Pray for Rain

 "For the land that you are crossing over to occupy is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sow your seed and irrigate by foot like a vegetable garden.  But the land that you are crossing over to occupy is a land of hills and valleys, watered by rain from the sky, a land that the LORD your God looks after.  The eyes of the LORD are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year."  Deut. 11:10-12

"Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it dod not rain on the earth.  Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest."  James 5:16-17

"Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. ... 'And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?  Will he delay long in helping them?  I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them.  And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"  Luke 18:1, 7-8

So on our way to church this morning Cassia was talking about the drought that has threatened the water supply of a suburban area of over 5 million people here in the Cape.  [Cape Town's water supply comes entirely from rain-fed dams.]  We chatted for a minute about it, and then I said, "You know what we need to do?  We need to start praying every night that God would send rain."  And Cassia immediately piped up and said, "Why don't we pray right now?"  So we did, right there in the car as we were driving. [I didn't close my eyes.]

This got me thinking today.  In the modern world, we don't have too many instances where our cultural experience exactly mimics that experience of the people who wrote the Bible.  But this year, here in the Cape, we have come to precisely the same situation that the ancient Israelites would have faced often in their culture.  God points out to the people of Israel that the place He was taking them was not a place where growing their staple crops would be easy like it was in Egypt.  The land of Israel depends almost entirely on rainfall in order to grow anything!  In fact, certain aspects of the Old Testament make almost no sense at all unless you (the reader) understand this fundamental meteorological reality of the geographical land being talked about in the Bible.

Then, in our children's class today (I teach 5th and 6th graders) we came to the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand in our journey through the Gospel of Mark.  One of the girls in the class almost immediately made a parallel between the situation in that story and the present water crisis we are experiencing here in the Cape.  I complimented her on seeing the connection, and later asked the class what we should be do in light of what Jesus appears to be teaching his disciples with the whole "twelve baskets" business (12 baskets, 12 disciples ... get it?!?).  After going through all the stereotypical churchy answers that involve thinking but not doing, someone finally said, "We should pray."  I said, "Exactly."  [Of course, by saying this I'm not negating the need to conserve water.  Everyone gets that part already.]

So now I guess I need to put my money where my mouth is.  Lent starts on Wednesday.  So I'm going to start praying for rain, and inviting people on Facebook to join me.  Throughout the ages of the Church, Christians have prayed antiphonally (meaning "call-and-response"), and it works like this:  the leader of the prayer prays and ends either with "Lord, in Your mercy..." or "...we pray to the Lord"; and the people respond by saying either "...hear our prayer" or "Lord, hear our prayer," respectively.  Through Lent I'm going to pray for rain on Facebook, and I invite you to respond daily with your own "...hear our prayer."