Perspective: Meaningful Words

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Meaningful Words

When you pray, don't pour out a flood of empty words, as the Gentiles do.  They think that by saying many words they'll be heard.  Don't be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask.

Matthew 6:7-8 (CEB)

Before I bring my need

I will bring my heart

From "First" by Lauren Daigle

Jesus, in His most famous sermon, instructs us not to "pour our a flood of empty words" when we pray, implying that some people seem to believe that the more they speak the more likely they are to be heard by their deities.  According to N.T. Wright, "We know from many writings and inscriptions that many non-Jews did use multiple formulae in their prayers: long, complicated magic words which they would repeat over and over in their anxiety to persuade some god or goddess to be favorable to them."¹  Jesus says that our God already knows what we need, even before we pray.

I have been taught to not ask God to "be with" somebody, for to pray such a prayer is to imply that God is not already with the person.²  Perhaps it could be said that, for any situation that happens to be on our hearts, God is already there because God already cares.  If God is already at work in any situation we might lift up to God in prayer, then our prayers do not really persuade God to act.  Knowing that it is not our responsibility to somehow convince God to act should take a great weight off of our shoulders.

Am I trying to suggest that our prayers do not make a difference?  No, I am suggesting that maybe prayer works differently than we might typically think.  I think that prayer functions in at least three ways.  First, prayer is an act of love.  When we pray for a person, we are practicing love for the person from afar by keeping him or her in our hearts and in our minds.

Second, prayer is an act of trust.  When we lift up a person or a situation to God in prayer, we are admitting our lack of control in the matter and entrusting the matter to God.  St. Paul writes, "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."³  Similarly, St. Peter writes, "Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you."⁴  We do not need to be anxious, because we can be confident that God is already at work.

Third, prayer is an act of alignment.  Prayer, I think, is not meant to get God to act but rather to align our hearts with the heart of God.  As Jonathan Tompkins, one of the pastors at my church, likes to say, "Prayer is not about us getting God to do what we want God to do.  Prayer is about God getting us to do what God wants us to do."⁵  Adam Hamilton suggests, "Most often God works through people, calling us and nudging us into action, working in our hearts and lives to be the instruments to answer the prayers of others."⁶  The more closely our hearts are aligned with the heart of God, the more we allow God to work through us and not merely in spite of us.

When Jesus instructs us not to pray with an abundance of "empty words," He goes on to offer us a relatively simple prayer we now know as the Lord's Prayer.  In my time of morning prayer, I rely heavily on written prayers, and, in my opinion, the very fact that Jesus gives us a prayer to pray legitimizes the use of such prayers.  Personally, I tend to get stuck in my own little world, so I need written prayers to help me keep in my heart and in my mind what I might otherwise ignore.  For example, "A Litany for the Church and for the World" from the Book of Common Prayer prompts me to pray for Church unity, global politics, environmental care, the people closest to me, those who are suffering, and those who have died.⁷

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And do not bring us to the time of trial,

but rescue us from the evil one.⁸

Consider what we can learn from the prayer Jesus taught us to pray.  In this prayer, Jesus teaches us to turn our attention to God before offering up our concerns.  First we glorify God's name and pray for God to reign on the earth, and then we entrust to God our needs of the present, our regrets from the past, and our anxieties for the future.⁹  Would we really pray in this way if we were not taught to do so, or would we start with our wants and needs?

I would offer one warning about praying written prayers.  If a prayer becomes too familiar, one might start rattling it off without even thinking about it.  In this way a written prayer can become nothing but "a flood of empty words."  It might be helpful to use books containing a large number of prayers, like the Psalms or the Book of Common Prayer.  Typically, I pray the Psalms for the week along with prayers from my denomination's hymnal and book of worship.

If prayer is indeed meant to transform us, then we need to learn how to pray well from the people of faith who have gone before us.  When we pray, we entrust to God the people and the situations that weigh heavily upon our hearts.  We can rest assured that God is already aware of those matters and that God is already at work in those matters.  As our hearts grow more aligned to the heart of God through prayer, we give God the opportunity to work through us in such matters.


Notes:

1. N.T. Wright.  Matthew for Everyone, Part 1.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 57
2. Laurence Hull Stookey.  Let the Whole Church Say Amen!: A Guide for Those Who Pray in Public.  2001, Abingdon Press.  pp. 27-28
3. Philippians 4:6 (NRSV)
4. 1 Peter 5:7 (NRSV)
5. Jonathan Tompkins.  "A Faithful Witness: Livin' on a Prayer."  Travelers Rest United Methodist Church podcast, 10/03/2016.
6. Adam Hamilton.  Why?: Making Sense of God's Will.  2011, Abingdon Press.  ch. 2
7. https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/a-litany-for-the-church-and-for-the-world
8. Matthew 6:9-13 (NRSV)
9. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, Volume One.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  pp. 229-230

Le "Pater Noster" was painted by James Tissot in the late 1800s.

Perspective: Leaves and Fruits

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Leaves and Fruits

From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.

Luke 12:48b (NRSV)

Father, break my heart for what breaks Yours

Give me open hands and open doors

Put Your light in my eyes and let me see

That my own little world is not about me

From "My Own Little World" by Matthew West

One morning, while in Jerusalem, a hungry Jesus spots a fig tree beside the road.  He walks over to the tree and starts looking for some figs to eat, but He finds "nothing at all on it but leaves."  Angrily, Jesus says, "May no fruit ever come from you again!"  The fig tree immediately withers, to the Disciples' astonishment.¹

As I've noted previously, Jesus' cursing the fig tree and causing it to wither is a symbolic act.  The fig tree represented the religious institution of the day.  People had been going to the temple spiritually hungry but finding no nourishment, in the same way that Jesus approaches the fig tree physically hungry but finds nothing to eat.²  According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus curses the fig tree the day after He barged into the Temple of the Lord, turned over the tables of the merchants and money changers, and proclaimed, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a den of robbers."³

Lately I've been experimenting with a method of reading Scripture called Lectio Divina, which is less cerebral and more meditative and contemplative than typical Bible study.  It is less about reading Scripture and more about letting Scripture read us.  In Lectio Divina, a person reads a short passage of Scripture slowly and prayerfully several times until a particular word or phrase grabs her.  The person then meditates on the particular word or phrase, considering why it might have stuck a chord with her.  The practice ends with a time of prayer and contemplative silence.⁴  I don't think I've quite gotten the hang of Lectio Divina, but I think my efforts have helped me to read Scripture with more introspection.

When I recently read the story of Jesus' cursing the fig tree, using this method of "divine reading," the phrase that struck me was "nothing... but leaves."  I wondered if Jesus would find any "fruit" if He were to look at my life.  I wondered if there are any "leaves" in my life I have been using to hide any fruitlessness on my part.

Leaves and fruits are both important to plants, but they have very different purposes.  Leaves are the organs in which carbon dioxide, water, and light are used to construct simple sugars in a process known as photosynthesis.⁵  They are vital to a plant's survival, but they exist only to serve the plant itself.  A fruit, on the other hand, is a structure that contains seeds, the means by which a plant reproduces.  Also, fruits are often edible.⁶  A plant produces fruit not for its own sake, but for the future of its own species and for the nourishment of other species.

A fruitful life, I suppose, is a life that extends beyond itself in some way - a life that involves more than mere existence.  I think it's worth noting that the word generous shares an etymological root with the word generate.  We create - or bear fruit - so that we may have something to share with others.⁷

A tree in full leaf is a beautiful sight, but sometimes a closer look is required to determine whether or not it has actually produced anything that isn't meant to serve itself.  Likewise, a person might appear to have a full life at first glance, but a second look could reveal otherwise.  I am reminded of one king who had it all - wealth, power, accomplishments, palaces, vineyards, and more women than he could keep up with - and, when he looked back, he saw that it was all "pointless" and "a chasing after wind."⁸  A life that does not extend beyond itself ultimately withers into nothingness.

In A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, writer Donald Miller reflects on his experience of turning one of his previous memoirs into a screenplay.  In the midst of the process, he took some time to learn what makes a good story and what makes a good character in a story.  At one point, Miller realized that he had spent far too much of his time dreaming, while others were actually living their lives with actual people.  He realized that he had not been living a meaningful life, as evidenced by the lack of photographs on his mantle and end tables.  He knew that he had to make some changes in his life.⁹

I think that maybe these things have come to my mind because I fear that I'm living a fruitless life.  I wouldn't say that I'm living a "full" life, by anyone's definition, but I try to keep myself occupied.  That said, I wonder how much actual "fruit" I am really bearing in my life.  So often I feel that I spend most of my time spinning my wheels.  I don't believe that life is meaningless, but I fear that I might not be living a very meaningful life.

How can we tell the difference between the "leaves" and the "fruits" in our lives?  How can we pull back the "leaves" to see if our lives have borne any "fruit"?  I have my doubts that we can answer these questions for ourselves objectively.  We might need to allow ourselves to become vulnerable and ask the people we trust to tell us what kind of "fruit" they see in our lives.  I haven't quite figured out what all of this means for myself, but I have given myself some questions to ponder for a while.  I hope that I have given you, the reader, some questions to ponder as well.


Notes:

1. Matthew 21:18-20 (NRSV)
2. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem.  2006, HarperOne.  p. 56
3. Matthew 21:12-13 (NRSV)
4. Justin LaRosa and James Harnish.  A Disciple's Path Daily Workbook.  2012, Abingdon Press.  pp.46-47
5. Wikipedia: Leaf
6. Wikipedia: Fruit
7. I probably stole this thought from someone, maybe Rob Bell, but I do not have a reference.
8. Ecclesiastes 2:4-11 (CEB)
9. Donald Miller.  A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life.  2009, Thomas Nelson.  ch. 13

The photograph of the fig tree was taken by Wikimedia Commons user Miya in Hyogo, Japan and is used under under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  The photographer is, in no way, affiliated with this blog.

Perspective: Internal and Invisible but Not Insignificant

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Internal and Invisible but Not Insignificant

Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.

Luke 12:2 (NRSV)

It never was and never will be

You don't know how you've betrayed me

And somehow you've got everybody fooled

From "Everybody's Fool" by Evanescence

I have encountered a certain phrase twice in my daily Bible study over the last couple of months.

In the Gospel of Matthew, we read that, one day, Jesus is confronted by some Pharisees and Sadducees who demand that He give them some miraculous sign.  He refuses to comply with their demands.  Afterward, while crossing the Sea of Galilee, Jesus says to the Disciples, "Watch out, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."  At first the Disciples think that He is commenting on the fact that they have no bread with them, but, when Jesus reminds them of the times He miraculously fed massive crowds, they realize that He is not talking about literal bread.  Matthew, as narrator, suggests that Jesus was comparing to the Pharisees and Sadducees' teachings to yeast.¹

In the Gospel of Luke, we read that, after a dinner engagement at which Jesus goes on an angry tirade against the Pharisees and religious scholars in attendance, they become hostile toward Him and start trying to trip Him up and trap Him in His own words.  Soon afterward, as a crowd forms around Jesus, He takes the Disciples aside and says to them, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy."²

Apparently, Matthew and Luke were not in total agreement in regards to what Jesus meant when He spoke about the "yeast" of certain religious groups.

Biblical Scholars generally agree that, of the four canonical New Testament Gospels, Mark's was written first and that both Matthew and Luke based their Gospels, in part, on Mark's.  Mark's account of the event in question is very similar to Matthew's.  While on a boat, Jesus warns the Disciples to "beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod," after an altercation with some Pharisees, and the Disciples think, at first, that He is referring to literal bread.³  Interestingly, Mark offers no explanation regarding what Jesus meant but rather allows Jesus' warning to remain open to interpretation.

It seems to me that both Matthew and Luke took what Jesus said in Mark's Gospel and worked in their own interpretations.  Of course, I don't think that this is necessarily a case in which one Gospel writer is right while the other is wrong: both bad teaching and hypocrisy are hazardous elements that might be found in religious circles.

So, why would Jesus compare such things to yeast?

Yeast is the single-celled microorganism that is responsible for causing bread to rise and for turning wort and grape juice into beer and wine respectively.  Yeast is internal, invisible, and seemingly insignificant, yet, over time, it makes a significant difference in its environment as it does what it was created to do.

In my opinion, yeast is a good analogy for hypocrisy.  Upon meeting a person, one has no idea whether or not the person is a hypocrite.  Over time, as one gets to know the person better, one will discover whether or not what the person says actually matches up to what he or she does.  In Luke, when Jesus warns the Disciples to beware the Pharisees' hypocrisy, He goes on to say that everything that is kept secret will inevitably be made known.  A person's hypocrisy is not immediately evident, but, like yeast, it will inevitably make itself known over time.

Yeast is also a good analogy for faulty teachings.  Questionable teachings might not seem to matter at first, but they have the potential to become extremely harmful once they have had the opportunity to take root in a person's life so that they work their way outward into the person's behavior.

Two of the Gospel writers disagreed about a certain teaching of Jesus.  The reality that there are inconsistencies in Scripture doesn't trouble me.  Actually, it fascinates me.  The fact that the Gospel writers themselves wrestled with the teachings of Jesus gives us license to wrestle with them as well.  Four writers sought to faithfully report the story and teachings of Jesus, but ultimately it is up to us to discern for ourselves what they mean for our lives.


Notes:

1. Matthew 16:1-12 (NRSV)
2. Luke 11:37-12:1 (NRSV)
3. Mark 8:11-21 (NRSV)

The photograph of the microscopic saccharomyces cerevisiae (or brewer's yeast) was taken by Wikimedia Commons user Masur and has been released into the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.