In this new year, may grace and peace be yours in abundance through God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the first time that I’ve seen many of you since the ball dropped and the calendar flipped from 2011 to 2012. We are now eight days into the new year, and I presume that most of you – if not all of you – have already eaten your sauerkraut and pork. As everyone knows, this is the proper food to start off the new year right. Although our family has eaten it, it was not without some drama, including a debate on whether it counts if it’s not swallowed. I also presume that many of you have made new year’s resolutions, and at least a few of them have already been broken. Am I right?
If this describes you, today is your lucky day, because I made enough resolutions for everyone. I’ve made five resolutions this year. I made three of them for members in my family — I found out long ago that resolutions are more fun when you impose them on others.
My resolution for myself is also my resolution for you. I count that as two. And it involves prayer.
Last September, as a part of our Nehemiah Journey, we spent some time reflecting on our congregation — discovering our strengths and dreaming about what God has in store for our future. But before we did that, we first administered an anonymous survey meant to help us reflect on our own spiritual practices as individuals. There was a great response – almost one hundred of us completed this survey. Almost seventy percent of us said that either they haven’t found prayer to be meaningful or that they have found it difficult to be consistent in our prayer life. Seventy percent. So maybe then it’s no surprise that “growth in prayer” was the number one response to the question “how would you like to grow as a disciple of Jesus?”
Although most of us acknowledge that our prayer life is not what it should be, I find it good that we see its importance. For I can say with confidence that you will not grow in faith without cultivating your life in prayer. And no matter what comes out of the Nehemiah Journey, we will not grow as a congregation – at least in the way God desires us to grow – if we as a community do not cultivate our life in prayer. Now, that’s putting it negatively. Putting it more positively, you will grow in faith, we will grow as a congregation in the way that God desires us to grow if we cultivate our lives with prayer.
This is my resolution for you, for me, for us together: that with practice, with study, and with discipline, we will grow in our understanding and practice of prayer. Prayer is the ground through which we go forward in faith in 2012. And with this new year’s resolution, there is no better place to turn than toward Jesus. As we heard this past week, all of God’s promises have been stamped with the Yes of Jesus.
Over the next few weeks, we will explore Jesus’ life of prayer: his teachings, his example, the words that he used. I’ve heard a lot about Jesus’ teachings on prayer, but little about how and when and why and where he actually prayed. I think we have a lot to learn about ourselves and our God not just by hearing what Jesus had to say about prayer but by actually following him in prayer. As my dad told me as he began to teach me about how to turn wood bowls on the lathe – after a few simple instructions, the best way to learn is to spend time on the lathe. We learn by praying.
Mark’s gospel begins with a big bang, not with a silent night, holy night. There is no birth story in Mark. No, John the Baptist bursts into the scene, he baptizes Jesus, the heavens are torn open, and the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus like a dove. Jesus is possessed by the Holy Spirit, and, by that Spirit, he is led out into the desert to be tempted by Satan.
This is how Jesus begins his ministry. He teaches with authority, he drives out evil spirits again, with authority. And while the good religious people don’t know he is, the demons certainly do. It takes a demon, after all, to recognize a person possessed. News about Jesus spreads all around Galilee.
This is when Jesus goes with James and John, to the home of Simon and Andrew. It’s already been a big day. They are probably tired, they are probably hungry, but Simon’s mother-in-law is sick. So Jesus takes her by the hand, he heals her, and she immediately begins serving them. Now, I can just hear the female flavor of our congregation say, “typical men.” Instead of preparing their own beds and making their own snacks, they instead see how they can get the woman well enough to do it for them. But there is a deeper lesson here. When we are healed by Jesus, whether physically, emotionally, psychologically, or spiritually, we are free for a life of service. That’s when we know we’ve been healed – when we are free to serve, to give of ourselves for others.
After Jesus’ teaching, after his exorcisms, and now after his healing, news about him went viral by the first century equivalents of Facebook and Twitter. Even though it was night, a flash mob made up of the sick and the demon-possessed and the whole town came to the house where he was staying. I want you to look closely at verse 34 because I think it explains what happens next. With the whole town gathered at the door, it says that Jesus healed many of various diseases, and he drove out many demons. To me, it seems significant that this verse does not say that Jesus healed everyone and drove out all the demons. It implies that there were some who were not healed. Jesus is one person. He is God. He is a human being. He has had a busy day. He’s got the whole town at his door with seemingly endless needs for his immediate attention. He healed many, it says, he didn’t get to everyone. He couldn’t. Not like this.
And, very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and he went to a solitary place, and he prayed. Jesus was working after dark and got up to before before light.
In the survey that we completed as a part of the Nehemiah Journey, most of us chose “busyness and overcommitment” as our biggest impediments to spiritual growth. That doesn’t surprise me. It’s mine, too. When life gets busy, when the calendar gets full, when the days get long, we tend to make prayer a casualty, calling it collateral damage for a chaotic life. We tend to squeeze out the very thing that nourishes us so that we can attend to our schedules. Jesus taught with authority and healed with authority and power, but still that’s not what Jesus did. But I think John Wesley follows after Jesus when he said, “I have so much to do that I spend several hours in prayer before I’m able to do it.” His busy schedule drove him to prayer, not away from it.
When you think about it, isn’t giving up on prayer because you’ve got so much to do kind of like giving up running because you’ve signed up for a marathon?
What we lack is not motivation. Motivation is a head thing. Most of us want to grow in our prayer lives. Where we are lacking is not motivation, it’s follow through.
A couple of years ago, three others and I began training for a marathon. And very early in the morning, while it was still dark, we would get up, leave the house, and run. Even during the winter, when our sweat would freeze on our faces. Our alarm clocks went off at 5:30 am on several Saturday mornings so that we could run together. And, speaking for myself, when my alarm clock went off it was like my mind was at war with my body. My mind would scream out at my body to stay in bed, saying things like: “Yesterday was very busy, stay in bed you idiot. You didn’t get enough sleep, stay in bed you idiot. You can make it up tomorrow, stay in bed you idiot. You’ve got the sniffles, stay in bed you idiot.” But I got up and ran. Why? Because I could not do what I desired to do without training. Because the threat of 26.2 miles was simply too big for me to ignore. And, more than that, because other people were counting on me to be there, too.
After he healed many, after he drove out demons from many, very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus left the house and went off to a solitary place, and prayed.
Did you ever wonder why Jesus prayed? I mean, after all, he is the Son of God. He is filled with God’s Spirit. He spoke and taught with the authority of God himself. I’ve heard some people say that Jesus prayed because he is human. I think that’s right. Jesus acknowledged his need to be alone, to be still, simply because he was human. The busier our lives, the more we need to cultivate our prayer life. As a human being, Jesus’ energy, his presence, was limited. He did not heal everyone. In prayer, Jesus understood more clearly how he was to be used for the greater glory of God.
But I think there is another reason why Jesus prayed. It’s not only because he is human. It is because he is God. Jesus is the most complete revelation of God that we have. Jesus prayed because he is God. Think about that. We have a praying God, and Jesus shows us what it looks like the be living prayer.
Sometimes, I think, we recite our prayers like children write their letters to Santa, filled with a list of things that we wish for, we need, we desire. But prayer is not simply a one-way street. It is dialogue. It is communion. Prayer is not a means of turning on God’s favor, like a tap. The essence of prayer is not getting God to do what we want, but learning what God wants, and discovering and submitting to the will of God. Not my will, but your will be done, Jesus prayed.
It is in this sense that we can say that God also prays. In fact, the Bible shows us that some prayer is even initiated by God. “Abraham, Abraham.” (Genesis 22:11) “Moses, Moses” (Exodus 3:4) “Samuel, Samuel” (1 Samuel 3:4). Again and again, the Old Testament assures Israel that God hears their prayers and responds to them. There is no formula for prayer; there is no proper time and place. The Bible does not present an art of prayer; it presents the God of prayer, “the God who calls before we answer, and answers before we call” as it says in Isaiah 65, verse 24.
Simon and his companions went looking for Jesus. When they found him, they exclaimed, “Everyone is looking for you!” In other words, your schedule beckons! You are needed! You are sought! There’s work to be done!
But Jesus is a praying God living prayer. He will not be ruled by the tyranny of the urgent. In the face of so much to do, his focus and his strength were enriched by his time in prayer. Let’s go somewhere else, he said, “so that I can preach there also, for that is why I came” And so they went, leaving some things undone. Jesus could not provide universal coverage for everyone’s health needs. But he would give his life for the salvation of all.
I was reminded recently of a story that a mom told me about when I was an infant. From the beginning, when they brought me home from the hospital, I would sleep through the night. I’d like to think that this was a sign of my maturity, but it’s not good when a newborn sleeps through feedingd . Infants need to be nourished, and my parents were worried that I wasn’t gaining weightand didn’t seem interested in nursing. Children who for unclear reasons do not grow as expected during these first few months or even years are often diagnosed with the condition, “failure to thrive”. My mom was worried that this was me. And so, when I cried out in the middle of the night, waking them up and demanding food, they celebrated. This was the beginning of my growth.
Given the demands that are placed upon our time, our energies, and our resources, given the everyday needs to be met, decisions to be made, business to attend, people to contact, conflicts to be resolved, we cannot rely on ourselves to grow as God desires us to grow. Without cultivating our lives in prayer – as individuals and as a congregation — we will fail to thrive. But I think God celebrates when his children cry out to him in prayer.
