[Dialogue] 9/16/16, Spong: Charting a New Reformation, Part XXXV – Thesis #10, Prayer (concluded)

Ellie Stock via Dialogue dialogue at lists.wedgeblade.net
Fri Sep 16 10:12:34 PDT 2016


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                                        <div style="color:                                          #000000;font-family:                                          Georgia;font-size:                                          16px;line-height:                                          150%;text-align: left;">
                                          <h1 style="color:                                            #003d4a;display:                                            block;font-family:                                            Georgia;font-size:                                            34px;font-weight:                                            normal;line-height:                                            100%;margin-top:                                            0;margin-right:                                            0;margin-bottom:                                            10px;margin-left:                                            0;text-align: left;">Charting
                                            a New Reformation</h1>
                                          <h2 class="aolmail_null" style="color:                                            #4487cf;display:                                            block;font-family:                                            Georgia;font-size:                                            30px;font-weight:                                            normal;line-height:                                            100%;margin-top:                                            0;margin-right:                                            0;margin-bottom:                                            10px;margin-left:                                            0;text-align: left;">Part
                                            XXXV – Thesis #10, Prayer
                                            (concluded)</h2>
                                          <p>Before prayer can be made
                                            real our understanding of
                                            God, coupled with our
                                            understanding of how the
                                            world works, must be newly
                                            defined. Before prayer can
                                            have meaning, it must be
                                            built on an honest sharing
                                            of life. Cornelia, the woman
                                            about whom I wrote last
                                            week, did that for me.
                                            Before prayer can be
                                            discussed in the age in
                                            which we live, it must be
                                            drained of its presumed
                                            manipulative magic. It must
                                            find expression in the
                                            reality of who we are, not
                                            in the details of what we
                                            do. These were the insights
                                            that my third story gave to
                                            me as I walked through what
                                            was probably the darkest
                                            period of my life, the years
                                            1981-1989. The learning
                                            curve was steep; the depth
                                            of despair was real. I
                                            invite you now to enter that
                                            time period with me and to
                                            walk through that experience
                                            as I did. This narrative is
                                            true, personal and painful.
                                            I have spoken verbally of it
                                            before. I have not written
                                            about it. Doing so even now
                                            makes me feel quite
                                            vulnerable.</p>
                                          <p>Around Christmas of 1981,
                                            my first wife, Joan Lydia
                                            Ketner Spong, was diagnosed
                                            with advanced breast cancer.
                                            She had never been fond of
                                            doctors and so had postponed
                                            seeing one until she felt
                                            her symptoms had become
                                            critical. She had discovered
                                            a lump in her breast much
                                            earlier and had decided to
                                            tell no one for a very long
                                            time. It grew very slowly
                                            causing her to assume,
                                            perhaps to hope, that it
                                            must be benign. It remained
                                            her secret. That December as
                                            the holidays came into
                                            focus, however, the tumor
                                            erupted externally and
                                            became a draining sore. When
                                            that occurred, I became
                                            alarmed and got her as
                                            quickly as I could to a
                                            doctor. After an examination
                                            and later a biopsy, we heard
                                            the verdict. She had a stage
                                            four malignancy. Immediate
                                            surgery was required and
                                            massive chemotherapy would
                                            have to follow the surgery.
                                            No guarantees were offered
                                            even then. In fact we were
                                            told that about two years of
                                            life might be all that we
                                            could reasonably expect. We
                                            sank into the shock of that
                                            diagnosis.</p>
                                          <p>At that time I was an
                                            active and fairly
                                            high-profile public figure
                                            as the bishop of Newark. We
                                            had been engaged in great
                                            controversies over the full
                                            acceptance in both church
                                            and society of gay, lesbian,
                                            transgender and bi-sexual
                                            persons. I was clearly
                                            identified in this fight and
                                            my name was widely
                                            recognized from press and
                                            television coverage. People
                                            in public life learn quickly
                                            that they really do not,
                                            perhaps cannot, have a
                                            private life. Within
                                            minutes, it seemed, the news
                                            of both my wife’s diagnosis
                                            and her prognosis spread
                                            until it seemed to me as if
                                            the whole world knew. From
                                            that day on, I never visited
                                            a congregation in my diocese
                                            for confirmation that
                                            prayers were not offered
                                            publicly for my wife and for
                                            me. Prayer groups all over
                                            New Jersey informed us that
                                            they were praying for us –
                                            some were Episcopal, some
                                            were Roman Catholic and some
                                            were ecumenical. The one
                                            thing they all appeared to
                                            have in common was that they
                                            knew of the two-year maximum
                                            boundary that presumably my
                                            wife and I were facing. I
                                            did not resent this invasion
                                            of our privacy. I was rather
                                            appreciative of their
                                            efforts, as was Joan. Their
                                            actions felt supportive and
                                            loving. In their own way,
                                            the people were telling us
                                            that they really cared for
                                            us and, in whatever way they
                                            could, they wanted to help.
                                            They were willing in this
                                            way to stand with us, to
                                            share in our pain and in our
                                            struggle. One never rejects
                                            love that is so freely
                                            offered, even when the form
                                            in which it comes might not
                                            be one’s particular style.
                                            So Joan and I were carried
                                            by this wave of love from
                                            those who reached out to us
                                            in what was clearly our time
                                            of need.</p>
                                          <p>The months passed and then
                                            the years began to mount.
                                            When we passed the two-year
                                            prediction date, and things
                                            were still going positively,
                                            I noticed that these prayer
                                            groups began to take credit
                                            for my wife’s longevity. In
                                            their letters to me, it
                                            almost sounded as if they
                                            believed that they had
                                            engaged the powers of evil
                                            in some profound contest
                                            that pitted them on God’s
                                            side, holding back God’s
                                            enemies. Their prayers, they
                                            suggested, were pushing back
                                            the advance of this demonic
                                            sickness. They were winning
                                            the battle and they felt
                                            good about their success.
                                            Once again, my response was
                                            not to debate the
                                            theological implications of
                                            their understanding of
                                            prayer, but simply to
                                            appreciate the level of
                                            caring that they were
                                            offering. It was, at least
                                            in its intention,
                                            sustaining. I could not
                                            help, however, in the
                                            darkness of each night to
                                            wonder about the
                                            implications of their
                                            understanding of prayer</p>
                                          <p>“Suppose,” I thought to
                                            myself during a particularly
                                            sleepless time, “that a
                                            member of the City of
                                            Newark’s sanitation
                                            department had a wife with
                                            cancer.” At that time,
                                            Newark, New Jersey, was
                                            either at or very near the
                                            top of the list of America’s
                                            poorest per capita cities. I
                                            tried to envision just who
                                            it was who might occupy the
                                            bottom tier of Newark’s
                                            socio-economic status
                                            system. My mind settled,
                                            whether rightly or wrongly,
                                            on the garbage collector
                                            working for Newark’s
                                            sanitation department. So I
                                            focused on him.</p>
                                          <p>In this long dark
                                            meditation, I wondered how
                                            many prayer groups would
                                            have added her name to their
                                            lists. How much public
                                            notice would her illness
                                            have achieved? If this
                                            couple went to church,
                                            perhaps that community might
                                            have been aware of their
                                            struggle, but would services
                                            have been interrupted with
                                            passionate petitions for
                                            healing? Would the gates of
                                            heaven have been stormed by
                                            massive number of prayers?
                                            Would God, I then wondered,
                                            let this man’s wife die more
                                            quickly than my wife? My
                                            high public profile and
                                            social prominence alone
                                            caused more prayers to be
                                            uttered for my wife than for
                                            his. Would those prayers be
                                            a factor, I wondered, in
                                            either healing or longevity?
                                            Does God operate on the
                                            basis of human status? If I
                                            believed that prayer worked
                                            in this way, I would
                                            immediately become an
                                            atheist! I could not
                                            possibly believe in such a
                                            deity. This capricious God
                                            would be demonic, it seemed
                                            to me. The cumulative power
                                            of many people praying
                                            existed in the case of my
                                            wife only because I was a
                                            fairly well known public
                                            figure. Is status a factor
                                            in what is thought of as the
                                            healing power of God? When
                                            John Paul II lingered on his
                                            death bed for so long, the
                                            whole world joined in prayer
                                            for him. Was that a factor
                                            in his long lingering death?
                                            When hurricanes barrel down
                                            on a population center like
                                            New Orleans, the cries of
                                            millions are lifted
                                            heavenward in prayer. Will
                                            the cumulative power of many
                                            prayers affect the course of
                                            a life, change the direction
                                            of a hurricane or alter the
                                            path of a disease? Is that
                                            what prayer does? If so,
                                            then prayer is a tool to be
                                            used by the mighty, the
                                            powerful and the well-known.
                                            If that is true then God
                                            clearly cares more for the
                                            rich and famous than God
                                            does for the poor, the
                                            forgotten and the unknown.
                                            Such a conclusion becomes
                                            theologically violent,
                                            absurd and even hate-filled.
                                            Whatever prayer means, it
                                            cannot be that. My wife
                                            lived for six and a half
                                            years from her diagnosis in
                                            December of 1981 to her
                                            death in August of 1988. In
                                            retrospect, I treasure that
                                            extension of time, but I did
                                            not fully understand then
                                            the gift that I was given.
                                            Life is like that. As St.
                                            Paul says, we see only
                                            “through a glass darkly.”</p>
                                          <p>So I put these stories with
                                            their varied and distinctive
                                            insights together. Then I
                                            seek to draw conclusions
                                            about what prayer means in
                                            the 21st century. Prayer is
                                            not and cannot be a petition
                                            from the weak to the
                                            all-powerful one to do for
                                            us what we cannot do for
                                            ourselves. Prayer does not
                                            bend God’s will to a new
                                            conclusion. Prayer does not
                                            bring a cure where there is
                                            no possibility of a cure.
                                            Prayer does not create
                                            miracles to which we can
                                            testify publicly.</p>
                                          <p>These are little more than
                                            the delusions of yesterday
                                            that we are now called on to
                                            abandon. They arose out of
                                            the childhood of our
                                            humanity. Today a new
                                            question emerges, which we
                                            must face with honesty. Is
                                            prayer only the human act of
                                            last resort? Does praying
                                            reflect anything more than
                                            the fact that all else has
                                            failed? Why do we say so
                                            frequently to people, “You
                                            will be in my prayers,” when
                                            we never stop to pray? Is it
                                            not our impotence in the
                                            face of life’s pain that
                                            draws us to pretend that we
                                            actually possess the power
                                            to make a difference,
                                            creating nothing more than a
                                            comfortable fantasy land in
                                            which we can hide?</p>
                                          <p>Is my experience, which
                                            tells me that loving, caring
                                            and sharing matter, actually
                                            real? Can prayer be defined
                                            as something other than this
                                            pious activity? Does it have
                                            any claim on reality? Is
                                            prayer a holy activity or is
                                            it a preparation for a time
                                            of engaging in a holy
                                            activity? Increasingly, I am
                                            moving to the latter
                                            conclusion. It is life that
                                            is holy. It is love that is
                                            life-giving. Having the
                                            courage to be all that I can
                                            be is the place where God
                                            and life come together for
                                            me. If that is so, is not
                                            living, loving and being the
                                            essence of prayer and the
                                            meaning of worship? When
                                            Paul enjoined us to “pray
                                            without ceasing” did he mean
                                            to engage the activity of
                                            praying unceasingly? Or did
                                            he mean that we are to see
                                            all of life as a prayer
                                            calling the world to enter
                                            that place where life, love
                                            and being reveal the meaning
                                            of God? Is Christianity not
                                            coming to the place where my
                                            “I” meets another’s “Thou”
                                            and in that moment God is
                                            present?</p>
                                          <p>I pray daily. In my own
                                            way, I bring before the eyes
                                            of my mind those I love and
                                            thus into my awareness of
                                            the holy in which my life
                                            seems to be lived. Do I
                                            expect miracles to occur,
                                            lives to be changed or
                                            wholeness suddenly to
                                            replace brokenness? No, but
                                            I do expect to be made more
                                            whole, to be set free to
                                            share my life more deeply
                                            with others, to be enabled
                                            to love beyond my boundaries
                                            and to watch the barriers
                                            that divide me from those I
                                            once avoided lowered. Prayer
                                            to me is the practice of the
                                            presence of God, the act of
                                            embracing transcendence and
                                            the conscious practice of
                                            sharing with another the
                                            gifts of living, loving and
                                            being. Can that
                                            understanding of prayer, so
                                            free of miracle and magic,
                                            make any real difference in
                                            our world? I believe it can,
                                            it does and it will.</p>
                                          <p>John Shelby Spong</p>
                                          <p>

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                                            & Answer</h2>
                                          <p><span style="font-size:18px">Clifford
                                              Hill of Wheaton, Illinois,
                                              writes:</span>

                                             </p>
                                          <h4 style="color:                                            #4487cf;display:                                            block;font-family:                                            Georgia;font-size:                                            22px;font-weight:                                            normal;line-height:                                            100%;margin-top:                                            0;margin-right:                                            0;margin-bottom:                                            10px;margin-left:                                            0;text-align: left;">Question:</h4>
                                          <p>I am a member of a United
                                            Methodist Church in Wheaton,
                                            Illinois. Over the years, I
                                            have taught many adult
                                            classes and would, in that
                                            process, include many of
                                            Bart Ehrman’s offerings in
                                            the Great Courses series.
                                            Currently, my class has six
                                            sessions of his course:
                                            After the New Testament: The
                                            Writings of the Apostolic
                                            Fathers, remaining and I had
                                            planned to present these
                                            this coming fall. I received
                                            a call from our Director of
                                            Care Minister, who is the
                                            scheduler for adult classes.
                                            She asked me to cancel this
                                            class because some persons,
                                            (unknown to me), but who are
                                            not members of the class,
                                            had complained about it.
                                            Earlier our senior pastor
                                            had mentioned to me that I
                                            should be “sensitive” to
                                            others’ feelings about this
                                            class and presumably, about
                                            Bart Ehrman,</p>
                                          <p>My question: What is your
                                            professional opinion about
                                            the credibility and
                                            qualifications of Professor
                                            Bart Ehrman and what is your
                                            opinion about his
                                            scholarship as evidenced in
                                            his books and in his Great
                                            Courses classes?</p>
                                          <p> </p>
                                          <h4 style="color:                                            #4487cf;display:                                            block;font-family:                                            Georgia;font-size:                                            22px;font-weight:                                            normal;line-height:                                            100%;margin-top:                                            0;margin-right:                                            0;margin-bottom:                                            10px;margin-left:                                            0;text-align: left;">Answer:</h4>
                                          <p>Dear Cliff,</p>
                                          <p>I know Bart Ehrman and
                                            believe him to be a
                                            competent scholar of the
                                            first order. His expertise
                                            is in the period of early
                                            Christian history more than
                                            it is in scripture studies
                                            per se. I have listened to
                                            all of his classes in the
                                            Great Courses series and
                                            have appreciated his
                                            insights, controversial as
                                            some of them well may be.
                                            Dr. Ehrman challenges the
                                            popular, but not
                                            substantiated, assumption
                                            that there ever was such a
                                            thing as “Orthodox
                                            Christianity. He
                                            demonstrates, rather
                                            powerfully, that there were
                                            originally “many
                                            Christianities” long before
                                            what came to be called
                                            traditional orthodoxy
                                            emerged with power as “The
                                            One True Faith.”</p>
                                          <p>I suspect that what you are
                                            now hearing is not an
                                            objection to Bart Ehrman’s
                                            scholarship, but rather the
                                            fact that in one of his
                                            recent books, he stated that
                                            he was no longer a believer.
                                            He now calls himself an
                                            atheist. He has had an
                                            interesting history,
                                            starting in one of the most
                                            conservative and
                                            fundamentalist parts of the
                                            Christian Church. In my
                                            opinion, he is still
                                            processing his life
                                            experience. He has much to
                                            teach us all. No one has to
                                            agree with either his
                                            current faith position or
                                            with any of his conclusions;
                                            his scholarship is still
                                            impressive. In the book in
                                            which he said that he was no
                                            longer a believer, I have an
                                            endorsement on the back
                                            cover. In that endorsement I
                                            said I had come to a very
                                            different conclusion, but
                                            that I still had a great
                                            respect for his work. I do.</p>
                                          <p>John Shelby Spong

                                            

                                            

                                          </p>
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                                          <div style="text-align:                                            center;color:                                            #000000;font-family:                                            Georgia;font-size:                                            16px;line-height: 150%;"><a target="_blank" style="color:                                              #4487cf;font-weight:                                              normal;text-decoration:                                              underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=e95984a88b&e=0471473479"><img style="width:                                                500px;height:                                                201px;margin:                                                0px;border:                                                none;font-size:                                                14px;font-weight:                                                bold;line-height:                                                100%;outline:                                                none;text-decoration:                                                none;text-transform:                                                capitalize;display:                                                inline;" align="none" width="500" height="201" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/f332ff1f-2151-4430-9c66-8d87dff80810.jpg"></a>

                                             </div>
                                          <h1 class="aolmail_mc-toc-title" style="color:                                            #003d4a;display:                                            block;font-family:                                            Georgia;font-size:                                            34px;font-weight:                                            normal;line-height:                                            100%;margin-top:                                            0;margin-right:                                            0;margin-bottom:                                            10px;margin-left:                                            0;text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:26px"><span style="color:#000000">Bishop
                                                Spong speaks at The
                                                American Cathedral in
                                                Paris on October 16,
                                                2016</span></span></h1>
                                          

                                          <span style="font-size:20px"><a target="_blank" style="color:                                              #4487cf;font-weight:                                              normal;text-decoration:                                              underline;" href="http://johnshelbyspong.us2.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=2b3daada24&e=0471473479">Click here for
                                              more information</a></span></div>
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