This morning we venture back to the first century, when times were tough for the Hebrew people. The Romans controlled their territory, their commerce, and their lives. If a Jew veered off Rome's prescribed way of doing things, and the Romans perceived it to be a threat to the stability they imposed, they would deal with the perpetrators swiftly and brutally. Living under such harsh conditions, the Hebrew people must have had great difficulty praying. And when they did pray, they must have asked, "Are you there, God? Are you listening? The Romans - these pagans - control our lives. We pray to be freed from this bondage."
The disciples of Jesus likely prayed such prayers. They followed Jesus and wanted to believe he was the Son of God, but they must have wondered why they continued to live under oppressive conditions. But then on certain occasions, they witnessed something extraordinary. Their Teacher would leave them behind and go into the wilderness and spend time in solitude with God. Sometimes Jesus would pray all night. And when he returned, they could see a change in him. He would be full of energy, he would again be clear about his direction and he would inspire confidence in his followers. And on one of these occasions when he returned, so refocused and re-energized, they said, "Lord, teach us to pray."
It encourages me to know that they asked such a favor. I am glad to hear that these disciples who worshiped regularly and obviously were no strangers to prayer, could admit that they were not too accomplished at it and felt they needed assistance. Because that is precisely the situation with many of us today. We have been active in the church for years and we have uttered countless prayers. Some of them printed in worship bulletins, some spoken spontaneously around the dinner table, some offered during times of crises. And yet, despite all of those prayers we have said, many of us still feel very inadequate praying. Why?
One reason may be because we question whether it does any good. Does it? Does prayer make any difference? Will anything change as a result of my praying, or will the events of life unfold in the same way regardless of whether or not I pray? How we answer this question depends on our view of the world and our view of God.
Some people believe that the world is like a great machine in which everything is determined by certain universal physical laws. That is, everything from the movement of the stars and the planets to the biochemistry of our emotions is already determined. In the same way that we can predict where a particular comet will be in the year 2004 so we can intersect it with a space probe, we can predict how a particular human being will behave if we have all the pertinent information. It may appear that we are free to act as we choose, but our genes have predetermined how we will respond in every situation. This way of thinking is based on a particular scientific theory regarding the natural laws of the universe.
There is a religious theory which reaches the identical conclusion. This is the belief that God is in control of all the events in the world and everything that happens is because God has already predetermined that it will take place. Human beings cannot mess up what God has planned. The events of life unfold the way God has willed for them to unfold.
If you hold either of these two views, then there is not much reason for praying. If the events of life are already determined - whether by God of by natural laws - then why bother with prayer, except perhaps to say, "Thank you, God, for the way you are running the show."
In order for prayer to be a meaningful part of our lives, we must believe that the future is not already set. Undoubtedly, there is a certain degree of order in the universe which allows for predictability. It takes an enormous amount of data and calculating, but I am confident that scientists can (either now or in the future) figure out when and where and how to launch a space probe which will intersect with a comet. There is enough order in the universe to determine certain things. But along with this order, there is also a certain amount of chaos. That is, everything is not set, there is also a certain amount of freedom and openness.
Although it is highly probable that a person who has smoked 20,000 cigarettes will smoke number 20,001 it is not already determined. Although it is likely that a person who has been in church every Sunday for the past ten years will be in worship next Sunday, it is not set in stone.
The future is open. We have choices to make. There is potential for both good and evil. Thus prayer is vitally important for our lives. It is a way for us to participate with God in shaping who we are and what takes place in the world. Yet most of us feel that our prayer life falls short of what it could be. That's the same thing the disciples thought, and so they asked Jesus for assistance. They saw that prayer had a profound impact on his life, and they desired the same for themselves. "Lord, sometimes you get so run-down and exhausted with all the needs that are thrust upon you and the threats that are made against you, but then you go away to pray and you return revitalized. How do you do that? Teach us to pray."
Jesus responded to their request in typical fashion for a first century Rabbi. He gave them a model prayer, we know it as the Lord's Prayer. Someone has likened it to the beginning scales that a piano teacher would set before a new pupil. We need a basic model, a foundation, and from there we can expand and grow.
However, Jesus realized that there is much more to praying than simply learning the words of a given prayer and committing them to memory. This act of spiritual encounter involves all facets of our being - our wants and desires, our thoughts and motivations. And so Jesus did not simply present them with a model prayer and say, "Here it is, repeat it." He also told them a story which would illustrate for them a chief obstacle to prayer (1) as well as an important attitude for prayer.
He said, "Suppose late one night, an old friend of yours whom you haven't seen for years, shows up at your door. He's traveling through the area and needs a place to stay for the night." Now this would not be a common experience for us. It would be unusual for a friend of ours to show up at the door at midnight without some sort of advance warning. But this sort of thing was quite common in the Middle East. It was so hot during the day that people did most of their traveling during the night. And it was a common custom to rely on the hospitality of your friends wherever you were. So when a friend showed up at the door, you would invite him in, and show him where to put his things and let him get cleaned up. And while he was doing that, you would prepare some food for him, so he could eat something before going to bed for the night.
Jesus says, "Suppose this friend shows up late one night, and you welcome him into your home, but you discover that your cupboards are bare and you have no food to share with him. Quickly you run to the next door neighbor to see if you can borrow some bread. But when you get to the neighbor's house, you are not greeted with open arms. In fact, you run into a firm wall of resistance. Your neighbor and everyone in the house is asleep, and he is not pleased that by pounding on the door you have awakened him and you are about to awaken all the children. So he shouts out to you, Don't bother me. The door is locked, the children are in bed, I can't get up'."
Jesus says, "You don't give up, you keep pounding on the door. You stay after your neighbor until he finally relents and gives you some bread. Your persistence is what makes you successful."
The first thing Jesus does by use of this simple illustration is to encourage his followers to be persistent when they pray. That is the obvious lesson of the story, but there is also a deeper one. The second part is to reveal to his disciples why they are dissatisfied with their own prayer life. He reveals to them their sense of embarrassment concerning their immature manner of praying. In picturing one who is calling out for help in the midst of a crisis, he is describing the most common form of prayer. "God, I'm in a jam, get me out of it."
When life is going along smoothly, we act as if we don't need God and we may spend little time in prayer. But when times get difficult, when we find ourselves at the end of our rope, we come running to God pleading, "Please get me out of this mess!" To heck with prayers of thanks, to heck with prayers of intercession for others, we spout prayers of petition. "Help me, give me, rescue me." But then, when the crisis subsides, and we reflect on how we acted, we become ashamed that our prayer life is so infantile. And this realization that we are most serious about prayer only when we are in the midst of a crisis becomes a hindrance to deepening our prayer life.(2)
You might expect it to have the opposite result. If we find that we are lacking in something the logical thing to do is to devise a strategy for growing and improving. When we are under-developed in a particular area it should spur us to overcome our deficiencies. However, pride and defensiveness often take root and the realization that we are inadequate in a specific matter often prompts us to avoid it entirely.
A colleague says that this is exactly the way he responded to swimming. Where he grew up there were no swimming pools or lakes nearby, and so he never learned to swim. In his early teens he started to take some lessons, but before he became comfortable with it, he had an operation on his arm. He had to stay out of the water for quite awhile and once it healed, he didn't get back to the lessons. So one day he found himself in his late teens and still unable do anything but thrash around in the water. But instead of going back to getting lessons, he went the opposite direction. He avoided the water. Then one summer he fell for a girl who was from a family who was very involved with swimming. Not only was she an excellent swimmer, but her father was a swimming coach. Time after time they invited him to go swimming, and this would have been the perfect opportunity to get the help he needed. But that's not what he did. Out of embarrassment, he came up with excuses each time he was invited. He knew he couldn't do it very well, so he avoided it altogether.(3)
Some people respond in a similar fashion to computers. They don't know much about them, and their embarrassment over their lack of knowledge hinders them from becoming more comfortable with them. And so when people start talking about computers, they don't want to hear it.
Most of us can likely name an area in our lives where we feel inadequate, and rather than finding a way to grow and overcome our inadequacy, our embarrassment hinders us from maturing. For many of us, one of those areas is prayer. Our lack of a meaningful prayer life inhibits us from deepening our spiritual life. But it does not have to remain that way. The future is open, we have the opportunity to choose a new course of action. Rather than turning away from opportunities to deepen our prayer life, we can embrace them. It may feel awkward at first, but it won't last. The more we engage in prayer and the more we experiment with various types of prayer, the more comfortable it will become.
Try our Prayer Vigil this coming weekend. Come and pray for other members of our church family and the needs they have identified. Try setting aside a special time each day of your week to spend time in solitude with God. Purchase a book of prayers which will help you to see the words that other people find meaningful. Read a passage of Scripture and let it direct you in prayer.
Just don't wait until the next crisis strikes, and don't be paralyzed by embarrassment. Set aside a specific time to be alone with God. I have it on good authority that God is anxious to hear from you.
NOTES
1. From a sermon by John R. Claypool, "Obstacles to Prayer", posted in the Sermon Mall on the Lectionary Homiletics website.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
© 1999 Gregory Knox Jones, all rights reserved
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