give me something to believe

because i am living just to breathe

 

Today the readings, from Abraham haggling with God, to the disciples' question toJesus and Jesus' reply and encouragement, are all about prayer.

So today, obviously, the sermon will be all about prayer.

The nine simples steps to an effective prayer life with God.

Or we could go through Martin Luther's small catechism. Should we have a quiz?

Or the ACT - 'Ask, Confess, Thank' model of prayer.

The truth is, though, none of that stuff works; it doesn't.

I mean, heaven forbid that we have a quiz about Luther's Small Catechism, because outside a few folks; most of us wouldn't remember a thing.

So since none of that stuff works, I'm not going to preach about it...

This summer I have had the privilege to attend a few conferences.

First, for continuing Education I went to a conference about the church that is emerging, what the church will look, act & be like in the future.

Then, at the behest of our synod, I went to an anti-hunger gathering.

Finally, this week I went to a conference on evangelism.

 

While I was at each of these different events I kept thinking something, a theme kept reoccurring...

 

The truth about all of those things, living out what the church of the twenty-first century will be, feeding hunger mouths and hungry hearts, sharing our faith, and prayer as well,

is that all of these things are hard;

they take work;

they don't come easy...

Changing how we've done things in the past, to be faithful to today -the present-, takes confidence that God will be, that we can be, even as things change. Being the church of the present, not the past, takes confidence.

Being anti-hunger, or feeding others before we feed ourselves, takes trust. It takes trust to feed someone else before we feed ourselves.

Or sharing our faith with someone, inviting another to Trinity takes courage, and it takes excitement about what we're up to here. Evangelism takes courage.

And Jesus does not spare us either, he is clear that it takes persistence, it takes shamelessness to be a people of prayer. Prayer takes commitment.

 

You see, the theme that kept coming up in all of those conferences, the theme that today's Gospel touches, is that before we can do anything, anything, we need to be disciples.

Before we can have the confidence to be the church of the 21st century, we have to be disciples.

Before we will have the trust to feed others before we feed ourselves, we've got to be disciples.

Before we're going to have the courage to share our faith with a world longing to hear good news, we're going to need to be disciples.

Before we're going to have the commitment to prayer, its going to be important that our discipleship is deep, and our discipleship is strong. 

See before we can do any of those others things;

be the church of the future,

satisfy hunger hearts,

share our faith,

be people marked by prayer,

we've got to have this internal stuff in order.

In other words, before we can pull any of that other stuff off, we need to disciples.

 

Take prayer for example.

All the tips, tricks, methods in the world will not make a single one of us better 'pray-ers' until we want to pray, until there is a deep desire in us to speak to God, to listen to God.

Simple as that, before we can be any good at prayer, we're going to need to be disciples.

Just look at today's Gospel if you're skeptical.

First, who is it that asks Jesus to teach them to pray, it is a disciple!

Second, when that disciples asks Jesus how to pray, Jesus doesn't say something like, 'here's a trick, or here's a method.'

No. Jesus more or less takes a prayer that already existed, made some small changes and said, 'this should work.'

 

Jesus doesn't offer one method or another or some trick; Jesus gives a simple example, and then Jesus spends more time talking about the importance of being persistent, of being shameless 'prayers.'

In other words, that our commitment, our love, our passion, our discipleship should compel us to pray for anything, and to pray often.

 

We should notice that!

I mean, it seems a little tragic that we've glommed on to this word-for-word prayer of Jesus, and ignored Jesus' important words.

Notice how talks about prayer!

He spends much more time comparing disciples who pray to a shameless friends who knocks on some door at midnight, and will not stop knocking until they've gotten the small favor they need; than offering any particular words, any version to use.

Jesus' words about prayer are about persistence, or discipleship, first and foremost!

 

Jesus' teaching about prayer isn't that one version is better than another, so much as it is about the importance of praying, of wanting to pray, of being committed to praying.

In other words, Jesus' teaching about prayer is about the importance that the people who pray are committed disciples.

It isn't as hard as we like to pretend it is, friends...

Am I making sense, sisters and brothers?

 

You see, what I am convinced of, is that once Jesus has spoken to us, once we've opened ourselves to those words, everything changes.

That change is the first, and it is the most important step. That step is the step of a disciple who's on a journey.

When I was at the "emergent church" conference I kept thinking; 'yeah, it is important to think about how we will faithfully be church in a world that is so different from what we're used to; but until we're disciples we'll never have the confidence to daringly give away what we have, to live out that new way to be church.'

When I was at the anti-hunger conference I kept thinking, 'yeah, it is important to be committed to feeding hungry hearts; but until we're disciples we'll never have the trust to risk ourselves to feed another.'

When I was at this evangelism conference I kept thinking, 'yeah, it is important to share our faith with a world longing for something to believe; but until we're disciples we'll never have the courage to risk ourselves to share this news with another.'

And prayer is just the same.

Yes, it is important to pray; but until we have a deep longing, a deep commitment to speak to, to listen to God, in other words until we're disciples we'll never really be people who pray.

And no amount of tips, tricks and methods can change that, friends...

Here's the truth, the most important thing to teach about prayer, and Christian life in general, is something you can't teach; it is something that must be lived out; day by day.

That love, that commitment, that passion; in other words, that discipleship, is the first and most important step that is taken before we can be people who really pray, before we can share our faith, before we can be anti-hunger, before we can be the church of the present, whatever.

Discipleship is not like a step in a five simple steps to prayer, it is like that step taken after hip or knee surgery.

In other words, that important step of discipleship is a step of faith, it is a step of trust, it is a step of hope!

And that first step is one that leads to the next and the next and the next in our daily walk as disciples.

 

So in light of that, we're going to start a sermon series; "discipleship."

 

You'll notice each pew has some index cards, they are there so you can write down any questions you have about discipleship.

Put those index cards in the offering and I will read them, and they will inform our series on discipleship. Also, if you think of question this week you can call the office with it. Also, go to our Facebook page, right now I am changing the status to read, "What is your question about discipleship." Put your questions on there.

Now is your chance, whip out your phones in church; you're getting a free pass!

Not only that, I've got a pen and paper right here, any questions y'all want to shout out right now?

Okay, so that is where we're going...

I'll close with this:

More important than memorizing the Lord's Prayer, is having a heart for prayer; that is what Jesus' words are for us today.

 

Here's the good news, just as Jesus' passion, compassion for his disciples changed the world then, so it can change the world today.

Jesus isn't going to fail a single one of us as we try to figure, figure out together by the way, what discipleship looks like.

You know, if you feel sheepish that you're not a good prayer, or that the idea of being a disciple makes you a little afraid, take heart; the only one of twelve, that disciple who finally asks Jesus how to pray has been journeying with Jesus for 11 chapters until the question is finally asked.

So there's time, there's time.

Since I've been going on and on about the importance of prayer, let's close with one...