Loving God, breath your Spirit upon us that we may receive Your Word afresh and anew. Take my lips and speak through them; take our minds and think through them; take our hearts and set them on fire. We ask it in the name of Jesus. Amen.
One question that has been bothering many people in church is "why is there is so much emphasis on money" in so many churches?
Well there are two possible answers to that question.
The first is that so munch emphasis on money in so many churches because those churches require want and need more of it:
Bills must be paid.
Projects funded.
Outreach done.
Salaries met.
Buildings maintained
And so forth.
So lots of churches talk about money - so they can get more of it. And all too often they talk about it in terms that seem similar to that of the British Highwaymen of old - your money or your life. All too many churches seem to indicate by their preaching - there is even a certain church in Hong Kong where they have a dedicated part of the service in having someone giving a talk giving during each and every Sunday Service, that if you give them more money, you will live a blessed and long life, that God will love you more; but if you do not well you will not be blessed - that God will not love you.
Quite frankly that kind of talk turns me off - perhaps even more quickly than it turns you off.
It turns me off because it equates entry into the kingdom of heaven with giving money to this or that ministry or to this or that church - it turns me off because it equates the amount of love that you receive from God with the amount of money you give to God's work - and that, quite frankly, is a perversion of the Gospel - that Gospel that says in no uncertain terms that God loves us unconditionally, that God's saving love towards us has nothing at all to do with how much we give or not give or how much we do or not do, that God's offer of a healing touch has nothing to do with our virtue or our sin.
But bills do have to be paid. The work of God does need the gifts that God has given us for that work. Quite frankly the work of God needs our wallets. And it always has. And that truth needs to be plainly spoken. The truth concerning tithing - the truth about giving God our first fruits - our best fruits.
Listen to these words from the third chapter of the Book of the prophet Malachi (3:7-12). Words written some three hundred years before Christ, time when the Land of Israel was suffering from drought and disaster, from poverty and parsimony:
Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty.
"But you ask, 'How are we to return?'
"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me."
But you ask, 'How do we rob you?'
"In your tithes and offerings. You are under a curse - the whole nation of you - because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,".
The problem with money in this church, or any church, could simply be solved if we all did what the Bible says we should do which is to offer to God the full tithe, the first fruits, the unblemished portions, the cream of the crop - and did so routinely and without muttering or murmuring - about it. God does bless those who give him his due.
That's the truth about money and the church, plainly spoken.
And once spoken I don't believe one should make a big fuss about it. It is enough surely to remind people of what it is God has done for them and will do for them - and to ask that they pray to God about what their commitment is for both their regular tithes - and should there be a need - their special offerings.
In the church we should practice what we preach - we should ask for "our daily bread" and then let go of the asking for the rest of the day, and trust that God will answer our prayer - that God will meet our needs.
Giving is, after all, between God and the giver. And so is receiving. Between God and the receiver.
It should be enough to tell the faithful what the need is and to let it go at that. It should be enough to occasionally remind people of what the biblical teaching on giving is and then go on to examine the other teachings of the bible without begging, threats or pleading.
Unfortunately some churches spend a lot of time berating those who are faithful givers to give more and turning off those who are new believers in the Lord by focussing their efforts on getting more out of them - rather than encouraging them to a closer walk with Christ, a walk which, in the end produce the fruit of a life that is totally committed to God.
So the first answer to the question - why is there so much emphasis on money is that in many churches and in many ministries - there is a real need for more money, or a real greed for more money.
In either case - need or greed - this kind of emphasis on money reflects a poverty of Spirit that is not of the kind indicated by the beatitudes. It is not the poverty of humility and obedience, but the poverty of indifference and rebellion towards the Will of God.
The second answer is that there is a lot of emphasis or talk about money in the church because there is a lot of talk about money in the bible, especially in the Gospels, where Jesus it seems is constantly speaking to people both plainly and in parables about the dangers of wealth, or about how wealth - whether it be little - or much - needs to be used: The poor widow who gave her all to the temple treasury - the vineyard owner who paid all his workers, even those hired last, the same wage - the rich young ruler who was told to sell all he had and follow Jesus - the steward who was forgiven a great debt, but refused to forgive a fellow servant a small debt - the sheep who share their food, clothing, homes, and time - versus the goats who do not, the list goes on and on - and includes today's Gospel reading - where we heard the story which is normally titled "the parable of the rich fool", the story of one who saved and saved and saved for his future - only to die before that future could come.
You know how it goes. It was just read a few minutes ago.
The beginning, or the set up, of the parable is however quite instructive to today's topic. A Man asks Jesus to tell his brother to divide the family inheritance with him.
Jesus responds to him with the words "who set me to be a judge or abritrator over you." And then he says to the crowd, to us, these words:
"Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions."
Indeed this is the key to the talk about money in the bible....The role it plays in our lives...And the role that it cannot play in our lives, no matter how much we might want it to, or how much the world tells us it can.
"Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions."
Indeed it doesn't. But there are all kinds of greed.
Some is simple avarice - the kind of wanting more that will people to stand in line for hours to buy a Gold Mark Six Lottery ticket. Or to work 16 hours a day so that you can get ahead - where enough is never enough.
Some is fear - the fear that leads people to stow away their wealth "for a rainy day" and never use it even when it does rain.
And some is just plain old idolatry - as Paul calls greed in today's reading from The Letter to The Colossians. The idolatry that regards money and what it can do for oneself and ones family as more important than what it can do to help bring about Shalom - the time of peace.
You know what I am talking about don't you? The idolatry that we see in those who will not hesitate to spend 800 or a 1000 or a couple of thousand dollars for a meal out with the family each week, but who chock on the idea of giving a tenth of that sum each week to the work of God - The idolatry that sees people who will cheerfully buy their children designer clothings and running shoes at well over a several hundred dollars a time, but who refuse to share with the hungry and starving in the world because they think or know that the agency who conveys the gift, the government who administers it, or the people who receive it in the end, will spend the money on everything but the essentials. The idolatry that sees people who will keep the best portion for themselves and give the leftovers to those who beg at the door. The idolatry of those whose brother or sister comes to them starving, and only tell the starving brother or sister that he or she will be pray for, and push them out of the door without even the offer of any physical help. Those whose idea of making a sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel is to attend church on Sunday morning rather than sleep in late. Those whose idea of making an important offering to the Lord is to buy five new shirts and give the old discarded one to the bargain basement or the Salvation Army rather than putting them in the trash.
Why is there an emphasis on money in so many churches? Well there are at least two possible answers. One is not so good - and the other - well it is the Gospel truth.
There is, in all churches worthy of the name of Christ, the same emphasis on money as there is in his teachings.
Money and our attitude concerning who deserves it and who doesn't is a barometer of our spiritual health and insight. Money and how we use it and how we feel about it is symbolic of where we are at.
That is one of the purposes of the teaching concerning offering our first fruits to God and giving to God a tithe, be it 5% or 10% or even 20% of all that we earn. It reveals who we are and what we believe, though I must hasten to point out that there is many a good tither, many a good giver, who give out of a sense of duty - rather than out of a love and trust in God.
Still, all in all, whether or not we freely offer the cream of our crops, the best of what we have, to God is a test of our faith - of where we are at. It does not win us salvation. It does not bring to us the love of God. But it does show us where our hearts are... what we really believe or what we really desire.
Hear once again our Lord. Ponder the message that he is speaking to you this day when he says:
Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life doesn't consist in the abundance of possessions.
And consider where you would be in relationship to the Lord - and to all the world - should this very night your soul be required of you.
And do from that mediation - what it is God is calling you to do, and do it in faith and trust and in joy, knowing that whatever it is it is of God - and God is good.
Blessed be the name of God, day by day. Amen
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Colossians 2:6-15; Psalm 85; Luke 11:1-13
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
Recently we saw in the story of Mary and Martha that being faithful to God involves more than doing things out of love - that an authentic doing of the word arises out of hearing the word.
Jesus reminded Martha when she became anxious and upset as she prepared a special meal for him that simply listening to him and talking with him is a good thing - an important thing, a necessary thing - and that perhaps a simple meal with a good conversation might be better than a fancy meal with anger and upset.
It is in prayer - in conversation with God - that we best hear the word of God and receive that which we need to do the word - that which we need to live as children of God.
Today's Gospel reading continues on from the story of Mary and Martha by showing Jesus a few days later - at prayer. When he is finished praying, one of his disciples says to him: "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples to pray."
What a strange thing it seems at first - Why, after all, would the disciples need to learn how to pray?
Surely each one - as good Jews do - had learned to pray at the Sabbath table? Surely each one - as a child of Israel - would have recited the prayers of Passover and called upon God during Yon Kipper and the Feast of Tabernacles?
And again at home - each day - each meal - surely there was a table blessing, a prayer to God of thanksgiving that the disciples - like most of us, learned to say.
So why? Why this request to Jesus: "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples to pray."?
I think the answer lies in the simple fact that Jesus - like John - but only more so - had the appearance and the substance of God's power about him. Who, after all, would you ask to teach you how to pray if it is not a person who is obviously very close to God? A person who clearly is in touch with the power of God?
Prayers learned by heart, prayers taught to us by our tradition, and prayers used in formal worship events are a good thing - but the prayers that arise from the heart that is connected to God - and which help one to connect with God - are another.
This is central to everything that follows - Jesus is the one, the best one - indeed - given his death and resurrection, the only one, who can teach us to pray as we ought to pray.
Jesus answers the request of the disciple, and shows his disciples with a model of prayer, and with a parable and with an exhortation, what their prayers should be like, and with what spirit prayer should be made, and finally, the faithfulness that God has to us when we pray.
The disciples clearly learned from him. They went on from that learning to have Spirit filled lives, lives in which they shone with God's presence despite persecution and all manners of tribulation - and despite too the mistakes they made from time to time in what they did and in how they did it.
The question is - do we know the way of prayer? Do we pray as we ought? Or is there something holding us back?
Indeed, how many of us pray each day with a sense of freedom and intimacy? How many go beyond muttering a few words here and there, now and then - and actually sit, or kneel, or prostrate ourselves before God and call upon his name with deep and persistent yearning until he answers?
It is so easy to talk to God in the way so many people talk to their wives or husbands. You know how I mean don't you? You rush home from a busy day - say hello - ask what is for dinner - confirm your plans for the evening activities - and then rush out again, only to repeat the process at bedtime - albeit with a slightly different destination in mind and a slightly different set of words.
Just as it is easy to miss being in the kind of conversation with our wives or husbands that brings energy, joy, and life to the relationship, so it is easy to miss really connecting with God, to miss receiving the help we need to face the pain and the struggle that each day brings, and the joy that expressing appreciation for our blessings grants us.
The way of prayer is not always practised upon the knees, but it is practised best with the conviction that we have nowhere else to go but to God - and that God is sure to answer.
Many of us have hang ups about prayer. Totally aside from the time that is required to prayer, we have feelings and thoughts that keep us from praying as Jesus taught us - feelings that keep us from asking God about the things that Jesus told us to ask about - and thoughts that and keep us too from asking in the way that he showed us.
There are five common hang ups in the life of prayer that help keep us from making the connection that Jesus wants us to have with God. Bear in mind that in all of these hang ups I will speak more about our talking to God - than about God talking to us. But if we overcome our hang-ups about talking to God we will discover the listening side coming naturally - much as it comes to a child who sits on our laps and chatters to us for a long while, and then asks - and what about you Daddy? What do you think Mommy?
The first way people hang up on God is by thinking that they are not good enough to call on God. And so they don't. I call it the NOT GOOD ENOUGH HANG UP.
This, my brothers and sisters-in-Christ is answered by the cross of Jesus - he died for us while we were yet sinners so that we might be put right with God - his sacrifice for us makes us good enough in God's eyes.
Jesus has given to each one of us a calling card by which we can call upon God - all communications with our Lord are placed on his unlimited account.
In short, as a popular bumper sticker and poster says "God doesn't make junk".
God has made us be his children. To be like him. That is why he put his image in us - male and female - and that is why Jesus teaches us in his model of prayer to call God "Father" or "Daddy".
God, like a good parent, wants all his children to come to him and to learn from him and be blessed by him. And perhaps most especially, he wants those children who have strayed from his side to return to it. He wants the prodigal to return and to be made whole. He wants to shower us with forgiveness and help us to live as he created us to live. God wants us all to come to him.
The second hang up some people have about prayer is the BUT GOD IS BUSY WITH MORE IMPORTANT THINGS HANG UP.
Like the first hang up - this one too is based on a kind of respect for God - a misguided respect.
The problem here is that the view these people have of God is not big enough. Can not the creator of heaven and earth do more than a few things at a time? Isn't the one who has counted the hairs on our heads - and noted that some of them are disappearing - able and willing to deal with all things?
In today's reading, with a certain sense of humour - Jesus teaches his disciples that even if God is busy doing something else - even if he, like a friend of ours, is in bed after midnight with all his children safely tucked in, he will get up and answer the door if we continue to bang on it - if only to get us to stop bothering him.
My friends - even the Government gets around to answering the phone when we stay on the line long enough... I kind of think God is up to government standards - don't you?
There is no matter too small to bring to God. And there is no time better than the present to talk to God. This is what we teach our children about coming to us and speaking to us - and this what Jesus teaches us about our heavenly father.
The third hang up that helps disconnect people from a entering into full life of prayer, and of learning from and receiving from God, is the GIMME HANG UP.
Clearly some people's whole prayer life consists of asking God for things for themselves. I am not speaking about them or to them. Rather I am speaking about - and to - those people who are often diligent in the practice of prayer. They intercede for others. They pray often and with deep conviction. But they almost never pray for themselves.
This may arise because they feel, as in hang up number one - that they are not good enough to deserve God's attention - or it may arise because they feel that it is selfish and uncaring to think of ones' own needs when so many people have far greater needs.
What then should we say to Jesus when he instructs his disciples to pray saying things like - "Give us this day our daily bread" "Forgive our sins" "Lead us not into the time of trial - but deliver us from evil?"
The Prayer of Jabez says "Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!"
It is a prayer for one's self. And the scripture says "God granted him what he requested."
What is good to ask of God for others - is good to ask for ourselves.
Remember the garden of Gethesame? Remember all the trips that Jesus made to the quiet spots away from his disciples? The master prayed for himself - and he has taught us to pray for ourselves. To pray for our daily needs - to pray for forgiveness and a forgiving spirit - to pray even for an easier life - a life in which we are not tested as severely as we might be, a life in fact in which we are delivered from evil - just as Jabez was delivered from evil.
We can and should pray for others - as many of us do. But we can and should pray for ourselves and our needs and our desires as well. It pleases God to answer us - much as it pleases us to answer our children and to give them not only what they need - but, at times, to give them what they want.
The fourth hang up in prayer is the "ONCE SHOULD BE ENOUGH" hang up.
People with this hang up often have made the assumption that once a person asks God for something that it displays lack of faith to continue to bother God about it.
Harry Emerson Fosdick, the great preacher, writes: "Easiness of desire is a great enemy of the success of a good man's prayer...For consider what a huge indecency it is that a man should speak to God for a thing that he values not. Our prayers upbraid our spirits when we beg tamely for those things for which we ought to die. This then is the rationale of importunity in prayer, not that it is needed to coax God, but that it is needed alike to express and by expressing, to deepen our eager readiness for the good we seek. Some things God cannot give to a man until the man has prepared and proven his spirit by persistent prayer. Such a prayer cleans the house, sets the table, opens the door, until God says, "Lo, the house is ready. Now may thy guest come in."
We pray for the Kingdom of God to come. For justice and mercy in every nation. For daily bread for ourselves and the hungry around the world. For healing for the sick. For peace. For the oppressed. For our children to be whole and happy. For our work to be pleasing to God and to us. As the Lord's prayer and the parable that follows it shows us - these prayers are not meant to a be once and for all request that we make to God - but a dynamic part of our daily relationship with him.
"Make it happen Lord! We are here again. We are not letting go till you give us an answer!"
Which of you if you had a child who asked for something from you that you wanted to give them, but were not yet ready to give them - would be impressed if the child asked only once? I think very few. So, with God, our repeated requests are not scorned as a sign of our lack of faith, but rather welcomed as an expression of what we really want.
Keep on coming before God for the things that keep on coming before us - persist in prayer and God will persist with us and give to us that which we want - or explain to us why something else might be better.
Which leads to the fifth hang up in many people's practice of prayer is the "I MIGHT ASK FOR THE WRONG THING HANG UP."
Often we do not know what to pray for. We are confused and frightened or we do not have the knowledge we think we need.
Do not fear this. God is not like a genie in a bottle - who upon being released grants his saviour three wishes - not matter what they are - and then leaves the person to deal with the consequences...."I wish it would stop raining - I wish my neighbour would get lost - or whatever..".
Think of what Jesus says in verses 11 through 13 of today's gospel:
"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?"
Turn it around for a minute - "Is there anyone among you, if your child asks for a snake will give it to him? Or if the child asks for a scorpion will deliver it?
The Apostle Paul understood that we often do not know what to pray for and says as much in the eighth chapter of his letter to the Romans, adding, "but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."
Not sure what to pray for in a particular situation? Just pray, "O Lord, bring healing, bring hope, bring what is right, help me, help the one I am praying for." Groan to God in the midst of your anguish - or in the midst of the anguish of others - and keep doing it till the answer comes. God will not pour oil on the fires that afflict you or your loved ones - nor will he send curses when you seek blessings.
The magic of prayer - if we can call it that - is not in the particular words we use in our prayer - nor even the particular things we pray about - but the relationship into which we enter when we pray to God in all things and about all things.
When we present everything that concerns us and everything that delights us to God - we are sharing with God who we are and what we are - and that builds between God and ourselves the intimacy that allows the new life that God wants to give us and our world to come about. In fact, it is part of that new life - just as spending time together in a marriage speaking and listening - expressing our fears and our hopes - our desires and our wants - helps make the marriage a true marriage. Our partners help us where help is needed - rejoicing when we rejoice - and weeping when we weep - and share with us all that they are as well.
And as in human relationships sorrows shared are sorrows divided - and joys shared are joys multiplied, so in the divine-human relationship - but more so - for our God is greater than we are - and is fully able to help those who call upon him - and ready and willing to lift us up when we are cast down - and bless us when we hold forth our hands in trust and in thanksgiving.
Speak often with God - about those things upon your hearts - and God will speak with you and answer you.
Blessed be the name of God, now and forever. Amen
Recently we saw in the story of Mary and Martha that being faithful to God involves more than doing things out of love - that an authentic doing of the word arises out of hearing the word.
Jesus reminded Martha when she became anxious and upset as she prepared a special meal for him that simply listening to him and talking with him is a good thing - an important thing, a necessary thing - and that perhaps a simple meal with a good conversation might be better than a fancy meal with anger and upset.
It is in prayer - in conversation with God - that we best hear the word of God and receive that which we need to do the word - that which we need to live as children of God.
Today's Gospel reading continues on from the story of Mary and Martha by showing Jesus a few days later - at prayer. When he is finished praying, one of his disciples says to him: "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples to pray."
What a strange thing it seems at first - Why, after all, would the disciples need to learn how to pray?
Surely each one - as good Jews do - had learned to pray at the Sabbath table? Surely each one - as a child of Israel - would have recited the prayers of Passover and called upon God during Yon Kipper and the Feast of Tabernacles?
And again at home - each day - each meal - surely there was a table blessing, a prayer to God of thanksgiving that the disciples - like most of us, learned to say.
So why? Why this request to Jesus: "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples to pray."?
I think the answer lies in the simple fact that Jesus - like John - but only more so - had the appearance and the substance of God's power about him. Who, after all, would you ask to teach you how to pray if it is not a person who is obviously very close to God? A person who clearly is in touch with the power of God?
Prayers learned by heart, prayers taught to us by our tradition, and prayers used in formal worship events are a good thing - but the prayers that arise from the heart that is connected to God - and which help one to connect with God - are another.
This is central to everything that follows - Jesus is the one, the best one - indeed - given his death and resurrection, the only one, who can teach us to pray as we ought to pray.
Jesus answers the request of the disciple, and shows his disciples with a model of prayer, and with a parable and with an exhortation, what their prayers should be like, and with what spirit prayer should be made, and finally, the faithfulness that God has to us when we pray.
The disciples clearly learned from him. They went on from that learning to have Spirit filled lives, lives in which they shone with God's presence despite persecution and all manners of tribulation - and despite too the mistakes they made from time to time in what they did and in how they did it.
The question is - do we know the way of prayer? Do we pray as we ought? Or is there something holding us back?
Indeed, how many of us pray each day with a sense of freedom and intimacy? How many go beyond muttering a few words here and there, now and then - and actually sit, or kneel, or prostrate ourselves before God and call upon his name with deep and persistent yearning until he answers?
It is so easy to talk to God in the way so many people talk to their wives or husbands. You know how I mean don't you? You rush home from a busy day - say hello - ask what is for dinner - confirm your plans for the evening activities - and then rush out again, only to repeat the process at bedtime - albeit with a slightly different destination in mind and a slightly different set of words.
Just as it is easy to miss being in the kind of conversation with our wives or husbands that brings energy, joy, and life to the relationship, so it is easy to miss really connecting with God, to miss receiving the help we need to face the pain and the struggle that each day brings, and the joy that expressing appreciation for our blessings grants us.
The way of prayer is not always practised upon the knees, but it is practised best with the conviction that we have nowhere else to go but to God - and that God is sure to answer.
Many of us have hang ups about prayer. Totally aside from the time that is required to prayer, we have feelings and thoughts that keep us from praying as Jesus taught us - feelings that keep us from asking God about the things that Jesus told us to ask about - and thoughts that and keep us too from asking in the way that he showed us.
There are five common hang ups in the life of prayer that help keep us from making the connection that Jesus wants us to have with God. Bear in mind that in all of these hang ups I will speak more about our talking to God - than about God talking to us. But if we overcome our hang-ups about talking to God we will discover the listening side coming naturally - much as it comes to a child who sits on our laps and chatters to us for a long while, and then asks - and what about you Daddy? What do you think Mommy?
The first way people hang up on God is by thinking that they are not good enough to call on God. And so they don't. I call it the NOT GOOD ENOUGH HANG UP.
This, my brothers and sisters-in-Christ is answered by the cross of Jesus - he died for us while we were yet sinners so that we might be put right with God - his sacrifice for us makes us good enough in God's eyes.
Jesus has given to each one of us a calling card by which we can call upon God - all communications with our Lord are placed on his unlimited account.
In short, as a popular bumper sticker and poster says "God doesn't make junk".
God has made us be his children. To be like him. That is why he put his image in us - male and female - and that is why Jesus teaches us in his model of prayer to call God "Father" or "Daddy".
God, like a good parent, wants all his children to come to him and to learn from him and be blessed by him. And perhaps most especially, he wants those children who have strayed from his side to return to it. He wants the prodigal to return and to be made whole. He wants to shower us with forgiveness and help us to live as he created us to live. God wants us all to come to him.
The second hang up some people have about prayer is the BUT GOD IS BUSY WITH MORE IMPORTANT THINGS HANG UP.
Like the first hang up - this one too is based on a kind of respect for God - a misguided respect.
The problem here is that the view these people have of God is not big enough. Can not the creator of heaven and earth do more than a few things at a time? Isn't the one who has counted the hairs on our heads - and noted that some of them are disappearing - able and willing to deal with all things?
In today's reading, with a certain sense of humour - Jesus teaches his disciples that even if God is busy doing something else - even if he, like a friend of ours, is in bed after midnight with all his children safely tucked in, he will get up and answer the door if we continue to bang on it - if only to get us to stop bothering him.
My friends - even the Government gets around to answering the phone when we stay on the line long enough... I kind of think God is up to government standards - don't you?
There is no matter too small to bring to God. And there is no time better than the present to talk to God. This is what we teach our children about coming to us and speaking to us - and this what Jesus teaches us about our heavenly father.
The third hang up that helps disconnect people from a entering into full life of prayer, and of learning from and receiving from God, is the GIMME HANG UP.
Clearly some people's whole prayer life consists of asking God for things for themselves. I am not speaking about them or to them. Rather I am speaking about - and to - those people who are often diligent in the practice of prayer. They intercede for others. They pray often and with deep conviction. But they almost never pray for themselves.
This may arise because they feel, as in hang up number one - that they are not good enough to deserve God's attention - or it may arise because they feel that it is selfish and uncaring to think of ones' own needs when so many people have far greater needs.
What then should we say to Jesus when he instructs his disciples to pray saying things like - "Give us this day our daily bread" "Forgive our sins" "Lead us not into the time of trial - but deliver us from evil?"
The Prayer of Jabez says "Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!"
It is a prayer for one's self. And the scripture says "God granted him what he requested."
What is good to ask of God for others - is good to ask for ourselves.
Remember the garden of Gethesame? Remember all the trips that Jesus made to the quiet spots away from his disciples? The master prayed for himself - and he has taught us to pray for ourselves. To pray for our daily needs - to pray for forgiveness and a forgiving spirit - to pray even for an easier life - a life in which we are not tested as severely as we might be, a life in fact in which we are delivered from evil - just as Jabez was delivered from evil.
We can and should pray for others - as many of us do. But we can and should pray for ourselves and our needs and our desires as well. It pleases God to answer us - much as it pleases us to answer our children and to give them not only what they need - but, at times, to give them what they want.
The fourth hang up in prayer is the "ONCE SHOULD BE ENOUGH" hang up.
People with this hang up often have made the assumption that once a person asks God for something that it displays lack of faith to continue to bother God about it.
Harry Emerson Fosdick, the great preacher, writes: "Easiness of desire is a great enemy of the success of a good man's prayer...For consider what a huge indecency it is that a man should speak to God for a thing that he values not. Our prayers upbraid our spirits when we beg tamely for those things for which we ought to die. This then is the rationale of importunity in prayer, not that it is needed to coax God, but that it is needed alike to express and by expressing, to deepen our eager readiness for the good we seek. Some things God cannot give to a man until the man has prepared and proven his spirit by persistent prayer. Such a prayer cleans the house, sets the table, opens the door, until God says, "Lo, the house is ready. Now may thy guest come in."
We pray for the Kingdom of God to come. For justice and mercy in every nation. For daily bread for ourselves and the hungry around the world. For healing for the sick. For peace. For the oppressed. For our children to be whole and happy. For our work to be pleasing to God and to us. As the Lord's prayer and the parable that follows it shows us - these prayers are not meant to a be once and for all request that we make to God - but a dynamic part of our daily relationship with him.
"Make it happen Lord! We are here again. We are not letting go till you give us an answer!"
Which of you if you had a child who asked for something from you that you wanted to give them, but were not yet ready to give them - would be impressed if the child asked only once? I think very few. So, with God, our repeated requests are not scorned as a sign of our lack of faith, but rather welcomed as an expression of what we really want.
Keep on coming before God for the things that keep on coming before us - persist in prayer and God will persist with us and give to us that which we want - or explain to us why something else might be better.
Which leads to the fifth hang up in many people's practice of prayer is the "I MIGHT ASK FOR THE WRONG THING HANG UP."
Often we do not know what to pray for. We are confused and frightened or we do not have the knowledge we think we need.
Do not fear this. God is not like a genie in a bottle - who upon being released grants his saviour three wishes - not matter what they are - and then leaves the person to deal with the consequences...."I wish it would stop raining - I wish my neighbour would get lost - or whatever..".
Think of what Jesus says in verses 11 through 13 of today's gospel:
"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?"
Turn it around for a minute - "Is there anyone among you, if your child asks for a snake will give it to him? Or if the child asks for a scorpion will deliver it?
The Apostle Paul understood that we often do not know what to pray for and says as much in the eighth chapter of his letter to the Romans, adding, "but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."
Not sure what to pray for in a particular situation? Just pray, "O Lord, bring healing, bring hope, bring what is right, help me, help the one I am praying for." Groan to God in the midst of your anguish - or in the midst of the anguish of others - and keep doing it till the answer comes. God will not pour oil on the fires that afflict you or your loved ones - nor will he send curses when you seek blessings.
The magic of prayer - if we can call it that - is not in the particular words we use in our prayer - nor even the particular things we pray about - but the relationship into which we enter when we pray to God in all things and about all things.
When we present everything that concerns us and everything that delights us to God - we are sharing with God who we are and what we are - and that builds between God and ourselves the intimacy that allows the new life that God wants to give us and our world to come about. In fact, it is part of that new life - just as spending time together in a marriage speaking and listening - expressing our fears and our hopes - our desires and our wants - helps make the marriage a true marriage. Our partners help us where help is needed - rejoicing when we rejoice - and weeping when we weep - and share with us all that they are as well.
And as in human relationships sorrows shared are sorrows divided - and joys shared are joys multiplied, so in the divine-human relationship - but more so - for our God is greater than we are - and is fully able to help those who call upon him - and ready and willing to lift us up when we are cast down - and bless us when we hold forth our hands in trust and in thanksgiving.
Speak often with God - about those things upon your hearts - and God will speak with you and answer you.
Blessed be the name of God, now and forever. Amen
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Colossians 1:15-28; Psalm 52; Luke 10:38-42
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
Erma Bombeck, the author who wrote "If Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries, What Am I Doing Here In The Pits", tells of two moments in her husband's life:
There was a time when the children were growing up that her husband used to go and look at the back yard. Surveying the muddy patches where the lawn should be, he would wonder - Will the grass ever come back?
And then there was the time when the children were grown and gone that her husband went and looked over the beautiful green lawn, immaculate from lack of use and wondered - Will the children ever come back?
Some parts of life are temporary - some are eternal. Wisdom knows the difference. This if the fundamental issue at stake in the story of Mary and Martha.
The story Luke tells of Mary and Martha is a controversial one - it angers some people and confuses others, especially when they identify with one sister or the other, when they take the side of either Mary or of Martha.
Some people look at the story from Martha's point of view. They say that Mary let Martha down: that Mary should have helped Martha serve Jesus and his disciples, that she should of done her share of the work, that she should have been a better hostess.
Those who sympathize with Martha say that if we take Jesus' rebuke of her seriously, if we are to believe that Mary did the right thing - that she chose the better part and that Martha should have sat down with Mary and listened to the master, then who would have made and served the food? Who in the world would have done the work? A work that itself was an expression of love?
Martha's supporters assert that Mary is unfair to Martha, and that Jesus really doesn't help the situation very much by telling Martha that she is too anxious and that Mary has chosen the better part.
Other people of course look at the story from Mary's point view.
They say that Mary did the right thing when she chose to sit by Jesus and learn from him, that Jesus is, after all, the Lord - and that Jesus himself confirms this when he tells Martha that Mary has chosen "the better part".
Some of Mary's supporters them go on and ask the question - "besides, what business did Martha have asking Jesus to chastise Mary and tell her what to do...?"
I don't think there is any of us here today who doubts that what Mary chose to do when Jesus came was a good thing - that she chose a good portion or part as the Bible states, nor do I think anyone doubts that Martha was out of line asking her guest to chastise her sister, but the question still remains - what about Martha...
What, if anything, was wrong with Martha's choice? Did not Martha honour the Lord by her response to his presence? Did she not show love towards him by serving him?
As the commentator John Lewis writes "In the concrete situation in which Martha found herself, she attempted to answer and please her Lord."
This then is the dilemma of today's gospel reading.
Two individuals, both women, are portrayed welcoming Jesus, they both respond to his presence - one by working for him, by serving him, by feeding him and his disciples - and the other by listening to him and by learning from him.
Both responses have a lot going for them, they are both faithful responses, yet - as we see - they are responses that seem to end up contradicting each other.
Why?
John Lewis wonders why as well - and so he goes on to ask the question:
"Is there something more fundamentally wrong with Martha' response to Jesus than what we have seen so far?"
The answer is - Yes.
Martha not only does a rude and inappropriate thing by asking Jesus to chastise Mary, she also fails to show love as she ought.
In Martha's effort to love one neighbour - Jesus she takes love away from another neighbour - from Mary - her sister.
Truly Martha is worried and distracted by many things, so worried and distracted, so anxious, that it leads her to anger and ruins her effort to be loving.
But there is more yet to the story of Mary and Martha - to see what more there is it is necessary to look at the context within the gospel in which the story appears.
One of best biblical scholars of the past century - Reginald Fuller - suggests that the Mary and Martha story is a corrective to the activism portrayed in the parable of the good Samaritan.
That parable - which comes just before today's reading - is told in response to the question of a lawyer who asks Jesus - "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
As we heard last week, Jesus tells him that he must:
"Love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbour as yourself. Do this and you will live."
And then in response to the lawyer's question: "and who is my neighbour?" Jesus tells the story of the Samaritan who shows mercy to a man who was the victim of thieves - concluding with the words: "go and do likewise"
The emphasis in the passage just before today's reading is on action: "do this and you will live" and "go and do likewise"
Immediately following this we get the story of Mary and Martha; we get a real life situation concerning being a neighbour and we see someone who is doing that which leads to eternal life, we see Martha doing, we see her labouring, out of love, to please her Lord.
But, and this is crucial, we also see Mary - who is not labouring out of love for her Lord, but who is instead, out of her love for him, simply being with him, and listening to him.
Martha is distracted by all that she is doing, and she comes to Jesus, and in her anxiety, in her frustration, she asks him to rebuke Mary:
"Lord", she says, "Do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me."
The response of Jesus to Martha's plea is not a criticism of her work for him, nor of her love for him - rather it is a response to her anxiety and anger - and a response to how she regards the choice made by Mary:
"Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part - which will not be taken away from her."
There is need of only one thing...Only one thing is necessary...What is it...?
Well - the stories that appear next in the Gospel of Luke concern prayer, and that is important, for there is always a purpose behind the structure of the Gospels.
Reginald Fuller suggests what the purpose is when he says: "do this and you will live is applicable only as the doing the word flows out of the hearing of the word." as it comes out of prayer, study, worship and meditation.
The word must be heard before it can be followed: spiritual bread is required, is needed, by those who would be busy at making physical bread, otherwise they will perish.
Think about our church for a minute - what makes us here different from a service club? What makes us different from the Lions or the Rotary Club?
Do not they - like we - put on suppers, run programs, maintain buildings, and attempt to bring relief to the poor and the oppressed of the world?
Do not both the church and the clubs around it work, and work fairly hard, at helping others? At caring for others?
So what is the difference between us? What makes one group a church, and another simply a service club?
For years there has been a lot of talk about burnout - so much so that student ministers are required to read about it at seminary.
It is a well known fact that those who are in the caring professions often suffer from burnout - doctors, social workers, ministers, nurses, and so forth - many reach a point of terminal exhaustion - they work hard - they put themselves into their jobs with great intensity - they care deeply - and after a while - many come to a point where they have no more to give.
Their work goes down hill, they begin to do less while often taking longer to do it, they feel tired, unfulfilled, hopeless, they get to a point where they not only no longer care - but where they are no longer able to care.
People suffering from burnout often end up angry, anxious, and worried.
We see something like this in today's story of Mary and Martha when we see Martha getting so anxious in her attempts to care for Jesus that she is unable to care for Mary, unable to see the importance of what is going on around her.
In seminary we are taught that there are several factors that can help one avoid burnout:
One factor is ensuring that you a have a balance of activities in your life, that you do not spend all your time helping out - but take time for yourself.
Another factor that is helpful is having a strong belief system - one in which you have a firm grip on the whole picture - in which you believe that there are other forces and other people who can help the world besides yourself.
A third factor that helps a person avoid burnout is knowing how to receive help and care as well as how to give it.
Balance - faith - and receptivity; being able to take time for oneself to learn, to grow, to be strengthened.
The manna that fed Israel in the desert fell from heaven - they did not have to work for it - it came from God - but they did have to gather it in each morning.
In the same way that the manna they needed came from God, so the spiritual food we need each day comes from God as free gift - but like manna, it too needs to be gathered.
We do not live by bread alone - say the scriptures but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
"Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part - which will not be taken away from her."
Martha, Martha, you are so busy looking after me, so busy serving me, so concerned that the right things be done, that you are missing be with me, you are missing the necessary thing, the thing that Mary has chosen, the thing that I will not take away from her.
You know - sometimes the best way to treat a guest is not by doing something special for them, but by spending as much time with them as possible.
I know that in many homes when company comes - after the meal the dishes and all the cleaning up is set aside - and everyone moves to the living room out of sight of all the work that needs doing so that they can enjoy a few hours together without distraction.
That really is the point of the story of Mary and Martha. Some parts of life are temporary - others are eternal. Wisdom knows the difference.
Occasionally we need to put aside the work we do for the Lord and just spend some time being with him - some time learning from him - some time enjoying his presence - some time being refreshed and recreated by his Spirit.
The church is different from a service club because it recognizes this, it recognizes that is the word of God that gives life, and the word of God that strengthens us to do good, and so the church turns toward God and listens to the word, it pauses - and sits at the feet of the eternal much as Mary sat at the feet of Jesus.
It is the word that enables us to serve and to make a difference in that service. It is the word, in and through us, that allows us to have eternal love, that love which is never anxious, or worried, or hurtful to others.
No one is a Christian who simply does the word - you must also hear the word and dwell in the word - the word made flesh in Christ our Lord.
Yes - some of us are more like Martha - and some of us are more like Mary; but there is in all of us a built in need to combine the two within us, for without sitting and listening to God our work for God can only lead to anxiety and anger and angst - and without doing the word our faith is clearly nothing.
As Graham Hutchings, a Methodist minister once said - there is a need occasionally to get the visionaries in the kitchen and the kitchenaries in the vision.
Some parts of life are temporary. Some are eternal. Wisdom knows the difference.
May God bless you and help you both in your listening to the word and in your doing of it. AMEN
Erma Bombeck, the author who wrote "If Life Is A Bowl Of Cherries, What Am I Doing Here In The Pits", tells of two moments in her husband's life:
There was a time when the children were growing up that her husband used to go and look at the back yard. Surveying the muddy patches where the lawn should be, he would wonder - Will the grass ever come back?
And then there was the time when the children were grown and gone that her husband went and looked over the beautiful green lawn, immaculate from lack of use and wondered - Will the children ever come back?
Some parts of life are temporary - some are eternal. Wisdom knows the difference. This if the fundamental issue at stake in the story of Mary and Martha.
The story Luke tells of Mary and Martha is a controversial one - it angers some people and confuses others, especially when they identify with one sister or the other, when they take the side of either Mary or of Martha.
Some people look at the story from Martha's point of view. They say that Mary let Martha down: that Mary should have helped Martha serve Jesus and his disciples, that she should of done her share of the work, that she should have been a better hostess.
Those who sympathize with Martha say that if we take Jesus' rebuke of her seriously, if we are to believe that Mary did the right thing - that she chose the better part and that Martha should have sat down with Mary and listened to the master, then who would have made and served the food? Who in the world would have done the work? A work that itself was an expression of love?
Martha's supporters assert that Mary is unfair to Martha, and that Jesus really doesn't help the situation very much by telling Martha that she is too anxious and that Mary has chosen the better part.
Other people of course look at the story from Mary's point view.
They say that Mary did the right thing when she chose to sit by Jesus and learn from him, that Jesus is, after all, the Lord - and that Jesus himself confirms this when he tells Martha that Mary has chosen "the better part".
Some of Mary's supporters them go on and ask the question - "besides, what business did Martha have asking Jesus to chastise Mary and tell her what to do...?"
I don't think there is any of us here today who doubts that what Mary chose to do when Jesus came was a good thing - that she chose a good portion or part as the Bible states, nor do I think anyone doubts that Martha was out of line asking her guest to chastise her sister, but the question still remains - what about Martha...
What, if anything, was wrong with Martha's choice? Did not Martha honour the Lord by her response to his presence? Did she not show love towards him by serving him?
As the commentator John Lewis writes "In the concrete situation in which Martha found herself, she attempted to answer and please her Lord."
This then is the dilemma of today's gospel reading.
Two individuals, both women, are portrayed welcoming Jesus, they both respond to his presence - one by working for him, by serving him, by feeding him and his disciples - and the other by listening to him and by learning from him.
Both responses have a lot going for them, they are both faithful responses, yet - as we see - they are responses that seem to end up contradicting each other.
Why?
John Lewis wonders why as well - and so he goes on to ask the question:
"Is there something more fundamentally wrong with Martha' response to Jesus than what we have seen so far?"
The answer is - Yes.
Martha not only does a rude and inappropriate thing by asking Jesus to chastise Mary, she also fails to show love as she ought.
In Martha's effort to love one neighbour - Jesus she takes love away from another neighbour - from Mary - her sister.
Truly Martha is worried and distracted by many things, so worried and distracted, so anxious, that it leads her to anger and ruins her effort to be loving.
But there is more yet to the story of Mary and Martha - to see what more there is it is necessary to look at the context within the gospel in which the story appears.
One of best biblical scholars of the past century - Reginald Fuller - suggests that the Mary and Martha story is a corrective to the activism portrayed in the parable of the good Samaritan.
That parable - which comes just before today's reading - is told in response to the question of a lawyer who asks Jesus - "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
As we heard last week, Jesus tells him that he must:
"Love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbour as yourself. Do this and you will live."
And then in response to the lawyer's question: "and who is my neighbour?" Jesus tells the story of the Samaritan who shows mercy to a man who was the victim of thieves - concluding with the words: "go and do likewise"
The emphasis in the passage just before today's reading is on action: "do this and you will live" and "go and do likewise"
Immediately following this we get the story of Mary and Martha; we get a real life situation concerning being a neighbour and we see someone who is doing that which leads to eternal life, we see Martha doing, we see her labouring, out of love, to please her Lord.
But, and this is crucial, we also see Mary - who is not labouring out of love for her Lord, but who is instead, out of her love for him, simply being with him, and listening to him.
Martha is distracted by all that she is doing, and she comes to Jesus, and in her anxiety, in her frustration, she asks him to rebuke Mary:
"Lord", she says, "Do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me."
The response of Jesus to Martha's plea is not a criticism of her work for him, nor of her love for him - rather it is a response to her anxiety and anger - and a response to how she regards the choice made by Mary:
"Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part - which will not be taken away from her."
There is need of only one thing...Only one thing is necessary...What is it...?
Well - the stories that appear next in the Gospel of Luke concern prayer, and that is important, for there is always a purpose behind the structure of the Gospels.
Reginald Fuller suggests what the purpose is when he says: "do this and you will live is applicable only as the doing the word flows out of the hearing of the word." as it comes out of prayer, study, worship and meditation.
The word must be heard before it can be followed: spiritual bread is required, is needed, by those who would be busy at making physical bread, otherwise they will perish.
Think about our church for a minute - what makes us here different from a service club? What makes us different from the Lions or the Rotary Club?
Do not they - like we - put on suppers, run programs, maintain buildings, and attempt to bring relief to the poor and the oppressed of the world?
Do not both the church and the clubs around it work, and work fairly hard, at helping others? At caring for others?
So what is the difference between us? What makes one group a church, and another simply a service club?
For years there has been a lot of talk about burnout - so much so that student ministers are required to read about it at seminary.
It is a well known fact that those who are in the caring professions often suffer from burnout - doctors, social workers, ministers, nurses, and so forth - many reach a point of terminal exhaustion - they work hard - they put themselves into their jobs with great intensity - they care deeply - and after a while - many come to a point where they have no more to give.
Their work goes down hill, they begin to do less while often taking longer to do it, they feel tired, unfulfilled, hopeless, they get to a point where they not only no longer care - but where they are no longer able to care.
People suffering from burnout often end up angry, anxious, and worried.
We see something like this in today's story of Mary and Martha when we see Martha getting so anxious in her attempts to care for Jesus that she is unable to care for Mary, unable to see the importance of what is going on around her.
In seminary we are taught that there are several factors that can help one avoid burnout:
One factor is ensuring that you a have a balance of activities in your life, that you do not spend all your time helping out - but take time for yourself.
Another factor that is helpful is having a strong belief system - one in which you have a firm grip on the whole picture - in which you believe that there are other forces and other people who can help the world besides yourself.
A third factor that helps a person avoid burnout is knowing how to receive help and care as well as how to give it.
Balance - faith - and receptivity; being able to take time for oneself to learn, to grow, to be strengthened.
The manna that fed Israel in the desert fell from heaven - they did not have to work for it - it came from God - but they did have to gather it in each morning.
In the same way that the manna they needed came from God, so the spiritual food we need each day comes from God as free gift - but like manna, it too needs to be gathered.
We do not live by bread alone - say the scriptures but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
"Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part - which will not be taken away from her."
Martha, Martha, you are so busy looking after me, so busy serving me, so concerned that the right things be done, that you are missing be with me, you are missing the necessary thing, the thing that Mary has chosen, the thing that I will not take away from her.
You know - sometimes the best way to treat a guest is not by doing something special for them, but by spending as much time with them as possible.
I know that in many homes when company comes - after the meal the dishes and all the cleaning up is set aside - and everyone moves to the living room out of sight of all the work that needs doing so that they can enjoy a few hours together without distraction.
That really is the point of the story of Mary and Martha. Some parts of life are temporary - others are eternal. Wisdom knows the difference.
Occasionally we need to put aside the work we do for the Lord and just spend some time being with him - some time learning from him - some time enjoying his presence - some time being refreshed and recreated by his Spirit.
The church is different from a service club because it recognizes this, it recognizes that is the word of God that gives life, and the word of God that strengthens us to do good, and so the church turns toward God and listens to the word, it pauses - and sits at the feet of the eternal much as Mary sat at the feet of Jesus.
It is the word that enables us to serve and to make a difference in that service. It is the word, in and through us, that allows us to have eternal love, that love which is never anxious, or worried, or hurtful to others.
No one is a Christian who simply does the word - you must also hear the word and dwell in the word - the word made flesh in Christ our Lord.
Yes - some of us are more like Martha - and some of us are more like Mary; but there is in all of us a built in need to combine the two within us, for without sitting and listening to God our work for God can only lead to anxiety and anger and angst - and without doing the word our faith is clearly nothing.
As Graham Hutchings, a Methodist minister once said - there is a need occasionally to get the visionaries in the kitchen and the kitchenaries in the vision.
Some parts of life are temporary. Some are eternal. Wisdom knows the difference.
May God bless you and help you both in your listening to the word and in your doing of it. AMEN
Monday, July 8, 2013
II Kings 5:1-14; Psalm 30; Luke 10:1-11,16-20
Loving God, by the power of your Holy Spirit help me to speak and us to hear your living word. On your people pour your power and grant that each one of us may be touched and moved in the way you want us to go. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen
I call today's sermon "minor matters" because the texts for today speak to us about small and matters of no insignificant.
In the first reading we hear about a miracle of healing that occurs in a most unexpected place, in the River Jordan- which is not much more than a muddy creek along much of it's course, a river unlike the great rivers that Naaman, the commander of the armies of Aram, was familiar with.
And in the Gospel reading we hear about the disciples of Christ - who are few in the face of much need - and who are commissioned to go into the world - into the harvest that God has prepared - like lambs in the midst of wolves: and to carry with them none of those things that people normally rely upon as they travel - no purse, no bag, no sandals - and to proclaim peace to all who will accept it - peace, and healing, and the nearness of the Kingdom of God.
The story of Naaman's healing is one of my favourite bible stories. As I read it this week I asked myself, what I would want to hear if I was in the congregation? What is the good news?
I think the good news here is found in the solution of the story.
Naaman has a problem, leprosy, one of the most dreaded diseases of the ancient world, and he needs a solution, he needs a healing. That is something we can all relate to.
Naaman seeks his solution and, by the grace of God, he finds his solution. All he has to do is "Do it".
All he has to do is to humble himself and to recognize that his great problem can be taken care of: taken care of in a simple act of obedience within a small and insignificant river.
As you know, Naaman resists this idea.
Naaman believes that his healing should come from the prophet Elisha himself. That Elisha should come out of his house and stand before him and call on the name of God and wave his hands over his leprous spots and so heal him.
Naaman is much like us.
He has a hard time grasping that the small things - the seemingly unimportant things are the things that God most often uses to accomplish great things.
And he has a hard time grasping that solutions - especially divine solutions - are most often wrapped up in obedience - obedience in what are seemingly small matters.
I can think of people who have gone to their doctor after a heart attack and have been told to walk for 30 or so minutes each day. It's a small thing (relatively speaking) but many don't do it.
Diet change is another one. The solution is there. And it's up to us to obey. But many don't, and that includes me.
In these people, and indeed in my own life when I have been confronted with a large problem, I can hear a bit of Naaman saying,
"I want the cure, but I don't want to be part of it. Elisha is supposed to care of things for me. I should only have to show up and be healed."
Naaman is told that his healing will be found in washing seven times in a muddy river and he tramps off in a rage because he wants - and expects - the solution to be something different, something more dramatic, something more special, something that is more proportional to who he his and to what his problem is.
How close Naaman came to walking away from the cure!
Fortunately, his servants loved him enough to confront him and counsel him with loving reason,
"If it had been a great thing that had cost a lot of money,
"if it had required a long journey,
"if it had required some heroic effort,
you would have done it..."
And Naaman responds to this reasoning, he listens to his servants.
I wonder what it must have been like for Naaman after the first dunk in the Jordan?
And after the second, third, fourth, and nothing had happened...
I wonder if Naaman began to doubt.
Fifth. Still no healing.
Sixth. Nothing.
I wonder if he said, with mud dripping off his hair: "Let's get this over with. Yuck!" or "What is the use!"
Yet he persevered - he immersed himself the seventh time - and lo - the blessing came!
Obedience. And then the blessing! That's usually the way God works.
We don't earn the blessing. But are granted the blessing when we surrender our wills in obedience to His will.
When we earnestly seek a solution to our problems, God is faithful and will supply a solution.
If we choose to be obedient to that solution, our problem will be taken care of. And more. Because not only is Naaman cured physically, but his soul is healed too. He knows afterward not only is there a prophet in Samaria, but that there is a living God in Israel.
When we are obedient to God's solution, even though God's solutions appear guised as small matters, the results end up to be more than we wanted, more even than we could have hoped for.
Small matters matter - especially when those matters are God directed and we are obedient in them.
As for the Gospel reading - well, small matters there as well.
In the case of the Gospel reading it is the disciples themselves who are small. Small in the face of the task that Christ assigns them - the task of being ones who go into the abundantly populated fields of God and bringing in the harvest.
Like Naaman the disciples are told to do something that seems foolish. They are told to perform their tasks with absolutely none of the support that people normally have when they set forth on a journey or go out to harvest an earthly crop.
No purse containing a change of clothing or tools to make the job easier, no bag containing food to sustain them as they labour, no sandals to protect their feet from the rocks of the roadways or the hot sands of the wilderness.
They are told to rely only upon the welcome of those who will receive their greeting of peace and to shake off the dust from their feet against those will not and go on to the next place.
Indeed they are told not even to rejoice in the powers that God will give them as they go forth: the power to heal - the power to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the powers of evil, but to rejoice only that their names are written in heaven.
In short they are told to rely on nothing familiar to them, but to rely only upon what God will provide for them through men and women of peace as they proclaim the message concerning the nearness of the kingdom of God.
"The harvest is plentiful - but the labourers are few" says Jesus. "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
And then - his command and his statement of what things will be like....
"Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves."
Isn't it like that for us today?
We are constantly told by people both within the church and those outside it that we are few in number and that the need around us is great; greater than our ability to address it.
How can we build an addition here - with so few people - and so many of them older people or domestic helpers?
How can we even make the regular budget, let along build something beautiful for the work of God?
How can we touch the community with God's love when the worldly forces around us are so strong and so opposed to that love.
How can we speak to our neighbours of God's peace and perform healings and announce the coming of the Kingdom of God - when we have so few resources and when the kingdom itself seems so small in comparison to the greed, to the injustice, to the evil, of this world.
Indeed, how can we do anything for God - for Christ - when we are ourselves are so small, so uncertain - and at times so divided among ourselves?
But we are commanded to go. To go with nothing but the word of peace and the promise that we will be looked after.
Like Naaman, like the disciples, we are confronted with a big problem - a big task, and as with them the solution that has been proposed to us requires of us two things:
- to abandon our ideas of what the solution should look like
- and to wash ourselves in the cleansing waters of humble obedience, in those same waters in which Naaman was immersed and Jesus himself was baptised.
I don't know what all your special and individual problems may be. All I know is that most of us, like Naaman, at least have one.
I don't know all the difficulties that each of you face as individuals.
I do know, however, what the problem of our world is:
- I do know that every home needs the peace of God to come upon it,
- and that every nation needs the kingdom of God to draw close to it,
- and that, indeed there is a huge task - a huge harvest - waiting for the servants of God - out there....
And I do know from the story of Naaman, and from the story of the sending out of the 72 disciples, and from so many other passages of holy scripture - that the answer to our problems is most likely already before us - and that it is most likely bears a humble form - and requires of us nothing more than a humble submission, a humble obedience.
In our finances - which so often look desperate, the Word has long told us that if we give a 10th of what we have to God, that the windows of heaven will be opened and our land, our crops, our families, will be richly blessed.
In our longing for peace of mind and a sense of hope and wholeness, the Word has long told us that if in everything we make our requests known to God with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving; and if we but meditate on those things that are worthy, those things that are good, beautiful, and true, that the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep us safe in the knowledge and love of God.
In our desire to have our burdens lightened or removed altogether, the word has long told us that if we but offer to Christ our burdens and take upon ourselves his burden, his cross, that we will have rest.
Small matters - with big consequences; big consequences for those who accept the word - who accept the solution - and who do what it asks.
Naaman's servants went to him and said,
"My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, 'Wash and be cleansed'!"
So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
What is it that you need to do today?
What have you put off doing because it seemed too simple, too small, too silly to do?
What act of humble obedience do you need to perform so that you might claim what God is offering to you, and through you - to your family, your neighbours - and indeed to your world?
Is it as simple as remembering to pray each day? To pray as Christ told his disciples to pray - for more workers for the harvest? Or to pray for the peace of those homes which you enter - and to accept that which those who receive your greeting of peace offer to you without question, and without seeking more?
Does it require you to abandon your reliance on the small but needful matters of life? Your home, your bank account, your job skills, your knowledge of the ways of the world? And to trust instead in God to do what he has promised to do even as you dip for the fourth, or the fifth, or even the sixth time into the muddy waters of a spiritual Jordan?
The solution is not out there somewhere in a place where you have to look for it. Rather the word - the solution is here - it is already in your hearts - and upon your lips, that is the word of faith that we are proclaiming, the word God wants you to believe and act upon so that peace may come upon your household and healing may be done in our community.
All in all today - the scriptures speak to us of today of small matters - all with big consequences.
It is up to us to receive the word - or not.
It is my prayer, and it is the prayer of Christ and of the whole church - that you may indeed receive the word of peace, and be ones who live by it in trust and humble obedience.
Blessed be God, day by day. Amen!
I call today's sermon "minor matters" because the texts for today speak to us about small and matters of no insignificant.
In the first reading we hear about a miracle of healing that occurs in a most unexpected place, in the River Jordan- which is not much more than a muddy creek along much of it's course, a river unlike the great rivers that Naaman, the commander of the armies of Aram, was familiar with.
And in the Gospel reading we hear about the disciples of Christ - who are few in the face of much need - and who are commissioned to go into the world - into the harvest that God has prepared - like lambs in the midst of wolves: and to carry with them none of those things that people normally rely upon as they travel - no purse, no bag, no sandals - and to proclaim peace to all who will accept it - peace, and healing, and the nearness of the Kingdom of God.
The story of Naaman's healing is one of my favourite bible stories. As I read it this week I asked myself, what I would want to hear if I was in the congregation? What is the good news?
I think the good news here is found in the solution of the story.
Naaman has a problem, leprosy, one of the most dreaded diseases of the ancient world, and he needs a solution, he needs a healing. That is something we can all relate to.
Naaman seeks his solution and, by the grace of God, he finds his solution. All he has to do is "Do it".
All he has to do is to humble himself and to recognize that his great problem can be taken care of: taken care of in a simple act of obedience within a small and insignificant river.
As you know, Naaman resists this idea.
Naaman believes that his healing should come from the prophet Elisha himself. That Elisha should come out of his house and stand before him and call on the name of God and wave his hands over his leprous spots and so heal him.
Naaman is much like us.
He has a hard time grasping that the small things - the seemingly unimportant things are the things that God most often uses to accomplish great things.
And he has a hard time grasping that solutions - especially divine solutions - are most often wrapped up in obedience - obedience in what are seemingly small matters.
I can think of people who have gone to their doctor after a heart attack and have been told to walk for 30 or so minutes each day. It's a small thing (relatively speaking) but many don't do it.
Diet change is another one. The solution is there. And it's up to us to obey. But many don't, and that includes me.
In these people, and indeed in my own life when I have been confronted with a large problem, I can hear a bit of Naaman saying,
"I want the cure, but I don't want to be part of it. Elisha is supposed to care of things for me. I should only have to show up and be healed."
Naaman is told that his healing will be found in washing seven times in a muddy river and he tramps off in a rage because he wants - and expects - the solution to be something different, something more dramatic, something more special, something that is more proportional to who he his and to what his problem is.
How close Naaman came to walking away from the cure!
Fortunately, his servants loved him enough to confront him and counsel him with loving reason,
"If it had been a great thing that had cost a lot of money,
"if it had required a long journey,
"if it had required some heroic effort,
you would have done it..."
And Naaman responds to this reasoning, he listens to his servants.
I wonder what it must have been like for Naaman after the first dunk in the Jordan?
And after the second, third, fourth, and nothing had happened...
I wonder if Naaman began to doubt.
Fifth. Still no healing.
Sixth. Nothing.
I wonder if he said, with mud dripping off his hair: "Let's get this over with. Yuck!" or "What is the use!"
Yet he persevered - he immersed himself the seventh time - and lo - the blessing came!
Obedience. And then the blessing! That's usually the way God works.
We don't earn the blessing. But are granted the blessing when we surrender our wills in obedience to His will.
When we earnestly seek a solution to our problems, God is faithful and will supply a solution.
If we choose to be obedient to that solution, our problem will be taken care of. And more. Because not only is Naaman cured physically, but his soul is healed too. He knows afterward not only is there a prophet in Samaria, but that there is a living God in Israel.
When we are obedient to God's solution, even though God's solutions appear guised as small matters, the results end up to be more than we wanted, more even than we could have hoped for.
Small matters matter - especially when those matters are God directed and we are obedient in them.
As for the Gospel reading - well, small matters there as well.
In the case of the Gospel reading it is the disciples themselves who are small. Small in the face of the task that Christ assigns them - the task of being ones who go into the abundantly populated fields of God and bringing in the harvest.
Like Naaman the disciples are told to do something that seems foolish. They are told to perform their tasks with absolutely none of the support that people normally have when they set forth on a journey or go out to harvest an earthly crop.
No purse containing a change of clothing or tools to make the job easier, no bag containing food to sustain them as they labour, no sandals to protect their feet from the rocks of the roadways or the hot sands of the wilderness.
They are told to rely only upon the welcome of those who will receive their greeting of peace and to shake off the dust from their feet against those will not and go on to the next place.
Indeed they are told not even to rejoice in the powers that God will give them as they go forth: the power to heal - the power to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the powers of evil, but to rejoice only that their names are written in heaven.
In short they are told to rely on nothing familiar to them, but to rely only upon what God will provide for them through men and women of peace as they proclaim the message concerning the nearness of the kingdom of God.
"The harvest is plentiful - but the labourers are few" says Jesus. "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
And then - his command and his statement of what things will be like....
"Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves."
Isn't it like that for us today?
We are constantly told by people both within the church and those outside it that we are few in number and that the need around us is great; greater than our ability to address it.
How can we build an addition here - with so few people - and so many of them older people or domestic helpers?
How can we even make the regular budget, let along build something beautiful for the work of God?
How can we touch the community with God's love when the worldly forces around us are so strong and so opposed to that love.
How can we speak to our neighbours of God's peace and perform healings and announce the coming of the Kingdom of God - when we have so few resources and when the kingdom itself seems so small in comparison to the greed, to the injustice, to the evil, of this world.
Indeed, how can we do anything for God - for Christ - when we are ourselves are so small, so uncertain - and at times so divided among ourselves?
But we are commanded to go. To go with nothing but the word of peace and the promise that we will be looked after.
Like Naaman, like the disciples, we are confronted with a big problem - a big task, and as with them the solution that has been proposed to us requires of us two things:
- to abandon our ideas of what the solution should look like
- and to wash ourselves in the cleansing waters of humble obedience, in those same waters in which Naaman was immersed and Jesus himself was baptised.
I don't know what all your special and individual problems may be. All I know is that most of us, like Naaman, at least have one.
I don't know all the difficulties that each of you face as individuals.
I do know, however, what the problem of our world is:
- I do know that every home needs the peace of God to come upon it,
- and that every nation needs the kingdom of God to draw close to it,
- and that, indeed there is a huge task - a huge harvest - waiting for the servants of God - out there....
And I do know from the story of Naaman, and from the story of the sending out of the 72 disciples, and from so many other passages of holy scripture - that the answer to our problems is most likely already before us - and that it is most likely bears a humble form - and requires of us nothing more than a humble submission, a humble obedience.
In our finances - which so often look desperate, the Word has long told us that if we give a 10th of what we have to God, that the windows of heaven will be opened and our land, our crops, our families, will be richly blessed.
In our longing for peace of mind and a sense of hope and wholeness, the Word has long told us that if in everything we make our requests known to God with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving; and if we but meditate on those things that are worthy, those things that are good, beautiful, and true, that the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep us safe in the knowledge and love of God.
In our desire to have our burdens lightened or removed altogether, the word has long told us that if we but offer to Christ our burdens and take upon ourselves his burden, his cross, that we will have rest.
Small matters - with big consequences; big consequences for those who accept the word - who accept the solution - and who do what it asks.
Naaman's servants went to him and said,
"My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, 'Wash and be cleansed'!"
So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
What is it that you need to do today?
What have you put off doing because it seemed too simple, too small, too silly to do?
What act of humble obedience do you need to perform so that you might claim what God is offering to you, and through you - to your family, your neighbours - and indeed to your world?
Is it as simple as remembering to pray each day? To pray as Christ told his disciples to pray - for more workers for the harvest? Or to pray for the peace of those homes which you enter - and to accept that which those who receive your greeting of peace offer to you without question, and without seeking more?
Does it require you to abandon your reliance on the small but needful matters of life? Your home, your bank account, your job skills, your knowledge of the ways of the world? And to trust instead in God to do what he has promised to do even as you dip for the fourth, or the fifth, or even the sixth time into the muddy waters of a spiritual Jordan?
The solution is not out there somewhere in a place where you have to look for it. Rather the word - the solution is here - it is already in your hearts - and upon your lips, that is the word of faith that we are proclaiming, the word God wants you to believe and act upon so that peace may come upon your household and healing may be done in our community.
All in all today - the scriptures speak to us of today of small matters - all with big consequences.
It is up to us to receive the word - or not.
It is my prayer, and it is the prayer of Christ and of the whole church - that you may indeed receive the word of peace, and be ones who live by it in trust and humble obedience.
Blessed be God, day by day. Amen!
Monday, July 1, 2013
Hosea 1:2-10; Colossians 2:6-15; Psalm 85; Luke 11:1-13
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the meditations of our hearts. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
I am struck by fact disciples asked Jesus "teach us how to pray"
- surely they knew how to pray?
They had been there and done that - with John - with the village rabbis - in the synagogues and temples - yet they after watching Jesus for a while - after seeing what he could do - after being impressed by his wisdom - his power - his love - they ask him to teach them how to pray...
And this makes me think about us - have we asked Jesus to teach us to pray? Or have we assumed that we know how?
The Christian life - the Godly life - is fuelled by prayer - it is made strong by our contact with God each day - just as the relationship between husband and wife is sustained by communication - intimate - regular - joyful - sincere - needy - honest talk...
Yet very few people ever show the hunger of the disciples and ask "teach us how to pray"
When it comes to prayer - I think many folk assume they already know all they really need to know - for they know the Lord's Prayer - the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him "Lord, teach us how to pray."
But the Lord's Prayer which they have heard, and which we know, is not THE answer of Jesus to his disciple's question - it is only A answer - a model as it were - of what our prayer might be like - of what it might include - and of what attitude our prayer might be uttered with.
The Lord's Prayer, my brothers and sisters, is only a model, an example of what prayer is like - yet - I am afraid that people - have turned it into AN ICON - AN IDOL OF PRAYER - and so have missed the point of what Jesus said to his disciples on that hot and hazy day in Palestine so long ago.
Many Church members in some parts of the world lament the loss of the days when recitation of the Lord's Prayer was compulsory at school. They regard it as something for children to hold onto." "It'll come back to them when they're in trouble." "At least it's a foundation." And so on.
The Lord's Prayer itself is precious - and for many of us learning it, and saying it together, is a precious childhood memory. In the United States, their taking it out of the daily school routine is one more example of the erosion of so much that was once held dear to many people, and essential to the shared "Christian" culture. The absence of prayer in the schools compounds the frustration, grief, guilt churchgoers of a certain age feel over the fact that their children and grandchildren don't go to church.
But the Lord's Prayer can also be a perversion of prayer, something you do for a bit of religion; a retreat into magic; a set of words that might help in a fix; and as such it misses the point of what prayer is all about.
When a person learns the Lord's Prayer by rote, they did not know all they need to know about prayer. And teaching the Lord's prayer to others as a form of evangelism, as something that non-church-going kids need to hear, is a deep denial of the reason why Jesus taught his disciples this prayer in the first place.
The Lord's Prayer is a model of what prayer is for us as disciples - it is not meant for strangers - for people who do not know the Lord or believe in the God of Abraham and of Sarah and of Mary and of Joseph.
The Lord's Prayer is a form of prayer for disciples - for followers of Jesus - for the family of God.
A form of prayer mind you, not THE PRAYER or the ONLY PRAYER - nor even all prayers rolled into one. IT IS A MODEL - an example of how we - as followers of Jesus - might pray to God above.
IT IS, ABOVE ALL OTHER THINGS, A MODEL OF INTIMACY
God is not "Father" - a formal and stiff parent whom me must address with great respect, fear, and awe - God is "Daddy" the one into whose lap we as toddlers crawl up into as we chatter to him - the one whose arms hold us safe as we laugh and giggle and ask him what we want and tell him about our day.
God, as Jesus explained, is like the neighbour who is close enough to pester at the worst time, or a parent who wants only what's best for the children - the One you know you can count on because you *know* "him".
That's the One to whom this sample-prayer which we call the Lord's Prayer is addressed, and that is how Jesus suggests we can address Him!
God is the one we spend time with - as a child spends time with his friends and his parents - simple time - time of thanksgiving - of praise - of need of asking for forgiveness - of expressing hope.
Lord, Teach us how to pray...
When it comes to prayer - all of us need some instruction - some understanding - but more than that - we need time - time and desire.
Time for shooting or spot prayers - the kind of prayer that is seen when your child runs into the room and says - wow it sure is hot outside - or - gee whiz - it sure would be nice to go to the beach later - and time for special times of prayer - special occasions - such as when your child has hurt herself and comes to you for a bandage and for a hug - or when your son comes and asks you to tell him about why he has the name he has - or what your family do about the kids down the street whose mother died and whose father is out of work...and time for regular prayer - as when you plan the day at the breakfast table - or review it at the supper table.
Prayer is a matter of time and of desire - the desire to communicate - the desire to know - to listen - to think - to enjoy - to understand - to help - to be with...
I know people, within and without the church, who are offended by any talk of intimacy or familiarity with God. They are the people who want only the prayer-book words at weddings, only the "old favourite" hymns on Sundays, and only the King James Version at their funerals.
In a sense they keep God away from their inner selves with language. They like the sound of the words, and the atmosphere they create, but they don't really want to know what they mean, or the God they are addressed to.
Don't keep God away - keep coming to God - coming and asking - coming and sharing - coming and learning - for God answers prayer - he hears us - he communicates with us.
God answers prayer - not always as we want - with magical solutions to our problems - but God answers.
Sometimes he answers simply by listening when we share - as a father listens to his daughter tell him about her day - as a mother listens when her son speaks of his sense of frustration and of anger about how things are going at school, or at work, or with that special friend that he thought he could trust.
God is my friend - my Daddy - the one who understands me - the one who holds me - the one who reassures me.
The Lord's Prayer, my friends, is not magic - it's not the sum total of what we should say to God - it is a model for those people who are interested in knowing their heavenly father - a form of what prayer can be like for those who really want to be like Jesus It is an example of the freedom that we can have with God - the freedom that God himself bestows.
Hear the Prayer Jesus said we can pray... hear it as an example - audacious and bold and so intimate it is almost beyond words...
Daddy
you are so wonderful -
I wish that everybody could have a Daddy like you,
and that everyone would do the things you tell them to do -
because what you say is so good.
Daddy - will you make supper tonight?
Will you put good food on the table like you did last night and
the night before?
Oh - and Daddy - I hope you won't be mad...
I did something I shouldn't have today - will you forgive me??
Yes Daddy - I know
You want me to forgive my little brother for the nasty thing he
did to me
and I will - I love him - even if he is weird.
Thank you Daddy for not being angry.
You'll protect me always, won't you Daddy?
You'll keep me safe from those things that go bump in the night?
From those things that frighten me?
I knew you would Daddy - for you are the best Daddy anyone could
ever have.
I love you Daddy.
You are the greatest.
I got to go now Daddy
See you later.
Such my friends is the Lord's prayer for those who belong to the Family of God - and it is a surprise for many.
As David Buttrick expresses it, The Lord's Prayer with it's "Abba!, turns all our formal, strained praying into glad amusement, for right in the middle of our stained-glass phrases is that impudent word "Daddy!"
Lord - teach us how to pray...
To pray the Lord's Prayer, and to pattern prayer after this example is to be impudent and sassy, to be bold and to be vulnerable.
It is to be a child. A child whose father is the God who made heaven and earth and everything in it.
To pray as Jesus taught us to pray is, above all to be connected - connected when we are afraid and when we are full of courage - connected when we are weeping - and when we are laughing - connected when we are in need - and when we have much to give...
Lord, teach us how to pray....
When it comes to prayer - nothing else will quite do except that our hearts and our minds be turned to God as a child turns to her or his parents in trust and in confidence; in the trust and the confidence that they will be heard and helped and encouraged and loved..
I am struck by fact disciples asked Jesus "teach us how to pray"
- surely they knew how to pray?
They had been there and done that - with John - with the village rabbis - in the synagogues and temples - yet they after watching Jesus for a while - after seeing what he could do - after being impressed by his wisdom - his power - his love - they ask him to teach them how to pray...
And this makes me think about us - have we asked Jesus to teach us to pray? Or have we assumed that we know how?
The Christian life - the Godly life - is fuelled by prayer - it is made strong by our contact with God each day - just as the relationship between husband and wife is sustained by communication - intimate - regular - joyful - sincere - needy - honest talk...
Yet very few people ever show the hunger of the disciples and ask "teach us how to pray"
When it comes to prayer - I think many folk assume they already know all they really need to know - for they know the Lord's Prayer - the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him "Lord, teach us how to pray."
But the Lord's Prayer which they have heard, and which we know, is not THE answer of Jesus to his disciple's question - it is only A answer - a model as it were - of what our prayer might be like - of what it might include - and of what attitude our prayer might be uttered with.
The Lord's Prayer, my brothers and sisters, is only a model, an example of what prayer is like - yet - I am afraid that people - have turned it into AN ICON - AN IDOL OF PRAYER - and so have missed the point of what Jesus said to his disciples on that hot and hazy day in Palestine so long ago.
Many Church members in some parts of the world lament the loss of the days when recitation of the Lord's Prayer was compulsory at school. They regard it as something for children to hold onto." "It'll come back to them when they're in trouble." "At least it's a foundation." And so on.
The Lord's Prayer itself is precious - and for many of us learning it, and saying it together, is a precious childhood memory. In the United States, their taking it out of the daily school routine is one more example of the erosion of so much that was once held dear to many people, and essential to the shared "Christian" culture. The absence of prayer in the schools compounds the frustration, grief, guilt churchgoers of a certain age feel over the fact that their children and grandchildren don't go to church.
But the Lord's Prayer can also be a perversion of prayer, something you do for a bit of religion; a retreat into magic; a set of words that might help in a fix; and as such it misses the point of what prayer is all about.
When a person learns the Lord's Prayer by rote, they did not know all they need to know about prayer. And teaching the Lord's prayer to others as a form of evangelism, as something that non-church-going kids need to hear, is a deep denial of the reason why Jesus taught his disciples this prayer in the first place.
The Lord's Prayer is a model of what prayer is for us as disciples - it is not meant for strangers - for people who do not know the Lord or believe in the God of Abraham and of Sarah and of Mary and of Joseph.
The Lord's Prayer is a form of prayer for disciples - for followers of Jesus - for the family of God.
A form of prayer mind you, not THE PRAYER or the ONLY PRAYER - nor even all prayers rolled into one. IT IS A MODEL - an example of how we - as followers of Jesus - might pray to God above.
IT IS, ABOVE ALL OTHER THINGS, A MODEL OF INTIMACY
God is not "Father" - a formal and stiff parent whom me must address with great respect, fear, and awe - God is "Daddy" the one into whose lap we as toddlers crawl up into as we chatter to him - the one whose arms hold us safe as we laugh and giggle and ask him what we want and tell him about our day.
God, as Jesus explained, is like the neighbour who is close enough to pester at the worst time, or a parent who wants only what's best for the children - the One you know you can count on because you *know* "him".
That's the One to whom this sample-prayer which we call the Lord's Prayer is addressed, and that is how Jesus suggests we can address Him!
God is the one we spend time with - as a child spends time with his friends and his parents - simple time - time of thanksgiving - of praise - of need of asking for forgiveness - of expressing hope.
Lord, Teach us how to pray...
When it comes to prayer - all of us need some instruction - some understanding - but more than that - we need time - time and desire.
Time for shooting or spot prayers - the kind of prayer that is seen when your child runs into the room and says - wow it sure is hot outside - or - gee whiz - it sure would be nice to go to the beach later - and time for special times of prayer - special occasions - such as when your child has hurt herself and comes to you for a bandage and for a hug - or when your son comes and asks you to tell him about why he has the name he has - or what your family do about the kids down the street whose mother died and whose father is out of work...and time for regular prayer - as when you plan the day at the breakfast table - or review it at the supper table.
Prayer is a matter of time and of desire - the desire to communicate - the desire to know - to listen - to think - to enjoy - to understand - to help - to be with...
I know people, within and without the church, who are offended by any talk of intimacy or familiarity with God. They are the people who want only the prayer-book words at weddings, only the "old favourite" hymns on Sundays, and only the King James Version at their funerals.
In a sense they keep God away from their inner selves with language. They like the sound of the words, and the atmosphere they create, but they don't really want to know what they mean, or the God they are addressed to.
Don't keep God away - keep coming to God - coming and asking - coming and sharing - coming and learning - for God answers prayer - he hears us - he communicates with us.
God answers prayer - not always as we want - with magical solutions to our problems - but God answers.
Sometimes he answers simply by listening when we share - as a father listens to his daughter tell him about her day - as a mother listens when her son speaks of his sense of frustration and of anger about how things are going at school, or at work, or with that special friend that he thought he could trust.
God is my friend - my Daddy - the one who understands me - the one who holds me - the one who reassures me.
The Lord's Prayer, my friends, is not magic - it's not the sum total of what we should say to God - it is a model for those people who are interested in knowing their heavenly father - a form of what prayer can be like for those who really want to be like Jesus It is an example of the freedom that we can have with God - the freedom that God himself bestows.
Hear the Prayer Jesus said we can pray... hear it as an example - audacious and bold and so intimate it is almost beyond words...
Daddy
you are so wonderful -
I wish that everybody could have a Daddy like you,
and that everyone would do the things you tell them to do -
because what you say is so good.
Daddy - will you make supper tonight?
Will you put good food on the table like you did last night and
the night before?
Oh - and Daddy - I hope you won't be mad...
I did something I shouldn't have today - will you forgive me??
Yes Daddy - I know
You want me to forgive my little brother for the nasty thing he
did to me
and I will - I love him - even if he is weird.
Thank you Daddy for not being angry.
You'll protect me always, won't you Daddy?
You'll keep me safe from those things that go bump in the night?
From those things that frighten me?
I knew you would Daddy - for you are the best Daddy anyone could
ever have.
I love you Daddy.
You are the greatest.
I got to go now Daddy
See you later.
Such my friends is the Lord's prayer for those who belong to the Family of God - and it is a surprise for many.
As David Buttrick expresses it, The Lord's Prayer with it's "Abba!, turns all our formal, strained praying into glad amusement, for right in the middle of our stained-glass phrases is that impudent word "Daddy!"
Lord - teach us how to pray...
To pray the Lord's Prayer, and to pattern prayer after this example is to be impudent and sassy, to be bold and to be vulnerable.
It is to be a child. A child whose father is the God who made heaven and earth and everything in it.
To pray as Jesus taught us to pray is, above all to be connected - connected when we are afraid and when we are full of courage - connected when we are weeping - and when we are laughing - connected when we are in need - and when we have much to give...
Lord, teach us how to pray....
When it comes to prayer - nothing else will quite do except that our hearts and our minds be turned to God as a child turns to her or his parents in trust and in confidence; in the trust and the confidence that they will be heard and helped and encouraged and loved..
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