praying

Lord Jesus, teach us how to pray.  Amen. 

Lake George from Inspiration Pt.

My family loves the Adirondack mountains.  It is our place for retreat twice a year. We hike to this place; inspiration point.  It’s not a hard climb, takes 45 minutes to get up there.  But the view is awesome.  On a beautiful spring day, we can sit up there for an hour in complete silence. Serenity, beauty, fresh air, Lake George, peace.  It is our semi-annual high.  It energizes us, brings clarity of thought, reduces stress and anxiety, and gives us time together in God’s presence. We are free to be.  It’s never hard to go there, always hard to leave. I often say I could live there.  Retire there one day.  Buy a cabin. Sit on the porch. It’s a dream.  If you have a place like this, you know what I mean.  If you don’t, I recommend you find one.        

One of the recurring themes in Luke’s story about Jesus and his disciples is the theme of prayer.  It is mentioned more than in the other gospels.  In major scenes, Jesus prays:  At his baptism.  Before he chooses the 12 disciples, on the mountain, and on the cross.  Jesus prays.  He tells a parable, only found in Luke’s story, about a friend who knocks on a friends’ door at midnight, seeking some bread so that he might offer food to a guest who has come to his house.  Prayer, he says, is like asking a friend, at an inopportune time, to give you a gift so that you might give that gift to someone else.  Prayer is like obtaining food for someone else.  Prayer is like being in between someone who has what someone else needs.  Prayer is a point of access.  Prayer is advocacy, speaking up for someone else, being their voice.  Prayer is inconvenient, too.  It is the midnight cry in a crisis moment.  It is the “sorry to have to bother you with this, but…”  Prayer is, “I need your help, so that I can help someone else.”  It’s knowing where to turn in a moment of need.  It’s knocking on the door.  Prayer is not relaxing meditation apart from the world on inspiration point.  It is an action verb. It is movement. It is an intervention, a confrontation.  

Many of us pray.  In times of trouble, need, confusion, fear, grief.  We pray for help.  And in times of joy, celebration, and blessing we pray in thanksgiving.  I suspect we have been taught to pray at meals, maybe at bedtime, less likely in the morning.  Maybe you have a few prayers memorized.  Maybe you fold your hands and bow your head and kneel at your bedside.  Maybe you pray out loud, alone in your car.  Maybe you just don’t pray.  If God is God, doesn’t God already know what I’m going to say, what I’m thinking?  What’s the point?  Prayer can seem passive, verbal, cerebral—in my head. Prayer is sort of nice, but not messy or dangerous. We don’t think of prayer as risk.  We think of it as duty or comfort. 

Lent begins Wednesday. So, it’s Confession time. I’m not sure about prayer in my own life. I don’t know if I pray enough. I keep trying.  Prayer sometimes feels more like a chore or duty and something I skip or forget to do. I rarely know for certain that a prayer I prayed is answered.  I don’t even try to make those connections. I have been a student of prayer for a long time. I’ve read about prayer, talked and taught about prayer, practiced various kinds of praying.  I’m not sure I understand it much better than when I was a child, though.  Is it effective? If not, is that a reflection on me or God?   I’m still learning. Sometimes prayer has been intimate and profound, spiritually energizing, exciting. I have prayed in groups, with a partner, on behalf of one person or many people.  I have prayed in front of large crowds and in a small, dark, silent space.  Pastors  are invited to and expected to pray.  But I don’t always have the words. 

The story of the Transfiguration is a story about prayer.  It tells us that Jesus is not only the crucified one, but also the risen one---transformed into the image of the invisible God. A human being, yet reflecting the very light and life of the creator of all things. He is the law and the prophets---every Word that God has shared with the world comes into focus with that man. As such, Jesus is absent from and present to believers. In Scripture, in the bread and wine, and in prayer we encounter the risen Jesus.  We have access to God through him. But, you don’t have to go to a special place to find him.  You don’t have to climb the mountain or go to church.  For Luke, Jesus is everywhere we are.  In the valley, in the waters, on the mountains, in the cities and towns, in the fields, on the road, at the dinner table, in our dying, in the grave, in the morning, in the evening, Jesus is always there.

Peter’s mistake was in trying to capture the moment, to photograph it, to hold onto it.  Let’s just stay up here at inspiration point.  Away from the din of the crowds, the demands of others, the challenges we face, our own failures and insecurities.  Who doesn’t want to escape sometimes? But escape is not really possible, is it?  And it's not, after all, the point.
So God chooses to send Jesus.  Jesus is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit---Luke’s way of saying that Jesus’ every word and action is motivated and directed by Jesus’ connection with God.  Unlike us.  We have other motivations, ugly selfish ones. But we are also filled with the Holy Spirit, so how can we become more like Jesus?    

According to Luke, prayer has two components; being in Jesus’ presence and listening to Him. The fruit or result of which is what Luke calls “Salvation”. He does not portray salvation as an escape to heaven or even a more prosperous and better life right now.  Salvation is being in the presence of Jesus, hearing his voice, drawing in the same breath that Jesus took, walking in his ways, trusting him, obeying his commands. Salvation is not a guaranteed trip to the golf course in the sky. It is not a great vacation.  It is so much more than that.  Prayer is, finally I think, entering into a space in which God is present to you.  Sometimes, it's like a portal whereby you recognize that God is not absent, that God is here surrounding or infusing you.  Prayer is being on the mountain and in the valley at the same time.  It is being alone with yourself and with God at the same time.  It is a mystery to me and it is more real than anything else we say or do.  Prayer is the God's honest truth uttered by a bag of lies.