Liturgy 084: When Prayer Becomes Performance

Pentecost Sunday

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Lectio Divina

The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at outward appearance. The Lord looks at the heart.
Samuel the Prophet, to a father sizing up his sons

I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.
Joel the Prophet, imagining a world aflame with God

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Prayer

When prayer becomes performance
And ministry born of ambition
Growth is cancerous

When prayer is presence
And ministry born of communion
Growth begets amnesia

Come
Holy Spirit
Burn us honest

Oh God
I remember
when you fell like fire
the flames revealed
what could not remain

I was young
and you were wild

Let it return
this day
not brighter, but deeper
not louder, but true

Let what grows
be fire without spectacle
offering the world
a love poured out
attentive, unadorned

like Christ
who noticed
the bleeding woman
in the press of the crowd.

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Blessing

May the Spirit who burns
go with you
to the place
where performance
once tried
to prove your worth

May your prayers be slow
your presence full
your ministry rooted in communion
not comparison

And when fire comes
may it find you ready
not to expand platforms
but to be transformed

Go in peace

In the Name of the One
who sees
what man cannot see

Amen