Theological Truth: Regular, daily, dedicated prayer is required for “eternal life” just as certainly as food is for our physical life.
Come Holy Spirit and kindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Amen.
Ana, our Parish Administrator, gave birth last Saturday. She and the baby, Benjamin David, I am grateful to say, are fine. Ana and her husband, Jason, are experiencing what all new parents learn: their world and their every waking moment has been forever and abruptly changed. Their energy and attention are now laser-focused on taking care of the baby, keeping him safe, and (especially) keeping him fed. When did he eat? How much did he eat? And the ever-present question, when will he eat again?
I bet many of you remember those demanding early days and sleepless nights. Your sleep interrupted by the sound of crying. The race to put a bottle in his or her mouth before that cry becomes a wail. And then a brief moment of pure innocence as the child sucks in the nourishment; the bliss of that holy holding and deep connection. But then the diaper change and the clean up and getting him/her back to sleep. And then just as you close your eyes … the baby monitor crackles and the cycle begins again. I had no idea babies ate so much! Or so frequently! I guess it’s good preparation for when they’re teenagers and we once again find ourselves asking incredulously, “Didn’t you just eat!?”
It’s also a reminder that we all need to eat every day. We all share in this daily struggle— some struggling more mightily than others — to meet our basic needs for food, clothing and shelter. We also share in a day-to-day fight against evil, the powers and principalities in all their various forms, that separate us from God and threaten those we love. We all fight for our physical and spiritual lives every day, indeed several times a day. How do we understand this struggle? How do we define it, and how does it define us? What is required of us, and what are the risks to us. Our reading from Ephesians is very helpful in this regard.
Paul understands the struggle. He uses the language of soldiers going to battle: “Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:11). The stakes are high, and the threat is real. Paul knows that it requires the same serious commitment necessary for battling a deadly opponent. We understand this language of fight and struggle, but the analogy of warfare has its risks, too.
Because we know all too well what to do when threatened. Our instincts, as well as our history, prepare us for dealing with enemies. We prefer fight over flight; hitting back rather than turning the other cheek. We are quick to put on mighty armor, girded belts, kevlar breastplates, steel-toed boots, arrow-proof shields, protective headgear, and sharpened swords. There’s a reason the hymn “Onward Christian Soldier” is a longstanding favorite still found in our hymnal! The risk of Paul’s battle language is that in our default haste to reach for weapons of earthly war, we may miss that this is just a metaphor, and a paradoxical one at that.
Paul himself is not a well-outfitted Roman centurion with a Bible in his pocket and a sword painted on his shield. He’s an ambassador in chains. He’s not reverting or resorting to the all-too-human response of weapons, war, and violence, he’s imitating the saving power of the self-giving love of God manifested in the body of Jesus broken for the sins of all, poured out in the blood of Christ for the life of the world. Paul is calling us to adopt the intensity and consistency required in war, but not the same weaponry. To fight like lives are at stake, but with different tactics. To expect daily battles, but deploying otherworldly defenses. The only arsenal necessary for Christian soldiers … the most crucial element for victory over evil … is the daily diet of prayer.
Paul provides a very simple and straightforward battle plan: pray. Some variation of the word prayer is used five times in three verses: “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication,” “persevere in supplication for all the saints,” “Pray also for me,” “Pray that I may declare it boldly.” Paul knows from his own struggles that only a relentless bombardment of prayer and a steady diet of supplication will connect us and keep us connected to the Holy One of God. Prayer is our daily bread. We’ll starve without it and lose the fight for God’s kingdom if we stray from it.
In some ways it is the same message Jesus is conveying to his shrinking group of disciples. “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” (Jn. 6:56). Prayer continues this abiding presence and life-giving connection. It is essential to our spiritual survival. No wonder Jesus resists the devil’s temptations in the wilderness by quoting this scripture: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Peter also gets it: “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (6:68).
Prayer. Bread. Words. All of them are necessary in our struggle to realize this gift of, and invitation to, eternal life. But what exactly is eternal life? Jesus answers that question very clearly in his high priestly prayer later in John 17:3: “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God.” The Rev. Barkley Thompson points out, “It’s no secret that, in biblical parlance, the term ‘to know’ means more than data points. It means an intimate knowing like that of lovers, an embracing union.” Or a mother nursing her child. He goes on to paraphrase William Countryman, “Eternal life is not the afterlife…It means that, somehow, Jesus has already joined us to God mystically.” (How Can We Know the Way, p. 58-59).
Daily prayer — just like daily bread — maintains, sustains, and deepens this mystical union between God and us, us and one another. This union is not a reward to achieve, but a gift to receive—a promise to remember. And just like in any relationship, being available, paying attention, continuing to communicate enriches the union and strengthens the connection.
In the coming weeks, during the adult education hour, we’ll be looking at various prayer practices. There will be time to explore new ways to pray. But even if your prayer is, “Help me know how to pray, Lord,” that’s enough. Done daily, repeated frequently, meant sincerely, it is enough, because it is God’s good pleasure to give us this daily bread, for our lives and for the life of the world. Pray for that daily bread. Prayer is that daily bread.
Sermon by The Rev. AJ Heine at Trinity Episcopal Church, Staunton, Virginia, on August 25, 2024
