I wanted to do something this morning that offers a nod to the Heritage aspect of our service. Using the older hymns and resources reminds us of our traditions and our past as a Church, so I toyed with the idea of revisiting some of the history of the United Church of Canada and the journey that brought us from our Methodist and Presbyterian roots through the Union in 1925 to the Church as it is today.
Then, after the yard sale last week at St John’s, I encountered a preaching journal from 1916, and thought – you can’t get any more historical or heritage than that. A book from our past that offers a series of articles for the clergy serving the church in the midst of the First World War.
The article – The Minister’s Private Life caught my attention, because it offered a glimpse of what the expectations were in 1916 for the life of a minister working in a church.
My strongest impression in the article was the expectation of work-aholism that it embodied. The author noted that ministers should have a strong prayer life and should devote uninterrupted time to prayer every day. He even goes so far as to suggest as an example an Archbishop who devotes no less than five hours of prayer to his parish every single day.
Everyday for five hours this Archbishop knelt in prayer to pray for the men and women and children with whom he worked … As I read this, I couldn’t help but wonder how THAT would go over today in a job description for minister.
We want our ministers to lead our worship services, and help us with inspiring sermons and uplifting prayers. We want them to visit us if we’re in the hospital, or experiencing a crisis. We expect them to attend social and community events and be visible in our community on an ongoing basis, and we even want them to be involved in our various functions, committees, councils and boards. All within 40 hours a week. But seldom in ANY job description do you see an emphasis on prayer. Sure, many job descriptions will openly say that we expect our ministers to have a strong spiritual life, but very seldom do we commit any of the paid time to that.
As I reflected on this, I realized that in the middle of reflecting on our Heritage and traditions as congregations and as communities, it is worth pausing to consider some of the things we`ve left behind along the way. Some of the values and practises that were once central but now have fallen away.
Thinking about the Archbishop who prayed five hours every day for his parish reminded me of visitors to London Conference in 1993 when I was being ordained in Windsor. Addressing the assembled folks at the AGM were two representatives from the Ethiopian Coptic Church. They shared with the court the history of their ancient church that traces its uninterrupted lineage back to the eunuch who had a theological debate with the apostle Phillip short months after Jesus` earthly life.
They talked about the rich heritage of the Coptic church and the many interconnections of art, liturgy, music and tradition. They talked about the ancient churches and monasteries and the work the Church does throughout the country of Ethiopia. In passing they spoke of the men who served as priests and mentioned that their country has over 1900 monasteries. I found the presentation both fascinating and enlightening. I learned more about the Coptic Church in Ethiopia in the twenty plus minutes that they spoke then I had learned in University studying religion.
Then the time came to open floor to questions. The bubble of enthusiasm I was feeling burst – quickly - the first question was about why there were no female priests - the answer was given as ‘we’re Coptic, that’s not what we do …” There was a gasp of outrage or horror from the floor. But the next question to me was the most telling. A farmer from somewhere in Southern Ontario got up and noted that we had recently sent tens of thousands of tonnes of food aid to Ethiopia when they were experiencing the devastating famine that killed tens of thousands of people. He noted that he himself had sent grain and corn to help. Then he asked what the 1900 monasteries do in Ethiopia to justify their existence.
A bigger gasp of horror rolled across the floor of the AGM when the bewildered Coptic priest said – “they pray …”
The very idea “they pray” was regarded as a waste - a waste of time -a waste of money - a waste of life - a waste …
And yet, 95 years ago, a journal for Preachers and Church leaders advocated fairly fiercely that pray MUST be central to everything we do as a Church. Not only are we clergy to pray for our people, we are to actively encourage YOU – our people – to remember US in your prayers.
I am to pray for you, and you are to pray for me – and THAT is supposed to be part of our Covenant and our ministry together.
What do you think the response would be, if for even ONE hour every day, I closed my office door and prayed?
I would dare to say that as a congregation you are closer to appreciating and understanding the value of this time spent in prayer, just as I’ve been told that if I need to shut my door to work on a bulletin or a sermon I don’t have to apologize for it … but, that approach is unique, and in today’s Church unusual – and in many places completely lacking.
I’ve been in Church courts where someone was ruled out of order for pausing to pray … I’ve sat at Board tables where the suggestion that we begin the meeting in prayer was met with a scoff of distain … and I’ve faced anger when as chair of Presbytery I once suggested that we should pause to pray BEFORE we took a contentious vote … and I won’t talk about the response to the suggestion that we should pause periodically throughout our day at Presbytery meetings to pray and refresh our souls … “if we want prayer at Presbytery, we’d go to Church …” was one of the responses.
We undervalue prayer … we undervalue it to such a degree that we no longer see it as relevant. Yet, over and over we KNOW how important prayer really is. When our lives are in crisis prayer gives us comfort and strength and the certainty that we are not alone in this world – God is with us, and in prayer our sisters and brothers are with us too.
Our Gospel reading offers a sharp reminder of this drift when Jesus stands and condemns those around him that fail to embrace the message he offers … a message based in a prayerful and a close relationship with God. That is what made Jesus dangerous – he advocated a personal experience of God, an experience that begins, is grounded and is fully realized in PRAYER.
So … looking back, we may stumble over the language we use when we revisit the resources, hymns and liturgy of our past. But we can not escape one powerful realization – that our forebearers took their task of prayer seriously. The preface of the Book of Common Order I drew much of our service today from says it quite boldly: “in our worship we are rightly concerned for two things: first, that a worshipping congregation of the Lord’s people shall be free to follow the leading of the Spirit of Christ in their midst; and secondly, that the experience of many ages of devotion shall not be lost, but preserved – experience that has caused certain forms of prayer to glow with light and power.”
One of the things we offer – one of the things that is part of our heritage as a Church – is the bonds of community that are refreshed and renewed each week through our worship service. We welcome one another, and then through our worship, our songs, our readings, and our prayers, we open wide the circle … key in ALL of this is the gift of prayer.
Baptism is about taking in our arms the children to be baptized and praying over and with them BY name … our liturgy depends upon praying for Deagan and Tyler as the unique children of God they truly are.
Prayer informs and supports everything we do as a Church.
Prayer is a gift and a blessing. We can share this gift with one another privately and publically. We can send a note to let someone know we’re thinking of them, and with the note goes our gift of prayer. We can stand in this place and openly speak our prayers and offer our care and concern up to God together … it’s a powerful gift, and it is one that is as easy as simply drawing a breath.
So rather than stumbling over the ‘thee’s’ and ‘thou’s’ and the other archaic words that mark our heritage, let’s instead embrace the importance placed on prayer in the past, and reclaim that tradition for our modern world … the words of many of our hymns today celebrate the closeness with God that we can experience if we’re open and sensitive to it. And in return that closeness WILL transform and change our lives … and it all begins with prayer.
May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us pray …
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