“Commentators have been puzzled at the passage in the amidah (“the silent prayer”), “for Thou hearest in mercy the prayer of every mouth.” We would expect the phrase to be “the prayer of every heart.” But the passage, we are told, is intended to remind us that it is the mercy of God to accept even prayers that come only from the mouth as lip-service, without inner devotion. However, this remark in no way denies the principle that kavanah, or inner participation, is indispensable to prayer. It is a principle that found a precise expression in the medieval saying: “Prayer without kavanah is like a body without a soul.” Yet, what is the nature of kavanah or inner participation? Is it paying attention to the context of the fixed texts? Thinking? Prayer is not thinking. To the thinker, God is an object; to the man who prays, He is the subject.” (Abraham Joshua Heschel, “Man’s Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism”)

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward. 6But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.…” Matthew 6:5-6

When you have been a life-long Lutheran, or Methodist, or Catholic or Jew, and have worshipped often, you have lived a life of repeating and saying lots of prayers. Prayers are central to our worship – and they are supposed to be central to our personal lives as well. And yet, our prayers that we recite in worship can become rote and meaningless – unless we are paying attention and really focusing on them.

This is the idea Abraham Heschel is talking about when he talks about “Kavanah”. Based on Heschel’s comments, Kavanah must stand for a concept in Judaism about a worshiper’s state of mind or their sincerity or devotion during prayers. He calls it the “inner participation” of the individual during prayer. Reciting prayers are good – keeping our minds and hearts truly focused on the words and our devotion during those prayers is even more important.

G-d does hear every prayer – whether our hearts and minds are really in them or not. Wouldn’t it be good to do a “prayer check” once in a while – so that our prayers are not just “lip service”.

Pastor Dave

“Life is a good teacher and a good friend. Things are always in transition, if we could only realize it. Nothing ever sums itself up in the way that we like to dream about. The off-center, in-between state is an ideal situation, a situation in which we don’t get caught and we can open our hearts and minds beyond limit. It’s a very tender, nonaggressive, open-ended state of affairs. To stay with that shakiness—to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness and wanting to get revenge—that is the path of true awakening.” (Pema Chodron “When Things Fall Apart”)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

Every day, every where there is pain, suffering, and arguing – we see it in our country from the debates that haunt our televisions to the images of rioting and protesting. All over the world, everybody –everyone wants to strike out at the person or the entity they see as the enemy. When will it ever end?

As Pema Chodron says so eloquently, “Every day we could reflect on this and ask ourselves, “Am I going to add to the aggression in the world?” Every day, at the moment when things get edgy, we can just ask ourselves, “Am I going to practice peace, or am I going to war?”

Where hear the words again of the famous passage from Ecclesiastes 3:7-8 “there is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”

There a time for protesting – but always, there must be a time where we come back to peace. We do have a choice every day – will we be people of peace, or people of war? I will try every day to be an instrument of peace.

Pastor Dave