Prayers of
the People
Today we are talking about a piece of
our weekly worship service, the piece called Prayers of the People. Every
Sunday following joys and sorrows, we say a short prayer naming the joys and
concerns that have been raised, and also lifting up some of the other
significant issues of the world.
Before we go into talking about that
particular piece of OUR tradition here at UUFLB, I want to talk about religious
ritual in general. The really amazing thing about ritual, or at least a good
ritual, is that you can see many layers of different meaning in it, and it
means different things to different people. In fact, some of the rituals that
seem the most conservative and traditional, can actually be the most transgressive
thing a community can do.
The best example of this comes from a
small church that I attended back in college. It was a Christian church that
did amazing ministry with the struggling and disenfranchised. Most notably it ministered
to people living with AIDS. As a Christian church, they stood in solidarity
with the most destitute and socially isolated community around. Keep in mind
they started doing this in the early 90s in Oklahoma. And as a part of their
solidarity with people living with AIDS, this community used the ritual of
laying on of hands.
If you don’t know, what that looks
like, is the person receiving a blessing stands or sits in the middle of the
room, while the minister places a hand on that person’s head. Then, everyone in
the community is invited to come forward and reach out to place a loving hand
on the person, or to come in contact with someone who is. So that through
touch, everyone in the room is connected, with a single person in the middle of
this focus.
If you were here at my ordination
service a few years ago you saw and participated in this type of circle as my
ministry was confirmed and blessed through touch. Now at first glance, this
sort of physical blessing can look a little spooky. That’s what some people
thought of it in my ordination. Shortly afterward I heard one of my non-church
friends turned to the other and asked “Are we really going to do this?” It
smacks of faith healing and belief in miracles and all the sorts of magical
thinking that we tend to challenge as Unitarian Universalists.
But I want to take you back to that
little church where I first encountered the ritual, the little church that
began as an AIDS ministry. What do you think that it might have meant for them
to lay hands upon those who were sick and hurting, those in need of support?
Yes, it meant that offering a blessing in this ritualized way, as Christians
have done for a very long time. But even more than that, I meant defying a
culture of exclusion, a culture that tells us that people living with AIDS are
sinful and dirty and untouchable. You see, insisting on using touch for this
sort of prayer was a radical act of solidarity with those who were suffering.
It was an act of defiance against the status quo.
What appears at first glance to be an
evangelical Christian practice can actually be a revolutionary endeavor. Ritual
isn’t always what it seams. Consider
what it means that same-sex couples want to participate in the ritual of
marriage. Their embracing of a traditional form is a pretty aggressive way of
saying we are here too, we want the same recognition as everyone else. Second
best isn’t good enough. That very traditional ritual becomes revolutionary. Or consider
the role that Spirituals have played in the American Black experience.
Swing
low, sweet chariot
Coming
for to carry me home
If
you get there before I do
Coming
for to carry me home
Tell
all my friends, I’m coming too
Coming
for to carry me home
Hopefully we know enough about American
music and history to know that this song is not just about hope in the face of
death. It is also a resilient cry for freedom. It is a song of solidarity and
protest. We could choose to dismiss it as “too Christian.” But that would miss
the point, wouldn’t it.
How often do we interpret prayer, or
other people’s religious practices the same way? How often to we take what we
see at face value and ridicule it, without taking the time to learn about the
underlying concept? The fact is prayer is a multifaceted experience. It means a
great many different things to different faith communities.
To understand the meaning of a ritual,
you have to take its context into account. We offer prayers of the people in a
particular Unitarian Universalist context. We pray together, knowing that not
everyone in the room believes in prayer, and others embrace it whole-heartedly.
We pray with a deep investment in scientific discovery, as a community of
diverse faithful people committed to building a better world. And we offer up
in prayer our most intimate pains and joys.
Prayer isn’t simple, especially around
here. And when it is real, it contains our deepest sentiments. Perhaps it is
worth remembering that the word prayer stems from the Latin root of precarious.
It reminds us that prayer, the genuine article, remains an uncertain, even
scary, adventure.
Often
we pray when there is nothing else that can be done. I shared in my Newsletter
column that I don’t pray very much any more. While I do meditate pretty
consistently these days, my prayer life has had an ebb and flow. But sometimes,
regardless of where I am in that ebb and flow, sometimes there’s nothing I can
do to fix a problem. I’m not talking about finding a parking spot, I’m talking
about having a broken heart, either for yourself or someone else. Sometimes all
you can do is pray, whether or not you believe it makes a difference or not.
Having that opportunity alone is a
tremendous benefit. It’s part of why we have joys and sorrows and prayers for
the people. Because we all come to moments in our lives that we have done everything
we could to make things right. But sometimes, what we care most about is out of
our control. So we speak our hopes and our fears to one another, and to the
Universe. And in so doing, we are offered a bit of release. The opportunity to
lay your burdens down before another human being or before God is priceless. Getting
what you want in the end isn’t necessarily the point. The point is saying “Here,
this my heart is overflowing with need or joy. Here, can you hold some of this
for me because I have done what I can and I can’t do any more.” We ask for help, guidance, and healing.
Prayer offers us an opportunity to let
go when we have done everything we can to make it right. And it can also do the
opposite. Just like we heard in our children’s story, prayer can give us the
courage to make change in our lives. I really loved the story this morning
because of the way you get to see prayer make an impact in her life. It wasn’t
about God pointing a finger and magically made the girl able to do something
she couldn’t before. This story was about a girl using prayer as a spiritual
discipline, as she considered the task before her. And before she even knew it
herself, she had expanded her horizon of what was possible. Through her praying
and dreaming and envisioning a different way, she empowered herself to do what
she really wanted.
I want to unpack for a minute, the false
dichotomy that is often set up between prayer and action. I have heard Unitarian
Universalists state that time is wasted with prayer, time that could be spent
acting to make a difference in the world. We just talked about two ways that
that is not true. Prayer is deeply related to action in our life. Sometimes we
have done all we can do and we need to set our burden down to move on. And
sometimes, we need to steel ourselves up, we need to prepare for the struggle
ahead. And for many of us, prayer is a way of doing both of those things.
Prayer is not the opposite of action, it is in concert with action.
And some of us believe that prayer
itself is an action that has a real effect. I believe there is a healing power
in our exercise of prayers of the people I believe that having our pain
acknowledged by people that we love and trust is a critical and powerful step
in the healing process. Our communal prayer makes a difference in people’s lives.
As the Rev. Tom Owen-Towle puts it, “We
believe that our souls generate healing energy. We’re not talking about
superstition or magic, but prayer as an act by which we place another’s burden
[or joy] in the center of our consciousness.”
This quote is especially powerful
because it also tells us what prayer is not for us as UUs. It is not
superstition or magic. When we pray here it isn’t for the forces of nature to
stop in their tracks. We don’t pray for magic to occur. We do pray for hope,
courage, and healing wherever and whenever it is possible.
Many of us believe that prayer changes
things in the world. But what is much clearer is that prayer changes things in
our own heart and mind. Everyone has a story of why they first come to church,
and they are all good. One of our church leaders, Cal Hullihen, first came to
church because people who go to church live longer. It may sound funny, but
it’s true. People who engage their concept of the divine, or their highest
values to seriously bring meaning into their lives do live longer. Prayer is
good for the people who do it. Living out our values in community is good for
people.
Prayer is good for people and living
out your values is good for people. For many in our community who are atheists,
prayer does not make sense. Some people, some of us believe that there is no
God and that the exercise of communicating with a void makes no sense. That is
certainly an important part of our Unitarian Universalist community.
There is something very important to be
said about the atheists in our midst, both for them to hear, and for everyone
else to hear. Whether you call it religious or not, your commitment to live out
your values in this world is magnificent and holy and sacred and profound and
inspiring. Living out your highest values is everything that anyone can say
about the power of faith. Simply put, it is good, and it is worthy. What’s
more, and thank you Bruce Taylor for reminding me of this on Facebook, atheism
is a particular stance, that is the fruit of serious deliberation and thought.
It is a real and valid way of understanding our world.
Belief in God, or participating in
prayer doesn’t validate anyone’s place in this community. The bravery to live
out of our highest ideals, the bravery to reach out and make our world a better
place, that is what we are most centrally about. And that is what we do.
Before
we close today, I want to be clear with you about my purpose in focusing on
prayer this month. The purpose is not to convince you or anyone else that you
should pray. Many people in our community believe that prayer changes things,
that the Universe listens and responds. I know for some of you that makes
perfect sense, and for others it is complete hogwash. And both of those
responses to prayer are okay. But, my goal, our goal as a diverse religious
community is to build a place where each of us can cultivate the spiritual
practices that make sense to us.
But more than that, we aim to build a
place where we can share safely with each other what those spiritual practices
are. Prayer is such a secret thing in our world. Secrets for two reasons, cover
up shame, or to maintain power over another person. There is nothing shameful
about praying, or not praying. There is nothing you need to hide here about
your spiritual practice.
I know it is scary, but we can talk
about it. For just literally a couple of minutes, I would like you to turn to
the person seated next to you, and answer these two questions. Do you pray?
What does that mean to you? Of course no one is forcing you to answer these
questions, but I invite you to push yourself a little. Pick one person seated
next to you, and both of you answer the questions, do you pray? And What does
that mean for you? And be kind. Answering this question is just as strange and
scary for your neighbor as it is for you.
Thank
you for sharing yourselves with one another. In that little conversation that
you just had, and here on Sunday mornings in worship. The power that we have as
a community comes only through your willingness to trust one another and be
gentle. When we do that, when we are able to talk honestly about our faith and
when we bring our hopes and sorrows with us to church and lift them up with a
clear voice, amazing things can happen.
Amen.
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