Pray Without Thinking

In an earlier life, when I taught Broadcast Journalism to university students, I would explain to them how even the most seasoned newscaster could read aloud news copy, having the words go from the eye to the mouth without ever passing through the brain. To wit: five minutes after a newscast ends you can ask the newscaster for a detail of the story he or she just read, and they won't have any idea what that detail was. We do the same thing in worship, allowing the words of our public prayers to pass from our eyes (reading them) to our lips (speaking them) without those words ever passing through our brains. This past Sunday, attending the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Janesville, WI, the following prayer was part of our worship:

Gracious God, we gather this morning as your people on the first Sunday of Advent. I know this season is supposed to be different. Too often, O God, I spend most of December feeling divided. The hustle and bustle of the world set to the tune of Silent Night feels a bit disjointed. The sounds of cash registers ringing and to-do lists growing -- and yet I am told that in a smelly stable of all places You broke into our world; how can this be? [I’m] disjointed by the wisdom of the world that tells me “The one with the most toys wins” and your wisdom that comes in the form of a vulnerable baby. Maybe these tensions are not meant to be resolved. Maybe in these tensions my faith meets the world. Christ was born to make us whole, to see Your presence in everything. And everything means everything. Help me this Advent to prepare for Jesus’ birth in all I do.

The words, Maybe these tensions are not meant to be resolved. Maybe in these tensions my faith meets the world. did not go directly from my eye to my mouth -- they registered in in my brain. When my faith meets the world, whether during Advent or during the rest of the year, tension is inevitable. Yet, all too many of us would rather avoid the tension than permit it. This Advent, I shall be a little more conscious as to the places where my faith and my world are in tension.