The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on March 6, 2024 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
There is a lot of repetition in prayer. Yet the words said on one day are not the same as on another day, even if the same sounds come from our mouth on both days. The words are not the same, because the person is not the same. I could speak the same words of prayer every day for a decade and still never pray the same prayer, because all of life is in constant flux, and the person who showed up to say the words, or do the things, is changed since the last time the prayer was offered. To acknowledge the dynamism of Reality is to recognize that our prayers, even when repetitious, are constantly unfolding.
One of the great theological questions, throughout many centuries and in many places, has been if God is also changing and unfolding, just as we unfold in our prayer. In many times and places, the answer to this wondering has been a strong “no!” It simply stresses some of us out too much to imagine, as we face finitude and the tumult of life, that there is not some perfect, almighty, and constant Holy Hand holding everything steady. The greek omni-qualities are a prominent example of this. Especially when we conceive of God as a particular Being and try to grasp the essence of God, we lean into theologies of immovability.
However, when we try to catch a glimpse of the Spirit of God, when we try to perceive the Presence of the Holy One through action and activity, we lean into a relational theology of letting God unfold as well. When we meet God in a setting sun, a draft of wind, a moment of insight, or the recognition that God meets us, always and already, just where we are, then we allow prayer, as unfolding, to be an open and spacious two-way street.
