St. Mary's Episcopal Church

Advent 1A: (I Thessalonians 3. 9-13)
Day by Day, Week by Week, Praying the Psalms to listen to God

Prologue before the Psalms:
Today we will have a prologue to the sermon.
Something a little different as we move into the Church's season of Advent.
Those four weeks which begin the Church's new year.
A time of waiting in hope for Jesus' coming at Christmas, and as a reminder that we are all waiting in hope for Jesus to come again. Once and for all.
In our waiting in hope, we will change the way that we pray our Psalm.
We will use the style that is often used in monasteries and that I experience every time I go on retreat with the Benedictines, the followers of the Rule of St. Benedict.
It is our tradition in the Episcopal Church to change our posture to reflect what we are doing when we worship.
When we pray we stand or kneel.
When we are listening, we sit.
Today, although we will, as always, be praying when we say the Psalm, we will sit rather than stand.
That's so that we can focus on listening to the ancient words that we will be praying, words that the people of God have been praying day by day, week by week, for thousands of years.
We will pray in choir-that is, taking turns praying the verses of the psalm.
Listening as we pray our verses, listening to our friends in Christ as they pray their verses.
We will pray the words more slowly, so that we have time to listen.
When we have finished praying the Psalm, we will stand to say the words of praise of the doxology, bowing in respect as we are bold to say the name of our God.
Then we'll sit again.
In silence.
To listen to the words we have just prayed.
To listen for what God may be saying to us through the Psalm.

The sermon
There is quite a bit of conversation and controversy about which of the letters in the New Testament attributed to St. Paul where actually written by him and which were written by one of his disciples or followers.
One of the books which scholars are almost in unanimous agreement about is 1 Thessalonians, which we heard read today. It is one of Paul's earliest writings.
In it, Paul tells the followers of Jesus in Thessalonica to be prepared because Jesus will be coming again really, really soon.
In Paul's later letters, he has come to accept that it may be a while before Jesus returns, and writes words about how to be faithful for the long haul.
Thessalonica was on the road of the major trade route connecting Rome and Byzantium (aka Constantinople).
Paul with Silas established the Christian community there on his second missionary journey. (Acts 17)
As was there custom, Paul and Silas began by preaching and teaching in the Jewish synagogue.
On first look, the mission did not go well, and Paul and Silas fled by night to Berea.
However, in this letter, Paul shows great affection for the community he had helped birth in the midst of initial rejection.
Paul is praying earnestly-not just some little prayer of devotion but of deep need.
He prays for them not just night and day, but with a possible Pauline created word, not just earnestly, but prays for them night and day, day and night, with earnestness over and beyond overflowing.
Superprayer for this community he loves so much.
For what does he pray?
That he may see them again, and that he may help "supply what is lacking in their faith."
The metaphor he uses for supplying what is lacking is about mending nets.
It is as if our faith is a large net that from time to time, for one reason or another, gets rips or tears.
Paul wants to do what he can to repair that net so that the Thessalonians may have use of all of their faith.
Not so that they may keep it for themselves, but so that, as Jesus told us, they can use their nets of faith to "fish for people," that is, share their faith with others.
That is, Paul wants to help the followers of Christ at Thessalonica to become all that God has created them to be.

In humility, as your pastor, I have a sense of what Paul desired for this community he loved so much.
I don't know how I could love a community of faith much more than I do you, my friends in Christ at St. Mary's.
As your pastor, it is the desire of my heart, like it was Paul's, to do all in my power to help all of us become the men and women God has created us to be.
This desire went up a notch while I was on my pilgrimage to Italy to study the way of St. Benedict.
As I lit candles for you and prayed for you all over Rome and in Benedictine holy sites outside of Rome.
I prayed for each of you by name as I sat waiting for the blessing and prayer service with Pope Benedict in Vatican Square.

One of the key parts of the spiritual practice observed by those who follow the way of St. Benedict is praying the Psalms in community day by day so that the whole Psalter (a fancy word meaning all 150 Psalms) is prayed in a period of time-a week or a month is usual.
That's right. All 150 of the Psalms.
We got off light praying one Psalm today, the Psalm appointed for us to pray this first Sunday of Advent.
Some of you love the Psalms; you love the beauty of the words.
No one has helped us with that more than Julia when she teaches us about the Psalms or than Celeste when she helps us sing the Psalms with beautiful tunes.
Some of you, maybe many of you, found the slow, long way of praying our Psalm today tedious, boring, you fill in the blank.
You may have preferred sitting to standing for the Psalm.
You may not have liked some of the negative verses.
It's what puts people off the Psalms.
But those negative verses may be the most truthful part of the Psalms; they describe how we all feel from time to time, and the way that we want God to feel, too.
Our Psalm today reminds us that although we want to think that God is like us, the inference is that, God is not like us, thanks be to God.
Having the Psalms to pray in our private prayer time, especially when we don't know how to pray or don't want to pray, is a gift from God.
In fact, the Book of Common Prayer has already divided the Psalms consecutively for daily use, so that in a month's time the whole Psalter can be prayed.
When I was in seminary, and too much head study of Scripture rendered my personal spiritual devotion as if it were dead, I prayed, though it felt like eating dead leaves, the Psalms each day.
It was the only way that I could find to pray privately.
Perhaps of even greater value is the day by day, week by week praying Psalms with other people who are struggling with their own day by day faithfulness to God.

The true growth in our relationship with God does not happen when worship and prayer is exciting and feels good.
It's in the showing up day after day, week by week especially on those dry leaves days.
Some of you may have received a verse or a phrase when you prayed the Psalm in community today that was a little or not so little treasure.
Others may have found you minds thinking about what you need to do after church or other distracting matter.
What I want to tell you is this, in the spirit of the words that St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica, that if we really want to be all that God has created us to be, and I superpray that we do, most of that becoming is showing up.
Day after day. Week after week.
There's no better way to show up than to pray what we may see as boring or violent Psalms.
Especially when we feel bored or angry ourselves.

When I was walking around the Basilica of St. Benedict in Norcia with the other Women Touched by Grace, the Benedictine brother who was teaching us said something very, very important.
I wrote it down in my journal so that I would remember it to tell you.
It's my little souvenir for you from Italy today.
"It is not our words of condemnation or criticism which God most often uses to bring about their salvation. [Salvation meaning wholeness or healing or lively relationship with God.]

It is through their experience of our own intimate relationship with God that most often draws others to God."
The intimate relationship with God is God's gift to us.
But one of the best ways to open our hearts to the experience of that intimate relationship is through day by day week by week showing up to God.
Praying the Psalms alone or with others, and not hurrying but taking time to listen to those ancient prayers, is a century-proven way to show up to God.
Especially these four weeks of Advent, I invite you to give it a slow, listening go.
If not for your own intimate relationship, but so that someone else's heart can be opened to a loving, life-giving relationship with God.
AMEN

Shouting for joy
How can I thank God for how thankful I am for you?

Put into working condition what is lacking in your faith
A mending nets word

Plural subject-singular verb for the prayer

Pagans love each other; Christians love everyone

Before I say another word about the Way of Benedict and what I learned that I wanted to offer to you as a way for all of us to continue to grow into the people God created us to be, the words of Lesley Jackson and Richard Foster whisper in my ear. It's a word about spiritual practices:
Christian spiritual formation has nothing essentially to do with such practices.
Many practices can be genuinely helpful in their place, but they are not "it."
What is "it" is life, life with Jesus, interactive relationship with the great God of the universe, inner transformation into Christ-likeness. (From Heart to Heart [the Renovare newsletter], November, 2006, Richard Foster)