‘We’re tired of prayer! We want action!’

I’ve heard this saying more than once during this summer of simmering racial tension. Many of us are fed up with what’s been done in the past and we want something new – something more significant – to take its place. To various degrees I think we all share the frustration, anger, and deep disappointment over the way society is failing to be the free and just place we want it to be.

However, one of the last things we need to jettison is prayer.

Sure, in the wider society, prayer is often understood as an escape from the world. It is something that goes on behind closed church doors, where the faithful run away and hide from pressing problems, seeking to get a God-fix so they can live through another day of injustice - as Karl Marx said the opium of the people.

However, I agree with our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry who recently said that prayer is not our way of fleeing the world, but our way of becoming more engaged with the world.

The exercise of prayer calls us to consider the lives and challenges of others. It asks us to visualize, often in detail, the pressing problems facing others.

It’s been said that if our inner life is rich, our outer work will never be insubstantial. However, if our outer life is big, our inner life may shrivel.

In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus takes on the issue of prayer as the basis of doing all that’s worthwhile. Prayer is our way of keeping perspective, showing compassion, and yes, deepening our souls in the troubles and triumphs that surround us. We pray to enrich our inner lives so that our work may be substantial. Prayer makes us more human and more divine.