Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Extreme Intercession: Bringing God's future into the present -- Bob Ekblad

I’ve felt compelled to preach lately on a story in the gospels that I’ve always disliked and wished I could delete from the Bible. I’ve called it a toxic text in that it seems to depict Jesus as exclusive, unfair, even mean. Now I’m finding this text extremely challenging and even inspiring.

In Matthew 15:21-18 a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus desperate for help for her daughter, who is “cruelly” demonized. Jesus ignores her, rejects her and humiliates her by referring to her as a dog, and then finally relents and delivers her daughter. What is happening in this story? What does it mean for us?

The Syrophonecian woman approaches Jesus desperate for breakthrough. Not a Jew herself, she “comes out” of her region, leaving her allegiances and securities to enter into Jesus’ Jewish world. She exercises exemplary prayer protocol. She cries out, and the text uses the same language as Exodus, where Israelite slaves cry out to God (Ex 3:9). She addresses Jesus by the Greek equivalent of the proper name for Israel’s God, YHWH, Kurios. “Have mercy on me Oh Lord!” She identifies Jesus as “Son of David,” a title that identifies him as Israel’s Messiah.

"My God, my genie, why have you forsaken me?" by Cam Stuart

I was having one of those wonderful father moments chatting with my son at bed time when I asked him if there was anything that he would like to pray about. His answer startled me in its raw honesty. He asked, “Why should I pray when God never answers my prayers?” This comment brought to mind many faces of others who have expressed similar disappointment. 

When people talk to me about disappointment in their prayer lives, I might ask them to also describe the God to whom they pray. Over the last few years as I have listened to people praying and to their disappointment in prayer, I have come to wonder if they need to rethink their theology concerning the god to whom they pray. Is the God to whom they are praying in fact the God that has revealed himself in Scripture? Just because someone says they pray to god does not necessarily mean they are praying to the God of Scripture. 

 

The Sound of God's Silence by Erin Buczkowski

Society is geared to respond to sound. To pick up cues for their entry into conversation, often layering personal comments over those of a companion. Interrupting one another and oneself. Call waiting, the modern brother of a kid tugging at his mom’s sleeve while she chats with a neighbour on the phone.

CD’s can be purchased not just of music but of background noise. Traffic, nature, the general bustle of life provides a sound track for our existence.

In this busy atmosphere silence gets little respect. It is labelled awkward, icy or dead. The song “Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel highlights themes of isolation, lack of communication and lack of intimacy. Likewise when we approach God and hear silence it is often misconstrued as getting a celestial cold shoulder.

Shades: Nuancing Listening Prayer by Agora

In July, 2006, four members of Agora, a newsgroup and think-tank based in Canada engaged in a discussion around the topic of hearing God’s voice. The trigger point was an article by John Blake in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution but the focus turned quickly to “listening prayer” as described in Brad Jersak’s book, Can You Hear Me? There was a sense of simultaneous resisting and appreciating that became very productive. The four voices involved are David Miller, Brad Jersak, Sean Davidson, and Glenn Runnalls.

Is "Beholding the Lord" Guided Imagery? by Brad Jersak

When I lead prayer seminars on finding a visual “meeting place” with God, I often bump into fear that this is a version of "guided imagery" or “visualisation”--a psychological or New Age technique that can be spiritually hazardous. How does this differ from meeting Jesus in some internal picture? Have we crossed a line into enemy territory? Or have we surrendered ground that was created for us and belongs to us?

God-Chasing, Pressing In, and Other Veil Language by Brad Jersak

One of the features that first drew me into the late 20th century renewal movement was my hunger and thirst to be “touched” by the presence of God. Feeling dry and empty, I began to earnestly seek after an experience of the living presence of Christ wherever I caught wind of it. I found a home with renewal groups and leaders who expressed this same passion to pursue the “manifest presence”. Initially, we would bounce from one conference to the next, hoping to get “zapped” with ever fresh encounters of the power of God. As we kept seeking, we found that the Lord was just as likely to gently “soak” us with his intimacy and rest on us with his peace.  His “deeper work” was not always dramatic, but it was certainly precious. I embraced this journey wholeheartedly and always will.

The Spacious Place by Eden Jersak

2 Samuel 22:20 (NIV)
He brought me out into a spacious place;
He rescued me because he delighted in me.

The picture I see when imagining the spacious place is of a beautiful mountain meadow. It stretches as far as the eye can see with beautiful vistas of spacious places beyond the one I find myself in. Mountain peaks and valley depths both visible from this vantage, remain at a distance. The spacious place is neither a lofty height nor a dreary depth. It is a wide-open field, a safe place (2 Sam 22:20 MSG), a place of comfort, a place without restriction (Job 36:16 NIV).