James 24:7

I have been emphasizing the importance of congregational prayer in my sermons lately.  My concern about that narrow topic grew out of the reading and thinking I have been doing with regard to the missional church.  My thinking about that topic has taken me back to the first 4 chapters of the Book of Acts. 

As I  learn more about the missional church and contemplate the earliest days of the church, one phrase rings in my mind: "the enormity of the calling and inadequacy of the called."

Think about it: Jesus meets with his disciples one last time before he ascends to God and tells them that they will be his witnesses starting right where they are, into the surrounding region, over into an area they avoided to a people they despised, and even to the uttermost parts of the world.

That's an enormous calling.

He called people who, in themselves, were not up to it.  He called the very people who had abandoned him and denied him.

That's the "inadequate called."

What did they do?  They didn't seize control and try to manage their way forward and they didn't flee (again). 

They prayed constantly together.

Yesterday we thought about that body of believers as they prayed following the arrest of Peter and John.  Luke records the actual prayer they prayed.  (you can read the whole account here)

In the sermon, I noted 4 parts of the prayer:

1.  They acknowledged who God is (Sovereign, Creator).

2.  They acknowledged what God said through David the Psalmist.  (That the nations and their rulers would be against them)

3.  They acknowledged what God did. (He had a plan that even those who crucified Christ followed.)

4.  They acknowledged what God can do. (He can give them even more boldness to continue proclaiming the gospel and can do signs and wonders to demonstrate his power)

The take away is that in the face of a crisis, they did not shrink back in fear but  recalled the nature of God, the truth of God's word,  God's involvement in the past, and they prayed for greater boldness, for more courage to go on.

When we acknowledge that everything is God's and that God is engaged with us just as God has been in the past, we can pray our way forward undeterred by any obstacle.  We can go on trusting that as the gospel song puts it: "If He did it before, He can do it again!"

We are not unlike those first Christians who stood with their mouths open as Jesus ascended to the Father.  Having heard that their first calling was to the ministry of waiting, their minds raced at the prospects of being clothed with "power from on high" and becoming witnesses to the uttermost parts of the world of the crucified and resurrected Jesus.

None of them had been very far from home and now they were being called to the mission field white unto harvest.

I know I am filling in the silences of scripture, but I imagine they felt what we all feel when we think deeply about the enormity of the calling and the inadequacy of the called.

"Lord, you want us to do that?"

I put myself in their sandals, as best I can, and ask myself: "What would you do?" 

I hear myself wondering how fast I can run with a bad heart and loose shoes. 

Then, I see myself appointing a committee or two, drawing up a vision statement, developing a strategic plan and executing the strategy.

I look back to the text and see them "...constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women..." (Acts 1:14)

What else? 

Having decided not to run and having chosen not to organize themselves for strategic action what else could they do given the enormity of the calling and the inadequacy of the called?

They, the men, the apostles, the very inner circle of Jesus  "constantly devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women..."

Those who were formerly walled out of the Temple and hidden behind the veil of the synagogue joined those nervous men and all of them together stood on level ground looking toward the anxious horizon of their calling and devoted themselves constantly to prayer.

What else?

Gone were their practices of exclusion; gone was their all-shoulders confidence; gone was the luxury of the prayer of convenience...

Given the enormity of their calling and the inadequacy of the called, "they devoted themselves constantly to prayer, together with the women." 

V

The Psalms provide a vocabulary for prayer.

While a case can be made that prayer is the totality of a life lived as an offering to God, we do also identify as prayer those moments when we actually speak to God.  

We speak to God with our mouths in two ways: through gestures-grunts, groans, sighs, cries and anguised shouts- and with words.  While the gestures may stand alone as prayer, words are always nestled in gesture. 

All prayers are songs. 

We do not offer God words alone.  We offer God words couched in gesture.   In what gesture did the Psalmist couch: "My God, my God why has thou forsaken me?"  Anger?  Despair?  Disappointment?  Frustration?    Did the Psalmist sigh those words or cry those words?

While we may not always be able to determine gesture from a text, we can learn the words of the text, the vocabulary of the text.  Those words can infuse our prayers and broaden our range of expression.

The Psalms provide a vocabulary of praise, of confession, and of contrition.   They teach us the words to use when we address God and express our thoughts and emotions about God and about our lives. 

Think about the vocabulary of praise.  The Psalmists (at least in our English translations!) use words like "praise", "extol", "bless",  and "worship."  Each of those words expresses praise and yet each word provides nuance to our praise.  As we learn the vocabulary of praise we are freed to address God and express ourselves.

"I praise You God;

I extol Your name.

I bless You, Lord

And worship You."

Think about that little prayer of praise.  Do the different synonyms of praise suggest even slightly different things or are they all the same? 

lV

Reading and praying the Psalms puts us in the company of all the saints who have preceded us.

I read this morning that Etta Baker has died at the age of 90.   Etta Baker was a Piedmont Blues guitar player who influenced every finger-style guitar player there is- whether he or she knows it or not.  Any picker who plays a Merle Travis lick or even a Chet Atkins riff can thank Etta Baker for inspiring those guys to pass along the pickin'.   

Few people outside the fingerstyle or blues community have ever heard of Etta Baker. (She spent most of her working years laboring in the Buster Brown factory in North Carolina)   However, her finger plucks, picks, and pulls reverbrate through  generations of players. 

Of course, each of those players adds their own twists and turns.  Every so often one of them, usually some kid still wet behind the thumbpick, brings along an innovation and leaves us older guys scratching our heads wondering "why we never thought of that"- if we can even make out what the kid is doing.

However, true innovation is rare.  I suppose you could say true innovation- that is, bringing something new to the world- happens...oh...once in a not-ever. 

Most pickers are part of a tradition and are damn proud of it.  To be told that you played something as well as Chet or with as much life as Merle Travis or in the style of Doc Watson is be truly complimented.  To be told that you are an innovator is good too...but only if the innovation pays homage to the Ettas, Chets, Merles and Docs who have gone before you.

Playing with the pickers of the past is a fine way to spend an lazy evening or a lifetime.

To read and pray the Psalms is to pray with all of the saints who have gone before you.  You may be praying with your grandma, or your great, great grandpa.  You will certainly be praying with Martin Luther and Thomas Aquinas.  You will also be praying with the Apostle Paul and Peter, James and John.  You will utter the words that helped shape Jesus' prayers.  You will weep and praise with all those Hebrew saints who worshipped God in the Temple, the synagogues and  out on the hillside.  

Think about it: It is quite something to utter the words of David, the King- the man after God's own heart.

When we read the Psalms...better...when we pray the Psalms we enter the company of the beloved saints of God.  Their voices become our voices; their habits become our habits.

I firmly believe that many of us have shot ourselves in the foot by falling so deeply into the "contemporary."  Contemporary music.  Contemporary worship.  Contemporary ministry.  Contemporary..."with the times."  We have especially shot ourselves in the foot if we are so arrogant to think that what we have brought upon the earth is anything truly innovative.

Recently I've rekindled my interest in poetry.  I dug around and found a book by the American poet, Mary Oliver.  Here is what she says about the "contemporary" as it applies to young poets and their poetry:

"...since you want to be a contemporary poet, you do not want to be too much under the influence of what is old, attaching to the terms the idea that old is old hat-out of date.  You imagine you should surround yourself with modern only.  It is an error.  The truly contemporary creative force is something that is built out of the past, but with a difference.

Most of what calls itself contemporary is built, whether it knows it or not, out of a desire to be liked. It is created in imitation of what already exists and is already admired.  There is, in other words, nothing new about it.  To be contemporary is to rise through the stack of the past, like the fire through the mountain.  Only a heat so deeply and intelligently born can carry a new idea into the air." (A Poetry Handbook, p. 11-12)

When we read and pray the Psalms we enter into a tradition and we praise and cry and rage with that great cloud of saints who cheer us on and wait for us to join them.

lll

The Psalms remind us that we can bring everything before God.

In his book, The Future of an Illusion, Sigmund Freud wrote: "We hide our moral arrears in the breeches of respectability."  The story of the Fall tells us as much.  After the Great Rebellion, Adam and Eve, covered themselves in fig leaves and hid in the brush. 

No one wants to stand in the presence of God with his pants down.

We not only hide our "moral arrears", we hide our fears, doubts and questions behind veils of piety.  As a former professor of mine used to put it: "We would rather offer God our dignity than our selves."

Perhaps we think God will not notice our drooping drawers or will not call the roll and note our absence.  Maybe we think that when we are out of sight, skulking in the bushes, we are out of mind.  Maybe we think God is as easily duped by a plastic smile as our all-too-willing friends and neighbors are.

The Psalmists teach us that we can bring our sins, our failures, our doubts, our rage and even our faithlessness before God.  They remind us that God is always open.  They assume a vision of God as One who leans forward with an ear cocked to catch the slightest nuance of every gasp, groan, and growl we utter.

The Psalms teach us that we can- no, that we must- come before God "just we are without one plea". 

Naked.

The Psalms teach us to surrender our dignity and offer our briar-scratched selves to God.

This past summer I conducted a Bible study on the Psalms for the good folks from North River Community Church and West Gwinnett Christian Church.  I'm no expert on the Psalms (I'm not expert on anything!) but I have found the Psalms to be of tremendous benefit in helping shape my prayers.  For the next several days, I thought I would share these thoughts on the Psalms with you.

I

The Psalms teach us about the nature of God.

While all of scripture tells us things about the nature of God, I believe the Psalms teach us at least three things that figure heavily into our prayers.  The Psalms teach us (1) that God is righteous, (2) that God is faithful and (3) that God is free.

Because God is faithful, we can rest assured that God will "never leave us nor forsake us."  God has been faithful to us, God is faithful to us and God will be faithful to us.  Over and over the Psalmist speaks of the "loving kindness" of God, or of God's "covenant love".  Over and over the Psalmist recalls God's acts in the history of Israel, to testify to God's faithfulness. Because God is faithful, God can be "depended upon".

Because God is righteous, we can trust that God will do what is right.  God will act out of righteous judgment and do the right thing.  God can do nothing but the right thing because God is righteous.

However, God is also free.  Just as we can count on God to always do the right thing we can also count on God to act out of God's own freedom.  I believe that is why we often read the Pslamist crying out, "When, O Lord?" Or, "How long, O Lord?"  Or, "Where are You, Lord?"

The Psalmist knows that God is faithful and that God is righteous.  However, the Psalmist also knows that God is free.  The awareness of the freedom of God, to my mind, is what drives the Pslamist to  make promises or bargain with God.  The Psalmist is trying to get God to make a move.

I often put it this way: "Our problem is not in wondering whether God exists or whether God loves us or whether God will be faithful to us or whether God will do the right thing or not.  Our problem is the anxiety of wondering whether God will show up by Friday at 3."

We pray in light of the faithfulness of God, the righteousness of God and the freedom of God.  While we are willing to grant faithfulness and righteousness to God (after all that is in our interest!) we sometimes struggle with granting God the freedom that is due God. 

We want to depend upon God to do the right thing when we want God to do it.  "Lord, I trust that You are faithful and that You, in your infinite righteousness, will act justly but I also trust that You will do so by the end of the business day Tuesday, September 5th.  Amen."

It seems to me that if we are willing to grant God (what a funny phrase!) God's faithfulness and God's righteousness, that we ought to be willing to grant  God's freedom. 

After all, God is free.

The question is whether we are capable of such trust.

I've been leading a joint Bible study with folks from North River Community Church and West Gwinnett Christian Church for the past several weeks.  We are studying the Psalms with an eye to learning about how those old hymns can help shape our prayer lives.

Part of the joy of studying the Psalms is that you just keep running into yourself.  For the past couple of weeks we have been studying Psalm 71.  If you are AARP qualified you may find that Psalm very helpful.  (And if you are not so qualified yet, remember the old epitaph: "As you are, so I once was.  As I am, so you shall be!") 

In Psalm 71, the psalmist, most likely a musician, feels his age creeping up on him.  He also knows that some young whipper-snappers are watching his every move to see him fail so they can revel in their belief that God has abandoned him.   He's feeling vulnerable and fearful.  He senses his fears giving way to doubt.

He cries out to God in three ways. 

He lists certain attributes of God. He notes that God always does the right thing and that God is always there, always faithful, always the supreme keeper of the covenant.

He remembers how God has acted in the past.  Unlike those of us who seem to develop amnesia in the face of crisis, the Psalmist recounts how this faithful God was there doing the right thing from the moment that the Psalmist came into the world.

He pledges fidelity to God.  He promises God that just as he has trusted God in the past, he will go on trusting God and proclaiming God to the generations coming along behind him.

Why does he do this?  I believe he does this because he knows something else about God-something that is implied in this and other Psalms. 

He knows that God is free.  

Isn't that the way it is?  We believe that God is and will be faithful.  We believe that God will always make things right.  However, we also know that God is free to act out God's own..well...Godness.  

As I often put it, it's not that we don't believe that God exists.  We do.  And it's not that we don't believe that God loves us.  We believe that too.  Our question is, "Will God show up by Friday at 5:00?"  Will God show up when we need God? 

That is often the tension we feel with God.  We are mired in our particular agony asking, "How long, O God?  How long?"

The Psalmist, even in his negotiations with God, reminds us to keep on trusting God because God can be counted on (God is faithful) and because God will do the right thing (God has a history of 'righteous acts.').  However, he also reminds us to remember God's faithfulness in the past and to give to God the respect God deserves.

God will do the right thing. 

God can be counted on.

But God is free to act when and how God chooses.

Hmmm...now that I think about it...maybe the Psalmist is reminding us that trust in God requires patience. 

Psalm 71

1 In you, Yahweh, I take refuge

     Never let me be ashamed.

2 By your righteous deeds deliver me and rescue me;

     Bend your ear to me and save me.

3 Be for me a rocky refuge- you have ordered me to

    come regularly- to save me, for you are a rocky

    crag and fortress.

4 My God, rescue me from the power of the wicked,

    From the grasp of the perverse and cruel.

5 For you are my hope, Lord;

     Yahweh my trust from youth,

6 On you have I leaned from the womb,

     From my mother's belly you extracted me;

     In You is my praise continually.

7 I have become a virtual portent for many,

     But you are my strong refuge.

8 My mouth is full of your praise,

     All day long your wonders.

9 Do not toss me aside in old age;

    When my strength diminishes, do not abandon

    me.

10 For my enemies say about me,

     "Let us observe him and take common counsel:

11 God has abandoned him;

     Pursue and seize him, for he has none to

     deliver."

12  God be not distant from me;

     My God, rush to my aid.

13  Let them who oppose me be ahsamed and

      consumed;

      Let them be a reproach and disgrace-

      those who seek to hurt me.

14 But I keep on hoping

     And increase your praise.

15  My mouth will recite your righteous works,

     Your saving deeds all day long,

     Although I do not comprehend their number.

16 I will come in strength Lord God

     I will sing of nothing but your righteous deeds.

17 God you taught me from my youth;

     And until now I proclaim your wonderful works.

18 Even until I am old and gray, God,

     Do not forsake me,

     Until I tell your might to a generation

     Your power to all who come.

19 Your righteous deeds unto the heavens, God,

     In that you have done great things,

     God, who is like you?

20 That you have shown me numerous adversities and evils,

     You will renew me once more;

     And from the depths of the earth you will lift me

      up again.

21 You will increase my honor, embrace me, and comfort me.

22 Also, with a harp I will praise you for your faithfulness, my God;

     I will sing about you with a lyre, O Holy One of

      Israel

23 My lips will sing, indeed I will sing about you,

     I, myself, whom you have redeemed.

24 My tongue will also meditate throughout the day

     On your righteous deeds,

     For those who seek to hurt me have been

      shamed and disgraced.

How to Write a Psalm:
Growing in Prayer by Contemplating the Psalms

We understand God to be a loving Father who always leans forward listening for the prayers of His children.  However, many of us feel that once we come into the presence of God we do not know what to say.  We may feel that we have fallen into rote patterns, uttering the same phrases over and over again.  We may sense that our prayers ring of selfish desire, an extended “holy whine”.

We all long for a deeper, richer, and more sustainable prayer life.  Our desire is to lift up praise or pour out our anguish or confess our sins or express our confusion but when we pray we feel that our words fall flat.

The purpose of this study is to help us all enrich our prayer life.  We will accomplish this through a study of the Psalms employing an ancient method called “Lectio Divinia”.  We will practice what we learn by composing our own Psalms. 

Upon completion of the class, participants will:

Understand the Psalms as a school of prayer

• Know how to read the Psalms and better understand their meaning
• Practice a method of reading scripture that is guaranteed to enrich understanding and application
• Possess a wider array of tools to express themselves in prayer to God
• Demonstrate skills to compose prayers that serve to enrich their lives of prayer

The study will be conducted in two locations, West Gwinnett Christian Church in Duluth and North River Community Church in Lawrenceville.  We will meet at WGCC on June 21^st and NRCC on June 28^th and alternate locations on a weekly basis after that.  The study will begin promptly at 7 p.m. each night.

The study will be led by Dr. Jim Street, pastor of the North River Community Church.

Session 1

Introductions

The Study

The aim: to grow as people of prayer

• The means: to contemplate the Psalms
• The method: “lectio divinia”
• The practice: Putting pen to paper

Growing as People of Prayer

What prevents growth in prayer?

• Friction
• The “flesh”
• Lifestyle
• Self-Consciousness
• Limits of Expression
• Constricted Boundaries
• Lack of instruction in prayer
• Other?
• Measuring “growth”
• How will you know that you are growing in prayer?  What will you be doing differently?
• More frequently
• More “in the will of God”
• More scripturally
• More freely and flexibly (less rote)
• More broadly encompassing more of human experience
• More consciously
• Other?

Means: to contemplate the Psalms

• Finding quarters at the pool
• To contemplate means to look deeply into something, to get between the lines, the get behind the words.  (con-template- to sit in a templum, a place for divining mysteries in the presence of a god)
• Slow down, take time, etc.

Method: Lectio Divinia

• A thousand + year old method of reading scripture that combines both head and heart.  Not a substitute for the hard work of hermeneutics but an extension of it.
• Some expressions are more extreme than others.  Lectio Divinia has been likened to eating.  We put the food in our mouths, we chew it up, we savor the flavors, and we live and grow as a result.
• 4 Step Non-linear process
• Lectio- We read the text
• Meditatio- We meditate the text
• Oratio-  We pray the text
• Contemplatio- We live the text

• Lectio: Reading the text

• To read in this way is not simply to let your eyes fall across printed words on a page.  You have to attend to what you are reading.  Remember you are working to get beyond, behind, and between the ink on the paper.   Therefore, it is really important to attend to not only what you are reading but how you are reading it.  (c.f. Eugene Peterson  Eat This Book)

• Understanding a Psalm is like appraising a  house

• Zip Code – The big picture/ context, etc.
• Type of neighborhood – Genre of Psalm
• Style of house - structural literary devices
• Floor plan- Expressive literary devices
• Contents- Meaning of words

• Meditatio: Meditating on the text

• To meditate on the text is to enter into it; to put yourself in the place of the psalmist and apply all of your senses to the task

• To see what he sees, hear what he hears, feel what he feels, smell what he smells, taste what he tastes
• What is the context?  What is going on?

• Empathize with the psalmist

• Have you ever felt like the psalmist feels?
• When?  What did you think, feel, or do then?
• Have you ever been in a situation similar to the psalmist? 

• Oratio: Praying the psalm

• Rewrite (re-pray) the psalm in your own words

• Use your own experiences

• Try to follow the form of the psalm

• Contemplatio: Live the psalm

• The Gospel and Our Culture Network encourages Christians to read scripture with these questions in mind:

• How does this text orient me/us to the coming reign of God?

• How does this text convert, change or transform me in my personal life, in my relationships, with my community?

• How does this text speak good news and evangelize me/us?

• How does this text read me/us and our world?

• How does this text prepare me to witness and compel me to go out?

.