The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, February 8th: Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1 Corinthians 9:16-29, 22-23; Mark 1:29-39)

PRAYER IS THE SOURCE OF STRENGTH

In this week’s gospel reading, Jesus was spending time at Simon Peter’s house. When the local villagers heard that Jesus was in town, they brought sick people to Him to be healed. Scripture says, “The whole town was gathered at the door.” It further explains that Jesus “cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons.”

It was non-stop work for Jesus. The gospel doesn’t say exactly how many people lived in “the whole town,” but it’s likely that a sizable crowd was pushing and shoving around Him all day long.

If anyone deserved to sleep-in the next morning, it was Jesus. After all the ministering and healing He had done—and knowing Jesus, you can be sure He also did a lot of preaching and teaching while He was at it—He deserved a break. He should have slept late and just hung around the house relaxing all the next day.

But the gospel reading tells us: “Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.”

For Jesus, prayer was how He recharged His batteries. It was the source of His strength and power. Throughout Scripture Jesus often went off to pray—sometimes for the entire night—before important events in His life. Prayer was the primary method used by the incarnate Second Person of the Holy Trinity to communicate with the other persons of the Trinity, the Father and the Holy Spirit.

For many of us, however, prayer is more like a chore which saps our strength. I’m reminded of dinnertime a number of years ago, when my two daughters were growing up. We would all sit down at the table and my wife would ask, “Whose turn is it to say grace?”

Immediately a chorus rang out: “Not mine!” “It’s her turn.” “I did it last night.” (Then, when I was finished whining, my two daughters also would insist that it was someone else’s turn.)

It was as if reciting a ten-second blessing was the same as shoveling a foot of snow off the driveway with a teaspoon.

After dinner my dear wife would occasionally suggest that we gather in the living room to read a Scripture passage and then pray about it (total time required: 10 minutes tops). Suddenly, my daughters developed a keen desire to finish their homework early. Suddenly, I developed a keen desire not to miss a second of  “Jeopardy!” (“But honey, it’s Celebrity Championship Week!”)

Cultivating a strong and vibrant prayer life can be tough. It can be hard work, especially when we view it as something that WE are doing—we have to make the time; we have to gather our thoughts; we have to say the words in their proper order. No wonder many folks feel drained when they’re finished praying. And no wonder they stop saying prayers after awhile. It’s a chore.

But we have to understand: prayer is not a soliloquy; it is not a speech we are forced to recite. Prayer is a two-way communication with God. It’s a conversation. We tell Him what’s on our mind and He responds. We ask Him questions and He answers. At the very least, we should be listening as much as we are talking.

The best thing about prayer is that God helps us even when we’re not sure of how to do it or what to say. The key is that oft-forgotten member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who dwells within the heart of each baptized believer.

Some verses which explain this concept:

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells within you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). “…the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9). “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26).

In John’s Gospel, Jesus gave us a glimpse of how this Trinitarian mystery works: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17).

So if you think praying is a tedious chore, you’ve got it all wrong. It really can be a special source of power and strength. (And in this hectic and frightening and uncertain day and age, who couldn’t use a little extra power and strength once in a while?)

If your prayer life is kind of dry and dusty and in need of a jump start, don’t think of it as “praying.” Instead, set aside a few minutes each day to have an informal conversation with God. No ritual, no rote recitation, just tell Him what’s on your mind. If you do this each day, before you know it you’ll be looking forward to this special quiet time with the Lord. (And if you time it right, you can be finished before “Jeopardy!” comes on.)

©2009