Competitive Prayer

Gospel: Matthew 6: 7-15

The Olympic games are over for now, but the religious competitions continue uninterrupted as before.  In the category of competitive prayer, there is the individual and team competitions.  Individual pastors duel one another in spontaneous prayer, being judged on length, eloquence, and cadence.  The team category ranks liturgical prayer with similar criteria along with the age and origin of said prayers, the older and more traditional being in favor.  

Jesus is well aware of such games.  He saw them in his own day with the rattling of lengthy prayers, the public wearing of religious finery to impress, and the utter insincerity of it all.  So Jesus gives us a prayer, not that it might be formulaic, but one that is designed to teach us brevity, humility, and authenticity in our prayer to God.  That we have endlessly parsed the words of the prayer utterly misses the point as to what Jesus means for us to do.  

Lent is about the task of prayer, not in lengthening the prayers but that our prayers be more sincere, humble, and authentic.  Our discipline of Lent is once again returning to the Gospels in order to imitate the Lord Jesus in his prayer, in his deeds of love and mercy to others which in themselves are our most authentic prayer and offering to God.  It is in these deeds of love for others that we express our love for God, our sacrifice of praise.   

The Final Exam

Gospel: Matthew 25: 31-46

Consider the criteria Jesus provides for the final judgment of the entire world, and notice what it is not about:  it is not a test of knowledge.  It is not the recitation of a credal formula.  It is not about belonging to a particular group or sect, nor about one's liturgical preferences.  It is not about sexuality or the wearing of particular religious garb.  It isn't even about belief in God or not, let alone one's conception or ideas about God.

The final judgment, in short, is not about anything that religion concerns itself with most of the time.  It is rather about mercy extended to other people.  It is about providing food and drink to the hungry and thirsty; providing shelter to the homeless; giving clothing to the naked; providing care to those who are sick and imprisoned; providing welcome and love to strangers in our midst - the immigrant, refugee, and migrant.  That's it - that's the final exam.  

Recently a church building was dedicated wherein the congregation spent more than $1 million to build a choir loft with no access at all; it was simply decorative. It is an apt metaphor for modern religion. We can continue to go about the business of the pseudo-religious life of vicarious activities that have no real meaning or purpose except that they are easy and satisfy our egos.  Or we can set about the task of real religion which is the care of others and the extension of mercy in the world.   

The Call of Evil

Gospel: Matthew 4: 1-11

The temptations of Jesus in the desert are the gaps that exist between that to which we are called to be and that which we currently are.  Jesus successfully rejects the call of evil presented to him in his life - not just in this episode but throughout his life.  These temptations are not one time events in his life or ours.  They continually recur in the life of Jesus and in ours, presented and repackaged into a variety of different manifestations.

The temptation to change stones to bread has us ask ourselves whether we are led by our appetites and passions or by something deeper.  The temptation to the city and its riches is the constant struggle to overcome the desire for power, influence, and material things.  And the temptation to fling oneself off a cliff is the tendency to turn religion into a spectacle of our own ego rather than a pursuit of wisdom and grace in our lives.

Both the devil and Jesus use scripture in their back and forth with one another, but they use it very differently.  Satan uses it to justify self-interest and that which we already want.  Jesus uses it as a means of wisdom to consider our calling as human beings to relationship with God and with one another.  This story is our constant measuring stick in our spiritual life: am I growing closer to the ideal of Jesus, am I using scriptures as means of wisdom and grace, or am I seeking my own self-interest and ego?