Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
I will call upon God
116:1 I love the LORD because God has heard my voice and my supplications.
116:2 Because God inclined the divine ear to me, therefore I will call on God as long as I live.
116:3 The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.
116:4 Then I called on the name of the LORD, "O LORD, I pray, save my life!"
116:12 What shall I return to the LORD for all God’s bounty to me?
116:13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD;
116:14 I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all God’s people.
116:15 Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of the faithful ones.
116:16 O LORD, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds.
116:17 I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the LORD.
116:18 I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all God’s people,
116:19 in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!
Friends, this sermon has the potential to be the most boring one you’ve heard/read! If I told you I was going to talk about “prayer,” what might be your reaction? B-O-R-I-N-G, I’ll bet! And not because we aren’t interested in prayer, but precisely because we ARE! Don’t all of us want to understand how prayer “works,” and how to better DO it? Don’t we all want to have our prayers answered? Personally, I would like to understand the “logic” behind what the church has DONE with prayer, down through the centuries, that something so interesting to all of us has been brought to the point where just saying we’re going to talk about it, invokes BOREDOM? And even worse, don’t our eyes get glazed over when someone says, “Let’s PRAY”? Prayer doesn’t deserve this. No, not at all.
The word “prayer” appears over 650 times in the Bible, at least according to Google. Amazon alone offers over 70,000 books on prayer. Why, even the twelve men closest to Jesus asked, “Lord, teach us how to pray.” It’s been a hot topic since Adam first “walked with God in the evening” in Genesis, and I assume got even hotter after the whole serpent/tree of knowledge of good and evil incident, and being banished from those evening walks. The good news for Adam—and for all of humanity—is that God never stopped listening.
This piece from Psalm 116 tells us that right in verse one: I love the LORD because God has heard my voice and my supplications. I admit, I’m tempted to ask the psalmist right from the outset, “Do you love the Lord just BECAUSE God listens to our prayers?” I know my wife tells me she loves me a little more when I listen to her, so maybe it’s a thing. Now, right there is a clue as to what prayer is all about—Listening to each other. We might even say being PRESENT to one another. Isn’t there something about being “present” with someone you love that just feels right? And doesn’t this presence often lead to further openness and conversation, both of which may lead to self-revelation and even self-understanding? It certainly may lead to understanding others—through presence, listening, and conversation, that is. So, what IS prayer, and what ISN’T prayer? Let’s think about these questions for a moment or two.
It’s easier to address the question of what prayer “isn’t,” by suggesting that there is very little that can NOT be offered as prayer to the Divine. Fear, anger, wonder, confusion—they all can be. Art, music, drama, comedy—they can be, too. Not all words are formed into prayer, and yet, not all prayers that use words—even many words—communicate what we really want to say to God, do they? I remember back in elementary school, the teacher asked the members of our class to write our own poems. Most of the ones that emerged rhymed, usually at the expense of having much meaning or even coherence. I was that student who wrote in more blank verse, but tried to cover a subject that intrigued me, stirring the narrative. My teacher loved it. The rest of the class avoided me for about a month, not sure of my sanity. Praying is a lot like that. Aren’t we afraid of forming a prayer that scares God away? If you want to get a room of Methodists quiet, ask one of them to lead a prayer at the beginning or end of a meeting or a Bible study. We like those people in the room, for the most part, and don’t want to scare THEM, let alone God, so we go quiet, hoping the pastor will realize the silence means we think she/he should do the public praying.
I like what the psalmist says in verse two: because God listens (literally, “inclined the Divine ear”) to us, we will “call on God as long as [we] live.” On the humorous side of this, don’t we generally avoid that person who just keeps talking because we have shown a willingness to listen? (Pulpit preachers can be that person, unfortunately.) However, it seems true that God DOES “incline the Divine ear” and never shows weariness at listening to us, regardless of how petty our prayers may be. Of course, in this Psalm, the psalmist specifically mentions the salvific prayer: “O Lord, I pray, SAVE MY LIFE!” From a spiritual aspect, this is a prayer God always answers, especially when we hold this request against the fact that God sent God’s only begotten Son into the world to do just that! Sometimes, though, the salvific prayer is literally a prayer asking to be spared or rescued. I once heard the testimony of a young women who told of falling down a deep water well on the farm on which she was raised. She leaned over to “unstick” a bucket she was lowering into the well, lost her balance, and fell in. In the split second she was falling, she cried out, “God, SAVE me!” She survived the fall, and was rescued to safety by her family, but her story didn’t end there. She went on to say that something “spiritual” happened to her in that incident, and her feelings about God, the Christian faith she was learning about in Sunday School, and the directions her life would take all changed. From that moment on, she proclaimed herself “saved,” and not just from a watery death. So, you see, sometimes a salvific prayer may invoke God’s “rescuing” interests across both physical AND spiritual planes.
Let’s go back to that “presence” thing again. My lovely wife and I have been together now for over 49 years, as of next month. I know this may sound unusual, but both my relationships with Dara AND with God continue to be challenging, FRESH, and deeply fulfilling. I know I’ve said this before, but I really am almost daily trying to convince Dara she didn’t make a BIG MISTAKE back on May 28 of 1977, and I think I’m almost there. Regarding my relationship with God, while I believe God IS STILL listening intently to my prayers, I’m almost daily trying to convince God that I’M still listening to that “still, small voice” of the Divine. As we know, but struggle to practice, prayer “cuts” both ways. Our relationship to God is in so many ways quite parallel to our relationship with our spouse or significant other. Permit me to go a little deeper into this. I love spending time with Dara, even when we are just being “present” to each other. This may be while we are sitting on the sofa together reading, listening to music, or enjoying one of the rare TV shows or movies we both like. We may or may not engage in any conversation during these times, but presence counts for something. During those times, especially when the shared activity is reading or “thinking” silently, I find myself thinking about her, often reminiscing over our life together, our family, our long history of ups and downs, challenges and blessings. Something I’m reading may provoke this, or it may be spontaneous. I may even be compelled to share one of these thoughts out loud with her, which often spurs further conversation, or a brief moment of shared intimacy. This same kind of thing happens when I take the time to be present to the Divine. I’m convinced the whole time in such “meditation” is a prayer, and occasionally, out of the silent shared presence, an actual “conversation” between the Divine and me may erupt. Either of us may initiate it, but it is always meaningful, even powerful. Do you see what I’m saying here? God is always “in the room” with me in these times, and God’s ear is inclined in my direction. It is up to me to incline mine in God’s direction, if it is to be a conversation. THIS is certainly just like what happens between Dara and me.
True confession: often when Dara and I travel distances in the car, there is silence. Two rather talkative people tend to ride in silence, just enjoying the journey. However, when something does “erupt” in the way of conversation, it is often important, deeply revealing, and quite meaningful. Is not our spiritual journey like this? If that is not your experience, practice a little “presence” with God, and you may find your “prayer life” starts to be anything but boring!
I’m not here to give you “five ways to pray more effectively.” Over 70,000 books have been written (I’m guessing WAY more than that, down through the ages!) on the subject. When Jesus’ disciples asked him to teach them to pray, he gave us this framework:
*Address God and offer “praise,” which is kind of like the “Dear Sir” of a letter.
(Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.)
*Let God know you are on board with trying to make Earth look a lot more like Heaven, or at least living according to heavenly values, and that you are OK with those values yourself.
(Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.)
*Don’t be afraid to ask God for the basics—“our daily bread”—but note that Jesus uses “OUR” language, not “I” language, here. The “daily bread” is for our neighbor as well as ourselves.
(Give us this day our daily bread.)
*Confess our sins and ask for forgiveness, but don’t forget to pay it forward.
(And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.)
*Ask God for the wisdom to avoid the inevitable temptations to live more according to “ME” than “THEE.” Evil lives in the personal ambitions, personal desires, and personal “details,” especially when selfishness becomes the grease.
(And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.)
*Remind God whom you believe is in charge, and don’t term limit the Almighty. This is a forever prayer.
(For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.)
*Don’t forget the “Amen,” an untranslatable word (it’s transliterated the same from Hebrew to Greek to English), that I once heard an old preacher say meant, “I’m in favor of it, and here’s my share of the cost.”
This is really all you need to know about the mechanics of prayer. Oh, you can categorize prayer into “adoration,” “confession,” “supplication” (for yourself), and “intercession” (for others), but what really counts is the motivation for the conversation. That works for my wife, too. If I bring something up that obviously from a selfish angle, she sniffs that out like a mouse to cheese, and the results are rarely what I hope for. But when my aim is for the good of “us” and the relationship, the channel to that “inclined ear” is a bit less noisy.
While that popular movie of a few years back—“Bruce Almighty”—is moderately entertaining, the one part of it that really grabbed me was when “Bruce,” who has won the “God for a Day” contest, is plopped in front of the Divine computer and told to answer the world’s prayers. In the scene, Jim Carrey (Bruce) decides to make good on one of his personal beliefs, namely that a “good God” would always answer a “true believer’s” prayers in the affirmative. So, rather than incline his prayer ear to each individual prayer (and there were billions popping up), he just said “YES” to them all. The chaos that ensued was monumental, in a moment that should have made all of us think. There is a reason that when we pray, the answer is not always “yes.” Sometimes it is “maybe,” or “wait a while,” but even a “no” doesn’t signal God’s lack of interest. Quite the contrary. Jesus said it best: “What loving parent, when asked by its child for bread, would give it a stone?” As all parents know, however, sometimes a “no” is best for the child in the moment.
There are those who, thanks at least in part to the same kind of philosophical logic employed in “Bruce Almighty,” have a hard time believing that the Creator of the whole universe DOES “incline” the Divine ear to the simple prayers of an individual creature, especially one who may or may not practice “presence” with God on a regular basis. The biblical witness, and the testimony of billions of people down through the ages, are clear evidence that God DOES listen. And the fact that so many of us have said “yes” to God’s call into the ministry or to ministries of all kinds, as laity, means that we ARE also doing a bit of listening on our part.
If there is anything that I would like to suggest to you, the listener/reader, though, it is to begin a regular practice of being “present” to God, to the universe around you, and to the inner dialogue going on in your own head, and to do it without “external” stimuli, just in the silence. I guarantee that you will be amazed at what happens when you do! Don’t always make your prayers a “to do” list for God. Remember, as I’ve said many times before, God is NOT the genie in the lamp, waiting to grant you your three “wishes,” and prayer is not “rubbing the lamp” correctly to get the genie’s attention. Effective prayer is a loving presence between ourselves and the Divine, and it may or may not involve actual conversation. And prayer, as Jesus taught it, uses more “we,” “us,” and “our” language than “I,” “me,” and “mine.” What is most intriguing about all of this is that because God is a loving parent, we should never be afraid to tell God the desires of our heart or to share our deepest needs. What keeps these things from being selfish is that we understand the “Bruce Almighty” lesson, that in the best interests of the Kingdom of God, not all of our prayers can be answered with a “yes.” Amen.
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