Lord Arthur Michael Ramsey, the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote a fantastic little book about prayer, "Be Still and Know." In it, he defines prayer as "being with God." That's a fantastic definition. But aren't we always "with God?"
Yes.
So, if Lord Ramsey's definition is accurate, we are praying when we take a walk, when we sing the Psalms, when we drink too much at the pub, when we argue with our spouse, when we silently judge our neighbor ...?
Yes.
But that doesn't mean that judging our neighbor is prayer. It means that we are praying, we are with God, while we are judging our neighbor. We are praying, perhaps, but we aren't doing it very well.
The difference would seem to be awareness.
I think that Lord Ramsey's definition is correct. But for the sake of discussion, I think it best to use the word "prayer" to refer to the practice of cultivating an awareness of our presence with God.
So how do we begin cultivating an awareness of our presence with God?
The beginning is community.
Our life begins as a result of community. So it makes perfect sense that the awareness of our spiritual life in God should also begin with community. No one exists without community. Everyone has parents.
One of the Ten Commandments tells us to honor our father and mother. By honoring them, we honor our source, and thereby honor our own existence and our connection with the entire cosmos. Even if we have the worst possible parents, abusive or neglectful or what have you, we can still honor the fact that, through them, we are connected with something better even if we can't respect what they have done with that responsibility.
In the old pagan religions, the priests and people used idols. They'd make an image to represent their deity and would perform their rites and sacrifices and offerings in the presence of this idol.
But the idol was more than just a representation of their deity. In some way, the deity was believed to inhabit the idol. So that any act of devotion or obeisance done to the idol was actually done to the deity.
For all of our condemnation of idolatry, we Christians have a similar idea. We call it the Image of God (or Imago Dei, if we're feeling fancy).
Humankind are created in the image of God. That's what Christianity believes. And all of us, no matter what kind of person we are, are part of that image (and yes, that means all. Christians, Hindus, Republicans, LGBTQ, fundamentalists, children, your ex-boyfriend, Genghis Khan, whatever. All of us.).
Christianity also believes that God himself united himself to this image. He became a human being. But even Jesus wasn't a human all on his own. His human life came from his mother, the blessed virgin Mary. And she had parents too, Anna and Joachim. And through his ancestors, Jesus is united to the entire human race. His genealogy (found in Luke 3) ends with the phrase "the son of Adam, the son of God."
There's more. Ask any first year Hebrew student (or, you know, look it up on Wikipedia) and they'll let you know that "Adam" wasn't really a proper name in Genesis 1. The Hebrew words "ha adam" really kind of means "the guy who was made out of dirt." When God became human, he united himself with the earth as well. With the dirt. With the stardust that formed the earth. With everything that was created.
Union with God is what prayer is all about.
Christianity teaches us how and why this union with God is possible, God has already done it. The Creator became part of creation. Our work in prayer, now, is to cultivate our continual awareness of this union. To pay attention.
And the first step of recognizing our union with God is to recognize our union with humanity, the Imago Dei. And the first step to recognizing our unity with humanity, is to hang out with humans.
Eat dinner with your family. Buy a meal for someone who can't afford it. Take your kids to the Summer Reading Program at the library. Hang out in a coffee shop or public park. Have a beer with friends.
And when you do, pay close attention. Listen more than you speak. Don't judge. Don't let a healthy debate become an angry argument. You are in the presence of the Imago Dei. You are with God.
Marcus Emmons is the priest at Christ Anglican Church, an Intentional Community of Peace and Prayer, 504 Trivista Left St. in Hot Springs. He may be contacted at 326-8621 for spiritual direction or for more information.
Religion on 06/25/2016