not need to involve a separate, outside being called God. For those of us who are panentheists, (Those who believe that this universe is God-saturated – that God is everywhere, in all things, at every time and place) God Within is involved. God Within can influence our ‘self-talk’ by being part of our internal conversation.

As I have already quoted from my Trinity paper:

“God Within is my experience of God as my conscience, the good inner voice prompting me to generosity and thankfulness, challenging me to be thoughtful and sensitive to others, guiding me to make loving decisions, gently affirming that I am OK, helping me to forgive my ‘dark’ side and try again, encouraging me with energy, to live abundantly.”

This concept of God Within announces for me, the divine dimension of humanity. We can think things through and allow God Within to be involved or we can ignore God Within. Some would say this is our conscience. We can take notice of it or ignore it. Our reaction to our conscience leads to different sorts of behaviour. This ‘God conversation’ continues whenever the good, the healthy, the generous, the forgiving, the thankful, the challenging, the holy spirit within us, is heard by us. I have written many lyrics about this sort of conversation.

Divine Persuasion

Tune Bishopgarth Not in VU
Presbyterian Church Hymnary (1927) No 370 Methodist Hymn Book (For Australasia and New Zealand – 1933) No 964 – Second tune

Dr Val Webb states: ‘God is imaged metaphorically as Divine Persuasion – call it conscience, heart, ground of being, Love – working within us and the world towards richness and wholeness.’

Divine Persuasion urges us, “Make life-enriching choices.”
At every time in every place hear silent sacred voices;
As thoughts divine direct our ways and with us earth rejoices;
We move to wholesomeness enhanced by life-enriching choices.

Divine Intention prompts us to a way of love and justice;
The challenges enable us to bring about, through service
The reign of God, the prize of peace, and all that life can promise;
We move to wholesomeness in life by way of love and justice.

Divine Involvement permeates the essence of our nature;
Provokes, entices, sponsors us to forge a wondrous picture
Of human worth and dignity in every race and culture;
We move to wholesomeness and find the essence of our nature.

And again:
God Within

Tune Ar Hyd Y Nos (All through the Night) VU 227, 433

From beginning to each ending
God is within.
Human and divine keep blending;
God is within.
In our coming and our going,
In our learning and our knowing,
As we struggle in our growing
God is within.

When supportive help is needed
God is within.
When our limits are exceeded
God is within.
When life is a hopeless jigsaw,
When we cry we cannot take more,
When downtrodden we survive, for
God is within.

When we cease from being greedy
God is within;
When we look to serve the needy
God is within.
When we use our wealth for sharing,
When we stand with those despairing,
When we live our lives in caring
God is within.

When we act with human virtue
God is within.
Strive for fine ideals we value,
God is within.
When we guard and guide each other
With compassion, we uncover
Our true self and we discover
God is within.

This internal God conversation or serious ‘self-talk’, can lead to godly behaviour.

This concept of God points me in the direction of ‘involvement’ rather than ‘intervention’. It makes prayers of intercession different, in that I am not asking God to intervene and do something but I am being challenged to involve myself with God and ‘allowing’ God to be involved through me in bringing about positive change.

Again I take recourse to my lyrics.

Praying – Living values

Tune Lauda Anima (Praise my soul) VU 240, 312, 399

When I pray I feel more deeply;
Reaching out with thanks and praise;
When I pray I think more deeply;
Pondering life’s puzzling maze;
When I pray I live more deeply
In the values love conveys.

When I pray I can’t act badly
Giving way to grim deceit;
When I pray I can’t be angry,
Wishing for some vengeance sweet;
When I pray I’m far more ready
To befriend each one I meet.

When I pray I act intently
Showing kindness, patience, grace;
When I pray I strive intently
Seeking justice for each race;
When I pray I toil intently
Building peace in every place.

When I pray I speak more clearly
To affirm the ones who fail;
When I pray I give more freely
To the poor, infirm or frail;
When I pray I live more fully,
And in God I can prevail.

Thanksgiving.

When dealing with thankfulness, I think that being thankful and giving someone thanks engenders the same inner human feelings/emotions. The experience is the same. Here again I have problems with ‘thanking God’ for ‘his’ blessings. If I attribute to God the good things that happen to me, then I have the problem that such good things may not have happened to others. Why is this so? Does God favour me and not favour others? I think not!

If I am thankful, the feeling, the human emotion is the same but I am not suggesting that God has favoured me over others. The emotion of feeling thankful and the act of giving thanks is often natural and spontaneous. However, sometimes we need to be intentional about our thanksgiving. We need to prompt ourselves or be prompted into giving thanks. I believe this ‘prompting’ comes from God within.

We can be thankful that someone has had a safe journey, that the bush-fire did not burn our house down, that an operation was successful, that a growth is not malignant, that the weather is what we want it to be, that we were not injured in the motor vehicle accident; and so on.

In life, it is often very appropriate to thank some other human being. Some of the ‘good’ outcomes in life can be attributed to the activity of others. In the case of an operation we can give our thanks to the surgeon. In the case of a safe journey we can give our thanks to the bus or train driver or air pilot. In the case of a bush fire it may be most appropriate that we give our thanks to the volunteer fire-fighter.

But there are happenings in our lives for which we can just be thankful, sometimes profoundly thankful. Sometimes a ‘good’ outcome is pure luck, sometimes just our good fortune. And we say, “Thank goodness”. A growth not being malignant will generate relief and then thanksgiving. That is a matter of our good fortune as well as, possibly, good diet, avoiding smoking, etc. Our self-talk can be, “I am so thankful.” In the case in a motor vehicle accident, we can be thankful we were in the back seat and luckily walk away from the accident uninjured. If we had been sitting next to the driver we would have been killed. If we thank ‘someone’ where does that leave the person who was killed and others associated with the person killed? Is it also appropriate to blame that same ‘someone’?

Being thankful, thankful self-talk, is good for the soul, our inner being. When we are thankful in a thoughtful way, this is a prayer of thanksgiving. This is thankful self-talk but we are not thanking ourselves. We may not be thanking anyone else either but in our self-talk we are still being thankful. We are thinking in a thankful way. We don’t necessarily need to thank ‘someone’ however, thankful self-talk can prompt us to give thanks if and to whom it is due.

Thankful self-talk can be similar to being pleased about something. Being pleased can often give rise to giving thanks. Being pleased, being thankful is an inner psychological experience/emotion.

What do you think a prayer of thanksgiving is? Is it possible to be thankful without thanking someone? I think so.

For me, all this points to mystery, particularly when sometimes intentional deliberate actions are mixed in with good fortune or bad. To accept the mystery as mystery and not to try to answer the question, Why? can be, I believe, life affirming as well as realistic. To pursue an answer, however enticing that process may be, or however partial that answer may be, I think can lead to unhelpful conclusions which often can present an extra burden for people experiencing grief or loss. I admire immensely those who can accept what life deals out and then eventually continue to affirm life again even with all its vicissitudes.

Let us be thankful for the good things and work to enhance life thus making more good things happen. Let us rejoice in the good things that happen, even the ‘miraculous’, the unexplainable, the mysterious.

But let us do it in a way that does not raise negative implications for other people who are in situations that are not good. Let us do it in a way that does not create, even by implication, a ‘them and us’ picture.

Let us do it in a way that encourages hope and not despair, hope and not guilt. Let us do it in a way that is not bolstering up our particular set of beliefs and again by implication, suggesting that others who do not share these beliefs, are ‘missing out’ or who are in some way deficient. Let us rejoice and be thankful and leave it at that.

Confession.

When we move to confession, this is possibly the most serious self-talk. Self-examination can sometimes lead to self-rejection. If it leads to self-rejection it is accompanied by guilt and guilt is one of the strongest human emotions. We have done or said something wrong or we have not done or said something that we feel we should have done or said and we feel guilty.

If guilt takes over we might feel we could make an endless list of our failings and our wrong doings. We are reminded of many of these in the prayers of confession in many church services. These prayers are often very detailed, listing the sorts of ‘sins’ we are told we have committed and these listings are often accompanied with short responses like ‘Forgive us Lord.’ or ‘We confess these our wrong doings.’. These responses help us own the sins being listed. These prayers often end with a longer response like, ‘We have sinned against you in thought, word and deed. Lord, hear our prayer and in your mercy forgive us.’ If we listen to these prayers, we are left in no doubt about how guilty we should feel. This prayer is usually followed immediately with a pronouncement of God’s forgiveness but I often wonder if this has the impact that is desired. I would hope so.

Many of the hymns we sing in church leave little doubt in our minds about how sinful we all are. There are practically no hymns in our traditional hymnbooks which suggest there is anything good about humanity. We sing about our weakness and helplessness, that we are members of Adam’s fallen race. One hymn I remember from my youth has ‘Before thy throne we sinners bend’ sung in every verse. When singing this hymn I was left in no doubt about how bad I was. That hymn did continue with a request to God for forgiveness however I remember that these further words didn’t help me much.

The main traditional Christian emphasis that has been taught in the church through the centuries is that the cross of Jesus was necessary to pay the price for our sin. The sacrifice of Jesus, I have been told, was necessary to enable God to forgive my sin, as well as everybody else’s. This leads to two main emphases of traditional Christian theology; that of the great love of God to initiate such a sacrifice and the great sin of humanity that made it necessary.

‘Confession is good for the soul’ we are told. I believe this is true but one might also add, ‘All things in moderation.’ We need to find a balance. Maybe we need to accept that we are both good and sinful; that we do have a bright side as well as a dark side.

Confession could well be one of our deepest and most searching forms of self-talk. With self-examination we are sometimes reminded of things that are not the way we would wish them to have been. Our past is not perfect. We know this. And because we are not perfect, we know we could be better people.

When we intentionally think this way, the self-talk is our prayer of confession.

I believe God Within is involved in all this self-talk with us. We are prompted by our beliefs in ‘the good’ and thus, by the comparison we make between ‘the good’ and what we think of ourselves and our behaviour, God Within prompts us to accept our shortcomings and also accept that we are accepted as we are. God Within is the prosecution and the judge; but God Within is our defence. God Within is in the ‘dock’ in us. God Within is the forgiveness and the erasing of our criminal record. God within is the challenge to improve our performance. Jesus conditions my beliefs about God Within.

Adoration.

What can adoration mean if there is no ‘separate, external. supernatural being’ to adore? How can a prayer of adoration be prayed if there is no ‘being’ to adore? I go to my concept of God Beyond.
 
Again I quote from my paper on the Trinity:
‘God Beyond, for me, is that ‘More’ outside me but not distant from me and in a sense not separate from me; inherent in me but in no way limited to me. God Beyond is that which keeps me together but keeps everything else together as well. God Beyond is the Life Force within all that lives, including me, but not limited to me. Other people, trees, ants, rocks, moons, stars and galaxies, microbes and bacteria—all that is outside, beyond me is God Beyond. God Beyond is God that everything has its being in. The phrase God beyond is appropriate because nearly everything is beyond or outside of me.’

‘God Beyond is the Source of, and the all-pervading creative energy sustaining all that is, whether there be only one or even multiple universes. This energy has been there before and at least for 13.8 thousand million years. It is everywhere in the expanding universe and saturates all that is and is to come.

God Beyond must be benevolent simply because many thousands of different things needed to have happened in sequence and now be in place, for human life to come into being. It took thousands of millions of years for little me to emerge, for the atoms and molecules that are thousands of millions of years old, but which come together to form me. What a marvel! What a benevolent miracle! If all these thousands of occurrences did not happen in the sequence they did and how they did, I would not be here! This is benevolence par excellence!!

Not that it all happened because I was the end result being sought or the purpose for it all happening. Rather it is that I happen to be part of the fortunate end result, maybe the inevitable result of the evolutionary processes which are basic to the whole universe. My efforts at thanksgiving are totally inadequate. Remaining speechless is probably far more appropriate. Awe is my response to this mystery.’

Again I take recourse to my lyrics:

In awe and thankfulness

Tune Rivaulx VU 629

For God inherent and within,
That sacredness when we begin,
In awe and thankfulness we raise
Our hymns and prayers in grateful praise.

For God in process, movement, change,
In all things common, also strange,
In awe and thankfulness we raise
Our hymns and prayers in grateful praise.

For God involved in space and time,
In all things normal and sublime,
In awe and thankfulness we raise
Our hymns and prayers in grateful praise.
For God engaged, both day and night,
In pain and that which brings delight,
In awe and thankfulness we raise
Our hymns and prayers in grateful praise.

For God immersed in all our ways,
In life, in death, in all our days,
In awe and thankfulness we raise
Our hymns and prayers in grateful praise.

And again I am speaking of the ever and always present God and not as an external being to be worshipped and adored. Before a God-saturated universe I can only stand before it in silence and awe. In the face of such a universe, for me, speaking of a creator in the terms I have become used to in the church, presents me with a concept of a god who ’is far too small’. God Beyond is totally mysterious. My response to the awesomeness of the universe, to all that is around, outside and within me, is one of praise and thanksgiving, Yes, adoration.

God is mystery

Tune Lasst uns Erfreuen VU 217

God in all galaxies beyond,
Yet in our hearts and we respond;
God of mystery shares our history;
God is the gentle breeze that blows;
In every creature as it grows;
God gives glory to our story;
God of mystery shares our history;
Alleluia.

God is beyond our wildest dreams,
Quite out of reach it almost seems;
God of mystery shares our history;
Yet we all know of God within,
Facing each day as we begin;
God in hiding, yet abiding;
God of mystery shares our history;
Alleluia.

God is the sacredness of life;
Meets us in all our peace and strife;
God of mystery shares our history;
God shares with us our human mess,
Feeling each joy and every stress;
God of trying; God in crying;
God of mystery shares our history;
Alleluia.

In God we live and move and be;
In God we find our destiny;
God of mystery shares our history;
God is the love that fills our soul:
God is the love that makes us whole;
God gives glory to our story;
God of mystery shares our history;
Alleluia.
And again:
It is so grand

Tune Woodlands VU 168

It is so grand – the cosmos with its store
Of galaxies and stars; we stand in awe;
The constellations, nebulae and more,
So limitless, no human can explore.

It is so grand – the beauty of the earth –
Abundant life; all species seek re-birth;
We look at nature; she responds with mirth;
And then we wonder at her dazzling worth.

It is so grand – the body, soul and mind –
So complex yet exquisitely combined;
Belief, thought, deed – effectively entwined
Reveal the miracle of humankind.

It is so grand – the virtues we hold dear –
Soft kindness, goodness, gentleness sincere,
Faith, hope and love which constantly appear;
And grace, compassion which helps conquer fear.

The ‘God beyond’ is always on display;
The ‘God within’ sustains us all each day;
The ‘God between’ in all our interplay;
We are so blest; we need to kneel and pray.

If we are going to make some re-orientation to the place to which I am pointing, we will need to make some reasonably drastic changes regarding some of the commonly used phrases within our present prayers, particularly those used in public church services.

I believe the words we use are extremely important, particularly those we use repeatedly. These repeated words in hymns and prayers can become an unconscious basis on which we do a lot of our ‘religious’ thinking. Many are imbedded in our sub-conscious and encase concepts which have some sort of subliminal effect on our beliefs. As with many words and concepts in our traditional hymns, I believe there are some regularly used phrases in our traditional praying that we need to abandon.

Some of these phrases are:

• Calling on God to ‘Hear our prayer’ is, for me, anti-Gospel. To use the usual ‘church talk’- God is far more willing to ‘hear our prayer’ than we are to pray. God Within is praying our prayer. What we need to say is that we need to listen to our prayer. We are the ones who need to ‘hear our prayer’. We need to take seriously what is being prayed and let it affect the way we live.

• Calling on God to ‘In your mercy, forgive us.’ To use the usual ‘church talk’ – God is far more willing to forgive than we are to confess. When it is stated, ‘We have sinned against You in thought, word and deed, and are no longer worthy to be …’, I am not sure what this means. I can ‘sin’ against myself, my ‘good’ self, by abandoning my principles, the values I hold dear. I can ignore the influence of my conscience, my inner ‘good’ voice, God Within. When this happens, I fall, I fail and do wrong, even bad things. I can also ‘sin’ against others by being hurtful, greedy, and irresponsible in so many ways. This I understand and I own all this.

I suppose the phrase above could mean that I have been disobedient; I have broken God’s laws and commandments. But these ’sins’ have to do with me degrading myself and/or de-valuing others. It is I who needs to forgive me and I need to ask forgiveness from others. Again, we need to take seriously what is being prayed and let it affect the way we live.

• Calling on God to ‘Come to us’ or to say ‘Let us come into God’s presence and …’ is to presuppose God is separated from us and that some movement on God’s part or our part needs to take place before communication can happen. Given the teachings of Jesus I think this is preposterous! One phrase, associated with Jesus, is ‘The Kingdom of God is within you.’ This saying and so many others in the New Testament record we have of Jesus, emphasise the closeness/oneness of God and humanity. John’s Gospel is awash with teachings about God in us and us in God. Also refer back to the New Testament quotes I make earlier. Do we take the teachings of Jesus seriously or do we let the out-dated two tiered universe concept (heaven and earth) take over. I think very often it is the latter. God is in heaven. We know that! We say it every time we recite the so called, Lord’s Prayer! Because of the teachings I have received from the church over 70 years, I automatically think of God as separated and in heaven, a different place. I have to deliberately stop thinking this way. Most hymns I am requested to sing in church services continually remind me of this separation.

We should abandon these sorts of phrases mentioned above and probably many others. It is totally presumptuous for us, and using the usual ‘church talk’, to think that we need to cajole or urge ‘God to do’ anything. This sort of speaking is so common in church services but we need to change. Let us replace them with phrases like ‘We are aware of your presence.…’ ‘Let us be aware of God’s presence everywhere and in this place as we …’ ‘Let us rejoice in the life of Jesus as we…’ ‘May we be conscious that we….’ ‘May we be conscious of…. and be thankful.’ ‘Let us be mindful of….’ Etc. There are many more and better words that we should embrace, particularly in public church services.

I think the church, when using many traditional liturgies particularly in prayers, has a long way to go to ‘reclaim’ the beauty, strength and relevance of prayer.

As I say in some of my lyrics:

Moving forward in belief

Tune Stuttgart VU 2, 444, 540

When we ponder what we value,
When we search our past belief,
Then we struggle to surrender
What we’ve known that’s brought relief.

Explanations are more complex
Than the answers we’ve been taught;
Wisdom from the past can lead us,
But we now probe every thought.

We are called to venture forward;
We are challenged to review
Our beliefs and our behavior;
Always seeking what is true.

If we linger and are passive,
If fear makes us hesitate,
We may find life moves beyond us,
And we can’t participate.

God inside calls us to venture;
Calls to risk and be aware;
Calls to go and meet the future;
Be assured that God is there.

My self-talk in praying would often centre on the words of the Serenity Prayer:

May I have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference;
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as a rough pathway to peace;
Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would like to have it;
Living with the hope that life is good and love can make a difference.

Grace and Peace, George Stuart March 2016.