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Sermon March 2, 2022
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
Ash Wednesday
http://lectionarypage.net/YearABC/Lent/AshWed.html
Audio: /documents/Ash_Wednesday_Service--
Video: https://youtu.be/f5oAL2-GBDE
But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:5
In the fall of 2005, I started attending an Episcopal Church on a regular basis. It was not an easy decision for me. I had been an active member of the Lutheran Church since I was 9 and now nearly 50, I was switching denominations and leaving the very church I had attended as a child, a church that truly shaped and formed me and a church that my parents still attended.
I had found it increasingly difficult to be part of this church, both locally and denominationally, because of its stance on people who were Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. The church had decided in its latest convention to not be fully open to all people regardless of their gender orientation. My understanding of God and of following Jesus clashed so much with that exclusion, that I had to do something. I did not want to “work” from the inside to change things. I wanted to be in a faith tradition where that issue was more in line with my own understanding.
I love liturgy, so it seemed like The Episcopal Church was the place to re-settle myself.
So many things were happening in my life. I was contemplating a major move and shift in my career as a social worker. I was heartbroken from a breakup with a person I loved very deeply. And I had left this church which had been the heart of my following Jesus.
I ended up at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Harrisburg. Father Victor Thomas was there. I was welcomed with open arms. One particularly difficult day, I called Father Thomas on his cell phone. He was in the middle of a store, but stopped what he was doing and listened to my woes. Then, he did something which is what I have always remembered from that encounter. He said, “Let me pray for you.” Right there in the middle of the store, he prayed for me that I might be comforted and guided. As I said, I have always remembered that.
While that experience was memorable and even pivotal, I cannot say I have been able to do what Father Thomas did…to just up and pray for someone…to stop what I’m doing to listen and pray.
Father Thomas who is now the rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas, has recently written a book on prayer titled, Secretly and Often: The Journey of Prayer, with a forward by Bishop Baxter. A virtual event is planned for Saturday, March 12 in the morning where he and Bishop Baxter will discuss prayer. Mother Shayna Watson will facilitate the discussion. Let me know if you would like more information.
In our Gospel reading this evening, we hear a portion of Jesus’ teaching his followers. This is known as the Sermon on the Mount. In the Gospel of Matthew, this is really the first time Jesus sits down and teaches like this. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is mostly on the move.
You see that there are some verses that are skipped and those verses contain The Lord’s Prayer. Jesus is teaching us how to pray and emphasizing the importance of prayer. In Jesus’ time and even now, I think, some people prayed in ways that drew attention to themselves. Jesus advises that we need to pray in ways that do not draw attention to ourselves.
Our catechism in The Book of Common Prayer on pages 856-857 has some helpful information on prayer. It defines prayer as “responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words.” While we often think of prayer as something we personally do and our Gospel talks about personal prayer in secret, prayer is also how we respond to God together. It is not only with words, but also with action. As former Congressman John Lewis said, “When we pray, our feet move.”
Prayer is at the heart of our Episcopal denomination. We have the Book of Common Prayer. We say lex orandi, lex credendi or how we pray establishes what we believe. Our prayerbook contains many ways to pray. There are the daily offices of Morning, Noon, Evening prayer and compline. There are devotions. There are many prayers for different situations. Praying shapes believing. Praying shapes faith.
I have recently rediscovered some of the writings of the English mystic, Evelyn Underhill. She reminds us of what is the heart of our lives. She says,
“…our lives are not real, not complete, until they are based on a certain conscious correspondence with it: until they become that which they are meant to be – tools and channels of the Will of God….” The Spiritual Life, location 47.
Underhill reminds us that every time we say The Lord’s Prayer, we are acknowledging that God’s Will and God’s Kingdom are the greatest of all realities. The Lord’s Prayer is a perfect prayer in so many ways. And we are truly bold when we say it, because we acknowledge an intimacy with God when we call God our parent. God is not distant to us. God is an intimate member of our family.
During this time of Lent, let us take time to pray more often and more deeply. Let us see how our prayer shapes our belief. Let our actions show to all we meet our response to God’s great love and mercy. Let us rest in blessed communion with God.
Amen
