"...boldly to the throne of grace..." (The Lord's Prayer, Part IV)

"Abba, Father, all things are possible for Thee. Take away this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou will." Mark 14:36

"GUIDELINES! Not rules!"

One final thought on this subject: what I said in the beginning still holds now. There is no single "right way" to pray, no formula or checklist to follow, and even the best guidelines are not actual rules. Prayer is a living thing, because it is happening between two living persons, and what happens between two living persons is a paradox. On the one hand, it ought not to change. If it is a truly loving relationship, strong and deep, then it ought to last, ought to remain steady and sure like a rock. On the other hand, nothing will remain forever if it's not made new again, so it should strengthen and deepen, like a tree whose branches grow higher up and roots grow deeper down and yet the whole thing remains solidly immobile.

"I don't get fishing metaphors."

Make no mistake: regardless of your strategy, talking to God will be hard and feel clunky and frustrating at times, like any good relationship. It will last, however, and it will grow as long as there is love, and never forget: there is always love between you and God, whether you "feel" it or not. Of course, He has proven it grandly in Christ (Rom. 5:8), but He also proves it in the specific details of our lives, even in prayer where He has given us His Spirit to intercede for us (Rom. 8:26-27), saying what we cannot, finding the words we cannot. It's like that strange device that Flint Lockwood had that finally allowed his dad to articulate what he really wanted to say to his son. That is the Spirit in all our prayers. That is the love of God in all our prayers: we cannot lose, and we do not fail, no matter what or how we "feel" about it. So we strive in hope and struggle with joy, knowing that our good and great "Abba" God hears us, even and especially when we feel like we have nothing to say.

Amen.

Jon Vowell (c) 2013

Who is God? (The Lord's Prayer, Part III)

Priorities, son. Priorities.

"Abba, Father, all things are possible for Thee. Take away this cup from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou will." Mark 14:36

The third and final thing Jesus does in His prayer is finish with the proper posture and attitude towards God, by concluding, "Not what I will, but what You will." If Jesus started His prayer with who God is, then He finished by acknowledging who He Himself is towards who God is: the Son obedient and subject to the Father. He ended by asserting God's position and His, stating the nature of their relationship.

Now, our relationship with God is manifold, but there is one facet of it that must be stressed here: God is God, and we are not. We make our requests known, and make them known boldly, but at the end we acknowledge that He is God and we are not. His counsel will stand, and He will do as He pleases (Is. 46:9-10). Of course, the wonderful news is that God's counsel is for our good (Rom. 8:28-39), and that it pleases Him to do good for His children (Matt. 7:9-11), and so we need not fear His counsel and pleasure. Nevertheless, we ought to recognize it as supreme. Though Jesus requested it, the "cup" did not pass from Him, and it was for good, both for us (Rom. 5:1-2, 6-11) and for Him (Phil. 2:5-11).

"But I still want authentic love!"

Recognizing God as supreme is not as easy as it sounds. It is always easier to put ourselves first, seeing God as (at best) an equal to us and our wants. My generation really has a problem with recognizing authority or some supremacy that is not ourselves, but we live within contradiction. We demand self-actualization but also real love, neither of which can occupy the same space. A relationship (if it is to be successful) must necessarily be a place where you lay yourself down out of love for another; communication is not possible if each party is not willing to learn the language of the other, whether that language is foreign or cultural and emotional. It becomes worse with our relationship and communication with God, because He is not only another that is outside of us, but He is also the supreme other, one who merits (and calls for) our recognition of and submission to His supremacy. We must recognize/submit to His supremacy, or else our prayer life (and whole Christian life) will become a dead-end, narcissistic affair.

Rejoice in your smallness.

If our requests are the meat of the prayer-sandwich, then who God is (esp. in relation to us) becomes the slices of bread. To put it another way, prayer begins and ends by recognizing the nature of our relationship to the One to whom we are talking. We do this in daily conversation as well: begin and end by recognizing who we are talking to in the light of our relationship with them, whether it be a friend ("Hey, you." "Until our next meeting."), loved one ("Hey, babe." "Love you."), strangers ("Hello. Can I help you?" "Have a good day."), or even enemies ("What do you want?" "Don't ever talk to me again."). Of course, our relationship to God is unique since, as I said earlier, it is manifold: He is our Lord and Creator as well as Friend and Lover, but the principle still applies. You can begin and end by acknowledging who God is to you (i.e., who He has revealed Himself to be in your specific life), and in between those acknowledgements you make your requests known unto God.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2013

What Do You Want? (The Lord's Prayer, Part II)

"Abba, Father, all things are possible for Thee. Take away this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou will." Mark 14:36

"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us.... We are far too easily pleased." -C.S. Lewis, "The Weight of Glory"

The second thing Jesus does in His prayer is to state His request(s) or desire(s), and He is bold and honest about them: He asked that the "cup" of the cross and God's wrath be taken away from Him.

"Ask and it shall be given?"

Unless we are completely tactless, most of us are pretty gun-shy in this area. We find it indecent to ask God for what we really want. Shouldn't pray be about others? About our family? Our friends? The sick, the poor, and the hurting? The world? Peace on earth and all that? There is nothing at all wrong with asking for those things. They are all needed, but do not lose sight of how brash and personally specific Jesus made prayer. It was about you asking for personal things (Matt. 7:7-11), even down to your most basic needs and benefits (Matt. 6:11-13). The Psalms are sung prayers to God, and every one of them is filled with specific personal requests ("cleanse me from sin," "make my work prosper," "save me from trouble," "destroy my enemies," etc.), and even the apostles saw prayer in terms of personal requests (e.g., Phil. 4:6).

"Prove it!"

Of course, there is a right and wrong way to go about this. The wrong way is the "adulterous generation seeking a sign" way (Matt. 16:1-4; Mark 8:12). The Pharisees and Sadducees asked Jesus to give them a sign to prove that He was the Christ. They did this to "test" Him to see if He really was who He claimed to be, which means that they didn't believe that He was who He claimed to be. Thus, their "request" was asked out of unbelief; it was like telling God, "Oh yeah? Prove it." Such an attitude is the opposite of Christ, whose own brother explained, "Ask in faith, doubting nothing" (James 1:5-7), which is how the apostles would ask when they cast lots to choose someone to replace Judas. They prayed beforehand, asking God to guide the lots (Acts 1:24-26). This was not a "Oh yeah? Prove it" moment. They asked in faith, believing that God would answer and would answer rightly, which is the essence of proper asking in prayer.

Prayer: the original "Safe Place".

As stated before, prayer is not about you; but there is a place for you, a specific, safe place. A place where you can make your requests known unto God, where you can be honest and speak your mind, where you can approach the throne of grace boldly. If your prayer life is based off of your specific relationship with God, then is not honesty good for any close relationship? Should not that person, the one you are drawn close to, should not they be the one to whom you can be unbashful about how you feel, what you want, and what you fear? Give God the same brazenness. Give Him the same trust, for He is your good Father, and He will hear the desires of your heart (Ps. 37:3-5).

-Jon Vowell (c) 2013

Who Are You Talking To? (The Lord's Prayer, Part I)

"Abba, Father, all things are possible for Thee. Take away this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou will." Mark 14:36

Can you hear me now?

I have found that there is nothing on earth harder to do well than prayer. The potential for it to slide into pointless formality or mind-numbing list-checking is enormous. How often have we felt like we're talking to the air? To ourselves? We hear tales of prayer that is this wondrous, intimate thing with God, a time for real-life conversation with the Divine. Then we get to it (perhaps full of enthusiasm) and by the end we feel as if we've wasted everyone's time. Maybe moments do come where we "find the right words" and the communication and communion feel sweet and real, but those moments seem rare and fleeting at best, and we are unprophetic to both their comings and goings as well as the mechanisms that actualize them. Another clumsy session, immediately following a successful venture, makes the frustration even more acute.

There are many good books on prayer, but something must be said first over and against all books: there is no such thing as a singular "right way" to pray anymore than there is a singular "right way" to talk to your lover or best friend. Yes, there are things you ought to avoid in either case, like making the whole conversation about yourself (something Jesus spoke against in Luke 18:9-14); but to claim a singular "right way" to pray is the fastest way to make the whole thing empty and formulaic. Prayer is having a conversation with God, and it is built on the relationship you have with Him, and nothing kills conversation and stunts relationships better than sticking to formula every single time.

"I'm the map!"

So there is no one "right way" to pray, but that does not mean that there are no guidelines to help us out. Not having a "right way" to pray can be as big a problem as sticking to the same stale formula forever. Thus is our dilemma: we want our prayers to be sincere and organic, and yet we find articulation difficult: we hardly know what we really want, much less how to put it into words. A formula is no good, but some pointers would still be nice, and I think Jesus provides some good ones in His own prayer to God. There's a lot going on in this passage, but there are at least three practical things we can take away for our own prayer life.

The first thing Jesus does is acknowledge who God is. He calls Him "Abba, Father" and says, "all things are possible" with Him. The nature of God's Fatherhood and Omnipotence are topics in and of themselves, but the point here is that Jesus knows and recognizes God as those things. Again, this is not to be formulaic. This is not about picking a random divine attribute or two out of a hat and prefacing yourself with it. It is not about acknowledging who God is in general, but rather acknowledging who He is to you specifically. How has He made Himself known to you, in your actual life and experience? Remember: conversations are built on relationships, so what has your relationship with Him revealed Him to be?

"I see you as no one else does."

This is not about uncritical subjectivism. Who God truly is to anybody will never go against who He has revealed Himself to be in His word. However, that does not mean that everyone will truly know or understand God the exact same way as everybody else, because we are all different. Personality and temperament and history and culture and other intangibles make no two people the same, and thus no two people ever like the same thing the same exact way. Thus, how you view God, what and who you understand Him to be, though it ought not to contradict His word (which is His authoritative declaration of Himself), it may very well contradict other people.

What relationship is at work here?

Who God is to us specifically will shape our prayer life, because it shapes who we think we're talking to. In day-to-day conversation, who you're talking to shapes how you talk to them, whether they're a friend, family, stranger, or enemy. Who they are to you shapes your conversation, even your initial acknowledgement ("Hey, you." "Hey, babe." "Hello. Can I help you?" "What do you want?" etc.). So who is God to you? Who has He revealed Himself to be in your life, in your daily relationship with and experience of Him? If you know, then you can begin by acknowledging Him as such. In a way, you're reminding yourself who you're talking to, which can help shape the conversation to what it ought to be. On the other hand, if you don't know who He is to you yet, or you're not quite sure, then that's a perfect thing to start praying for.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2013

Homily 45: Danger Close (as preached by an orthodox rebel)

"Thus saith the Lord...: I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears...." Is. 38:5

How close is your God? As close as your tears? As deep as your aches? If He is not, then He is not a God worthy of worship. When Hezekiah first called upon the Lord in prayer (Is. 37:15-20), He is called the God "who dwells between the cheribums" (KJV). That was a reference to the ark of the covenant, which sat in the temple at Jerusalem, Hezekiah's city. You see, God was not a murky abstraction or a deity of distances. He was close, danger close, in your midst. You could find the very street and building of His very house. Though the Holiest of Holies was still off-limits in Hezekiah's day, it was also still an actual, geographical location that could be referenced and seen and approached. For those who stood before the veil, the Lord was very near.

For we who have pierced the veil with and in Christ (Heb. 6:19-20), the reality is even more resplendent, for God is literally as close as tears. As close as sorrow. As touching as pain. Do not fall for the snare laid down by despair; hear your danger close God instead: "I hear your prayers. I see your tears. I have caught and counted every one in a bottle and recorded them in my book (Ps. 56:8), and I have nothing but compassion for you, like a father's compassion for his children as he remembers that they are not like him (Ps. 103:13-14): not strong like him or wise like him or as durable and capable as him. I know, and I see, and I understand, and I care." Take your rest in the compassion and nearness of your danger close Father God, whose knowledge of you is intimate as well as infinite, is small like you as well as big like Him. Amen.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2013

"When you pray...." Homily on the Lord's Prayer, Part 8: Ask in Faith, Doubting Nothing (as preached by an orthodox rebel)

"And I say unto you: ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone who asks receives, and he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be opened." Luke 11:9-10

Right after Jesus teaches His disciples what to pray, He tells them about the importunate friend (vs. 5-8) and the good father (vs. 11-13). Sandwiched in between those two stories is this principle of asking, seeking, and knocking. The immediate idea is this: when you pray, pray in faith. Pray with the determination that your good heavenly Father will answer you. Do not come halfhearted and pathetic, limping along in prayer. Enter boldly into the holiest of holies (Heb. 10:19-22) and tell your good Father what moves and troubles your heart, believing that He will not give you a stone for bread.

The more general idea behind ask, seek, and knock is this: those who believe, do; and those who do, receive. Faith is not a passive thing, a pious waiting in the static dark. It is a courageous thing, the thing that moves forward even while in the dark (Heb. 11:8b). If we truly believe that our father in heaven is good, and that He will not give as stones when we ask for bread, then we will do: we will ask for that daring thing, seek the ways of glory, and knock upon the doors of God's treasure houses. Not to prove that we believe, but because we believe. We will not receive if we do not do, and we will not do unless we believe. That is the great principle that we must not forget. Faith is the spark that lights the fuse to the dynamite of God. He does not ask that we first do this or that, but that we believe Him so that we may finally do this or that and see the power and the glory of God.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2011

"When you pray...." Homily on the Lord's Prayer, Part 7: Our Deliverance (as preached by an orthodox rebel)

"...deliver us from evil...." Luke 11:4b KJV

"The prince of darkness grim.

We tremble not for him.

His rage we can endure,

For, lo, his doom is sure!" -Martin Luther

God gives us the weapons of our warfare, but victory does not belong to us. It does not even depend on us. If it did, then we would be doomed to wage a long defeat: a valiant effort in futile struggle. Deliverance does not fall to us; it falls to God. This truth is the greatest weapon that we have against all the grim assaults of the enemy: victory is ours in Christ. He has overcome the world, and thus we can be of good cheer (John 16:33). When the battles and trials are long and dark and sore, we can go through all things with a song, for we are not engaged in the long defeat. Rather, we are engaged in the long triumph.

When you pray, remember your deliverance. Remember your salvation. Know that you can call upon your Father in Heaven, and He will deliver you, and there is nothing that the darkness can do about it, for it is absolutely powerless before the light (John 1:5). Remember that you belong to Christ, and Christ has already won. There is now, therefore, no condemnation, no darkness, no evil, no failure or fear that can separate you from the love of the Father and the victory of the Son. We do not pray "deliver us from evil" in vain hope but rather in confident surety. We are children of the King and brothers of the Victor. His name is above every name, and His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. His will will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, and He does not leave us alone with the darkness without and within but provides strength and deliverance for all who call upon His name. Amen, and amen.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2011

"When you pray...." Homily on the Lord's Prayer, Part 6: Our Weapon (as preached by an orthodox rebel)

"...lead us not into temptation...." Luke 11:4b

"And though this world with devils filled

Should threaten to undo us...." -Martin Luther

The continual provision of God's "daily bread" is not merely a physical provision, for it is not merely physical things that threaten us. That we "wrestle not against flesh and blood" (Eph. 6:12) is a truth that we take too lightly, having been saturated by our skeptical-secularized age. As far as we're concerned, all of our demons are flesh and blood: people and circumstances and mistakes by our own hands. We can't see the plague for the flies, and we ask that God would deliver us from this world with such people in it. In contrast, Jesus said, "I pray not that Thou should take them out of the world, but that Thou should keep them from the evil one" (John 17:15). We subconsciously scoff at notions of "the evil one," trusting instead only what the eyes in our head can see. "Yes, yes, 'the evil one'. Now how about helping me out in my actual present circumstance?" Is there fear in your present circumstance? Doubt? Pride? Anger? All of the above? If so, then you have greater problems than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

When you pray, acknowledge your need of this spiritual safeguarding. The truths of God are a light for the darkness, especially the living darkness that stalks you in the night (Ps. 91:4-6). The wilderness that you wander through is not void of threats, and God's pillar of fire is not merely for show. Its shafts of light will pierce the dark like a rain of a thousand arrows. As they fall into the inky black there will be roars and gnashing of teeth, for the darkness hides a multitude of evils. Our enemy lives by the power of stealth, of blindness and deception. So pray daily that the Lord of Hosts would give to you His truth to wield, so that you will not be lead into temptation, away from the light of God and into the outer dark.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2011

"When you pray...." Homily on the Lord's Prayer, Part 5: His Mercy (as preached by an orthodox rebel)

"...forgive us our sins...." Luke 11:4a

"It is through the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed...." Lam. 3:22

As riots rage elsewhere and unrest boils at home, there is the question about what exactly will it take to make the human animal behave itself. What will it take to make humanity behave humanely? What do we need? More laws? Less laws? More government assistance? Less government interference? None of the above. The truth is that it is forgiveness that we need. Not changes and proposals and improvements and utopic visions, but forgiveness for who we are at what we have done. It is not ourselves that we need to forgive, for we are not the one's offended. It is God who has been offended, Him and his holiness. We may forgive each other all day long if we like, but it will not do us one lick of good. Without the mercies of the Lord we will all be consumed, and He has called all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30).

When you pray, it would do you good to acknowledge this one great secret of the Christian life: day-by-day we are upheld by the mercies of God and nothing more. If it were not for Him, we would all perish; not just at Judgment Day, but everyday. We abide, safe and secure, by the mercies of our Lord. Take stock of your days and you will find that you did not need forgiveness merely on the day of your salvation; rather, you needed forgiveness everyday following, forgiveness that is yours because you belong to Christ (Colossians 3:3; I John 1:7). Everyday has sufficient evil unto itself, and thus everyday we need the mercies of God. It is God who keeps your foot from falling. It is God who saves you from the snares of the enemy and the snares of yourself. It is God who makes sure that "we are not consumed." He forgives our sins daily, and each moment from Him is a new beginning wherein we walk in newness of life.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2011

"When you pray...." Homily on the Lord's Prayer, Part 4: His Truth (as preached by an orthodox rebel)

"Give us day-by-day our daily bread...." Luke 11:3

"It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.'" Matt. 4:4

There are many provisions that God gives to His children, but none is more precious than the truths of His word. If there is one thing that we are in continual need of, it is a continual dose of reality. Everyday our hearts and minds are pulled apart by a million different distractions, overclouded with terrible fogs and distortions of the world. Our fears would slay us and our anger consume us and our doubts paralyze us. Left to our own meager wit and wisdom, we will get along fine for a few steps; but once the way becomes shrouded in a horror of great darkness, we will long for the joy of the psalmist: "Thy word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path" (Ps. 119:105). The way is dark, but there is light given to us day-by-day if we will but ask for it.

When you pray, ask often and always for the daily bread of God's word, a regular dose of His truth and reality. The living word is the voice of God that speaks order into our chaos, and whether we are on great journeys or taking small steps, there will be light. When the sun fades, there will be the moon; when the moon fades, there will be the stars; and when every star fades behind dark clouds, there will be flashes of lightning with every storm. Furthermore, at all times God Himself will be your every-present fireside in the wilderness, speaking His truth to the darkness without and within. There is no escaping this provision. Every sentence, phrase, and word that you take from Him will sit in your soul like an undying ember, whose fire the Spirit will ignite in due time.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2011

"When you pray...." Homily on the Lord's Prayer, Part 3: Our Place (as preached by an orthodox rebel)

"...Thy will be done...." Luke 11:2b KJV

"We will not fear, for God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us." -Martin Luther

When we hallow the name of God, we are acknowledging his place as Creator: His strength, sovereignty, and sufficiency. When we hallow the will of God, we are acknowledging our place as creature: our submission,  surrender, and service. He is Lord, and we are not. It is His purposes that are being fulfilled, not our own paltry ones. We are a purposeful part of His plan; He is not a peripheral part of ours. God has designed a great scheme and order wherein we have a place built for us, a place that we have been built for. Our joy is only found in that place, in His plan, in His will. This is not tyrannical enslavement and slavish duty; this is the joy of all living things, i.e., to finally find where they belong, within the great unfolding will of their Father and Creator.

When you pray, make your request known unto God. Ask what you will, but never forget Who is over all. Remember another of our Lord's prayers (Luke 22:42): He made His heart's desire known to His Father and then concluded, "Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." This is not about divine indifference, as though God cared nothing for us or take no notice of our lives; this is about us reaching that "nevertheless". We are to come before our good and gracious Father and make known to Him the things that truly press against our hearts, and then we are to acknowledge God's place above them all. That is not resignation; that is hope. It is joy unspeakable to know that God not only knows what you fear and desire but also is above all your fears and desires. He will bring to pass what He will, and what He wills is all for our good (Jer. 29:11; Rom. 8:28) and His glory (Ps. 46:10). There is no dreariness in this, only love and life more abundant.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2011

"When you pray...." Homily on the Lord's Prayer, Part 2: Our Purpose (as preached by an orthodox rebel)

"...Thy Kingdom come...." Luke 11:2a

"His kingdom is forever." -Martin Luther

Prayer is not simply words to the ceiling or words with our self. It is (amongst other things) an acknowledgement of a reality that is greater than us, a reality that is personal, who has a name, and has a purpose to work out. That purpose is not merely one plan out of many, a single option put forth on a cosmic menu. It is the only option, the only reality, the only plan that is unfolding and will be accomplished, rolling along like a great wave that is yet far off but whose coming is whispered by the lesser waves that caress and batter the shoreline. You have but two choices in regard to what is destined to come: learn to ride it or be swept away by it. The Kingdom of God takes no prisoners, and it will have no rivals.

There are no stock characters in the Kingdom of God, no generic cut-outs or plain cookie-cutter Christians. Every one of its citizens (who dwell in the light of its already-but-not-yet status) has been uniquely equipped to be a specific member in the body of Christ, which is the living inauguration of the coming Kingdom. C.S. Lewis called the unfolding, overarching purpose and plan of God "the Great Dance," whereby every point in the pattern, no matter its size, has its place and serves its purpose. The purpose that it was meant to have. When we pray, we acknowledge that purpose. Our purpose. We acknowledge that their is more to our lives and circumstances then ourselves and others. There is a larger picture, a greater vision, a consuming fire that swallows up all of our paltry preferences and dull desires into its brilliance. It is the Kingdom of God, the ripples and reechoings of redemption coming from the very heart of the Trinity itself. When you pray, remember that you are not simply speaking; rather, you are testifying that you belong, viz., to God and to His purposes. You are not some small speck alone in a meaningless void. You belong to a King, and His Kingdom is your Kingdom, and it is coming.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2011

"When you pray...." Homily on the Lord's Prayer, Part 1: The Name (as preached by an orthodox rebel)

"...hallowed be Thy name...." Luke 11:2a

"That name above all earthly powers,

No thanks to them abideth." -Martin Luther

When we pray, we are acknowledging by the very act itself that God is God and neither we nor anything else is. This is a crucial reality that must be continually reasserted, and prayer is that continual reassertion. The person who prays is acknowledging both their weakness, frailty, and need and God's strength, supremacy, and sufficiency. Even if there is no immediate looming crisis or fear, the one who prays knows who they are: lost without the Lord God of heaven and earth, who is their life and sustaining power (Acts 17:28a). Even the most selfish and narcissistic prayer ever prayed has at least this one sterling quality: the very act (whether or not the one who prays realizes it) establishes who is creature and who is Creator, who is dependent and Who is independent, who is needy and Who possess all things.

When you pray, begin by acknowledging who God is, viz., the One whose name is hallowed above all principalities and powers of heaven and earth. This very act alone will be a powerful point of strength and encouragement. Truth is power, and there is no stronger truth than this: the one whom you call on is God, Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer and Ruler of all things. He has the will and the power to accomplish exceedingly greater than all you could ever hope or dream, from the highest desire to the most intimate detail of your life. Furthermore, this God who is above all powers (including your dismal lack of power) is with you (Josh. 1:9) and knows you (I Cor. 8:3; Gal. 4:9a) and loves you (Rom. 5:8; I John 4:10) and is for you (Rom. 8:31-32). These are the truths that are encapsulated and acknowledged in the short, prefatory phrase, "hallowed be Thy name"; and those truths are yours forever each and every time that you pray.

-Jon Vowell (c) 2011

Homily 30: Rolling the Dice (as preached by an orthodox rebel)

"And they prayed.... And they cast their lots...." Acts 1:24-26

The custom of casting lots is a heavy part of our vernacular, but not our practice. Any man on the street, when pressed between two choices, may remark, "I'll cast my lot" with so-and-so and such-and-such, but never do they literally roll the proverbial dice. Such actions are usually frowned upon in pious circles. They find the whole thing suspiciously superstitious. What, then, of the disciples, a certainly pious circle in their own right? They were not superstitious. On the contrary, they were believers, and that is why they "cast their lots".

Notice what happens in the passage. The disciples prayed for God to do something, and then they did something in order to see what He would do. The casting of lots was an act of faith: they believed that God would answer. If they didn't believe it, then they wouldn't have cast the lots in the first place.

In contrast, we modern day Christians (with our civilized emergent blather and Osteen-styled self-help books) get the whole "praying" part pretty down-pat, but we fail miserably at the whole "doing" part. For us, prayer is more often than not an abstraction, a mere exchange of words between us and the ceiling. For the disciples, however, prayer was a highly practical matter. It was meant to get results, and we were meant to expect those results. As stated earlier, that is why they cast lots at all: they wholeheartedly believed that God would answer their prayer. Perhaps we would say that we are too educated and nuanced to cast lots nowadays. I say we are too unbelieving. We doubt a God who does things.

"Prove me now..., saith the Lord of hosts" (Mal. 3:10). There is a difference between "proving" God and "tempting" Him. The former is commanded. The latter is commanded against (Matt. 4:7). The difference lies in this: "tempting" God derives from unbelief, while "proving" God derives from belief. When you tempt God, it is because you doubt that He will do anything, and thus sneer to the heavens, "Oh yeah? Prove it!" When you "prove" God, however, it is because you know that He will do something, and thus cry to the world, "Taste and see that the Lord is good!"

The disciples did not tempt God. They did not cast their lots in order to verify to themselves that God had heard them. Rather, they cast their lots because they knew that God had heard them. Therein lies a major distinction between them and us. We pray without ceasing, but never act on those prayers, never venture forth to see what God will do. Thus, our constant praying turns into a smokescreen for unbelief and doubts about God. We will pray about something until the cows come home, but we will not cast our lots, i.e., actively bank on God giving an answer.

You pray that God will direct you to a new job. Are you filling out applications? You ask God to bring you to your wife/husband. Are you even looking at all? You ask God to guide the direction of your latest novel. Do you then go sit down and start writing? You ask God to give you the words to say to people. Do you then start conversations with others, or even join in on theirs? We ask God again and again (in various circumstances and on various issues) to show us "the way," but are we even moving ourselves at all? There are real times when we must sit still, where there are no clear paths to take or things to do. But when there are clear paths and actions before us, do we sit in sedation and call it "prayer"? Or do we cast our lots with God and go out, not knowing where we are going (Heb. 11:8)?

-Jon Vowell (c) 2011

(Additional reading)

A Prayer for Writers (as compiled by an orthodox rebel)

(original work with adaptations from Psalm 78, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, and Beethoven)

We praise Thee, O God, for Thy glory displayed in all the creatures of the earth,

In the snow, in the wind, in the storm; in all Thy creatures, both the hunters and the hunted.

For all things exist only as seen by Thee, only as known by Thee;

All things exist only in Thy light, and Thy glory is declared even in that which denies Thee.

The darkness declares the glory of light.

We praise Thee, O God of glory, power, and mercy; all creation praises Thee.

We, Thy creatures, would adore Thee now and through eternity.

Saved to magnify Thy goodness, grant us strength to do Thy will

With our pens as with our stories, Thy commandments to fulfill.

We praise Thee, O God, as we gather here before Thee, the Author of our Salvation and Faith,

Acknowledging our need of Thee, and asking that Thy grace and true beauty

Would fill up what lacks in our meager endeavors and halting metaphors

As we strive to declare Thy glory and goodness in this way:

We will open our mouths in a parable.

We will utter dark sayings of old,

Which we have heard and known,

Which those before us have taught us.

We will not hide them from our children,

And we will show to the generation to come

The praises of the Lord, and His strength,

And the wonderful works that He hath done.

So that they might set their hope in God,

And not forget the works of God,

But keep His commandments.

We praise Thee, O God. Where we doubt Thee, help our unbelief.

Where we are broken, heal us. Where we are stubborn, break us.

Where we are confounded, shine Thy light.

Where we are self-confident, bring Thy darkness.

Teach us to hunger and thirst only after Thee,

And may Thy Spirit take us into the deep things of God.

Amen.

-Jon Vowell (and others noted) (c) 2011