Berita NECF Newletters

Inward Transformation, Outward Action

Inward Transformation, Outward Action

By Eugene Yapp

 

 

WITH the recent wave of prayer to usher in Malaysia's 50th Jubilee, there is a sense of anticipation of the great things to come. "The Lord will bless Malaysia!", "Send revival, O Lord!"

But any spiritual movement will not have a lasting effect if it is only confined to hype or passion. There must be a substantial grounding in the cause and belief of our faith as it negotiates the everyday realities of the home, marketplace, culture and national governance. Only then can we see lasting and consequential effects of this "Jubilee movement" in society.

 

Prayer as inward transformation for outward action

When we pray, is it simply a means to an end, to what we want, be it our blessings for ourselves or for the nation? Is it an affirmation of our own desires? Is prayer only about seeking and desiring?

Inspired by theologian Karl Barth, one may see prayer as simultaneously being worship and intercession, confession and petition, praise and yearning for the coming of the kingdom of God, all at the same time.

Cambridge theologian, Graham Ward also illuminates:

The place of prayer is where the material and spiritual inform each other, the place where the universe cannot be separated from the particular, where the eternal economics of divine givenness operate within history - as providence, as grace. Prayer is the realisation of a place in Christ. Only in Christ is it prayer. And prayer is not a safe place, in the sense that it is not a stable place. Prayer requires surrender of control. This is not necessarily a surrender of reason as it is not a surrender of consciousness. It is a surrender, perhaps more precisely a releasing of the body, to the jurisdiction of the soul... Prayer is where the laboring begins. This is the kitchen, the workplace for our (italics mine) cultural negotiation.

 

This deeper perspective of prayer requires us to know who God is, to delight in His presence and to seek His will as to how we are to navigate the prevailing culture around us. Prayer is thus about our being, our communion with God and not necessarily of receiving visions, dreams or prophecy. Prayer is delighting in the presence of God. It is relational and reflective, a moment of allowing God to break us down so that we can be inwardly transformed for outward action.

Such a posture is best reflected in the life of the great social activist, Martin Luther King, Jr. In an essay entitled Reversed Thunder: The Significance of Prayer for Political Theology, Andrew Prevot points out how prayer significantly contributed to King's life as a public leader.

As the fervor driving the Montgomery bus boycott reached fever pitch, King received a telephone call at midnight from a racist who called him a "nigger" and threatened to kill him and "blow up" his home. Deeply disturbed and unable to sleep, King retreated to his kitchen for coffee, thinking that this could possibly provide some relief. Love for family and church, devotion to the struggle, and feelings of utter helplessness gripped him in that moment of deep restlessness, painful stillness, and desperate searching. ... King had a face-to-face encounter with what he, in the tradition of his forebears, called "a Waymaker," exposing his fears, insecurities, and vulnerabilities with sincerity and humility. Great comfort came as an "inner voice" spoke to King, reminding him that he was not alone, commanding him to "stand up" for righteousness, justice, and truth, and assuring him that "lo, I will be with you, even to the end of the world."

 

What King experienced was a spiritual transformation which restored his faith and reaffirmed in him that "the sovereign work of the Almighty was being manifested in both his own life and in the bus protest." When King turned to prayer, he received the strength and courage to go on fighting non-violently for justice and risking all which ultimately led to the loss of his own life. Such action and passion for justice and righteousness can only be accomplished when there is inner transformation, where the heart and soul are completely surrendered to the divine purposes of God.

 

Prayer as Means of Grace and Solidarity

Prayer is also the place where we meet the grace of our God. Latin American liberation theologian, Gustavo Gutiérrez, reminds us that it is in and through our prayers "that human agency is transcended and limited by the grace of God, which alone creates and redeems us in an absolute sense. Prayer is an encounter with this grace; it is the key practice through which we acknowledge that our freedom is infinitely surpassed by another".

This does not mean that prayer dispenses with human agency. On the contrary, prayer quickens our spiritual fervour and grace enhances us as God's agents of transformation. We become moved to stand in solidarity with victims of oppressions and suffering. It is when our prayers are directed to those trapped in these conditions and when we begin to feel what they feel, that our prayers become communion and transformational. Prayer is where we experience grace and yet remain in solidarity sustained by a deep sense of communion fellowship with the vanquished.

German Catholic theologian Johann Baptist Metz exhorts us to pray in this fashion. Metz posits the argument that our prayers will only be legitimate if they are voiced in remembrance of the millions of Jewish men, women, and children who were murdered in the Nazi death camps. According to Metz, such prayers of solidarity in memory of the victims should take the form of an "impassioned questioning of God" in the vein of Job, the Psalmists, and the prophets of Israel. Such kind of prayer is best reflected in the African American spirituals in voicing their unjust suffering and raising it up as a question and supplication to God, thereby inspiring patience, hope and perseverance.

When such forms of prayer are absent, Christians are likely to embrace a culture of utopianism or worse, descend into forgetfulness, resignation and indifference. Prayer is that which keeps the question of social justice alive and moves us to act towards those around us. Such realignment of priorities demands that we be "in the place of the other" to demonstrate practical help and service. Praying for transformation or revival cannot be confined to the "prophetic" or "worshipful spirit" in the absence of concrete expressions to deal with the horrors in our world.

 

Towards transformational prayer

The Christian tradition of spirituality and prayer is vast and diverse as this essay demonstrates. We thus have ample resources to draw on for our spiritual journey and prayer life. What remains in this Jubilee season is for Christians to discover or re-discover the richness of such resources and appropriate them into the spiritual life and vitality of church and God's mission for the world.

We therefore strive and pursue after a prayer that is a means of grace and that transforms us to live exemplary lives amidst the devastation of sin and corruption. Let us strive for a spirituality that integrates supplication, intercession, thought and action into a single way of life for the coming of His kingdom and the glory of His great name!

 


REFERENCES

Prevot, Andrew. Reversed Thunder: The Significance of Prayer for Political Theology, at http://theotherjournal.com/2012/09/17/reversed-thunder-the-significance-of-prayer-for-political-theology/. Accessed on 24 September 2012

Ward, Graham. Cultural Transformation and Religious Practices. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005



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