Prayer

The scriptures referred to are mentioned in the text.

Apparently all animals with throats make noise. I was surprised to find out that even rabbits can vocalize. My brother was an amateur magician from his teens on and consequently we had rabbits for him to make appear in his act. I never heard them make a peep. But according to a website with videos [Here], besides thumping with their back feet to warn others, they make a variety of noises with their mouths, throats and teeth. When happy they make a purring noise, a tooth clicking noise, a honking noise, and, when they wish to mate, a humming. When unhappy they whine, grunt, snort. And they scream when in fear for their lives. Evidently, our rabbits were content to let my brother do all the talking.

Humans make quite a lot of noise. Rather than merely communicate our mood or general danger, we can pass on detailed and even quite abstract information when we open our mouths. I think it is this ability to relay precise instructions that accounts for the amazing level of cooperation we humans display in ordering our civilization. When hunting, for instance, packs of canines rely on everyone's instinct and intuitive sense of who has what role. When we need to do something together, we can say, “When I am here and do this, you need to be there and do that.” No guesswork.

Yet when we talk to God, we sometimes get tongue-tied. We think we need to use special formulas or forms of address. Some people switch to King James English. Some folks in an attempt to be informal seem to be addressing a deity named “Lord Wejus.” As in “Lord Wejus thank you for this time together. And Lord Wejus praise your name. And Lord Wejus ask you for your blessing.”

And I get it: it is intimidating to address the Creator of everything, who is also the judge of all thoughts, words and actions. You don't want to mess up. But language is not as important as the heart is. As Jesus said, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:7-8)

What helped me most with my prayers was a Broadway musical. I first saw Fiddler on the Roof when visiting the college I eventually went to. And I was touched by how Tevye, not a rabbi but a Jewish milkman, talked to God in a conversational tone. And I thought, “Of course! If God is love and God is our creator, what he cares about is not how we talk to him but that we talk to him. And since he knows our hearts there is no reason to try to disguise what we really think or feel.”

And basically that is how I talk to God. I spit out what is in my heart, expressing it in my own terms. And as it turns out, that is what we see in the Bible, too. Because of the way it gets rendered in translation, the language in any English Bible tends to sound consistent, even though there were at least 40 authors contributing to it. So you would never know how bad is Mark's Greek or how rudimentary is John's or how elegant is Luke's. 

Also crude language in the Bible tend to be covered over with euphemisms. In Isaiah 64:6 the prophet says, in the King James version, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags...” The actual word used means a menstrual cloth. And when Paul says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ.” (Philippians 3:8) The word rendered “rubbish” actually means “dung or crap.” In Mark 7:19, Jesus, talking about how mere food cannot defile a person, says, in the NIV, “For it doesn't go into their heart but into their stomach and then out of the body...” What he literally says is that it then goes into the privy or sewer. I will spare you other examples but the fact is that the Bible's language can be elevated and it can be earthy. Just like that of ordinary people.

It follows that God is more interested in what you mean rather than exactly how you say it. And there are no restrictions as to what you talk about. The Psalms cover almost the entire range of human emotions, from inspired to sad to triumphant to crushed to angry to content, and everything in between. In one Psalm alone, Psalm 137, written during the Babylonian exile, the composer goes from mourning the fall of Jerusalem and enduring the mocking of their captors who demand they be happy to wishing a blessing on whoever takes the babies of Babylon and smashes them on a rock! It is shocking but it is honest. All I can say is that it is better to admit to such feelings than to act on them.

Psalm 13 (NET) goes, in its entirety, “How long, Lord, will you continue to ignore me? How long will you pay no attention to me? How long must I worry, and suffer in broad daylight? How long will my enemy gloat over me? Look at me! Answer me, O Lord my God! Revive me, or else I will die! Then my enemy will say, 'I have defeated him!' Then my foes will rejoice because I am upended. But I trust in your faithfulness. May I rejoice because of your deliverance! I will sing praises to the Lord when he vindicates me.” That's quite a number of mood swings over just 6 verses. It starts with complaints about God ignoring the author, traditionally considered David. It turns to demands: “Look at me! Answer me, O Lord my God.” It descends to near despair: “Revive me, or else I die!” But then it turns to quiet confidence: “I trust in your faithfulness.” And it ends with a slightly passive-aggressive promise: “I will sing praises to the Lord when he vindicates me.” And, it seems, not before then.

That psalm has some fire in it but there are those that sound like a soul crying from the pit of deepest depression. One that we recite on Good Friday is the one that came to Jesus at his darkest hour, Psalm 22 (NET). “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? I groan in prayer, but help seems far away. My God, I cry out during the day, but you do not answer, and during the night my prayers do not let up.” The psalmist recalls how in the past his ancestors were rescued by God when they cried out. Then he goes on to say, “But I am a worm, not a man; people insult me and despise me.” He feels mocked by others and threatened. “They open their mouths to devour me like a roaring lion that rips its prey.” The author's depression manifests itself physically. “My strength drains away like water; all my bones are dislocated; my heart is like wax; it melts away inside me. The roof of my mouth is as dry as a piece of pottery; my tongue sticks to my gums. You set me in the dust of death.” But eventually the writer turns to trusting in God. “You are my source of strength....You are the reason I offer praise in the great assembly.” And the psalm ends with a call to praise God. “Let all the people of the earth acknowledge the Lord and turn to him! Let all nations worship you! For the Lord is king and rules over the nations....A whole generation will serve him; they will tell the next generation about the sovereign Lord. They will come and tell about his saving deeds; they will tell a future generation what he has accomplished.”

I'm not going into all the psalms of praise because we are talking about Lenten disciplines. Last week we spoke of self-examination and repentance. And so let us speak of the penitential psalms.

Sometimes we screw up so badly we react in fear when facing the consequences of what we have done. Psalm 6 (NET) begins, “Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger! Do not discipline me in your raging fury! Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am frail! Heal me, Lord, for my bones are shaking! I am absolutely terrified, and you, Lord—how long will this continue?”

Perhaps the most famous penitential psalm is Psalm 51 (NET) which is David confessing to his adultery with Bathsheba and his ensuring her husband's death by putting him in the frontlines and having his support withdraw. He starts by pleading, “Have mercy on me, O God, because of your loyal love! Because of your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! Wash away my wrongdoing! Cleanse me of my sin!” He admits his sin: “For I am aware of my rebellious acts; I am forever conscious of my sin. Against you—you above all—I have sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. So you are just when you confront me; you are right when you condemn me.” He knows what kind of person he is. “Look, I was guilty of sin from birth, a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.” He knows what kind of person God wants him to be. “Look, you desire integrity in the inner man; you want me to possess wisdom.” He knows that he can only get to be that person with God's help. “Sprinkle me with water and I will be pure; wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven! May the bones you crushed rejoice! Hide your face from my sins! Wipe away all my guilt! Create for me a pure heart, O God! Renew a resolute spirit within me! Do not reject me! Do not take your Holy Spirit from me! Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance! Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey!” He resolves to change his ways. “Then I will teach rebels your merciful ways, and sinners will turn to you. Rescue me from from the guilt of murder, O God, the God who delivers me!” Notice than he is not vague about his sin. He gives it its proper name and acknowledges it. “Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your deliverance. O Lord, give me the words! Then my mouth will praise you.” As Paul says when words fail us, the Spirit in us will speak to God for us. (Romans 8:26) And Jesus said when we speak before others we can trust the Spirit to teach us what to say. (Luke 12:12) David also knows that external rituals are not what God wants when we sin but internal change, a change of heart. “Certainly you do not want a sacrifice, or else I would offer it; you do not desire a burnt sacrifice. The sacrifices God desires are a humble spirit—O God, a humble and repentant heart you will not reject.” Only after that, will acts of worship and penitence be meaningful. “Then you will accept the proper sacrifices, burnt sacrifices and whole offerings; then bulls will be sacrificed on your altar.”

Again when you pray you need not use the words of the Bible or written prayers; what counts is that they come from the heart. But sometimes prayers and passages from the Bible or other sources say exactly what you want to say. Feel free to read or recite them. Or you can start with a written prayer as a jumping off point and then continue spontaneously.

Prayer is just speaking to God and it is also one of the most neglected spiritual disciplines. And yet when no one else will listen, God will. When you hesitate to confess your deepest darkest secrets and feelings and deeds to others, you can confess them to God. It's not like he doesn't already know them all. And he is willing to forgive anything at all, if you simply admit to it and ask for help in changing the direction of your life.

Returning to my epiphany while watching Fiddler, I noticed that as soon as Tevye said anything, he seemed to know what God's response would be. When bemoaning the fact that his oldest daughter and the poor tailor had pledged themselves to each other, breaking the tradition of having a matchmaker find them a spouse, Tevye says, “On the other hand, did Adam and Eve have a matchmaker?” Then he pauses, a light goes on in his eyes, he looks heavenward and says with a smile, “Yes, they did. And it seems these two have the same matchmaker.” That's how in tune a humble Jewish milkman is with his Creator.

We know in general what rabbits mean when they vocalize, but if there are any nuances only other rabbits pick up on that. But when we speak to God in prayer he gets it all. Not only did he create us, he has become one of us. Jesus knows exactly what being human is like. He knows anger, frustration, pain, depression, betrayal, mourning, being misunderstood, facing unreasonable opposition, not getting through to your friends, finding yourself alone, even having others take control of your body and harming you when you are helpless. There is nothing we can suffer that he does not understand on a level deeper than any other person.

Your prayer life might be perfunctory. It might be practically nonexistent. This Lent let yourself go in prayer. Open your mouth, open your heart, tell God exactly how you feel. And then listen. What would Jesus say? Maybe he will just hold you until the pain and anger and sorrow seep away. And in his embrace, you may find an answer too deep for words.