More Than Just Prayer
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
April 28, 2024
Good morning Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. We are so glad you joined us today. The scripture I have chosen for today is Psalm 31 from the New Revised Standard Version:
In you, O Lord, I seek refuge;
do not let me ever be put to shame;
in your righteousness deliver me.
Incline your ear to me;
rescue me speedily.
Be a rock of refuge for me,
a strong fortress to save me.
You are indeed my rock and my fortress;
for your name’s sake lead me and guide me;
take me out of the net that is hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.
Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.
You hate those who pay regard to worthless idols,
but I trust in the Lord.
I will exult and rejoice in your steadfast love,
because you have seen my affliction;
you have taken notice of my adversities
and have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy;
you have set my feet in a broad place.
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
my eye wastes away from grief,
my soul and body also.
For my life is spent with sorrow
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my misery,
and my bones waste away.
I am the scorn of all my adversaries,
a horror to my neighbors,
an object of dread to my acquaintances;
those who see me in the street flee from me.
I have passed out of mind like one who is dead;
I have become like a broken vessel.
For I hear the whispering of many—
terror all around!—
as they scheme together against me,
as they plot to take my life.
But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”
My times are in your hand;
deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.
Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your steadfast love.
Do not let me be put to shame, O Lord,
for I call on you;
let the wicked be put to shame;
let them go dumbfounded to Sheol.
Let the lying lips be stilled
that speak insolently against the righteous
with pride and contempt.
O how abundant is your goodness
that you have laid up for those who fear you
and accomplished for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of everyone!
In the shelter of your presence you hide them
from human plots;
you hold them safe under your shelter
from contentious tongues.
Blessed be the Lord,
for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
when I was beset as a city under siege.
I had said in my alarm,
“I am driven far from your sight.”
But you heard my supplications
when I cried out to you for help.
Love the Lord, all you his saints.
The Lord preserves the faithful
but abundantly repays the one who acts haughtily.
Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord.
The other day, I was talking with Sue in the car on the way home from the store and the topic of prayer came up. Sue had had an experience with a Christian person who considered prayer the only thing Sue needed to do in a challenging situation. Maybe even praying harder was going to solve the problem. What ensued was a conversation on the purpose of prayer.
I mentioned that sometimes prayer is more for the person praying than it is for the person being prayed for. As well, we talked about how prayer is often used like a vending machine – put the quarters in by praying hard and then expect God to grant us our desired outcome. We have to be honest there are some magic qualities or hocus pocus connected to some people’s understanding of prayer.
With almost 30 years in ministry, I have come to find that many simply use the idea of prayer as a cop-out. Often when people say, “I will pray for you” they simply don’t. They forget, or never intended to in the first place. When someone posts the words “thoughts and prayers” on social media, these days I find my eyes rolling. And sadly, that is probably because it is being misused or abused.
I need to be honest, and this might surprise you, but my idea of prayer has evolved a great deal both in my life and ministry. I have come to prefer utilizing the Quaker phrase “holding you in the Light” instead of the word prayer because of all the misuse and abuse. Much like I would rather call myself a Quaker than a Christian in public.
I believe this terminology of “holding in the Light” commands more substance than just sending “thoughts and prayers” which often seems to lack sincerity or at least sounds hollow in our current day and age.
Now, for some, “holding someone or some situation in the Light” is not much more than keeping it in their thoughts and prayers, but when looking deeper at the meaning of this phrase, I find it to resonate in my own soul and cause me a deeper spiritual exploration.
The New York Monthly Meeting writes this about the phrase, “Hold in the Light.”
To “Hold in the Light” means to ask for God’s presence to illumine a person, situation, or problem, whether in concern or thanksgiving.
Bethesda Friends takes it a little bit further saying,
However, holding someone in the Light is more than a simple supplication on behalf of that person. Instead, there is a sense of joining with Spirit, or the Light, to enfold the person in love and comfort, or of joining with the Light in the faith that the Light will reveal what is deeply true for that person. Holding someone in the Light does not preclude trying to be of concrete use. One’s actions may be guided by one’s experience.
Quaker Doug Bennet emphasizes that last part by saying,
…talking of holding someone in the Light makes it more tangible. We can feel the Light and feel the warmth around us. When we say we’re holding someone in the Light I have an imagine[sic] of bathing that person in Light, and I imagine that we expect or hope the Light will have a healing effect. And we’re doing something. We’re not just waiting for God to do something. We’re holding someone, lifting someone into the Light.
I remember when I first had someone tell me they were “holding me in the light,” it honestly took me back to when our oldest child, Alex was born. When we brought them home from the hospital, they were a bit jaundiced and the doctor recommended we, “hold them in the light” to allow the light to heal them. I didn’t get that beautiful metaphor for this spiritual principle as a young parent, but I definitely do, now.
And I know that many of us need to sit in the sun or by a sun lamp after a long winter to get our needed Vitamin D to feel whole and healthy.
Yet, I find for someone unfamiliar with this Quaker terminology, it causes them to wonder or even try and imagine this Divine Light.
If you look at early Quaker spirituality, you find that the image of light often represents the mysterious presence of God (much like it often does in Scripture.)
Like Quaker Edward Burrough (one of the Valiant Sixty) who said,
“All that dwell in the light, their habitation is in God, and they know a hiding place in the day of storm; and those who dwell in the light, are built upon the rock, and cannot be moved, for who are moved or shaken, goes from the light, and so goes from their strength, and from the power of God, and loses the peace and the enjoyment of the presence of God.”
But sometimes, when people are going through difficult times, you and I are being called to hold them in the Light, because they cannot do it for themselves. That is a beautiful image and idea.
When someone is going through a battle with cancer.
When a couple is going through a divorce.
When parents are having challenges with children.
When life is just overwhelming… we need people to “Hold us in the Light” because we may not have the energy or ability to do it ourselves.
To be the ones called to hold someone or a situation in the light, I believe, is to help bring our neighbors, friends, relatives, even strangers into deeper contact with that of God within each of us.
Some Quakers imagine the person for whom they are holding in the light to actually be bathed in a beautiful, gentle light, or picture them surrounded with a halo-like quality or aura.
Even our Christian scriptures use the illustration that Jesus is the Light of the World and that his Spirit “illumines” our lives and brings us into Truth.
So, for me personally, when I hold someone or a specific situation in the Light, I imagine God’s grace, love, joy, wisdom and peace engulfing and surrounding their life and situation.
A Quaker from Ann Arbor Friends Meeting put it this way,
“I like to think of ‘holding in the light’ as being ‘holding in Love.’ The Light to me represents God’s love and some of its qualities, and so when I think of holding someone in the Light, I picture them surrounded by visual, bright Light, but also surrounded by something with warmth and a soft texture. In the Psalms there is reference to being born up on the wings of an eagle, and I like the image of an eagle’s wings as part of God’s love. The wing can be powerful, strong, and uplifting, but on the ground the wing can encircle us in a warm and comforting way. Thus, I envision someone being held in brightness, warmth and softness.”
Over time, I have also realized that holding someone in the Light is more than just thinking, meditating, or praying. Quaker Alan Schmaljohn puts words to this. He says,
“…tangible action, no matter how banal on the surface, is also a manifestation of holding someone in the light. To deliver a casserole, to send a card, to offer a room for visiting relatives, to recommend a specific and highly skilled professional relevant to the situation—these and many other “mere actions” are filled with magic and Light.”
This is the action that many feel is missing when asking for thoughts and prayers. To consider Holding someone in the Light as tangible action means you and I are the bearers of the Light in our neighbors’ lives. Our Light (that of God in us) is literally holding them and offering them tangible hope.
Alan also shared this story about how Holding someone in the Light affects more than the one we are holding in the Light. He says,
In Worship today, a Friend spoke through tears of a colleague fighting for her life in Shock-Trauma after being stabbed multiple times and left for dead by an acquaintance, himself deranged by demons yet undescribed. The Friend asked our Quaker community to hold the injured woman and her family in the Light, and the Friend continued to speak of her own epiphany, cast upon her by her husband, from his understanding: that to hold someone in the Light (an image, a metaphor, an action) is by necessity to stand in the Light oneself, thus its effect is to offer healing not only to the other but to oneself.
When I mentioned to Sue that sometimes prayer is more for the person praying than it is for the person being prayed for. This is exactly what I was thinking about. Sometimes when we hold others in the the Light, it puts us in the Light, as well, and illumines and offers epiphanies in our own lives.
And that leads perfectly to one last aspect of Holding in the Light that I think is very important – that of holding oneself in the Light.
Often holding oneself in the Light is the hardest to imagine or even do. We often do not take the time we need to inwardly process our own thoughts and beliefs.
And that means we probably don’t take much time to hold ourselves in the Light – to be held in Love – to ask the Divine to illumine our own lives, problems, and situations.
Most of the time, we are thinking about others and not recognizing our own needs.
Please understand this is not a selfish act – no, rather I believe it is an essential act.
Our scripture text for this morning is what I consider a verbal expression of what may go through one’s mind as we hold ourselves in the Light. The text is a Psalm of David.
Many times, I find David’s writing as though he is holding himself in the Light and seeking the presence, attributes, and love of God.
As David often does, he shows us just how hard it is to enter the presence of the Divine and get our own selfish thoughts and needs out of the way, so we can truly enter into the presence and hear the still small voice. Each week in waiting worship, we have an opportunity to hold ourselves in the Light, to listen to our inner Light, and even to respond to that Light.
Also, please understand holding yourself, someone else, or a situation in the Light is more than utilizing a wrote prayer or formula. Sometimes those are helpful when we don’t have words, but often when we don’t have words, we need simply to hold that situation in the presence of God until something further is revealed.
When I consider holding someone, something, or myself in the Light it is a mixture of all sorts of things - of prayers, praises, and professions of confidence in God and I don’t know about you, but for me there is also often some doubt, frustration, even first shaking at God and big questions from the depths of my soul.
I relate so well to David and his psalms. As I read them, I often hear his words as holding himself in the Light. I think you will see his interesting “mixture” of prayers, praises, doubts and frustrations coming forth.
To make it a bit more personal or relatable, I would like to read David’s Psalm 31 from a modern translation titled Psalms/Now by Leslie F. Brandt.
As I read this, try and imagine holding yourself in the Light and allowing these words to express or bring to the surface your own personal feelings, images, or thoughts – if it helps, close your eyes.
For now, just listen to the words and let them speak to your condition.
Psalm 31
I am up a blind alley, Lord.
The props have been knocked out beneath me.
I feel as if I’m grappling with the wind.
for some support or security.
I’ve been pulled up short, Lord.
Now, I realize how much I need
something or someone
beyond and above myself.
To give stability to my tenuous existence.
Maybe it was Your doing, Lord.
It is Your way of bringing me back to home port,
of correcting my focus
and reassessing my goals.
I return to You with empty hands, Lord.
You know well, my sorry plight.
I did not find that secret treasure,
that pearl of great price.
The bright lights that beckoned
only led me astray.
I became entangled in the bonds of self-service.
Everything I touched turned to dust in my hands.
I despise myself today, Lord.
Even those I thought my friends
Turn their faces from me.
There is no place to go, nothing to cling to.
I can only come back to You
and cast myself on Your loving mercy.
You are my God.
You have never let me out of Your sight.
Even when I strike out on my own,
You pursue me and hold on to me.
I’ve stopped running, Lord.
From this point on
I will dedicate my hours and days
into Your loving hands.
I seek only Your guidance
and the grace and strength
to carry out Your purposes.
Restore me, O God,
To Your program and design for my life.
Thank You for taking me back, Lord,
for renewing my relationship with You.
I seek now to walk in Your course for me.
I shall abide forever in Your steadfast love.
I will proclaim Your praises
and live out Your Purposes.
Enable me to be faithful to You.
whatever the consequences,
and to celebrate Your love
and communicate it to everyone around me.
May that now, lead us into waiting worship where I encourage you to hold yourself in the Light. Allow the Divine to speak to your condition, to illuminate you heart, to put on your mind and hearts those who need to be held in the Light around you. If you need a little help in processing, I have some queries for you to ponder.
· What does it mean for me to pray for or hold someone/thing in the Light?
· Who in my life needs me to hold them in the Light? In what ways will I do that this week?
· How might I go about holding myself in the Light this week? When will I allow myself the time and silence to listen?