FORTY-DAY INITIATIVE FOR TURTLE ISLAND GATEKEEPERS June 10-July 20, 2011
Day Four Yeshua’s Pattern of Prayer
June 14, 2011
by James C. Stephens
“And having risen very early in the morning, while still dark, He went out,
and went away to a lonely place, and there He prayed.”
Mark 1:35
Years ago, my Dad Carlton came up to me after work and told me he was convicted about the lack of prayer in his life. He was a mechanic at a service station and said one of his fellow employees, a Muslim would take out his prayer rug several times a day, go behind the station and say his prayers.
I asked, “Do you know why Moslems pray five times a day?”
Dad responded, “Because they’re so religious?”
“Actually Dad,” I said, “the truth of the matter is that early on in the founding of Islam, they patterned their prayer times after Jews and Christians who prayed seven times a day, but said it was too much, so they only prayed five times a day.”
Well, we’ve long since discarded the traditional patterns of prayer and few have any knowledge of “praying the hours.” It’s quite difficult to be prayerful, when prayer is not seen as an important element in our daily lives. Most of the prayer circles conspicuously are missing men. “It’s not that it’s not my thing, I just don’t have time to pray. I’m working.” If you don’t see it modeled, you don’t do it. We can preach. Now it seems that yoga classes are filling that “void” for many young women in society today even among Christians. We want to actively participate in doing something. We don’t know what it looks like, but we are bombarded by images promoting Eastern spiritual forms that look hip. Whenever prayer is portrayed on television it is always juxtapoised in this fashion. Older grey haired women sitting around on church fold up chairs in flourescent lit rooms, whereas in Eastern spirituality its the hip trim young professional woman in her designer yoga outfit, breathing in and out in a cross legged position or a downward dog position in a well lite room with polished hardwood floors. We are the hybrid generation. Relaxing spiritual gymnasium after work. Seeker friendly gym, that’s it! Madison Avenue at its best! No Christian Yoga! Pleeeease. As Rabi Maharaj author of Death of a Guru and a former Hindu himself, said years ago, “Yoga means yoked with Brahma, a Hindu god.” Not exactly in conformity with the Ten Commandments. Exercise is important, but what is its true intention?
Daily we fight an invisible war. We’re encouraged ‘not to be anxious and to let all of our requests be made known to God through prayer and supplication.’
Some may say, “Wait a minute. Who writes this stuff anyway?! I’ve got a mortgage or rent to pay, car insurance due and the overdraft charges. I don’t have enough. And you’re telling me to rejoice? Do you know we’re in a depression? I’ve got problems.”
You think you’ve got problems. Five years in detention, shipwrecked, hunted down by Rome, hated by other Jews, mistrusted by other Christians, Paul had problems. And yet, he said, “Rejoice!”
What are you crazy? I’ve got to work to pay the bills!”
Of course. Paul was a tentmaker and made his own way. But he also knew who he was in the sight of YHWH.
Many people feel that prayer is not work. That it is an unnecessary part of our existance. Others realize that prayer is as essential to life as breathing. Some just believe in action. But where, I ask, do you get the power to do what you do? Some mornings, when I am doing my morning ritual, making coffee, I pour some coffee beans into the grinder and put the lid on and start grinding by pushing on the top of the lid. On one occasion nothing happened and I pushed harder. Is it broke? Oh, duh, it’s not plugged in. The point is, that we rely on power to do much more than we think we do. Your alarm in the morning, your cell phone, your own body waking up, sticking your leg out of the bed, the heat, stove, refrigerator, lights, radios, garbage disposal, morning news programs on television, checking your email, pluggging in your ipod, cars to get to work, traffic lights, elevators, you get the point. We’re wired into the grid, a network as it were. Are we thankful for electricity? Probably not, until it goes off. Like the old joke, “Who are you going to miss at work more this week if he’s not around. Your boss or the janitor?” We take alot for granted. We’re not very grateful people. Spoiled is more like it. I’ve got to take the bus? Or if there is a power shortage, “I can’t watch TV?!”
RETURNING TO SIMPLICITY
I pulled out Colin Brown’s Dictionary on New Testament Theology weeks ago looking for something on the sin of gossip. Nothing. In every commentary I looked through, nothing. I mean they’re good commentaries, don’t get me wrong. We don’t know Torah. We don’t know the Ten Commandments. We’ve gotten real touchy feely with Jesus. It’s like we are in competition with other religious groups. I recall at one Urbana where we were speaking to students about the necessity of taking the Gospel to the Buddhist world. One student said, “I find what you’re doing very offensive. Buddhists are so spiritual and peaceful. Why do we need to reach them?”
It’s like we’re in the business of marketing a competing brand of soap, in this case its “peace.” If you need peace, “Get Jesus!” You’ve seen the tshirt. “Got Jesus?” Cute. Yeh, I got it. Like the milk mustache thing? Face it, they were creative, we’re lazy and ripping off slogans. The Buddhists do it as well. Even the Dalai Lama slightly complains about the commercialization of Buddhism. But then, not too much, because he’s making a killing off it at $200 a pop for some tickets to hear him speak. At least, some promoter’s getting rich. What’s my point? The commercialization of religion is whacked. I mean what’s up with the hairdo on TBN? I do feel like sorry, but gold chairs, and Crystal Cathedrals. All this is coming down. Would Yeshua suggest, “It’s time to turn over a few tables here?” Yep. I’d be ashamed. Hey, I do know them, but ah, they, ah, aren’t what I signed up for here. Reminds me of what George MacDonald the famous Scottish writer once said, “I don’t blame you for not believing in the kind of god you think I believe in. I don’t believe in that god either.”
Bishop Ignatius (1807-1867) wrote, ” But we have become so complicated that it is just this simplicity which is inaccessible, incomprehensible to us. We want to be clever, we want to revive our own ego, we can not bear self-renunciation or self denial, we have no desire to live and act by faith. It is for this reason that we need a guide to lead us out of our complexity, out of our cuteness, out of our cunning, out of our vanity and self confidence, into the breadth and simplicity of faith.”
Maybe I should end here and shut up. Wow. What’s Selah there for? Continuing tommorrow? One things for sure, it’s not going to be a Catholic spiritual director or an Evangelical one either. It’s got to be the Holy Spirit that we listen to, to get us out of this mess. We’ve screwed this one up good, wouldn’t you say? Time to pray.
Your petitions here……………………….^
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