Prayer involves ‘an attentive listening and speaking relation to the God who listens and speaks’ (Eugene Peteson, ‘The Word Made Flesh’, P 138) and is essential to life itself. It is a ‘universal venture into intimacy with God’ (ibid., P 135), but so often, we are content to stay on the periphery, not really plunging into intimacy. Religion is easier to deal with than intimacy. The very forms that encourage us to delve deeper can become empty, redolent of meaning. The rich interior maturity of prayer can easily deteriorate ‘into a kitchen midden of pious clichés.’ (ibid., P 136)
I was unfamiliar with that term ‘kitchen midden.’ (One reason I love reading Eugene Peterson’s writings so much is that he introduces new vocabulary to me, something I relish!) A kitchen midden was a prehistoric refuse heap which marked an ancient settlement, chiefly containing bones, shells, and stone implements. Basically, it was a dump for domestic waste, of interest to archeologists because it reveals facts about how people used to live, but of no real beauty or use to anyone else.
If prayer is reduced to ‘pious clichés‘, it may sound impressive to ourselves or to others, but it is of no real beauty or value. It is easy to deceive ourselves and others, easy to cling to externals and be unaware of the state of our hearts. Prov 4:23 urges us to ‘guard our hearts’, for everything we do flows from it. Prayer has to involve desire and discipline; it requires attentiveness and a quiet listening to the voice of our hearts and the voice of God’s Spirit. If we are not careful, hypocrisy grows like the weeds among the flowers, hypocrisy which is ‘the lazy replacement of a strenuous interior life with God with religious makeup and gossipy god-chatter.’ (ibid., P 140) Prayer has to involve fresh perceptions of grace, new understanding of mercy, thankfulness and gratitude so that we do not simply rely on empty words. It has to involve actively engaging with God, not simply ‘going through the motions.’ As such, it requires time, commitment and effort, but the benefits of persistently, faithfully and trustingly coming before God, submitting ourselves to His sovereignty, confident in His benevolence and actions, are enormous. Prayer that ‘is not personal and ordinary… not embedded in the immediate and personal relationships and language of everyday life’ (ibid., P 144) is going to be of no long-term benefit, even to an archeologist!