Take It To the Lord In Prayer
Proper 12, Year C
Jesus regularly took time to pray. Jesus prayed to connect with God. Jesus prayed to direct, strengthen and correct his work. Prayer was essential to his life, faith and ministry. After one of his prayer times, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. They asked because they saw what prayer did for Jesus and wanted the same benefits for themselves. The disciples needed direction, longed for strength, and preferred God’s corrections to those in Torah laws, priests’ criticisms and rabbis’ instructions. Jesus told the disciples,
When you pray, address God as Abba. Ask your holy Parent to rule on earth as God does in heaven. Ask God to provide for your daily needs; to forgive your sins, and to equip you to forgive people who wrong you. And, before you end your prayer, implore God to keep you from temptation and evil.
Jesus taught the disciples and present day followers what to pray. Prayer is a conversation with God. When we talk with God, we should think of God as a wise, loving and whole reliable mother or father. During our conversations, we must look for signs of God’s reign, ask for what we need (food, shelter, companionship, meaningful activities), and request forgiveness and the will and wisdom to forgive others as God forgives us. The experience of forgiving others, give us the ability to trust that God forgives us. Before ending each and every conversation with God, we must implore God to spare us suffering, loss, and tribulation.
After teaching the disciples what to pray, Jesus taught them how to pray. Jesus used a parable to teach us how to pray. The story when something like this.
Suppose one of your friends, visits at midnight saying, `Friend, lend me blankets and pillows; for a friend of mine has come to me for shelter because their house was damaged tonight in a fire, and I do not have enough bedding to accommodate my friend and my friend’s family.' When you hear the knocking and listen to this request your first thought will be, `Who is bothering me at this hour; disturbing my sleep and waking my children.' In spite of these thoughts you will, because of the circumstance and insistence, get out of bed and give your friend what he needs.
We are to be persistent and insistent in prayer. Paul issued a similar instruction to the Christians in Thessalonica. Paul said
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Thessalonians 5:16-18
Pray without ceasing. When it comes to prayer, “the squeaky wheel gets the oil.” It is important to nag God, not because God has better things to do, is distracted by many demands, is inattentive or disinterested in you. Persistence in prayer clarifies the intent and fosters commitment in the person praying. If what we pray for is not worth repeating, perhaps it is not necessary to our daily life. If what you long for does not compel you to seek solace and strength in worship, move you to search Scripture for answers or compel you to nag God day and night, it could be that you are longing for the wrong thing.
Since childhood I have used prayer to help me, in the words of the Collect assigned for this day, to “pass through things temporal, so that I do not lose things that are eternal.” When I was very young, I assumed it had to snow on Christmas. From movies and TV shows I came to believe that Christmas could only be Christmas with snow. Instead of simply dreaming of a white Christmas, I prayed for a white Christmas. My method for praying was not Episcopal. Each night in the weeks and days leading up to Christmas, I pulled up the window shade in my bedroom at night, I knelt at the window with my elbows on the window sill, I looked up into the sky (because that is where God hangs out) and pleaded (with tears running down my cheeks) for God to make it snow. As a got older, I continued to nag God. As I aged, my requests shifted from the inconsequential to momentous. My senior year in high school a friend was paralyzed during a sporting activity. My freshman year in college a friend was killed in a car accident. My sophomore year in college a friend committed suicide.
When I talked with God, I asked God why. Why, Abba, did you allow this to happen? Why, why, why? Now I never got an answer to that question, but I did get a response. I learned from the people God sent to care for me and the people who grieved these losses with me, that there was nothing that could separate me from the love of God. My seminary training and ordination vows, changed many aspects of my piety, but they did not stop my nagging God. Because every the church and organization I served since during my priesthood has had to struggle to survive, nagging became even more important to my prayer life. God was and is my partner, advisor, director in everything. I take God with me when I make pastoral visit and prepare sermons. I seek God’s direction and counsel when I prepare for vestry meetings, search for vendors to make repairs, work with staff, interact with people who use church space and as I wrestle with how to renew the mission and ministry of Christ Church. Being a nudge and nag, praying without ceasing, has proven invaluable. It has strengthen my vocation and revitalized the places and people I have served. When I am “cumbered with a load of care,” I take to the Lord in prayer. I must confess that the small number of people who pledge, the months when there is no rectory rental income, and the limited funds in the church’s savings frighten me. When I panic, I pray. I nudge God asking, what am I doing wrong, what are we doing wrong? Am I misleading church and community members by projecting a future for Christ Church? When I face “trails and temptations, I take it to the Lord in prayer.” I sometimes fall into despair before worship. There are Saturdays and Sundays I enter the sanctuary or chapel for worship and see very few people in the pews. When you see me bowing my head in prayer before worship sometimes I am also fighting back tears. So I nag God again, with the same questions: what am I doing wrong, what are we doing wrong; am I misleading church and community members by projecting a future for Christ Church?
Whenever I ask and I receive. Each time I knock a door is opened. God responds to prayers. God has sent me and Christ Church people with skills and the will to help. Larry and his brother to rebuilt the stairs outside the Carter Room last summer. God introduced me to Gary at an event hosted by Wolfer’s Winery. Gary, who is not a church member, has been advising the Wardens and I how to manage AT&T’s lease of the bell tower. Sometimes God responds to my nagging about the number of people who attend worship by bringing more people. Other times God responds by making the worship experience meaningful for those who have gathered. Nudging and nagging God, reminds me that God is always with me. Nudging and nagging God, forces me to look beyond my own priorities and listen for more than my own considerations. Nudging and nagging God helps me to constantly to align and realign my thoughts, words and deeds with God’s will.
When you pray, remember that Jesus is your friend and God, his Father, is a loving, reliable and wise parent. Ask God for what you need. Seek forgiveness and be ready to forgive as you have been forgiven. Insist upon being spared suffering and loss. Your persistence and insistence will you to feel God’s presence even in the worst of circumstances. Pray without ceasing because it is a privilege to carrying everything to God in prayer.
