Blount speaks on prayer at Covenant Network luncheon

by Erin Cox-Holmes

Blount, a New Testament professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, said his parents' prayers were answered when he and his brother were awakened to the power of God.

He struggled with prayer as a child, he said, because it seemed to him that "God delivered on answering prayers with the same statistical reliability as Shaquille O'Neal with foul shots." He thought praying was just as crazy as talking to oneself.

But he had prayer models, he said: "My mom and dad crawled miles and miles on their knees, uphill all the way, to get my brothers and me to the power of God." He said he learned from them that "the only thing crazier than talking

Blount, now an expert on the Gospel of Mark, continued: "In Mark, prayer is connected with the power of belief - God has the power to transform hopeless situations into hopeful ones. Prayer is about the foreboding suspicion that the disciple who prays might be changed by praying. Prayer could change the world, or someone else - but it could just as easily blow up in your face, and turn around and transform you."

It's as powerful as alcohol, he said, commenting: "We need commercials reminding us to pray responsibly. When you pray responsibly you don't pray angry. You don't pray stupid. You don't pray trivial. You don't pray crazy. You don't pray like people - like Peter asking Jesus to turn away from crucifixion."

In real prayer, he said, the kind that Jesus practiced - the kind that can drive out the most malignant of demons - you can't pray and then tell God how to answer, but must simply unleash the prayers and trust God, even if God chooses to transform ourselves and our world in ways we could hardly bear.

The Rev. Joanna Adams, co-moderator of the Covenant Network, introduced two new resources: Turning Points: Stories of Life and Change in the Church, an hour-long video documentary about Presbyterians fighting to change the denomination's ordination standard and Far From Home, a book of stories by Alice Anderson about people rethinking their church membership because of the current ban on the ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians.

The Covenant Network, founded in 1997, is committed to removing that prohibition from the Book of Order.