Pentecost VIII, Proper 12C, July 25, 2004
The Rev’d Canon Charles Roper
visiting St. Martin in the Fields, Atlanta
The study of words is
fascinating and wonderfully enlightening. That certain sounds combined can
transfer thought from my brain to your brain is miraculous. And, the wonder of
words is that they are not flat as they may appear printed on paper or a
computer screen; rather, they are deep and dynamic, and they can convey
life if plumbed to their depths.
That is particularly true with the words Jesus uses. Words are fascinating.
Our fascinating
word for today, taken from the appointed Gospel, is the word, “prayer,” which
carries a variety of meanings, some of which are quite incredible. Some years ago the word prayer was used by a
well-known television evangelist who claimed that, by praying, he had changed
the course of a hurricane. That claim was made by Pat Robertson during an
unsuccessful campaign to become president of the United States. It seems that a hurricane was headed toward
the Virginia coastline where his ministry had its headquarters. So according to
him, he prayed and God diverted the storm, and his facilities were spared. He
shouted, “Praise the Lord!” Mercy, me.
The difficulty with that kind of thinking should be immediately obvious.
One thinks of all the devastation that was wreaked by that hurricane, the lives
that were lost and the property that was destroyed. And one wonders how many of
those victims were also earnestly praying to be spared such devastation.
Robinson never stopped his fundamentalist literalism long enough to realize
that if his prayer was truly effective then he caused their deaths and their
property damage in preference to his own.
Pat Robinson the chosen? and the others just incidental? I doubt it!!! His use of prayer reveals that he never understood prayer.
This morning, I
want us to take prayer seriously and to learn that in the depth of the words of
the Lord’s Prayer there is the revelation of a posturing of the soul that
allows us to walk as Jesus walked. I
have never had a serious discussion with anyone about prayer that someone did
not say, “Well, prayer is a way of life.”
I believe that and will make my case for that today. If we are to take prayer seriously, we must
dispel from our minds the notion that it is some kind of magic like Robinson
taunted. It is not a short cut, whereby we can get what we want. A Russian
Orthodox proverb says: “When most people pray, they are asking that two and two
not equal four.” That may be what is asked, but that is not what is received.
Whatever prayer may be, it is not an Aladdin's lamp which, if properly
rubbed, will grant us our wishes. It is
not some alchemic Merlin magic you can divine by playing Walt Disney. And,
it is not a trade off with God: “I’ll do this if you do that.” So, what is the
true meaning of prayer? If it is not just another way of getting the
things you want, what is prayer and how do you do it?
Prayer obviously played a
vital role in the life of our Lord Jesus and he teaches us what prayer is. He
prayed frequently, earnestly, and sometimes at great length. Looking deeply one
sees he used the relationship of prayer to reinforce the posture of his soul
committed to do his Father’s will.
Prayer for him was relationship with the Father. His disciples observed
what the words of prayer meant to Jesus and began to want the same experience
for themselves. It would be later that they discovered his life was a prayer.
But, one day one of them said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray."
Jesus answered that
request by giving them a model prayer, the words we know as the Lord’s Prayer,
words in which lay his way of life.; then, he backed that up by a brief story
about a man who needed bread at mid-night; and finally he ended his lesson by
urging his disciples to make earnest business of praying by keeping on asking,
seeking and knocking. All the while using words to help them learn how to
posture their souls to do the Father’s will.
One thing we can
observe by paying attention to how and when Jesus prayed is to learn that he
prayed out of a profound sense of need. Jesus prayed, not because he saw it as
a religious obligation or proper form of liturgy, but because he felt a need
for it. He needed to talk with his Father.
Check out the posture of his soul. His disciples asked him to teach them
how to pray because they too had a need. They felt a need to be like Jesus.
Then, Jesus illustrates need with a story.
The man in Jesus’ story went to his neighbor at midnight for only one
reason. He needed bread and had no other way to get it. He was needy and
persistent. Nothing else will sustain that kind of quest.
In varying degrees,
everyone here can relate to this
aspect of prayer. Sooner
or later, we all become aware of our need. One of our basic human traits is
that every soul on earth is needy. Some
of us admit this and others do not.
Some try to avoid it and others take advantage of it. But, let that not distract us. Underneath
all our behaviors when held to account for our lives, we all come up needy.
Just the day-to-day business of living is a formidable challenge. And somewhere
along the way, life makes demands of us all that we feel inadequate to meet in
our own strength. It may be a crushing grief or an incurable disease. It may be
the ever-increasing responsibilities that cope with the passing years. It may
be discouragement over the tragic state of the world. Whatever it is and
whenever it may come, we should recognize it and accept it. We may not even have
the words for our need but Blessed Paul assures us that, “…the Spirit leads us
in prayer by the groanings of our hearts.” A deep sense of profound need is the
starting place of the true meaning of prayer.
Need is, however, only
the starting place of prayer, not the dwelling place of prayer. To recognize
our personal inadequacies and profound needs is one thing. To stop there is
another. If we would know the true meaning of prayer, we must rove from the
recognition of our need to where Jesus leads us. And Jesus leads us to three postures of soul which are
characteristic of a life lived as prayer as he lived. They are Faith, Patience
and Community.
1. Faith. Jesus
uses words to lead us into the soul posture of affirming our faith. The model
prayer that Jesus gave his disciples begins with the word "Father".
That one word alone is a great prayer. It affirms our faith in God. True
prayer requires a soul posture of faith. It asserts that we are not alone in a
vast and empty universe. God is here, and he is near enough that we can talk
with him. It affirms our faith in the nature of God. He is strong and wise,
kind and loving, involved and caring.
He already know what we need and is more than willing to give it to us,
if our souls are postured to receive it. Picture the best father that you could
imagine. God is like that, only better. We are his children. Despite all of our
faults and failures, we are members of his family. Jesus has seen to it that we
are blood relatives with God the Father.
He is our Dad. In the South we
say that blood is thicker that barbeque sauce.
Prayer, you see, is
not so much asking God for things as it is affirming our faith in him. Jesus
taught us to call God, “Abba, Father.” A friend of mine from the Escole
Biblique in Jerusalem told me this story.
He said he never understood Jesus’ use of the word, Abba, for God, then
one day in the Jerusalem market place where there were hundreds of tables piled
high with fruits and vegetables and hand made crafts of every kind. He noticed a little boy who among the tables
had lost sight of his father and thought he was lost. The child became frantic,
tears weld up in his eyes and
suddenly and quite naturally had cried out, “Abba, Abba, Abba!” Then, says my friend, “I understood that Jesus
wanted me to receive God as my Daddy.”
That is how Jesus prayed. He put his faith at the center of life
and held it there until other things were crowded off the edge. True prayer is
always something other than begging. It is more affirmation. The psalmist said:
"Though I walk amid distress, you preserve me... Your right hand saves
me... Your kindness, 0 Lord, endures forever." That is prayer. It feeds
faith and starves fear. It clings to hope and releases despair. It affirms
those principles of faith and hope that are the bedrock of great religion. It
is the foundation of Jesus’ Way, the soul posture of Faith. It is in the words of the “Our Father...”
2. For Jesus true
prayer also requires a soul posture of patience. Personal prayer as well
as corporate prayer always needs to be seen in the context of God’s eternal
plan. Prayer looks to the future and expectantly awaits the fulfillment of
God's sweeping plan for his Creation. Some prayers can be answered or denied in
a matter of an instant, a few hours, even days or years. But many of the greatest prayers cannot be
so answered. Jesus taught his disciples to pray for the coming of God's kingdom
on earth as it is in Heaven. And to behave in the certainty of its coming. That
kind of prayer does not anticipate or demand an immediate result. It is scaled
to the long term. It is handed down from one generation to the next. But, if
you have eyes to see and ears to hear, as Jesus yearned for us to have, then
you can see and hear that whatever happens God is in there somewhere, having
his will be done that his Kingdom may be on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus
assures us He will get us home in spite of our selves. If we trust that, then
ours is to have a soul posture of patience. It is in the words of the “Our Father...”
3.) True prayer is
not just about me and mine, though personal needs are important. Jesus’ prayer
is about posturing the soul to relate to the world as a community, which I am
calling, a community of the whole. Life is concerned with me and mine but
also with something more than me and mine. A striking feature of Jesus’ prayer is its liberal use of plural
pronouns. "OUR Father… Give US each day OUR daily bread... Forgive US OUR
sins, for WE are to forgive all who do US wrong." To pray as Jesus prayed
requires that we regard all people as our brothers and sisters. Whatever their
station or rank, their race or creed, his prayer tells us we must accept them
as we ourselves are accepted of God. Jesus in Gethsemane teaches us: “Father, not my will but thine be done.” For
one thing that means Jesus was willing to cooperate with the Father’s
understanding of the good for the whole. God’s wider and eternal purpose takes
precedence over our personal desire. It
must be obvious that God the Father will have his creatures be sisters and
brothers and care for one another even if it kills him. This social dimension, a community of the
whole, is the third posture of the soul in the words of Jesus’ prayer. It is in
the “Our Father...”
In Jesus’ words
about how to pray he teaches us the postures of the soul, which include, the
affirmation of faith, the exercise of patience, and the acceptance of all
people as our brothers and sisters, a community of the whole. We see this in his
life. His life was lived in these prayer postures so that everything he did was
the will of the Father.
For Jesus the word
was prayer
Jesus undoubtedly prayed
the words of his prayer regularly to posture his soul in
relationship with Abba, Father. Everything he did was in faith, with patience,
and in due consideration of the community of the whole.
We know Jesus gave his
life to bring the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven, doing the
Father’s will.
For Jesus, that
finally came to crucifixion and resurrection.
So, how does the word,
prayed to posture the soul in relationship with Abba, Father, look in our life?
What does the Way of Jesus, look like when we do it? It can be seen in a little story with which
I will close.
BILL
His name was Bill. He had wild hair, wore a tee-shirt with
holes in it, jeans with no knees, and no shoes, barefoot. This was literally Bill’s whole wardrobe for
his entire four years of college. He
was brilliant, private and very, very bright.
He became a Christian while attending one of those campus gatherings for
Jesus.
Across the street from the campus there stood a well-appointed
and properly dressed Episcopal Church.
They had said forever that they wanted to develop a ministry to
students, but they were not sure how to do it.
One day Bill decides to go to that church. He walks in, no shoes, no knees in his
jeans, wearing his hokey tee shirt, and his hair wild. The service has already started and so Bill
starts down the aisle looking for a seat.
The church is packed and he cannot find a seat. By now, people are beginning to look
uncomfortable and no one is saying a thing, they are just looking at Bill and
one another. As Bill gets closer and closer to the pulpit where the priest is
beginning his sermon, he realizes there are no seats. So, in typical fashion, he just squats down
on the carpet right in the front of the church and everybody. This is behavior one might expect in a
college gathering, but here at “St. What’s it?” this had never happened
before. People are visibly up tight. Tension hangs like a heavy cloud over the
congregation.
At this time, the priest becomes aware of what is
happening and notices an usher from the back of the church beginning to make
his way toward Bill. In his eighties, a
silver-gray haired usher in a three-piece suit, with a gold pocket watch in his
vest beside his red carnation, this highly revered old timer, veteran of wars
and vestries in the parish, elegant and dignified, takes his cane and starts
walking toward Bill. Everyone begins to
say to themselves, “Now, we will get
this dealt with so we can proceed undisturbed.” Everybody thinks, “We
cannot blame the Admiral for what he has to do.”
Finally, the usher reaches Bill. The church is electric and silent with expectation and wondering what
will happen when the young man is confronted by this old usher. All eyes are focused on the situation; no
one even breathes. The priest cannot
continue to preach his sermon until this situation is dealt with and the old
usher does what he has to do.
Then, they see this elderly gentleman drop his cane to the
floor and with great difficulty lower himself to the floor to sit next to
Bill. He extends his hand to welcome
the boy and they just sit there together.
Bill is not alone anymore. Bill
is not rejected; Bill is accepted, even welcomed!
Everyone chokes with that mysterious crack in the heart
that rises when goodness prevails. They all know that the old man is right, and
they smile having seen the resurrected Jesus suddenly appear and do for the rejected
what humankind alone does not do. The
impossible happens. Jesus just appears and says, “Come unto me all you who are
burdened and I will give you rest.”
The priest finally regains his self-control and says, “The words I am about to preach, you will never
remember; but the words you have just seen, you will remember forever.”