“Prayer”

September 26, 2021

First Lesson Psalm 63:1-8

¹ O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
² So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
³ Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
⁴ So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

⁵ My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
⁶ when I think of you on my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
⁷ for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
⁸ My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

Second Lesson James 5:13-20

¹³ Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. ¹⁴ Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵ The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. ¹⁶ Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. ¹⁷ Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest.

¹⁹ My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, ²⁰ you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

St. Augustine once wrote, “True, whole prayer is nothing but love.”  (Richard Foster, Prayer, p. 1)   Think about that.  Prayer is love.  I have thought of prayer as many things but not as love.  But it works, doesn’t it.  Through prayer we are connected to God, the one who loves us unconditionally.  Praying for others is a way of sharing our love for those we know and for those in need.  We love ourselves when we utter prayers of confession to be bathed in God’s grace and forgiveness.  True, whole prayer is nothing but love.

Yet I wonder if we feel confident in our prayer life, in our expression of love through prayer?  I know many of us are prayer warriors, talking to God all the time, especially on behalf of others.  But I also know people who want to pray, but don’t feel empowered or skilled in the practice.  But that is all prayer is a practice of being in communication with God.

Richard Foster in his book, Prayer, Finding the Heart’s True Home invites us into prayer this way.  “God welcomes us home (through prayer) …  God invites us into the living room of God’s heart, where we can put on old slippers and share freely.  God invites us into the kitchen of friendship, where chatter and banter mix in good fun.  God invites us into the dining room of strength, where we can feast on our hearts’ delight.  God invites us into the study of his wisdom, where we can learn and grow and stretch…and ask all the questions we want.  God invites us into the workshop of creativity, where we can be co-laborers with God, working together to determine the outcomes of events.  God invites us into the bedroom of his rest, where new peace is found and where we can be naked and vulnerable and free.  It is also the place of deepest intimacy, where we know and are known to the fullest.” (Prayer, Richard Foster, p. 1-2)

We long to answer God’s invitation, to be in communion with the divine through prayer. But sometimes we have felt like our prayers have gone unanswered and we wonder what prayer really does?  (It is true there are times when we pray for something, and it simply does not happen.  At least not in the ways we want and can see.)

James speaks of praying in our suffering, praying when we are cheerful and happy, praying when we are sick.  We are encouraged to pray in every circumstance.  It is practical advice about how to be in union with God.

As for what prayer does, I think of it in two ways: prayer changes people and prayer changes situations.  The person prayer changes most is the one who prays.  The purpose of prayer is to draw us into a deep spiritual union with God. We withdraw from the world in prayer and enter a spiritual stillness in the presence of God. Prayer enhances us rather than changes things in the world and we can gain spiritual strength.  We may pray for a situation to change, but it does not. But what might change is how we feel about it or we find new coping strategies, or we simply come to acceptance.    Other times prayer changes a situation.  The person who is sick gets better, we get the new job, or God surprises us with an unexpected outcome.

“There is a mystery to the power of prayer” according to one commentator.  “There are times when God says “NO” to the form of our prayer, but “YES” to the substance of our prayers. Let me explain it this way as I share the story of St. Augustine, long before he became a saint.

St. Monica’s Falls in California is named after Augustine’s mother, Monica, who cried great tears over her son. She flooded her soul with anguish because her son was not a Christian.

Monica prayed that her son would not leave North Africa and go to Italy because she wanted so desperately for him to become a Christian. Augustine, being ambitious and wanting very much to go to Italy, decided that he would defy the request of his mother and go there anyway. The day before Augustine was to leave for Italy, his mother prayed all day in a small chapel by the sea that her son would somehow reconsider and decide not to go to Italy.

As is typical with most sons, he did what he wanted to anyway and boarded the ship for Italy. On his way there, he fell into conversation with a notable Christian, and while on the ship, he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. He accepted Christianity as his way of life and became one of the greatest writers and thinkers of the faith. God, you see, did not answer the form of Monica’s prayer, but God did answer its substance.  (Sermons.com Eric Ritz)

This helps me remember that I cannot see what God sees, or know what God knows.  Prayers are said to share our hearts with God and to then trust that God will work for good, even if we cannot see it at the time.    The old adage goes,

“Pray as if everything depends on God.

Live as if everything depends on you.”

Our Session has been wondering about how to invite more people into our congregation, how to get young families to attend.  We discussed what new program, activity, will help us grow.   In our discussion we have been living the second part of that saying, “Live as if everything depends on you,” but neglecting to lean into the first part.  I realize I have failed in leading the congregation to the answer to that vital question.  It is not what will we plan or do that will bring the people, but how we pray to make space for what God is doing.  So, I ask each one of you here and online to pray fervently for guidance for this congregation and its future.  Prayer is what we need, not a new program.   Pray as if everything, including the next chapter of this congregation, depends on God. Because it does.  This is God’s church; God’s mission and we are simply stewards to the task.  Let’s pray more deeply when things don’t go well and when we are thrilled; praying in the suffering and in cheer.  Let’s pray when we have aches and pains and when we desperately need a diagnosis; pray when we are sick.    Let us make more space for God to move in our congregation through growing our prayer lives.  True, whole prayer is nothing but love.

Earlier we spoke of God inviting us into the holy home through prayer.  Now we are reminded we get to invite God into our lives through prayer as well.

“Richard Rohr is a Catholic religious who runs a retreat center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has a wonderful word for this spiritual quality that is the result of prayer: ‘holy spaciousness.’ That’s what prayer does, it creates a ‘holy spaciousness.’ It removes all of that which is distracting in our life, all the debris that accumulates in our life, that we carry around with us year after year, and creates a ‘holy spaciousness.’”

Then Rohr points out, if you want God to come into your life, you have to make room for God. Prayer is the way you make room for God. The reason that God does not come into our lives is that our lives are so cluttered. There is no room in our lives for anything but the self and its preoccupations. Prayer is a means of emptying our lives of that which is distracting. Prayer is a form of remodeling, making room for God. Prayer is a form of hospitality, preparing for a visit. Prayer creates “holy spaciousness.” We have seen that. We know what prayer will do. It makes room for God, and for other people.” (Sermons.com, Mark Trotter) Amen.