Prayer and the Purposes of God

I wrote two different homilies for this Sunday, one based on the Epistle and the other on the Gospel.  I'll preach the Gospel and post that one later, but here is the one for Sunday's Epistle reading....

September 22, 2013: The Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

1 Timothy 2:1–8

Prayer and the Purposes of God

On September 7, 2013, 100,000 people joined Pope Francis for a day of fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the world. Across the globe, millions more participated. It had seemed inevitable that the U.S. would launch some level of attack on Syria, but––dare we say, miraculously––Russia offered an alternative that has prevented a military strike. Is it coincidence that a day of prayer and fasting was called by the Church? Can prayer really have that kind of effect in our world?

Behind the words of this letter is a story. This story has a setting and characters––Paul and Timothy and false teachers in a congregation at long-ago Ephesus. Jesus said and did certain things to reveal God’s truth, and the apostles exercised great care to establish an accurate account of the facts and a right interpretation of their meaning. The words of this letter are part of the Holy Spirit’s wisdom within that story. Once we begin to see God’s wisdom in that context we can try to see what the Scripture is saying to us today.

A close look at these verses brings a focus on the subject of prayer. Prayer is a place where the presence of God and human activity intersect. One way God’s truth comes to us is through prayer. I say it again: prayer is a place where the presence of God and human activity intersect. So the work of prayer lies at the center of church life. The work of prayer lies at the heart of personal faith. Prayer undergirds order, both in the church and in the world-at-large.

God created people to have influence––even a measure of control––over what happens on earth. That’s one implication of humanity as special creation, in God’s image. When the Man and Woman disobey God they have a horrible effect on life in this world. Even today there is a sense in which people who disobey God are “praying” to the spiritual forces of evil (some do this intentionally; most do it in sheer ignorance), and this affects the world negatively. On the other hand, people who know God and desire to obey him exercise a good spiritual influence; when they pray according to God’s will, they “cooperate” with God in ways that give life in the world.

This kind of understanding can be found in ancient Christian writings. Theodoret (ca. 393–466) was a bishop who offered these thoughts: “The central purpose of prayer is the cultivation of that good order, peace and godliness that make the authentic practice of Christian faith possible, such that the peace represented in the union of united human and divine natures in Christ becomes manifest in the world.”

This is one reason Paul gives this call to prayer for the civil order. God’s people need to pray for people who have the role of civil authority in this world. As hard as it is for us to grasp the idea, God’s power and mercy and grace are released in a special way to intervene and even bless civil leaders when his people, exercising their God-given spiritual authority on earth, ask him to do this. There is a general good for everyone: that we may live peaceful and quiet lives... (2:2).

There is also a specific reason for Christians to pray for civil order, and it is tied into the ultimate purpose of God for this world: that the people he created to know him can best learn who God is and what he has done to fix this broken world. Here is the heart of God, given with full apostolic authority: I was appointed a herald and an apostle―I am telling the truth, I am not lying... (2:7). What is the heart of God? God... wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (2:4).

How can that happen? Remember that the context here is prayer. Again, prayer is a place where the presence of God and human activity intersect. We must always start with God, and the undergirding truth of who God is and what he has done is affirmed here: there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men (2:5,6).

So if God has done this through his Son, and if God desires the salvation of all, what more is there to say or do? Isn’t God Sovereign? Won’t God do what he wants to do anyway? Paul says that we are to pray! The Scriptures do not give us a neat formula for how prayer or salvation work. God does sometimes seem to sovereignly “grab” a person and save him. Other times there is a witness or a presentation of the gospel followed by a challenge for people to choose their response. Interwoven in this is the thread of human action on behalf of others―prayer. God has made it possible for his people to pray other people into salvation. We can pray so that the call of God on a person makes him unable to say “no.”

So here are two substantial things where the the prayers of God’s people work in our world. First, prayer releases God to work through the civil process of our world. Second, prayer enhances and expands God’s saving work through the gospel.

What do you expect when you pray? I confess that I am far too weak in this area. But... prayer does not depend on our understanding! The power of prayer is unleashed when we do it!!

Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us some specific things to pray for as he wrote to Timothy so long ago. May the Lord help us to be people of prayer.

A Message With Signs and Wonders

Wednesday: 4 August, 2013 –– 22nd Week in Ordinary Time

Luke 4:38–44

A Message With Signs and Wonders

In John's first letter (3:8) we find these words: The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. Jesus has power not only over the “spiritual” dimension, Jesus also has power over the more natural and observable aspects of our lives. The people saw the connection. All it took was for Jesus to raise up Simon's mother-in-law, and it seems that everyone who had a physical need was on their way to see Jesus.

Jesus did not heal people merely for their own comfort. Jesus healed them because he loved them, yes, but he healed them also because he was sent to testify to the reality of the kingdom of God.  His mighty words said that God's great day had dawned;  his mighty deeds proved that his mighty words were true.

Often people ask questions: How can I know God is there? How can I know Jesus is real?  Jesus did not come only with the word that God's rule had come to earth, he came with deeds to back up his words. Jesus gave such signs of spiritual reality that people were brought to an issue of decision. Because Jesus performed mighty deeds to prove his mighty words were true, he could not be merely ignored.

So many people in our society ignore the gospel we say we believe. It's easy for them to have a nonchalant attitude about what we say we believe is both true and the most important truth in the world. Instead of Christians today giving unbelievers undeniable evidence that the power of God has been unleashed in the people in whom the Spirit of Jesus lives, we have inherited a generation of people who can casually say:  "You do your thing and I'll do mine." or "Different strokes for different folks."

What would our witness be if there were signs of spiritual power in our lives like it was with Jesus (and the first apostles after Pentecost)? Do we truly believe that the Spirit who lives in Christians today is the same Spirit that lived out a life of obedience and power in Jesus when he was on earth?

I know that what I'm saying is pretty far out to many people, but we have the authority and the example from our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to believe God can do mighty things through us so the message of the gospel will be mighty in this day of unbelief. Jesus brought a message proved with signs and wonders.  Do we truly believe it?

The Problem of Pride

September 1, 2013 –– 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time
Sirach 3:17–18, 20, 28–29 / Luke 14:1, 7–14
THE PROBLEM OF PRIDE

Sirach and the Gospel draw our attention to pride. Pride is not delight in that which is truly good. Pride is not what we would call appropriate self-esteem. True human pride is something God hates. Depending on which English version of the Bible one uses, the words pride and proud occur a bit over 100 times. Many of the notable Christian thinkers throughout church history have understood pride to be the root of sin. Pride is a major barrier to salvation. Pride does not want to admit that we are not our own center of the universe. Pride does not want to admit dependence. Pride does not want to confess any weakness or wrong. Pride does not want to be indebted to anyone. Jesus is confronting pride in today’s Gospel.

Actually, we all detest pride―in someone else. There is no sin that makes a person more unpopular. We can detect pride so easily―in another person. There is no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves and yet so aware of in someone else. We recognize our aversion to pride in its synonyms: conceit, arrogance, snobbishness, know-it-all, big-head, self-centered. Someone described a proud man as one who "struts even while sitting down." Another picture is that of a person who is often wrong, but always insists he is right. Then there is the person who is always whining that he deserves better than he is getting. Who likes someone who comes across like that? 

Pride is an attitude that each person is his own "number one." Pride is thinking I know what is best, and "best" is always defined by whatever is safe, convenient and comfortable for me. This  is an attitude that displaces God! We may not jockey for the best seats at a church dinner, but we instinctively take the best piece of meat––or more than we should––if we’re in front of the line at a pot-luck. We usually are not thinking about belonging to Jesus when we get angry at the people who “get in my way” while driving our cars. Pride is a spiritual cancer which eats up the possibility of love.... or even contentment. Chaucer called it "a swelling of the heart" which leaves no room for others.

Pride is often about image, and keeping up an image separates us from God. Pride is “being in love with me.” Pride is wanting to be seen and to be praised. It turns everything in life into competition; pride wants always to come in first place. Pride is calculating and posturing and posing for attention and credit. Pride destroys the possibility of the personal intimacy we all long for by being too self-protective―too concerned with what others see―to be real. MTV (and its Video Awards) is pushing an image. The Home & Garden Channel is pushing an image. Almost all advertising is about image. It appeals to our pride, trying to convince us to look successful or sexy or embrace any facade that is rooted in a pecking order. 

Pride keeps everyone at arm's length so they can’t see the real me. Whenever we put ourselves first or project a manufactured image instead of who we really are, we shut others––and God––out. The only way this can change is when we admit that we are not so good in perfectly following God's ways. That is the door to salvation. But it’s no wonder it doesn't look inviting––we have to embrace humility.  Repentance goes against our proud natures.

One of the most powerful shapers in my and my wife’s early spiritual formation was being taught that selfishness––putting self first––is sin. Wanting our own way or not being open to correction is spiritual death. Libby can remember, as a young child, times that her pastor-father––an intense man––would come and kneel before her and apologize for jumping to a conclusion or getting too irritated over some small issue, telling her that he had not modeled Jesus and wanted her to forgive him. Because we are Christians, we should understand the insidious nature of pride more than anyone. Jesus on the cross is a picture of where selfishness will go; he was hated because his life exposed self-worship. No wonder Jesus gives these warnings.

Yet even in the church there is pressure to appear better than we really are. Yes, there is a standard of godliness the church is to uphold and model, but the first way we do that is always to model the truth that God uses broken, imperfect people. The best way to nurture spiritual life is to be honest, and honesty is hard on pride. No matter where we are in our Christian journey.... no matter how far we have progressed in our sanctification.... no matter how much we have grown in maturity.... no matter how wholehearted our obedience, we are still people who fall short of God's glory and we are people who need to pray every day as Jesus taught us, forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. This is for all of us, from Pope to peon. This is for me. I preach to myself and let others listen.

We need to see that it is not others who get in our way, but we ourselves who too often project ourselves in ways that we know are not right. If pride keeps us from God by trying to take care of life on our own, then pride is defeated when we believe that God loves us enough to care for us better than we can care for ourselves. This is one way to understand faith.

Jesus invites us to be honest before God―to open wide the door of our heart.... to hold nothing back (God knows it all anyway).... to find the incredible grace of being loved in spite of everything about us that's weak and broken and ugly―and then, in the strength we get from God loving us anyway, to learn to be honest with God and even other people. This is the way to fight pride. And in the overall battle, there is one thing of paramount importance: giving ourselves continually to Jesus Christ. We can't do anything in the fight against pride unless we are inviting Jesus to live his life in ours. Jesus always shows us the way.

Jesus invites us to be honest before God―to open wide the door of our heart.... to hold nothing back (God knows it all anyway).... to find the incredible grace of being loved in spite of everything about us that's weak and broken and ugly―and then, in the strength we get from God loving us anyway, to learn to be honest with God and even other people.  This is the way to fight the sin of pride. And in the overall battle against sin, there is one thing of paramount importance:  giving ourselves continually to Jesus Christ. We can't do anything in the fight against pride unless we are inviting Jesus to live his life in ours. Jesus always shows us the way.

A Contrast of Faith

Wednesday:7 August, 2013 –– 18th Week in Ordinary Time

Numbers 13:1–2, 25–14:1 / Matthew 15:21–28

A Contrast of Faith

The two readings today give us a contrast of faith.

Consider this story about the Israelites. God had demonstratively delivered them from Egypt in the aftermath of plagues and protection from the “death angel” (with the institution of Passover). God had led them through the Red Sea. God had provided water from a rock, a deluge of quail, and daily manna as they made their way through an inhospitable desert. Now they were on the boundary of the land promised to them because of God’s covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob....

Yet, they did not have the faith to believe God was bigger than giants in the land and fortified cities! For all the divine words given with majestic fire, and the visible fiery pillar of Presence as they journeyed, the people of God could not “see” God, but only the threatening obstacles.

The woman in the Gospel story was not an Israelite. She had not grown up hearing the Scriptures and being reminded of God’s promises to his people. We are told explicitly that she was a Canaanite––a pagan from the people who had been historic enemies of Israel.

Yet, somehow she had heard about Jesus. With that she had an inner spark of faith to recognize Jesus as the one hope for her daughter. So in an act of desperation deepened by outward humiliation she asked for even the “scraps” of grace that might fall from the One who stood before her. Jesus commended her faith, and her daughter was healed.

Every day of our lives we stand at a fork-road. We can look at our day and see the obstacles but forget the lessons and examples of grace that have surrounded us. Or, we can humbly admit the desperate situations that engulf us in a broken world and, in desperation of spirit, confess that unless Jesus has mercy on us we have no hope. 

That is the contrast of faith: to focus on the obstacles and miss God, or with desperate humility cast ourselves on the mercy, grace and power of our Crucified and Risen Lord. The option is before us today––and every day. How is our faith?

Learning to Pray

July 28, 2013 –– 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Luke 11:1–13

Learning to Pray

Almost all people naturally pray. Yet it is not natural or easy to pray well.

Not all people pray often. Prayer can be the desperate last resort of the distressed.

Many people are skeptical about prayer. They come to prayer with the theological sophistication of Huck Finn:

Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing came of it. She told me to pray everyday, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn't so. I tried it. Once I got a fishline, but no hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn't make it out no way.

Most of us have likely felt that way at times. We ask God, praying quite sincerely for something, and it doesn’t happen. Prayer becomes a big mystery. Like Huck, we can't "make it out no way." Maybe this was part of the disciples’ motivation when one of them asked, Lord, teach us to pray....

Luke especially portrays Jesus as a man of prayer. He stays up all night, praying (Lu 5:16). He chose the Twelve after a night of prayer (Lu 6:12-13). The Transfiguration happened as he was praying (Lu 9:29).  It is no wonder the disciples wanted Jesus to teach us to pray.

So Luke presents Jesus giving these words as a response to the disciples. This prayer is at its simplest, which only emphasizes how profound it really is. Volumes have been written on what is called both The Lord’s Prayer and the Our Father. Back in 1988 I preached a sermon on this text that was seven pages long––about 25-30 minutes. In 1992 I did a series of nine sermons on The Lord’s Prayer that was 82 pages. My point is that I cannot cover this prayer in a 10-minute homily. Instead, I want to stress the one point that undergirds the whole thirteen verses of this reading.

Jesus would have given this prayer in Aramaic (or maybe Hebrew). Luke uses the Greek, pater (father)––which would not have been revolutionary, but behind the translation is the word abba (Mark actually uses this in his Gospel, 14:36), and the implication is revolutionary: God is our papa––Daddy! There is an intimacy here that matches exactly what the disciples saw in Jesus’ prayer life. Jesus says this intimacy with God is for all of us. Because God loves us like a good daddy loves his children, our Heavenly Father is always helping us to know him and his great love.

We were created to pray––to be in conversation with God. We are invited to pray. Peter writes in his first letter: Cast all your anxiety on [the Lord] because he cares for you (1Pet 5:7). Jesus himself invites: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Lu 11:9). The Psalmist gives the same reason as Jesus that we can have confidence to pray: As a father has compassion on his children / so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; / for he knows how we are formed, / he remembers that we are dust (Psa 103:13–14). Jesus says it this way: If you then, though you are [in comparison to God] evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Lu 11:13).

Now, I’ve said all this to make one point: God is always at work for us to know him (because to know God is eternal life––salvation). There is no prayer that is not answered. 

Earthly fathers love their children and delight in giving good gifts to them. Good human fathers do not give their children “bad” things even if they foolishly ask for them. Neither does our Heavenly Father give us things which will be harmful to us. In our shortsightedness.... our weakness.... our stubbornness, we can find ourselves asking God for “snakes” and “scorpions” instead of “fish” and “eggs.” I may ask for a snake thinking it’s what I want, but God gives me a fish. I may wish for a scorpion believing it’s the right thing at the time (because the world can make harmful things look so good), but God still gives me eggs. God does not give us evil gifts when we ask for the good, but he does give us good gifts even when we seek what is harmful to us. When God answers our prayers the way we wish, it is because it fits with the way God wants us to know him. When God does not answer our prayers as we wish, it is because, if he did so, it would interfere with the way God wants us to know him. We need to understand that every true prayer we pray is actually our cry for God’s Spirit, and that is what the Father is always positively answering.

Jesus invites us to pray. He tells us how to pray. His Spirit is always drawing us to pray. Let’s not focus so much on what we think we want. Let’s renew each day the hunger and thirst of those first disciples and ask our Lord, teach us to pray.

Ready For God’s Work

Wednesday: 17 July, 2013 –– 15th Week in Ordinary Time

Exodus 3:1–6, 9–12 / Matthew 11:25–27

Ready For God’s Work

There was a time when Moses thought he could help his people. He had been raised in Pharaoh’s household, yet had an empathy for the Hebrews. One day he intervened between an Egyptian and a Hebrew slave and killed the Egyptian. He had to run for his life (Exodus 2:1–15).

Moses had forty years of exile, tending his father-in-law’s sheep. It seems he had resigned himself to obscurity. Any grandiose ideas were long gone.

Then there was a burning bush––only it was not consumed. God, the Consuming Fire (Hebrews12:29), was manifesting himself. It was time for Moses to fulfill his calling.

It was then that Moses expressed one of the most important characteristics of godly leadership: Who am I....?  In other words, “I am not adequate for the job.” 

Whenever we think we are capable of doing God’s work, we are not. It is when we know that I can’t do this unless God helps me that we can be effective. If the Lord does not build the house, in vain do its builders labor (Psalm 127).

This is one way to understand Jesus in today’s Gospel: Father.... you have hidden these things from the wise and learned [but] revealed them to the childlike.

We come to the Lord as little children, knowing we are helpless apart from his mercy, wisdom and power. Each day we pray, “I’m yours––do in me and through me what you will.”  Then we are ready for God’s work.

Sodom Had No Bible

Tuesday: 16 July, 2013 –– 15th Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 11:20–24

Sodom Had No Bible

In today’s Gospel Jesus proclaims some bad news about the Good News. We like to hear from the Jesus who talks about love and models mercy, but the same Jesus said some hard things which are not popular and do not get much attention in “popular” Christianity.

We would like to dismiss the holiness and judgment of God. There seems to be a disconnect, even among some Christians, so that when the cross of Christ is in view we do not think immediately of God’s attitude toward sin.

Woe to you.... It’s not that God doesn’t love, but rather that there are people who will not receive the love of God. There were communities that rejected Jesus when he came among them. Jesus says the same witness among pagan Gentiles would have brought repentance. 

Then Jesus raises the Old Testament story of Sodom, one of the cities that was wiped out by literal fire and brimstone because of its wickedness. Jesus says that if Sodom had been given the same witness it would not have been destroyed, and that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for those who have been given explicit Truth and rejected it.

When I was a teenager in my mostly fundamentalist childhood church, the British evangelist Leonard Ravenhill came for a 10-day “revival meeting.” I was spellbound by his wonderful accent and found it easy to listen to his 90-minute sermons. One thing he said has stayed with me for the past 50 years: Sodom had no Bible.... and the judgment of a holy God fell upon its wicked depravity. We live in a land where biblical truth has been proclaimed again and again, and yet our society is increasingly rejecting God’s truth and embracing selfish pleasures that mirror the immorality and disregard for the poor that Scripture attributes to the fiery judgment on Sodom (see Genesis 18:20 & 19:4–6; Ezekiel 16:49,50; Jude 7).

Sodom had no Bible––no special revelation from God––but we have been entrusted with the oracles of God (Romans 3:2). May God have mercy on us.