i won't be vacant anymore

i won't be waiting anymore

Prayer has been described as the mother tongue of Christians, as our cradle language. If that is true, though, why does it seem that we stopped speaking this language after leaving the cradle, if not earlier?

There are a number of reasons why prayer is so difficult, but for today I want to cut to the core. A sermon exhorting us to pray more or offer unsolicited tips for a dynamic prayer life, will be no more helpful than the guru who gives a long list of methods for success and at the end adds one last impossible rule parading as help by saying some rubbish like, ‘but don’t stress about it, take it easy, have fun with it, let it happen.’

The truth is, there is a disquieting reason why prayer is so hard; and until the heart of the matter is spoken to, prayer will remain a challenge… The problem with prayer is that in prayer we come before The Creator, we come before God. Until we’re right with God, prayer will always be challenging, off, or even broken…

As it turns out, having our sermon on the spiritual practice of prayer during our blessing of the bicycles is just perfect; and it isn’t only because peddling across the beautiful plains of Iowa is a perfect occasion to pray, it isn’t even because on a bike you have nothing else to do with your hands so you might as well pray…

The first time I got to participate in a blessing of the bicycles I couldn’t help but think of a few days earlier, when I found myself on a bicycle and praying…

I had been riding home after congregation’s blessing of the bicycles. It was a beautiful evening, and I soaking in the city covered in the colors of dusk. As I was coasting down a hill, I noticed a car not slowing down at an intersection… I put on the breaks only to feel the momentum continue to push me toward that car. 

Suddenly I heard myself crying “Help Me,” to whom I can only assume was God. We all do that kind of thing. Thankfully all it took was a sharp turn, a slam of the brakes and the car and I both left the scene in safely.

As my heart-rate got back to a regular pace and I realized how lucky I had been, I couldn’t help but pray, more intentionally this time, “thank you,” and we all do that, too.

By the time I was back in my apartment, though, something had happened. As I recounted everything, I was feeling guilty. By the time I was praying before bed, I was praying another prayer, a prayer that’s far too familiar for many of us. It went something like this, “I’m sorry God, I should pray more. Thank you, and I’m sorry I only pray when I need something.” 

The evening that began with praise and thanksgiving ended with guilt and resignation.

That, sisters and brothers, is the real friction when it comes to prayer. 

Those gurus; the ones we mentioned earlier, the ones who will give you a long laundry list of ‘tips for triumph,’ only to add yet another rule disguised as a favor at the end of it all; those gurus all too often treat prayer as some inner ability, some muscle we have inside of us that ascends to heaven and speaks eloquently and confidently before God.

And that’s the problem. These gurus have it all wrong, have it backward. These gurus are peddling programs for successful prayer, by reciting a recipe for disaster. 

The truth is, it is precisely ‘what’s in us’ that makes prayer so difficult…

And I’d be willing to wager you already knew that, or at least you had your suspicions. If prayer is simply some skill latent inside us, just waiting to be switched on, why is prayer so hard? If prayer is just saying what’s ‘on our heart’ to God, why don’t the words ever seem to come when we try to pray?

This is what I meant when I said tips for prayer are never going help us. Pleas from the pulpit to pray more never prompt a single prayer except, ‘oh god, I hope this sermon doesn’t keep dragging on…’ 

The truth is, deep in our hearts we all already know those tips for prayer never really help anyway. Each of us have already tried to pray, only to have that voice break in and remind us that we haven’t prayed since we last needed something, remind us of the all the things we’ve done to upset God. 

In the depths of our heart we already know that our relationship to God is really the heart of the matter, the reason prayer never comes easy. That’s why we hate ourselves each time we listen to some guru on the christian radio-station give us some register of tips, tricks and gimmicks to be a prayer-warrior, because they never say a word about what’s really at stake, our relationship with God…

The crux of that matter is, that at the crux of prayer is our relationship with God. Since we’re all here again, I suppose it goes without saying our relationship with God could be better, could be stronger, could be more faithful…

We’ve done what’s in us, we’ve used our “prayer muscle,” we’ve tried to take it easy and we’ve done every trick in the book, but the prayers haven’t come any easier…

We’ve tried it all, but when all the latest fad has failed, the voice comes in again, ’Who are you praying to God,’ ‘do you think you really deserve to ask for help,’ ‘you only pray when you need something.’ And the problem is, that if the voice in our head were lying we could ignore it, but its always the truth that stops us in our tracks.

Deep down we all already know that our broken relationship with God is why prayer is such a challenge…

But here’s the trouble with all that; as a follower of Jesus you don’t get off the hook. 

In today’s reading we join Jesus and his disciples discussing devotional disciplines. In the course of this discussion, prayer comes up. When Jesus teaches about prayer; as usual, he doesn’t do what we’d expect. Jesus doesn’t give some list of tips for success, he doesn’t even say things like ‘when you’re in the mood for prayer,’ or ‘once you’ve gotten right with God.’ 

No, Jesus just jumps right in, his language is direct. He says ‘When you pray.’ 

For Jesus, to follow him and to believe God, one must pray. Jesus doesn’t coddle us, “when you pray,” he says more frankly than we’d appreciate. For Jesus, prayer is non-negotiable.

Here’s a curious thing; remember how we noted those gurus who always seem to add one last impossible rule disguised as a favor, take it easy or something like that? Well, what Jesus is doing is exactly the opposite of that! Jesus begins his whole teaching with what we’d think is a demand, but as it turns out is actually the biggest gift we could ever get…

“When you pray,” Jesus says.

And before we can interrupt. Before we can protest. Before we can even admit that the last time we prayed was when we worried if the check would come in the mail soon enough, Jesus continues.

‘When you pray,’ Jesus says, pray for this: pray that God’s name would be holy, pray for God’s kingdom and will, pray that it would come here and now as it is in heaven even, pray for that bread you need, dare to even pray that you might be forgiven forgiven so completely that you could forgive, pray to be protected from temptation and be honest enough to pray for deliverance from evil that always seems to be crouching just on the other side of our doors.

Woah. Well, after hearing all that, you might be like me in wondering if Jesus got the wrong person. When Jesus said to pray for all that Jesus couldn’t have known about half-hearted my prayers always seem to be, Jesus couldn’t have know the way I neglect this gift of prayer, all the times I’ve put it off…

Here’s the thing; Jesus does know, and that’s exactly why Jesus told you to pray for all that in the Lord’s prayer.

All too often the only image we have for Jesus is bucolic and beautiful; and those images drive me nuts. The truth is, Jesus isn’t some cuddly, plush doll. Jesus is truly divine, yes; but the truth is, Jesus’ divinity is found precisely in all the ways Jesus leaves that divinity to be near to us, to be with us on the dirty path saying things like “when you pray,” to sinners who have put off prayer yet again… 

See, Jesus knew the rough edges of life, the dreams deferred, the voices that crowd head and heart whenever prayer is attempted. Jesus knew all of that, and this is why his teaching on prayer is more to be trusted than the advice from the guru with just so hair and a perfect smile.

You know, if you really want to learn about prayer, ignore the young pastor kneeling ever so piously at the altar and instead talk to the widow who can’t kneel anymore, who can’t stand when the minister confidently bellows “Let us now rise to thank our creator.” 

If you really want to know about prayer ignore the advice of the millionaire and talk to the gentleman who could of used a shower before coming to church. 

If you really want to know about prayer, talk to the widower who comes to church three days after his wife has died and sings “gloria” although things doesn’t feel very glorious that Sunday. 

If you really want to know about prayer, talk to the person who knows they’re most to be pitied if this is all in vain, as St. Paul says 

If you really want to hear a word about prayer that will actually address the reason why prayer is so hard; skip all the platitudes of the smiling guru, and instead fall at the feet of the one who hung on the cross and prayed the only true prayer humans have ever prayed, “my God, my god, why have you abandoned me???”

Jesus’ teaching on prayer is to be trusted because Jesus knew why prayer is so hard, Jesus knew that the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart; that our hearts are at odds with God’s heart; that until are heart is in harmony with God’s prayer will always be hard, that until we rest in God our prayers will always be tense and taut. 

Jesus knew all that and so Jesus says, pray for God’s name, kingdom and will. Here’s the thing that matters for you right now, though: Jesus knew that old voice would break in and say “what about this that or the other thing,” and so Jesus stays the line and adds “pray for all that, and even pray for it here and now, pray for your daily bread.” 

That isn’t all, either. Jesus knew how persistent that old voice is, chiming in when the methods fall short yet again, and so Jesus dares to go on. “Pray for forgiveness, pray that you’d be so forgiven that even you could forgive.” And Jesus finishes the whole debate by pushing us further than we’d dare go. “Pray that you’d be protected from temptation and be delivered from that evil that always lays so close at hand,” Jesus says. 

With that final insistence, Jesus ends the debate between us and the voice that always accuses us.

Jesus said all that because of the kind of work Jesus is always about, death and life. The world will tell you it’s death and life, but that’s wrong… Jesus taught us to pray for all this so that old voice would be quieted, that it would die even. Jesus told us to pray as he taught to kill that old voice that’s always accusing. 

And from that corpse, oh sisters and brothers a new voice rises…

Jesus keeps telling us to pray for all that over and over again, and as we find ourselves gathered in his church yet again praying that old prayer a new voice would rise from the corpse of that old voice, and this new voice cries “Yes Lord, let it be so.”

In that helpless cry, “yes, Lord,” the relationship between God and us is finally healed. 

And that relationship isn’t healed by gimmicks or tricks, no it’s only healed by the God of mercy. The God who dares to hear the cries of God’s people. That’s always how it goes, it is when we’re most helpless that God does God’s best work.

Amen