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Good
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 Sermon
07/25/2010
A Church Formed by Prayer ~ by Reverend
Thomas Cary Kinder
July 25, 2010 Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, New Members Sunday
First Congregational Church in Thetford, Vermont, UCC
Psalms 138; Luke 11:1-13
Kyudo
(pronounced cue-dough) is a Japanese word that means “the art
of the bow.” It is the
name of the zen archery that Ray Chin practices. Kyodo looks from a distance like
very serious, slow and concentrated monks taking target practice, and
that is almost right. It is a
form of meditation, it is a spiritual ritual, but it is not just for
monks, and the target it aims for is not the bale of hay. The aim is inward, not
outward. The aim is to clear
the mind, to practice detachment from all anxious ambition or
judgment, to cultivate patience and achieve oneness with the
target. The aim is to learn to
live mindfully from the center of our being so that we bring peace
and unity and the gifts of the spirit flowing through us into every
encounter.
This
is exactly what Jesus is teaching us in the section of Luke that we
have been reading last week and today. He is teaching us a way to live
from the inside out, from a clear mind that is detached, open and
directed toward God. He is calling
us to be a church of people formed by prayer.
To
see this clearly we need to go back for a minute to last week’s
passage, the story of Martha and Mary at the end of Chapter 10. Martha was driven to distraction by
the many tasks involved with hosting Jesus and his disciples, but her
sister Mary was just resting at Jesus’ feet listening to his
every word. Martha got mad and
asked Jesus if he was going to let Mary sit there and make Martha do
all the work. Jesus answered,
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;
there is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away
from her.”
In
kyudo the zen archer is trying to change from Martha into Mary,
trying to let go of the distractions of many things. These things include not only all
the tasks involved with shooting a bow, but also the anxiety and
judgments related to the ambition of success. Martha’s many distractions
included making a good meal and the anxiety and self-judgment about
failing, and this inner turmoil spewed out to disturb the peace of
Jesus and Mary and the disciples.
The
zen archer knows that only one thing is necessary: success means
being focused on the present moment and letting go of everything else
(including the desire for success).
This focus clears the mind and quiets the soul. It allows us to experience our
spiritual connection to the universe and be at peace with all around
us. It lets the Spirit’s
power flow through us. That is
what constitutes true success in Kyudo.
Choosing
the better part that Mary chose does not mean sitting around doing
nothing, it means making ourselves available to be instruments of
peace in the Holy Spirit’s hands. Saint Francis of Assisi
immersed himself in Christ the way Mary did, and tremendous energy
flowed through him. He formed
a new monastic order, healed lepers, tamed ravenous wolves. He traveled tirelessly, spreading
peace and love wherever he went.
Mahatma Gandhi sat like Mary in spiritual practice at least
two hours of every day, and throughout the day he tried to pray
without ceasing. In his late seventies
during campaigns he allowed himself only three hours of sleep a
night, but all the energy he needed to lead his nation to freedom
flowed through him, a great spiritual force of nonviolence and
love. He attributed all this
to his reliance on prayer.
Jesus
says, “There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better
part,” and then the very next sentence in the gospel is this:
“He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished,
one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as
John taught his disciples.’”
This
is not just coincidence that Jesus happens to be praying in the next
scene. Luke is giving us the
answer to the first of two questions that the Martha and Mary story
raises. The first is, what is
the better part exactly? And
the second is, how do we choose it in our own lives? The answer to the first question is
that the better part is prayer.
Jesus is praying, sitting at God’s feet the way Mary sat
at his feet.
Notice
that when Jesus was done praying in today’s passage, a disciple
asked him to teach the community how to pray, just as John taught his
followers. This, too, is an
important detail. Luke is
signaling that the teaching Jesus gave to Martha and Mary was not
just for them, it is for all of us.
John’s community was formed by prayer, and the church is
meant to be formed by prayer as well.
In
answer to the disciple’s request, Jesus did not say that the
way to pray is to make longwinded speeches to God. Jesus said the way to pray is to
use very few words that we repeat over and over, a short, simple
prayer that over time becomes inscribed on our heart. The repetition clears our mind of
the long lists of our distractions and desires. It concentrates our focus on the
one needed thing, which is the complete turning of our mind to God in
the present moment.
The
prayer Jesus taught is a little bit like kyudo, in that it has
different movements that it leads us through. The prayer in Luke is,
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come. Give
us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone
indebted to us. And do not
bring us to the time of trial.”
The first movement of the prayer is the naming and blessing of
God as a way to focus ourselves.
The second is the invitation to God’s realm to come and
God’s will to be done, as some ancient versions of Luke
add. They also add the line,
“Your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us.” First we focus, second we open
ourselves and empty ourselves in preparation for God to come, and
then the third movement is to trust, trusting God for bread,
forgiveness and protection.
Trust frees us from distractions that could disrupt our focus
and block us from opening.
Right
now this church is working on many exciting things, some of which
could easily feel overwhelming.
We are working to raise $60,000 to restore this beloved but
weather-worn building. We are
working to balance our budget, to have a strong music program, to
provide good activities for our children and youth. We are working hard to establish a
culture of nonviolence in the world through several constructive
programs. We could be a church
full of burned out, resentful Marthas, storming in from our
respective kitchens and kvetching that others are not working hard
enough to help us.
Or
we can be a church formed by the three movements of the prayer Jesus
taught, a church that focuses, opens and trusts. We can be a church that chooses the
better part, that approaches its life of loving self-sacrifice and
service not from an anxious, judging, ambitious frame of mind that
defines success as meeting our material goals, but from a
self-quieting, self-emptying, detached frame of mind that defines
success as being present and connected to the Spirit, trusting that what
comes from that will be best.
I
have a dear friend who has been told by doctors that he needs to drop
everything and focus all his energy on resting and healing. He said to me the other day,
“But I don’t know how!
How can I leave all my commitments unfulfilled, how can I let
everything go, how can I just rest?” This is not something we learn in
our American way of life. It
is the exact opposite of the path to success that our parents and
schools and economic system have taught us.
Yet
the ability to let go and rest in God is essential to Mary’s
better part. So the second
question the Martha and Mary story raises is, how can we choose the
better part and then live by it?
Jesus says it is like someone whose cupboard is empty when
suddenly a surprise houseguest arrives in the middle of the
night. The person runs next
door to beg bread from a neighbor who is already in bed. The neighbor may not want to get
out of bed, but if the person persists with singleness of mind,
eventually the neighbor will get up and provide the bread.
Jesus
says, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will
find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” It is obvious that he is talking
about more than bread, and in the conclusion to this entire section
Jesus reveals the point. He
says, “If you…know how to give good gifts to your
children, how much more will your heavenly parent give the Holy
Spirit to those who ask.”
The better part, the one needed thing, the
whole single focus of Christ’s way is to pray in order to
receive the Holy Spirit, and then wait. It is to persist in praying and
waiting. That is how we will
learn to do our seemingly impossible tasks, like my friend who needs
to learn to let go and rest.
“The Holy Spirit …will teach you
everything,” Jesus promised his disciples. (John 14:26) If we do that one thing of praying
and waiting to receive the Spirit, then other things we need will
come—a guiding and empowering force will come; the ability to
love will come; connection to all creation will come; clear
mindfulness in the present moment will come; calm detachment from
results will come; the ability to be instruments of peace and justice
and compassion in this world will come. As Psalm 138 puts it, “On the
day I called, you answered me, you increased my strength of
soul.”
But sometimes strength does not come on the
day we call. Sometimes we have
to wait and wait and wait. And
that takes courage and faith, and it is not easy to choose, because
the truth is, we could die still waiting for the bread we need.
Later
in the service we are going to sing a hymn that has been important to
this congregation over the years, James Russell Lowell’s hymn
“Once to Every Man and Nation,” or “Heart and
Nation” as we now sing.
It begins,
Once
to every heart and nation
Comes
the moment to decide
In
the strife of truth with falsehood,
For
the good or evil side.
We
sang that hymn as we decided to become an Open and Affirming
congregation twelve years ago and at key moments of decision since,
and I expect we will sing it in years to come as we confront the
evils of the world. But today
as we sing it, we can think of it not as the decision to stand up for
a righteous cause, we can think of it as the decision preceding that,
the decision we need to make in every single moment of our lives, the
decision to focus on, open to and trust in the Holy Spirit. That is the courage we need, the
courage of Mary confronting pressure from Martha, the courage to
choose not to be a church formed by the safe and socially acceptable
path of compulsive busyness and the anxious fulfillment of shoulds,
but to be a church formed by prayer.
Let us pray in silence, turning to God in
love and trust, patiently waiting for the Spirit to move through
us. Let us pray and wait in
silence…
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