Sermon on the importance of prayer in our lives

SCRIPTURE: A reading on prayer from Matthew 14:22-23, Mark 1:35, Luke 5:15-16

Jesus spoke often about how we might find a relationship with God and one of the best ways he taught about prayer was the way he lived.  He regularly would take some time away from the hustle and bustle of his life and ministry and spend time alone in prayer with God.  We regular hear that Jesus would find time to be alone in prayer particularly after spending a lot of time working.

In the Gospel of Matthew we read that after Jesus had spent time with the people: “Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,” (Matthew 14:22-23)

In the Gospel of Mark we hear that after Jesus had worked hard in Capernaum healing the people “In the morning, while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” (Mark 1:35) And in the Gospel of Luke it is written: “But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.” (Luke 5:15-16)

One: Listen to what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

All:    Thanks be to God.

REFLECTION

 As little Michael sat down to eat dinner with his family he instinctively reached for his fork. “Please hold on,” his father replied. “We haven’t said grace yet.”  This exasperated Michael who was tired and hungry. “Dad,” he said with a sigh, “why can’t we just pray once a week? Why do we have to ask for our daily bread every day?”

His older sister, wiser and eager to set him straight, weighed in before the dad could answer. “You don’t think we want stale bread, do you?” she said. (http://www.wendylynnlarson.com/uncategorized/anytime-prayers/)

With that statement she reminds us the importance of praying regularly!

This morning we do not have one reading from the gospels but rather a collection of verses reminding us how important prayer was to Jesus.  Jesus was often seen taking time out to pray alone, spending time strengthening his relationship with God, sharing with God his difficulties, his concerns, his struggles, and his joys.  Jesus also spent time teaching his followers how to pray and showing them the importance of praying alone as well as in a group of people.

Every Sunday we gather together and in our worship we spend time praying and there are studies out there that claim that about 90% of regular church goers do not pray in their day to day life.  That statistic sounds a little overwhelming, but I think it also sounds hopeful.  If it’s true that even close to 90% of church goers do not pray in their regular life, then that means those of you out there who may be feeling uncomfortable to be part of that statistic, you are not alone.  So often we begin to think that everyone has it all together, except us.  Everyone has a great prayer life, except us.  But the truth is, rarely are we right. The truth is that most everyone wishes they had it all together!  Most humans have so many common thoughts and experiences that we might feel much more “normal” if we talked about these things!

So those who don’t pray are not alone, but looking at the bigger question at hand: why is it that so many people who can come to worship and pray together, can’t seem to pray in their own lives? 

Well one of the reasons cited is feeling overwhelmed.

People think their prayer has to be long, has to be full of beautiful poetic language, has to be done in a specific way, in a specific place, with your body folded in a specific way.  With such a list of “shoulds” it’s scary to even begin.

One of the reasons I brought out the Mandalas today was because I wanted to help us all experience different ways to pray.  For decades and even centuries, the church taught that we were to pray in one way.  Sitting or kneeling, head bowed, hands together, quiet, and alone.  However, I believe that prayer happens in so many different ways – God enters into relationship with us everywhere and any way.  God is capable of hearing us and speaking with us in as many ways as there are people on this earth. 

We can pray when we sit with our heads bowed, but we can also pray when we sing, we can pray when we walk, we can pray when we talk together, we can pray when we write, we can pray when we’re quiet, we can pray when we’re loud, we can pray when we colour, and just recently I’ve been exploring the ways we pray when we take photographs. 

In preparation for today’s service I read this wonderful book called: Help, Thanks, Wow: Three Essential Prayers, by Anne Lamott.  In this little book, she writes about the three simple prayers essential to coming through tough times, difficult days and our daily lives.

It is these three prayers – asking for assistance from a higher power, appreciating what we have that is good, and feeling awe at the world around us – that can get us through the day and can show us the way forward. (https://www.amazon.com/Help-Thanks-Wow-Essential-Prayers/dp/1594631298)

Sometimes the idea of prayer can be so confusing and honestly sometimes one wonders if anyone is even listening and so I really appreciated the way that Anne Lamott broke prayer down into three simple words: Help, Thanks, Wow! 

Our prayer of Help – Help God I am at my wits end, Help God, help me get through this, Help God, help my friends and family, Help God, help the world to heal.

Our prayer of Thanks, our prayer of gratitude – Thank you God for helping me.  Thank you God for listening to me, thank you God for forgiving me, thank you God for getting me through this, thank you God for everything you’ve given me.

And our prayer of Wow – wow, God, you are so awesome.  Wow God, that sunset is unbelievable.  Wow God, I am in awe of all you are and all you do.

If your prayer is just one word, you have prayed.  You have opened yourself up to a relationship with God.  You have opened yourself up to the possibility that God walks alongside you everyday and everywhere.

“Prayer means that, in some unique way, we believe we’re invited into a relationship with someone who hears us when we speak in silence.” ^{page 4}

“Prayer is talking to something or anything with which we seek union, even if we’re bitter or insane or broken. Prayer is taking a chance that against all odds and past history, we are loved and chosen and do not have to get it together before we show up.  The opposite may be true: we may not be able to get it together until after we show up in such miserable shape.” ^{page 5-6}

One of the reasons many people do not feel comfortable praying is one of the same reasons why some people can not come to church – they think they need to have everything together with their lives before God can accept them.  God knows each one of us as intimately as a mother knows her new born child – God already knows our flaws and loves us no matter what.  God gives us the freedom to mess up time after time after time and still God will always love us, forgive us, and stay with us.  If we’re waiting until we’re perfect until we begin to pray, then we will never be able to fully enter into the relationship with God that God is begging us to enter.  God loves us and wants us whether we’re the most perfect human ever or if we’re the most broken messed up person ever.  God just wants us and wants to be in relationship with us.

In her book, Anne says “In prayer, I see the suffering bathed in light. In God, there is no darkness. I see God’s light permeate them, soak into them, guide their feet.” ^{pg 16}

“Where do we even start on the daily walk of restoration and awakening? We start where we are.  We find God in our human lives, and that includes suffering.” ^{page 24}

“So when we cry out Help, or whisper it into our chests, we enter into the paradox of not going limp and not feeling so helpless that we can barely walk, and we release ourselves from the absolute craziness of trying to be our own – or other people’s higher powers.

Help.

Praying “Help” means that we ask that Something give us the courage to stop in our tracks, right where we are, and turn our fixation away from the Gordian knot of our problems. We stop the toxic peering and instead turn our eyes to something else: to our feet on the sidewalk, the middle distance, to the hills, whence our help comes – someplace else, anything else. Maybe this is a shift of only eight degrees, but it can be a miracle.

It may be one of those miracles where your heart sinks, because you think it means you have lost.  But in surrender you have won. And if it were me, after a moment, I would say Thanks.” ^{Page 40}

I have a picture taped to the wall beside my desk that I like to look at often to remind myself how important regular prayer is:

“Once a man was asked, ‘what did you gain by regularly praying to God? The man replied, ‘nothing…but let me tell you what I lost: anger, ego, greed, depression, insecurity, and fear or death.’ Sometimes, the answer to our prayer is not gaining but losing; which ultimately is the gain.”

This week I encourage every single one of you to take a moment even just once and pray with God.  God doesn’t need any pretty words, God doesn’t need you to be in a special place, God doesn’t need you to be perfect.  And if your prayer this week is simply one word, then that is all God needs. So pray, pray when you’re alone, pray when you’re working, pray when you’re driving, pray when you’re colouring, just pray.  God is waiting for you anytime and anywhere!

Thanks be to God.

Amen.