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To hear Lisa Rygiel's Sunday sermon, follow this link. Also, the sermon text is below.
Topic: Worship at Zion's TrinidadDate: Jul 24, 2022 09:39 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada) Meeting Recording:https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/5FhD-gvBupmiCF6f6NzZqhDQ0iSa-F-vGnJmcgeMvIls8f9ubdFvqi0mWhASfshd.TId3nnOnMySo_ahv
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One of the texts I consulted about our gospel reading for today was written by a man named Lewis Galloway. He had a very interesting insight. He stated that “Preaching about prayer is like falling into the ocean. We cannot touch the ocean floor; we are overwhelmed by the vast sea around us. We come up flailing our arms, gasping for breath, and struggling to stay afloat. No matter how hard we try, we cannot reach the depth and breadth of prayer, but we continue to be buoyed by prayer even as we explore its mysteries.”
Well, I hope today’s message doesn’t leave us gasping for breath too badly, it is hard enough to breathe at 6000 feet in elevation!
Our readings today are all about prayer. In our first reading, Abraham undertakes the role of a mediator between God and sinful humanity. He boldly appeals to God’s justice asking for mercy for the city of Sodom for the sake of the few righteous people there, including his nephew, Lot.
In our passage from Psalm 138, we hear how although the Lord is high, he cares for the lowly and answers the author’s prayer for strength.
In our reading from Colossians, we hear how Paul encouraged the Colossians to avoid the empty lure of philosophies and traditions that compromise faith and instead, abound in thanksgiving and praise for the salvation from sin.
In our Luke passage, the disciples, like Abraham, also speak with boldness. The disciples don’t ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, they tell him to teach them how to pray. This prayer, sometimes known as the Disciple’s prayer is an abbreviated version of the one found in Matthew 6 where we find the version of the Lord’s prayer we are more familiar with. And the prayer began a tradition that has been unceasingly offered in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church since that time.
This theme of boldness and persistence continues on after the prayer in our Luke passage. We are told to ask, to search, and to knock, knowing that the Lord says we will receive what we ask for. And God wants to give to those who ask of Him. We are to speak boldly and to be persistent in our prayers, and to be ready to receive the things for which we ask. First Thessalonians tells us to “Rejoice at all times. Pray without ceasing.” That is a pretty tall order!
What is prayer exactly? We pray consciously and unconsciously. We have prayer rituals for mealtimes and bedtimes. We have the Lord’s prayer in corporate worship. To some, prayer is a disciplined time set aside each day for meditation and reflection; to others, prayer is unrehearsed words uttered throughout the day in moments of joy or crisis. For still others, prayer can simply be an abiding sense of the presence of God, being still and knowing he is God.
Being told to pray boldly and believe that the Lord will give us what we ask for sounds great to most of us. To those listeners whose lives feel secure, these passages affirm their experience of God’s provision. To those who wait for deliverance, they reinforce hope. But, to those listeners reeling from a recent blow, they may sound untrue, a falsehood perpetuated in scripture.
I will admit to you that I have long been troubled by the nature of prayer. I am sure you have had your own questions about it. For one, why do we even need to pray at all? We are told in Matthew 6 that “your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.” So why does God encourage us to ask when He already knows what we need or want? And what does it mean if I have asked but not received? Was my prayer somehow deficient?
James 4:2 points out that sometimes, “we have not because we ask not.” We may think that we are lifting our wants and needs to God but all too often, we don’t. We may brood about things and stress over them but we never actually take our cares to Him. God wants us to come to him and ask for his help.
Prayer is about being in relationship with God and being in his presence. We are not telling God something He doesn’t already know. We are reminding ourselves of what already is, always has been and always will be.
We pray to remind ourselves that our life, our existence, our very being comes from the Father. Praying for our daily bread reminds us that we are not independent beings living in our own self-sufficiency despite how much we think we are. We need to rely on Him to sustain us and nourish us. We need that relationship with him. Yes, he knows what we need but he wants us to ask.
But what about those other times we pray? When we don’t get what we prayed for even though we were bold and persistent? Those times when we were begging and pleading and crying to God. Those times when our marriage is in trouble or our child is in pain or we have a beloved friend who is dying?
And it seems like we are pleading in vain and that the answer to our prayer is “No”.
One author I read stated that he thought a vending machine could provide good an analogy for prayer. Think about it. We put in the correct change, we make our selection, and usually we get what we want. “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” So, we offer up the coins of our wants, and needs, our beliefs, and our good behavior. We tell God what we want and expect to get what we ask for. That is the way it is “supposed to” work.
And that works fine until it doesn’t.
We put our money in that vending machine and that Snickers bar we were so hangry for gets hung up and doesn’t fall down the chute. And we get mad. We push the button again and again or we hit or kick or tip that machine hoping it will produce that item we want so badly. We did our part, that vending machine should produce!
It isn’t so different with prayer. So often, we treat our prayers to God the way we approach a vending machine. We put our coins in and sometimes, we don’t get what we wanted out of it. Some people will get angry. Some will feel hurt or betrayed, lose faith, even leave the church.
I don’t know why some prayers seem to be answered the way we want and others don’t. However, I have heard some really bad reasons why. “You didn’t have enough faith.” “You didn’t pray hard enough.” You were asking for the wrong thing.” Everything happens for a reason.” “God has something better in store.” “It is all a mystery and some day we will understand.”
We have all heard these cliches and we have probably even said them a time or two. We encounter the "God has a plan" theology all the time. People experiencing grief and loss want their pain to have meaning. And they find comfort in the idea that their suffering is a mysterious part of God's plan. We’ve got to let that go. It perverts who God is and how he works.
That way of thinking implies that God is an activities director who has every moment of our lives already mapped out. This version of God requires no input from us and issues terrible tragedies as a means for Him to accomplish His plan.
Today's readings speak of a relational God who listens and adapts. One who is willing to change his mind. This is a God that wants a relationship with us. We are His precious children. That is the way Jesus began his teaching, “Our Father who art in heaven…”
Perhaps the greatest difficulty of prayer is that sometimes we just want to offer our coins and push the button. We don’t want the relationship with God, we want something from Him. We want God to change our circumstances. However, while God can and sometimes does change our circumstances, I believe that God, more often than not, changes us. God nourishes, strengthens, empowers, emboldens, and enables us to face the circumstances of life.
When it seems that your prayers are not answered despite your boldness, your persistence. and your heartfelt pleadings, think about another person who prayed on a Thursday night. He prayed with words, sweat, and blood. “Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” They crucified him the following afternoon.
I don’t understand the mind of God or how prayer works and why he says yes or no. But I know this. It is not about the coins. It is not a mechanical process. It is not a transaction. It is not the transmission of information to God. Prayer is a relational interaction.
Jesus said in John 15;7, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” “Abide in me, and . . . ask whatever you wish.” This sounds so simple, just like “love one another” sounds so simple. But abiding, like loving, is not simple at all, because it is profoundly relational.
Think about this. Which of our other close relationships are simple? How hard do we have to work to understand and communicate clearly with those we love? I am not that great at it sometimes, just ask my husband! Isn’t relational communication one of the most difficult things we deal with in our face-to-face relationships? Should we expect that relating to God will be less difficult?
In every other human relationship we have, effective communication is something we must learn. The same is true with God. It’s not unusual to feel very perplexed at first. It can feel mysterious and frustrating. We may feel overwhelmed by the vast sea around us and we come up flailing our arms, gasping for breath, and struggling to stay afloat.
But prayer is the most effective way we as Christians can develop our relationship with God. If we really press into it, we tend to discover a relationship of intimacy and friendship we never believed possible. Are you spending time growing and nurturing that relationship? Ask. Search. Knock.
AMEN
