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During morning worship on Sunday, Pastor Carolyn delivered the first in a series of messages intended to remind us of our vows as United Methodists - to uphold Saint Mark UMC with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness.
What an appropriate way to launch a new year!
Do you remember when you stood before your family and friends, your congregation, before God, and took a vow? I can. And the memory of doing so warms me, even though it is chilly and cold today in Midtown.
What Pastor Carolyn reminded me on Sunday is that – contrary to what our rational, scientific minds may tempt us to believe – as Christians we have every reason to hold fast to the promise that prayer IS truly meaningful and important.
You may ask yourself all of the questions: “how?,” “why?,” etc. It’s OK. I have too. And I still do. I haven’t lived this long and experienced this much to not have questions. To not have occasional doubts.
But here is the thing. I don’t really understand the functioning mechanics of an internal combustion engine; yet I still believe it works. I have very real doubts about the ability of planes to fly and boats to float; but I trust that they will and do. It seems to me that the world of today runs on invisible sprites and magical spirits that somehow animate these magical computing and communications devices that we carry about in our pockets.
And lest you say, “well sure, Andy, but there ARE smart people who DO understand those things,” I would remind us that even the smartest minds in the world accept that mystery still exists. In fact, the deeper and further that we explore into the universe, the more questions emerge. The farther we see, the more we know, the deeper the mystery becomes.
My point: it is OK to not understand how prayer works. I hope that we will endeavor to engage in it anyway.
God is not a cosmic Santa Claus, distributing blessings to the “good” children who offer up prayers like a Christmas naughty/nice list. At least I don’t believe so.
But I know that when my father was dying, and there was nothing more any of us could do to stave off his death or relieve his suffering from brain cancer, I still found meaning and comfort in crawling into God’s arms in prayer, letting God hold me as a beloved grandparent might hold a child during a thunderstorm. I vividly remember I asked God to tell me it was going to be alright. And God and I held space together, and I found in God’s arms an assurance that God loved my Dad even more than I did, and I felt that I could indeed trust in that deeper and all-encompassing love to preserve and care for Dad, whatever comes next.
Don’t ever tell me that prayer doesn’t matter. It may be a mystery, but it matters!
So, I join Pastor Carolyn in encouraging you, people of this place we call Saint Mark United Methodist Church, to remember our vow to support the congregation through our prayers.
- Lift up our staff, volunteers, congregants, visitors, and neighbors.
- Take your concerns, hopes, dreams, fears and visions to God.
- Ask God to help you/us to find ways to grow from your/our broken places, so that our scars may bring forth healing.
- Confess the ways in which you/we have failed to love your/our neighbors.
- Offer thanksgiving for the blessings in your/our lives.
And be innovative with how you find ways to pray. For myself, I like to carry music or poetry with me in my heart throughout the day, and allow the Spirit to enter into the conversations of my heart and soul, which – I believe – becomes a form of intimate prayer with the Creator and Christ.
Hope that you will share how and when and what prayer means for you as we begin a new year together!
I leave you with an image from our beautiful sanctuary, and with a prayer that has been on my mind since our worship on Sunday:
“One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord and to seek God in God’s temple.”
Grace & Peace – Andy
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