Sermons
July 28 and 29
Message Delivered at Christ Church
The Weekend of July 28th & 29th, 2007
TEXT: Luke 11:1-13
Delivered by Paul A. Johnson
Before the message the Gospel was read by a child: Rian Baxter at 5:30 PM on Saturday; Paul Board at 9:00 AM on Sunday; Siera Loudermilk at 10:30 AM on Sunday.
It’s good to hear a child pray the Lord’s Prayer, isn’t it… It’s one of life’s small gifts, and I thought it might be a blessing this morning; maybe rekindle some fond memories, and take us back a bit…
Because children are great pray-ers. It’s almost natural for them. Most of the time, for children, prayer is something that creates few internal difficulties. Children are, by nature, trusting, and forgiving, and capable of awe and wonder so that there’s usually little doubt that there will be enough bread for the day; and usually offenses get forgiven relatively quickly; and the notion of God’s kingdom coming is less in the realm of the far-fetched than it is in the realm of the “why not?”
That’s not necessarily true for adults, and we know that. We grow up, and things change. Most of us have something happen at some point…some of us early on, some of us later…that leaves us weathered and wondering, so that the Lord’s Prayer, and really all prayer, can become more existentially complicated than it once was. That doesn’t happen to everybody. But it happens to a fair hunk of us. And as Bill Hybels says in his book Too Busy Not to Pray, and as other spiritual leaders have said throughout the centuries, the basic challenge of prayer to those past the age of innocence is that when we pray, we are acknowledging that on our own we are not sufficient; that we are needy and incomplete creatures incapable of existing only through our own devices. It is the human condition to want to live under the illusion that we are “doing well enough on our own, thank you;” “that if anyone knows what’s best for me, it’s me.” To dare to engage in prayer flies in direct opposition to both those assumptions about who we are and how we live.
And so it is that today Rian/Paul/Siera has read for us some of what Jesus has to say about prayer. Now there are a whole lot of things to say about prayer. People have been writing about it for ages. But today, what Jesus says is a few pretty simple things…
So let’s do a little Bible this morning…
One of the things that is striking about this passage is that this is the only place in the four gospels where Jesus teaches because someone has asked him to teach. Here’s what I mean by that...you know, Jesus is teaching all over the place in the four gospels. He’s telling parables, and there’s the Sermon on the Mount, there are sayings here and sayings there. So he’s teaching all the time, and there are plenty of places in the gospels where it says things like “And Jesus taught them...” or “They had never heard such teaching...”
But here--when it comes to prayer--this is the only topic on which someone asks him to teach. He’s praying, and when he’s done praying, one of his disciples comes up to him and asks him “Lord, teach us to pray…”
That the question gets asked means something. It is, I think, the way scripture recognizes that it’s a question we ask. That we need some help with prayer, and we know it. That mostly, we know something about it, but wonder whether there isn’t more. The disciple who asked for the teaching was a faithful Jew, so he must have known something about prayer. But the request gets made because we experience that maybe, when it comes to prayer, we aren’t where we could be, and that really...it’s okay to plead ignorance, and ask how to do it...
And that the request is responded to—because Jesus does respond to it—means something, too. If we can ask Jesus how to pray, and if he answers—which he does—that must mean that prayer is something we can learn; that we can learn how to pray. That if this notion of prayer is out there, and we’re here...if we can’t necessarily get all the way out there, we can at least move closer.
Because he does answer the disciple’s question, and there are two things about his answer that really matter...
The first is how simple his answer is.
Which I think is really good news, because while I know there are real giants of prayer, I’m not one of them. I’m pretty simple when it comes to prayer. When I say my prayers, I do so pretty simply and for a simple reason: Because it seems to be the most practical thing I do every day. I find that when I take time to ask God to help me be gentle, and gracious, and kind, and loving, and tolerant, and patient I am more likely during that day to be gentle, and gracious, and kind, and loving, and tolerant, and patient. I’ve experienced that when I ask God to reveal his will for my life and to receive from the Lord the graces I need to act upon it, I am more likely to discern that day what God’s will is for my life and be able to act upon it. I know that when I have a problem that I can’t seem to solve, or something on my heart that’s weighing me down, that when I confess it to God and hand it over I am more likely to be reminded that in the end, all will be well and that it may not my problem to solve at all. For me, it’s that simple and straightforward. And I think that’s just fine with Jesus.
Because if you pay attention to the answer Jesus gives to the statement “teach us to pray,” it’s so simple a child can memorize it. He doesn’t answer by saying “Here are the twelve rules for effective prayer,” or “first, remove yourself from daily life and get ye to the farthest mountaintop.” He doesn’t talk about internal disposition, or how we feel, or our spiritual state, or our level of cosmic consciousness. He says, “When you pray, say this (in the words most familiar to us): ’Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…’”
You see, prayer isn’t nearly as hard as we sometimes make it. If you notice, what he says to the disciple is “say it,” and saying it is pretty simple.
Some of us may have heard of Dorothy Day. Great social activist. She died in 1980. She founded the Catholic Worker Movement. The first part of her life was pretty traumatic, and she ended up being a single mother when there were even fewer supports for single mothers than there are now. And she became a devout Christian. And along the way in her devotional writings she writes about changing her daughter’s diaper; that at that time in her life, caring for her child was her life; it’s what she had to do, no one else could change the diaper; she did not have the luxury of hours of quiet for hours of prayer; that mostly her prayers had to be offered while doing things like making dinner and changing diapers...and that she knew that for the Lord, that would suffice. Because according to Jesus, when it comes to prayer, simple really works...
So the first way Jesus responds to this disciple’s request is that simple is okay. The second way he responds is just about as simple as simplicity: Keep at it. At the most obscene hour of the night we knock on a friend’s door. And simply because we make such a ruckus the friend will answer. Persistence does have its payoff. So keep knocking...
I said a couple minutes ago that if Jesus bothers to answer the disciple’s question, it must mean that prayer is something we can learn. Well, think about the notion of persistence, and of how all of us have learned things over the years. When I was a child and had to take math, the reason the teacher gave me homework was so that I could practice what had been taught in class. If all I ever did was read about long division without practicing it, I’d never really learn it. Missy hasn’t learned how to play the piano by reading a book called “How to Play the Piano.” She’s learned how to play it by being seated at the piano and playing it. If we want to learn to dance, we have to dance. If we want to learn to write, we have to write. If we want to learn to cook, we have to cook. And not just once, but over and over and over. We can learn a little bit about which spices go with which by reading about it. But to really get it, we have to throw them together to see what happens, time and time again. If we want to learn how to be a friend, we have to be a friend. Learning doesn’t really happen when all we do is think about it. It happens when we do it, and more than once.
It’s the same with prayer. We learn it by doing it, and keeping at it. I think Jesus is articulating here a truth about how life works. If we want to be more generous, then we get there by acting generously. If we want to be more kind, then we get there by acting kindly. If we want what the life of prayer offers, then the way to get there is by being persistent in prayer...whether it’s sixty minutes a day in deep meditation, or whether it’s the fractured utterances we can make while changing a diaper or doing the dishes. Be intentional, and it may not be that the Lord will give us what we want...it doesn’t always happen that way, and that’s a whole other sermon...but it will be that slowly, the presence of God in all parts of our lives will be known more fully. The Holy Spirit will grow in us, and make a difference in our lives. That’s the promised gift.
I’m no prayer giant. I’m no mystic. And I know people who are, and could give some really good, in-depth teaching on prayer that would be worth learning. Mostly today, I’m just one more person who wants to give a witness that what Jesus says here seems to be true...when I pray, life is better than when I don’t. When I take a few minutes here and there during the day—and lots of days, a few minutes is all it is--I experience God’s presence more fully the rest of the day when I’m not saying my prayers.
And that if I could offer to my friends one gift today, it would be this: choose to be persistent in prayer, and see what happens. For those of us who aren’t sure, give it a fourteen day trial run and see if we don’t experience God showing up; see if we don’t feel more connected to God and others; more content; more happy; more challenging; whether life isn’t a bit richer, and more colorful. See what happens.
I want to finish with two things. The first is that if any of us would like a few more words about prayer, I’ve put together a one page sheet called “Saying Our Prayers in Fifteen Minutes.” If we are looking for a way to order our persistence, it might be something we find helpful, and it’s out in the milling area.
The second is this, and I wrote about this in The Grateful Heart a couple months ago. Back in March, or April, or May the Vestry made a courageous and generous decision about this space. (Here, the preacher asked members of the Vestry to stand and be acknowledged for their work.)
They did their homework and due diligence; they checked it out with our insurance carrier, and made sure a couple of improvements were made in this space...and then they made the decision that the door to this worship space would be unlocked twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. That when it comes to prayer, this space would never be closed. Anybody, at any time, can come in here and pray.
Of course, you don’t have to be in a sanctuary to be in God’s presence. But sometimes, where we pray does seem to matter. And sometimes, it seems to be important to pray in a place that’s set aside, and where others have prayed before us.
And we made this decision because more and more, we’re a community that needs places where we can conveniently stop and be still. And we made this decision because we hope that someday, when a wife and husband have had an argument, that instead of dealing with it by going to a bar, at least one of them comes here and says their prayers. That someday, when somebody has lost their job, they can stop here, be quiet, and hear from a good God that it will all be okay. That someday, at midnight, when some great burden is lifted and someone who hasn’t worshiped God in twenty years just has to be in a place that is set apart, they can come here and give thanks to a God they know little about but to whom they must, in a holy place, give thanks.
Because anywhere, at any time, saying our prayers is a pretty good thing. Worse things could happen than to be known as the church that’s always open for prayer. It was a soul-saving decision, because it’s going to do exactly that for at least one person, and good things always happen when we pray. Imagine this: Imagine standing in line at Ukrop’s, and hearing the person in front of us say to a friend, “Those people at Christ Church, they’re open all the time. They never stop praying there.”
And we’ll be able to lean over and say, “Well, it’s just because Jesus told us to be that way.” And that’ll be enough.
Saying Our Prayers in Fifteen Minutes
Below are a few thoughts on saying our prayers in only a few minutes. This is not “gospel truth.” There are as many different ways to pray as there are people who pray. But for those who seek a little guidance, this may be of some help.
- Get centered in the time with a liturgical prayer (2 minutes). Say the prayer more than once. Possibilities are:
- The Lord’s Prayer;
- The Prayer of St. Francis (page 833 in the BCP), or any of the prayers beginning on page 814 in the Book of Common Prayer;
- “St Patrick’s Breastplate:”
- “Christ be with me; Christ within me; Christ behind me; Christ before me; Christ beside me; Christ to win me; Christ to comfort and restore me; Christ beneath me; Christ above me; Christ in quiet; Christ in danger; Christ in hearts of all that love me; Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.”
- “The Jesus Prayer,” said repetitively:
- “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, sinner that I am.”
- Or the short version: “Jesus.”
Spend time with a scripture passage (10 minutes). Read it more than once. Let it roll around in your soul. Imagine being in the story. Imagine that God is talking directly to you. Almost any passage will work, but here are some suggestions to get started: Jeremiah 29:11-14; Psalm 139:1-17; Psalm 22; Psalm 23; Psalms 95, 96, 98, 100, 138...; Luke 7:11-17; Luke 7:36-50; Matthew 11:28-30; John 15:7-17; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 24:13-35; Luke 11:1-13. But again, just about any scripture passage will work.
Then, who or what do you need to pray for? Place them in the Lord’s presence. (3 minutes)
A Blessing: The Lord bless us and keep us; the Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious to us; the Lord lift up his countenance upon us, and give us peace. Amen. (From Numbers 6:24-26)
