A "Jesus Prayer"

There is a prayer, the words of which have been spoken aloud and uttered in silence by Jesus’ followers for millennia. A prayer voiced in the clarity of faith. Words whispered when no other words can be found.

Today, this week, and for the remainder of our lives in the Kingdom coming, let us join in this “Jesus Prayer" with our sisters and brothers throughout history and the world.

“Jesus! Make atonement for me, a sinner.”

Behold...the Kingdom of God is in the Midst of You

“Apocalyptic language,” says Eugene Peterson, “is a language for breaking open awareness of the tremendous energies of good and evil contending with one another beneath the apparently benign skin of the ordinary.” It is this type of imagination shocking language which precedes Jesus’ parable on persistent prayer (see Luke 17:20-18:8). Our persistent ‘cry to him day and night’ is less of a demand for God to do what He ‘speedily’ delights to do, but a cultivating of urgency in the ordinary. Praying that fosters ‘faith on earth’ that realizes the “Kingdom is what is going on all the time, whether we are aware of it or not.”

So, let us join in the prayer of the saints, “How long, O Lord?” until our faith sees His working justice everywhere around us—and through us: ‘behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.’ (Lk. 17:21).

The following prayer is adapted from the Tell It Slant study guide.

Father who reveals. You have shown us yourself—your character, your actions, your heart—in your Scripture, and most clearly, in your Son. And yet, your persistent revelation is often quiet, subtle, almost impercievable amid the noises of all that opposes. Admittedly, in the apparent quietness has us wondering at times if you are listening, if you are good, if you will act.

Shock our imagination! Light up the sky, like lightening flashing from one side of the horizon to the other! Awaken our hearts to the eternal in our midst, that we might see your kingdom and hear your thundering (if still and quiet) voice, and never give up praying to you until faith is sight.

We pray this in the name of Lamb who was slain, who lived and lives and will come again. Amen.

Looking But Not Seeing

There is a way of living life where we look at everything and see nothing. Like the “rich man” in Jesus’ story from Sunday, we can look at our circumstances (both good and bad) and never see God’s activity. Likewise, we can look at our neighbor (or spouse or child or coworker or friend) and never truly see them, recognizing their humanity, their need, and their purpose. Too often, in the self-absorbed, always consuming world in which we live, we look but do not see. So this week, let’s pray together for the true sight of the One who always sees us.

Father, thank you that you always see us. That you recognize us, dignify us, care for us, love us. Father, forgive us for looking around at our circumstances and fail to see your activity—your generoisty and your grace through others. Father, forgive us for looking at those around us yet failing to see who they are to you, and so failing to relate to them as you relate to us. Father, let us see, truly see the world of grace and wonder in which we live and in which we are made to contribute. Give us eyes that recognize you and recognize others who you see. Through Jesus we ask, hope, and are seen. Amen.

What's Next

As I mentioned in this week’s pastoral note, summer is a complex season! While it is billed as a time of rest and relaxation, just as often it is a time of transition. A time when we are anticipating (with excitement and/or anxiousness) what is next, but also a time when it feels like little can be done to prepare or get us to what is next! So, when we feel the draw of the future and the drag of the present, what are we to do? Perhaps, as I’m experiencing this summer, we are to let such emotions lead us to the source of our fulfillment. Rather than praying for the future, the thing that’s next, we seek communion with the One who’s already where we are going (see Ps. 34).

Will you pray with me as one who feels the “other” emotions of summer, or as one sharing the burden of your fellow siblings—both are welcomed and needed!

Father, You meet me more than halfway! Where I am going, that's where You've come from!

What have I to fear? Why am I so anxious, so restless, in such a hurry?! It's certainly not because I haven't tasted and seen Your goodness. Oh, how good You are!

So, search me, Father who knows me and loves me. See clearly my heart and its longing for more of You, and lead me along the Way to tomorrow in You.

Through Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Re-Gifting

What does God expect from a life of faithfulness, a life lived in communion with Him? It seems, as Jesus showed us in Luke 14:1-24, that he expects us to share with others what we have received from Him: hospitality. He expects us to extend the dignity, rest, and provision of relationship offered to those who need it and are willing to receive it.

Whether we find ourselves as ones in need of such hospitality today, or having received it ourselves and now in a position to re-gift our blessing, let us pray together these words adapted from the Tell It Slant Study Guide.

Gracious Father, Giving Son, Guiding Spirit, you have invited us into relationship with you, preparing a feast and home for us with you. In the ultimate act of hospitality—elevating our dignity, securing the rest of sure identity and forever provision—you have adopted us as your own children. Out of gratitude toward you, let us be invitaional toward others, extending and re-gifting the same kind of hospitality that you have extended to us in Jesus. Amen.

A Vinedresser's Prayer

Jesus’ parable about the patient vinedresser in Luke 13:6-9, is one of my favorites. Here, our heavenly Father is described as one who has true expectations for our life, is proactive in cultivating our fruitfulness, and is uncommonly patient with that to which He tends so devoutly attends.

Not only does Jesus’ parable reveal to us the nature of our Father’s expectations towards us, but also a revelation of our expectations towards one another. So, this week, let’s praise the Vinedresser and pray that we might be more like Him towards those “fig trees” in our lives—including ourselves!

Let us pray together this prayer, adapted from the Tell It Slant Study Guide.

Father, how can you be so patient? So patient with right expectations for Your creation and for Your children to bear fruit though no fruit is being produced.

Thank you that you do not quickly give up on us, but attend to the soil of our lives so that your seed might produce the expected bounty.

Help us, patient and gracious Vinedressor, to be as caring as You towards those in our lives who seem to be bearing no fruit—our family, our friends, our co-workers, and neighbors. Let our right expectations for Your seed, what You have planted in them, be met with a the patience and willingness to labor that You show us.

May Your loving patience and tender care produce fruit that last—in our lives and those aroud us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Needing Grace

Jesus’ parable of the Barn Builder in Luke 12 is not an attack on prudent money management, but rather a reminder of how desperate we are for grace, and how abundantly our Father pours out all that we need. So this week, let us pray together these words adapted from the Tell It Slant study guide:

Father of grace, all things are yours and you have no need of anything. Out of Your great wealth, You pour out grace upon grace. But in our poverty, we play at wealth, pretending that we are and have all that we need. And yet, in the false wealth of security, safety, happiness, distraction, our coveting hearts are always wanting more. Show us our real neediness that we may open ourselves up once again to the abundance of Your grace. Through Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Praying To Show The Way

I don’t know about you, but I regularly ask God to show me the way. Whether it be the way to handle a specific situation or opportunity, the way to respond to a particular person, or the way to be at peace; rarely is there a week (often, a day!) when I am not asking our gracious Father to shine some light on the path before me. Well this week, we are not praying to be shown the way, but rather to be ones who show it ourselves!

We closed our Gathering on Sunday with these words of Jesus from Luke 11:33-36,

No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It’s put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they’re going.

Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar.

Keep your eyes open [Christ City Church], your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room so those entering can find their way too.

And today, we take Jesus’ words to heart, asking together for healthy eyes to be well-lighted lamps so that others may see our Father’s way through us. Pray with me…

Father, wide-eyed with wonder and belief in Your Son, let our lives—individually and collectively as a faith family—be a clear and welcoming light to those looking for The Way.

Let not self-absorbtion nor timid faith damper the light of our lives, hindering our friends, our children, our spouses, our roommates, our co-workers, our neighbors, entry into life with You.

May we have the courage and compassion to live in and like the Light of Life this week. For Your Glory and the flourishing of those You love. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Praying Like Lions

Psalm 34:10 reads,

Young lions on the prowl suffer want, get hungry,

but GOD-seekers are full of God,

lacking no good thing.

The psalmist pens these words amid the praise of being one whose prayers are heard (v. 4, 7) and who has “tasted and seen that the LORD is good” (v. 8). In such a place, knowing you’ve been heard, your desires known, your petition accepted, your person welcomed; it’s no surprise to have the vigor and confidence of a young lion out to conquer our prey. The psalmist, not wanting to temper our passion or courage even a single degree, nevertheless refocuses our zeal towards its effective goal: “seeking God.”

No matter what we are praying for, our aim is nothing less than life with God, God himself. And, as the psalmist reminds us, when our vigor and confidence are thus focused, we’ll get what we are after: “those who seek the LORD, lack no good thing.”

So this week, as we lament the brokenness and evil in our world and pursue new and better partnerships in our future (and all the daily things in-between), let us do so with the assurance of our Father’s ear and zealousness for life with Him—His kingdom coming, His will done, on earth as it is in heaven. Let’s pray together:

Father, we are determined and ready to bless you every chance we get, knowing when we seek you, you answer us, meeting us more than halfway, delivering us from our fears, healing our sickness, covering our guilt, satisfying our hunger, and raising us from death.

Father, we are zealous for life! Ready today for your beauty to arise. For neighbors and friends and family to taste and see, with us and through us, that you are good!

May we keep our tongues from evil and our lips from speaking the deciet which fills our airways, screens, and hearts. Let us be quick to turn from evil and do good, speak peace, and pursue it in every relationship and role in which we daily live.

We seek you, Father! Through Jesus we pray with passion and confidence.

Amen.

An Open Door

When a disciple asked Jesus to teach he and his fellow apprentices to pray, he probably expected something similar to what he learned growing up: a route prayer. Maybe Jesus’ prayer would sound different, use different words than the Shema, but ultimately, it would be another collection of words whose force was felt through repetition. Yet, what the disciple wanted, and what Jesus wanted for his followers, was not a fresh version of the same old thing, but something wholly new. New words, yes, but also a new expectation for prayer.

Jesus desires us not to merely pray memorized words, but to pray which the expectation of communion. We know this because Jesus not only gives a model prayer but also shares a parable and poem that gets us into the right state of mind (heart) for prayer (see Lk. 11:5-13).

With our expectations rightly aligned, expecting to be received by our Father, and to receive Him, the words of Jesus’ prayer become more than a model, they become a doorway into an actual relationship—which is the source of Jesus’ power and joy.

So this week, slowly pray the words Jesus taught us below. But this time, as the Holy Spirit leads, let your conversation with God lead you into more intimate prayer.

For example, when praying “Keep us safe…” name the “us.” Your family or friends, our faith family, a neighbor, or co-worker. Let yourself be taken by the Spirit into prayer for God’s presence and work in another. Praying with God for those in your life.

Whatever word or phrase opens the door to communion, take it! Now, let’s pray with Jesus Luke 11:2-4 (MSG).

Father,

Reveal who you are.

Set the world right.

Keep us alive with what we need to be full.

Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.

Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.

"Lord Teach Us..."

The one time the disciples as Jesus to teach them something, the one time rather than learning through observation they desire to learn through a lesson, they ask Jesus to teach them…what, do you think? Teach them to stay steadfast and do the right things? Teach them to overcome the enemy? Teach them what to know about God?

Each of those would have been a good thing to learn. Yet what the disciples ask Jesus to teach them was not a lesson on morality or kingdom advancement or even theology. Instead, they asked “Lord, teach us to pray…” (Luke 11:1). Haven learned from Jesus along their journies for nearly three years, Jesus’ apprentices recognized that what is most important is not what you know, but who. They came to realize that a truly “blessed” life—one morally sound, kingdom strong, and biblical wise—came through relationship, communion, and conversation with God.

The same is true for you and I, so over the next several weeks, we’ll follow the disciples’ lead, asking Jesus to teach us to pray and letting his lesson sink into our hearts and out of our mouths.

This week, take a few minutes to pray Jesus’ prayer three times. After each cycle, give yourself a minute to sit in the relational simplicity of Jesus’ conversation.

Now, let’s pray as Jesus teaches us in Luke 11:2-4 (MSG)

Father,

Reveal who you are.

Set the world right.

Keep us alive with three square meals.

Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.

Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.

These Things

Jesus’ spontaneous, joy-induced prayer in Luke 10:21, praises the Father for hiding “these things” from the wise and revealing those same things to “little children.” “These Things” being that the source of our confident, courageous, and effective participation in God’s working (see Lk. 10:1-17), is not that we have power and authority to overcome darkness, but instead, that we loyally loved (see Lk. 10:18-20). Both are true, but only the latter is the source of joy that spills into our everyday roles and relationships.

So this week, let us pray with Jesus, and pray to him for a greater revelation of the “these things”!

We thank you mighty and merciful Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden the true source of life from those who are satisfied with power, yet revealed these things to weaned children, content in our mothers persistent affection. How gracious is your will!

Holy Spirit, fill us with truth, and gives us eyes to see the source of our joy which we are to share with spouse, neighbor, children, roommates, coworks, friends. Let us live with compassionate courage and humble confidence in joyous obedience; until all the earth knows the love that has been revealed to us in Jesus.

Amen.

Clean Lips and A Pure Heart

On Sunday, we set out on a journey with Jesus through Luke’s gospel. Over the coming weeks, we will wander through the quasi-spiritual, biblically familiar, yet religiously apprehensive land of the Samarians. Along the way, we will listen to Jesus speak in parables and prayers so that we might learn the how and heart to be faithfully speaking of Jesus.

In preparation for entering the more normatively secular Samaria, Jesus wants his disciples to realize that the way they speak to others, especially about God, is often from a place of judgment, condemnation, bitterness, and ultimately, unacknowledged blindness (see Luke 6:27-42). From such a heart, the words we use, even words about God, don’t bear the fruit of faith that we desire (see Luke. 6:43-45). Rather than cultivating freedom and flourishing (see Luke 4:18-19, & 6:28), the words we use keep us bound and bind others, keeping others and God at a distance. So, before we can go out speaking of Jesus, let’s acknowledge, as the prophet who Jesus quoted to begin his ministry did, that we are “a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:1-7) as we pray in expectation of “clean hearts” being created in us (Psalm 51:10).

Let’s pray together these words, adapted from the Tell It Slant study guide.

Father, you use your Word so well to reveal yourself—your kindness and generosity to the ungrateful and evil, your mercy toward sinners, and impatience with the contemptuous. While your Heart is revealed in your words, Father, I find myself using words to hide, conceal, misdirect, deceive, tear down, and make things abstract. I am a person of unclean lips.

Teach me a new way of using words so that I may be more like the Word, who spoke and new life came into being. May the words of Jesus the Word, by your Spirit, breathe new life in me and through me into your world. Amen.

Wrestling Through Faith

Psalm 73 taught us that prayer sometimes is an honest wrestle of faith with God. In fact, only in wrestling through the struggles of faith with God, does faith blossom into sight, becoming the truthful vision of the world, ourselves, and our God.

So this week, let’s wrestle through faith unto sight. We’ll do so in three movements:

Movement #1 | Take a few moments to admit your struggles of faith to God, confessing where you see His Way not living up to the alternatives. (Ps. 73:2-16)

Movement #2 | Enter His sanctuary (Ps. 73:17). Use these words to find your footing in His presence: “I shall dwell in the house of the LORD for the length of my days…It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Ps. 23:6; Gal. 2:20)

Movement #3 | From the place of faith, God with you, you with God, pray with eyes wide-open:

I am continually with You;

You hold my right hand.

You guide me with Your counsel,

and afterward, You receive me to glory.

Whom have in heaven but You?

There is nothing on earth that I

desire besides You.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but my heavenly Father is the strength of my heart

and the Son, my portion, my best friend, forever.

It is good to be near God;

I have made the Lord Gdo my refuge,

that I may tell of all Your works.

(Ps. 73:22-26, 28)

A Springtime Prayer

As we noted some forty or so days ago, the Latin word lent means “length” and is a term used to denote the arrival of the Spring season. A season in which the world is filled with newness, from buds to berries, blossoms to babies, the greening of grass to the lengthening of sunlight; in Spring, the whole world seems reborn!

It’s fitting then, that Lent’s destination, Easter, marks the beginning of our “Christian calendar,” the rebirth of life with God through Jesus. Post-Easter morning, we live in a world bursting with newness. Each morning waking in what the apostle Paul dubs, “the new country of grace” (Rom. 6:2).

So this week, let us join together in Springtime prayer, for the newness to birth not only around us, but within as well.

Wonderful Savior, please help us to use this newly revived springtime season to revive a newness in our hearts, a frehness of your Spirit in our homes and in our lives. Help us to respond to life with mercy, meekness, consideraton and love; as Jesus did.

As we live day by day, remind us of the beauty of spring, and what new beginnings mean within us and in the lives of those around us. Place those in our path that need help to see and experience the springing of your life in them. Present us with situations where we can support one another, teach us what to pray on behalf of friend, family and enemy, and give us wisdom to live with courage coupled with compassion.

Becasue Jesus lives, and we live with him. Amen.

Strengthening His Grip

Last week we entered “the” Lenten prayer of the Orthodox Church, reflecting on the ‘negative’ side of repentance. Praying specifically for a weakened grip upon those characteristics that keep us from the life God has (re) created for us in Jesus.

Here on the final Friday, the “good Friday,” of our pilgrimage, we will use this short petition to help us keep our aim in focus once more. But today, we’ll focus on the positive, on those characteristics which mark new life. Pray this prayer four times. Focus on one of the emboldened words each time you pray. Let yourself long deeply for the life God has freed you to live, and the character to experience it in full. To help, I’ve provided a brief descriptor of the ’positive’ words below. Read them over, see in them what you desire to hold to, and then let the Spirit strengthen His grip on our lives.

chastity | the word is better translated for our modern times as ‘whole-mindedness.’ If the spirit of sloth has distorted our vision and energy to see life as it truly is in God, then whole-mindedness is the ability to see Him and life in him clearly. (i.e., lesson #2 from Sunday’s psalm)

humility | “the victory of truth in us, the elimination of all lies in which we usually live…accepting things as they are…God’s majesty and goodness and love in everything”

patience | the opposite of evaluating everything in terms of “me”; my needs, my ideas, my desires, my judgments; because we are open to God and able to reflect that infinite respect which He shows us

love | “the gift which is the goal of all spiritual preparation and practice”

O Lord and Master of my life!

Take from me the spirit of sloth,

faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity,

humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.

Yea, O Lord and King!

Grant me to see my own errors

and not to judge my sisters and brothers;

For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages.

Amen.

Focusing on the Negative

Last week we entered “the” Lenten prayer of the Orthodox Church. This little prayer which plays such a prominent role in the Eastern Church’s Lenten habits, spells out rather succinctly, in a unique way, “all the negative and positive elements of repentance and constitutes…a ‘check list’ for our individual Lenten effort.” And our “Lenten effort” has been nothing less than letting go of all those things that keep us from truly living and clinging to the life of God which is offered to us.

Here on the home stretch of our pilgrimage, we will use this short petition to help us keep our aim in focus. This week, we’ll focus on the negative, on letting go. Pray this prayer four times. Focus on one of the emboldened words each time you pray. Let yourself be honest with God, acknowledging what you need to let go of in this season. To help, I’ve provided a brief descriptor of the “negative” words below. Read them over, see where you are holding on to them, and then let the Spirit search us.

sloth | the laziness and passivity that cultivates an apathy towards the “change(s)” of a new life being worth the effort

faint-heartedness | the result of sloth which is the loss of hope and courage that anything good and positive can be experienced

lust of power | what feels our hearts when the aim of new life—life in God—is lost, an attitude toward life that evaluates everything in terms of “me”; my needs, my ideas, my desires, my judgments

ideal talk | words—written, spoken, heard, seen—which enforce sloth, faint-heartedness, and the lust of power; words that are not Truth, which make life into the absence of Truth (i.e., “hell”).

O Lord and Master of my life!

Take from me the spirit of sloth,

faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity,

humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.

Yea, O Lord and King!

Grant me to see my own errors

and not to judge my sisters and brothers;

For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages.

Amen.

"The" Lenten Prayer

In the Orthodox Church, there is a simple prayer that occupies significant importance within their weekly liturgy. Every Monday through Friday during the weeks of Lent, this short prayer is prayed twice daily. After the first reading, the worshiping participants bow prostrate at each petition for God to “take” and “give.” Continuing the physicality of the prayer, the church family bows twelve times in humble hope saying “O God, cleanse me a sinner.” And then the prayer is prayed for the second time and all fall again in silence.

While the motion and repetition might feel strange and a bit perplexing to most of us, the reason the Orthodox tradition places this little prayer so prominently in their Lenten habits is that it spells out rather succinctly, in a unique way, “all the negative and positive elements of repentance and constitutes…a ‘check list’ for our individual lenten effort.” After all, through the season of Lent, our aim is to let go (turn from) all those things that keep us from truly living and cling to the life of God which is offered to us.

So for the next several weeks, we’ll be incorporating this prayer into our Lenten traditions (we’ve actually already been praying an adapted version of it!). Today, and throughout this week, let this prayer conclude your daily time with our Father. Whatever else you are doing, reading, talking with God about; let the repetition of this prayer keep our aim in focus.

Pray with me,

O Lord and Master of my life!

Take from me the spirit of sloth,

faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity,

humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.

Yea, O Lord and King!

Grant me to see my own errors

and not to judge my sisters and brothers;

For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages.

Amen.

For Life After Death

As we enter one final “meaningful, nuanced repetition” of the Litany of Penitence, we do so with our attention toward the light. While we still have a ways to go to Easter morning, and the confines of the grave make dim our eyes, nevertheless, the turn upward from the grave is beginning, and “The sempiternal season of His mercy/Lifts like the sun above our dark horizon.”

Embracing death, “I confess my inquiry; I am sorry for my sin” (Ps. 38:17-18), we discover the first signs of new life (Ps. 38:19-22). A life that leads to more life, for ourselves and for others.

One last time in this Lenten season, pray these words with the intention of getting specific. Let yourself dwell long enough on the emboldened text until there are specific fruits of maturation, new life, which are asking our gracious Father to raise up.

Most holy and merciful Father:
We confess to you and with one another,
that we have sinned by our own fault
in thought, word, and deed;
by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.

Restore us, good Father,
Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great.

Bring to maturity the fruit of your salvation,
That we may show forth your glory in the world.

By the cross and passion of your Son our King and Friend,
Bring us with all your saints into the complete joy of Jesus’ resurrection.

Amen

Acknowledging Truth

When the psalmist realizes that the pangs of body and soul are not God’s wrath but the stings of death draining life within, the psalmist can finally open up and say, “I acknowledge my sin to You…” (Ps. 32:3-5).

To “acknowledge” sin, is to accept that the stings of death we feel are often—though not exclusively—of our making. We are contributors to death—big and small—and it is admitting the truth of our contribution to “You,” our heavenly Father that we experience the truth of existence, “I acknowledge my sin to You…and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” (Ps. 3:5). So, let us live openly in the truth together.

We’ll once again pray a portion of the “Litany of Penitence,” with the intention of getting specific. Let yourself dwell long enough in the “general” confession (emboldened) until there are specifics for you to acknowledge before our gracious Father. Then, pray the remainder of the prayer as one whose openness is met with that which leads to life full and forever through Jesus (Ps. 32:1-2).

Most holy and merciful Father:
We confess to you and with one another,
that we have sinned.

We turn to you, Father, and away from the wrongs we have done: acknowledging our blindness to human need and suffering, and our indifference to injustice and cruelty,
We hold fast to you, always-present Father.

Acknowledging false judgments, uncharitable thoughts toward our neighbors, and prejudice and contempt toward those who are different from us,
We turn to you, ever-chasing Father.

Acknowledging our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us,
We hold fast to you, never-changing Father.

Restore us, good Father,
Favorably hear us, for your mercy is great.

Bring to maturity the fruit of your salvation,
That we may show forth your glory in the world.

By the cross and passion of your Son our King and Friend,
Bring us with all your saints into the complete joy of Jesus’ resurrection.

Amen.