Praying at a spatial distance
Nick Moore writes: With ever stronger advice against social interaction and the prospect of restrictions on personal motility forth the lines of those seen in China and other European countries, the concepts of 'social distancing' and 'self-isolation' have become everyday talk. Then in the last couple of days, as the Church building of England has suspended public worship, we suddenly find ourselves asking what praying at a distance looks like.
Information technology is worth stating at the outset that nosotros should not in fact be practising social distancing but spatial distancing (I owe this phrase to my diocesan bishop, Paul Butler, who has emphasized it numerous times, though doubtless others are proverb information technology as well). Social interaction is fundamental to human wellbeing, and indeed fundamental to the sharing and living of the gospel, and wonderfully we have and then many ways at our disposal to stay socially connected – whether at two metres' physical distance, singing from city balconies, or by telephone, emails, messages, video calls, and the like. Indeed, one prayer and hope is that the current crunch will bring communities closer together socially even as it distances them spatially for a season. From my own family's experience, we have already had more social contact with some relatives and neighbours in the past week than we would otherwise have had.
When information technology comes to prayer and worship, spatial distancing is not a new trouble. When the people of State of israel were carried off into exile past the Babylonians early in the sixth century BC, they were spatially distant from the land and the city of Jerusalem. This was not only the place God had given them as home, but was also where he had promised to make his home with them, which he did through his presence in Solomon's Temple. The distance betwixt Babylon and Jerusalem was compounded by the fact that the Babylonians destroyed the Temple, seemingly breaking off the spatial presence of God with his people.
In the Book of Daniel, which is set during the exile, we read of Daniel'due south prayers at several points. Daniel 6:x records his do of praying three times a solar day, with the windows of his house opened towards Jerusalem – far off, but not forgotten. In chapter ix, following Daniel'due south impassioned prayer for his nation, we read this:
while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen before in a vision, came to me in swift flightat the time of the evening sacrifice. (Dan 9:21)
What is striking hither is that even though the Temple has been destroyed and Daniel is miles from Jerusalem, he has synchronized ane of his daily prayer times with the evening sacrifice. This was one of ii daily Temple sacrifices, known as the tamid(see Exod 29:38-46). Information technology is precisely at this fourth dimension that he prays, and that God answers him by sending the angel Gabriel. Information technology seems likely that Daniel'due south two other daily prayer times would have taken place at the fourth dimension of the forenoon sacrifice and at noon (cf. Ps 55:17). Because in Israelite belief the daily sacrifices reflected the cosmic, never-failing worship of God by his angels in heaven, praying at those times still made sense even when there was no earthly Temple and no actual sacrifices were beingness offered.
A similar practice is constitute in the apocryphal/deuterocanonical Book of Judith, which is ready afterward the render from exile. Hither, at a similar fourth dimension of cracking need for the people of God, who are threatened by an Assyrian general, we detect the primary grapheme Judith praying to God:
At the very time when the evening incense was being offered in the house of God in Jerusalem, Judith cried out to the Lord with a loud voice, and said … (Judith 9:1)
You might be wondering what relevance this has for Christians today. Well, Jews connected this do afterwards their render from exile, both in the resettled land and across the Jewish diaspora besides. It was too connected past the earliest believers in Jesus, who were all Jews. The ending of Luke's Gospel describes the believers meeting in Jerusalem, and says 'they were continually in the temple blessing God' (Luke 24:53). The word 'continually' here is the Greek phrase dia pantos, and it should be understood as 'regularly' (as the notion that they were continuously or ceaselesslyin the temple is inappreciably plausible, a bespeak Dennis Hamm makes well).
There is more we can say: in the Greek Onetime Testament, dia pantostranslates the Hebrew phrase tamid, which also means 'regularly', but which became a kind of technical term for the twice-daily Temple sacrifices, every bit mentioned higher up. So nosotros should sympathize Luke 24:53 every bit saying that the very first Jesus followers, later his ascension, prayed twice dailyin the Jerusalem Temple at the times of the sacrifices. This inference is confirmed by Luke'due south second volume, the Book of Acts, where we detect Peter and John 'going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon[literally the ninth hour, i.e. the time of the evening sacrifice]'(Acts 3:1).
This is non just a practice for those in Jerusalem. Later in Acts we meet Cornelius. He is described as 'a devout human being who feared God … gave alms … and prayed constantly to God' (Acts 10:two). The give-and-take translated 'constantly' in the NRSV is, y'all guessed information technology, that same dia pantos/ twice-daily term. That is non all. In the very next poesy, nosotros read that '1 afternoon at nearly 3 o'clock [once again, the ninth hr/evening sacrifice] he had a vision in which he conspicuously saw an angel of God' (Acts 10:3). But similar Daniel, Cornelius receives an angelic visitor during his evening prayers.
Nosotros notice the dia pantos phrase in a context of prayer and worship in the Letter to the Hebrews besides. The author speaks at length well-nigh the old covenant sacrificial organization, and shows knowledge of the tamid/ twice daily sacrifice (Heb 9:6). Both the daily, ongoing sacrifices of the ordinary priests and the once-a-year Day of Atonement cede of the high priest (Heb nine:vii) are fulfilled in Jesus' saving work, given that he entered heaven once-for-alland obtained eternalredemption (Heb ix:11-12), and is always making intercession for his people (Heb vii:25).
The author of Hebrews doesn't retrieve the daily sacrifices are fulfilled only in Jesus. He also connects them with believers:
Through Jesus, then, let us continually [dia pantos] offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his proper noun. Do not fail to practice good and to share what y'all have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Heb 13:15-16)
Hither we are encouraged to make a twice-daily offer of praise. Christian sacrifices are not limited to praise, however, merely include doing good and sharing what nosotros take.
This practice of daily prayer didn't disappear, of course, only continued into the church. We find both thrice-daily and twice-daily patterns in the early church building, and over time this developed into the fully orbed Liturgy of the Hours within the monastic tradition, with ane nighttime and seven daytime offices. In the English Reformation, Thomas Cranmer revised the medieval Roman Catholic daily offices into twice-daily prayer, partly on the footing of ancient Jewish and early on Christian practice, and partly to make prayer accessible and achievable for ordinary working people and non merely the clergy and those in religious communities.
All of this shows that downwards the ages God'south people have had to deal with spatial distance in their prayer and worship. One of the primary means in which they sought to overcome spatial altitude was through temporal proximity. By synchronizing their times of prayer and worship with the Temple'southward twice-daily pattern, they put themselves literally 'in sync' with rhythms of divine and cosmic worship that preceded and transcended any crisis in the nowadays moment. This kept them close to God, and besides meant they were close to their boyfriend believers, no matter where they establish themselves in the world.
So what might this hateful for people working at home, self-isolating, spatially distant from the sports clubs, social groups, churches, and other communities that class such an essential function of our daily lives? Here are five suggestions for what it might wait like in terms of prayer (though this could be extended to other activities as well!).
First, you may not exist meeting in your church edifice, but why not proceed the same service time and accept a Bible reading, sing, and pray, either on your own or in your household. If your church has a scheduled sermon series or follows the lectionary, or is producing some kind of resources or alive stream, you could even be reading, singing, and praying the same things at the same time. Via online videoconferencing such as Skype or Zoom, you could fifty-fifty pray together in small to medium-sized groups. Don't underestimate the power of synchronization!
Secondly, Archbishops Justin and Sentamu have called for this Sunday 22 March to be fix bated equally a day of prayer and action. They recommend lighting a candle and placing it visibly in a window at 7pm as a sign of solidarity and hope in Christ. Don't underestimate the ability of synchronization!
Thirdly, if you find that the electric current circumstances mean more than fourth dimension has been freed up in your calendar, or at least that your usual schedule or framework has become much more fluid, this could be a great opportunity for you lot to take upward or recommit to daily times of prayer. The Church of England's Daily Prayer services are available online and via an app, and in that location are many other freely available resource out there to help you pray regularly. Again, your church building may accept had regular morning and/or evening services on weekdays, then why not commit to praying at the time those would have taken place? Don't underestimate the power of synchronization!
Fourthly, it is also very easy to share reflections or comments on readings and prayers, every bit well as prayer requests, through a whole range of media from PrayerMate to Facebook groups to WhatsApp, and perhaps y'all could commit to sharing with a group of fellow church building members later your act of worship on Sunday. The exhortation from Hebrews 13 also encourages united states non to end at prayer, but to do good and to share what we have – a timely and sobering reminder at time of panic buying and stockpiling. The point is that our regular prayer lives should drive the states on to these other responses. Don't underestimate the power of synchronization!
Finally, recall that in Daniel and Judith their impassioned daily prayers at times of national crisis led to God'southward gracious and saving intervention, in his good timing. And in the case of Cornelius, God chose this Gentile soldier'south regular afternoon quiet time to bear witness up and change the course of salvation history. In all of these cases, the disciplined commitment to regular prayer has its part to play in God's wider purposes. Higher up all, don't underestimate the power of prayer!
Dr Nick Moore is Director of the MA Programmes at Cranmer Hall, and teaches Biblical Studies, Anglicanism, and (whenever he gets the adventure!) Patristics. He is passionate about carrying the wealth of the biblical and Christian tradition to each and every person, and conveying the gospel across languages and cultures. Nick is married to Bekah, who shares his beloved of languages and ministry building, and they have ii primary-aged children.
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