Thursday, June 27, 2013

Prayer

If you live in or near Chicago, most of you know the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup this week. Triumph! Champions! Prayers answered!

 

But were they?
Certainly there were a lot of faithful Boston fans praying that their Bruins would beat our Blackhawks.
So…… were our prayers better?
Does God prefer Chicago over Boston?
Are we more faithful than the Boston people are?

The question this week becomes: Why pray?
Why pray when our aging parents are dying?
Do our prayers give them one more moment of life?

This idea of "effective prayer" has been a stumbling block for faithful folks for centuries. Like Job's friends, some of us may succumb to judging others when we see their prayers falling on deaf ears. Some of us might lose our faith when we perceive that our own prayers are just evaporating into the stratosphere. And worst of all, some of us might even begin to censure our prayers, fearful that God can't or won't do for us what's on our list.

The "sticky wicket" of prayer is that we get hung up on the outcomes. Instead, let us look at prayer from an entirely different perspective. Let us consider prayer as simply a deep conversation between us and One who loves us. In the very act of having that conversation, we are transformed. We begin to realize that God is God and we are not. We begin to recognize God's actions in the world and become more aware of God with us. And, finally (God willing) we will begin to recognize God's invitation to us to participate in God's world. God's invitation to us to participate in God's world.



Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Forgiven




"Your sins are forgiven." Luke 7:48


Some things are so good it's hard to believe they're true.

Sunday's gospel, about the woman who enters the house of a Pharisee and begins to weep and anoint Jesus' feet with precious ointment, caused quite a stir. The dinner was for insiders only……and yet, this woman, a sinner, crashes the party.

The story is about forgiveness, and the gratitude we experience when we realize we have been forgiven. Forgiveness allows for restoration of relationships. It allows us to hope in a future. 

But this story is also about judgment and hardness of heart. There are those who feel forgiveness is so precious that it should be meted out sparingly or with strings attached.

This week, ask yourself how you feel about that. 
           Should forgiveness be rationed? 
           Do you believe your sins are forgiven? 
           Do you live as though you have a clean slate?

In the economy of grace, forgiveness is freely offered, freely given. 
How do we respond?