Prayer Revisited
July 12, 2015Dwelling Place of God
August 2, 201526
Jul.
2015
How to Pray – Power of Prayer Sermon Series
“How to Pray”
We conclude our sermon series on the power of prayer today. Some review, some new thoughts today.
When Jesus was asked how to pray, he gave a specific prayer, the Lord’s Prayer. We’ve heard a bit of it from Luke, now let’s hear Matthew’s version in the King James.
Let us pray. Loving Lord, you have shared the gift of conversation through prayer. Help us use it to connect with you. Amen.
In the early 17th century the Welsh poet George Herbert famously described prayer as “….God’s breath in humanity returning to our birth……The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage.” I love this description. Is there something within our birth, our heart, our soul, that is innately prayerful?
This past March the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey was released. It’s considered one of the broadest national surveys of Americans’ religious attitudes and showed a record low percentage of Americans attend church regularly, affiliate with organized faith or see themselves as religious. All three areas are at their lowest point since the survey started in 1972. A Pew study from May on the decline in the numbers of Christian Americans backs this up. However, the Chicago study showed that 57% of respondents said they pray at least once a day and 75% at least once a week. At a time when religious attendance and affiliation has declined markedly, the percentage of Americans who say they pray regularly has actually increased 3 percentage points since 1983.
Our Presbyterian Book of Order says that prayer “grows out of the center of a person’s life in response to the Spirit.” Karl Barth wrote, “Prayer is the most basic theological act.” John Calvin said prayer is simply a “conversation with God.” As Father James Martin said in reference to the survey, “prayers’ longevity results from a basic human need…a human instinct to pray.”
There is perhaps no question that I have gotten more often than that of how to pray.
Jesus’ disciples had the same question. He told them first how not to pray. Some at the time had taken to praying so loudly and publically that it was obvious their intended audience was impressing other people, not communicating with God. Prayer is not performance. Secondly, Jesus suggested that the words in prayer matter less than we think, for God already knows what we need before we ask it. The main Jewish prayer at the time, the Shema, was recited over and over and there was concern that people were going on auto pilot and not thinking about the words. Reformers over the centuries have had similar concerns about some traditional Roman phrases that are said reactively.
Instead Jesus suggests a specific prayer, the Lord’s Prayer. We heard two versions this morning. Matthew’s version in the King James is close to the traditional version we say each week. Luke’s version is shorter and ends differently.
One frequently asked question regarding the Lord’s Prayer is why here we ask God to forgive our sins, while in most Presbyterian churches they say debts and they say trespasses in Catholic or Anglican churches.
Jesus spoke originally in Aramaic, an ancient language somewhat flexible like Hebrew. The Aramaic word used in the Lord’s Prayer, hoba, can mean either debt or sin. So, Matthew and Luke, when writing their Gospels in Greek, each used a different translation of hoba. There was ophililema for Matthew meaning an obligation owed, and hamartia for Luke, meaning moral shortcoming or wrongdoing, missing the mark, in other words, a sin.
Matthew used debts. Luke used sins. Both work. In the middle ages, churches replaced sins with trespasses. In 1549 for example, the English Book of Common Prayer shifted the word sins to trespasses and it became the official version used in Anglican and other denominations and congregations.
However, Presbyterian and other Reformed churches tended to use the words debts or debtors. Some joke, and I say this as a Scot, that frugal Scottish Presbyterians would be ok forgiving someone’s sins, but try to tell a frugal Scot to forgive the debts owed to them……
On page 16 of your hymnal the traditional version of the prayer uses debts and the ecumenical version uses sins. Our version on Sundays here therefore is a combination, we use mostly the Matthew version on Sundays in the King James with the word sins inserted as Luke would.
I think sins is more accessible, direct, clear and easier to understand. However, there is something about debts that I like too. It’s probably a closer translation of what Jesus meant as it’s the more common translation of hoba.
Moreover, debts does not only mean the economic work of Jesus, who forgives what we owe to a God. While trespasses are the sins of commission, things we do that are wrong, debts are sins of omission, failures to take advantage of our opportunities for doing good. In other words we our asking God to forgive our failure to use our time, talents and treasure to help. Think about what Matthew wrote later in Matthew 25 about the division of the sheep and the goats, in this analysis debts are our missing opportunities for showing love.
We say the Lord’s Prayer every Sunday in worship as Jesus suggested it when asked how to pray. I find its rhythm very comforting. Thomas Aquinas called it the “perfect prayer.” Saying the prayer connects us with God, with each other and with Christians everywhere.
One of my early experiences in prayer came from visiting a parishioner in the hospital years ago. This person was the widow of a well-known minister from the church where I was then serving, the man who had actually baptized a sitting U.S. President, Eisenhower, while he was in office. I was pretty nervous visiting her as a young pastor. As we visited, she told me about her family and the ministry she had been a part of. She added in citations and passages from scripture, she knew a lot more than I did. As I got up to leave, she ask, “Would you pray for me?”
I thought, “What was I supposed to pray?” Looking back I understood the disciples’ question, “Lord, teach us to pray.” I think Jesus might suggest that the best way to learn how to pray is just to pray authentically whatever is on your heart in the moment. All I could think of then was the Lord’s Prayer. So we prayed it.
I don’t think that what Jesus meant in the Sermon on the Mount was that every time you pray you should only say the words of the Lord’s Prayer. He is not saying, “When you pray, only do the Lord’s prayer.” For one thing Jesus had just gotten done, in part, warning his disciples not to just say the same words over and over so they lose their meaning.
And the Bible tells us several times that Jesus, John and the disciples went off to pray and yet nowhere in those times does it lift up Jesus actually praying the Lord’s Prayer. There are examples of Jesus praying for strength in the wilderness or giving thanks to God at the last supper or praying they “know not what they do” on the cross and the Gospels don’t tell us that Jesus ends those prayers with the Lord’s prayer.
What I think is going on is that Jesus wants us to pray not only the words but learn the spirit of the Lord’s Prayer and let that help guide our prayer life, from the deepest part of our hearts, flowing from God’s breath.
What is that spirit? When people are looking for a model to follow for praying, the most common order in our pastoral books has the acronym ACTS. Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. That means we start with praising God, then confessing, then giving thanks, then making our supplication or request. In a way our worship services follow this order. We start by adoring God. We confess, then we give thanks to God after the assurance and then experience God and take our requests to God in prayer, in response.
Yet inspired by the Lord’s Prayer, I prefer ASCT Adoration, Supplication, Confession and Thanksgiving. I like to begin by adoring or praising God. Then I get my request, what I am praying for, out of the way. When one comes to God praying for something, it’s on your mind anyway, you might as well get it out and ask for it. I also believe getting the supplication or issue or concern out first is more real, it creates the kind of conversation that we want with God, as if we are telling our problem to an old friend.
Then I confess. I like that next because it helps me realize it’s not about me. Confession helps me move away from the issue I prayed for.
Then I like to end with thanksgiving rather than the supplication. When we end with gratitude we realize our problem is not all there is. The Heidelberg Catechism suggests that the whole life of a Christian should be an expression of gratitude. The medieval church leader Mister Eckhart said that if your only prayer was “thank you,” that is enough. It’s like the boy, Oliver, in the recent movie St. Vincent, who simply prays, “Dear God, thank you. Amen.”
Nothing helps us move on from the problem we were praying about like articulating what we are thankful for. Pastor Bill Hybles said if you have a mountain of things to pray about, don’t focus on the mountain, focus on God. If you focus on the mountain it will seem overwhelming. If you focus on God it seems ok. When you end with supplication, you end the prayer focused on you and what you want. When you end with Thanksgiving, you end with God. If we end thinking about the problem, we go away from the prayer thinking still about the problem. If we end with thanksgiving we end thinking about God’s blessings. I find I leave the prayer session feeling better because I put my concern in the context of my relationship with God and with all I am thankful for.
This pattern comes from the Lords Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer follows this pattern. It starts with Adoration, “Our Father, Hallowed be thy name.” Then building to the supplications, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” asking God’s will be done. And then “Give us this day our daily bread.”
Then confession, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.” Then it ends with what seems like two petitions of being led from temptation and evil, but I think the word “for” here indicates a connection with the doxology which ends the prayer, “For thine is kingdom and the power and glory forever. A doxology of thanksgiving that God, not evil, is in charge. Ending not with one’s self or problems but with the affirmation of thanksgiving to God.
Writer Sarah Stankorb wrote an article in the Washington Post in May about her own experience teaching her son to pray. Stankorb grew up in the church but became disenchanted with her church and drifted away.
Stankorb’s self-proclaimed atheism was tested by her son, whose classmate invited him to worship. He told his mom, “I know you don’t believe in God, but I want to learn about God.” She wrote they tried a church that had lots of political posters on the walls but her son complained, “They didn’t talk about God. I want to go somewhere I can learn about God.”
So she asked him, “Do you know I was really religious when I was a kid? I even studied religion in college.” “Maybe I can teach you some stuff.” She said he laughed at her. Stankorb muscled through. “Do you ever pray?” She asked? “What’s that?” he asked. “You know how sometimes when we have dinner with Uncle Bill, everyone folds their hands and looks down and he thanks God for the food, and you, me and Daddy sort of look around like we don’t know what to do with ourselves?” “Yeah!” he brightened. She continued, “He’s praying. Some people pray every night. Maybe you can talk to God and say things that matter to you, ask for help. Maybe you’ll figure it out by getting to know God yourself.” He liked that idea. That night after they read a book, and she braced herself and asked, “Do you want to say a prayer tonight?” “Yeah,” he said. And did. Kissing him on the check she reflected, “At least I’ve taught him something, the rest is his path to travel.” Parenthood brought prayer out of her deepest self to share with someone she loved.
Becoming a parent forces one to think about what modeling faith does for one’s children. Sometimes we get pulled by our children in unexpected ways.
Last week I talked about the value of short prayers. God is not small but small, childlike prayers can be God-filled. I will quickly say “God is great, God is good” at dinner. Or at night “Now I lay me down to sleep.” Words to help us remember we aren’t alone. Little prayers that we memorize and lift up throughout our lives are like handle bars on the bike, helping us find our balance, and once we learn to pray, as we have a model in the Lord’s Prayer and the spirit of prayers in our heart and soul, like riding a bike we never forget. Even if we have been away from the church for a while.
I have a good friend who had been away from the church for many years before returning recently and getting involved and praying again. My friend received a difficult medical diagnosis this spring and started an important treatment.
Many prayers have been lifted up by and for this person. My friend shared last week that they went to the doctor and had a 92% reduction in the size of the tumor.
The doctors were all amazed. One said that in all their years of doing chemo this was the best result. The doctor said to my friend, “that’s medicine for you.” “No,” she replied to the doctor, “That’s prayer.”
I believe when Jesus says “pray like this” he is suggesting we pray in the spirit in which he was praying. Prayer comes from Jesus and so does the strength to pray in a meaningful way.
That means being open to God. Prayer is a conversation, not a performance, and we should be open to God’s presence. Not speaking so loudly that we drown out God’s still small voice. That means being guided by God. The Lord’s Prayer starts and ends with the reminder that God is in charge. That means noticing God. Prayer settles us, focuses us and strengthens us. It calms us and connects us so notice God all around us. Many of us pray when we are open to a relationship with the spirit in our everyday lives, we just don’t call it prayer.
In a world of distractions and competition for our attention and allegiance, prayer has endured. When we recite timeless words, or just lift up what is on our heart, we are led by Jesus’ example, God’s love and the breath of the Holy Spirit. For in those is the kingdom and the power and glory forever. Amen.