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Karen Hollis | March 1, 2026 Lent 2 – Searching Prayer
Different approaches to prayer:
Everyone has a unique approach to relationship with God and prayer. Our approaches go beyond denomination or even religion. Spiritual Directors, people who accompany individuals on their spiritual paths, will tell you that prayer is universal. You can tailor your particular prayer to Christianity, for instance, by maybe inviting Jesus in or engaging the Holy Spirit. There are many practices that were born out of a Christian context, and many have corollaries in other religions. Writing with a Christian context, Patricia Brown identifies 4 particular approaches to prayer and offers prayer practices to support them. I’m not suggesting (nor is Brown suggesting) that she is the ultimate authority on this subject, rather we are both offering this content as a useful starting place. During this season of Lent, I’m inviting us to try this on, consider these different approaches to prayer in the hopes that we each may resonate with something and have more tools for grounding ourselves as we walk through these challenging days.
(next slide)Here are 4 different personal approaches to:
Searching: brings a logical mind to prayer. Their insights come through observation, study, and debate or conversation.
Experiential Prayer: They appreciate a step-by-step approach, being in the present moment, and appreciate practices that have worked for others.
Relational: They look for personal meaning, prayer practices that help them attend to internal work, and aim for authenticity in both inner and outer life.
Innovative: They rejoice in new insights, imagination, creativity, and novelty. They make connections to deeper meaning, adapt and adopt traditions and rituals for prayer.
Today we consider the Searching style: Someone who is predisposed to searching prayer can lean upon their knowledge and intellectual skills to help them live a spiritual life. Accountability and fairness are important to them, as are structure and order. They appreciate clear teachings and wisdom that can be applied to concrete life circumstances. With this approach, spiritual insights come through observation, study, conversation and debate. As one with a seeking approach learns and experiences new prayer practices, they evaluate them in a logical way to determine if the practices mesh with their beliefs and bring them closer to God.
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Before we hear the story of Nicodemus’ pilgrimage to visit Jesus, let’s try a searching prayer practice. This one is called Lectio Divina, or divine reading. This is one we’ve done before in worship, though not for a while. I will read the text a few times and with each reading there is an invitation for you. Because of time, we’ll do 2 readings of the text, instead of 4. First, listen for a word or phrase, savour your word/phrase with your senses. If we had more time, we would listen for an invitation and then quiet down the mind and rest in God’s presence.
“Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?”
- Listen for a word or phrase
- Savour your word or phrase with your senses
With a couple of intentional breaths, let’s release the focus on our senses and give Jane our attention as she reads the full scripture reading. Perhaps listen for an invitation from your word or phrase as she reads.
John 3:1-17 Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be reflections of your word to us today, in Christ’s name we pray. Amen
This is a wonderful text to explore the searching approach, because it includes 2 searching prayer practices: pilgrimage and conversation. Nicodemus steps across the threshold of his house under the cover of night and embarks on a pilgrimage. He is going on a spiritual journey, by stepping out of what is familiar and safe into the unknown. For theologian Christine Valters Paintner, “a pilgrimage is an intentional journey into an experience of unknowing and discomfort for the sake of stripping away preconceived expectations. The Latin root of the word pilgrimage, peregrini, means “strange” or “stranger.” The journey to become a pilgrim means becoming a stranger in the service of transformation.” While the darkness may keep Nicodemus safe from the judgement of prying eyes, it is also a symbol of his guardedness and his resistance to Jesus’ teaching. Still, he makes the journey with courage, seeking something that he can’t quite name in him . . . he can’t quite grasp it, but it’s real, nonetheless.
Nicodemus is a theologian, who like his peers, enjoys dialogue and scholarly debate about who God is and God’s relationship with us. I love the scene in the movie Yentl in the Rabbinical school where the teacher comes around asking conversation partners: are we agreeing or disagreeing? To be Jewish and certainly to be a Jewish leader is to debate and argue. In fact, the Talmud, which includes parts of the Oral Torah (5 books of Moses), commentaries, teachings, and opinions, records disagreements of countless Rabbis going back thousands of years . . . it includes not the right answer or idea, but all sides of the arguments. It’s like the famous Jewish saying: truth is rarely one sided. So, to try and get at the fullness of the truth, they argue and debate. This practice is set apart as holy; it is an act of prayer, an act of faith, even when one is arguing with God.
So, Nicodemus comes to Jesus, a bit resistant, but he comes to engage in a way that is faithful. He comes for a conversation, as a pilgrim and a stranger to Jesus’ teachings, though he’s drawn in to try and learn more. Dialogue is wonderful tool for exploring ideas, because it gives them a place to go. Instead of knocking around in our minds, we express our ideas, and that alone changes our relationship with them. Once they leave our lips, they can be received, considered, interpreted both by us and by others. Our ideas sometimes sound different to us when spoken aloud.
Conversation is a place of revelation and understanding, possibility, and openness.[1] A conversation remains with us, works in us, and our reflections become content for future engagement.
What happens when one is in dialogue with the Word of God, itself? For Jesus’ very incarnation is God speaking. According to commentator Karoline Lewis, “Words are important when it comes to the Word becoming flesh.”[2] For Nicodemus, engaging with the Word means a willingness to be uncomfortable, to allow words and meanings to clash, to hear to the words reverberate in him.
The text concludes the scene with Jesus’ words, so we can only assume that Nicodemus emerges back into the night to make his way home, having encountered God in a way that is wholly other and completely foreign to his usual experience. His heart stirs, his mind is everywhere and nowhere. He can’t return to the person he once was, but he isn’t sure who he is now. Upon crossing back over threshold of his home, he looks around at his familiar space with new eyes, knowing his relationship to home and everything in his life is different now . . . but he still doesn’t know what it will become. The process of integration will take a while.
A couple of chapters later in John’s gospel, the Sanhedrin (council of Jewish leaders) is talking about Jesus’ teachings and what they should do about it. Nicodemus is there and reminds the council that their law does not judge people like Jesus without first giving them a hearing. Here, in the light of day, Nicodemus shows up differently; he challenges his colleagues to simply listen to the Word (of God) from a different source than they’re used to, the Word made flesh in Jesus, and learn.
At the end of John’s gospel, Nicodemus comes with aloes and myrrh to help prepare Jesus’ body for burial. This gesture is a sign that he has traveled a long way since his pilgrimage in the darkness. He is making a home in Jesus’ words, he is coming to dwell in them and live. Thanks be to God.
[1] Karoline Lewis. Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries: John. p. 46-47.
[2] Karoline Lewis. Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries: John. p. 46-47.