Chair for Study of Atheism Established at University of Miami

The Wired Word for the Week of May 29, 2016
Although it has not yet been officially announced by the University of Miami, that school will soon become the first to have an academic chair "for the study of atheism, humanism and secular ethics," according to a report inThe New York Times.

Within academia, a "chair" is a teaching position established with endowed money. In this case, the endowment is in the amount of $2.2 million from Louis J. Appignani, 83, the former president and chairman of Barbizon International, a modeling school. Over the years, Appignani has given money to several humanist and secular groups, but the donation to the University of Miami, which is a private, nonsectarian institution, is his largest to date.

"I'm trying to eliminate discrimination against atheists," explained Appignani. "So this is a step in that direction, to make atheism legitimate."

Given that goal, it is perhaps ironic that the idea of academic chairs originated from the Medieval church where teaching was said to take place ex cathedra (from the chair), because each bishop had a throne (cathedra) in his principal church. In academia, creation of an endowed academic chair typically makes the subject of the chair -- atheism in this case -- a priority area of study. The funding enables a school to recruit faculty from among the best scholars in the world.

The University of Miami, however, was quick to say that the goal of the new chair is not to encourage atheism but to study it. "We didn't want anyone to misunderstand and think that this was to be an advocacy position for someone who is an atheist," said Thomas J. LeBlanc, executive vice president and provost of the Miami school. "Our religion department isn't taking an advocacy position when it teaches about Catholicism or Islam. Similarly, we're not taking an advocacy position when we teach about atheism or secular ethics."

Of course, the professor occupying the chair, just as any other professor teaching a subject he or she cares about, could personally be an advocate, one way or another.

While this chair is the first in any U.S. institution of higher learning to have the word "atheism" in its title, Pitzer College, a liberal arts school in Southern California, has a program and major in secular studies, founded five years ago by Phil Zuckerman, a sociologist of religion. Only two students have opted to major in that area, but the classes in the program are popular, often attracting more students than the courses have room for.

"There is a real need for secular studies," Zuckerman said. "As rates of irreligion continue to rise, not only here in the U.S.A., but all over the world, we need to understand secular people, secular culture and secularism as a political and ideological force."

According to the Pew Research Center's 2014 Religious Landscape Study, 3.1 percent of American adults say they are atheists, up from 1.6 percent in a similarly broad survey in 2007. While 3.1 percent may not sound like a large figure, when applied to the adult population of the United States -- 245.3 million in 2014 -- that translates to 7.6 million self-declared atheists. What's more, the Pew study found that an additional 4.0 percent of Americans call themselves agnostics, up from 2.4 percent in 2007. Beyond that, the percentage of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has risen sharply, from 16 percent in 2007 to 23 percent in 2014.

More on this story can be found at these links:

University of Miami Establishes Chair for Study of Atheism. New York Times 
7 Facts About Atheists. Pew Research Center 

The Big Questions

1. In what ways, if any, can developing scholarship about atheism, humanism and secularity be useful to the church and its responsibility to spread the gospel? In what ways, if any, can it impede that mission?

2. Is the increase in the percentage of unbelievers in our society a threat to Christianity itself? Why or why not? Is the increase a reflection of a lack of evangelism and teaching on the part of Christians?

3. Is the increase in the percentage of unbelievers in our society a threat to your personal faith in Christ? Why or why not?

4. Since college is already the place where some students abandon the faith in which they were raised, what impact, if any, might such classes as those connected to this new chair have?

5. The donor whose money established this new chair said that it was a step toward making atheism "legitimate." Does that square with the university's stated intention not to advocate disbelief in God? Since there are millions of people who claim no belief in God, is atheism already "legitimate"? What is the difference between something being "legitimate" and something being "true"?

Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:

Psalm 14:1 
Fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." (For context, read 14:1-7.)

It seems that in any church discussion of atheism, somebody eventually quotes this verse from Psalm 14. We are quoting it too, but not to call nonbelievers fools. While there is no doubt truth in this verse (see next paragraph), it's not likely to be helpful in reaching out to nonbelievers if "fools" is our baseline opinion of them. And the fact is, some very intelligent people who are not fools by any earthly measure have arrived at a position of atheism -- just as some very intelligent people who are not fools by any earthly measure have arrived at a position of belief in God and commitment of their lives to Christ.

But to give the verse its due, the foolishness here is not so much a lack of knowledge but an unwillingness to acknowledge and trust God. Without God in one's personal equation, some of one's priorities will be different from those things that God calls us to prioritize. Thus, the verse should be understood not as a statement about philosophical atheism, but about atheism in the practice of one's life -- acting as if one is ultimately responsible to no one but one's self. The foolishness is in "being a law unto oneself."

Questions: Where have you acted as a law unto yourself? How does it affect your outlook on life? Are there any ways you might call such an approach foolish? Why or why not?

Colossians 2:8
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. (For context, read 2:8-15.)

Paul's letter to the Colossians seems to have been prompted by reports that some in the Colossian church, in addition to worshiping Christ, were acknowledging -- if not actually worshiping -- certain heavenly powers associated with the stars; that is, some form of astrology. Or perhaps he was referring to what we nowadays would call the Zeitgist -- the spirit of the times -- or possibly some concept of the "arc of history" or even some commonly felt ideal.

In any case, in the verse above, Paul references these powers as "elemental spirits of the universe," and he wants his readers to have nothing to do with such belief. So when he warns his readers to avoid being taken "captive through philosophy," he's not speaking about philosophy in general but the particular belief in these so-called elemental spirits.

Questions: When has a new idea or teaching shaken your belief in God and Christ? What helped you deal with the inner conflict? What philosophies do you consider not worth your time? Why?

Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God ... (For context, read 2:4-10.)
Romans 12:3
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (For context, read 12:1-8.)

In the Ephesians verse above, Paul tells the Ephesian Christians that the faith through which they've been saved is not their own doing, but rather is God's gift to them. Thus every part of their salvation -- even the very faith through which God worked in their lives -- is God's gift.

And in line with that, notice what Paul said about faith to the Romans: Faith is something that God gives us --and in varying amounts. In other words, some of us are given a great ability to believe while others are issued a smaller measure.

Questions: So, if faith is a gift from God and is given in varying amounts, does that mean that those who don't believe haven't been given the gift of faith? Are there any ways in which skepticism can also be God's gift?

Luke 7:2-5 
A centurion[in Capernaum] had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us." (For context, read 7:1-10.)

TWW team member Frank Ramirez notes that this account of the Roman centurion with an ill slave has an atheist element: The centurion would have grown up thinking Jews were atheists because they did not believe in all the gods the Romans did. But he has evidently taken time to learn the local customs. He has studied the so-called atheists -- the Jews -- and it has made him a better member of the occupying army. He has built a synagogue for the locals, and he understands that coming into his house would make Jesus unclean (see vv. 5-7).

Ramirez reminds us that in the era of the early church, many people likewise considered Christians to be atheists because they didn't believe in all the gods that the pagans did. Sometimes the cry against the early Christians wasAire tous atheous ("Away with the atheists"), as for instance with the martyrdom of Polycarp, the second-century Christian bishop of Smyrna.

Ramirez comments, "It seems to me that all world religions, cultures and philosophies are worth knowing about. The centurion took time to learn about clean and unclean in Jewish culture, and thus become open to Jesus, whereas the imperial Roman culture was more content to spread lies about Christianity, that we ate flesh, engaged in abominations, etc."

Questions: When has gaining an understanding of another religion helped you to view its adherents with more grace and appreciation? When, if ever, has it helped you appreciate more what God has done for us in Christ Jesus?

1 Peter 3:14-16 
... do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. (For context, read 3:13-18.)

This is good advice for Christians. Insofar as our personal ability and gifts allow, we should be ready to testify to the hope that is in us -- our confidence in Christ. This isn't to say that we all have the gifts needed for the cut and thrust of debate with unbelievers, but that our genuine testimony can be offered even when we can't detail all the reasons for our faith.

We don't need to have a polished presentation; simply, we need to convey the impact of what following Jesus means to us. We once heard about a cleaning woman who testified that since receiving Christ, she no longer swept dirt under the rugs. That testimony might not convince an atheist to abandon unbelief, but it should convince him or her that something significant happened in the life of the person offering the testimony.

Question: What sincere testimony can you offer today?

For Further Discussion

1. Respond to this: For some years, Protestant theologian Stanley Hauerwas was on the faculty of Notre Dame, a Catholic university. He was once asked what that experience was like. He said, "For good or ill, what it means to be a Catholic is to be a member of the church. I can illustrate the difference by calling attention to what it means to be an atheist in Judaism, Protestantism and Catholicism. When Jews say they do not believe in God, they mean that God is an unjust [being] and they'll be d----d if they'll worship him. When Protestants say they do not believe in God, they mean this is all there is: You might as well eat, drink, [live life] and die. When Catholics say they do not believe in God, they mean they are mad at the church. 
     "I soon learned that ex-Catholics disbelieved with an intensity I could only admire. They could get angry at the pope or at the priests or at the nuns for taking it out on them in the second grade. What was remarkable is that these 'ex'-es had actually been marked for life." 
     Hauerwas ends: "What a wonderful gift, even if it took the rest of your life to get over it."

2. Comment on this: In writing about the rise of atheism, Lutheran pastor and author Martin E. Marty suggests that Christians "keep cool." "America," Marty says, "has seen cycles like these before and has managed to survive." He also advises, that we "don't sneer," as some Christians have done when challenging atheism. "Where does [sneering] get us?" Marty says, "Who can refute a sneer?"
     He has several other good suggestions as well, but he closes by recommending that instead of arguing with atheists, we "read a good book." He adds, "For more profit, read a novel, a volume of poetry or a sacred scripture. And relax."

3. Discuss this, from Phil Zuckerman, head of the secular studies program at Pitzer College: "There is a real need for secular studies. As rates of irreligion continue to rise, not only here in the U.S.A., but all over the world, we need to understand secular people, secular culture and secularism as a political and ideological force."

Responding to the News

This is a good time to remind ourselves of two passages:

• Matthew 13:23 -- "But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty." 
• Matthew 28:19-20 -- "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

All of those words are from Jesus. The Matthew 13 verse is the final sentence of his parable of the sower (read the whole parable in 13:1-8 and Jesus' interpretation of it in 13:18-23). One point of the parable is that our responsibility is to "sow" the gospel seed. The condition of the soil is not our responsibility; it's God's. So we shouldn't let the unbelief of our hearers stop us from sowing the seed.

The Matthew 28 verses are Jesus' "Great Commission" to his disciples and the church. Again, our responsibility is to faithfully obey, not to guarantee the results.

Prayer

Help us, O Lord, to ever be ready to account for the hope that is in us because of Jesus. In his name. Amen.

Pastors' Wives Visit a Strip Club

The Wired Word for the Week of May 22, 2016

This week a blog entry entitled "I Went to a Strip Club," by Anna McCarthy, a youth minister, wife and mother of four, caught our attention. In it, McCarthy describes an evening when she accompanied four pastors' wives to a lounge to deliver meals and gift baskets to the performers backstage, a practice they hoped to continue on a monthly basis.

McCarthy was struck by how "normal" the women were, showing the visitors pictures of their children, speaking about how hard it was to get their figures back after giving birth. She was forced to question her preconceived notions that "no good comes from places like that. ... That 'those people' were heathens and doing all kinds of sinful, shameful things."

Not that strip clubs are a place of virtue. But McCarthy began to see the women as complex individuals with stories, rather than as two-dimensional stereotypes. She also recognized that she herself might well have ended up in that profession, had circumstances been different. She was humbled and brought to tears of repentance when she realized how judgmental she had been about women in that profession before she met them.

One of the dancers told McCarthy's friend they were glad for their visits, because other churches send them hate mail all the time. That's one reason it has taken time for the strippers to begin to trust the church women enough to share honest prayer needs with them.

McCarthy related that another team of Christians who have a similar ministry began a Bible study in a strip club just for the dancers, but there was a problem: "The women they were ministering to needed to be led by a man -- not because these women were incapable, but because of the damaged, skewed image they had of men. They needed to see a man who was safe -- they needed a man who knew Jesus." So a gentle male pastor joined the team. It took months before the dancers felt they could trust him, but many of the women found healing, liberation and restoration through the example and leadership of the visiting women and pastor.

McCarthy acknowledges that not everyone is called to street ministry or strip clubs. For some believers who struggle with sexual temptation, involvement in such an endeavor could place them at great risk. For other believers, ministry to people in situations like this may take different forms, such as a CPA offering to do taxes at a discount for people who work at a local strip club. In the process of providing a service that the strippers need, an accountant befriends them in order to build a relationship with them and share the gospel.

Stephanie Henry, author of If Only I Could Sleep: A Survivor's Memoir, responded to McCarthy's blog: "I am an ex-dancer myself and I can relate …the brokenness, hopelessness, the judging eye of the church ... These women are people too and most of them that end up in that lifestyle are not doing it because they are sleazy, sex-bound addicts. Most strippers that I have ever known are single moms looking to make ends meet and provide for their children. Sadly many of them do develop an addiction to drugs or alcohol, primarily just so that they can 'function' on their jobs. We as women of the body of Christ must step up and show them the same love that Jesus has for them."

More on this story can be found at these links:

I Went to a Strip Club. Just a Jesus FollowerTony Campolo -- Party with Prostitutes. Andy Gill on YouTube (video, 7:31)
Embracing the Gray: ... Whatever Became of Agnes? Mark A. HollingsworthLosing Our Religion. Zac Gandara (podcast)

The Big Questions

1. When is the last time you felt God calling you to a ministry that felt uncomfortable to you? How did you respond?

2. Are there times when one should decline to participate in a particular ministry? What concerns might keep a person from participating? How might one determine if one's concerns are legitimate, or simply excuses for disobeying Jesus' command to serve?

3. Why do you participate in the specific ministries you do? What motivates you to be involved?

4. How far should we go in ministry for Jesus? What does that look like in your own context?

5. What would you do if you really believed that Jesus is a friend of all kinds of sinners? How can you become a friend to sinners too?

Confronting the News With Scripture and HopeHere are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:

Joshua 6:24-25They burned down the city, and everything in it; only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. But Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, Joshua spared. Her family has lived in Israel ever since. For she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. (For context, read 6:17, 22-25; see also 2:8-14.)

As the Israelites prepared to do battle against Jericho, one person and her family were designated for protection: Rahab the prostitute, because she had helped the Israelite spies. She is mentioned in Hebrews 11:31 as a woman of faith worthy of honor and in James 2:25 as a person whose deeds matched her faith. Some Bible scholars believe the Rahab listed as one of Jesus' ancestors in Matthew 1:5 is this woman, although in that passage the label "prostitute" is absent.

Ordinarily, we might expect that Rahab's profession as a woman of the street would have disqualified her from membership in the family of faith, let alone as an ancestor of the Messiah himself, but that is not the case. She threw her lot in with the people of God, and was richly rewarded for that act of courage.

Questions: Who would you be most surprised to see in heaven? Why would the presence of that person or those persons surprise you? Do you think anyone might be surprised to see you there? On what do you base your confidence in your eternal salvation?

John 1:46Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." (For context, read 1:43-46.)

At the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry, as he began to gather disciples, Philip told his friend Nathanael about Jesus. When Nathanael heard where Jesus came from, he was not impressed. Apparently, Nazareth had an unsavory reputation that tainted all who hailed from there. It's no coincidence that Tertullus, an attorney, described the followers of Jesus as "Nazarenes" in the context of bringing charges against Paul, whom he called "a pestilent fellow, an agitator ... who even tried to profane the temple" (Acts 24:5-6).

Zac Gandara spent 20 years as a parish pastor and then shifted his focus in ministry to the larger community. He and his wife now concentrate on building relationships with today's "Nazarenes," society's castoffs in the streets and taverns of Seattle, Washington.

"My worldview was stifled, not by my faith in Christ, but by the dogma and business model of the American institutional church," Gandara says. "I have ... begun to see Christ at work everywhere. My hope with this life choice was that I might bring Christ to the lives of others. What I have realized is that they have often brought Christ to me."

Author Tony Campolo wrote, "If we can just get Jesus out of the institution and into the real world situations, if we can just get rid of the trappings, it comes alive for all of us. That's what Jesus did in his day. ... He takes all of that stuff out of the religious institution and puts it on the street where people live."

Questions: What groups might be considered the equivalent of "Nazarenes" today? Where is "Nazareth" in your region or community? What "trappings" might be hindering you and your church from experiencing the living Christ on the street where people live? Where have you seen Christ at work in places that you didn't expect to see him? When have people brought Christ to you when you thought you were bringing Christ to them?

John 4:27-29, 39Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" ... Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done."(For context, read 4:5-42.)

A Samaritan woman came to draw water from Jacob's well in the heat of the day, which suggests that she may not have felt comfortable or welcome in the presence of other women from the community. She may well have caused pain to some of them, since she had had five husbands and was on her sixth partner, to whom she was not married.

Indications are that she was something of a social pariah, yet Jesus does not refuse to speak with her. John writes that it was this woman's testimony that prepared the way for his message when he entered the city. In some ways, she became a forerunner of the Messiah, a kind of "John the Baptist," with a powerful testimony in spite of (or because of) her checkered past.

Questions: Have you ever felt disqualified to serve God because of some past failure? How does the way Jesus treated this woman encourage you? What was the focus of the woman's testimony to the people?

Luke 7:39Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man [Jesus] were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him -- that she is a sinner." (For context, read 7:31-50.)
Luke 15:1-2Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." (For context, read 15:1-32.)

In both these passages, Jesus answers the criticism that he associates with the wrong kind of people: tax collectors and sinners.

In Luke 7, Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner at his house, where a woman, apparently uninvited and identified as "a sinner," came with an alabaster jar of ointment to anoint Jesus' feet. Her audacious demeanor (letting her hair down in public, washing Jesus' feet with her copious tears and drying them with her hair) was offensive to Simon, who apparently believed that "birds of a feather flock together." If Jesus allowed a sinner such as this brazen woman to touch him, he must be a sinner too, and not a prophet at all. Jesus tells him a parable meant to illustrate that Simon was also a sinner in need of forgiveness, just as much as the woman was.

Pat Taylor, a nurse who worked in an ob-gyn clinic in an inner-city hospital, commented on McCarthy's blog: "We Christians so need to remember that our heavenly Father loved us while we were still sinners, and he loves the women working in a strip club or on the streets, too. They are precious in His eyes."

In Luke 15, Jesus tells the parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son, embracing the criticism of the scribes and the Pharisees as a badge of honor! It is as if he is saying, "You are right! I do welcome sinners and eat with them. I am a friend of tax collectors and sinners. If I were not, none of you would have any hope of salvation."

Questions: Have you ever been criticized for associating with "the wrong people"? How did you react? Have you ever been criticized for being one of "the wrong people"? How did that affect you? If the criticism came from Christians, did it change how you felt about the church or about God? If so, in what way?
When do you suppose we are most grateful for the friendship of Jesus? How did Jesus demonstrate his friendship toward "tax collectors and sinners" in practical ways? How can believers emulate Jesus' example today?

Acts 10:34-35, 45Then Peter began to speak to them: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ... The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles ... (For context, read 10:1-47.)

This chapter records Peter's discovery that God has opened the door of the kingdom of God to Gentiles as well as to Jews. His worldview that the Jews were somehow superior to non-Jews is shattered by a vision God showed him, telling him not to call unclean what God had called clean. And when the Gentiles receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter acknowledges that the Gentiles should be welcomed as full members in the family of God. If God accepted them, shouldn't the church do likewise?

Questions: Are there people you have difficulty accepting fully within the community of faith? What stands in the way of you accepting them as equals?

For Further Discussion

1. Reflect on the following paraphrase of sociologist Tony Campolo's experience, or watch his telling of it in a YouTube video (see links list near top of lesson).

Campolo tells about the time he stopped in a greasy-spoon diner in Honolulu at 3:30 in the morning for coffee and a donut because he couldn't sleep. As he sat at the counter, a group of prostitutes entered and sat on either side of him. One, named Agnes, revealed that the next day was her birthday, but she guessed no one would notice. After all, no one had ever celebrated her birth before -- not once in all her 31 years.

After the group left the cafe, Tony asked Harry, the proprietor, if they were regulars at the diner. Yes, they came every night around the same time, he was told. So he asked whether he could throw a birthday party for Agnes the next day. Harry got excited. Agnes was one of the kind ones, always looking out for the others, he said. He volunteered to provide the cake.

So Tony decorated the diner the next evening. Word had spread to the street, and the place was packed with prostitutes. When Agnes walked in and heard everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to her, she was stunned. She asked if she could take the cake two doors down to show to her mother. While she was gone, Tony suggested they might pray. He prayed for Agnes to be transformed and receive salvation and God's blessing.

Afterward, Harry asked Tony what kind of church he belonged to. "I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for [prostitutes] at 3:30 in the morning," Tony replied. Harry couldn't believe there was a church like that. That kind of church, he said, he would join! Tony likes to say now that "that's exactly the kind of church that Jesus came to create."

Not long after that, Agnes quit prostitution and started working at the diner. Now she and Harry and his wife Jan have turned the diner into a place where people in trouble know they can come for help and a listening ear.

Tony says from this encounter he learned that "you can't judge people superficially. Agnes is one of the good people ... kind, caring, and thoughtful. When all the other prostitutes show up it's because she's been so good and kind. And when I prayed, I asked that God would deliver her from what dirty, filthy men had done to her ... generally every prostitute ... got messed over at the age of ten, eleven, or twelve. ... Agnes was not an evil person, but she was a victim."

Tony points to 1 John 4:7-8, where we read that "God is love." It also says "whoever loves is born of God and knows God." Tony suggests that "all those prostitutes who showed up that night, and Harry and Jan who ran the diner ... all were expressing the love of God. Some will ask, 'Well do they theologically agree and believe this doctrine, or live by these creeds, or confess in such and such way?' My response is to point to those verses: 'God is love, and whoever loves is born of God.'" What do you think of Tony's perspective?

2. Respond to the following from Deborah Murphy Kerr, who commented on McCarthy's blog: "How incredibly smug and presumptuous of these women to think that these women who have chosen a job or lifestyle that they would eschew must, therefore, be damaged, needy, or piteous. Just how full of yourself do you have to be to consider yourself superior to the degree that people whose choices are different from yours are in need of your guidance to 'get right'? Shame on these women. I want to take their Bibles out of their self-righteous little fists and smack them over their condescending little heads with 'em."

3. How can we guard against having a self-righteous attitude when ministering to any group? How can we guard against an "us vs. them" attitude that might sabotage our effort to serve?

Responding to the News

1. Perhaps this would be a time to consider what kind of guidelines and lines of accountability would be advisable before embarking on a ministry such as the one described by McCarthy. Check with your denominational leaders and with other established ministries of this type, and network with people who already have experience to learn what safeguards they have found effective to vet and protect all participants.

For example, consider what limits or guidelines are appropriate to govern:

• How people of the opposite sex relate in the ministry
• Whether it is ever permissible to work alone, or whether all contact must be in the context of a group or with a ministry partner
• Accountability checks to periodically evaluate motives for involvement
• Proper ministry settings in the open rather than in private

2. Sing the gospel hymn "Make Me a Blessing" as a prayer.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, friend of sinners, hope of the world, fill us with awe that you have loved and accepted us while we were yet sinners, and teach us to love and accept other sinners with the grace and kindness you have shown to us. Amen.

Study Finds Nearly 90 Percent of Americans Have Prayed for Healing

Prayer may be one of the most widely used forms of medical treatment among Americans, rather than just a "fringe activity."

That's a conclusion drawn by Baylor University professor of epidemiology and population health Jeff Levin from a survey he headed, which was conducted by the Gallup Organization on behalf of the school (see full study report in links list below). It found that despite declining participation in organized religion, almost 80 percent of Americans have prayed for their own healing and nearly 90 percent have prayed for the healing of others.

The study found that most of those who use prayer for healing also rely on regular medical care, and even 62 percent of those who said they would "only seek medical care and not prayer," still acknowledged that they had used healing prayer at some point in their lives. Additionally, more than half of the respondents have participated in prayer groups to help themselves or others heal, and more than a quarter of those queried have practiced or received "laying on of hands" as a means of relaying spiritual blessings.

"This blew me away," Levin said of the findings. Praying for healing "is more than just an alternative practice; this is kind of everybody. I think these findings cause us to re-evaluate what is normative and what is marginal. Maybe these practices are as normative as it gets, and to not participate, maybe, is marginal."

The survey results challenge preconceived notions about religious people. Levin noted that contrary to popular belief, it's not just "poor, uneducated, rural folks, or old people, or people who are suffering from a health crisis or who are depressed or stressed out" who turn to prayer for healing. What's more, neither is healing prayer a last resort for people who lack health care access or have no health insurance.

Levin said that according to the study, the highest predictor of whether a person engages in healing prayer is whether that person thinks he or she has a "loving relationship with God."

The survey did not investigate whether prayer actually caused healing, but previous studies have shown that prayer can have beneficial effects on those who pray -- effects such as lowered stress, better sleep and strengthened brain function.

In an email to the Huffington Post about the study results, Levin wrote, "It is unlikely that so many people -- most of the U.S. population -- would continue to pray for themselves and to serve others through prayer, throughout their lifetime, if they did not perceive that something efficacious was happening in response, whatever that might be."

And speaking to CNN, Levin said, "A lot of people may not be institutionally religious in the same ways they have been, but as far as their own private practices and beliefs, they are still very engaged. It still remains a very spiritually involved country one way or the other."

More on this story can be found at these links:

90% of Americans Have Prayed for Healing, Study Finds. CNN 
Nearly 90 Percent Of Americans Have Prayed For Healing. Huffington Post 
A Scientist Explains How Meditation And Prayer Rewire Your Brain. Huffington Post 
Prevalence and Religious Predictors of Healing Prayer Use in the USA: Findings from the Baylor Religion Survey. Journal of Religion and Health

The Big Questions

1. What do you think accounts for the high reliance on prayer for healing even when the society as a whole is becoming increasingly secular? Should we assume that God is always the addressee of these prayers?

2. What do you expect to happen when you pray for your healing or that of someone else? Why?

3. When you prayed for healing -- your own or someone else's -- and the healing did not occur, what, if anything, did occur that you considered an answer to prayer? Why?

4. How do you see the relationship between prayer for healing and medical care? Why?

5. What is your reaction to the following, from TWW team member Mary Sells? "Sometimes I find it more satisfying to pray for God’s best outcome, rather than for a specific desire of my own. I don’t know if that is lack of faith, or simply admitting that I am powerless and thereby more willing to accept that God walks with me in pain and sorrow, not just in giving me what I want."

Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:

James 5:14
Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. (For context, read 5:13-20.)

It is easy to misunderstand the message of this verse from James, as though it were a promise that any prayers from the church will automatically heal the sick. Rather the focus is on the meaning of prayer and anointing.

The elders of the church represent the faith community's willingness to overcome the emotional and spiritual isolation that illness often imposes on a person who is sick. God makes the prayers effective when they are prayed by someone who reaches across the isolation that illness brings and spiritually embraces the sick person, whether that person is physically healed or not. God makes the oil efficacious when the one administering it communicates the care and solidarity of the faith community with the one who is ill, whether that person is physically healed or not.

Note that James empowers the sick with this verse as well, urging them to "call for the elders of the church." Of course, in an attentive faith community, the elders might already be aware of the sick person and have initiated contact and prayer first.

TWW team member Frank Ramirez, who is a pastor in the Church of the Brethren, comments, "Brethren have always differentiated between healing and curing. We believe that miraculous cures are always possible (and I have certainly witnessed some) but that God heals in different ways."

Ramirez continues, explaining his church's practice of anointing for healing and the laying on of hands: "Typically I meet with the person who is sick, allow them to speak about what we are praying for, and discuss the history of the practice. I then trace three crosses on their forehead with olive oil as I say, 'Recognizing your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I anoint you with oil for the forgiveness of your sins, the healing of your body, and the restoration of wholeness to your spirit.' I then place my hands on the head of the anointed one and invite all present to lay a hand on my hands or in some way be connected to each other, I pray, then pause and allow others to pray, then I will conclude by leading everyone in the Lord's Prayer."

TWW team member Misty Wintsch, also a pastor who anoints the sick, says, "Anointing is one of the things that feels like such a pastor privilege for me. I usually begin by saying, 'We aren't saying that the anointing brings an expectation of a kind of "magic" healing itself, although God can certainly do that any time he likes. It is meant as an act of worship to bring you closer to God and therefore, more open to the healing and peace that God has for you.'"

Questions: Whether or not your church anoints the sick with oil, how do you reach across the isolation that illness brings and express the solidarity of the fellowship with those members who are sick? When you pray do you tell God what you want to happen? Should you? Have you felt prayer helpful when you were sick? Why or why not?

2 Kings 5:13-14 
But [Naaman's] servants approached and said to him, "Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, 'Wash, and be clean'?" So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean. (For context, read 5:1-19.)

Regarding prayer and healing, there are times we overthink this. People want to know the right words and right actions to achieve the right result, almost like magic. The verses above are from the story of the healing of Naaman from leprosy. Naaman was a big shot and was offended when the prophet Elisha -- through a messenger -- told him to go wash in the Jordan. "I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy!" (v. 11), Naaman protested.

But when Naaman finally did as instructed by the man of God, he was healed.

Questions: The Bible tells us to pray for the sick (see James 5:14 above). Do you ever suspect you are overthinking that? Does thinking too highly of yourself (as Naaman did), ever keep you from receiving what God wants you have? Does an unwillingness to pray ever keep you from receiving what God wants you have?

Philippians 4:6
Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (For context, read 4:4-7.)

Here's another verse urging us to pray for what we'd like to happen.

Questions: Why do you think Paul included that thanksgiving should be the tone in which our prayer requests are made? Do you think our prayers that do not include thankfulness also reach God? Why or why not?
In 2 Corinthians 12:7-9, Paul mentions that he had prayed three times to be relieved of a thorn in his flesh -- an unnamed illness -- and did not receive relief. Does this affect your interpretation of Paul's earnest call to prayer in Philippians, and if so, how?

3 John 2
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul. (For context, read verses 1-4.)

Third John is a short letter of encouragement written by a church elder traditionally considered to be John, the person who wrote the gospel by that name, to a church leader named Gaius (v. 1). The letter is in regard to a certain man named Diotrephes who is dividing the church and defying Gaius' authority.

Of note here is simply that in his greeting, John mentions his prayer that Gaius "may be in good health." There's no suggestion that Gaius is ill, but John's statement shows that he considers it appropriate to pray for someone's ongoing well-being. Note that John prays not just for Gaius' physical health, but also for the health of his soul.

Questions: If you are in good health, do you express thanks to God for that? How, if at all, is physical wellness related to spiritual wellness? If you had to choose, would you prefer spiritual health or physical health? Why?

Acts 9:36-37 
Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. At that time she became ill and died. … (For context, read 9:36-42.)

This passage goes on to tell that Peter raised Tabitha from the dead. But during the time she was being mourned, her friends lamented that her death was the end of her charitable ministries.

Most of us haven't raised someone from the dead, but when we pick up the charitable ministries of a fellow Christian who has died, we are keeping their healing ministry alive.

Questions: When has a death in your church brought a significant ministry to an end? When have others chosen to continue that ministry in some form?

For Further Discussion

1. Discuss Lamentations 3:19-23 -- "The thought of my affliction ... is wormwood and gall! My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

2. Comment on this, from TWW team member Edward Hortsch: "A couple years ago we lost our pastor to cancer. He was 50 years old. Before his death, we prayed for him, and anointed him. A group of believers and their pastor came to our church and prayed for him with us. He was given two months to live; he made it six. Frankly, we were all devastated when he died. We had a hard time accepting God's will in this case. Yet it seems God used us to help him and his family when his time came. God moved him and his family to our area (a place where he really desired to be), and he and his family were deeply loved by all of us. We were able to minister to him and them in a unique way. It took us some time to accept that."

Responding to the News

This is a good time to review the arrangements your church has for keeping in touch with ill members and to keeping up frequent prayer with them and for them.

Prayer

O Lord, with thankful hearts, we praise you that you hear our prayers and that even when we don't receive the answers we hope for, you are with us as we go through the hard places. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Bono and Eugene Peterson Team Up for Documentary on Praying the Psalms

© 2016 The Wired Word

www.thewiredword.com

Last week, Fuller Theological Seminary released a video to encourage the reading of the Psalms, which featured a conversation between U2's lead singer and songwriter Bono and the author of a contemporary language rendering of the Bible called The Message, Eugene Peterson. The documentary, just under 22 minutes long, is available on YouTube (see link below), is worth your time, and has an important message. But what brought these two men from very different worlds together is also a compelling story.

Peterson, who outside of Christian circles is less well known than Bono, was a founding pastor in 1962 of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Bel Air, Maryland, where he served for 29 years before retiring in 1991. He then worked as Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, until retiring in 2006.

In 2002, when Peterson was nearing the end of his work on The Message, and parts of it had already been released, Bono, who was raised attending the Church of Ireland and sometimes uses scriptural wordings and metaphors in his music, found Peterson's rendition of the Bible to be the one that "speaks to me in my own language," He contacted Peterson and asked if they could meet.

Peterson, who had never heard of Bono and was working to meet a deadline for his translation of Isaiah, felt he didn't have time for the meeting and so politely declined. He later learned about Bono when one of his students showed him a Rolling Stone interview with the singer in which Bono mentioned Peterson's writing.

In an interview a few years later, journalist Dean Nelson asked Peterson about saying no to U2's lead singer. "It's Bono, for crying out loud," Nelson said. Peterson responded, "Dean, it was Isaiah."

The two men did meet in 2009, when the rock star invited the preacher to a U2 concert in Dallas and to a three-hour lunch. During their conversation, Peterson recognized Bono as "a companion in the faith."

This year, Fuller Seminary arranged another face-to-face meeting between the pair, this time at Peterson's home in Montana to talk about the Psalms, and the documentary is the result.

In the video, Peterson said that when first encountering the Psalms at age 12 and thinking that everything was meant literally, he was puzzled by references such as those that called God a "rock." He didn't know what "metaphor" was at the time, but he began to realize that "imagination was a way to get inside the truth," he said.

Bono spoke about how approaching God is represented in art and music. "The only way we can approach God is if we're honest through metaphor, through symbol," the U2 frontman said. "So art has become essential, not decorative."

The singer and the preacher also discussed how the Psalms are brutally honest. "Praying isn't being nice before God," Peterson said. "The Psalms are not pretty; they're not nice … not smooth … but [they're] honest, which is very, very hard in our culture."

Bono agreed that the Psalms have a "rawness," and that God wants the truth from us. He said he is suspicious of Christians when they demonstrate a "lack of realism." He said that contemporary Christian music could benefit from more realism.

The pair also talked about violence in our culture, and Peterson said, "We need some way to tell God how mad we are. We need a way to cuss without cussing." He went on to say that the imprecatory psalms (those that invoke judgment, calamity, or curses upon one's enemies) do that. (For example, read Psalm 5:8-10.)

The documentary mentioned that U2 ended its North American tour by playing the song "40," which has lyrics adapted from Psalm 40.

"I think it is one of [Bono's] best songs," Peterson said. "He sings it a lot. It is one of the Psalms that reaches into the hurt and disappointment and difficulty of being a human being. It acknowledges that in a language that is recognizable and reaches into the heart of the person, the stuff we all feel but many of us don't talk about."

More on this story can be found at these links:

The Psalms. Bono & Eugene Peterson (video)
U2's Bono Teams Up With Pastor Eugene Peterson to Release Documentary on the Psalms. Christian Post 
Bono's Advice to Christian Musicians: Get Real. The Washington Post 
Beyond Bono and Eugene Peterson: The Most Searched and Shared Psalms. Christianity Today 

Applying the News Story

In his introduction to the book of Psalms in The Message, Peterson writes that the stimulus to paraphrase the Psalms came from his work as a pastor in teaching people to pray, "and to do it both honestly and thoroughly." He said that it was not as easy as he'd expected, in part because many people felt inadequate to do it. He usually responded by pointing the person to the Psalms and saying, "Go home and pray these. You've got wrong ideas about prayer; the praying you find in these Psalms will dispel the wrong ideas and introduce you to the real thing."

He says that as people did that, they were often surprised to find such gritty language in the Bible. Peterson goes on to say:

Untutored, we tend to think that prayer is what good people do when they are doing their best. It is not. Inexperienced, we suppose that there must be an "insider" language that must be acquired before God takes us seriously in our prayer. There is not. Prayer is elemental, not advanced, language. It is the means by which our language becomes honest, true, and personal in response to God. It is the means by which we get everything in our lives out in the open before God.

Peterson says that English translations make the psalms often sound too polished. He adds, "The Psalms in Hebrew are earthy and rough. They are not genteel. They are not prayers of nice people, couched in cultured language." Thus, in The Message, Peterson worked to capture that quality.

He concludes, "I [am] convinced that only as we develop raw honesty and detailed thoroughness in our praying do we become whole, truly human in Jesus Christ, who also prayed the Psalms."

Our aim in this TWW lesson is to second Peterson's conclusion, in which Bono joins him.

(Read Peterson's full introduction to the Psalms here.)

The Big Questions

1. To what degree should your prayers be about how things are at the moment with you? Why? When you have brought the depth of your pain, anger and sin to God in prayer, what happened?

2. How do you share your authentic experiences with God and with others? Do you edit so that thing always look and sound good and hopeful, or do you show vulnerability and distress also as part of the path?

3. If you are angry with God, should you tell him so? Why or why not?

4. Do you agree that the tone of the imprecatory psalms (Psalms 5, 10, 17, 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137, 140) have a place in prayer? Why or why not?

5. In the documentary, noting that psalms are also songs, Bono commented that contemporary Christian music should include songs that are very real, because the audience included people who are "vulnerable, porous, open." As examples, Bono suggested songs about one's bad marriage, or about how one is angry at the government. Do you agree? Do songs that give voice to our pain have a place in public worship? Why or why not?

6. Is it important to you to make your prayer formal with "thees" and "thous"? Does this make you feel more distant from God? closer to God?

Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion. For this lesson, we are quoting all the verses from Peterson's version, The Message, rather than our usual Bible version:

Luke 18:13-14
Meanwhile the tax man, slumped in the shadows, his face in his hands, not daring to look up, said, "God, give mercy. Forgive me, a sinner." Jesus commented, "This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face, but if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself." (For context, read 18:9-14.)

This is from Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector, and it raises the manner in which we approach God. The proud claim of the Pharisee is contrasted with the humble and honest prayer of the tax collector. And as the text above says, "This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God."

Ironically, the Pharisee is just the sort of person we might want in our church. After all, he tithes, is able to pray aloud in public, is respectable, and probably takes part in the leadership of the church both in worship and in committees. And we might be suspicious that the tax collector's prayer sounds a lot like a "jailhouse conversion," and we might not believe him. Good thing God can see what's in our hearts.

Questions: To what degree is this parable helpful regarding your own prayers? Why?

Praying the Psalms: While most of us would have no difficulty praying in the spirit of Psalm 8, Psalm 23, Psalm 100 or Psalm 150, there are some other prayers from the Psalms we may wonder about. But Peterson says the wordings of the Psalms in The Message are as close to the intent of the original Hebrew as he could make them. As a group, consider each of the following prayers from the Psalms and talk about how they might or might not be helpful in your own prayer life.

Psalm 3:1-2, 7
God! Look! Enemies past counting!
Enemies sprouting like mushrooms,
Mobs of them all around me, roaring their mockery:
"Hah! No help for him from God!" ... 
Up, God! My God, help me!
Slap their faces,
First this cheek, then the other,
Your fist hard in their teeth! 
(For context, read 3:1-8.)

Psalm 22:1-3
God, God . . . my God!
Why did you dump me
miles from nowhere?
Doubled up with pain, I call to God
all the day long. No answer. Nothing.
I keep at it all night, tossing and turning.
And you! Are you indifferent, above it all …?
(For context, read 22:1-31.)

Note that Jesus, on the cross, prayed the opening words of this very psalm (see Matthew 27:46).

Psalm 25:3
I've thrown in my lot with you;
You won't embarrass me, will you?
Or let my enemies get the best of me?
Don't embarrass any of us
Who went out on a limb for you.
It's the traitors who should be humiliated.
(For context, read 25:1-22.)

Psalm 30:6-10
When things were going great
I crowed, "I've got it made.
I'm God's favorite.
He made me king of the mountain."
Then you looked the other way
and I fell to pieces.
I called out to you, God;
I laid my case before you:
"Can you sell me for a profit when I'm dead?
auction me off at a cemetery yard sale?
When I'm 'dust to dust' my songs
and stories of you won't sell.
So listen! and be kind!
Help me out of this!"
(For context, read 30:1-12.)

Psalm 51:1-6
Generous in love -- God, give grace!
Huge in mercy -- wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I've been;
my sins are staring me down.
You're the One I've violated, and you've seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
I've been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you're after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life. 
(For context, read 51:1-19.)

Psalm 102:1-2
God, listen! Listen to my prayer,
listen to the pain in my cries.
Don't turn your back on me
just when I need you so desperately.
Pay attention! This is a cry for help!
And hurry -- this can't wait!
(For context, read 102:1-28.)

Psalm 137:1-4, 7-9
Alongside Babylon's rivers
we sat on the banks; we cried and cried,
remembering the good old days in Zion.
Alongside the quaking aspens
we stacked our unplayed harps;
That's where our captors demanded songs,
sarcastic and mocking:
"Sing us a happy Zion song!"
Oh, how could we ever sing God's song
in this wasteland? ...
God, remember those Edomites,
and remember the ruin of Jerusalem,
That day they yelled out,
"Wreck it, smash it to bits!"
And you, Babylonians -- ravagers!
A reward to whoever gets back at you
for all you've done to us;
Yes, a reward to the one who grabs your babies
and smashes their heads on the rocks!
(For context, read 137:1-9.)

Regarding this psalm, TWW team member Frank Ramirez says that one Sunday in a previous church, he picked a hymn in the then new hymnal based on Psalm 137 (the hymn was "Babylon Streams Received Our Tears"; text by Calvin Seerveld, 1982). It was meant as an entree to the whole of the Psalms, the laments, the complaints, the despair. But after the service, some members of that congregation told him not to use that hymn again, because it was too sad.

Psalm 138:7-8
When I walk into the thick of trouble,
keep me alive in the angry turmoil.
With one hand
strike my foes,
With your other hand
save me.
Finish what you started in me, God.
Your love is eternal -- don't quit on me now.
(For context, read 138:1-8.)

Psalm 142:1, 3-7
I cry out loudly to God ...
"As I sink in despair, my spirit ebbing away,
you know how I'm feeling,
Know the danger I'm in,
the traps hidden in my path.
Look right, look left --
there's not a soul who cares what happens!
I'm up against it, with no exit --
bereft, left alone.
I cry out, God, call out:
'You're my last chance, my only hope for life!'
Oh listen, please listen;
I've never been this low.
Rescue me from those who are hunting me down;
I'm no match for them.
Get me out of this dungeon
so I can thank you in public.
Your people will form a circle around me
and you'll bring me showers of blessing!"
(For context read 142:1-7.)

For Further Discussion

1. Respond to this, from professor of chemistry Michelle Francl-Donnay, writing in Give Us This Day magazine (May 2016):, "My son Chris recently wrote a paper for a college philosophy class framed around his prenatal exposure to my thrice-weekly lectures on quantum mechanics: Was he formed as a scientist, even in the womb? I teased Chris that if anything formed him in those early days, it was the Psalms, a thousand recitations before he was born. A thousand more whispered aloud as I nursed him to sleep at night, breviary and baby juggled in my lap.
     "'You knit me together in my mother's womb, where I was fashioned in secret, molded in the depths.' These lines of Psalm 139 were particularly poignant when I was pregnant with Chris and his brother Mike. We were intimately connected. I could feel their joyous tumblings within my depths, sense them test the limits of their increasingly cramped quarters. The sounds of my breath, my heart, and my voice, murmuring mysteries of physics and metaphysics, attended them at every hour of the day and night. There was no escaping it for either of us -- we were never alone. …
     "The Psalms are wedges, using our lived experiences to push open the door between God and his people. They are bridges, letting us pray beyond ourselves, bringing us to rejoice with those flying on the wings of dawn and to shiver with those engulfed by darkness."

2. Comment on this from TWW team member Mary Sells: Getting real with God, to me means admitting sometimes things are really good, yet everything is not always all right or fulfilling; however, we will love and worship the Lord anyway and trust that his will is done for us and through us. Our relationship with God, as with a trusted friend, means we can talk about all the good and all the bad and keep growing together by shared honesty."

3. Honesty and authenticity before God is a good thing, but should such honesty be limited to private prayer? TWW team member Micah Holland comments, "I have served in congregations where the prayer time is an open space where people can share their prayers with the congregation. Invariably, we have people who go on and on and on with what seems like too much information, getting into medical details that are kind of embarrassing. But how much is really too much? I see authenticity as a desire, honest and forthright with God, because God can understand it. With people, however, there seems to need to be a balance."
     Should there be a difference between how detailed we are with God in private and how detailed we are with God in public? Why? Should embarrassment be a standard by which we measure public prayer?

4. Discuss this, from author Kathleen Norris in her book, Cloister Walk: "You come to the Bible's great 'book of praises' [Psalms] through all the moods and conditions of life, and while you may feel like the pits, you sing anyway. To your surprise, you find that the Psalms do not deny your true feelings but allow you to reflect on them, right in front of God and everyone.
     "The world the Psalms depict is not that different from our own. ... The Psalms make us uncomfortable because they don't let us deny -- either the depth of our pain or the possibility of its transformation into praise. … The Psalms are unrelenting in their realism. They ask us to consider our true situation and to pray over it. They ask us to be honest about ourselves."

5. Comment on this, from Experiencing the Psalms by Stephen P. McCutchan: "There is every evidence to believe that Jesus prayed the psalms as prayers. When Jesus was particularly frustrated by the attacks of some of the religious leaders, he may well have prayed: 'For there is no truth in their mouths; their hearts are destruction, their throats are open graves; they flatter with their tongues. Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of their many transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you' (Psalm 5:9-10). 
     "When we think of Jesus' praying this psalm, we are faced with three choices. 
     "Our first choice is to believe that Jesus censored the psalms and prayed only those verses that were appropriate to his forgiving nature. Therefore, as disciples of Christ, we are invited to join him in the censorship of certain psalms as inappropriate. ...
     "Our second choice is to believe that Jesus used these denunciatory prayers during his lifetime but later, from the perspective of the cross, offered a new viewpoint. The one who prayed 'Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing' (Luke 23:34) revealed to us that such harsh denunciations were inappropriate in light of God's forgiving love. ...
     "Our third choice is to believe that Jesus, indeed, experienced the fullness of humanity, including some very negative feelings. It assumes that Jesus recognized not only the reality of opposition forces, but also had negative feelings toward them. Mark suggested this real possibility when he described Jesus' response in one incident by saying, 'He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart' (Mark 3:5a). ... 
     "With these strong feelings, is it not possible that Jesus prayed words such as those in Psalm 5 quoted above? Is it not likely that Jesus included in his prayers the negative feelings he had toward those whom he perceived as being in opposition to God? By allowing prayer to bring his negative feelings about those who threatened the reign of God into the realm of God, was not Jesus trusting that God could reign over those feelings? ...
     "For ordinary Christians who experience opposition and negative feelings, we are invited to bring the full breadth of these experiences into the realm of God." (See full article here.)

Responding to the News

Consider committing yourself to using the first 30 psalms, in order, as the basis for your prayer life for the next 30 days, and then see how your prayers have changed.

Prayer (Psalm 139:23-24, The Message)

Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I'm about;
See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong --
then guide me on the road to eternal life.