Yesterday we visited Gethsemane Abbey as a Chapel team. JD set no other agenda except reflection and prayer. And though there is never enough time for such a trip which accomplishes nothing of pragmatic value, that’s what makes such a trip all the more important.
It occurred to me that one of the ways Christians might be a prophetic voice in the future of this country is in our willingness to take time off our busy schedules of production and incessant consumption, simply to go pray.
I know it sounds either too idealistic or too pious to be practical.
But what if the prophetic is in the impractical?
What if the prophetic is in the actualization of things usually assumed to be stuck in the realm of ideas?
What if our slavery to the 9-5 is exactly what keeps us bound to the ideas and agendas of the Empire with its ethic of consumption and production? And what if this slavery is exactly that which hinders our ability to see the God who provides, sustains, and cares for even the flowers of the field which do not toil or spin?
Tom,
really good thought here. Wouldn’t what is practical in the Kingdom of God likely be seen as impractical in the World? Pouring out a year’s wages of perfume on the feet of a Galilean peasant? Son of God, Second Person of the Trinity, coming to Earth and being murdered? 60 gallons of the best wine brought out at the end of the party.
On the same line, (and keeping with the Gethsemane theme) I love the Merton quote below on prayer. It is precisely the kind of prayer he references here that we never really get to (in my judgment).
Prayer and meditation have an important part to play in opening up new ways and new horizons. If our prayer is the expression of a deep and grace-inspired desire for newness of life–and not the mere blind attachment to what has always been familiar and “safe”–God will act in us and through us to renew the Church by preparing, in prayer, what we cannot yet imagine or understand. In this way our payer and faith today will be oriented toward the future which we ourselves may never see fully realized on earth.
Thomas Merton, Contemplation in a world of Action.
I agree that this is a great thought and a way for us to be very prophetic in our culture. I also think that this is the danger in losing the idea of weekly Sabbath. A day of ceasing production in order to focus on seeing God. Ceasing from the ideals of the consumerism…coming to rest…what does this look like in our time on a weekly basis? Good post.
Great thougths, gentlemen.
Eric – how do we maintain the idea of the Sabbath without making it law? The NT suggests Jesus is the Sabbath, which means that Christians don’t have to participate on a specific day. But, in this culture specifically, it can be a quite liberating exercise.