Prayer: frontier of spiritual life

Luke 11:1
Episcopal Church on Edisto

Proper 12, Series C

July 24, 2016

Lord, amid the noise and stress of daily living, help us to

preserve the silence within. In moments of crisis may we turn to
that center of our being to find you awaiting us. Bless us with
the vision of your changelessness and grant us peace; through
Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMEN.
(adapted from Dag Hammarskjold's Markings)

We have a real contrast in our scriptural lessons for today. How

to pray and how not to pray. In Genesis Abraham is in
conversation (prayer) with God. Abraham seeks in his prayer to
get God to act as Abraham desires. He tries to manipulate
God. WILL YOU INDEED SWEEP AWAY THE RIGHTEOUS
WITH THE WICKED? SUPPOSE (Genesis 18:23-24) Have you
ever prayed in this way? Unfortunately our reading of Genesis
this morning stops before the punch line. There are no righteous
persons in Sodom and Gomorrah. Prayer doesnt change God.
Prayer changes you.
On the other hand: JESUS WAS PRAYING IN A CERTAIN
PLACE, AND AFTER HE HAD FINISHED, ONE OF HIS
DISCIPLES SAID TO HIM, "LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY,
AS JOHN TAUGHT HIS DISCIPLES.

(Luke 11:1)

Then - those

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oh so familiar words: "Our Father who art in heaven ....." Our

Gospel lesson today has two very striking points that Luke
presents to us which are often overlooked. 1) Real prayer is
something to be learned. 2) Real prayer involves listening.
Real prayer is something to be learned. LORD, TEACH US
(Luke 11:1)

a disciple asked. Richard Foster, a Quaker writer, says,

"one of the liberating experiences of my life came when I

understood that prayer involved a learning process. I was set
free to question, to experiment, even to fail, for I know that I
was learning." Foster took every passage from the New
Testament on prayer and pasted them onto sheets of paper. He
made a marvelous discovery.
The most astonishing characteristic of Jesus' praying is that,
when he prayed for others, he never concluded by saying if it
be your will. Nor did the apostles when they prayed for
others..... They were so immersed in the presence of the Holy
Spirit that, when they encountered a particular situation, they
knew what should be done. Their praying took a positive
direction, a decisive approach: Walk ... be well ... stand up.

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When you turn on your television and it doesn't work, you don't
declare that there are no such things as television waves in the
air. We assume that some is wrong with the set and we seek to
correct it. The Letter of James reads: YOU ASK AND DO
NOT RECEIVE, BECAUSE YOU ASK WRONGLY, IN
ORDER TO SPEND WHAT YOU GET ON YOUR
PLEASURES. (James 4:3) In real prayer, we begin to think God's
thoughts after Him. We begin to desire what God desires. We
love the things that God loves.
Progressively we are taught to see the universe and those within
it from God's point of view. We see with the eyes of God. We
hear with the ears of God. We act in accordance with the will of
God. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest expressed it this way:
We cannot attain the presence of God, because were already
totally in the presence of God. Whats absent is awareness.
Little do we realize that God is maintaining us in existence with
every breath we take. As we take another it means that God is
choosing us now and now and now. (Richard Rohr: Everything Belongs, page 29
This brings us to the second truth that Richard Foster
discovered. Real prayer involves listening. WHEN YOU ARE

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PRAYING, DO NOT HEAP UP EMPTY PHRASES AS THE

GENTILES DO; FOR THEY THINK THAT THEY WILL BE
HEARD BECAUSE OF THEIR MANY WORDS. (Matthew 6:7)
Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher and theologian,
observed, "A man prayed, and at first he thought that prayer was
talking. But he became more and more quiet until in the end he
realized that prayer was listening." (Soren Kierkegaard: Christian
Discourses, page 323)

We need to attune ourselves to divine

breathings. We can fail to receive dozens of television program

which are being broadcast hour after hour if we are not tuned to
the channel. So it is with our relationship with God.
We begin praying for other by centering and listening to the
presence and work of God. Without this, our words become
those EMPTY PHRASES. (Matthew 6:7) We begin our praying by
listening for guidance.
When can one know (experience) that guidance of God in our
praying? Too often we are afraid that we don't have enough
faith. Remember how the disciples asked Jesus to increase their
faith, their trust in God. Often our ineffective prayers are not
because we lack faith, but because we lack compassion.

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"Genuine empathy between the pray-er and the pray-ee often

makes the difference. Time and time again we are told that
JESUS WAS MOVED WITH COMPASSION. (Matthew 15:32; 20:34;
Mark 8:2; 9:22; Luke 7:13; 10:33; 15:20.)

We do not pray for people as

things: we pray for people as "persons whom we love." When

we have God-given compassion and concern for others, our faith
will grow and we will increase in our capacity to pray, truly
pray.
When we genuinely love people, we desire for them far more
than it is within our power to give, because we desire for them
what God desires for them. This inner sense of compassion is a
clear sign from God that your prayer has his guidance.
Prayer is work! And like all work, it requires practice. I agree
with Richard Foster ..... we need to learn ..... we need to
listen ...we need to experiment ..... but above all ..... we need to
"pray."
It changes lives!
Archbishop William Temple was asked about positive
coincidences in human life. He commented, Coincidences
occurred much more frequently when he prayed.

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Let us pray:
Lord, we know not what we ought to ask of you; you only know
what we need. You love us better than we know how to love
ourselves. Father, give to us, your children, that which we
ourselves know not how to ask. We would have no other desire
than to accomplish your will. Teach us to pray. Pray yourself
in us for Christ's sake.

AMEN.
(Adapted from Francois Fenelon)