This Lent we are in the midst of a sermon series on The Listening Life. The first week

Transcription

1 The Listening Life: A Treasury of Prayer When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Matthew 6:7 March 6, 2016 Mally Baum This Lent we are in the midst of a sermon series on The Listening Life. The first week Patrick talked about how hard, but also how incredibly important it is that we learn to really listen to one another. Last week the youth did a fabulous job of reminding us that as part of our Christian discipleship, we must learn to pay attention to, to listen to the world around us. Our hearts must be tenderized, must be broken by those things which break God s heart. For the next several weeks we are turning our attention to prayer, prayer as listening. Though we define prayer as a conversation with God, for the majority of us, most of our prayer time is spent talking to God, isn t it? We tend to make prayer lists...thanking God for this blessing and that blessing, and giving him our laundry list of prayer requests. Now all of that is important, but what if this place where we usually end our prayers is really only the beginning?... What if God encourages us to pour our hearts out to him so we can get all that stuff off our chests in order that the real work of prayer can start? So that God can begin to form us into his likeness? Let s pray...oh Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. When I was in high school I was a part of dogged little group of well in those days we were called Jesus Freaks. We met for lunch and prayer three days a week in the German teacher s classroom. Our prayers were heartfelt and lengthy and always extemporaneous. We had exhaustive lists of friends for whom we prayed, mostly for their salvation. Implied of course, was that we already knew their eternal destiny, and 1

2 that God most certainly agreed with our assessment. I saw things pretty black and white in those days...and we, very subtly of course, were a bit competitive in our praying, each one trying to outdo the other in our profound spirituality. We had a low view of anyone who had to write out their prayers in advance, and especially if anyone read a prayer written by someone else. And we had no use for worship services where the pastor didn t just open his (and I do mean his) mouth and let the Spirit flow. Real prayer was always extemporaneous, never scripted. I think we may have gotten this from our understanding of Matthew 6:7 the warning against prayer using empty words. We thought that if prayer was extemporaneous it was more Spirit-led, more heartfelt... But is that really what Jesus meant by warning against empty words? I don t think so, because just a few verses later Jesus instructed his disciples to pray this way and he shared what we now call The Lord s Prayer, a beautiful prayer that has been prayed for centuries by Christians everywhere. Note that it s in the first person plural possessive Our Father so it s meant to be repeated together. These words are in some ways very similar to the prayers that Jesus was likely taught as a child. First century Jews pretty much all began their prayers with the words our Father and they too prayed for the coming of the Kingdom. So in a very real sense, the corporate, traditional prayers of his people clearly helped to teach and to form Jesus as he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. I do want to point out that The Lord s Prayer is more than a copy of the prayers taught to Jesus by his rabbis...he most certainly made it his own. One of the most striking and distinct features of The Lord s Prayer is that Jesus did not use the conventional word for God as Father, but instead used abba. It wasn t used to address God...it s a term of endearment used by children and adults...it means something like papa or daddy. 2

3 Clearly Jesus relationship with his heavenly father was one of intimacy - and this was his hope for those who would follow him. Father, for Jesus, meant the one who loves tenderly, forgives lavishly and knows how to give good gifts to his children. It is certainly a good thing for those of us who understand God as our papa, to pour out our hearts him in spontaneous prayer. But it is also a good thing, many times an incredibly helpful thing, whether we are alone or gathered with other Christians in worship, to pray along with the saints, to pray prayers that have been carefully fashioned by others so that we, like Jesus, can be formed not only by God s Spirit, but by the very words of our prayers themselves. So in addition to the Lord s Prayer, where can we look to find this treasury of common prayers that have both spoken for and to the community of faith? One very important place to find a veritable treasury of prayer is right under our noses...in the Psalms... The Hebrew people prayed the Psalms, sometimes put to music, sometimes reciting them together. Jesus prayed the Psalms. The early Christians prayed the Psalms. The reformers prayed the Psalms. Swiss reformer John Calvin noted that the Psalms cover the whole range of human emotion, exposing our hearts to the searching eye of our Father in heaven. They call or draw us to self-examination. Present day Presbyterian pastor Ben Patterson, has this to say about importance of the Psalms in prayer: There is no better place in all of Scripture than the Psalms to learn to be with God and see with the eyes of faith the face of the One who longs to form us fully in his image. The psalms often stretch and perplex as they teach, but they open a divine window on prayer. How could it be otherwise? The Psalms are God's prayer book, and they teach us to talk to God in his own language. 3

4 So, let s not just talk about prayer and the Psalms, let s give it a try. Get comfortable, close your eyes and pray along with me as I read... Psalm 63: O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. 3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. 4 So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name. 5 My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, [a] and my mouth praises you with joyful lips 6 when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night. 7 For you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. 8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. Amen. When I was on sabbatical a couple of summers ago, I spent about ten days with a wonderfully radical group of disciples, the Benedictine sisters at Holy Wisdom monastery in Wisconsin. They introduced me to this book, called Praying the Psalms. I try to begin most mornings now by slowly reading a Psalm, and then just being 4

5 still for minutes, to let God s word to me just sort of sink in for the day. These Psalms are paraphrased, and I find the fresh way they are written to be really powerful...may I share one with you? (and let me say, it was really hard to choose one...they are all so good): From Psalm 26: O Compassionate One, You reached from on high, You took me, You drew me out of many waters. You delivered me from the fears that bound me, and from ignorance that blinded me: for they threatened to overcome me, to separate me from you. They came upon me when I looked not to You: yet You, O Merciful One, were ever present. You brought me forth into the Light; 5

6 You released my fears, You delighted in me. O Holy One, You see the intentions of my heart; As I surrender to your love, I grow in peace and gratitude. For to lose my life is to find Life. O keep me steadfast in my love for You, Life of my life! May I walk with You justly, with mercy and in pace, A mirror of your Love to the world. Amen. Here s another great source of some beautiful prayers and this may surprise you! (hold up hymnbook). Did you know that in our Presbyterian Directory for Worship, the singing of hymns and worship songs is understood as a form of prayer? Saint Augustine, the great 5 th century Bishop of North Africa, went one further. He said that those who sing are praying twice! Like the Psalms, the words of our hymns 6

7 express our hearts, but they also teach our hearts and form our character...listen to this sent to a pastor friend of mine, describing a member of his congregation s experience of singing hymns in worship... What an amazing gift we have! We can sing the most powerful words and make the most daring surrenders of life in hymns. The words come out of my mouth no matter how quietly I sing them. I have [actually] said those words of belief with my own lips, again and again. There s no academic argument going on. I simply sing Take my life and let it be..., or Your breath sustains me, Living God. Out of my own mouth come these extravagant words of faith, and there is no turning back! I ve gotten used to them. I am a person who can now think of herself as a God-lover, and to whom words of God s love come, are believed, and can be shared. This morning as we sing, and every time we worship together, whether or not the music floats your boat understand what you are doing as engaging your whole body in prayer. Don t let musical ability or lack of it inhibit you. And you might want to consider, in your own personal devotions, availing yourself of the treasury of prayer found in your hymnal. There are all kinds of other great prayer books. I d like to invite you share your favorite prayer book or prayer on the Trinity Facebook page. I ll get it started. Here s a book I love, given to me by a friend. It s called Women of Prayer. If you look closely, my dog Tucker loves it, too...this is one of the beautiful, simple prayers it s from Corrie ten Boom, a woman of great faith and courage, whose Dutch family saved hundreds of Jews during World War II, and were all sent to concentration camps: Father... 7

8 Keep us so close to Your heart that even our dreams are peaceful, and that we may see things... more and more from Your point of view. Amen. A treasury of prayer. With so many voices speaking to us, shouting at us, we desperately need to learn to listen to, and be formed by God, in prayer. We need this living water for our souls. May this be to us a word from the Lord. 8