One of the books I’ve been reading lately is the recollections of Elizabeth Sifton, of her father Theologian, preacher and activist Reinhold Niebuhr. Many of us may not be familiar with Niebuhr, but most of us have at some point encountered his most famous prayer known to many as:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.
What is fascinating about this famous prayer is that no one can say for certain when it first came into being. His daughter notes that it was first used and published publically in late 1943, early 1942 … what is obvious though is that the prayer floated around in Niebuhr’s life throughout the early years of World War Two as he struggled to find a faithful response to the horrors unfolding throughout Europe … in the deepest darkest hours of the war, when it seemed that all was lost and a Nazi controlled continent was inevitable – AND as Churches were wrestling within themselves to find a faithful response to the war, Niebuhr cleared his throat and offered the words:
O God and Heavenly Father, Grant to us the serenity of mind to accept that which cannot be changed; courage to change that which can be changed, and wisdom to know the one from the other, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
In that moment Niebuhr set the model that countless others would follow … in those deep dark moments when ALL seems lost, turning to God in prayer is a gift … As Jewish philosopher Martin Buber aptly notes: “when we pray, we don’t (or we shouldn’t) ask God for anything. Instead we ask God for God. We invite God into our lives, so that the actions we take will be guided by a sense of God’s presence.” (Kushner pg. 17)
Prayer for the sake of opening ourselves up to the presence of God is a radical thought … radical in the fullest sense of what that word means. It is not something new, but rather it is an idea that has fallen by the way side, and has been overlooked and even forgotten in the passage of time …
Paul writing to the Church in Rome, offering the words we share this morning is standing firmly in the place of understanding that sees prayer, not as a series of petitions, or a divine wish list, but rather as simply an openness to the presence of God in our lives, and our world.
The heart of Paul’s theology – and perhaps one of his most precise proclamations of faith is found in verse 28 of this morning’s reading from Romans: “we know that all things work together for good for those who love God and who are called according to his purpose …”
WE KNOW ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD FOR THOSE WHO LOVE GOD … what an earth-shattering concept! What a powerful proclamation to make to a Church under duress.
Everything that is happening now, in this moment, no matter how bad WILL bring us – me – you – ALL of us – to a good conclusion …
It’s about trust.
Not blind passive trust. But trust that actively engages the moment and KNOWS in every fibre of our being that we are NOT alone, that God is with us, even in this deep dark moment. It is Trust that KNOWS, God WILL bring wholeness to our lives … our world … no matter how deep and dark the moment might be, God will move us through it …
Many years ago, when as a teenager struggling to find my way in the world, and to make sense of what has happened around me, I went to our minister Ross Cumming, and said – “If God loved me, why did my father die before I ever had the chance to know him? …” I then wrestled through the impact Dad’s death had and the ripples that continued to pass through my family because of his accident and death … WHY? I wanted to know, would a loving God let this happen …
The trigger for this exchange had come some days earlier at our early morning youth Sunday School class. The older kids gathered each Sunday morning before worship in the kitchen of the Church with Ross, our minister to discuss the readings for the day, and concerns and issues we may have in our lives and our faith … it was a special time when we had Ross’ full attention, and we were able to ask him just about anything … BUT, one morning Ross had someone fill in for him … and it didn’t go so well.
What I remember some three decades later was the class beginning with the statement – “ALL that happens in the world happens because God loves us and God shows that love through the things that happen in our lives … NOTHING bad ever happens to us …”
The gauntlet was thrown … “really?” … I challenged the point asking finally after several ineffective attempts to question his stance – “if God loves me SO MUCH, why did my father die before I knew him?” … he had no answer … the cool detached theology ran hard against a very personal and very painful query that ran counter to the notion of love …
It took weeks for me to come back to the Church and to find a place a faith that was comfortable for me … but it happened because of Ross, and his willingness to wrestle with the issue with me … I remember the day he suggested I read this particular passage of Scripture – the 8th Chapter of Romans.
The words of verse 28 exploded in me … Instead of seeing ONLY the negatives of Dad’s death and his loss and absence, I was challenged to see the ways in which my life had and continues to be enriched as a result of his tragic death.
I have never been able to stand in a place where I can say dad’s death happened because God wanted it to … but rather, dad’s death lead to a myriad of other things that HAPPENED BECAUSE of his death … family, friends, neighbours and others stepped up and responded to the situation differently because they wanted to offer care, support, and help in response to his death …
Viktor Frankl, the survivor of the Jewish Death Camps run by the Nazis puts it well when he notes: “you cannot control what other people do to you, but you can always control how you respond to what they do …”
Accidents happen.
Disasters happen,
People die, move away, get angry and pull away … our lives are changed and altered and we are left to struggle and pick up the pieces … we can’t do ANYTHING about the initial event … but we can help bring healing, wholeness and transformation into being as we struggle to pick up the pieces and move forward …
And along the way, we will find that there are a myriad of other people who will help us along the way …
It is truly the Resurrection in action.
There is no high-falooting theology at play here – just life being lived, faith being shared, and healing and wholeness being offered, shared, and embodied …
It is frighteningly simple … and it begins with prayer …
Not a passive, “O woe is me” type of prayer, nor an aggressive “O God, give me this …” kind of prayer, but a prayer seeking God’s presence and strength … a prayer that is open not to some celestial gift, but to the very presence of God in our midst as we seek to move forward, heal and return to some level of wholeness.
As a teenager, I looked at the many people in my life who had truly stepped up and gone the extra mile to help me and my brother and our mom after dad’s death … there were countless examples of people offering small gestures of help and care when they were needed most … there were numerous moments which took away some of the darkness and offered a faint glimmer of light … as I sat in Ross’ office and we discussed the passage from Romans, and looked honestly at what had happened in my life I could see how things were truly transformed to the positive in the wake of Dad’s death …
Since then, I’ve marvelled at how many of the modern self-help gurus struggle to share the same message through their writings … ‘let go of the past’ they urge us … ‘focus on the present’ they counsel … ‘live life with a positive attitude,’ they say … and ultimately they are simply echoing the teachings that for millennia we have, as members of the Judeao-Christian tradition, passed on from generation to generation …
Nothing will ever separate us from the love of God … and at the end of the day … no matter what happens, God will be with us as we continue to keep moving forward … along the way, we must trust in God enough to let our lives continue to unfold knowing that things WILL work out …
Rabbi and author Harold Kushner puts it succinctly when he writes:
In my theology, God’s promise of salvation for people whose lives don’t turn out as they hoped they would is not the promise of a better life in some world to come. It is the promise of forgiveness and a fresh start in this world. “save me” need not only mean “get me out of this situation.” It may mean “Help me cope with this situation so that I am not destroyed by it.”
Kushner’s theology embodies the spirit of Niebuhr’s prayer, and together they remind us that we stand in this moment of time, and we are not alone … in faith we move forward … and in faith we are given the strength, the courage, and the patience to continue living our lives to the fullest.
May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us pray …
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