Hermily for June 19, 2025
Because preachers gonna preach
Well. Today’s first reading from Paul’s letter to Corinth is kind of a tough one to approach, one where Paul is upset because the Church that he has formed there seems to have been willing to follow any new Jesus-figure who was coming along. Paul in this letter is very strongly urging the people there to stick to the plan, to be faithful to the only important relationship— that of theirs with God. And because that reading seems to be a very small part of a very long story, that’s all the time we’ll spend on it in this service.
But the Gospel. There is SO MUCH to break open here— but I am struck this week by one particular facet of it.
I recently had an appointment with a new person who was interested in starting Spiritual Direction with me. When I asked her why she was feeling called to direction, she said “I want to learn how to pray better.” She told me, “I go to a church where everyone seems to know how to pray right— they know all the words and when to say them, and they know what prayer goes at what moment, and although I’ve been Catholic my whole life, and I know the basics, I don’t pray like that.”
I asked her “how do you pray?” She said “well, I just connect with God throughout my day. I kind of enter a time of togetherness with God, loving God and being loved by God. It’s more like sitting in each others company than the way we pray at church. We communicate, but usually it’s without words.”
Today’s Gospel, one we’ve each heard so many times, is about Jesus answering the question that my directee was asking; how should I pray? For our part, we’ve taken his answer and repeated it back to him, word for word, through the ages. But I wonder if that’s what Jesus really intended for us.
In his answer, he actually wasn’t telling his Jewish listeners anything novel. In fact he was using traditional, ancient Jewish prayers as his answer- he pulled from the Kaddish, from the Sabbath prayers, and so many more. What he was telling his listeners was not that there is only one correct set of words, but that they already had all they needed to know how to pray to God. He says to them, you already know the words- but the words are not the point. The point is to praise God, ask God for what you need, to make space for God’s leadership in your life, and to resolve to be better, to be merciful just like the Lord is merciful. To try to love as God loves.
When my new directee described her prayer style, of essentially being in communion with God and abiding in God’s love, I said “please don’t try to learn to pray. Don’t try to get better or more correct in your prayer! Don’t change a thing! The way you pray is the goal- it is the kind of relationship that God invites all of us into.”
Now, don’t go telling people that I preached that we shouldn’t be praying the Our Father— it is perfect prayer, it is how Jesus taught us to pray. But let’s not forget that in the same reading, Jesus tells his listeners and tells us that God is not impressed by our correctness in prayer, not blown away by use our many words. God knows what we need before we ask, and yet still wants to be in conversation with us.
God wants our attention, our affection, our trust, and our openness. In a few moments when we pray the Lord’s prayer together, let’s try to communicate with our hearts, even as we speak the words.
Thanks for giving me your heart, which is to say, giving the heart a click… or for your comments, should you choose to. And most of all, thanks for reading.