Sermon prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn, WA

for 8/6/00, traditional services

--Gregory S. Kaurin, associate pastor

At the beginning of the service:

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Throughout this month we will be focusing on prayer. To get us started, I want to read to you for about ninety seconds from a book on prayer:

“Sharon and David both go to the same church. They have known each other since childhood. They both learned their Sunday school lessons from Mrs. Johnson and were taught by Pastor Robertson. They are both active, faithful church members, serving on several boards and committees and teaching Sunday school. But in spite of all these similarities, they are very different in their approach to prayer.

Sharon is disciplined about her prayer life. Every morning and every night she sets aside time for Bible study, reading her devotional booklet, and speaking directly to God. She would probably never ask the question, “Why should I pray?” She prays just because it is the thing to do. She can’t imagine not praying.

David prays before supper (or, to be more precise, one of the children does) and in Sunday morning service (actually, the pastor does), but most of the time he doesn’t even think about prayer. In an occasional tight spot, he finds himself muttering a request for help from God—but that seems almost like a reflex action, something left over from childhood, rather than a formal prayer. David considers himself a good Christian. He believes in God and works in the church, but he seldom engages in what we would call prayer: talking with God, meditating, listening quietly for a response from God. Most of the time, this omission doesn’t bother him. But, on occasion, especially when confronted by the example of someone like Sharon, he wonders if something is lacking in his religious life. Is he missing something? If so, what? Why should he pray?

For some, prayer is easy and natural, and they seldom ask such a question. For others, prayer is minimal, and, if they occasionally attempt it, the prayer seems difficult and forced. They ask, ‘Why should I pray? Is it to my advantage? or God’s? or both?’”

With married couples, one of the biggest problems or best virtues is their ability to communicate. Communication is critical in relationships. Well, we have this close relationship with God, and guess what is one of the most important things we can do, …or neglect? Communication. Our prayer life.

Some find it especially hard to pray out loud. But some even find it hard to pray silently. Perhaps they are intimidated when they hear others praying, assuming that we need to know the right words, what is an acceptable prayer, in order for God to listen. Maybe it has something to do with that “do it yourself” attitude. Don’t ask God to do what you should be doing. God helps those who help themselves, etc. Maybe it’s reflective of our modern world: you don’t pray to be healed of your pneumonia; we have doctors for that. Or perhaps a person has been burned by prayer in the past, even in childhood, asking for something that wasn’t given, or seemed ignored by God. Or maybe, as we’ll be speaking of today, it has to do with God’s will. If God’s will is going to be done, no matter what, then what use is it to pray? Why bother? Why ask?

The truth is we need to move beyond whatever is getting in the way of our prayers. We need to be praying, if for no other reason, because it is commanded by God! If we are to have a relationship with our Creator, then—like any other solid relationship—we need to be communicating with him.

Together and individually, it is how we worship God. Since we call him our God, my God, then we ought to be treating him as God; especially after all he did and does to claim us as his children!

This morning in our worship, liturgy and hymns, I want you to pay attention to any time we are specifically praying. Whether we are speaking or singing, try to make the prayer yours. When we pray about general things, think of how they apply specifically to you.

In the next several weeks, think about your own struggles in your prayers. Talk to each other, or to us. Let us know how things are going. Make a commitment this month to focus on your prayer life.

I will say this: prayers don’t have to be long. They don’t even have to be good. But they must BE!

Sermon: Will Power

C.S. Lewis once pointed out a struggle between two extreme things that scripture says about praying and God’s will. The first is that scripture promises that we can “ask, seek, and knock.” Jesus says, “Pray in my name, and it will be granted.” Mountains can be moved! It will be granted!

So with eyes tightly shut, we muster up all the faith we have, we pray in his name, and yet no mountains move for us; we can’t even seem to turn over a leaf. C.S. Lewis said that nearly every time someone grows ill or dies, there are one or more people whose prayers have seemed to go ignored or unanswered.

So, we have this second extreme: Jesus in the garden. This is God incarnate! Yes, he was emptying of his power, but he was still the Son of God! Talk about a faith that could move mountains! (And remember, “For God, all things are possible.”) But listen to his prayer: “If it is possible, My Father, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.”

Some people are almost afraid to ask God for anything. I knew an eight-year-old boy. I knew him very well. His grandfather had died. It wasn’t that he knew Grandpa all that well—such a quiet man. But the boy hugged his mom while she cried, and heard her whisper, “Oh, Daddy.” And for the first time he could remember, the boy saw his own dad shed tears.

So while they sat there in the funeral home, the boy prayed, with all an eight-year-old’s faith, faith as a child. Yes, this was days after the death; yes his grandpa’s body was emptied of life and prepared for death; but “with God all things are possible!” So he prayed: “Life, recovery and new health! Please God, for Mom.”

And he kept praying, in the funeral home, in the car, at the gravesite. And then it was over. They turned away. Walked back to the car. No miracle, just tears, and later: memories, stories, laughter. Yes, some healing, but also a permanent, wounding scar.

If God will do what God will do, if nature will take its course anyway, then why pray, why ask? Why don’t we at least get a good explanation?

Jonah, in our first lesson, knew the frustration of human will against God’s. He knew how bad these Ninevites were. With some help from a big fish, God had forced Jonah to warn the Ninevites to change their wayward wickedness. And in the last hour, the last chance, they repented. And God forgave them.

So unfair! Unfair that good people should suffer, and bad people are so easily forgiven and escape from suffering.

“Besides, it made me look foolish,” Jonah said, “So if life is going to be so unfair, just take me out of it. I’d rather be dead.”

Jonah went outside the city to watch…and mope. A nice bush grew up in a day to shade his head. Jonah appreciated it. But by next morning, it was destroyed.

Oh now, that added insult to injury! Why destroy this sweet, comforting, innocent bush! Again Jonah cried out, “Just take me out of it. Let me die now.”

And here God answered: “You care about this bush, which you did not plant, grow or tend. It lived and existed but a day. Now, look where my mind and my heart were, Jonah: that city of Nineveh, with all its wayward people, 120,000 of them, and uncounted creatures whom I created and loved. Saving all of them was worth offending one self-absorbed Jonah, worth bucking your sense of human justice. God gives, what is needed!”

It may be a simple and trite thing to say, but I thank God when he gives, not what we want, but what we need…something better.

I also believe every prayer offered to God is, or will be answered, even prayers for healing and life. The prayer of that 8-year-old boy, ask him in paradise if his prayer isn’t answered there! Some prayers need the perspective of time, sitting outside the city for a while, but it will be answered.

We still have this question, though: If God will do as he wills, not as we will, then why pray? Why ask, why knock?

Pastor Steve—when we began talking about doing this series on prayer—suggested this excellent book by Daniel Simundson from which I read to you at the beginning of the service. The book is out of print, so it’s hard to get, but there is an excellent chapter that asks, “What do we dare ask God?” Are some things too trivial? Should we ask for the impossible?

In scripture, it is not qualified what we might ask, from trivial to impossible. We are simply invited to ask. And we are promised that God responds, that our prayers influence him.

Scripture abounds with examples. He heard the cries of his people in Egypt, and saved them…not always the way they might have wanted him to. But in the long view, after a generation, he saved them.

He hears our prayers. He responds. He is influenced. But God will not be manipulated! These are prayers; it is talking to God, communication. They are not incantations or spells. The right ambiance, words or even faith, cannot make God do what we want.

Even the weakest faith that prays, “Lord, help my unbelief,” is a faith strong enough to move something more than mountains. Even the weakest faith is strong enough to move the heart of God.

"Call and I will hear. Seek and I will let you find me. Knock, and I will answer. Ask, and it will be given…in my time and my way,” says the Lord.

So, is it all right to ask God for the trivial? Is it all right to ask for the impossible? The answer to both is yes. It is not only all right! But you should ask, because that is being honest with God! Pray, because it’s in your heart! Be honest with God with how you’re feeling and what you want.

In all cases, understand, that we place whatever, and whomever we pray for, we place it in God’s hands. Jesus’ prayer in the garden is painful, because we see our Lord weeping. It is also the heart of prayer. Jesus asked honestly, and then put it into his Father hands. He asked and then let his Father’s will be what he most wanted: “Father, let this cup pass. Yet not what I want, what you want.”

We trust that even if we have to wait till eternity to hear and see the answers to all our prayers, we place them in the most just and merciful hands.

We pray. God has promised, “I will answer.” Even if we don’t like the answer right now, it will be good, and it will bring life. Abundant. Overflowing. Eternal. Life.

Let us pray: “Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for the gift of prayer. Thank you for your promise to always answer when we call, seek and knock. Inspire us and teach us through this series on prayer. Let us hear your life-giving answers. Amen.”

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