By Susan W. N. Ruach, Ed.D.
When I think about language and spirituality, two issues come to mind. The first is how to talk about Mystery in our very human and limited language. How do you capture the thoughts, feelings, impressions from an encounter with God, a vision of Christ, a time of being touched by the Holy? It’s not easy or sometimes even possible. We grasp at words that may vaguely capture the sense we are after. But then there is no guarantee that the words we choose will communicate to another person.
While it is sometimes hard enough in our own personal lives to speak of the awe and mystery of God, we are the ones who are charged with, called to the responsibility of speaking publicly about and to God. We are called to pray aloud in worship. When I was beginning to deepen my own spiritual life, I began to meditate and practice contemplative prayer. After a while I found that praying pastoral prayers became much more difficult. It seemed odd to me at the time that praying more privately made me less able to pray aloud, but another pastor whose spirituality I deeply respected said that he’d had the same experience.
Language is such a blessing because it enables us to communicate at all. And we certainly need to communicate the love of God, the gift of Christ and some of what is going on in our own souls. At the same time communicating some ideas and experiences can be very difficult, not only to others but sometimes even inside ourselves. At those times we fall back on the promise in Romans 8:26 that “the Spirit intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.” (NRSV)
I do have to wonder if the Spirit hasn’t “sighed”, or “groaned” (as another translation puts it), in the other sense of those words, at some of the pastoral prayers I’ve prayed. If so it probably wasn’t the prayers where I struggled to find the words, but where I approached the time of the pastoral prayer unprepared to lift up the concerns of the community.
In this issue of “Leading from the Center,” we explore language and spirituality. The main article looks at prayer in worship and our responsibility as pastors to speak the language of prayer. The author is Dr. Pamela Hawkins, who is an Elder in the Tennessee Conference and on staff at Pulpit & Pew at The Duke Center for Excellence in Ministry. The book reviewed is Sacred Speech: A Practical Guide for Keeping Spirit in Your Speech by Donna Schaper. The reviewer is Rev. Taylor Burton-Edwards, Director of Worship Resources with the Center for Worship Resourcing of the General Board of Discipleship, and an Elder in the North Indiana Conference.
In a worship service one time, I was nearly struck dumb by a phrase as we sang number 120, “Your Love, O God”. At the beginning of the fourth verse are the words, “O judge us, Lord, and in your judgment free us. . .” A new light dawned. All of a sudden I understood the judgment of God in an entirely different way. Ah, the power of words to move us along on the journey. May your words increasingly open up new pathways to God for yourself and others, even in those time when you struggle to express the wonderful mystery of God.
Susan W. N. Ruach is the Director of Conference Spiritual Leadership Development for the General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church, Nashville, TN.
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