Yesterday I went to a Mosque for the 1:00pm worship service. Muslims are called 5 times a day to prayer/worship. It begins at 5am and continues throughout the day at about 3 to 4 hour intervals. The call to worship can be heard all over the city as the singing and scripture blares from speakers placed in minneretts situated beside the hundreds of mosques all over the city.
There were over 3000 people crammed next to each other on the carpeted floors of the mosque. We stood, knelt and bowed with our foreheads to the ground. I counted that we bowed 24 times(I was following the guy next to me!!) There was a sermon on(I was told) honoring your mother and father. The service lasted about 45 minutes.
As I worshiped the living God with these devout people, Scripture ran through my head:
* "You Samaritans worship what you do not know, we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in thruth, for they are the kind of worshppers the Father seeks." John 4:22-23
* "You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32
* "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14:6
May the Kingdom come to these warm, God seeking people!
Much love,
Jamie
Jamie, yes. There have been times I've much preferred joining with Muslims in prayer instead of the so-called evangelical prayer breakfasts I'm often summoned to attend. I simply pray, as you did, the psalms of the Te Deum Laudamus. I appreciate the simplicity, the ardor, as opposed to our worship services that often feel much more of a performance of a few rendering the worshippers passive and therefore more able to criticize the sermon or music over lunch. Not what Christian worship was intended to be. Also, I've learned that Christians originally prayed with the kind of prostrations the Muslims practice (in fact, they may have adopted prostrations from Christian practice); our ancient Christian forebears would likely feel more at home in a Mosque these days than in an Evangelical auditorium.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find inspiring is that in the Christian tradition only our monastic orders pray 3-7 times a dei, the Opus Dei, or work of God. But in Islam such prayers are for active, lay people. Since my experience in Egypt I've been working to inspire a similar devotion to prayer among ordinary Christians.
Grace to you.
Chris Erdman
There are growing movements even in our culture of "praying the hours" -- while such is often encouraged among Catholics, Episcopals, etc., the Book of Common Prayer is becoming more commonly used among lay people in the evangelical tradition. Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" series is also sparking interest as a more modern and accessible guide to fixed-hour prayer.
ReplyDeleteBut it sure must take on new relevance when you see 3,000 Muslims engaging consistently in fixed-hour prayer while in our culture it tends to be a "when I have the time" practice.
Enjoying reading this!
Chris and Alex,
ReplyDeleteGreat comments.
Thanks,
jamie