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.