November 17, 2013 - Proper 28C

In the name of God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

            I’m going to start this sermon with a story that might seem more like a presentation on sales and marketing than it does the Gospel, but we’ll get there. If you’re like me and like spicy food, then you’ve heard of Sriracha. It’s a hot sauce that was created by David Tran 33 years ago after he moved to Los Angeles from Vietnam, and was craving the kind of hot sauce he remembered back home. But he couldn’t quite find anything that suited his palate, so he decided to make his own. The Sriracha brand has become synonymous with the word “hot sauce” in many places, and you can buy t-shirts and iPhone covers with the logo, there are cookbooks based entirely on this ingredient, and Frito Lay now sells Sriracha flavored potato chips. In 2012, Sriracha sold over 20 million bottles for a profit of over $60 million. So you’d expect that David Tran started with a great business model and has worked hard to build his hot sauce empire.

Prayer

I've had some conversations lately that have revolved around the purpose/ends/opinions around prayer. As some of you read in my letter to St. Francis announcing that my wife and I are expecting our first child:

Prayer is a very powerful tool, as it both changes our attitudes, but also has an impact on the world as we work together with God to bring about the Kingdom on earth as it in heaven. As Paul writes in his first letter to Thessalonica, “pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Prayer is not something we “do” at certain times, as all of our life is about being in relationship with God and others; so then everything we do is prayer. So as you go through your day, considering how to prayerfully live in each moment and respond accordingly, we ask your prayers for us, along with the many whom you hold in your hearts. 

And I very much mean that- prayer is indeed powerful. One of the benefits to spiritual direction, is that my spiritual directors have always been able to help me to see prayer in new and powerful ways. I once said that I grew up thinking that prayer was done on your knees, hands folded, and Book of Common Prayer open. She pointed out that, while that is prayer, prayer is everything we do. If we believe that God is all-knowing, all-seeing, all-loving, then all we do is in relationship to God- we can't escape God. And if prayer is relationship with God, then the math is pretty simple- everything is prayer.

My spiritual director recommend an article about prayer as a "second breath." It was a helpful read, because it articulated this theology of prayer and recommends living a life of praying blessings instead of curses. I commend it you, dear readers. 

But what does prayer do? Well, as I've suggested, I think it has something to do with relationship. Now some people have trouble with prayer with an invisible deity who does not directly say anything back to us (at least, not in the form of sound waves that we think of as being normative in other relationships). It's similar though to all kinds of relationships we have. Some people are estranged from certain family remembers, but they are still in relationship with them, even if they don't speak for years. Others are in relationship with loved ones who have died many years ago. You see things that remind you of that person, you can even hear their words of wisdom echoing in certain situations, you hear a song that reminds you of them, or you feel their presence when you go to place you used to visit together. Relationship with God is somewhat like this. For me, I think of our child in the womb. I haven't met this person, I don't even know their name, or if it's a him or a her- but I'm in relationship with it, I care for it, I can't wait to know it more deeply one day. And I could likely say similar things about God.

I had a professor in seminary who spoke of prayer as action- and I very much liked and agreeing with his assessment. He spoke about quantum physics and the notion that we cannot understand the relationship between matter and energy. The famous example is that a butterfly flapping its wings in San Francisco causing a tsunami in Tokyo. Is this a literal example? Probably not, but it is to say that there are effects to causes that we cannot predict or understand. He then described prayer as working with God, creating space for God to act. Prayer is not just wishful thinking, it is actually effective. Now God can act with or without our help. But if you subscribe to a theology of creatio continua, as I do, then you believe that creation is not finished, and we are indeed working alongside to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer then, is a way to work with God to continue that Kingdom building.

I could say much more about prayer, exploring different avenues, talking about where prayer leads us, how liturgical prayer fits into this, but I'll save that for another day. For now, I'll leave it at this- prayer is about relationship and prayer is effectual. 

And as a resource- I've been using http://www.missionstclare.com/english/ to help me in my prayer life recently. Great resource, and they even have apps available for phones/tablets.

Thoughts? Opinions? Conversation starters?

Week of December 4

So last night I had dinner with a fraternity brother before an alumni association meeting for our Chapter. He graduated a year after me from Wake, so we got to know each other fairly well. He is a commissioned (yet to be ordained) Methodist minister in a small town in eastern NC. I enjoy talking with him once a month or so and getting up with him the few times a year when our schedules bring us together. Over dinner we discussed some of the struggles, joys, and conundrums of parish ministry. Specifically, last night we discussed the difference between American Christianity (that is, Christianity in name only) and Transformational Christianity (that is, authentic and faithful discipleship).

He told me about NT Wright's writing on the four spiritualities, which I was not familiar with. I did a little research this morning and it appears that these are discussed in Simply Christian. From what I can gather, Wright says that each person hears "the echoes of a voice" which calls them to do something. The way my friend explained it is that each person, Muslim, Christian, atheist, or deist all are motivated by at least one of these voices or spiritualities. They are:

• longing for justice (equality issues, social justice, outreach)
• quest for spirituality (prayer, academic study of religion, meditation)
• hunger for relationships (outreach to others, friendship gatherings, dinner groups)
• delight in beauty (art, spending time in nature, music appreciation)

God is in each of these movements, and God's Kingdom can be built through each of these with some intentionality. Hiking is listening to the voice of delight in beauty; but we all know that hiking, in itself, isn't spiritual, nor does it really accomplish the work of the Gospel. But that isn't to say it can't be those things. It can. Our focus is what matters. I think that many of us hear these "voices" daily, but often we over look them as calls from God or as invitations to be spiritual.

As we talked, I wondered which of these spoke to me the clearest. This morning I served with others at Urban Ministry as we prepared breakfast for the homeless, and I realized that for me, the longing for justice is what I most yearn for, it is the voice that I continue to hear.

So going back to this past Sunday's readings, what is the voice calling out in the wilderness saying to you? Which of these four voices calls the loudest to you? How do you ignore or silence these voices? How do you respond to these voices? How do you help others to hear the call? Some good things to consider this Advent season.