I remember when I first joined the Episcopal church, I learned that we were part of the Anglican communion; a worldwide organization of the Anglican church whose figurehead was the Archbishop of Canterbury. One of the things that I remember being very moved by was the knowledge that for the most part, worship in the Anglican communion looked fairly similar from place to place, because we all used the Book of Common Prayer in some form… and so, even when we travel to other places, worship would be recognizable from place to place; even if we didn’t necessarily speak the language of the church we might be in, we would still know what was going on. I remember thinking one morning as I read the prayers for our service of Morning prayer, that while I was sitting alone in my livingroom, that I was not saying those prayers by myself… because of the prayerbook and how we do worship throughout the church, there were others reading the same scripture, praying the same prayers… they were members of religious orders saying prayers in community; they were small gatherings of church members dashing into the sanctuary to pray together before work; groups of retired folks gathering before coffee; seminarians in chapel, and some like me, saying the prayers of the community by themselves, joining their prayers with the greater community… I also remember being quite moved by thinking about how the prayers of the greater community moved through time and space; that as it became morning in other time zones, different members of the communion would begin the same prayers, and hear the same scripture; prayers would move across the world in a gentle wave, embracing everyone and everything as the wave of prayers passed through.
As a priest I am soaked in the prayers of the church, and I try to have a rule of life that keeps me attentive to my prayer life which like all of us can always use a tuneup. I spend a lot of time with people who, like me, are trying to be better at the spiritual thing. As part of those conversations, I get asked about prayer a lot… We all long to be able to pray, to connect with God in some way that makes sense,,, and then still others wonder if they should even bother; they wonder if God even cares.
I don’t think I can convince anyone just how much God does care; I think that we only know that deep in our hearts, minds and souls if we ourselves have experienced that God cares: it’s not something you can really learn from someone else; it’s something we have to know for ourselves, and it’s really something we usually learn through prayer…
Prayer can happen in so many ways; we have the formal prayers that we say together in community; some enjoy the experience of God as they hike outdoors or just sit and enjoy their environment; for some, we have to go off alone and take time… even Jesus does that in today’s reading; for some the silence is where God is found… and still for some, prayer becomes Peter’s desperate cry for help in a time of great fear or danger… it’s all prayer; it all matters; some of our most profound and honest prayers are the cries of despair that have no form… something that I have learned about prayers in community, is that even in those times when I feel that I cannot pray, I know that the wave of prayers that lives and moves over the earth carries me…
What I tell people who ask me why I pray, is that I pray because I need to. I imagine that when Jesus went to a deserted place to pray, he did it because he needed to. I imagine that often he was tired, having given so much of himself to others that he needed the quiet and the reassurance that prayer gives, that he was doing what he was supposed to… and isn’t it often the same for us? We can get so bogged down by noise and activity that is unhealthy…. I love my gadgets… but I think many of us spend too much time connected through our phones and our computers and not enough time unplugged and in silence…. how many of us turn the TV on just to have background noise because we can’t quite handle the silence? What are we afraid might happen?
What might happen is we might pray… and worse yet… God might answer… and when God answers, that often means that we have to do something…if prayer is the way we have a relationship with God, we know that in any relationship worth having, we have things we are compelled to do with and for the other person…and prayer is not just about us as individuals and our own personal relationship with God… it is certainly that, but is is also about our relationship with creation and with all of God’s children everywhere. When we open ourselves to prayer, we open ourselves to being touched and changed… we open ourselves to our own longing for God, and for God’s longing for us… we open ourselves up to the longing of all of creation and all people for love, mercy, forgiveness and peace…
Beloved, whether you pray the formal prayers of the church, have informal talks with God, or meditate in silence… pray… prayer is what joins us together and helps us to act upon creation as God wants us to act… prayer is what makes us who we are… prayer is what strengthens our love for God and allows us to know how much we are loved.
The world is in pain right now…the stories aren’t particularly new ones; there is war, and famine, and killing God’s people. Sometimes it feels overwhelming, because it is overwhelming. So, I ask you to pray… pray the prayers of the church, joining the never ending wave of prayer that embraces the earth… pray the simple, honest prayers of Peter, “Lord save me…” Lord, save us… sit in silence knowing that God is found in silence, and that our over-busyness can keep us from knowing that God is there… pray because it is what makes us who we are… pray because you long for God… pray because others cannot… pray because God longs for you… pray, because the world needs prayers… pray because it matters… for the love of God, just pray.