10^th Sabbath after Pentecost

July 20/22, 2007

Victor H. Nixon

WHY SHOULD I PRAY?

Mark 1:35-39

Today’s sermon is the first in the summer series, Challenges for My Faith. This series, like earlier ones on the Bible and World Religions, were suggestions from members. Frankly, I was surprised that the suggestions represented many of my own faith challenges. Faith taken seriously, of course, is always challenging in my experience. I hope this series will be helpful and address those challenges we all have in our attempt to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. Appropriately, we begin in prayer.

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Why should I pray? Well, sometimes we just can’t help it. We spontaneously pray when something unexpected happens. I call them "prayers of exclamation." A personal example. Every once in a while a Pileated Woodpecker lands on a tree in our backyard. Pileated Woodpeckers are huge, beautiful, surprising birds. We call them "Oh My God Birds" because that’s what you say when you see one: "Oh . . . my . . . God!"

Exclamatory prayers occur when something wonderful happens—"Praise God!"—or when something terrible happens—"Dear God, no!"—or when facing an unknown—"Please, God!" In such moments, we may spontaneously and without forethought offer exclamatory prayers to God, perhaps indicating that prayer is a very natural human phenomenon.

But why should we pray? After all, if God knows our thoughts, circumstances and needs already, what’s the point? Prayer seems redundant, some say.

Others may conclude that prayer is ineffective. A person once told me: "I prayed every hour of every day that God would heal my wife, but it didn’t happen. She died. I no longer believe God answers prayer."

Another said, "It’s not that I don’t believe in prayer; I just don’t know how because I didn’t grow up in a religious family. I don’t know what to say to God."

Questioning the value of intercessory prayer, one asked: "What good does it do for me to pray for someone on the other side of the world or next door, for that matter? I just don’t understand how that helps them."

Finally this one: "I know that I should pray, but I’m so busy with my work, my family and other demands. I just hope God understands."

There are many reasons why we don’t pray—disappointment and grief, disbelief, negligence, busyness, lack of experience and understanding about the nature of prayer itself, etc. So, maybe we should really begin with a definition. What is prayer?

There are many definitions of prayer. James Montgomery’s poem became a hymn:

Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire,

unuttered or expressed.(1)

Certainly, Prayer is sharing our innermost desires and concerns with God, spoken or unspoken. I believe there is nothing that I cannot share with God who may be the only One with whom I can share some things on my heart and mind. And, God knows, I need to share some of the stuff I carry around with me—stuff that keeps getting in the way of my life and faith, intruding into my relationships, distracting me and possessing me. I find that when I share my problems, my pain and my feelings with God, they have a way of dissipating in intensity. I feel better and function better. I have a friend who says, "I do all that I can do, then I turn it over to God." What a great theology! One of the great things about personal prayer is that God always keeps confidences. God can be trusted with anything in my life. Why should I pray? Because I need to share my life with One I ultimately trust, who loves me.

But there’s more to prayer than merely communicating our innermost needs and desires to God. Prayer is a two-way street. Prayer is not only speaking to God. Prayer is listening for and to God. Prayer is seeking God’s will.

Psalm 46 says, "Be still, and know that I am God!" In stillness we understand and learn about God and God’s will for us. Stillness is probably our greatest challenge these days. Waiting and listening for God is difficult for busy, multi-tasking people who exist in the midst of constant noise and activity, but it is quite necessary if we are to become acquainted with the "still, small voice of God."

One of my favorite stories is about he prophet Elijah running for his life from Queen Jezebel who had vowed to kill him. Elijah hid out in a cave on Mt. Horeb for forty days and nights. A voice told him to go outside the cave because the Lord was passing by. A mighty wind blew rocks and split them apart, but the Lord was not in the wind. A mighty earthquake shook the mountain, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then came fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, "a sound of sheer silence."(1 Kings 19:1-12). (Do you suppose that’s where the song, "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel, got its title?") Elijah emerged from the cave and God spoke to him in the silence and reassured him, so that he was able to continue his ministry.

Mark reports the first time Jesus prayed in that gospel. Following his baptism and the calling of the disciples, Jesus began his ministry by teaching in the synagogue, exorcising demons and healing the sick. One morning, while it was still dark, Mark says, Jesus "got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed." (1:35) Jesus was very intentional about seeking silence and solitude when he prayed, I suspect, so that he could focus on, listen for, and hear God in the midst of a busy life.

I believe we can pray to God at any time, anywhere, but I also believe that solitude is necessary if we are to hear God in prayer. I too get up early most days while it is still dark, retrieve the newspaper from the front porch, put on the coffee pot (first things first!), and settle into my easy chair where I have my morning devotional. A Bible and other devotional materials are available on a table beside me. There I share what’s on my mind with God—and listen to what God has to say. Of course, I don’t always hear God, nor do I always understand what God says, but I believe God is with me and that Comforting Presence is enough. And sometimes, when I am open, God’s direction becomes clear. I hope you have a place of solitude where you can listen for God.

Prayer is the means to relationship with God. Prayer is opening myself to connection with God. Prayer is how I become aware of and make room for God’s presence in my life. As Percy C. Ainsworth once wrote, "The end of prayer is not to win concessions from Almighty Power, but to have communion with Almighty Love."(2) Prayer, for me, isn’t primarily about requests or things or convincing God to act one way or another or to grant one thing or another. Rather, prayer is about relationship. It is about sharing life with God and developing a personal relationship with God, the gracious Creator of the universe, whose nature is "pure, unbounded love."(3)

Prayer is also power. I am amazed by how often prayer appears in the ministry of Jesus. He prayed at the beginning of his ministry. He prayed over loaves and fishes—and fed thousands. He retreated to the mountains to pray. He taught his disciples to pray in the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer. He told them to pray in private, not for public display, and to pray for those who persecuted them. He referred to the temple as a "house of prayer." He blessed the cup and loaf at Passover. Throwing himself on the ground, he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane while wrestling with God’s will for his life, "nevertheless, not what I want, but what you want"—the appropriate ending for every prayer. On the cross, he cried out in shocking honesty his sense of God-forsakenness and requested that God forgive his executioners. Through prayer Jesus received God’s power in his life. Prayer can do the same for you and me.

Prayer is priority. Jesus began his ministry with prayer, first thing in the morning. When United Methodists join the church, they make four promises. The first is to support the church with prayer. The other promises are presence, gifts and service. Prayer is first because it is through prayer that the community of faith keeps that vital connection with God and perceives God’s will for our life and ministries. I do hope that prayer is a priority in your life, as well as prayer for our church.

Prayer can take many forms: adoration and praise for God, thanksgiving, confession and forgiveness, intercession for others, petition and meditation. Also, Prayer is a path, a way of living that moves toward God. I learned that prayer is a path by walking our labyrinth here at the church. In the labyrinth one takes meditative steps along a path that lead closer and closer to God, and then out into the world again refreshed and renewed. Just so, prayer is that path toward God whose grace renews, restores and empowers us for life and faith, in the name of Jesus Christ. Why should you pray? Because prayer is your path to God.

Prayer was the beginning and prayer is the end of this sermon.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us pray in silence, according to this guide:

Give adoration, praise and glory to God.

Name one reason you are thankful.

Confess a fault or failure.

Receive God’s forgiving grace.

Pray for someone you know and someone you do not.

Ask God for what you need in your life.

And all the people together say aloud, "Amen."

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