Luke 11: 1-13
July 28, 2019
MLC
Recently I was at a gathering with a number of pastors and some synod staff, including the bishop. The staff took us pastors through some reflective games or exercises to get a full sense of how we’re doing in our work and in our spiritual lives. It was kind of like a living survey. One of the games was that they would ask a question such as; in my day to day work I feel focused and inspired or I feel scattered and dull. If you were feeling focused and inspired you were to go to one end of the room and if you were feeling scattered and dull you were to go to the other end of the room. And people would pretty well fill the length of the room falling in a variety of places on the spectrum between the two options.
One question touched upon how we were feeling in our connection with God and our spiritual disciplines. I feel grounded and connected to I am wandering and feeling distant from God. I’ll be honest with you here today that I’ve been feeling more of the latter, I ended up on the end of a room while many of my colleagues bunched together in the grounded and connected portion of the room. When the bishop asked the grounded and connected people what they thought helped them to feel that way they talked about morning reflection time, gratitude practices, journaling, disciplined prayer time. When I was asked what I thought led me to my place in the room I replied that I thought I should get going on what those people are talking about. I mean my morning reflection time is pushing my teenager out the door and walking my dogs until they do their business — not exactly grounding or inspiring!
And so, I am grateful for today’s gospel reading. Because Jesus is getting practical and helpful and it’s giving me some hope, that maybe I won’t always be on the wandering and distant side of the room. Maybe this will be hopeful for you, too.
How would you describe your prayer life? Disciplined? Impassioned? Sporadic? Fair-weathered? Non-existent? I hear people say they pray in the car, that’s also a favorite space of mine, I hear people say they pray only in times of crisis, I hear people say they could never pray out loud because they don’t know the right words. And I heard, from far less, that prayer is a constant stream of communication in their lives, that talking to the Lord and listening for Divine presence is an important source of strength and power for you.
Prayer is holy and mysterious and is something we hear a lot about in the Bible. So we can trust that prayer is a connection that God very much wants all people to be participating in. I hope we can all agree that God’s word is pretty regularly telling us to pray…now what? We know we should be, but how do we pray? We should pray, how then shall we pray?
This is the question of the unnamed disciple. Our gospel says that Jesus went to a certain place to pray and this disciple must have been watching and must have seen something that was drawing him (or her) in. “Lord, teach us to pray..teach us to pray…”
Now Jesus doesn’t launch right into a parable or metaphor, he is actually very practical here. Jesus gives the disciple a script, so for those of you who say you can’t pray aloud because you don’t have the right words — well, Jesus is setting you up! Here are words you can pray to God…given to you by none other than Jesus.
Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.
God, your name is holy, make your power and presence known here. Provide what we need, forgive us and we’ll do the same to others, take us away from hard times that test us.
Then Jesus offers even more encouragement and affirmation for the need for prayer…
Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
I hope you hear in Jesus’ words that there is both promise and mystery there. If you ask, you’ll get a response. If you search, you will find. If you knock, the door will open. That is promise. However, there are no specifics as to what the response will be, there is no map for what you will find when you search, and you have no idea what is behind the door that will be opened for you. That, my friends, is holy mystery.
And yet, we need not be afraid, because we know this God, We know this Creator of the universe through Jesus Christ the Savior of the world, know this God who is born of Love, who is steeped in grace and giving, who works redemption in our suffering and new life in our death. We know this God so while there is plenty of mystery in what Jesus is saying, we can trust it is a mystery of Divine Love for us.
Which is to say that God doesn’t always respond to our prayers exactly as we would like. A very common notion in the Christian understanding of prayer is that God is like Santa. If we’re good enough, if we behave, then God will fulfill the wish list we’ve brought before the throne of mercy. But that isn’t what we heard Jesus say today, is it? No! In the prayer Jesus gives us, Jesus is showing us who God is again and again. Prayer isn’t not a trading system, good behavior for that new car you want, or better church attendance for a miraculous healing. No, prayer is a relationship between a Living God and you, a broken, faithful child of that Living God.
You can pray your whole life long because the promise of God’s love is there, and you can pray your whole life long and the holy mystery is there too. The connection of prayer is not for us to perfectly understand, no better than you can understand love or second chances. Yet, God invites us all into a prayer life that exists, that offers groundedness, that makes space to listen to God’s voice.
How then shall we pray? Jesus gave us the words, the Bible also gives us 150 psalms which are really all just prayers. God’s Word is filled with prayer! So, allow me to follow Jesus’ practical response to the unnamed disciples question and offer some practical thoughts about prayer…keeping in mind I just told you how wandering and distant I’ve been feeling, so consider your source here.
- Remember God’s Word. Pray the Psalms…perhaps take 1-2 days per psalm (some are very short, some are very long) and pray through the Psalms.
- Keep it simple! Christian author, Anne Lamont, wrote a book entitled “Help, Thanks, Wow” with the idea that all prayer could be boiled down to those three words. Do you need help? Do you need to say thank you. Is “Wow” the very best thing you can pray to God today? Help, Thanks, Wow.
- If you are a more visual person, perhaps your prayer is through writing or illustrated or coloring? When I was Pastor at Holden Village most of the community took up a craft to get them through the winter months. So every night during our 20 minute vespers service it was not uncommon for me to stand in front and see the top of everyone’s head. To a stranger it might have looked like the entire community was being very rude and unengaged, but I knew that the movement of their hands was a part of the prayer, knitted hats, the cross stitch, the drawing — we welcomed those practices in worship because it was prayer, too.
- Hold silence. Begin your meal with 60 seconds of silence instead of the rote prayer you typically do. See how powerful listening and silence can be in your prayer practices.
How then shall we pray? The “how” is far less important than the actual doing. The God of all the universe is anxious to be in communion with you, through silence, through words, through reading, through writing, through your hearts — with all it’s heaviness and joy to God’s heart, full of unending love for all creation and for you, too.
So, let us end with prayer. We will hold one minute of imperfect silence allowing traffic, coughing, birds, wind, your nervous shuffling to all be a part of the silence and we listen for God among us even now.
Let us pray…