Sermon for Pentecost X Year C 2016 Teach Us to Pray A little boy was sitting next to a grizzled holy man seated beside a river. Will you teach me to pray? the boy asked. Are you sure that you want to learn? the holy man said. Yes, of course! said the boy. With that the holy man grabbed the boy s neck and plunged his head into the water. He held him there while the boy kicked and screamed and tried to get away. Finally, after what seemed a never-ending period the holy man let the boy out of the water. What was that all about?! cried the boy. That was your first lesson in prayer. When you long for God the way you longed to breathe, then you will be able to pray. I suppose you could say that this is the boot camp method of learning to pray. What a contrast this lesson in prayer is with the lesson offered by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke! This story reminds me, though, of a conversation about parenting I had several years ago with my aunt (whose name happens to be Martha). She was telling me about a discussion she had with a friend about the things they wished they had done differently when their children were young. My aunt confided that there was one thing she really wished she had done differently she wished, she said, that she had spent more time teaching and encouraging her children to pray. 1
I was moved by her confession. It made me think about what I had or, more accurately, had not taught my own daughter about prayer. This conversation with my aunt, challenged me to look more closely at my thinking about prayer and its place in my life. So... who taught you to pray? Do you remember learning how to pray? In the movie Anne Of Green Gables, Anne decides to try and pray. Anne is an orphan, adopted by a brother and sister, who are thinking about sending her back to the orphanage so they can get a boy who can help out with the farming. Anne, is so devastated, that she ll do anything to stay even pray, which is something she doesn't know anything about: "Have you said your prayers?" Miss Cuthbert asks Anne. "I never say any prayers," Anne responds. "What do you mean? Haven't you been taught to say your prayers?" Anne replies, "Mrs. Hammond told me that God made my hair red on purpose, and I've never cared for him since." "Well," says Anne's new guardian, "while you're under my roof you will say your prayers." "Why, of course," Anne says, "if you want me to. How does one do it?" "Well, you kneel beside the bed." Anne interrupts, "That's the part I never really could understand. Why must people kneel down to pray? 2
If I really wanted to pray, I'd go out into a great big field, all alone. I'd look up into the sky. I'd imagine it was the dome of a great cathedral. Oh, and then, I'd just close my eyes and just feel the prayer. What am I to say?" "Well," answers Marilla, "I think you're old enough to think of your own prayer. You thank God for his blessings, and then humbly ask him for the things you want." "I'll do my best. Dear gracious heavenly Father, I thank you for everything. As for the things I especially want, they're so numerous it would take a great deal of time to mention them all. So, I'll just mention the two most important: please let me stay at Green Gables; please make me beautiful when I grow up. I remain yours respectfully, Anne Shirley with an e. Did I do all right?" Ms. Cuthbert replies, "Yes, if you were addressing a business letter to the catalog store. Get into bed." Anne says, "I should have said 'amen' instead of 'yours respectfully.' Think it'll make any difference?" "I expect God will overlook it this time. Good night." "Good night, Miss Cuthbert." So now that we have had two examples of lessons on prayer, lets look at Jesus lesson on praying. One of the first things we need to notice is that it begins with Jesus who is praying. Jesus lesson on prayer begins with his own example. 3
You see the first lesson in prayer is that you show up! In fact, the gospel of Luke gives more emphasis to and examples of Jesus practice of prayer than any of the other three gospels. Luke reports that Jesus often withdrew periodically in desolate places and while traveling and certainly before significant turning points in his ministry. Luke also reports on Jesus prayers at Gethsemane and from the cross. It is watching Jesus own practice of prayer that prompts his disciple to ask Lord, teach us to pray Also notice that when the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, he doesn t respond with a lesson on centering techniques or a list of how-tos. Unlike the lesson prayer given by the holy man by the river, Jesus teaches us that prayer is about relationships our relationship with God who is Abba, our compassionate, caring and faithful divine parent and prayer is about our relationship with one another. The Lord s prayer offers us a model of prayer that teaches us about who God is and also who we are. The language of the prayer is not I and me but us and we. Notice that the words I or mine are not found in this prayer. An unknown poet once wrote: You cannot pray the Lord's Prayer and even once say "I." You cannot pray the Lord's Prayer and even once say "My." Nor can you pray the Lord's Prayer and not pray for one another. And when you ask for daily bread, you must include your brother. For others are included... in each and every plea, From the beginning to the end of it, it doesn't once say "Me." 4
The pronouns are plural in this prayer: It is the our Father, our daily bread, our trespasses, deliver us. Sometimes the church has been divided between spiritual Christians and political-activist Christians, but the Lord s prayer and the two parables that Jesus includes in his lesson teach us that prayer and righteous action are interdependent and inseparable. Prayer and action is not an either/or proposition; it is a both/and circumstance of discipleship. Righteous action that is actions of peace and social justice are fueled and guided by prayer which connects us to the source of all life. Notice how this interconnected partnership is woven into Jesus parable of the shameless neighbor: one friend goes to another friend s house in the middle of the night to ask for bread on behalf of a third friend who arrives late as an unexpected guest. Jesus invites us to compare our limited human motivations and responses to our neighbors needs with the steadfast, wise and compassionate response of God to all humanity over time and space. And Jesus teaches us to ask for the three most basic needs of disciples: food, forgiveness and faithfulness. Though we are never to trust and rely on our own persistence in prayer, we are called to ask for a response and expect that God will respond in a way above and beyond our human experiences with one another. 5
But, perhaps, here is where most of our difficulties with prayer lie. One of the greatest obstacles and stumbling blocks that have burdened my life of prayer and maybe yours too? is the experience of unanswered prayer. It does seem to be part of our experience that we get discouraged and give up on faith and prayer because we feel a sense of failure in our prayer life. For some of us it may not be a question of How do I pray? but Why pray at all? Fortunately, when I have found myself falling into this attitude about prayer, I have also found myself surrounded by a praying community who re-connects or better re members me in their prayers. If we look at Jesus own life and death, it is clear that prayer is not a magical set of words said in a crisis or a one-way ticket out of suffering or trouble. To understand prayer in this way is essentially to misunderstand prayer and the pattern of the prayer that Jesus taught to his disciples. The disciples said to Jesus, Lord, teach us to pray not because they had heard a great sermon on prayer or because he had led a seminar or retreat on prayer. No, they came to Jesus after watching him pray and witnessing the power of the Holy Spirit in, with and through him. Why is it so important that Jesus taught us to ask God for what we need? It s important because asking means we know we depend upon God. In fact, we are totally dependent upon God. 6
Asking acknowledges our need, and God s goodness. The Lord s Prayer is an asking prayer. In all our prayers of asking, seeking, and knocking on what may seem like some pretty hard doors, Jesus calls us as a community to stake our lives on trusting that God answers our prayers and responds to human need and suffering and uses us as his agents of grace, or his rusty tools as Luther liked to say to be a part of the answer to our prayers and the prayers of others. To stake your life on the claim that God responds to human need and suffering means letting God have access to your own hands and feet your heart, your intellect, and even your voice when and wherever they are needed and for whomever they are needed. This is why I always ask God to help us to live the words Jesus has taught us to pray. When the disciples ask for a lesson on prayer, Jesus responds with a lesson on the nature of God and a prayer invites us to share with God and with one another. Perhaps it disturbs us or turns us off that Jesus presents those who pray as beggars or children in need though as Lutherans, most of us know that Luther died with the words truly we are beggars before God on his lips But Jesus also wants to assure us and encourage us to boldly ask and then trust in God who opens doors and windows, and allows us to find. and who promises and gives the sustaining gifts of the Spirit. 7
The danger comes when we misunderstand these assurances as a kind of blank check on which we can write anything our hearts desire. While Jesus assures us that God answers prayer, he does not guarantee us that we will receive whatever we request; he does promise that in the most unexpected way and at an unanticipated time God s grace in Christ has already found us before we had even begun searching. So keep on asking, searching, knocking and be shameless in asking for the gift of the Holy Spirit but even more take comfort from the knowledge that even when we do not know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit helps us in our weakness with sighs too deep for words. When it comes to prayer and praying, we may feel we are clueless like Anne and as wet behind the ears as the boy at the riverside, nevertheless, we have a life-changing prayer if we allow it to change our lives, to be activated in our being and doing. But we need to see it with fresh eyes and ears. We need to listen to it like we re hearing it for the very first time. We need to be willing to use it, again and again, knowing that these are the words that Jesus taught us to pray. We, as a community, are the work of God's hands, and we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. Let us become then, in our life as a community, daily bread for the rest of the world, for one another and for all of God's precious, beloved children. 8