Hebrew Text for Sunday 26 June 2022

 1 Samuel 12.18-21          Now Samuel was ministering in the presence of the HOLY ONE OF OLD, a boy dressed in a linen ephod. A little robe would his mother make for him and bring up to him year by year, when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, “May the HOLY ONE repay you (Elkanah) with seed from this woman in place of the bequest she made to the FOUNT OF LIFE”; and then they would return to their home. 

And the FAITHFUL ONE attended Hannah and she conceived and gave birth to two daughters and three sons. And the boy Samuel grew up there in the presence of the LIVING GOD. 

Now the boy Samuel went on and grew in goodness with the MOST HIGH and with humanity. 

                        As translated in Gafney, Wilda C.  A Woman’s Lectionary for the Whole Church. (NY: Church Publishing, 2021) 

Reflection       We humans are creatures who pray; praying when we believe and praying when we doubt, praying to fill our empty wombs or bellies or bank accounts, praying praise and thanksgiving for unexpected blessing, praying fury and lament and praying our questions. Prayers are a means by which we move our heads into our hearts, becoming more human as we reach beyond our selves in conversation with the mysterious “something more.”

We remember Hannah’s prayer for a son, “Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. And she made this vow: “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you.” (1 Samuel 1.10-11)  Reaching out to “something more” than herself Hannah experiences LIVING GOD as faithful. Hannah blooms with child and matures in faith as she fulfills her vow to give her son Samuel back to God. Samuel grows in goodness in relationship with God and humanity and Hannah's blessing is multiplied as “she conceived and gave birth to two daughters and three sons.”  

What does this story that takes place more than three thousand years ago and was written about five hundred and fifty years later have to say to us today? I believe it is about being in relationship with LIVING GOD which is the source and sustenance of our being. Hannah turns to God with her anguish, then, when her prayer for a son is answered, she sings, “ My heart rejoices in the Lord…. there is no one holy like the Lord… those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry hunger no more. ” (1 Sam 2.1,2, 5) 

Praying is an act of humility (hunger). By definition it affirms “something more” than the individual who is praying which means praying is also about relationship.  Whether prayer is offered as an act of worship, thanksgiving, intercession, supplication or confession it is a human being humbling her self to engage with “something more” than her self. The “something more” is not an object therefore it is known by faith. Hence, prayer is a human’s act of faith that there is “something more” than she can reasonably grasp yet,  “something more” with which she is in relationship.  Religious folks call this LIVING GOD.

Apparently we humans also pray instinctively. A poll taken in the UK in January of 2018 found “one in five adults pray despite saying they are non-religious…  Among the non-religious, personal crisis or tragedy is the most common reason for praying, with one in four saying they pray to gain comfort or feel less lonely.”   Read the article by clicking on the below link.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/14/half-of-non-believers-pray-says-poll

Prayers reach from our depths to the mysterious beyond as we are inclined either consciously or unconsciously to find our place in relationship with “something more.” This seems to be true even for  those of us who assert we are non-religious. I wonder if a difference between religious and non-religious folks is revealed in the way Hannah fulfills her vow to the “something more,” singing God’s praises and returning her son to the One from whom her blessings flow? Hannah sustains her relationship with  “something more” as she continues her prayers and righteous actions long after her anguish is eased.

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Gospel text for Sunday 8 February 2015

Mark 1:29-39        Jesus left the synagogue at Capernaum, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you." He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do." And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Reflection           Punctuating our lives with prayer is not unique to the Episcopal Church (Check out the Daily Offices in the Book of Common Prayer!). Our Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and monastic sisters and brothers all teach the value of ordering our lives around regular periods of prayer. Still, many of us are more comfortable with one mega dose of prayer each week. But is it enough to sustain us? Is one whopping Sunday of prayer enough to give us the courage to wholeheartedly pray with Jesus saying, “Not my will but your will be done?” 

This is hard and I believe this is the heart of Mark’s gospel text. “In the morning, while it was still very dark, (Jesus) got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” From the fervid frenzy of the night before, everything is quiet. Jesus goes to a deserted place to confirm his direction, strength and healing power in relationship with God who, little more than forty days earlier annointed him  “My son, the beloved.” All that Jesus says and all that Jesus does is a realization of his relationship in God. That is why Jesus goes off to pray alone, to keep conscious his connection to the source of all that flows through him. I believe Jesus understood that his healings and exorcisms, his parables and preaching were outward and visible signs of the power and presence of God with him. And so Jesus never stopped returning to God, the source and sustainance of his life and ministry. Right down to the wire Jesus submitted, “Not my will but your will be done.”

As daughters and sons of God I believe we too must acknowledge our complete and utter dependence on God, God who is closer to us than our own breath, God who is the source and sustainance of all that we say and all that we do God whose will is not other than our own true will.

It takes courage and faith that God really is with us to drop the arms that keep other people and God at a safe distance. It takes courage and faith that God really is with us to take church outside these doors, connect with strangers, lift them up and invite them into the spiritual consciousness of our interconnected, interdependent relationships with one another and God.  It takes courage and faith that God really is with us to lay down our personal preferences and pray, “Not my will but your will be done.”

One mega dose of praying “Your will be done,” is not  sufficient for me to sustain my courage and faith in the One, Holy and Living God with me as I navigate the moment to moment aches and agony, drama and disappointment, intrigue and injustice that constantly accost me. And so I find myself slipping away from the crowd, sometimes early in the morning when it is still dark, to pray. I find my self closing my office door and taking a few minutes to pray. I find myself sitting in my car praying before the next meeting because one mega dose of prayer on Sunday is not enough to sustain me.

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