Hannah's Prayer and My Prayer

Friday, May 31, 2013 -- Week of Proper 3, Year One
The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/ for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
     (Book of Common Prayer)
EITHER the readings for the Visitation, p. 997
Morning Prayer - Psalm 72 / 1 Samuel 1:1-20 / Hebrews 3:1-6
Evening Prayer - Psalms 146, 147 / Zechariah 2:10-13 / John 3:25-30

OR the readings for Friday of Proper 3, p. 968
Psalms 31 (morning)      //     35 (evening)
Deuteronomy 5:1-22      
2 Corinthians 4:1-12      
Luke 16:10-17(18)

I used the readings for The Visitation.

There is something profound in the catharsis that Hannah experiences when she prays in 1 Samuel.  She pours out her heart before God, presenting her pain and need with earnest energy.  She is so engaged in her prayer that the priest Eli thinks she has been drinking.  (Or maybe Eli had lost his ability to tell the difference between the holy and the profane.)  When Hannah speaks of her "great anxiety and vexation" Eli answers, as is so easy for a priest to answer, "Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him."  (It sounds almost dismissive to my ears.) 

But something profound has happened within Hannah.  She has given her heartache to God, and rises anew.  "Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer."

The facts and circumstances of her life have not changed perceptively.  She still has no child;  she is not pregnant.  She is still living with her husband's other wife who taunts her.  She returns from her prayer to the same circumstances that she has lived with for so long.  But everything has changed.  She has given her distress to God, and her countenance is sad no longer.  She is trusting, relaxed, and open.  That night she conceives Samuel.

Over and over I have experienced the same thing in my life.  When I pour out my "great anxiety and vexation" to God, giving and offering it with pleas for help, sometimes I can leave my prayer trusting, relaxed and open, with a countenance that is sad no longer.  Those days tend to go better than others.  And so often, new possibilities are conceived which directly address my worries and concerns.  Even if the circumstances don't change, I have changed.  I am more able to be whole in their presence rather than be distressed.

That came to mind as I recalled the Psalm I had just read, Psalm 72.  Psalm 72 is a prayer asking God to make the King a good one.  It describes the kind of political leadership that I want for my nation.  (I translate verses 10-11 a bit; they are triumphalistic verses about the other kings.  I include among the  "kings" the "multinationals" -- the real powers in our day.  "All political authorities and multinationals shall bow down before him, and all the powers do him service.") 

The prayer of Psalm 72 is a compelling one.  Justice, righteousness, prosperity.  Defending the needy, rescuing the poor, overcoming the oppressor.  Peace.  Abundance.  And all the powers of politics and economy are bent toward these good ends.  "He shall deliver the poor who cries out in distress, and the oppressed who has no helper.  He shall have pity on the lowly and poor; he shall preserve the lives of the needy.  ...May there be abundance of grain on the earth."  This is the kind of government that I want; the kind of leadership that I yearn to support.

Our congregation will join many other churches soon in Bread for the World's annual Offering of Letters. (bread.org)  We will write to our senators and congressman asking them to remember the poor as they make laws and create programs and budgets in Washington.  We will ask them to let everyone have a place at the table as they pass the 2013 Farm Bill, which includes the provisions for SNAP (formerly food stamps) and for international food aid.  Our letters will ask them to "have pity on the lowly and poor" and "preserve the lives of the needy," especially our neighbors who live with food insecurity -- mothers like Hannah who pray that their children will have food.

I'm going to re-pray Psalm 72, with Hannah's sincerity.

Lowell
__________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location

-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church

is to explore and celebrate

God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 

We aspire to...

    worship weekly

    pray daily

    learn constantly

    serve joyfully 

    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Fayetteville, Arkansas

A Rotten System Gamed

Thursday, May 30, 2013 -- Week of Proper 3, Year One
Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc), Mystic and Soldier, 1431

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/ for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
     (Book of Common Prayer, p. 968)
Psalms 37:1-18 (morning)      //     37:19-42 (evening)
Deuteronomy 4:32-40      
2 Corinthians 3:1-18      
Luke 16:1-9

Do you ever feel that things have just fallen apart?  The system is rotten.  You can't trust government; you cant trust business; it's all corrupt.  Disappointment and cynicism is creeps over you.

Jesus' parable of the unjust manager may be just the parable for you.

The system was broken in Jesus' day.  Money and power were concentrated at the top in the hands of a few vastly wealthy aristocrats, absentee landlords.  In his region, the elites controlled nearly all of the land and received two-thirds of the annual income.  (Not that far from today's circumstances.)

They delegated the management of their land to managers who were expected to exploit and bleed the resources for a very high rate of profit and income.  Pressured from the top to bring in high rates of return, the managers were cruel and heartless.  The peasants hated them. 

All of the income would belong to the landowner.  The manager was expected to get his cut on-the-side through a system of graft and kickbacks.  Everything on paper belonged to the landowner; the manager's cut was off the paper.  Say a manager and a peasant family agree to a fair price of 50 jugs of oil for $1,000.  (I'm making up the numbers.)  The manager writes down on the paper 75 jugs, giving the landowner his expected 50% hidden interest.  The peasant then shakes the manager's hand and passes along a gold coin, the manager's cut.  And the peasant is a debtor, owing 75 jugs for the fair price of 50.  It was a rotten system.

So Jesus tells a story.  It sounds like some peasants got mad at a manager and accused him.  The landowner says he'll fire him and demands the books.  So the manager re-works the books -- changed the 75 jugs to 50 jugs.  Those peasants are now happy and also beholden to the manager.  They praise the generosity of the landowner.  The landowner sees what has happened and thinks its shrewd.  He takes his short-term loss.  Now he knows the problem was with the complainers and knows who they are.  He figures the manager will really be able to stick it to the peasants next time.  They owe him.

Here is William Herzog's commentary (Parables as Subversive Speech, p. 257): "The parable began with the usual social scripts: owners distrust managers; peasants hate managers; managers cheat both tenants and owners.  But by means of his outrageous actions, the manager manages to reverse all these scripts so that, at the close of the parable, peasants are praising the master, the master commends the manager, and the manager has relieved the burden on the peasants and kept his job." 

Out of this sad story of wrong-doing, came something that looks almost like a piece of the kingdom of heaven, because the master had wiped off the debts and relieved the burdens of the debtors.  "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."  It is a glimpse of another order -- one in which forgiveness of debt would be more than a petition in a prayer.  A sorry and predictable tale of woe becomes a scene of rejoicing.

I look around at today's complex and sorry systems of oppression and abuse of power.  They are beyond my influence.  There is so much systemically broken in the world.  Suspicion and hatred abound. 

Yet even in the midst of scandal and outrage, another order can break through.  In the most unimaginable and outrageous ways, God can turn a sorry and predicable tale of woe into a scene of rejoicing.  That's a message that should be close to the hearts of all Episcopalians.  After all, we have our genesis in the sorry tale of the peccadillos of Henry the Eighth.  Look what God did with that mess.  He made us!

It's remarkable that Jesus told this story.  It shows he had stomach enough for the worldliness and intrigue of his day.  Might we also have the stomach to face the complexity, oppression and suspicion of our age with enough courage and shrewdness to help another order break through, to turn our world's sorrow into rejoicing.

[Here's a 2007 sermon I preached on this parable.]

Lowell
__________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location

-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church

is to explore and celebrate

God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 

We aspire to...

    worship weekly

    pray daily

    learn constantly

    serve joyfully 

    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Folly and Love Unbound

Wednesday, May 29, 2013 -- Week of Proper 3, Year One

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/ for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
     (Book of Common Prayer, p. 968)
Psalms       38 (morning)    //    119:25-48 (evening)
Deuteronomy 4:25-31
2 Corinthians 1:23 - 2:17
Luke 15:1-2, 11-32

Extravagant love.  Uncalculating, wanton love.  That's how the father is in this famous story of the prodigal son and the elder brother.

The story is about the father.  He has two sons, and they grieve him in two different ways.  The more obvious is the younger, who defies traditional paternal respect and demands his inheritance before his father is dead.  Then he wastes it all in profligate irresponsibility.  He deserves whatever happens to him, doesn't he. 

But before he can get his rehearsed words out of his mouth -- words of repentance or self-serving desperation? -- the father has declared a feast and restored the son to community and honor. 

The elder son keeps score.  He believes responsibility is to be rewarded and negligent behavior punished.  He won't stand for this other kind of profligate activity either -- this extravagant, uncalculating, wanton love of the father.  It's rewarding bad behavior.  Enabling.  I've been the good son.  I've been dutiful and responsible.  No one ever gave me anything I didn't earn.

The father's love is too much for him.  He will have nothing of it.

How do you know the difference between enabling and generosity?  What's the difference between injustice and reconciliation? 

The story is about the father and the father's love.  It's pretty easy to tell what the father wants. 

He wants the younger son to return.  He wants the younger son to give up his indulgent life and return to the fold.  He wants the younger son to accept the gift of responsibility, and use his energy creatively within the family.  That possibility is worth celebrating.

He wants the elder son to be happy.  He wants him to be generous and joyful, ready to forgive and reconcile and rejoice.  He wants him to stop keeping score.  He invites the son to come enjoy the party.

It's obvious to see the good news this story offers to everyone whose wheels have fallen off.  This is good news to those who have been obviously stupid and self-indulgent.

It is less obvious how good this news is for the elder son.  He too can be freed from his bad choices.  He can come out of his prison of sullen responsibility.  He doesn't have to keep score.  He doesn't have to hold on to his resentment over the ones who haven't been doing right.

Both brothers can be freely responsible.  Both can celebrate a father's love together.  This father forgives both folly and pride.

Lowell
___________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location

-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church

is to explore and celebrate

God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 

We aspire to...

    worship weekly

    pray daily

    learn constantly

    serve joyfully 

    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Good Lostness

Tuesday, May 28, 2013 -- Week of Proper 3, Year One
John Calvin, Theologian, 1564

[Go to http://www.missionstclare.com/english/ for an online version of the Daily Office including today's scripture readings.]

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
     (Book of Common Prayer, p. 968)
Psalms 26, 28 (morning)      //     36, 39 (evening)
Deuteronomy 4:15-24      
2 Corinthians 1:12-22      
Luke 15:1-10

God is always finding the lost.  Sometimes "lostness" is the place where we most deeply experience God.

Israel remembers with nostalgia the days of their wanderings, lost in the wilderness.  There God fed, guided and protected them.  We hear warnings today from Moses.  Remember when you "saw" God -- there was no image.  God can't be objectified.  So don't give your ultimate concern to any "thing".  No person is God, including yourself.  Nor is anything created, even the universe (or even the words of a book).  In the wilderness, lost and helpless, with nothing to fall back on except the presence of God, Israel was born.  Be vigilant that the comforts of "being found" don't distract and lure you away with their concerns and their less-than-ultimate value.

Paul remembers feeling lost and hopeless in his relationship with the church in Corinth.  There was a time when his authority and his teaching was challenged.  Some "super-apostles" came in and distorted his message.  Paul's gospel is simple -- God has already accepted us as a sheer gift of grace.  Nothing we can do can earn that; it is ours simply to receive.  That's faith.  Anything else -- circumcision, following laws, earning your righteousness -- is death.  It just makes you anxious -- "am I doing okay?"  Forget it!  By faith you are saved through God's grace.  So, be confident.  You are free to give yourself away in love, because you are safe. 

While Paul was away from Corinth some legalists had come in and distorted the Gospel.  Paul was distraught.  (Chapters 10-13 probably reflect that "lost" time.)  But now, Paul has received word that his friends have caught the message again.  Somewhat rattled, and a bit on the defensive, Paul writes to them of his relief.  Once again, everything is "Yes." 

And Jesus speaks of a shepherd and a woman who search diligently for the lost, and rejoice at their finding.  In those stories, Jesus gives us an image of God.

There is a spiritual paradox.  Often when we feel most lost -- vulnerable, threatened, needy -- that's the time when God is most active in our lives.  Although hidden from view, God is present -- leading, nurturing, saving.  Often when we have run out of resources, we are more willing to turn in trust to God, because we don't have anything else to trust in.  These are often times of spiritual richness and depth.

And sometimes when we feel most secure -- things are in order, we're doing great -- that's the time when we are most tempted by idolatry.  We've got the answers; we're taking care of life; we're the good sheep tucked under the robe of the shepherd.  That's when we tend to act out of our own resources and are susceptible to pride in its many forms. 

There is an inbetween place.  We can humbly accept our lostness at the same time that we humbly accept our foundness.  God has already found us and tucked us into divine life.  But it's just what God does.  It's not because of anything we've accomplished.  God simply loves us.  Whether we feel lost or found, God is loving, searching for and finding us. 

Lowell
__________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Go to: http://www.stpaulsfay.org/id244.html

About Morning Reflections

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at http://www.missionstclare.com/english/index.html

Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location

-- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church

is to explore and celebrate

God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 

We aspire to...

    worship weekly

    pray daily

    learn constantly

    serve joyfully 

    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Fayetteville, Arkansas