We
gathered for the closing worship of the Fall Theological Conference. When it was the time for the prayers, our Bishop invited one of the pastors to the front. Last year, she discovered she had
cancer. We prayed for her then,
gathering around her as she knelt at the rail.
Those of us closest reached out and placed a hand on her. The rest of us laid a hand on the shoulder of
the person in front of us. The group,
connected in body and spirit, prayed over her.
This year we again laid hands on her and prayed, thanking God for the successful treatments so far and trusting her to God’s loving care.
I
think at that moment I witnessed the church at its best – when we pray for one
another.
Our
reading this morning is full of prayer –
· pray
with the suffering, · song of praise, which are another way of praying,
· prayer and anointing the sick,
· praying for one another.
James outlines a community that cares for one another – praying together, rejoicing together, confessing and forgiving together.
Last
week, we asked questions about God and our faith. There were several questions on prayer. Since James paints a picture of a community in
prayer, I thought today would be a good day to answer some of those questions.
How can you pray? What’s the right way to pray?
There
really is no right way to pray. It’s not
a magic formula that you have to say just right to get what you want. Prayer is conversation with God. In prayer we talk to God like we are talking
to a friend.
It
sounds so easy. Still many of us don’t feel confident to pray, especially to
pray out loud. We hear someone else’s prayer
or the prayers on Sunday morning and think that our own prayers are never as
good.
You
know, Jesus disciples asked him the same question.[i] They had seen him spend time in prayer, and
heard him pray. Talk about being
intimidated by someone else’ prayer.
Imagine hearing Jesus pray. No wonder they wanted to learn how to pray
like him!
Jesus
responded by teaching them what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. That’s a great place to start learning how to
pray. It covers everything – we praise
God, we pray for God’s will to be done, ask for what we need, ask for
forgiveness and for help to forgive, ask for God’s help to resist temptation
and for God’s protection from the evil out there.
Another
great place to learn how to pray is in the Psalms. The Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible. There’s a prayer for every human emotion from
joy to despair. Find a psalm that you
like and pray it, verse by verse. We do
this every Sunday, when we read the psalm for the day – as a congregation we
are praying the psalm on behalf of the world.
Some people
feel more comfortable using written prayers, like the prayers in the hymnal, or
a book of prayers, or even praying a hymn.
And that’s perfectly fine. That’s
exactly what those prayers are for – to give you words at times when you can’t
find words of your own.
The
prayers on Sunday also teach us ways to pray.
In the Prayers of the People, there’s a space for you to name something
or someone that each part of the prayer might make you think of. The easiest example of this is when we pray
for the sick or those in need – in that pause, you might think of someone you
know who is sick and name them.
Sometimes,
your prayer can be really simple – “help me, God.”
Sometimes,
you might feel like just talking to God like you do a friend.
And
there are times when you want to pray, but have no words. In those moments, the Spirit prays for you, “with
sighs too deep for words.” [ii]
Pretty
much, any way you pray is fine with God.
The only thing Jesus teaches us not to do is to pray to impress others.[iii]
When we confess the creeds, we say we believe in God the Father, in Jesus the Son and in the Holy Spirit. So essentially, if you pray to Jesus, you’re praying to the Father and the Spirit. If you pray to the Father, you’re praying to Jesus and the Spirit, and if you pray to the Spirit, you’re praying to the Father and Jesus. The three persons are all the same God – that’s what we mean when we talk about the Trinity.
We use
a lot of different names for God. In the
Prayers of the People for today, God is called:
Holy
GodGod Most High
God our Refuge
God of Mercy
God of grace,
O Lord our strength and our redeemer
Faithful God
It’s all the same God – we’re just naming different qualities of God.
Anywhere and everywhere. Any time and at all times. Standing, sitting, kneeling. Lying on your bed, driving a car, in church or at home. If we talk to God as we talk to friends, then think of prayer as your cell phone to God – you can pray anywhere you could use a cell phone. In fact, you can pray in places where cell phones aren’t allowed.
Unanswered prayer
The last
question is a hard one to answer: Why doesn’t
God answer my prayer?
Jesus
tells us that if we ask, it will be given, and God gives good gifts to God’s
children.[iv] He teaches us that if two or three ask anything
in his name, God will do it.[v] In our reading today, James tells us that
prayer is powerful and effective.
Yet, we
know that sometimes our prayers seem to be unanswered.
This
is one of those questions we have to wrestle with as a community. And there may be no answer this side of
heaven.
The thing
is, we live in a broken world, where sin, death and the forces of evil still
hold sway. A world where people use
their God-given free will to choose to live in ways that cause harm to
themselves and to others. This brings up
the question of suffering – which is a whole other sermon.
We also know that God’s timing is different than ours – sometimes what we think is a ‘no’ is really a ‘not yet.” And we know that sometimes God answers our prayers in ways we could not imagine.
So, we
pray, trusting that God hears our prayers.
We
pray, knowing that God is a loving Father who gives good gifts to his
children.
We
pray, handing over our hurts and our needs to the God who knows what we need
before we even ask.
We
pray, resting in presence of God who is with us in the midst of our joys and
our sorrows.
And
those prayers are powerful and effective.
We’re
praying for J’s great-niece. J
was talking to the little girl’s mother, and they were talking about everyone
who is praying for them – her church, us, other churches who have heard about
her cancer. And her mother said, “It
means a lot to know so many people are praying for her.” We don’t know yet how God is going to answer
our prayers for this little girl, but her mother is strengthened and comforted because of the
prayers of those who are suffering with her.
Today,
we will rejoice with G and his parents at his baptism. We’ll thank God for the gift of this little
boy. We share their happiness and pray
for God’s blessing on this family.
We are
praying each week for H, and L, and K, and N. We may not gather around them and lay on
hands, as my pastor’s gathering did for our friend, but we pray just as
earnestly for them. Our prayers for
healing the body also bring healing of the soul to them and their families.
We
pray for each other. And God takes our
prayers and weaves together a community of faith and hope and love.
Let us
pray…
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