Session 8: Prayer and Justice / Compassion
Welcome!
How are you feeling tonight
and why?
Spoken Prayer: Psalm 46
Before 5-minute Silent Prayer
Be Still And Know Steven Curtis Chapman�3-minute song
Be still and know that He is God�Be still and know that He is holy�Be still, oh, restless soul of mine�Bow before the Prince of Peace�Let the noise and clamour cease�Be still and know that He is God�Be still and know that He is faithful�Consider all that He has done�Stand in awe and be amazed�And know that He will never change�Be still�
Be still and know that He is God�Be still and know that He is God�Be still and know that He is God�Be still�Be speechless�Be still and know that He is God�Be still and know He is our Father�Come, rest your head upon His breast�Listen to the rhythm of�His unfailing heart of love�Beating for his little ones�Calling each of us to come�Be still�Be still
Opening Prayers
Silent Prayer for 5 Minutes
“Be still and know that I am God.”
– Psalm 46:10
Spoken Prayer
Becca to read Psalm 84
Translation: The Message (slides w/ text)
Spoken Prayer: Psalm 46
Psalm 84�What a beautiful home, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!� I’ve always longed to live in a place like this,�Always dreamed of a room in your house,� where I could sing for joy to God-alive!
Birds find nooks and crannies in your house,� sparrows and swallows make nests there.�They lay their eggs and raise their young,� singing their songs in the place where we worship.�God-of-the-Angel-Armies! King! God!� How blessed they are to live and sing there!
And how blessed all those in whom you live,� whose lives become roads you travel;�They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks,� discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain!�God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and� at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, listen:� O God of Jacob, open your ears—I’m praying!�Look at our shields, glistening in the sun,� our faces, shining with your gracious anointing.
One day spent in your house, this beautiful place of worship,� beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches.�I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God� than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin.�All sunshine and sovereign is God,� generous in gifts and glory.�He doesn’t scrimp with his traveling companions.� It’s smooth sailing all the way with God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
Looking Back
Chapter 7: Wrestling with God
(Phil’s share, “The Man Watching” next slides).
The Man Watching
By Rainer Maria Rilke --Translated by Robert Bly
I can tell by the way the trees beat, after�so many dull days, on my worried window panes�that a storm is coming,�and I hear the far-off fields say things�I can't bear without a friend,�I can't love without a sister.
The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on �across the woods and across time,�and the world looks as if it had no age:�the landscape, like a line in the psalm book, �is seriousness and weight and eternity.
What we choose to fight is so tiny! �What fights with us is so great. �If only we would let ourselves be dominated�as things do by some immense storm, �we would become strong too, and not need names.
When we win it's with small things, �and the triumph itself makes us small. �What is extraordinary and eternal�does not want to be bent by us. �I mean the Angel who appeared�to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:�when the wrestlers' sinews �grew long like metal strings, �he felt them under his fingers �like chords of deep music.
Whoever was beaten by this Angel �(who often simply declined the fight) �went away proud and strengthened�and great from that harsh hand, �that kneaded him as if to change his shape. �Winning does not tempt that man. �This is how he grows: by being defeated, �decisively, �by constantly greater beings.
Our Personal Prayer Disciplines:
How is it going for you?
Chapter 8: Prayer and Justice/Compassion
We are still discussing acts of prayer, this time focusing on prayer as justice and compassion. We are contemplating our neighbors —those close to us and those more distant brothers and sisters whom we label “the poor, the oppressed, the suffering, the hungry.” When we pray for such people, we reach out to those we may not be able to name but whom our faith tells us are loved by God. Such persons elicit the compassion of Christ. And if our prayer is sound, it must empower and nurture such love and compassion in our hearts.
Henry Nouwen: Often I have said to people, “I will pray for you,” but how often did I really enter into the full reality of what that means? I now see how indeed I can enter deeply into the other and pray to God from his center. When I really bring my friends and the many I pray for into my innermost being and feel their pains, their struggles, their cries in my own soul, then I leave myself, so to speak, and become them, then I have compassion.�
(Nouwen continued)
Compassion lies at the heart of our prayer for our fellow human beings. When I pray for the world, I become the world; when I pray for the endless needs of the millions, my soul expands and wants to embrace them all and bring them into the presence of God. But in the midst of that experience I realize that compassion is not mine but God’s gift to me.
�I cannot embrace the world, but God can. I cannot pray, but God can pray in me. When God became as we are, that is, when God allowed all of us to enter into his intimate life, it became possible for us to share in his infinite compassion.
In praying for others, I lose myself and become the other, only to be found by the divine love which holds the whole of humanity in a compassionate embrace.�
We belong to God, are addressed by God, and in turn address God. An audacious idea! We belong to God with our whole being, and that includes all our relationships – political, economic, and social – with all kinds of people. In fact, we belong to God along with all other image bearers of God. When we pray to our heavenly Parents, as the Lord’s Prayer has us pray, we are praying together with all the children of God.
Prayer presupposes justice and compassion.
But justice and compassion also presuppose prayer.
From Don’s Reflection
Can we pray that way if we do not hear what justice and compassion mean for someone different from us — someone Black, or Hispanic, or white, or poor, or less educated, or female, or male, or Russian, or Chinese or … Do we hear the prayers of others offered alongside our prayers? Do we hear their anguish, their rage, their hopes? Do we pray with them as well as for them?
Put bluntly: a church, a Christian community, a believer that is exclusive in attitude or practice along racial, social class, gender, age, sexual orientation, or any other human lines can offer only partial, distorted prayers, only tainted gifts.
Compassion involves us in a deep consciousness of our solidarity with all people rather than our distinction from them. It involves us in responding, almost automatically and naturally, in service to people in need; doing actions we may never have dreamed of.
Abba Agathon, 3C Egyptian desert monk
Going to town one day to sell some small articles, Abba Agathon met a cripple on the roadside, paralyzed in his legs, who asked him where he was going. Abba Agathon replied, “To town, to sell some things.” The other said, “Do me the favor of carrying me there.” So he carried him into town. The cripple said to him, “Put me down where you sell your wares.” He did so. When he had sold an article, the cripple asked, “What did you sell it for?” and he told him the price.
The other said, “Buy me a cake,” and he bought it. When Abba Agathon had sold a second article, the sick man asked, “How much did you sell it for?” And he told him the price of it. Then the other said, “Buy me this,” and he bought it. When Agathon, having sold all his wares, wanted to go, he said to him, “Are you going back?” and he replied, “Yes.” Then he said to him, “Do me the favor of carrying me back to the place where you found me.” Once more picking him up, he carried him back to that place.
Then the cripple said, “Agathon, you are filled with divine blessings in heaven and on earth.” Raising his eyes, Agathon saw no man; it was an angel of the Lord come to try him.
From Don’s Leader Guide�
I believe that today’s topic is crucial, though it is often left out of discussions about spirituality and prayer. Social activists sometimes think people concerned about prayer and the inner life tend to avoid the tough questions of life in a sinful world and that their concern for spirituality can lead to spiritual selfishness. On the other hand, contemplative people have accused activists of superficiality and shallow spiritual commitment. This chapter is an attempt to bring these two necessary aspects of the Christian life together so that we will build prayer habits that sustain our societal love and commitment; our societal commitment will be a kind of contemplation of God’s love for all people in need. �
After this Slide: Prayer Exercise and Closing Song
At Home
Continue practicing your personal prayer discipline. Please include prayers of justice and compassion in your discipline these next few weeks. You could pray for family members one day, the next day for world events, the next day for people at work, etc. On Sunday try coming to church a little early and praying for people as they enter. Don’t forget Pastor Derek (or the pastor of your church).
A simple way to build a habit of societal contemplation is to contemplate the news and pray for the people involved. It takes no longer to pray the news than to read it or watch it.
Chapter 8 readings and journaling your reactions.
I am going to ask you to sit in silence with an attitude of prayer while I suggest various categories of people (family friends, enemies, poor, oppressed, etc.) for whom we can silently pray.
Closing Prayers ~ until 7:55; Closing Hymn
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/ Lord, You Hear the Cry, by Geraldine Latty