It’s Time… for Prayer Luke 11:1-4
KBC July 2, 06
Scott Stearman
Did you read between the lines in this morning’s gospel text? Did you hear the implied tone:
I can’t figure out if it’s a whine…
“Jesus, why do John’s disciples know something we don’t?” “John taught his disciples to pray, what’s your problem Jesus why haven’t you taught us?”
Or if it’s a kind of bribing ploy…
“Here you are praying away, and you’ve not taught us how! Teach us, cus you know, John taught his disciples.”
There was a kind of rivalry at one point between the disciples of Jesus and the disciples of John. The disciples know that John has born witness to Jesus, but they are concerned – maybe they know something we don’t!
Whatever the disciples are feeling, you have to admit that at first blush it’s a bit odd. These men had left all and were following this religious teacher. And according to Luke he’s taught them about love (Good Samaritan) about sowing seeds, about the greatest commandments, about humility, about doing good on the Sabbath. He’s taught them a great deal, but he’s not taught them about prayer! What is going on? John has taught his disciples! Why hasn’t Jesus?!
The answer to that is twofold.
1) He knew the loudest sermon is preached by your life. They asked this question – after seeing him sneak off to pray.
2) That you pray is more important than what you pray.
Look at his answer to them… its shear beautiful simplicity… in its utter banality… in its glorious clarity.
Jesus hits head on, both here implicitly and in other places more explicitly the great spiritual sham. The sham, the deceit, the façade, is that there’s a secret. The lie, intentionally kept alive by religious leaders, is that some have it and some don’t. The lie is that there’s a teacher, a religious guru, a preacher, a prophet, a mystic who has a special secret to pass on about communing with God. It’s a lie.
There is no secret to prayer. There is no mysterious, esoteric, magical, formulaic or ritualistic linchpin. Prayer is simple. It’s so simple Jesus gives a 5 point outline:
Recognize who God is.
Pray for God’s work among human beings.
Pray for your basic needs.
Pray for forgiveness and the ability to forgive.
Pray to be led away from temptation’s snare and into a good life.
Here is what Matthew adds (chapter 6):
“when you pray don’t be like the hypocrites who love to be seen”
FIRST make it real
“when you pray don’t babble on, for the heathen think they’ll be heard for their many words.”
SECOND make it real and to the point (God knows what you need)
Do you think the disciples could have been a bit disappointed with these words? I think it very likely.
I’ve been a pastor long enough to at least figure out one thing. We humans are a restless lot. We are always looking over our shoulder, into the horizon, down the road, around the corner, hoping for that next thing, the secret message, that teaching about the inner life, the Gnostic covert instruction which will open up the will of God and make it clear.
And yet it is. If we would just sit still and listen to Jesus. If we would just sit and quit looking over our shoulder for what John is teaching his disciples – we could hear Jesus.
Recognize God. Pray for his work in the world. Pray for your needs. Pray for forgiveness and the ability to forgive. Pray to be led away from temptation.
Martin Luther tells the story about the Monk who rides all over Germany looking for a donkey. Finally after looking high and low, he realizes the donkey he’s looking for, is the donkey he’s riding on. This is a story about grace, but it’s also a story about prayer. You needn’t look anywhere but right here for all the instruction you need.
There’s just one reason we find prayer so difficult. It’s not because we haven’t been taught, frankly you don’t need to be taught to talk to God. It’s not because we don’t know the formula. It’s not because we are “spiritual enough” in some magical or qualitative sense. It’s not because you haven’t found the right church or religious leader. It’s simply because prayer, more than almost any other activity, is essentially self-less. Prayer is hard because prayer is mostly NOT about you.
I have quoted often Iris Murdoch’s epigram: “falling in love is the painful realization that someone besides your self actually exists.”
Prayer is the activity of stopping to realize that a Someone other than you exists. That he loves you, AND 6 billion other people. And that the appropriate thing to do, when addressing a holy God, is to pray for his kingdom to come. So the first two steps of prayer, call us outside our myopic self-centeredness. There is a God – other than you – and his coming kingdom will mean changes not only out there, but in here!
In his book, Blue like Jazz, (which I recommend) Donald Miller mentions that great scene in Dead Poet’s Society when Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) asks his students to rip out the “Introduction to Poetry” essay from their texts. The kids delighted in ripping up a text, but the reason Keating ask them to do so was more than just adolescent fun. The essay instructed students on how to grade poems on a sliding scale, with a grid, reducing art for the heart into arithmetic for the head.
Miller goes on to say: “too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to a formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder.”
That is a direction that Jesus always resisted – with everything he did, and everything he taught.
Michael Landrum is the son-in-law of KBC members. He is a doctor now in Iraq, working in a hospital. He is treating many Iraqis. I was forwarded this email on Friday, and found it so relevant to what I wanted to say today, that I’m going to read a few sentences. Listen to his heart’s cry:
“To be honest, the violence over here is so non-stop that I think the media has gotten tired covering the stories and perhaps people have gotten tired of hearing it. Instead on the Today Show this morning, one of the top “news” stories was about the feud between the co-hosts for the talk show “The View,” Barbara Walters and Star “something-or-other.” Give me a break! How about a reality check? There’s nothing like watching American news from a combat zone to make you appreciate how much of what we call “news” and label as important just doesn’t matter. The sad thing is that there are other struggles and needs in many other places, not just here. Have we become so detached or are we just ignoring the needs of others when we really have so much? Or have our definitions of wealth and need become so distorted and self-centered? Me, personally? I think I always thought “it” wasn’t my problem. “It” was interesting to talk about, but surely someone else will take care of “it.” I don’t think I feel that way anymore.”
Prayer forces the “its” into “who’s.” Prayer forces us to face the great need, and often our call in the midst of that need.
We don’t need a formula, a special teaching, the right words. We don’t need anything, but a willing heart. A heart that will sit still to acknowledge God and God’s work in the world. A heart that seek to imagine God’s work in the world.
Scott Stearman
Did you read between the lines in this morning’s gospel text? Did you hear the implied tone:
I can’t figure out if it’s a whine…
“Jesus, why do John’s disciples know something we don’t?” “John taught his disciples to pray, what’s your problem Jesus why haven’t you taught us?”
Or if it’s a kind of bribing ploy…
“Here you are praying away, and you’ve not taught us how! Teach us, cus you know, John taught his disciples.”
There was a kind of rivalry at one point between the disciples of Jesus and the disciples of John. The disciples know that John has born witness to Jesus, but they are concerned – maybe they know something we don’t!
Whatever the disciples are feeling, you have to admit that at first blush it’s a bit odd. These men had left all and were following this religious teacher. And according to Luke he’s taught them about love (Good Samaritan) about sowing seeds, about the greatest commandments, about humility, about doing good on the Sabbath. He’s taught them a great deal, but he’s not taught them about prayer! What is going on? John has taught his disciples! Why hasn’t Jesus?!
The answer to that is twofold.
1) He knew the loudest sermon is preached by your life. They asked this question – after seeing him sneak off to pray.
2) That you pray is more important than what you pray.
Look at his answer to them… its shear beautiful simplicity… in its utter banality… in its glorious clarity.
Jesus hits head on, both here implicitly and in other places more explicitly the great spiritual sham. The sham, the deceit, the façade, is that there’s a secret. The lie, intentionally kept alive by religious leaders, is that some have it and some don’t. The lie is that there’s a teacher, a religious guru, a preacher, a prophet, a mystic who has a special secret to pass on about communing with God. It’s a lie.
There is no secret to prayer. There is no mysterious, esoteric, magical, formulaic or ritualistic linchpin. Prayer is simple. It’s so simple Jesus gives a 5 point outline:
Recognize who God is.
Pray for God’s work among human beings.
Pray for your basic needs.
Pray for forgiveness and the ability to forgive.
Pray to be led away from temptation’s snare and into a good life.
Here is what Matthew adds (chapter 6):
“when you pray don’t be like the hypocrites who love to be seen”
FIRST make it real
“when you pray don’t babble on, for the heathen think they’ll be heard for their many words.”
SECOND make it real and to the point (God knows what you need)
Do you think the disciples could have been a bit disappointed with these words? I think it very likely.
I’ve been a pastor long enough to at least figure out one thing. We humans are a restless lot. We are always looking over our shoulder, into the horizon, down the road, around the corner, hoping for that next thing, the secret message, that teaching about the inner life, the Gnostic covert instruction which will open up the will of God and make it clear.
And yet it is. If we would just sit still and listen to Jesus. If we would just sit and quit looking over our shoulder for what John is teaching his disciples – we could hear Jesus.
Recognize God. Pray for his work in the world. Pray for your needs. Pray for forgiveness and the ability to forgive. Pray to be led away from temptation.
Martin Luther tells the story about the Monk who rides all over Germany looking for a donkey. Finally after looking high and low, he realizes the donkey he’s looking for, is the donkey he’s riding on. This is a story about grace, but it’s also a story about prayer. You needn’t look anywhere but right here for all the instruction you need.
There’s just one reason we find prayer so difficult. It’s not because we haven’t been taught, frankly you don’t need to be taught to talk to God. It’s not because we don’t know the formula. It’s not because we are “spiritual enough” in some magical or qualitative sense. It’s not because you haven’t found the right church or religious leader. It’s simply because prayer, more than almost any other activity, is essentially self-less. Prayer is hard because prayer is mostly NOT about you.
I have quoted often Iris Murdoch’s epigram: “falling in love is the painful realization that someone besides your self actually exists.”
Prayer is the activity of stopping to realize that a Someone other than you exists. That he loves you, AND 6 billion other people. And that the appropriate thing to do, when addressing a holy God, is to pray for his kingdom to come. So the first two steps of prayer, call us outside our myopic self-centeredness. There is a God – other than you – and his coming kingdom will mean changes not only out there, but in here!
In his book, Blue like Jazz, (which I recommend) Donald Miller mentions that great scene in Dead Poet’s Society when Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) asks his students to rip out the “Introduction to Poetry” essay from their texts. The kids delighted in ripping up a text, but the reason Keating ask them to do so was more than just adolescent fun. The essay instructed students on how to grade poems on a sliding scale, with a grid, reducing art for the heart into arithmetic for the head.
Miller goes on to say: “too much of our time is spent trying to chart God on a grid, and too little is spent allowing our hearts to feel awe. By reducing Christian spirituality to a formula, we deprive our hearts of wonder.”
That is a direction that Jesus always resisted – with everything he did, and everything he taught.
Michael Landrum is the son-in-law of KBC members. He is a doctor now in Iraq, working in a hospital. He is treating many Iraqis. I was forwarded this email on Friday, and found it so relevant to what I wanted to say today, that I’m going to read a few sentences. Listen to his heart’s cry:
“To be honest, the violence over here is so non-stop that I think the media has gotten tired covering the stories and perhaps people have gotten tired of hearing it. Instead on the Today Show this morning, one of the top “news” stories was about the feud between the co-hosts for the talk show “The View,” Barbara Walters and Star “something-or-other.” Give me a break! How about a reality check? There’s nothing like watching American news from a combat zone to make you appreciate how much of what we call “news” and label as important just doesn’t matter. The sad thing is that there are other struggles and needs in many other places, not just here. Have we become so detached or are we just ignoring the needs of others when we really have so much? Or have our definitions of wealth and need become so distorted and self-centered? Me, personally? I think I always thought “it” wasn’t my problem. “It” was interesting to talk about, but surely someone else will take care of “it.” I don’t think I feel that way anymore.”
Prayer forces the “its” into “who’s.” Prayer forces us to face the great need, and often our call in the midst of that need.
We don’t need a formula, a special teaching, the right words. We don’t need anything, but a willing heart. A heart that will sit still to acknowledge God and God’s work in the world. A heart that seek to imagine God’s work in the world.
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