TO MERELY PRAY? I was given the privilege of preaching at an ecumenical service held at a Catholic church around the corner from us on Good Friday. I had great fun with three other preachers at the hour-long service. At our conclusion, we prayed this prayer. I have two thoughts on it for the next post, but I offer it to you here to see what you glean from it.
"We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to end war; for we know that You have made the world in a way that we must find our own path to peace within ourself and with our neighbor.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end starvation; for you have already given us the resources with which to feed the entire world if we would only use them wisely.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to root out prejudice, for you have already given us eyes with which to see the good in all people if we would only use them rightly.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end despair; for you have given us the power to clear away the slums and to give hope if we would only use our power justly.
We cannot merely pray to You, O God, to end disease, for You have already given us minds with which to search out cures and healing, if we would only use them constructively.
Therefore, we pray to You instead, O God, for strength, determination, and will-power, to do instead of just to pray, to become instead of merely to wish."
--Jack Reimer, Likrat Shabbat
2 comments:
b4 i even saw the source citation at the end of the prayer, i thought to myself "this sounds very jewish." it reflects the concept of a sort of jewish post-millenarianism, that the messiah will appear after israel does its job right. for example, the messiah will come today if all jews would pray the shema or honor the shabot. on the one hand, there is a clear sense of vocation and empowerment to participate in god's renewal of creation. on the other hand, there seems to be an understanding of sin that is not binding to humanity. much of what this prayer says is absolutely true -- god gives us the means to be the vessels of renewal (except, i would say in respect to many diseases). yet despite our gifts to participate in the tikkun olam, we never will get it right until the messiah comes in god's glory to reign among us. that event should be the devotion of our prayer.
My two thoughts on the post are:
1) (along with Kevan), I agree that God has positioned us to handle many of the things that we pray for. Sometimes the movement to pray can be seen as a substitute for harder sacrifices that we can make to remedy the very situations that we pray for. We merely pray for the end of poverty, and I pray that God lowers gas prices for my gas-guzzling truck. Could God be leading me to a different choice? "Mere prayer" cannot be a good substitue for active involvement when God has positioned us to be involved in the places where God is reigning. We merely pray for the end of poverty with Starbucks cups emptied by our sides.
2) yet, Jesus tells us that only some problems can be remedied by prayer (Mark 9). If prayer is one of the primary ways to communicate with God and for God to communicate with us, wouldn't prayer be a first move in the remedy to any situation? This isn't mere prayer but fervent asking and wondering of where and how God will use us as God remedies the situations we have in our lives. Prayer becomes then participation in God's reigning activity.
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