Prayer with Substance – Br. Keith Nelson
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2 Corinthians 11:1-11
Matthew 6:7-15
Monks pray often. But as we learn many times over, quantity or frequency in themselves don’t equal quality or depth. Neither, as Jesus points out here, do length or verbal sophistication in themselves equal substance in the realm of prayer. Even when the phrases are full of meaning, such as those drawn directly from Scripture, it is possible to come to them with absence of mind or heart, and miss the meaning because something in us is missing.
The Christians at Corinth seemed to go weak in the knees for verbal sophistication. In this slightly odd snippet from Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, I hear Paul’s sense of humor and his deep sense of irony. The Corinthians are distractible; they are flirtatious with other teachings, other teachers, and other “gospels” with finer phrases and finer reputations than Paul’s gospel, which can be a bit of a downer. Length and sophistication were these teachers’ specialty: in public prayer, in preaching, and in their long and impressive resumes. Paul was capable of great rhetorical sophistication himself, but the gospel he stewards is, first and foremost, treasure in a clay jar, “so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” (2 Cor. 4:7). Rather than a super-apostle– a term heavy with irony – Paul is a kind of sub–apostle. He’s a messenger on a distinctly downward trajectory, whose “resume” includes only the most ridiculous, painful, and shameful things he has endured for the sake of the gospel. Rather than marrying up in the world, spiritually speaking, Paul has married down… and down and down. He has wedded himself to a Bridegroom Messiah who makes him look like a loser. And that is his greatest boast.
You may be the type of person who crafts words because you love them. You may be that way by temperament; by communication style; by education; by vocational calling; by type of employment; by personal talent; by gift of the Holy Spirit; or any combination of the above. Maybe fine phrases follow you, are attached to your name, or the things you have produced. Maybe they flow from your mouth or pen: phrases with power to express, to articulate, to persuade, and to impress. I have had the privilege to meet, work alongside, and pray with many such people. Sometimes, I am told, I am one of them. A venerable company of monks, past and present, have been just such people.
If you are that type of person, you have probably experienced the occupational hazard – or the temperamental; communicational; stylistic; educational; vocational or personal hazard – of heaping up an empty phrase or two. Maybe it’s a moment when the words sound smooth but ring hollow. Or when the undergrowth of verbiage obscures the path onward or the path homeward. Perhaps they were beautiful, but lacked the gracious editing of the Author of Life.
It is quite easy to heap up empty phrases. In such moments, what hope do we have?
For me, it is the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer that Jesus taught is a simple, supremely effective tool to slice away anything in us that is not humble or sincere. It is the best, most straightforward antidote to all our articulate spiritual nonsense. Over time, it makes us real: real servants of a Savior with substance, which a world full of words desperately needs.
Lectionary Year and Proper: Year B
Oh, Brother Keith, your spare and fierce words hit home to the heart of this obsessive word-person, who – by all the contingencies you enumerate – lives in the universe where putting these beautiful and treacherous things together sometimes matters more than anything else…… I became a poet of sorts at 6 (75 years ago), and a newspaper editor (and preacher) at 16, and it’s been downhill ever since. And I’ve learned through much bitter experience that words, like all God’s good gifts, are good servants (when they can be tamed) but bad masters. What hope is there for us besides a return to the simplicity and inescapability of Jesus’s teaching, and a resolve to get off our high horses and back down to the nitty-gritty of genuine communication with God? In a week when most of my ‘assignments’ from life involve written words, your own words are a cautionary tale, and a smackdown of all the pretensions that the likes of me can mount to justify our misplaced priorities. I need to imitate my many dogs, pipe down, put my tail between my legs, and slink off to some quiet time when I’m not saying a single thing, just listening to whatever the Spirit wants to make of a message like this one. Thank you!
Thanks, Brother Keith, for this message, and thanks also to the SSJE community for the Cowley magazine devoted to this Prayer that I love so much. In my personal experience, praying the Lord’s Prayer is like opening the door to Heaven. Very often, all it takes is a “hallowed be thy Name” or “thy Kingdom come” and –that quickly– it’s all there! Invoke the Name or the Kingdom, and the rest of the Prayer is already alive and present in just these few words. As you mention, Brother Keith, the language is simple, but the words are so incredibly powerful that to merely invoke the Name or the Kingdom is to know all that follows: the forgiving and forgiveness, the deliverance, the power and the glory. It’s all there in prayerful recitation of that introductory invocation. Powerful words such as those of this Prayer perform their work then quietly disappear; they lead and then leave the worshipper in the resounding fullness of heavenly contemplation.
Than k you Brother Keith for you inspiration one of the best since Evelyn Underhill.
Very illuminating comment on the Lord’s Prayer which I say every time I pray as Jesus taught. I am reading “The Lord and His Prayer” by N.T. Wright. I wondered if you have read the book and can comment. God Bless!
For this earthly journey: Travel light. All you can bring is love.
Br. Keith, beautiful words, worthy application. Of further significance to me is that this is the third time in a week that i have heard a sermon or read a lesson on the Lord’s Prayer drawing me back, nearer to the Holiness of this little prayer.
Thank you.
Thank you, Br. Keith. As a person who loves words, your message speaks to me. (I do promise there is no pun intended here!) The humility fostered by The Lord’s Prayer is a gift to me.
Thank you, Brother Keith, for these therapeutic observations.
“a simple, supremely effective tool” – As paraphrases of the Lord’s Prayer are becoming more commonly used, I wonder if I might benefit a careful examination of the variations on this theme over the centuries. I wonder if new value might be found in the simplest translations of the original.
Amen.
Thankyou, Brother Keith.
Wonderful message
Thank you