By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, RectorThe disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. It's still a question that comes up time and again. And it's not an unreasonable question, teachers are expected to teach their students how to pray. Do you know how to pray? Episcopalians usually freeze like deer in the headlights when asked to pray, and then desperately look around for anyone else who might do this in their stead.
Of course, when I'm in a group about to eat all heads turn to me as the "professional" prayer. Or when there's any need for prayer that's been identified, it's my role. I've been trained and schooled in such things. I've gone on countless retreats, read more book on the subject than you can imagine so who better qualified to pray than me?
Well, no one is more qualified than I am, but I'm looking at a room full of people who are as equally qualified as I am. The difference is not whether we are qualified or not. The difference comes down to whether we are comfortable or not. Are you comfortable praying? Do you pray before your meals at home? Do you pray before your meals at a restaurant? Do you pray before a meeting or presentation? Do you pray on a sunny day or when riding a bike with the warm breeze in your face?
There is no secret formula to prayer, or no words that are just right. Some people are more poetic than others, to be sure, but prayer is not poetry after all. Prayer is a conversation with God. There are prayers of gratitude, prayers of intercession for others, prayers of personal need. When we approach our friends for various needs we have of them, we don't often look for another to speak for us, we're perfectly capable of speaking for ourselves. And so it is with God, who is our closest and dearest friend.
Prayer comes from the heart, it comes from the soul. Sometimes it's the first time we've put our deepest concerns, fears or joys into words. God does not grade us with some big celestial red pen. Our petitions are not returned to us all marked up and to be resubmitted when we've corrected grammatical or spelling errors.
Much of this we know already in our heads. It's our hearts that we need to convince. God loves us and in our prayer we turn to God for the things that make up our lives -- our spiritual lives, emotional lives and even our material lives. What often gets in the way of our prayer is fear, fear that we don't deserve what it is that we pray for, especially if the prayer is for ourselves.
Jesus teaches his disciples to pray and give them words that are simple and direct. Basic needs represented by daily bread, forgiveness in a way that also keeps us in relationship with others and accountable for our own forgiving behavior. And then there is the prayer for the time of trial. None of us wants that, but how often it comes. Even Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane prayed this one again. It's perplexing to pray not to be brought to the time of trial when so clearly and often we are there. Other translations call this "time of trial," temptation. Lead us not into temptation. Perhaps that makes more sense of it. Sometimes we hear people referring to the bad times in their lives as trials or temptations sent by God to test their faith. I find it hard to believe that God spends much time or energy thinking up stumbling blocks for us to trip over. Most often for me, times of trial or temptation are of my own doing and it's prayer that I rely on to help me find a way out, or a way of resisting. I might translate this line as "Lead us out of temptation" or "Lead us to safety during times of trial."
God brings health and abundance to creation. It's our own limitations that convince us otherwise. Scripture reinforces God's abundance time and again. The rest of this gospel lesson talks about persistence in prayer to get to a desired place. And each of the examples describes the person as taking an action.
"Knock" and the door shall be opened, "Ask" and it will be given, "seek" and you shall find. Prayer is active, it is not passive. Prayer is a form of engaging the world and God to accomplish or receive great things. First we have to believe God is capable of delivering and that we are worthy of receiving. These are two very large obstacles, yet they are fundamental. God is capable and we are worthy. The next obstacle is that whether or not we are open to receive.
Being open to receiving God's love and expecting that God will be active and involved in answering our prayer is a mind set that we must have or else we prove that we really don't want anything. One of our members is fond of quoting his mentor and saying "Stop asking God for thimbles full of water when he's offering you bathtubs full!"
This church was not built on fear or timidity. Our Capital Campaign was not started in the expectation of defeat or wondering if we really deserved it. Our spiritual ancestors and we ourselves move forward in faith convinced that God loves us and will move us forward. Sometimes God opens our eyes in very strange and wonderful ways and redirects our understanding of how a prayer has been answered. But if we don't enter into prayer, either individually or together as a congregation, we'll never receive the benefits God so abundantly offers.
Prayer requires clarity, courage and openness. It is active and we are worthy. Many of you work in the business world and certainly all of us participate in it somehow. We don't get very far if we are timid or unclear. If we limit our expectations we get less than we'd hoped. No one is going to read our minds and give us a better deal. The business world is very active. If we understand this part of our lives, it shouldn't be a big stretch to see how this works with God. I don't think God is the ultimate business person, but we have to be open and engaged in our prayer life. We have to be clear and persistent, and ready for how God will answer.
Once upon a time I lived in Brooklyn and I prayed for help finding a nice apartment. I felt selfish, but I was desperate and gave it all I had. When I found one I was ecstatic, and on the day of lease signing there was an issue that sabotaged the whole deal. I was beside myself with anger and frustration, and I was no longer on speaking terms with God (which made Sunday services less than sincere). But the following week, the real estate agent called very excited saying an apartment just came available, did I want to look at it. Of course I said "yes," and discovered it was even a better apartment for less money. I suppose each of us could come up with similar stories of prayers answered in strange and mysterious ways. But all of us can also come up with examples of ways in which prayers were answered in painful ways or ways that didn't seem answered at all. When we prayer for someone who is sick or dying, for others in desperate circumstances it's hard to imagine God answers them when the pain or horrible situation continues.
In times of disease, famine or conflict, it's heartbreaking to see the cruelty and devastation around us. 9/11 is the closest example and the war in Iraq is the most current situation. Prayer engages us even at the cost of pain. In the face of massive death and destruction, the level of human kindness and self sacrifice towers above. The witness to each individual's part in a just society and holding leaders accountable for decisions rises. Prayer keeps us engaged in the world and calls on God's help for us to do our work, not to sit back and leave it to others. As St. Francis says, "God has no hands but ours, and no feet but ours..." These are lessons learned even at the cost of pain. And prayer allows us to find balance again in a world turned upside down.
Spiritual writer Barbara Crafton reflected in a meditation about meeting her husband. In a local paper she read about his son being killed in a tragic accident. Not knowing this family, but being moved by the newspaper account, she wrote him expressing her condolences. In time they met and in the care each needed for their life circumstances and in the care they were each able to provide the other, they came to find a love that led to their marriage. She's very clear that if they could rewind the tape and prevent the accident that led to their meeting, they would in a heartbeat. But since we can't do that, we can only move forward into the world that God's healing can create.
Prayer is multi faceted and we never know what forms it will take, but we can be assured time and again that God's will for us is health and wholeness and we must remain active and engaged in prayer to meet God and enter the door that will be opened to our knock. Amen.
© 2007 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ
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