Unlocking our hearts
RCL Proper 12C - (Track 1) Hosea 1:2-10, Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19), Luke 11:1-13
When the disciples asked about prayer, Jesus gave them the text we know as “the Lord’s Prayer.” One might wish he had said more.
But maybe more wasn’t necessary.
Abraham Heschel wrote that what makes it possible for us to pray is “our ability to affiliate our own minds” with a text, so we can “unlock our hearts to the words, and surrender to their meaning . . . The text teaches us what to pray for.”1
The Lord’s Prayer does that. It teaches us what to pray for. Psalms can do that too.
I used to have mixed feelings about psalms. I liked some, but not the ones that talked about hatred or being a victim or wanting vengeance. I didn’t want those thoughts in my head and it didn’t seem right to “pray” those thoughts.
Reading Walter Brueggeman helped me see those psalms differently: as a kind of intercessory prayer.
For those who see the body of Christ as a cosmic reality (looking at you Colossians), somewhere in the world, someone — some member of the body — is praying the feelings and questions of the unpleasant psalms, with a psalter in their hands or not.
Brueggemann wrote:
“The Psalms are the voice of our own common humanity… [They] speak about life the way it really is… [With] the Psalms, we enter into the midst of that voice of humanity and decide to take our stand with that voice. We are prepared to speak among them and with them and for them, to express our solidarity in this anguished, joyous human pilgrimage.” We add a voice to the common elation, shared grief, and communal rage that besets us all.”2
I started trying to connect the troubles described in the psalms to situations I knew or had heard about in the news. It wasn’t difficult. The newspaper was full of stories of people being lied about, imprisoned without cause or redress, ostracized, mocked, injured, left behind. It was heart-opening. It changed how I felt about the psalms — all of them — and the way I listened to the news.
The Lord’s Prayer and the psalms are good texts to pray with. There are other “texts” to pray with — in the arts, in nature, in the newspaper. The right text is whatever helps us to “unlock our hearts” so that we can be present to God with the prayers that come easily, as well as with the prayers we wish no one, ever, needed to pray.
Heschel wrote that what is greater than our desire to pray is God’s desire that we pray -- and that God is waiting for our prayers. Any time we’re ready, we have the words we need.
Peace.
Abraham Joshua Heschel. Thunder in the Soul: To be Known by God. (Plough Publishing House. Walden, NY. Kindle Edition. 2021) at 68.
Walter Brueggemann. Praying the Psalms, Second Edition: Engaging Scripture and the Life of the Spirit. (Cascade Books, an imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition. 2007) at 2. The Rev. Dr. and Professor Brueggemann died last month at the age of 92. He gave us an extraordinary body of work — research and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible — from the perspective of an academic and a practicing Christian. May his wisdom, integrity and insight continue to be found among us.