Is Christianity the Best Religion in the World ?
Minister's Message
Dear Friends,
I'm continuing my series on sermons you always wanted a minister to preach on, but have not heard. This week I’m going answer this question posed to me: Is Christianity the best religion in the world? If yes, why? If no, why not switch to a different faith? Why are there so many religions? How do we engage with people of other faiths? What’s the role of religion in the next life? Lots to discuss.
I hope you’ll join me at 5pm Sunday.
How does prayer work?
Last week we had an amazing discussion about ways we center ourselves in prayer in a very hectic world. We agreed to share our favorite ways to get centered with each other. Below last week's sermon is the google doc created by Sheri Smith for all of you to see and add your ideas. Eventually this would be a good thing to put on our website to help people break out of what I referred to as “monkey mind” and settle into powerful prayer time. You can read my sermon below.
Keep Members in your Prayers
Each week this year it seems I say that I know it has been a tough week, but hang in there. With the unsettled election and the rise of COVID we all remain uncertain. Most of you are planning some sort of modified plan for Thanksgiving. Yet another special time has been disrupted this year. Please reach out to me if you need to talk. I know it can be lonely.
Please keep Helen’s brother in your prayers who has COVID. Also, keep our bookkeeper Edith Mendez as she battles the virus. If you joined Sunday, you know my dad was hospitalized with pneumonia last week and I’m to report he’s been discharged to home. It was great that he could join Sunday from the hospital bed. Let me know if you have a prayer request to share.
Benevolence Fund Established
Prayers and support are wonderful, but we know that many in our community have unmet financial needs during this crisis. A generous donor in the church established a Benevolence Fund for members in need. Church members facing a financial crisis may request a grant up to $500. If you facing a financial crisis, please reach out to me. If you are willing to donate to this specific fund, please let me know as well.
Sermon Series in 2021
I'll be interviewing members on their faith path in 2021 once each month. I'll send you the questions in advance. It will be fun.
I know you are all busy but do try to join our community call. We need each other.
Hope to see you Sunday,
Rich Tafel
How Does Prayer Work?
November 15, 2020 Sermon
I love the scene in the classic movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” when all the friends of the hero, George Bailey, are praying for him just at the moment he’s thinking of taking his own life. I’ve always imagined the prayer works like that where group of people are concerned about someone and they raise their petition to God who intercedes to help that person. I just love it. I’m going to show it to you now in case you haven’t seen it.
But does prayer work?
Modern science says pray is nothing more than talking to yourself. In fact, a 2006 study reported in the New York Time reported, “Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found.” While other studies suggest that if I know you are praying for me I might heal more quickly just having the positive thoughts that I’m cared about.
Science is confused by prayer and so are many Christians who believe prayer is simply there chance to influence God in their direction. You may have seen the video of Rev. Paula White praying for election victory.
Why would an All Powerful Being, require us to put into words what we want? Does God change her mind when a sufficient number of prayers come up to heaven? It would have to be a whimsical God impacted by the number of votes on an issue. Does good rely on likes, votes and thumbs up as some great algorithm in the sky?
I don’t think so.
Here are three key elements to the ways I understand prayer.
1. Prayer is not about influencing God
Let me say that again, prayer is important, but it is not about influencing God. God is in control.
When we tap into this power we are connecting ourselves to heavenly energy that sustains and guides us.
Prayer is not the opportunity to influence God, it is a time to allow God to influence us. To give us heavenly peace, new insights, joy and a broader perspective even when we can’t make sense of what’s going on from our own.
Faith means trusting that is a loving God in control. Even when we experience evil, God is working toward the good in us and the world. We can be at peace knowing that though we can’t see the whole thing and know we can’t solve all the problems. yet we have our role to play, and prayer is the best way to know it.
For this reason, our prayers must have as their basis the over-riding thought, Thy Will Be Done. This is right in the middle of the Lord’s prayer, where Jesus gives us a template for prayer. They will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This one line is really our only prayer.
When I reflect on my own life, I remember not getting what I wanted. Only over time have I realized that what I prayed to happen wasn’t the right thing, but I couldn’t see it.
There will be evil in the world. There will be sickness. All of us in this service today will die. These are the facts of this world. We will spend our life navigating these realities. We will have misfortune and suffering with joy and happiness. We will grow more spiritually in the midst of all of this
Seen in this way, we don’t need to get caught up in a debate like the scientists as to whether prayer is helpful. I’m here today to say it is the most important tool in your spiritual life tool kit. Develop your prayer life and you’ll develop your soul. Science can’t measure love, the good, true, real happiness, inner peace and beauty. Nor can it measure the power of prayer. Yet these elements of our lives are the most important things during our time on earth.
2. Our motivation determines the power of prayer
Our prayers need to be about our doing more of the good in the world and praying on behalf of others. Prayers that are just a list of things we want for ourselves don’t work. Our motivation in prayer must be from love for it to be powerful. That doesn’t mean we cannot pray for our daily needs as Jesus taught us in his prayer when we say give us our daily bread. We can ask for help and support and our needs to accomplish our God given purpose. Our true motivation determines the power of prayer.
Are all prayers heard?
This may surprise you. The answer is no. Swedenborg reports that prayers prayed for selfish things and reasons with no concern for others are not heard. They really are just a person talking to themselves about what they want for themselves.
3. Prayer is powerful
Many of the mystics and those who have had near death experience report if we knew the power of prayer we’d be doing it more often. Prayer is an energy force of love that we can send to one another and to situations. Miracles can happen in our life, if we are on the path and paying attention. Prayer is powerful.
Prayer then is a focused way of our sending out our love to others. It could be for them to know they are not alone; they are loved, they can be healed. When a group of us focus our thoughts and love toward another person through prayer that energy is sent to them through heaven.
It is not a substitute for action, prayer is a catalyst for it.
Our little community has more doers in it than most churches. We have people who are active in this world, and some of you are asking now Isn’t prayer a form of avoiding real activity hear on earth?
The answer depends. Jesus tells a parable of religious man praying at the altar. So, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
In the book of James, the writer reminds Christians:
14What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you tells him, “Go in peace; stay warm and well fed,” but does not provide for his physical needs, what good is that? 17So too, faith by itself, if it does not result in action is dead.
Prayer is critical for guiding our action in the world. Prayer is an opening us up to the path our life should be on. It can never be an excuse for not using that action to make a difference in the world. If we just run around being active in the world without prayer that won’t work either. We will burn out and become cynical. We need both prayer and action.
How should we pray?
Jesus gives us an outline for how to pray and it is why we use it each week. We begin by reaching out to God recognizing the Lord’s role in our life. Immediately is ask that the will of God be enacted on earth the same way it is heaven. We ask the Lord’s help to meet our daily needs of food and shelter. We ask us for help in forgiving others as we ask forgiveness for what we’ve done wrong. We ask for help to keep us from our own temptations to do bad thing by protecting us from the evil in this world.
Preparing yourself
In our busy and stressed world, sometimes just calming down to pray is the hardest part. You may have heard the expression from Buddhism of monkey mind. This our constant spinning making it very hard to focus. One trick I’ve found it us the Lord’s Prayer or a mantra to calm you down.
Simply saying the word Jesus over and over again can rest your mind so you are ready. Our old pastor at Church of the Holy City Jonathan Mitchell used to begin meditation from Psalm 46 saying, “Be Still and Know that I Am Lord.” What a great way to settle into prayer
Keeping a Journal
I worked with a coach who had a spiritual angle to his work. Tim Kelley wrote a book entitled True Purpose and helps people tap into their deepest purpose. He offers this exercise:
Begin your prayer by saying out loud something like this:
Please give me guidance on what I should be doing with my life.
If you have specific question ask it.
Then stop, and listen.
First you will likely hear chatter of the voices in your head. You’ll likely hear your own thoughts on this.
But wait, and if you can listen carefully you’ll get ideas, images, concepts that you didn’t have before.
Write them down. Over time you’ll be able to recognize what is the voice of God and which voices are not. This discipline is one of the toughest for followers of Jesus.
Keep a script going of your questions and God’s answers.
You’ll likely know the answers are not yours when they aren’t what you’ve been thinking.
Keeping a spiritual journal like this can be incredible way to pray and grow.
So how does prayer work?
Yes, it is the most powerful force in your life. Use it to seek God’s guidance for your life of service in this world. Use prayer to give you peace in these challenging times, remembering this message
Be Still and Know that I am God.
Amen
Strategies to Engage in Prayer
Brainstormed Last Sunday's Discussion
Created by Sheri Smith
Notes from the Power of Prayer Service - 11-15-2020
Movie Clips from the Service:
It’s a Wonderful Life: When the whole town is praying for George Bailey and triggers an action from Heaven (bringing the angel Clarence down.
God Help the Outcasts: Scene from the Hunchback of Notre Dame that illustrates the difference in the intent of prayers.
Suggestions to Quiet the Mind:
Say the Lord’s Prayer: - as a ritual to get into the right frame (Rich suggested).
Walk a Labyrinth - there are walking labyrinths, hand labyrinths (Joy suggested use your non-dominant hand) and I think someone mentioned another version as well. (Joy, maybe you can add a link to a great labyrinth resource?).
Make a Labyrinth at the church (or at your house!)? - Read a lovely blog post about labyrinth’s and picture of my friend Sue’s homemade backyard Labyrinth.
Movement Prayers - Joy said that Sweedenborg stressed how important it is to be grounded in the real world. There are lots of great ways to pray through dancing, walking, drumming, and other types of movement like yoga, Tai Chi or Qigong. Please add any particular resources below:
Dance: I (Sheri) finds Nia and Ecstatic Dance (or the 5 Rhythms Dance) to be especially helpful. Gabrielle Roth said that the four universal healing salves are dancing, singing, storytelling and silence. She has some great soundtracks and videos on dance!
Prayer beads: a good way to add physicality and ritual without moving a lot. I suggest making your own or physically buying a set that you can touch and feel in person. It seems important that the beads themselves “speak” to you. A good book on this is, A String and a Prayer : How to make and use prayer beads” by Eleanor Wiley and Maggie Oman Shannon.
Calming Stream (Annabel suggested, can you add the link Annabel?)
Dwell on what is “good”: Watch pictures or social media images of babies, animals and nature (Helen suggested - can you add your links Helen?)
Pray out loud (to yourself) then wait and listen for God to answer, then do it again and again like a conversation rather than a monologue (Scott suggested).
Singing - no one mentioned singing, but I think this is a great way to pray and I’m sure is done in Heaven (did Swedenborg talk about that?). Anyone who has experience with singing and praying, I’d love to hear!!!
Different Types of Prayers (please add more!):
The Lord’s Prayer - the best example of how to pray from Jesus himself!
Praise Prayer - Merlin Carothers talks about this in his famous book, Prison to Praise. Basically, you just praise and thank God for everything, especially tough stuff.
Jeanne Guyon Prayer - This type of prayer is similar to meditation with scripture being a “mantra”. The goal is to empty yourself of everything and be filled with the presence of God. Guyon was a mystic in the 1600’s who was thrown in the Bastille for her teachings. The way of praying is detailed in her book, Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ. She also has a remarkable autobiography. Her type of prayer is the predecessor of the Centering Prayer, which Thomas Merton made famous.
Lectio Divina - this incorporates gospel reading, meditation, and listening all in one. There are a ton of websites on this. One is here. It’s another type of Jeanne Guyon and Centering Prayer with a bit more structure to it. There are also a ton of Lectio Divina’s on YouTube like this one of Psalms 16.
8 Step Prayer (below) - Scott learned this while in a hospital for 2 weeks after almost dying of 5 blood clots. The late Dr. Henry Wright developed this methodology to assist people in miraculous healing. Scott wrote out how he does it in great detail below. We use this a lot in our relationship when we are in a funk and taking it out on each other. The most powerful prayer we know for removing negative walls of emotion. AND, according to Dr. Wright, it literally heals people.
Soul Healing “Say Hello” Prayer (below) - I got this from very wise energy healers. It’s a Tao prayer. They got it from Chinese Medicine Healer Dr. Sha. I change the words around a lot according to how I feel and make them a bit more Christiany but I really like it. I also find just sending unwanted energy back to God in healed form for him to move it is very helpful.
Ho'oponopono Prayer (below) - this prayer was traditionally used to resolve conflict in the Native Hawaiann culture. Where both parties would ask for forgiveness in a dispute and practice the prayer before the confrontation. THe goal was not to be “right” but to reach mutual understanding. This has evolved quite a bit and made famous in Western culture by a book Zero Limits which describes the work of Dr. Hew Len. It can get a little new-agey like sadly so many cool things do, but Scott and I find the practice very helpful, especially when keeping Christ and his forgiveness in the picture.
Sunday Service Order
November 22, 2020
Light a Candle
Open the Word
Greetings and Check-In
Invocation
Gracious God, make each of us an instrument of your grace. Weave us into a community showing forth your power and tenderness. Bless us and our differences and under gird our courage to stand together. We call on you today to gather us in your love. Lead us to better know you and glorify you on each step of the journey of our lives. Amen.
Community Confession
Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love You, and worthily magnify Your holy name, through Christ the Lord. Amen.
First Reading
Romans 12
Humble Service in the Body of Christ
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your[a] faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead,[b] do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.
Gospel Lesson
John 14
In My Father’s House Are Many Rooms
1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe in Me as well. 2In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Swedenborg Insights
Heaven is where the Lord is recognized, trusted, and loved. The different ways he is worshiped—in variations that stem from the difference of activity from one community to another—do not cause harm but bring benefit, because they are a source of heaven’s perfection . . . Every perfect whole arises from a variety of elements, for a whole that is not composed of a variety of elements is not really anything. It has no form, and therefore no quality. However, when a whole does arise from a variety of elements, and the elements are in a perfected form in which each associates with the next in the series like a sympathetic friend, then it has a perfect quality. Heaven is, then, a single whole composed of a variety of elements arranged in the most perfect form; for of all forms, the form of heaven is the most perfect. (Heaven and Hell §56)
It needs to be known that when any church disappears—that is, when love for others dies—and the Lord establishes a new religion, rarely if ever does this happen among the people of the old religion. Instead, it happens among people who had no church before, or in other words, among gentiles. The reason the Lord institutes a new religion among people outside the church is that they do not adopt falsities as premises that oppose the true tenets of the faith, since those tenets are unknown to them. When we absorb false premises from childhood on, and later confirm them, they need to be dispelled before we can regenerate and become part of the church. (Secrets of Heaven §2986:2, 3)
Offering
Please give generously to our ministry
(Be Careful to Remove the Tip Feature)
Prayers of the People
The Lord’s Prayer
Benediction
Now may the peace that passes all understanding be with you all this day and forevermore.
AMEN
Question Time
This time is for those who would like to remain after the service to ask questions and hear the questions of others.
Guidelines:
Participate by asking questions only.
Be curious and open-minded in your participation to the views of others.
Keep your questions brief.
Listen deeply to the questions of others.
