WAITING ON YAHWEH (25 OF 49)
Scripture: Psalm 130:1-8
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Waiting on Yahweh (25 of 49)
Lectionary, Year B, Proper 05
Christopher B. Harbin
Psalm 130:1-8
Many people find prayer shrouded in mystery. We do not understand prayer, for we have too much attachment to superstitious concepts of magical rites, formulas, and specified means of addressing God. We may want to seek God's attention, but we are afraid of saying the wrong thing. We are concerned that we do not know how to address one with authority and power over issues of life, death, and eternity. We read the Psalms and recognize many of them are prayers, entreaties to Yahweh for intervention, for hope, for attention, for care. Some of them even strike us as disrespectful. How can such prayers be appropriate when they don't seem appropriate to us? How can we call upon God and not get ourselves in trouble?
I grew up in a land bathed in mysticism, occult practices, and seeking contact with spirits, African deities, and answers from the beyond. Officially, the nation was Catholic, but the reality of what surrounded us had little to do with Roman Catholicism, and everything to do with spiritist practices with origins in African and native religions. This background colored much of the evangelical perspectives on prayer, spirituality, and one's potential relationship with God. It was the unspoken backdrop for so much of what went on within the life of the church, even when many of my parents' missionary colleagues had little to no understanding of that backdrop.
In Mexico, we heard more of the same, especially in radio advertisements for amulets, talismans, and luck charms. What I was less prepared for was seeing just how much of the same had come to infiltrate the larger social life in the US and reaching to spiritual practices around the church and infiltrating from the margins. No, I have not encountered people in church holding seances, seeking out palm readings, or seeking advice from tarot readers and crystal balls. The approach to all things spiritual, ...
Lectionary, Year B, Proper 05
Christopher B. Harbin
Psalm 130:1-8
Many people find prayer shrouded in mystery. We do not understand prayer, for we have too much attachment to superstitious concepts of magical rites, formulas, and specified means of addressing God. We may want to seek God's attention, but we are afraid of saying the wrong thing. We are concerned that we do not know how to address one with authority and power over issues of life, death, and eternity. We read the Psalms and recognize many of them are prayers, entreaties to Yahweh for intervention, for hope, for attention, for care. Some of them even strike us as disrespectful. How can such prayers be appropriate when they don't seem appropriate to us? How can we call upon God and not get ourselves in trouble?
I grew up in a land bathed in mysticism, occult practices, and seeking contact with spirits, African deities, and answers from the beyond. Officially, the nation was Catholic, but the reality of what surrounded us had little to do with Roman Catholicism, and everything to do with spiritist practices with origins in African and native religions. This background colored much of the evangelical perspectives on prayer, spirituality, and one's potential relationship with God. It was the unspoken backdrop for so much of what went on within the life of the church, even when many of my parents' missionary colleagues had little to no understanding of that backdrop.
In Mexico, we heard more of the same, especially in radio advertisements for amulets, talismans, and luck charms. What I was less prepared for was seeing just how much of the same had come to infiltrate the larger social life in the US and reaching to spiritual practices around the church and infiltrating from the margins. No, I have not encountered people in church holding seances, seeking out palm readings, or seeking advice from tarot readers and crystal balls. The approach to all things spiritual, ...
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