Teach us to Pray, Part 4

All of this, and then there is this kicker at the end of the passage that we might miss if we don’t pay attention.  The last verse, verse 13, says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Have you seen the commercials for Carvana?  Carvana is a website you can visit where you search for a used car.  You can browse through 17,650 cars until you find the one you want, and then you buy it, and they deliver it to your door.  Or, if you prefer, you can pick it up – and this is the part that always floors me – you pick it up at a car vending machine.  We drove to Alabama last weekend where our younger son is in grad school, and as we drove through Nashville, I saw a carvana vending machine.  It’s a clear tower full of cars – I guess you go visit it, enter a number, and your car pops out.

Sometimes I think we consider prayer to be a carvana experience. We pray, God thinks about it, and if we are lucky, God says yes, and our wish comes true.  Like a bubblegum machine. 

Please don’t be insulted by that comparison – I know that’s not the case with everyone, and it’s not the case with anyone all the time, but I do think it is sometimes how we, in the back of our minds, think about prayer.

But this verse says that God will “give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” We sometimes say that God always answers prayers, but that sometimes the answer is no.  I think God always answers prayers, and the answer is always yes.  God always provides the Holy Spirit to us.  The answer is always relationship. The answer is always presence. The answer is always love and guidance. I know that God was with Joan as she drove across four states.  I know that God was with her daughter and with the church as we all prayed.  I could see that God was present with Theo as she lived up until the day she died, and even after that.  The answer is always God.

And that is what prayer is about.  It is an invitation to come into the presence of the God who has created you – who created the universe – and to bring God everything.  To offer all of your love, your concerns, your worry, your guilt, yourself.  And God, who loves us beyond our imagination, will always answer “Yes. I am here with you.”

Lord, teach us to pray, because we need you.

Teach us to Pray, Part 3

Whether the disciples and we open our eyes enough to see ourselves in Jesus’ prayer, Jesus isn’t going to stop until all of us have a glimpse of who God is. 

In the passage we read today, after Jesus shares a prayer with the disciples, he tells them a parable. It is the story of two neighbors.  I’m going to retell it, and it make it easy to follow (I hope), I’m going to add names.  Completely made up names.  Sam – the seeker – comes to visit his friend, Fred, in the middle of the night.  Sam has been caught unprepared for visitors, and this is a serious matter in a society that values hospitality above everything.  Sam has no bread for his visitors, so he knocks on Fred’s door.  “Fred!  Fred!  I need bread!”  Fred is asleep in his house.  In Jesus’ time, asleep in the house meant that everyone was sleep on pallets around a fire – everyone all together, probably not only with the children, but also with their animals.  For Fred to get up meant that he would disturb his whole household.  So, Fred, understandably, tells Sam to go away.  That wasn’t good enough for Sam, though.  He keeps knocking, and asking, until finally Fred gets up and gives him bread – probably just to make him go away.

Please don’t hear that as a picture Jesus is painting of God, because that isn’t what he meant.  This is a parable. A parable is a form of teaching that means to lay beside.  It’s a story that is placed next to reality so that we can understand reality better.  It can be a story that says, “God is like this…” or “The kingdom of God is like…” but that’s not what this is.  This is a parable of contrast.  We see it better in what Jesus says next when he tells the disciples that parents know how to be parents – you wouldn’t give your children a snake or a scorpion if they asked for a fish or an egg.  In other words – if you, who are not God, know how to be a parent, then how much more does God know how to be the Father?  If Fred, the friend, knows how to respond to Sam, then how much more will God respond to you?

That is who God is. God is loving, compassionate, kind, and responsive. 

Lord, teach us to pray, because you are waiting for us.

Teach us to Pray, Part 2

This is the second in a series of posts based on a sermon I preached.

Several years ago, I was a volunteer on a Walk to Emmaus.  I was explaining to three or four women that we would have an opportunity in the schedule to gather together and pray with each other.  One woman was very concerned about this – not about praying, but about being asked to pray out loud in front of people – even just the few of us.  She had gone to the hospital to visit a member of her family who was ill.  The family was gathered in the waiting room.  Someone in the group asked her to pray, so she did.  At the end of the prayer, someone told her, “Well, that wasn’t a very good prayer.”  She was judging the words that had been used, and the way they had been said.

In this scripture, we are given the gift of a particular prayer – words that have become precious to all of us, that transport us to a place of holiness.  Even so, I don’t think Jesus was answering his disciples’ question with words they should pray, I think he was teaching them TO pray.

Before I worked at The Foundation, I worked in medical research – which is a whole different story in and of itself.  But anyway, an experience I had at that job always comes to mind when I think about prayer.  It had been a difficult year.  Two people who worked in our department were at a constant state of conflict, and there were times I would be pulled into the battle.  This went on for months.  I remember sitting in my lab, thinking about it, and I remember praying, “God, I don’t know how to solve this, but I trust that you do.  Please help.” What I remember is that this was the first time I had prayed about the situation.  Months and months of conflict, and I hadn’t thought to bring it to God.  It may not be true for you, but it is true for me – there are times when I forget to pray. 

Lord, teach us to pray, because sometimes we forget.

Maybe, when the disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples,” they were asking for words, but I imagine Jesus knew that they, too, would forget to pray, and so he answered their question with more than the words to use.  In this scripture, I believe he was answering their question by teaching them about themselves and by revealing to them the nature of God.  And I think that once we understand those two things, then the words we pray aren’t important at all.  Once we understand those two things, we are at a sacred point of prayer.

Who are we? Why do we need to pray?  Jesus answers these questions in the prayer he teaches his disciples.  We are a people in need.  We are a people desperate for God, even if we don’t recognize it or remember it.  Look at the prayer again – it is a series of bold demands: give us, forgive us, lead us.  Douglas John Hall says that we are dependent – “give us,” guilty – “forgive us,” and lost and vulnerable “lead us, deliver us.”  We are a people who are in need of God, and Jesus is telling us that in our weakness – in our vulnerability – we come the closest to God.

Also, in this prayer, Jesus calls God “Father.”  Who can call God “Father?” Jesus invites all of us to.  And if that is the case, if we are invited to be so bold as to call God “Father,” what does that say about us? It tells us that we are God’s children – beloved.  What does that mean for the words we use when we pray? What do you want your children to tell you? Everything.  I think the use of the word Father means that we are invited – perhaps expected – to bring everything to God.  Don’t filter your prayers.  Don’t think there are some prayers that are too small or too selfish.  Don’t convince yourself that you are too sinful or too guilty to pray.  Don’t filter your prayers because you are ashamed or lost or because you don’t know what to pray.  Just pray.  Bring it all to your Father.  As I was preparing today, one of the commentaries I read said, “The word ‘Father’ establishes the relationship that makes the rest of the prayer possible.

Lord, teach us to pray, because we desperately need to.

Teach us to Pray, Part 1

The following few posts are a manuscript of a sermon I preached a few weeks ago.

A year or two ago, an elderly member of our congregation, named Jean, drove into Kentucky to visit with a friend who was living in Ashland.  She drove on I-64, crossed the bridge into Kentucky, and took the first exit.  So far, so good.  When she reached the point where the ramp met Route 23, she turned left instead of right toward Ashland.  That one error had her headed into southern Kentucky.  She kept driving through Kentucky, into North Carolina, into Tennessee.  By this time, her family was worried beyond worry.  A Silver Alert was issued, police in three or four states were involved.  They were able to track her through her credit card purchases, but too late to take any action to stop her.  In Tennessee, she turned around, started driving east.  She stopped for lunch in Wytheville (and this is days later from when she started).  When the family heard that, they hoped she would continue north on I77 and that they would be able to catch her at a toll booth, but instead of zigging, she zagged.

The whole time this was happening, our church was praying.  The pastor organized a prayer vigil for those who could come to church.  We prayed.

On Sunday morning, the pastor led the congregation in a prayer for Jean.  During the prayer, an email was delivered to a few members of the congregation from Jean's daughter.  "We've found her.  She's OK.  More to follow." I had never seen a prayer answered like that - with such drama and timing.  It was amazing.

Jean's daughter, Anita, had received word from the police in Waynesville, NC, that her mother had been found, sleeping in her car.  Her car was at the top of a snow-covered mountain, and she had been found there by three men who were doing who knows what in that remote mountain location.  The place was so isolated that the ambulance had to back off the mountain in reverse, and the tow truck driver determined it was too dangerous in the snow to bring the car down.

I know God was at work.

A friend of mine, named Theo, had cancer.  She fought several years, though surgery and treatment and pain to try to survive and beat the illness.  The church prayed, and visited her, and truly hoped that God would heal her.  Theo's faith seemed changed by her illness - strengthened - and she seemed closer to God through her battle.  She came to church every Sunday that she could.  She attended Sunday school, and she said that she was encouraged by her Sunday school family, and missed us when she couldn't be there.  She was part of my accountability group, and came to every meeting she could.  I know that our faith was made stronger through her example.  And we prayed.  And, eventually, she died.

So, what do I think about these two stories?  Do I think Jean's safe return to her family was an answer to a prayer?  Yes.  Do I think God was convinced to help Jean by the sheer number of people praying for her?  No.  Do I think more people prayed for Jean than prayed for Theo? No.  Do I think God was with Jean and not with Theo?  No.  I know God traveled the road with Jean, and was always with Theo.  God helped them both, strengthened them, protected them and healed them both. Do I have answers to every question about prayer?  No, I absolutely do not, and I don't believe any of us do.

In the time in which Jesus lived, it was the practice for rabbis to teach their disciples how to pray – the words to use.  In that spirit, Jesus’ disciples came to him one day and asked him to teach them to pray.  I think they had the same questions that we do about prayer.  And we find Jesus’ answer in Luke 11:1-11:

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: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.”

And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;  for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’  And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’  I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.  Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?  Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

This is the word of God, for us, God’s children.