Hiding in plain sight; the humble prayer & pray-er

Perhaps the roots of the words "pray" and "praise" overlap somewhere in the mists of time; at least the quintessential composition of praying to God is meant to contain both elements: praise and thanks, as well as the part that usually preoccupies the supplicant, the "ask." In any event, if my growing up experience is typical, then prayer tended to be of two kinds: public, ceremonial ones in the course of worship or start of a sporting event, or else the ones around a feast table for Sunday dinner (with or without guests) or holiday time. In other words, the idea of pausing before each sit-down meal or to open and close one's wakeful day with prayer time; or equally foreign was the notion of scheduling a disciplined time for setting aside one's cares to pray for others known and those more distant in the world or the echelons of social order. And yet these private times, unadorned and low-tech (requiring little more than one's attention and care, no matter the time or place), perhaps are the core of reaching toward God and building habits of relationship. One result of frequent praying is 'normalization'; that is, praying becomes commonplace and usual, whether in a public place or not. Another result is 'practice makes perfect'; that is, the words come more fluently with practice and the ability to engage with thoughts and feelings nimbly as they dance through one's mind also grows stronger. Perhaps most important of all is the effect that repeated, frequent praying has on the heart of the pray-er (the one who prays): continued praising of God, thanking for God's goodness, and loving one's neighbors (indeed, loving one's enemies) results in a mind and heart that is ever more aware of other's needs and less so one's own. The upshot of powerful praying over long periods of one's life is a change in heart toward one ready to hear God's Will and follow. So something that a young or newcomer God-worshiper perceives at first as an inert, inactive, fixed piece of a worship service actually is the one action that a person can take to  propel his or her spiritual development forward. The humble, heartfelt prayer is so important, but is overlooked because it rests in plain sight!

It is simple - just Love Your God

Paradox: message of God is simple, but not immediately or simple to embrace and know. Sure you can go to an event, location, or ritual to see and participate, but unless your heart is in it then the meaning will escape you. Two people can see the same situation and understanding the significance very differently, one who sees only what is present at the moment and engges the physical senses; the other capable of seeing what is connected to the present, either just before or long before the moment at hand, and likewise perhaps able to foresee what is likely to follow from the moment in the next instant or even the more distant future. The same is true of entering into God's simple truth and the message of Love Your God and Love Your Neighbor as Yourself. One whose heart is well prepared can operationalize the meaning and apply it moment by moment. The other who is new to this Way perhaps cannot comprehend the depth and breadth of the teaching.

Just so the many commentaries, studies, and preaching and teaching *about* God's love: there are many verses, illustrations, parables and points of emphasis during the three year course of the church Lectionary.What is one to steer one's life by or how is one to know God better when the message from one minister differs from another, and even the same learned person will shine a spotlight on different faces of the Word of God on each occasion.

Holding God accountable to act like LORD?!

Much of the Bible's book of psalms includes calling out God for neglecting or badly handling his (chosen) people. Even Job, biblically patient though he is, challenges God. Others put their complaint in God's terms: that this mistreatment only hurts God by keeping the righteous from being and doing all they can. The question, though, is how much of one's growing relationship with God is built of reciprocity (God loves us; saves us; creates us and so we will consent to honoring this God), and how much is based on God being God;? Perhaps the relationship that one may expect with God is less about doing or tangible benefits and more about praising his name, seeking his face, loving his creatures; more existential and less transactional.

Pondering Psalms

It can be eye-opening or baffling to consider that some psalms stand alone and came about separated by many generations, but that others may be numbered sequentially and what is more, can be understood one contiguous to the other (e.g. 22 and 23). While there is some praise and exhortation, a consistent element is the  presence of conflicts or at least its suggestion ("in the presence of mine enemies..."). The ones attributed to David have the elegant voice of pundit instead of that imagined of a shepherd, his position early in life when he felled Goliath. Speaking of kings, in place of pyramids or mausolea, what customs set them apart from non-nobility; what traces do archaeologists know today?

What calls a person to enter a place of worship?

There are those who grow up at a church or other place of worship, and so the interior and its proceedings are normal and may even be craved when that person is absent from worship for a time or during life events or parts of worship year. Secondly, others may attend on the occasion of a wedding, baptism or funeral. From this experience they develop a taste for more of the place, its ideas, and people there. Eventually these newcomers may go beyond merely attending and joining selectively in fellowship to contribute materially to the worship and to upkeep of the church of the programming and initiatives. Along the way the focus may shift from knowledge about the religious tradition and more to knowing God; or at least to desiring to know God better, as well as to give care in developing relationships with God's people who worship and those outside the church body who worship elsewhere or not at all. Thirdly, there are those who accidentally ran into God through health crisis, social status crisis, or life's purpose crisis. The flipside of losing one's way or having one's lifestyle overturned is not so much an absence of earlier ways, but instead is the presence of God's wonder, awe or possibly trembling; some sort of transcending event or longing. From this point of suffering, or this point of numinosity (feeling ecstatic or being filled with God; literally, enthused) then the person has an urgent need or a nagging desire for more of this God experience and so seeks it from worship experiences ancient and current. And if the commitment is more than a passing hunger, then the person may then want to know God better by study, prayer, and communing with fellow travelers on the spiritual road.

Singing together to worship the lord

Sound has many properties: pattern, pitch, tone (color or timbre), volume, duration and directionality; and in combination with contrasting or complementing pattern-pitch-tone-volume, duration and directionality. Thus, much the fleeting quality of "dew on the grass" (to which a human lifespan is compared in the Bible), so too of music and spoken expression there is a temporary quality to it: while it is present and alive it is fully immersive and engrossing. But once the sound waves stop rippling through the air space, then nothing but soft impressions made on one's memory linger. And so the act of singing God's praises, lessons, or wonderings mirrors the human experience of relationships and common cause. It is temporary, but together the experience is deep and rich. Through this the sung, spoke and instrumentally played expression of desires for transcendent beauty and uplifting righteousness and all embracing love something happens; something difficult to articulate, but salient and able to be sensed in the shared space of the music. In other words, much as music can be a vehicle to reach to God and each other, so too of the worship time and the rest of one's day and week in relationships with others familiar or unknown. Music is an immersive "now" experience that soon fades, and so too, is waking social life and indeed the span of one's life; just sojourning to pass through this Veil of Tears.

The Jehova brand. Also, "God is too big"

Promoting the Jehova brand?

Sermon in the run-up to Lent included the idea of talking with God in the terms he uses (he knows every hair of our bodies and knows us even before we are born; his love is boundless), talking to ourselves in those same loving terms (to love yourself as you do your neighbor; or, as normally quoted: to love your neighbor as yourself), but also to talk to others in this same love-filled way. In other words, we are meant not just to fellowship with each other, but with those unloved in the wider society; to embody God's hospitality and hospitable nature; his love. We are meant to ask, "can I pray for you" or "you know that God loves you and me both."

     Jesus mingled with all and any, and most notably the diseased, distressed or unloved, socially invisible people of little worldly power or means. In his words and the record of how he used his days, there seem to be few overt references or attribution to God the Creator. He does refer to "my father in heaven" but his own teaching and healing he does one on one, not on behalf of God as some sort of agent or authorized actor who represents and promotes the God brand, making sure to credit God in things small and large.

     So by that example, we may also act one to one, without directly referencing or explaining God's place in the interaction and relationship, whether temporary or long-running. God will be in the front of one's mind and at the bottom of one's heart, possibly triggering or motivating or rewarding one's mind, but seen from the other side of the person receiving your care and interchange, it is just you (the face of God; his hands and feet). So it seems we need to step out with high hopes, good intention and filled with some joy in the knowledge of God there right beside us.

God is too big

We speak of being saved by God; of the infinity of God, but so much of our energy and intention and wondering while walking the mortal highways and by-ways is about cultivating a relationship with God - a process rather than a single harvest to attain and finish with. So really when we speak of God's place in our lives, and our places in God's world, it would be more accurate to say that we are saved by the unfolding and deepening of knowing God; that is, being saved by the relationship and the knowing of God. The better you know God and God's ways and God's world, the better also God's touch can reach you. If there is little or no relationship, then neither will there be much knowing and results from God's touch and presence in your life. In other words, trying to picture "God" is hard because infinity can't be embrassed. So it would be better to view "God" as the small part that personally has touched us and established a growing relationship with us.