[Oe List ...] Spong and Prayer

[Joyce Sloan via OE]

Amen, Terry!!

On Sep 17, 2016 1:50 PM, "Terry Bergdall via OE" <oe at lists.wedgeblade.net>
wrote:

> The movie "Sully" opened in movie theaters around the US last week. I was
> interested to see it because of an "earthrise" witness that I wrote on
> prayer seven years ago. I was trying to illustrate the RS-1 practice of
> grounding religious language in life experience. Given this dialogue
> initiated by Susan in response to Bishop Spong, I thought I'd re-post it
> again here. See below:
>
> *PRAYER AND CAPTAIN SULLY*, 9 April 2009
>
>
>     I just returned home from a trip to New York. As is typical when
> flying from LaGuardia, we had a spectacular view of the city’s skyscrapers.
> This time my fascination was greater than usual as I found myself looking
> for the spot where, in January, a plane like mine crash-landed into the
> Hudson River. You probably heard about Captain Sully and his plane’s
> encounter with a flock of geese, how its engines stopped shortly after
> take-off, his quick review of options, and his management of a crash from
> which every one of the 150+ passengers survived.
>
>
> As I looked down on the same river, I was reminded of an interview I heard
> shortly after this occurred. Someone asked Captain Sully “Did you pray
> while this was happening?” “No,” he said, “but I imagine there were some in
> the back taking care of it for me while I did the flying.”
>
>
> I may be overly presumptuous but both the question and answer seem to be
> predicated on a popular image of prayer whereby one’s self is put in the
> fore seeking favors from a supernatural entity and, in this case, pleading
> for an escape from a life-threatening danger. I have no doubt that everyone
> on that plane was experiencing a prayerful moment, but genuine prayer is
> something far different from this counterfeit perception.
>
>
> Prayer means acknowledging and bowing my head to the sheer awesomeness of
> a prevailing mystery that is totally beyond myself. It is the mystery that
> I first recognized in the questions of my childhood -- why I am here? why
> must I die? what should I do? what is the purpose of life? I encounter
> unmitigated mystery precisely because these questions are ultimately
> unanswered. Genuine prayer allows us to grapple with the silence rather
> than fill the void. Prayer is standing before that reality (the name that
> we cannot know according to the ancient Israelites, i.e., “God”) and
> framing everyday actions, as well as responses to extreme circumstances, in
> a life-affirming comprehensive context. It is never an escape. “I don’t
> pray to change God,” C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying, “I pray to change
> myself.”
>
>
> Captain Sully’s actions make me think that he was in a very profound state
> of prayer as he landed that plane. He was intensely focused on
> acknowledging the real situation while bringing all of his experience and
> knowledge to bear, including extraordinary resources to remain calm in a
> moment of extreme crisis. Given popular perceptions, I can also appreciate
> his unwillingness to call it prayer.
>
>
> Which raises questions for me. Most of the time, topics of an overt
> religious nature, like prayer, never even come up in my daily encounters.
> When they do, it seems that about half of the people I meet are
> more-or-less content with the shallowness of popular religion while the
> other considers it to be totally irrelevant. This, of course, is a gross
> oversimplification and there is a lot of grey in between but it highlights
> a quandary. How do I authentically engage everyone, religious and secular
> alike, to celebrate and act upon both the possibilities of life and its
> overwhelming limits? It is even more complex when different religious
> traditions are thrown into the mix. No matter how much I work on resolving
> this, there is no simple answer.
>
>
> It is in wrestling with life’s questions that we make our prayers. Though
> he’d probably be surprised to hear it, I’m grateful today for Captain
> Sully calling me to mine. Amen.
>
>
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