{"id":1189,"date":"2015-09-06T11:00:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-06T15:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=1189"},"modified":"2019-10-08T12:14:02","modified_gmt":"2019-10-08T16:14:02","slug":"the-senses-of-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2015\/09\/06\/the-senses-of-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"The Senses of Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service<\/a><\/p>\n

Mark 7:24-37<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to listen to the sermon only<\/a><\/p>\n

Be opened.\u00a0 Ephphatha.\u00a0 Be opened.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 utterance today, in the swirl of two strange stories,<\/p>\n

commands an opening of the senses, a new opening of the senses in prayer.<\/p>\n

Today the Gospel asks you about your soul, about your inner life, about<\/p>\n

prayer.<\/p>\n

Prayer is a kind of shadow boxing, the struggle of the soul for<\/p>\n

one\u2019s own life, over against all the forces outside arranged against us.<\/p>\n

As Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote in Gift from the Sea, \u201cEvery<\/p>\n

person, especially every woman, should be alone sometime during the year,<\/p>\n

some part of each week, and of each day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prayer is the possibility of an inner life, of communion with<\/p>\n

God\u2014whether in the graveyard, the library, the symphony hall, the art<\/p>\n

gallery, the study, the beach.\u00a0 Or, in church.<\/p>\n

A sanctuary is a place to be quiet, in order to reconstitute our<\/p>\n

real life:\u00a0 \u201cthe very best prayers are but vain repetitions, if they are not the<\/p>\n

language of the heart.\u201d (J Wesley)<\/p>\n

The soul, personal or collective, is boxing with its shadow in<\/p>\n

prayer\u2026.<\/p>\n

Before the firelight of a hard decision, as your soul sees its<\/p>\n

shadow lengthen into something like fear<\/p>\n

Before the blue haze of the computer glass, as your soul sees its<\/p>\n

shadow lengthen into something like listlessness\u2014acedia<\/p>\n

Before the searching, searing floodlight of clear and painful<\/p>\n

memory, as your soul sees its shadow lengthen into something like hatred<\/p>\n

Prayer is one great battle, your soul locked shadow boxing in<\/p>\n

combat with what maims and harms life.<\/p>\n

What are the senses of prayer?<\/p>\n

Sound<\/p>\n

Prayer tunes out many of the frequencies of this world.\u00a0 Prayer<\/p>\n

is deaf as a post, stone deaf to the text beep, to the telephone, to the radio, to<\/p>\n

the world around.<\/p>\n

One older, beloved hospital patient, who had only one working<\/p>\n

ear, found peace and healing at a fine medical facility by lying with his good<\/p>\n

ear straight down, planted firmly in bedding, muffled in the starchy pillows.<\/p>\n

He turned a deaf ear to the orderlies and nurses and heavy constant<\/p>\n

dehumanizing noise.\u00a0 Prayer is like Beethoven at the end.\u00a0 So in prayer, if<\/p>\n

you will steal away, you will hear another music.<\/p>\n

The song of the soul<\/p>\n

The chance for an inner life<\/p>\n

The language of the heart<\/p>\n

Ears to hear THE REAL YOU, your own-most self<\/p>\n

Listen\u2026Breathe\u2026Listen\u2026Breathe\u2026Listen\u2026Breathe\u2026Be<\/p>\n

Opened\u2026<\/p>\n

Remember Job, \u201cBe not rash with your mouth, nor let your<\/p>\n

heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are<\/p>\n

on earth, therefor let your words be few.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taste<\/p>\n

Prayer has different taste buds.\u00a0 An inner life makes room and<\/p>\n

has a taste for even what is sour and bitter.\u00a0 No sweet tooth for prayer, but an<\/p>\n

openness to hurt, to empathy.\u00a0 Such an unlikely taste in taste.<\/p>\n

In prayer we can taste the grief of a husband\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

In prayer we can taste the anger over a co-worker\u2019s cancer.<\/p>\n

In prayer we can taste the emptiness at a mother\u2019s passing.<\/p>\n

In prayer we can taste the fury in conflicts of vision.<\/p>\n

In prayer we can taste the ashes of defeat, which salt us all.<\/p>\n

In prayer we can taste the sting of adolescent and adult<\/p>\n

mistakes.\u00a0 We all make mistakes.\u00a0 No one is good at everything.<\/p>\n

In prayer we can approach the sense of violation another carries<\/p>\n

after vandalism, literal or spiritual.<\/p>\n

In prayer we can taste the awful bitterness of lament.<\/p>\n

So central, then, in worship, are the psalms, for they are, simply<\/p>\n

said, of two types:\u00a0 thanksgiving, or lament, thanksgiving, or lament.\u00a0 To<\/p>\n

them we return every Lord\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

Scent<\/p>\n

There is the smell of the desert in prayer, the arid and heated<\/p>\n

dryness of the desert.<\/p>\n

Some of you have traveled to Israel.\u00a0 Do you remember going<\/p>\n

to Qumran at the Dead Sea?\u00a0 Down in the Dead Sea valley, 1000ft below sea<\/p>\n

level, did you see the remains of that ancient Essene community, 100<\/p>\n

degrees Fahrenheit in the winter.\u00a0 Do you recall the scent of the desert\u2014a<\/p>\n

land stark, lonely, without any potable water, without any green, not a sign<\/p>\n

of life.\u00a0 Wind, sand, stars, heat.<\/p>\n

Why in the decades before Jesus lived, would 100 men come to<\/p>\n

the desert?\u00a0 Why, they had that scent of prayer.\u00a0 They smelled the difference.<\/p>\n

They came to prayer, in secret, to the Almighty God who sees in secret.<\/p>\n

They came to enter the closet of Palestine, and to shut the door.\u00a0 They knew<\/p>\n

about boxing with the soul\u2019s shadow.\u00a0 They knew that life is short.\u00a0 They<\/p>\n

came to struggle in mortal combat for the possibility of an inner life.\u00a0 They<\/p>\n

craved that \u201cpurity of intention without which none of our outward actions<\/p>\n

are holy\u201d (J Wesley).\u00a0 There is such a thing as inward holiness.\u00a0 God\u2019s heart<\/p>\n

is open to you there.\u00a0 There is such a thing as inward holiness.\u00a0 Prayer is its<\/p>\n

womb.<\/p>\n

Inward holiness prompts you right now to find and hold a<\/p>\n

particular moment in worship, as God\u2019s approach to you, and your response.<\/p>\n

Mine is the hymn.\u00a0 Hers is the prayer.\u00a0 His is the sermon.\u00a0 Theirs is the<\/p>\n

offering.\u00a0 In coming to worship we pray for, we anticipate, an experience of<\/p>\n

the genuine.\u00a0 Of beauty, truth and goodness in music, word, and prayer.<\/p>\n

Touch<\/p>\n

To be touched at the heart is to be forgiven.<\/p>\n

The heart of prayer is forgiveness.\u00a0 The point of prayer is<\/p>\n

forgiveness.\u00a0 The goal of prayer is forgiveness.\u00a0 Yes there is much<\/p>\n

else\u2014entreaty, expostulation, confession, thanksgiving, recollection, praise,<\/p>\n

adoration, meditation, intercession.\u00a0 Still, the heart of prayer for the<\/p>\n

followers of Jesus is forgiveness.\u00a0 Jesus prayed, according to Matthew, at the<\/p>\n

critical moments\u2014in the wilderness, in teaching, in the garden of<\/p>\n

Gethsemane, on the the cross\u2014\u201cFather, forgive them for they know not<\/p>\n

what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you seek forgiveness?<\/p>\n

Are you earnestly awaiting its touch?<\/p>\n

Are you adept at its arts and ways?<\/p>\n

Do you pray for it?<\/p>\n

In specific cases?<\/p>\n

Among nations and groups as well as persons?<\/p>\n

In rumination this summer I wondered about the two phrases,<\/p>\n

\u2018Love your enemies.\u00a0 Pray for those who persecute you.\u2019 (Matthew 5: 44).\u00a0 It<\/p>\n

had never occurred to me before that they might, perhaps should, be read in<\/p>\n

apposition.\u00a0 Here is how you love your enemies:\u00a0 you pray for them.<\/p>\n

Sight<\/p>\n

Did you ever wonder why now and then in the prophet Isaiah<\/p>\n

there is the comment about seeing and yet not seeing?\u00a0 There is a kind of<\/p>\n

blind sight that is all too common to us.<\/p>\n

Some years ago, we buried a man of faith and of sight.\u00a0 He was<\/p>\n

a photographer.\u00a0 In his last year he wrote out what the sight sense of prayer<\/p>\n

can be.\u00a0 For those of us who see and see and yet do not perceive, this is a<\/p>\n

gift.<\/p>\n

\u201cA photographer\u2019s function is to see so clearly that others will<\/p>\n

see the work that they have not noticed previously.\u00a0 By analogy with guide<\/p>\n

dogs for the blind, we can think of photographers as seeing-eye people.\u00a0 We<\/p>\n

are helping people that don\u2019t see much.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that\u2019s most people,<\/p>\n

because we don\u2019t pay attention and see clearly much of the time.\u00a0 We can<\/p>\n

get a lot of help from photography, which doesn\u2019t censor reality as much as<\/p>\n

our unaided minds do, and forces us to focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cPracticing the art of seeing should become a habit in all of us.<\/p>\n

In that practice, I soon learned that there is beauty in almost everything if we<\/p>\n

only will look\u2026 In order to see God\u2019s work, humans have to make<\/p>\n

themselves \u201csee\u201d the detail in creation, to become aware of the fact that God<\/p>\n

is truly around us all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It takes a practiced blindness to the rush and blur of the way we<\/p>\n

live to sense the sight of prayer.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is why, at the end of his faithful, shared life, Oliver<\/p>\n

Sacks wrote about Sabbath, and about his memories of Sabbath.\u00a0 His mother<\/p>\n

exchanging her surgeon\u2019s attire to make gefilte fish.\u00a0 The ritual candles.\u00a0 The<\/p>\n

fresh clothes.\u00a0 The silver wine cup.\u00a0 The chants and blessings.\u00a0 \u2018The<\/p>\n

observance of the Sabbath\u2019\u2014he quotes Robert John\u2014\u2018is extremely<\/p>\n

beautiful\u2026It is not a question of improving society, it is about improving<\/p>\n

one\u2019s own quality of life\u2019. (NYT 8\/16\/15)<\/p>\n

Call to Prayer<\/p>\n

Beloved<\/p>\n

A Deaf Ear to Dehumanizing Noise<\/p>\n

A Touch of the Heart in Forgiveness<\/p>\n

There are Senses of Prayer<\/p>\n

The Arid Scent of Inner Holiness<\/p>\n

A Taste for Empathy and Lament<\/p>\n

A Sight that sees the details<\/p>\n

Be opened.\u00a0 Ephpatha. May our lives be opened to the senses of prayer.<\/p>\n

-The Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill, Dean of Marsh Chapel<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information about Marsh Chapel at Boston University,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For information about donating to the Chapel,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service Mark 7:24-37 Click here to listen to the sermon only Be opened.\u00a0 Ephphatha.\u00a0 Be opened. Jesus\u2019 utterance today, in the swirl of two strange stories, commands an opening of the senses, a new opening of the senses in prayer. Today the Gospel asks you about your soul, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1189"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1194,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions\/1194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}