“It is not the task of Christianity to provide easy answers to every question, but to make us progressively aware of a mystery.” This is important to always remember, because our God, being an awesome God, is greater than anything we can imagine. In the words of the great English monk and theologian, Saint Anselm, “God is that, than which nothing greater can be conceived.” God is beyond the conditions of time and space; He is outside creation, beyond creation. And yet, wonder of wonders, our great and transcendent God makes Himself known by what He chooses to reveal: we know of God’s actions, His plan of salvation, His revealing of Himself in Jesus Christ, and the workings of the Holy Spirit. We know His actions which are revealed, but the very nature of God is beyond human language, beyond human comprehension, beyond human capacity. God is mystery. And yet the highest and most incomprehensible wonder is not merely that we can have relationship with God, but that the way we have relationship with God is through prayer. Thus it is to the mystery of prayer—even the sacrament of prayer—that we turn today. In our first reading, we heard the beginning of the beautiful prayer by Saint Solomon as he dedicated the Temple. It is a long prayer, and we heard just a part of it. Note Solomon’s words: “Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you!” There he articulates what we have been reflecting upon: the mystery of God, even larger than heaven and the highest heaven. Prayer is spiritual activity. Prayer is our lifting up of the heart and mind to the living God. In prayer, we lift up our heart to Him Who is above the highest heaven, by Whom and through Whom and in Whom all things are made. And prayer is not only expressed through words, but also by actions. Anything we do which is conditioned by awareness of Him and conscious relationship with Him is prayer. Anything we do for the glory of God, even the most menial task, itself is prayer. Prayer is our supreme activity because it embodies our relationship with God. In our Gospel account from Saint Luke, Jesus drove out those whose actions were not prayer. He drove out the money-changers and those vending various goods. They cannot be part of the worshipping community because, Jesus said, “My house shall be a house of prayer.” Therefore prayer is what is most fundamental about worship. Prayer makes a church legitimate in the eyes of Jesus Christ. Prayer has four characteristics. Adoration, thanksgiving, penitence, and petition. Adoration is simply beholding God, in awe and wonder and holy trembling: simply beholding God the Eternal, God the Incomprehensible, God the Perfect; God Who is Himself Holiness, is Himself Love, is Himself Beauty. We see this when Solomon says, “O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath.” There is nothing like God, anywhere; and Solomon begins his prayer simply beholding and adoring God. When we ponder the awesomeness of God, the magnificence of His Divine Majesty, we are offering adoration to Him. From adoring God flows thanksgiving. We are drawn into thanksgiving to God for Himself, for His mercy. We see this in Solomon’s prayer when he thanks God for “keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servant who walk before you with all their heart.” Furthermore, Solomon offers thanksgiving with the words, “You have kept with your servant David my father what You declared to him. You spoke with Your mouth, and with Your hand have fulfilled it this day.” We give thanks to God not only for the many blessings of this life, but especially for Jesus Christ, God’s only-begotten Son and Eternal Word; for His Nativity, His taking of our flesh and redeeming all of humanity; we give thanks for the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, Who teaches us all things and guides us into all truth, and Who reveals Christ to us in the opening of Scripture and the breaking of bread. There is so much to be thankful to God for; so much that, as has been said, the primary sin is to not express our gratitude to God, to not simply say, “Thank you, God.” Penitence is to see God clearly and to see self clearly. And in this true vision of both God and self, and God and His people, we perceive the difference between God and us, and this difference is immense: He is Creator, we are creature, and each of us is one of countless creatures all created by the Divine Maker. This as well we see in Solomon’s prayer: “Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you;” and then in a penitential tone Solomon adds: “How much less this house that I have built!” Solomon understands deeply that God is Creator of all, and that which Solomon has built to be small and nothing next to God. Solomon sees things clearly. There is the old axiom “to know thyself.” Christians know ourselves to always be in need of a Savior, and this Savior is Jesus Christ and Him alone. To have this self-knowledge is what it means to be a sinner. A sinner is truly penitent, and the prayer of the sinner always reflects penitence: to be a sinner is to know oneself as always in need of Jesus, our Saviour, and His mercy, His loving-kindness, His steadfast love. This is to take on the attitude of the Tax Collector, the Publican. He said, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” He asks for God’s mercy. One does this out of true penitence, a true understanding of God and right-relationship with Him as His creature. This is humility. Penitence is being reality-based, and being reality-based, our penitence brings into focus the vocation God has given us. Petition grows out of the other characteristics of prayer. Adoring God, we realize that He is the source of all being, for which we are thankful; seeing self in His sight, we realize that without Him we are nothing and even worse than nothing. Laying ourselves down in penitence, seeing Him as Creator and ourselves as creature, thanking Him for all He is and all He does, we are encouraged to act upon the promises of our Lord and ask for the supply of our needs. This we see in Solomon’s prayer when he says, “Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Lord my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day, that you eyes may be open night and day toward this house.” He also adds, “Listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.” We petition God, confident that He is but waiting for the cooperation of our desire to give more than we ask or think. We ask for recovery from sickness, safety from illness and danger, success in some project or venture, for ourselves or for others. We also can, and should, ask for spiritual gifts – for grace, the virtues of faith, hope and love, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit: asking for wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, reverence, and fear of God. These gifts from God transform our mind and heart into the mind and heart of Christ. Thus we see in Solomon’s prayer the fullness of all four characteristics of prayer, indeed the fullness of eucharistic life: adoration, thanksgiving, penitence, and petition. It is an example of robust prayer to God Who is beyond creation, beyond time and space, yet closer to us than our very breath and heartbeat, and Who makes Himself known to us through our heart and mind, and through all the creatures of creation, especially the human ones. So from our Collect: Let Thy merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy humble servants; and, that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please Thee; through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at anglicanascetic.akensideinstitute.org/subscribe
