Praying Politically Subversive Statements

 

Jesus went home; and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat.  When Jesus’ family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’    Mark 3: 20

 

Jesus’ family is worried about him, so they go to him – perhaps to see for themselves or to talk sense into him or to protect him from the crowds. There is real concern for people are saying Jesus is out of his mind while others are saying that Jesus is possessed by the devil. Jesus is certainly drawing attention and crowds: perf0rming miracle after miracle, touching the sick, eating with sinners,  casting out demons, and telling what sound like prophetic parables that include dangerous kingdom talk.

It sounds overwhelming, chaotic: imagine being surrounded by large groups of disenfranchised people those looking for God’s steadfast love by means outside of the Temple, the Temple officials wanting a return of control of power over the people, people in the margins needing healing and words of hope, the insurrectionists who think Jesus might just be the military Messiah they are dreaming of.

 

I picture a scene of:  logging protestors, anti-maskers, pro-Palestinians, Pride flag bearers, BlackLivesMatter marchers, drummers calling for truth and reconciliation, people placing pairs of tiny shoes for Indigenous children’s lives lost, all gathered in a park around the tents of the homeless and precariously housed – all there because Jesus has something to say or be for the cause, the circumstance, directly affecting their life. Arriving and standing on the sidelines poised, ready, are eager reporters, curious bystanders -phones out to record, and flack-jacketed law enforcement. And in the middle of this crowd is Jesus standing on a picnic table, portable mic in hand – speaking kin-dom truth, while the disciples act as body guards pushing the crowd off the table.

 

And this is why the Psalms (otherwise known as the Psalter) was Jesus’ prayer book;

and for the summer will be our prayer book, our focus.

 

This past week I was reading a blog about Bonhoeffer where the author described the Psalms as politically subversive statements. Continuing to say that Bonhoeffer – following in the steps of Jesus- used the Psalms as a prayer book; praying the Psalms led both, Jesus and Bonhoeffer, to actions that had them face execution.  Praying the Psalms is a powerful way to join in the work of God, the kin-dom, -- but it is dangerous to pray politically subversive statements.

 It is dangerous because, as Mother Theresa once said, “I use to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know prayer changes us, and we change things.”

 

The powers-that-be do like when ‘WE’  including any person I mentioned standing in the park around Jesus on the picnic table, change, and then change things. Praying the Psalms is a continuation of the revolutionary work of Jesus passed on through the ages in a community of Spirit joined by the steadfast love of God that endures forever.

 

Bonhoeffer in his book, “Life Together,” explains ‘the secret of the Psalter,’ where those who pray (not read, but pray) the psalms learn three things.  First a person learns what prayer means by praying the Word of God including God’s promises; secondly one learns what one should pray; and thirdly one learns to pray as a fellowship.

 

Over the years, I have heard two opinions about the Psalms, both opinions often held by the same person: that the psalms are comforting so should be used all the time, while others are over the top and should be entirely excluded. The Psalms present joy, that for some is too high; pain that is too sharp; sufferings that are too distant; expressions that are too harsh; thoughts that are too private to share aloud - politically incorrect or impolite to speak aloud even though the thoughts have passed through the mind.

 

Bonhoeffer described the Psalms as prayer for the community – a fellowship – which for Christians is centred with Christ. A paraphrase of his thought goes something like this:

Each of our individual prayers is but a minute fragment of the whole prayer of the church.  As we pray a psalm, we enter the prayers of Jesus -the very ones Jesus prayed - and so we are transported to enter into Christ’s sufferings when he prayed the psalms – we are with Jesus singing the Psalms after the Last Supper, with Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, with Jesus crying from the cross. When we enter the prayers of Jesus we encounter in that prayer place others who also have prayed with Christ. Our prayers do not end in Jesus’ earthly moments, our connection then moves outward to Christ’s entering the sufferings in the current world through those praying the Psalms in the circumstances in which they find themselves – at a death bed, in the refugee camp, in residential schools and in the remaining trauma, in forgotten burials mounds, in an AIDS hospice, in an internment facility, in the courtroom, behind bars; we enter the prayers, the lives of others who are praying from their experiences that are beyond our own – we enter the sufferings of all, a fellowship of prayer that extends way beyond our boundaries and sense of comfort. This profound fellowship, profound prayer, changes us... so that we change things.

 

Jesus was not out of his mind or possessed by devils, he was empowered.

Praying the politically subversive statements of the Psalms, entering the extremes and depths of human emotion, connected to the promises of God, embraced in the Word – God’s steadfast love enduring forever and ever, had Jesus prophetically and boldly preach and bring the kin-dom of God to the present.

And yes, it was dangerous...

the sick were healed, the possessed were set free, the hungry were fed, the powers-that-be were put in their place, hope was given, grace shared;

the marginalized were included, people were not forgotten, differing views stood side-by-side, gross injustice was named,

 and a fellowship of unlikely groups came together to listen, to pray, to enter each others’ sufferings,  to change... and thus change things, for the healing of the world.

 

 

 

 

 

Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him.  A crowd was siting around him; and they said to Jesus, “ your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.” And Jesus replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking at those who sat around him, Jesus said, “here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Mark 3: 31-33