Jim and Susie invited three couples over for dinner. At the table Susie turned to their six-year-old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the blessing?"
"I wouldn't know what to say," the child replied.
"Just say what you hear Mommy say," said Susie.
The little girl bowed her head and said, "Dear Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"
Well, that’s one way to pray.
There are lots of ways to pray, and there’s no better teacher than the Apostle Paul … a man who prays often …
Much of the Bible is prayer … most of the Psalms are prayers - prayers of praise, lament, thanksgiving and doubt.
The shortest prayer in the Bible - Peter sinks into the raging waters … he cries out, LORD, save me.”
Writer Anne Lamott says she has two prayers: “Help, help, help,” and “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Several things about prayer:
- Prayer is positive … prayer is a confession of faith … we believe in God … the God of creation who called everything good and took off a day for rest, and told us to take some time off, too.
- Prayer is the practice of trust … that God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good … and God hears and answers every prayer!
- God says Yes, or No, or Maybe … but every prayer is heard - every prayer is answered.
- When we talk about “unanswered prayer,” what we really mean is an answer different than what we wanted.
- There is no such thing as “unanswered prayer” … every prayer is heard by a loving God, and a loving God answers every prayer.
- Prayer is the practice of trust.
- Prayer is a confession of humility … we’re not God, and while we might passionately desire something that seems truly good to us, prayer recognizes our limits of understanding … we’re not old enough or wise enough or big enough to understand the universe and how life works itself out … we do the best we can, and when we pray, we put it into the hands of God, and we trust the promise of God - to be at work for good, in all things. We don’t know very much, but God does. Prayer is a confession of humility.
- Prayer is hopeful … because this our Father’s world … and though some proclaim doom and gloom, we cry out hope and peace.
- Those who predict the end of the world and threaten people with punishment misread the Bible and fail to proclaim the gospel.
- Those who rummage around in the past, thinking that yesterday is better than today, miss the point of the Bible. There has never been a golden age anywhere - it does us no good to put on rose-colored glasses when we look at the past. It does us no good to yearn for what was. And what was is never as good as we might think it was.
- Remember, God put angels with flaming swords at the Garden border - there is no going back to Eden; only going forward.
- Paul says, I forget about things behind me, and so does God.
- When the disciples meet the risen Jesus, they ask him if he’s going to restore the kingdom - King David and all of that … but Jesus doesn’t rummage around in the past … Jesus knows there’s no golden age, there’s never been a time better than right now, never a time more opportune, more important, than right now … because God is at work, at work in all things, right now, for good … prayer never looks backward, but always forward.
Practice these things, writes Paul.
Try ‘em out every day … make some mistakes, and keep on learning … like a tennis player, a pianist, or a teacher … the art of teaching is never fully achieved … nor that of the Christian life … we don’t arrive; we practice.
Practice what is true, says Paul, because the truth is what sets us free.
Practice what is holy, and there’s no greater holiness than loving God with all of our heart and soul and strength and mind.
Practice all that is just, and there’s no greater justice than loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Practice all that is pure, and there is no purity greater than doing God’s will, and no expression of God’s will more clear than the Beatitudes.
Practice all that is lovely, and there is no greater loveliness than a life lived in devotion to God - a life as Micah proclaims: do justice, embrace faithful love, walk humbly with God.
Practice whatever is worthy of praise, and there is no praise greater than loving God’s good earth, taking care of all God’s creatures, great and small, and helping the widow, the orphan and the stranger at our gate.
Practice what you learned, received, heard, or saw in us, says Paul. A cloud of witnesses, worthy examples.
No better examples than Paul, Jeremiah, Joseph and Moses, Deborah and Lydia and Mary … we do well to steep ourselves in their lives …
The cloud of witnesses is large … Calvin and Luther … Martin Luther King, Jr., William Sloan Coffin and Mother Teresa and Rosa Parks who refused to move to the back of the bus, because Rosa knew that Jesus would never ever ask her to do that, but only the devil!
The LORD God has given us a bounty of women and men who embody the grace of God in special measure, who call out of us our best instincts, who remind us of our better angels.
Find a good example, and follow it.
Pay attention to the cloud of witnesses; learn from them.
Paul says, The God of peace will be with you.
Jesus says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives.
The world gives peace, all right - at the point of a sword or with a hangman’s rope … the world seeks peace through violence, power and control …
Jesus says, You know that those who rule the Gentiles show off their authority over them … but that’s not the way it will be with you.
‘Tis the God of Peace we worship, the Prince of Peace we follow.
So, there we have it, dear friends.
The news from the church of Philippi … prayer, practice and peace.
And may it be said of us here at Calvary:
We are a people who pray well.
Who practice the good things of life.
And walk in the ways of peace.
Amen and Amen!
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