“I have learned that prayer is not asking for what you think you want but asking to be changed in ways you can’t imagine. To be made more grateful, more able to see the good in what you have been given instead of always grieving for what might have been. People who are in the habit of praying — and they include the mystics of the Christian tradition — know that when a prayer is answered, it is never in a way that you expect.” – Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace
On Sunday morning, I tuned in online to the Grace worship service. Sarah, Wendy and I had talked about how to respond as Church to the events of Saturday night. As you may recall Wendy added an extra prayer with the day’s Collect – Prayer 18 – from the back of the Book of Common Prayer. It was a prayer for our nation focusing on thanksgiving and hope and acknowledging our times of not living up to God’s expectation.
Prayer is what we do! And what is it we do in prayer? To use another image from Sunday’s sermon by Sarah, we set ourselves alongside the plumb line of God’s love in the person of Christ. And we ask for God’s will to be done. We realign our perspective as we humble ourselves before our Creator.
W.H. Vanstone writes that the purpose of the Church is to be that community that recognizes how much God loves us. And that is the root of our prayerfulness.
Several years ago our formation team at St Barnabas was all set to launch a series on discipleship. We had biographies of famous folk all ready to use. And felt good about our preparation. Then 9/11 happened! The overwhelming response of the parish was to ask us to teach them to pray. This is what we do. We learn to pray and deep learning will always connect with right action. It’s never either/or. Always both/and but it starts with “Our Father”
On Sunday we gave thanks to God in honoring the ongoing ministry of intercession of one of our own, Helen Christianson. All she stands for in these terms could not be more appropriate and urgent. Join us if you can. And most importantly take up the Spirit urging and become a person of prayer and a witness to God’s love.
Bishop Alan Scarfe
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