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From Rev. Jeffrey Nunes
"The Blessings of Immersion"
One of the best ways to learn a new language is immersion. Do You recall hours in the school language lab, listening to cassette tapes of French, Spanish, or German conversations where we would play the part of one of the participants?
Going to my best friend Ramon's house was an entirely different story. Conversations about going to Jeff's house, finishing chores, and being home for dinner seemed to find translator microbes that were inaccessible in the language lab cubicles.
Sunday, we looked at the idea of being in the ocean up to our shoulders as a reminder of the vastness of God and God's love. Prayer, the trust in God's great goodness and love, can cover the earth like the ocean can cover us. There is a sense of immersion that lies in prayer. There are three scripture verses in the midst of the New Testament that cover everything, that allow us to be immersive in our faith. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says: Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
When it comes to shepherding our lives, we can rejoice in all ways. We can be nonstop in turning everything over in prayer, and we can soak every circumstance in thanksgiving.
Sundays at the Chapel we make our statement of faith that announces, "service as our prayer," and indeed every service done to build the Body is a full body prayer. The flip side is that prayer to build the body is also service.
When a child has done all they can to accomplish a task, but the task is still not done, asking for help, for wisdom, for direction, asking for intervention are all totally worth it. Is prayer not part of the stuff that makes for peace? Can we find comfort, courage, and clarity in prayer, crying out and calling out to the Lord who has done all so that we may be connected? The call of completeness, the cry of the voice, and the coming together that comes from the cry are our inheritance as the “ecclesia,” the crying out and called out ones.
The Psalms are poems and songs where we can immerse ourselves in prayer. Some of the authors of the Psalms include David and Moses and others who invested time immersed in the awesomeness of God under desert skies. Psalm 119 is an intricately crafted prayer where David immerses himself in the Hebrew alphabet. Each of the 22 sections is titled by one of the 22 letters and has eight verses that start with that letter. The First Letter Aleph is the first letter in a Hebrew word that means blessing in verses one and two.
To be immersed in prayer is to be immersed in blessing; one of my prayers is that I not only be immersed up to my shoulders, but up to my ears, eyes, mind, head, and heart, that these all find their constant home in the Lord in prayer.
Passover began last evening at sunset. Jewish people all over the world are remembering God's deliverance. The dinner they share recounts God covering what started out as a family, preserving them even under bondage in Egypt, and delivering them out as a nation of people, unified by hardship but delivered by the miraculous hand of God.
If you are available to pray this Thursday morning, join us in the Sanctuary for a time of prayer for our time, our planet, for all nations, and for the prayers that God has put on our hearts.
Blessings,
Rev. Jeffrey
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