PRAYING AND PAYING ATTENTION

Matthew 26:47 - While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people.

So much happening all at once! We’ve had enough peace and quiet that Jesus was able to pray and the disciples were able to sleep. Now, we have a large crowd, armed!, and terror. That’s how fast life can change for all of us. One minute, everything seems peaceful, and we think we have everything under control. The next minute, all hell breaks loose. It certainly felt like that during the previous presidency.

I wonder what the disciples were thinking at this moment? Jesus has been telling them to pray because of this very thing and now it’s here and they are woefully unprepared. This is a good example of the need to be politically aware. It’s possible that Jesus knew what was going on because he’s divine, but that explanation isn’t necessary. What the Jewish authorities did here is and was standard procedure for those who would stir up trouble. Get rid of them. They’ve been trying to trap him for his entire ministry. Of course, they’re going to resort to false charges.

The thing is, Jesus was praying and paying attention. Sure, he was praying that it not come to this (like any of us would!). But he had also put himself entirely into God’s will – Thy will be done. As such, he was prepared for this moment and those that will follow. He knows God is with him and will not leave him. He knows where all this will end because he has been reading the signs of the times.

In the same way, many of us can see exactly where the false charges of election fraud are going. It will instill doubt in those who are not paying attention, then it will be easier to either steal the next election or outright take over. That is where all this is headed. The Republicans have no policy positions, so their only option for winning voters is to cheat. If that doesn’t work, they will keep trying to take it. They are doing it now. Look how many of them cannot call what happened on January 6 ‘insurrection.’

Are we prepared to be as equally wise as Jesus? Are we prepared to face what will happen in the coming months? Or will we stay in denial until, like the disciples, we no longer have time to prepare?

In my mind, Love challenges us in this present moment to do whatever we are capable of to stop the spread of lies and to work to protect our democracy from being taken over by delusional idiots. If not for ourselves, then for those who are already suffering because of these lies and egregious actions. It’s not too late, but time is running out. For us, for the earth.

Let’s not wait to follow Love’s guidance, wherever she leads us.

B

DISORIENTATION

Matthew 26:44-45 - So leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.”

The other day, I was listening to a sermon by the Rev William Barber. He discussed Walter Brueggemann’s idea of disorientation. Brueggemann is an Old Testament scholar who came up with the theory of Orientation, Disorientation, and Reorientation as a way to read the psalms. Well, some of them. Briefly, Orientation is when everything is going great, Disorientation is when things are confusing and we’re not sure what’s coming next, and Reorientation is when we come out of Disorientation with a new understanding of ourselves and of God. Barber clarified that we are in a period of Disorientation.

Do you feel it? Do you feel the confusion and uncertainty? How are you coping? Have you been weepy like me the past few days or have you been stoic about the chaos going on around us? what about your connections to God and others. Is it difficult to maintain them? Are you feeling like everything is a chore? Even things that should be fun?

Well, you’re not alone. I have been going through periods during the last five years of such disorientation and confusion. Many others have too. This is especially true for those of us who live in “red” states and where COVID is making a comeback due to the inaction of our elected officials. It is maddening and sad, scary and terrorizing. If you feel this way, please believe there is nothing wrong with you. The pandemic, the ongoing insurrection, the civil war between Republican governors and Biden, the extreme laws being passed by Republicans, and Republican ignoring of the climate change threat each by themselves are enough to challenge our peace and certainty. That they are all happening at once and one party is creating them multiplies the uncertainty, fear, and sadness.

You may be wondering how disorientation ties in to the text. I think the disciples are also experiencing disorientation, but they are in denial. They have not yet allowed themselves to feel in their bodies what Jesus has been trying to tell them. They are stuck on their own ideas of what the Messiah would be and act like, they cannot see the Messiah in front of them. They will shortly have to face their disorientation.

That’s good, because really, the only way out is through; through the feelings, through the protesting, through the survival mode, through the muck and the grime. One day at a time. The good news is God is here with us.

I’m going to hang on to that thought. I hope you will too.

B

WAKE UP!

Matthew 26:43 - Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.

You know, I’m jealous of the disciples. I wish I could just check out and sleep all the time. The consequences of the former guy’s f@ckery just keep coming: COVID, Afghanistan, the economic upheaval, Insurrection, lies. It is a lot! I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I’m just so tired of all the bulls#!t.

The situation the disciples were in was similar. They were oppressed, they knew Jesus was in danger, but they didn’t know – perhaps didn’t want to know – that the danger was becoming real that very night. In some ways, many Americans don’t want to know that the danger from climate change, from COVID, from the continuing insurrection, the Republican lies is becoming reality before our eyes. It’s tempting to just check out and sleepwalk our way through life.

And yet. Jesus gave them tools to reclaim their dignity from the oppressive Romans. According to Howard Thurman, “he announced the good news that fear, hypocrisy, and hatred, the three hounds of hell that track the trail of the disinherited, need have no dominion over them.” When Jesus calls the disciples and us to “wake up,” he is reminding us that we don’t have to give in to the fear and hatred that Republican leaders and other oppressors wish to foist on us. I make no apologies for equating those three hounds of hell with the current Republican party. Their actions are designed to create fear, hypocrisy, and hatred in others in order to better control those others.

Jesus’ good news was not for the Romans or rich collaborators. No. it was for those who were on the bottom of the social hierarchy. It still is. For those of us who are not at the bottom, how are we hearing the good news? How are we giving life to the good news? How are we working against those fearmongers, hypocrites, and hate-filled people? Are we making the good news real in our lives and in our communities? How are we loving our neighbors in the midst of the chaos Republicans would like to feed us?

Thurman speaks to this as well. “If … all life is one, arising from a common center – God, all expressions of love are acts of God. Hate, then becomes a form of annihilation of self and others; in short – suicide.” Every act of love, including loving ourselves. Self-care is essential for learning how to care for others. When we choose not to love ourselves, we choose not to love others. When we neglect ourselves in favor of anything else, resentment builds; and resentment often turns to fear, hypocrisy, and even hate.

Will we choose love or hate? Let’s choose love.

B

 

GOD'S SILENCE

Matthew 26:42 - Again he went away for the second time and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

When something big is weighing on our minds, it’s often not enough to pray once, is it? We often pray the same prayer again and again, hoping for relief of the burden or at least a temporary reprieve from the emotional and mental turmoil. Jesus is so human here. He knows how to still his mind and heart and goes back to prayer, even as he is disappointed that his disciples are not able to keep awake.

This going back to prayer reminds me of Psalm 88. Many of the psalms asking for God’s reprieve from circumstances end with a proclamation of faith in God or praise that God has taken care of the problem. All of them in fact, except for Psalm 88. It ends as it began, with prayers for relief from stress. There is no indication that the psalmist will stop praying and no indication that God has even heard. God is silent, and that silence is both disturbing and hopeful.

To be fair, some psalms continue in the next psalm, so it’s important to ask whether that is the case here. It is not. The psalm just ends with the psalmist still praying, still listening for a response. There is no indication that they will stop or have given up, and that is why I think this is a psalm of hope. In the moment of prayer, before change has come, anything is possible. There is still hope that things will get better, the problem will be resolved, or that the person can come to acceptance.

It is a perfect psalm and mirror for our situations with COVID, climate emergencies, and continued Republican lying and couping. It seems that our prayers aren’t being answered, that God is not listening when God is silent. It seems that there is no hope when others actively work to make these situations worse. These are terrible situations that by themselves are huge problems. It’s understandable that we might not see hope here. We can’t know the outcome of any of them. This psalm is the psalm for those of us whose faith might not be 100% in the midst of these messes, and for those of us whose doubts and fears loom larger than our faith. It might be good to remember that, in the moment of prayer, we are still okay, still hoping for change, still in connection with God, even if God is silent. That small bit of time is hope.

My hope is that we not lose our sense of hope, that we not lose our desire to pray or our connection with God. My hope is that these times might lead to strengthening of our faith rather than losing it.

 B

THE SPIRIT IS WILLING, BUT THE FLESH IS WEAK

Matthew 26:41 – “Stay awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

One of the notable things to me about the Civil Rights Movement is that the people worshiped together in order to gain the sustenance and strength to go into the streets to face whatever came at them that day. They held prayer meetings, sang together, socialized together. All of these were necessary to build bonds of love and trust that could withstand the hatred and cruelty they faced. They kept each other’s spirits up, held each other when they grieved, they were stronger together than they were alone. They needed both prayer and a trusted community, because it’s so much harder alone.

Because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Howard Thurman calls community a crucible, “a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development.” It shapes us and forms us. If our communities (families, churches, neighborhoods) are supportive and loving, we become shaped and formed by love. If not, well, that’s the crucible, the challenge. Those in that situation must learn to adjust, adapt, accept, change, recover, heal as necessary. Churches, families, neighborhoods are all communities with both comfort and challenge. Let’s be honest, we often think of the church as sanctuary, the place where we are safe, where we go to assure ourselves that God loves us. It is that.

But it is also a place of challenge in the form of practices we don’t like, others who might irritate us, people who are mean or make others uncomfortable, people who can’t sing in tune, predators, and, well the list goes on. The church is nothing more than a microcosm of the world, not heaven. These challenges are necessary for our growth in the faith and in our spirits. Without them the flesh will not rise to the task the Spirit has set. What is that task?

Here’s Thurman again:

The profoundest disclosure in the religious experience is the awareness that the individual is not alone. What [we discover] as being true and valid for [ourselves] must at last be a universal experience, or else it ultimately loses all its personal significance. [Our] experience is personal, private, but in no sense exclusive. All the visions of God and holiness which [we experience], they must achieve in the context of the social situation by which [our] day-by-day life is defined. What is disclosed in [the] religious experience, [we] must define in community. That which God share[s] with [us, we] must inspire [our] fellows to seek for themselves. [We are] dedicated therefore to the removing of all barriers which block or frustrate this possibility in the world. [We are] under judgement to make a highway for the Lord in the hearts and in the marketplace of [our] fellows. Through [our] living [others] must find it a reasonable thing to trust [God] and to trust one another and therefore to be brought nearer to the great sacramental moment when they too are exposed to the love of God … beyond the evil and the good.

That’s a lot of words to say that our experiences of God must be interpreted through our context, the communities of which we are a part. in seminary, we were required to clarify our context in our papers, because we read the Bible from a perspective that no one else can share. Yes, many people share some contexts, but no one else can live our lives. That context includes our social location, our “race,” our financial situation, our family situation, our cultural background, our experiences of injustice or privilege. All of these impact how we read the Bible and interpret our experiences of God. We need a church community to help us discern what those experiences mean in our lives. We cannot do it alone, just as the Civil Rights Movement was not accomplished by one person, and just as Peter will not do his work in the church alone either.

Because the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

So we all need community existentially. Norman Wirzba makes this point by writing that we have always been a part of a community. From the community of our mother and ourselves, to our families, to schools and neighborhoods, to churches, to other communities that we belong to. We need people at every stage of our lives. We need community in order to eat, see, drive on roads. But more than that, we need community to live and thrive. That is one reason why the ongoing pandemic has been so destructive; it has exacerbated the loneliness and isolation that are becoming more integral to our society. How many of us have missed hugging other people? How many of us miss being in others’ company in peace and joy? Human beings have evolved as a social species. Without other human beings around, we die. Loneliness is more than a soul death; it can lead to physical death, because our flesh is weak.

Let us pray together that we may find community that supports us and that challenges us to be all that we can be and do all that God is asking of us, so that our spirits AND our flesh can face the trials and challenges that await us.

B