I was talking to a priest friend of mine whose parish is on the Florida Gulf Coast. He recently went to the annual blessing of the fleet. Each year a different clergy person from the denominational diversity of the area is asked by the mayor to lead the prayers. My friend’s turn comes up next year. This year a pastor of a local protestant church was asked to pray, and at one point in his litany amid the plea for a good catch, real estate sales and the increase in tourism income, he then addressed the possibility of hurricanes, everyone at the gathering of course keenly aware of the approaching season. He asked God: “to please send said potential approaching hurricane to their beloved city’s east or west.” (At least they gave God an option)That wouldn’t necessarily bode well for us here in Mobile, or for those in the eastern parts of the diocese. So I guess our job at the approach of a hurricane is to out-pray our neighbors, a spiritual tug-of war for God’s capricious favor. We even heard church folks and government officials after Ivan and Katrina talk about how God had blessed us that we avoided the brunt of those storms. One person’s blessing another one’s curse, I suppose.
All of this absurdity has caused me to reflect on the nature of prayer. Walter Brueggemann, noted theologian and Biblical scholar, defines prayer as the conscious act of aligning our collective will with God’s will. That’s helpful, because we are given many clues in scripture as to what God’s will is. God wills mercy; God wills that God’s people are fed sheltered and clothed; God wills the welcome of stranger in sacred hospitality;God wills the healing of God’s people; God wills us to forgive; God wills nonviolence; God wills saving justice and dignity for all of God’s people. So our prayers should be predisposed for the good of our neighbor. In prayer we remind ourselves of who we are as God’s people; and we remind ourselves that we are the means of God’s will in earth. And yes we pray for our own needs, but always, always in the context of our neighbor and the community of which we are a part. In prayer we are also commended to give thanks for and exult in the beauty of creation. Prayer is a decidedly communal act; and prayer, at its heart is an articulation of sacrifice, as God’s will is sacrifice. As a church we are, in short, a community of sacrifice called to enact God’s will as we discern it through the practice and prayers of the faith.
Indeed as the people of God we become prayer for our world, living, incarnate words of God’s love bearing God’s will to the brokeness of our world. This takes work, I believe. Prayer is not sentimentality, but an imaginative and enlightened exercise in apprehending God’s will alive among us amid the beautiful and dangerous intricacies of every day living. This is prayer that works, literally; this is real power, the very power of God set loose in the world transforming, recreating the world for the better…..real power found in sacrifice….more powerful than hurricanes. God’s will be done, and let us pray that God’s will is done sooner than later.
