Sermon: Learning To Pray

A sermon by Rev Michael A. McGee of Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A. given February 24, 2002 (source link [cached] here).

I want to thank the choir for singing “Down in the River to Pray” so well this morning. I asked them to sing it because I thought it fit with the topic of prayer and also it’s a song I love to hear.

The movie the song comes from, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”, is also one of my favorite movies. It’s about three convicts who escape and go on an Odyssian journey through the southern countryside.

In one scene they witness a group of Christians in white robes walking down to the river to be baptized. They’re singing this beautiful Allison Krauss song as they walk along and wait their turn to be dunked.

When one of the convicts, who is as dull-witted as a hammer, witnesses what was going on, he runs into the river to be baptized and then comes out proclaiming that he is saved, all his sins are forgiven, and so the police have no need now to arrest him.

That’s a good way to look at the different ways people use prayer in their lives, some in a superficial way that simply seeks to fulfill their own desires, and others as a deeper devotional, plunging into the depths of the spirit.

But in the reading this morning, Rumi warns us that we can never know what is in another’s heart. What may seem superficial to one person may in reality be heartfelt.

Like many of you, I prayed frequently as a child. Most nights I would knell beside my bed or tunnel underneath my covers and pray to that paternal figure I thought to be God. I would pray for my parents and friends, for good grades and baseball victories, for long, sunny days and short nights.

Sometimes my prayers would be answered, while other times it seemed obvious that God had dozed off in the middle of my pleas. But having so little power to change things, I continued to rely on divine intervention to make my life better.

In my teens I had a religious crisis in which I began to doubt my Christian beliefs. I prayed nightly for God to point me in the right direction, to restore my faith, to renew my spirit. I pleaded for a sign, a word, some indication of what I should do. All I heard, night after night, was silence.

At the time I was greatly disappointed that my prayers had gone unanswered. You see, I had not yet come upon the words of Sister Mary Ignatius who said "Do not think prayers go unanswered. Every prayer is answered. It's just that sometimes the answer is no."

Now, with the perspective of years, I realize that my prayers were answered, and not with a "no" but with a deep and abiding silence. Silence was the answer. The silence said to me, "Seek elsewhere. Go within. Look into the darkness. Listen to your soul."

What I thought at the time was a cosmic "No!" turned out to be one of the most beneficial blessings of my life. I turned onto a new path that led me into a richer spirituality. And that new path has led me to be who I am today. My prayer now is "Thank you!"

Many of us have had similar experiences in our lives. We've been told in our childhood that prayer is an absolute necessity to be a religious person. But we were never taught how to pray. We assumed that God was an all night disc jockey who played special requests, or the game show host on "Let's Make A Deal." Many people never grow out of this childlike attitude towards prayer.

Some years ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick broadcast this as the most honest prayer he ever heard: "Bless me and my wife, my son, John, and his wife, us four, no more, Amen!"

To be perfectly honest I still fall prey to this small spirited kind of prayer from time to time. I remember when my children played baseball, and with the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the ninth (and at times in situations less critical) I would send towards the heavens a heartfelt appeal, even to the point of offering to go to an extra committee meeting that week for one little base hit, or in my desperation even to have my child walked or hit by the pitcher. Of course, right next to me the pitcher's mother was probably praying frantically for her son to strike out the little runt at the plate.

It's so easy to misuse prayer for our own selfish purposes instead of letting prayer take us into deeper and more sustaining dimensions of being. We’ve been taught to whine to the Divine, but we’ve never learned how to actually pray.

To pray is a spiritual discipline, which means that it takes effort and attention, and it can never be learned completely. It’s a lifetime of learning. But if we do discipline ourselves, we become not only better at praying, but we eventually become our own prayer.

How do we learn to pray? Sometimes we need to learn from children. Forrester Church, the minister of All Souls Unitarian Church in Manhattan tells of a time when he, his wife, and son, Twig, were eating a meal with a group of other UU ministers.

“...It will come as no surprise to you that we Unitarian Universalist ministers are not conspicuously pious. Our common meals, for instance, did not begin with a prayer. Well, my son had suffered through about three of these. He had enough of our thoughtlessness. He was missing something, that moment of quiet that inaugurates our meals at home. So what did he do? In an act of divine impertinence he held out his hands to the shocked minister to his right and to his half-chagrined, half-proud mother on his left, bowed his head, and left the rest of us scrambling to put down our forks for a moment of silent prayer.

“Twig also has taken to saying his prayers at night. In part, I must admit, this is a delaying tactic. He blesses everybody he can think of and would go through the list again if his father would let him. But, on the other hand, what a wonderful thing it is. To take a moment before drifting off to sleep to say a simple prayer for the ones we love.

“I wonder, have those of us who do not say our prayers at night really grown up? I fear not. I am afraid we have simply forgotten how essential it is that we remember to offer up our thanks for the blessings that are ours...” (CLF News Bulletin, April, 1981)

There have certainly been times in my life when prayer has been unimportant. But I find that as I grow older and as my spirituality deepens, I need prayer in my life B not the superficial, self-centered solicitation -- but the kind of prayer May Sarton speaks of in her poem, "The land of silence". She writes of the need

... to be present only in the
Prayer that is creation,
In the life that is lived,
Love planted deeper than emotion,
Pure idea that cannot break apart,
Creator of children or the work of art.

In order to learn to pray, we need to first learn to be silent and still. I believe we cannot be movers until we are moved, and it is only in the quiet moments of our lives, in the land of silence, when we have shut down the bevy of little distractions drawn from the day or spun from our fear of tomorrow that we can truly be moved by the spirit of life.

When we enter the land of silence we are then able to penetrate into the mystery of life. It's in that mystery that we transcend our self, our religion, and even our image of God, and we enter into the unknown.

In this mysterious unknown we are enfolded by the all-sustaining, all-embracing Being of Life itself. In the words of the Jewish mystic, Abraham Heschel: "To pray is to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments. Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. It is all we can offer in return for the mystery by which we live."

To enter into prayer requires that we not only be silent but that we learn to listen. To pray is to intentionally listen to and yield to the calling of life, to let go of all the excess baggage we carry around: the anger, embarrassment, bitterness, envy, greed, and then to listen to and affirm that which is the most sacred in our souls.

What do we hear? First of all we hear our own cries of brokenness and pain, cries that we usually stifle with busyness and noise. In prayer we open our wounds so that they may be healed. There is a spiritual that sings:

It's me, it's me, O Lord, standin' in the need of prayer;
Not my father, not my mother, it's me, O Lord,
Not my sister, not my brother, it's me, O Lord,
Standin' in the need of prayer,
Standin' in the need of prayer.

To truly enter into prayer we must first admit that we are in need of prayer, that we are fragmented, in pain, and in need of being healed.

And then we listen for the still, small voice at the center of our soul. It's a voice that speaks for life, for wholeness, for healing. It's that quiet voice we hear when all the other daily disturbances have been silenced that guides us towards a fuller life.

In the silence we may choose to ask questions of that voice within us, questions about our purpose, our meaning, our path to choose. In a novel by Elie Wiesel called Night he tells the story of a young boy in a small East European town at the end of 1941. One day the combination town fool and wise man, Moche, approaches him as he is praying:

"Why do you pray?" he asked me...

"I don't know why," I said, ...disturbed and ill at ease.

"And why do you pray, Moche?" I asked him.

"I pray to the God within me (to) give me the strength to ask ... the right questions."

Those questions we ask of Life must come out of the land of silence. But after we ask them we must be willing to listen for the answers, and we must be willing to live out those answers in our lives. A. Powell Davies once prayed this way:

“...the prayers that we do not want to pray, because they would commit us to hard tasks or require that we forsake our selfishness, help us to pray them. Yea, O God, more than all the others, let those be the prayers that we pray.”

Prayer is a way for us to feel our connections to other lives, to be sensitive to their suffering, and to try and heal their pain. Many people pray for a friend or family member to recover from cancer or AIDS or an accident, or they pray that someone may be able to cope with the grief of loss.

Many religious liberals don't believe in this kind of supplication, but I believe prayer can be a powerful force for healing. I do pray for others' healing and health and wholeness, certainly not expecting a miracle to occur, but as a way of bringing my consciousness into awareness of those who are in need of attention so that I may better respond. Another alternative I like is when the Quakers say, “I’ll hold you in the light.”

I’m asked sometimes by visitors to our church about the purpose of our lighting of candles of hope, memory and gratitude. I explain that it is simply a way some of us choose to become more aware of those we love or those in pain.

When I light a candle it’s usually for my father who is dead and my mother who is living or for others I love, or for those who were victims of the September attacks or other disasters. I know that lighting a candle will not benefit them directly, but it does benefit me by inviting them to be present in my memory and in my consciousness.

For me the time for Meditation and Prayer is at the heart of our worship together. It is in that time that we, in the words of the poet, Joy Harjo:

“...open your whole self

To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon

To one whole voice that is you.

And know there is more

That you can’t see, can’t hear

Can’t know except in moments

Steadily growing, and in languages

That aren’t always sound but other

Circles of motion.”

Some people get hung up on the word “prayer” or they want to know who or what we are praying to. But to me it makes no difference what you call it or who you pray to. What matters is that we open ourselves up, our hearts, our senses, our spirits, becoming mindful of those sustaining connections, to the pain that urges us towards growth, to our deepest hopes and dreams, to the Spirit of Life itself.

But don’t get the idea that prayer is purely passive. I believe that "Prayer does not change things. Prayer changes people, and people change things." My colleague, Bruce Southworth, tells a story about...

“...the financial problems faced once by a Catholic Worker House in New York. There was desperate need for more funds for them to continue their work with the poor, and the >tradition was to pray to St. Joseph for such assistance. They did so for several days with no response, whereupon Dorothy Day and her colleagues marched to St. Patrick's Cathedral.’ There they picketed the statue of St. Joseph. >After a short time, Cardinal Spellman came out and gave them the money.’"

So it was not the prayers of Dorothy Day and her followers that changed things. It was their prayers that changed Cardinal Spellman, and then the good Cardinal changed the circumstances.

There's a Russian proverb which says, "Pray without ceasing, and row like crazy for the shore." It's through prayer that we transform ourselves, but then we must accept our responsibility to go out and transform the world. Prayer does not change things. Prayer changes people, and people change things.

One of the most tranforming prayers is one of gratitude. Someone has said that if you can say no other prayer "Thank you!" will be enough. That is certainly the prayer I must often utter. While gazing at spring's first crocus, or listening to children's laughter, or simply feeling a calming peace in the land of silence I will whisper a soft "Thank you!" for being alive.

There is one more aspect of prayer I am learning, and that is the prayer of embodiment. This prayer is described well by the ardent Unitarian and Quaker Susan B. Anthony when she said, "I pray every single second of my life; not on my knees, but with my work."

Embodiment prayer is a kind of prayer where the meaning in our heads becomes the meaning in our bodies. When we use our bodies with spiritual intent, both our bodies and the occasion become sacred.

Abraham Heschel once said of his experience marching with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Alabama, "My feet were praying." Embodied prayer is a spiritual practice in which you are able to see your will and actions intermingled with your values and purpose and engaged together with the world.

I do believe that our acts of compassion are the most potent of prayers. In the end, we are our own prayer. Whatever we do is the culmination of all that we have done, of all that we are, of all that we have prayed.

So this is how I am learning to pray:

* by being silent and still, mindful of my deepest desires and attentive to the still, small voice within;
* by asking the big questions about the meaning of life and letting the answers rise to the surface of my consciousness;
* by saying “Thank you!” to life, to God, to each other, for the multitude of blessings in my life;
* by holding each other in the light of our concern and compassion;
* by attempting to embody my words and dreams, not only being compassionate but compassion, not only loving but being love, not only praying but becoming a prayer.

May we learn to pray in the spirit of this prayer by the Ojibway People:

Grandfather,

Look at our brokenness.

We know that in all creation

Only the human family

Has strayed from the Sacred Way.

We know that we are the ones

Who are divided

And we are the ones

Who must come back together

To walk in the Sacred Way.

Grandfather,

Sacred One,

Teach us love, compassion, and honor

That we may heal the earth

And heal each other.

Amen, amen and amen.

And now please join me in spoken meditation and prayer:

Spirit of Life who is beyond name or description,

we speak with you this morning though we know not whom we speak with.

Perhaps it is only ourselves, but that is a worthy conversation to have.

Perhaps it is with the Great Mystery, with that which is greater than ourselves but impossible to comprehend.

And that too is a conversation worth having.

We are not sure how to pray to one we do not know or understand.

We have trouble finding the words as well as the inclination.

There is so much in our lives that must be done, so little time to be silent and still, so little opportunity to be mindful and meaningful.

How do we find the time?

How do we find the words?

Help us to make time in our days to swim in the ocean of silence.

And help us to find the words that bubble up from the wellspring of our heart.

And if we have trouble finding our own words, may we use the words of those who express our sorrow and hopes so well, such as this prayer from St. Francis:

Lord, make us an instrument of your peace,Where there is hatred, let us sow love;...where there is violence, let us sow forgiveness;...where there is doubt, let us sow faith;...where there is despair, let us sow hope;...where there is darkness, let us sow light;...where there is sadness, let us sow joy....Let us not so much wish to be comforted as to comfort;...to be understood as to understand;...to be loved as to love.For it is in giving that we receive;...it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;...and it is in dying that we are born into the life of the age to come.

Amen.

Sermon: Practically Praying: Why Pray?

A sermon by Rev D. Graham Leitch of Barclay Church, Edinburgh, Scotland given January 26, 2003 (source link here).

“Why Pray?” - that’s the question that claims our attention and we’re invited to ponder this morning. Although this is meant to be very much a “how to” series - aimed at guiding and assisting those who want to begin praying or to be better pray-ers to progress - I make no apology for the fact that today’s sermon will be less of a “how to” sermon than the others!!

The motives behind the question “Why pray?” can vary.

MOTIVES BEHIND THE QUESTION ‘WHY PRAY?’
For the person of a more philosophical bent, the question may proceed from an inquiring mind:
In respect of prayer and intercession, “If God already knows all about our needs before we tell him, why bother?” In respect of praise and worship, “If God wants to be praised and thanked and fussed over continually does that not make him proud and self-centred.”

On the other hand, for the young widow standing beside her young husband’s grave - the husband for whose healing and recovery she has prayed and pleaded, begged, for the whole year since the traumatic day when the diagnosis and prognosis of his cancer was explained to him, the words “Why pray?” are no longer academic but mean “Why bother?!!”

I make no apology for this being less of a “how to” sermon than the others, because all the practical tips, guidance and advice in the world will be worthless to you unless you know the reason why PRAYER shouldn’t be the peculiar interest of a few enthusiasts but the perpetual practice of the entire church!

WHY PRAY? is our subject this morning.

Notice, by the way, that the answers to the question “Why SHOULD we pray?” may be different from the answers to the question “Why DO we pray?

WHY SHOULD WE PRAY AND WHY DO WE PRAY?
* Some people pray because they were taught to as children. There is something deeply moving about a child’s prayer.

A A MILNE - VESPERS
Little boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head,
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

God bless mummy. I know that’s right.
Wasn’t it fun in the bath tonight?
The cold’s so cold and the hot’s so hot,
Oh! God bless Daddy - I quite forgot

If I open my fingers a little bit more,
I can see Nanny’s dressing gown on the door.
It’s a beautiful blue but it hasn’t a hood.
Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good!

Oh! Thank you God for a lovely day.
And what was the other I had to say
” I said ‘God bless Daddy’ so who can it be?
Oh! Now I remember - GOD BLESS ME!

* Some people pray because they were taught to as children.

* Some people pray because (though they’re not even sure of God, it makes them feel better, or because something in them tells them they should!

* And many an atheist has prayed to the God he denies when the going’s been tough or the situation’s been desperate or hopeless!

I’m not asking you to to think about why people DO pray but about why everyone SHOULD PRAY

I want to give you four answers - and I’ll tell you WHAT they are now so that you can follow more clearly and at the same time not become over anxious about how long the sermons going to be!!

WHY SHOULD WE PRAY?

We should pray, first,because of WHO we are. We should pray, second, because of WHAT we are.
Third, we should pray because of who GOD is. And finally, we should pray because of what PRAYER itself is.

1. WE SHOULD PRAY BECAUSE OF WHO WE ARE
WHY PRAY? We should pray because of who we are. Some of you will know the story of the Minister who visited one of his older member who was in residential care - she has become rather confused and forgetful and so to test whether she really knew him or not he gently sat beside her, took her hand and asked her “Now - who am I?’ to which nodding in a kindly and understanding way she replied:
“Don’t worry son, lots of folk forget who they are in her - but if you ask that lady over there, she one of the care staff and she’ll tell you who you are - and perhaps” she added smiling, “you’ll be able to remember!”

We should pray because of who we are!! One of the reasons why we don’t pray is that we’ve forgotten who we are!!

We remember that “no man is an island” - we know that we were not made to live in isolation - but in our preoccupation with human relations and culture’s encouragement to live this life to the full we have forgotten that we were not only made by God but are made FOR relationship with Him - to know Him and enjoy Him.

OUTSIDE OF GOD WE ARE INCOMPLETE
In God we find our fulfilment and satisfaction, but outside of God we are incomplete. We should pray because of who we are ! We are part of the animal creation, but we are unique within it, being made, the Bible tells us, “in the image of God” Alone, within the animal creation, we have the capacity of knowing God and relating to Him.... and this is not an “extra” - the “icing on the cake”, so to speak. It the supreme purpose of our lives.... but it is also, or it is intended to be, the essence of our lives - its what we’re made for!!

Now Springtime’s coming and before long the spring flower will be braking through the ground to greet the returning warmth of the New Year’s sun. But what happens if a bulb’s planted upside down....if it produces a flower at all it produce one that is stunted and weak - it may still be a snowdrop or daffodil. But it is isn’t half the snowdrop of daffodil it would have been if it had been the right way up!!

We cannot be complete without prayer because we cannot be completely human - complete persons - without God. A life that neglects its spiritual nature is like a bulb planted upside down!!

WHY PRAY? We should pray because of who we are. Individuals made for relationship with God.

2. WE SHOULD PRAY BECAUSE OF WHAT WE ARE
We should PRAY also because of WHAT we are. All of us are different - every single one of us - but none of us, not a single one of us is all we should be!!

Our weakness are many are varied - in this we are all different. What is not a temptation to one person may be a great temptation to another. To steal, to thieve, to commit adultery, to lie, to abuse the body or the body of another, to be callous cruel or violent.

The spiritual DNA of every person is different, but in this we are identical and equal- that we are at fault, guilty, we’re not perfect. We’re “damaged goods”, if you like........we have ignored God,, despised His will and disobeyed His commands.

i) We should pray because of WHO we are - each one and every one of us is made for relationship with God.

ii) We should PRAY also because of WHAT we are - SINNERS! Sin is simply falling short of God’s perfect standard. A miss, here is as good as a mile!! Who today dare stand before God and claim to be as good a father, mother, son, daughter, colleague or friend to others as we could have been.

Who amongst us can claim no regret. Aren’t there things you wish you’d done differently - things you wish had never happened. Things you know you’ve done wrong!! Are you the only one who’s never said “If only.....”?

JOHN 8:1-12
Remember that heart stopping drama pictured by John in Chapter 8 of His Gospel when the self-righteous Pharisees bundles a women caught being unfaithful to her husband before Him. And they sneered and pointed their fingers and poked her:

“The Bible says that women of her kind should be stoned!!” they urged.

But Jesus, looked at one and then another - and it was a s though his gaze read their inmost hearts and unravelled their darkest secrets :Let the person without sin throw the first stone!” And one by one they left!

Since the days of Adam there has only been one Person without sin - and that Person was Jesus Christ Himself. He alone was “without sin”

Prayer is therefore not an irrelevance for us; it is a necessity for us, for prayer is the hand of faith reaching out to accept God;’ offered forgiveness. All true prayers begins with this:

“God be merciful to me, a sinner!”

WHY SHOULD WE PRAY?
We should pray, first,because of WHO we are - persons made in the image of God to know Him - this is the language of intimacy, even of intercourse. We were made for God!!

We should pray, second, because of WHAT we are - people who have let others down and let God down People who need, though we can never deserve His forgiveness.

3. WE SHOULD PRAY BECAUSE OF WHO GOD IS!
We should pray, third, because of who GOD is!! He is the all powerful, all wise, all knowing, all holy, all merciful, all loving One - perfect in His nature, His being and all His actions. He is the supreme, preeminent One. We should pray because of WHO God is - we should praise Him because He expects and commands our praise.

Of course, this may seem strange - unchristian almost!! If God wants us to praise Him all the time is He not proud and self-centred. Someone who wants to be praised and thanked all day long is unattractive to us...

But it is not for any selfishness in HIM that God wants us to praise Him, but to deliver us from the self-centredness that’s in US!!

We should praise God for who He is, because praise and worship is the natural thing, once we know how much we owe Him and how great His love for us, for us to do!

A passage in C S Lewis’s book “Reflections on the Psalms” offers a profound insight into the nature of prayers of praise and worship offered to God:
C S. LEWIS
“I had never noticed” he writes “that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others i deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise - lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game - praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges countries, historical figures, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, sometimes even politicians or scholars.

I has not noticed how the humblest and most capacious minds praised most... I had not noticed, either, that just as persons spontaneously praise what they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: ‘Isn’t she lovely?! Wasn’t it glorious?!! Don’t you think that’s magnificent?!!

The Psalmists, in telling everyone to praise God, are doing what we all do when we speak of what we care about!”

Why should we pray? Do lovers never talk together?

Why should we PRAY - we should pray because of who GOD is - as children we were taught to say thank you - “What do you say to the lady? And at first, perhaps we recoiled with embarrassment and shyly hid behind mummy’s legs!! But we learned to say thank you - not just to be courteous and polite but to be be appreciative and grateful.

As children we we’re taught to say thank. As parents, in turn, we have taught our children to say “Thank You “ and they are teaching their children to say thank you!

Peter’s thank-you letter.
Many of you know we have three grandchildren - Peter, Anna and Matthew. On Friday - just a couple of days ago - I received a Christmas “thank you” letter from Peter, who’s four:
Dear Grandma and Grandpa (it read)
This is grandpa watching a scarey programme. Thank for my spaceship but some of it is broken....but I like spaceships.
Love from Peter.

How much more then, do we owe thanks to God for life, for all that makes us happy and for His Son?

WHY SHOULD WE PRAY?

3. WE SHOULD PRAY BECAUSE OF WHO GOD IS!
Finally, and briefly, we should pray because of what PRAYER IS

In relation to WHO WE ARE - it is the means by which we may enter into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ - and then it is the enjoyment and deepening of that relationship. It is the relationship of the loved to the Great Lover. - intimate and sublime - a love affair with God!!

In relation to WHAT WE ARE - it is the means by which through Jesus Christ we access God’s heart and daily find His pardon.

And in relation to WHO HE IS - it is the key to the door that leads weakness to the help of Divine Omnipotence, worry to the feet of the All wise God, and loneliness to the heart of an Everlasting Friend.

To refuse prayer - is to walk away from the most immensely satisfying and enriching relationship possible to any individual.

To refuse prayer is to withhold thanks from the Author of Life and giver of every good gift.

And to refuse prayer is to reject the only Hand that, in the worst of times, can still lift us up.
AMEN

Stained Glass: St. Jude Thaddeus

Sermon: If God is Sovereign, Why Pray?

A sermon by Dr. Ray Pritchard of Keep Believing Ministries given January 1998 (source link here).

When we surveyed the congregation last year several people asked this question. I would suppose that most Christians have wondered about it at one time or another. Certainly skeptics have thrown it in our faces to discourage us from seeking the Lord in times of crisis. I would be less than honest if I didn’t say that I myself have wrestled with this issue on more than one occasion.

Perhaps the place to begin is by sketching the question in more detail. Here are five statements that I believe we can all agree on:

1. God knows all things. We call this aspect of God’s character his omniscience. It speaks to the fact that because God is God, he knows all things that could be known-past, present, and future-and he knows them all at the same time. That means that God is never surprised and that he never learns anything new.

2. God has committed himself to provide for his people. In fact, I think we can state the position even more forcefully than that. God wants to provide for us, he intends to provide for us, and he will provide what we need. In Philippians 4:19 Paul assures us that “God will meet all your needs,” which is the New Testament version of Psalm 23:1, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” David also said in Psalm 34:9, “Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.” God promises that “I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint” (Jeremiah 31:25). When we pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” do we not pray to a God who has promised to give us all the bread we need precisely when we need it? The whole record of the Bible teaches us that God is the Great Provider, which is why one of his divine names is Jehovah Jireh-“The LORD will provide” (Genesis 22:14).

3. God has invited us to bring our needs to him. We are told to ask, to seek, to knock (Matthew 7:7-8). Why? Ask and it shall be given, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened unto you. In Psalm 81:10 the Lord promises, “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” This is where prayer becomes intensely personal. Our Heavenly Father-who already knows our needs-invites us to make our needs known through prayer.

4. We don’t know what we really need. We think we do, but we don’t. Or to be more accurate, we know part of our needs, but not all of them. Our perspective is inevitably limited by our own experience, desires and personal knowledge. Romans 8:26 says that “We do not know what we ought to pray for.” How true that is. Recently I was presented with a problem involving a couple whose marriage has been in a crisis situation for many years. I can honestly say that I have prayed so much for this couple without a positive result that when I try to pray now, I don’t know how to pray for them effectively. That’s why the most basic prayer is always “Thy will be done.” But God knew that we would often be baffled in prayer so he sent the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us. He prays for us when we don’t know how to pray for ourselves or for anyone else.

5. God knows what we need before we ask him. Matthew 6:8 says this very plainly: “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” That means we don’t have to impress God, use big words, or pray long prayers. We don’t have to repeat ourselves when we pray and worry about getting all the details correct or throw in flowery language when we pray. Since God knows us through and through, he knows our needs better than we do. When you pray, you aren’t informing God of anything. He knew your need before you bowed your head.

But that brings us back to the original question. If God knows everything before we pray, and if he truly wants to provide for us anyway, why bother praying at all? Isn’t prayer just a waste of time? Or you might say it this way: If God has ordained all things, won’t he do whatever he’s going to do, with or without my prayers?

With that as background, I’d like to consider four answers to the question, If God is sovereign, why pray?

1. We do not pray to inform God of anything.
This may be obvious but it needs to be stated anyway. When you pray, you aren’t informing God of things he wouldn’t otherwise know. The Bible tells us that he numbers the stars in the sky, the sand on the seashore, and the hairs on your head. He even calls the stars by name (Psalm 147:4). Ponder that for a moment. Billions and billions of stars and he knows the personal name of each one. Think how easily you get flustered on Sunday morning trying to remember that person you met last week. I’m sure there is no one in our church-including me-who knows the names of everyone who attends our three services each Sunday morning.

But God does. He not only knows all the people in this church, he knows everyone attending every church everywhere in the world today. More than that, he knows the names of all 5.7 billion people who call planet earth home. But even beyond that, he knows the names of everyone who has ever lived here and everyone yet to be born.

If God knows all that, and it’s not even a strain for him, do you think he’s going to be surprised that your gall bladder is acting up again? Do you think he doesn’t know about your crabby boss or how you gained 10 pounds in the last month?

In case you doubt me, listen to the words of Psalm 139:1-4.

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

That would appear to be total knowledge of every aspect of your life. Nothing you can do or say is a surprise to God. He knows your secret thoughts, your hidden motives, your unspoken dreams, and he knows what you are going to say before you ever open your mouth.

I find this a liberating truth for the prayer life. It means I don’t have to yell or shout to try and make him understand. And I don’t have to go into some long explanation either. I don’t even have to repeat myself unless I want to. He got the message the first time. Actually, he got the message before I ever sent it.

2. We pray to express our total dependence upon our Heavenly Father.
I recently got some help on this point from a tape by R. C. Sproul, in which he quoted John Calvin, the great theologian of the Protestant Reformation. At one point while discussing the purpose of prayer, Calvin comments that prayer is not for God’s good, but for ours. That’s an amazing thought. Because God is God, he doesn’t “need” our prayers. But we need to pray. (Lest this point be misunderstood, I think Calvin means that God’s perfections are perfect in their completeness. While God desires our prayers, they do not “add” anything to who God is.)

Let me say that another way. God doesn’t need the information we give him, but he encourages us to give him the information anyway.

Perhaps an illustration would help. Picture a father watching his four-year-old daughter trying to put together a puzzle. She tries and tries but she just can’t get the pieces in the right place. Her father watches with great interest but he doesn’t interfere. Finally, she comes over and crawls in his lap and says, “Daddy, would you help me put my puzzle together?” He smiles and bends down and together they begin to pick up each piece. One by one they put the puzzle together.

Now why didn’t the father help his daughter earlier? For one thing, she didn’t ask for his help. For another, he wanted her to try on her own. And most of all, he wanted her to ask him for his help. When she did, he was honored and gladly helped her finish the puzzle.

Is this not a picture of how our Heavenly Father deals with his children? Although he longs to come to our aid, often he waits until we specifically ask him. Sometimes he wants us to come to the end of our own pitiful resources before he intervenes. When we cry out in despair, he is honored as we express our complete dependence upon him.

Every prayer is the cry of a child saying, “Help, Father, I can’t do this by myself.”

3. We pray because God is honored by our persistent faith.
I’ve already said that since God knows what we need before we ask him, we don’t have to repeat ourselves to get his attention. But that’s not the whole story. We all know from personal experience that not all our prayers are answered the first time we pray them. Sometimes we receive immediate answers, but often we must wait days, weeks, months, or even years before the answer comes. For instance, I know of many people in our congregation who have prayed for years for their loved ones to come to Christ. Some of you write down the same prayer request every single week-week in and week out. (I would add that it often seems the case that the more something matters to us, the longer we will have to wait for the answer to come. This is very often true when we pray for our loved ones to come to Christ.)

How long should you pray for your loved ones to be saved? My answer is simple. You should pray until God answers your prayers. Do you remember the story of the widow and the unjust judge in Luke 18:1-8? The woman kept coming back to the judge to plead her case. Because the judge was dishonest, he didn’t have time for her, but her persistence wore him down so finally he said, “I’m going to see that this woman gets justice before she drives me crazy.” Listen to the words of Jesus as he applies this story to our Heavenly Father:

And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly (Luke 18:7-8).

Jesus isn’t saying that God is like the unjust judge. But if an unjust judge can be swayed by the persistence of a widow, won’t God’s heart be moved by the persistent prayers of his people? The answer is yes. Persistent prayer moves the heart of God because it expresses such desperate dependence on him.

Sometimes it takes desperate circumstances to bring forth this kind of faith. Perhaps you’ve heard about the doctor who said to his patient, “There’s nothing I can do. It’s in the hands of God now.” “Oh, no,” the patient replied, “has it come to that?” Prayer reminds us that in the end everything depends on God and not on us.

James 5 gives us another wonderful example of the power of prayer. Elijah prayed that it would not rain and for three-and-one-half years there was no rain in Israel. He prayed again and the rains fell from heaven. Here’s the moral of the story in James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” In the original language James used a word that means “to boil over.” Fervent prayers get God’s attention because they come from a heart that believes God’s power is unlimited.

This doesn’t mean that you need to shout when you pray or that you have to weep or moan or stand or sit. Fervent prayer is simply prayer offered in earnest petition to God. It’s not the words that matter … or the length of the prayer … or the tone of your voice … or whether you stand or kneel or sit. What matters is that you really mean it when you pray.

Many years ago when we lived in California, I heard a man speak at a youth workers rally in Long Beach. I remember that he spoke on Acts 12 and told the story of how his wife had been involved in a terrible accident. As the ambulance rushed her to the hospital, he tried to pray but the only words that would come out were “Oh God. Oh God. Oh God.” It seemed, he commented, like one of the few times in his life that he had entered into the true spirit of prayer.

The same thing happened to me the night our first child was born. My wife Marlene had carried the baby for ten full months and there were some difficulties at the end of the pregnancy. She was in labor all night long but nothing seemed to be happening. Finally the doctor came in about 5:30 a.m. and said, “We’re going to take that baby now.” I knew from the look on his face that he felt things weren’t going well. Moments later they whisked my wife away and I was left alone. I tried to pray but the words wouldn’t come. The only prayer that passed my lips was, “Oh God, have mercy. O Lord, have mercy.”

I learned that night that God isn’t concerned about our words when we pray. What matters is that our hearts be focused on him. Fervent prayers move God to action because they come from persistent faith in the face of desperate circumstances.

4. We pray because he is God and we are not.
This of course is the first rule of the spiritual life. All prayer is based on this simple truth. He runs the universe, we don’t. We pray because he’s in charge and we’re not.

And here’s a crucial insight. When we don’t pray, it’s because we’ve forgotten who’s God and who’s not. A lack of prayer means we’re still trying to run the show. It’s a sign that we’ve decided we can handle things on our own.

And that brings us back to the original question. If God is sovereign, why pray? Yesterday I was chatting with John Tahl and mentioned my sermon topic to him. He looked at me and said, “There’s an easy answer to that question.” I asked what it was-mainly because I wanted to be sure I knew it myself. “Because he commanded us to,” he replied. When you think about it, that is the ultimate answer. We pray because God has commanded us to pray-which means that prayer must be good for us.

Sometimes you see little signs that say, “Prayer changes things.” I believe that’s true. And the first thing prayer changes is us. It teaches us to depend completely on our Heavenly Father and it reminds us that he is God and we are not. Prayer can change the course of men and nations.

Why pray if God knows everything in advance? Because God has ordained that our prayers are part of his plan for the universe. Our prayers really do matter to God. In a sense God limits what he can do in the world so that he can work through our prayers. It’s not that God “needs” our prayers. He doesn’t. But in his grace, he has invited us to join him in the great adventure of bringing his kingdom to this sinful world. Through our prayers, we partner with God in changing the world.

Our greatest problem is not with God’s sovereignty but with our own sinful unbelief. The Bible says, “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:2 KJV). But Jesus himself invited us to ask God for anything that we need. So why don’t we pray more than we do?

Let’s wrap up this message with a very simple theology of prayer. Our part is to pray fervently, sincerely, and honestly, bringing our deepest concerns to the Lord. God’s part is to listen to our prayers and to graciously answer them in his own time, in his own way, according to his own will. If we do our part, God cannot fail to do his.

God calls us to pray. He invites us to pray. He commands us to pray. He begs us to pray. He exhorts us to seek his face every day. We have been given unlimited access to the throne room of the universe. The King of Kings wants to hear from you. Don’t keep him waiting any longer.

Here’s a simple application of my message. It’s early in 1998 and no doubt you’ve been thinking about the year ahead. If God answers your deepest prayers this year, what will happen?

I’d like you to write down your top three prayer requests for 1998 in the space below. It doesn’t matter what the requests are so long as they represent things you really care about-either for yourself or for someone you love or for God’s work around the world.

My requests for 1998:

1.

2.

3.

I encourage you to keep these three requests where you can see them every day. Pray about these things until A) the Lord clearly answers, or B) the circumstances change, or C) the Lord lifts the burden from your heart.

Remember, the Lord of the universe wants to hear from you in 1998. Don’t keep him waiting. May the Lord grant that we will experience more answers to more prayers this year than ever before.

Sermon: Pray Without Ceasing

A sermon by Rev. Keenan Kelsey of Noe Valley Ministry, Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, California, U.S.A., given February 20, 2005 (source link here).

Thessalonians 5:14-24
And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.

When I think of the phrase, Pray Ceaselessly, Pray without Ceasing, I think of Naomi Anna Greenleaf. Many of you know her – a former NVM member who lives in southern California, and visits occasionally. She writes us a letter each month. For a woman who feels like prayer is often an empty exercise for her, she is the most faithful and loving and determined pray-er I know! Here is an excerpt from her last letter to us...

I’m sure you’ve heard me complain over and again about my barren spiritual life, how in prayer and meditation I never hear anything by the rattle-clatter of my own mind, how I can’t seem to find the voice of God. Well, that all changed as I was repeating the Jesus prayer to my self. (I have undertaken the discipline of constant prayer that is, repeating a short prayer over and over as I go about my daily business. The Jesus Prayer has two forms: long form: “O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” Short form: “O Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy.” I use the short form.) As I was repeating the prayer, the thought came to me to pay closer attention to it. So I tried to imagine Jesus listening to me as I prayed. As I did so, I suddenly became very aware of my physical body. This might not seem remarkable to you, but I happen to be a person who lives “in the head” most of the time, and rarely do I feel my body…So this new sensation gave me a lot of joy…I thought to myself, “What a surprise! Is this what it’s like to contact Christ, am I finally learning to pray?” And I was very pleased and happy and continued praying. Then came a distraction, a temptation.”

Here Naomi Anna describes a desire to taste a Christmas gift of homemade marmalade. She got all involved in trying to get the top off “To make a long story short, I finally got the jar open and tasted the marmalade and then put it away. Then I tried to go back to my prayer. Nothing happened. I couldn’t get connected. “My God” I thought, “What have I done? Have I traded Christ for a spoonful of marmalade?” Well I know for a fact that Christ would not abandon me just because I was straying, It was I who had abandoned him. The connection was still very tender…I felt sure if I was patient, persevering, I would get the feeling back. But that was two weeks ago. But do you want to know something? As I was sitting here, writing this letter to you, the feeling started to come back…Maybe it’s true that our connections with one another can lead us to God. Maybe it’s high time I forgive myself, and get back to praying…”

"Pray ceaselessly" says Paul. This is the center phrase of Paul’s final instruction in his first letter to the church in Thessalonica. This was the capital city in Macedonia, a bustling seaport, with a new church largely gentile in membership. He wrote to give the new converts both instruction and encouragement in their trials. And he reminds them, Pray without ceasing.

Indeed, this is the center of Paul’s own theology, Paul’s way of being in the world. Every letter he wrote begins with thanksgiving and prayer for the church members and their work. He begins this letter to Thessalonians: “We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers.”

Paul exhorts prayer in almost every epistle – in Romans: “Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.” In First Corinthians: “What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also.” In Ephesians: “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication.” In Colossians: “Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray for us as well that God will open to us a door for the word, that we may declare the mystery of Christ…” To the Philippians: “My prayer for you is that you will have still more love - a love that is full of knowledge and wise insight.” And my very favorite expression of prayer, again in Romans: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”

Sighs too deep for words.

Other people have used other words to describe this practice to which we are called, this discipline, this attitude, which is meant to hold, inform, sanctify, enrich, guide our lives. Karl Rahner said, “When we are in awe and love, in God’s presence, we are praying.”

Our very reformed John Calvin said, “Prayer is my flaming heart, as I offer it to God.”

Thomas Merton wrote: “The great thing in prayer is not to pray, but to go directly to God... at the very root of your existence, you are inconstant and immediate contact with the infinite power of God... Prayer is the movement of trust, of gratitude, of adoration, or of sorrow, that places us before God, seeing both God and ourselves in the light of God’s infinite truth, and moves us to ask God for the mercy, the spiritual strength, the material help, that we all need."

When asked about prayer, Albert Einstein said that..."the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mystery.”

And none other than African American Opera Diva Marian Anderson said, “Prayer begins where human capacity ends.” Prayer begins where human capacity ends.”

Prayer is our response to God’s initiative. It is dialogue rather than monologue.

One of the reasons Jesus prayed confidently was because He saw prayer as friendship with God. For me, prayer is intimacy with God -- some sort of divine/human dynamic that makes a difference, a way through my fears, a way to claim my faith. My current way of praying constantly is the recurring phrase, “Don’t leave me now, God!”

I have learned the hard way that prayer is not a magical means by which we get God to do what we want. I imagine a major league baseball pitcher who prays that God will help him "get ‘em out"… and a player on an opposing team who prays that God will help him "get a hit.” How confusing this must be to God when they face each other!

Nor is there a single special way to pray that guarantees the answer or action we want. In a Peanuts cartoon, Charlie Brown is kneeling beside his bed for prayer. Suddenly he says to Lucy, "I think I’ve made a new theological discovery, a real breakthrough. If you hold your hands upside down, you get the opposite of what you pray for."

Prayer is more of an inner openness to God that allows divine power to be released in us. Ultimately, perhaps, the power of prayer is not that we succeed in changing God, but that God succeeds in changing us.

I knew young man who suffered from Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or ALS. I suppose that this is one of the most debilitating illnesses known. Over a period of time, all of the muscles of the body become useless. But, the mind remains clear and sharp - trapped in a body that cannot move.

Of course, this man reacted the way you or I would expect. He was bitter and angry at what was happening to him. When he did pray, his prayers were questions that asked, "Why me, God? Why is this happening to me?" He prayed angry tirades, cursing God ... cursing his illness. And who could blame him? He could no longer care for himself. He could no longer sit up without assistance.

After he finished his angry tirade his pastor told him, "Don’t worry! You didn’t shock me or God." A serious look crossed his face and he said, "I’ve tried to pray. I’ve asked God to cure me, but I keep getting worse."

"Perhaps," the pastor said, "you are praying the wrong prayer. The promise of God is not that he will magically remove our problems but that he will give us strength in the midst of our problems. Why don’t you start praying for strength to deal with your illness and strength to enjoy the life you have?"

I would be lying if I said change was immediate. But, gradually a change took place. The bitterness and anger he felt gave way to acceptance. But, the surprise was that he saw an avenue of ministry. With a pencil between his teeth, he began typing out notes to people who were going through problems. They were not long, just short, simple notes telling others that someone was thinking about them and praying for them. Shortly before his illness claimed his life, he told one of the members of his family, "I have enjoyed my life to the end."

Prayer is being in communion with God, not something to be used when needs arise. Prayer is being in relationship so that God can speak to us. Prayer is finding peace in the midst of troubles, calm in the midst of calamity, and love in the midst of our loneliness.

Prayer requires trust, faith in this magnificent yet intimate God. And prayer always makes a difference, sometimes subtle sometimes dramatic. Our Hebrew reading was about Abram and Sarai and Terah before them; they were people of prayer, people of faith. They left behind all they knew to venture out into the unknown. They risked everything to follow a God they hardly knew. As our ancestors in the faith, Abraham and Sarah leave us a legacy of prayer and faith that is daring and action-filled. This is the heritage from which we spring -- to dare to leave barrenness behind, to risk the unknown, to live faith as a verb, to trust in promises fulfilled. The God who makes promises is a responder to prayers, a giver of gifts that are free to those willing to receive them in faith.

Today, let us pray. Let us begin where Paul begins each letter, probably each day. Let us begin where Jesus always seemed to begin every venture and effort, with prayer. It is one of the Lenten disciplines espoused by the religious for years. But it is more than just a discipline. It is a way of life.

Soon we will call up three prayer teams, who will go to the far corners and offer themselves to pray with and for you. They will serve as a vehicle, a way to speak and enhance your own prayers as they are offered to God. They will then offer you an anointing. You also have prayer crosses in your bulletins. There are pens at the back, you are asked to write your deepest desires in prayer and place them on our Lenten cross.

And finally, the offering plates are here on the communion table. We ask you to bring forward offerings, tithes, gifts, and leave them with your own sense of thanksgiving, and a prayer for what they might accomplish in the world.

And as you pray, remember Naomi Anna. She would tell you she is living proof that miracles happen, through prayer. Don’t let her down!

AMEN

July Messages of Thanks

Publish your messages of thanks (and special intentions) to St. Jude for July here.