PRAY, DAMMIT

A Typical Human Response

I once was acquainted with a young man who was attending a Baptist seminary. He was usually quiet and respectful in his manner as well as diligent in his church work. With a gracious wife and small children he appeared as a steady and self controlled individual always with an even temper. Then I saw his preaching tape, the recording of his class presentation for his semester's sermon requirement. Jekyll had morphed into Hyde. Screams, yells, forehead veins on the edge of popping, almost wrestling with the podium in front of him. It was a different personality whom I did not recognize. I wondered where the steady presence had gone to?
"God does not want us to come to the altar different from how we live the rest of our lives." So speaks Stanley Hauerwas in the description of his book Prayers Plainly Spoken, updated in 2003.
A Duke Divinity Professor, Hauerwas is well known amongst Protestant theological circles. He appears to see God as one who can take the heat of the kitchen as well as our anger. With the bark off.
So the professor does not seem to put much "faith" in a pious stance during prayer. Reminds one of the admonition of Jesus when he observes the religious persons praying in a public posture. He deftly points out that this is about all it is - a posture and no more.

Hauerwas' observations elicit a deeper question of our relationship with God and others. Is it possible to actually blaspheme God? 

What is our right to bitch or voice complaint?

Hauerwas makes a striking statement when he says "my anger is born of your love" referring to God's love.
What does this mean to you?

How can our prayer reflect the rest of our lives?


Walter Morton for Terra Incognia