Sunday, July 27, 2014

What good is prayer?





A Sermon preached on July 27 (Pentecost VII) at St. Augustine’s Church,
Wiesbaden 

1 Kings 3:5-12, Romans 8:26-39, Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52, Psalm 119:129-136





So there are three men who have been stranded on a desert island for a long time, and one day they find a bottle on the beach. When they uncork the bottle, as you always do in these stories, a genie appears and offers to fulfill three wishes. The first man wishes to be taken to Paris. The genie snaps his fingers, and the man suddenly finds himself standing in front of the Eiffel Tower. The second man wishes that he were in Hollywood, and with a snap of the genie's fingers, he finds himself on a movie set surrounded by stars. The third man, who is now alone on the island, looks around and says, "I wish my friends were back."


I suppose that if the third man has asked for an understanding mind as Solomon did, then that would not have happened. And it was the story of Solomon’s dream that made me think of three wishes stories and jokes, because it does sound quite like them. God appears to Solomon and says “Ask what I should give you.” (1 Kings 3:5) And Solomon, after all the flattery and humility that was customary in those days when dealing with great sovereigns and gods, only has one wish, he asks for the wisdom to be a good ruler: “Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil.” (3:9)


This was actually quite a daring request on Solomon’s part when we remember that in the Genesis story, God tells Adam that “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) So there was quite a risk involved in asking for the ability to discern between good and evil that had been Adam and Eve’s downfall! But God is pleased – I think because Solomon is after all God’s appointee, the anointed King and supposed to look after the people of Israel on God’s behalf. He therefore needs some of God’s sense of justice and righteousness and his request was not for personal gain or need, but as the servant and steward Israel’s kings were supposed to be.


It’s also interesting that in the following two verses that we did not hear this morning the two wishes Solomon did not ask or pray for, long life and riches, get fulfilled anyway, though there are conditions attached. God says: “I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor all your life; …. If you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your life.’” (1 Kings 3:13-14) Unfortunately, these turned out to be conditions that were too much for Solomon leading, so the author of the Book of Kings tells us later, not to Solomon’s personal downfall, but to the weakening and eventual fall of his royal house.


So is this a model for our prayers? Are they supposed to be a long wish list for God to fulfill? No, even if our corporate and private prayer, can sometimes sound like that. While Solomon’s prayers were answered completely, both logic and experience tell us that this is not and cannot always be the case for us. If two or more people pray for the same thing, say for a particular job, or as we recently saw at the football world cup for victory for their team, at the most God can only answer one prayer. I’m also certain that like me you’ve all prayed for something that has not come about. And I don’t think it's because we made a mistake in how we prayed or did not walk in God’s ways.


Anyway, in his letter to the Romans, Paul has a completely different vision of what prayer is. As “we do not know how to pray as we ought,” (Romans 8:26) he says, the Spirit prays on our behalf, wordlessly, and in groans or sighs too deep for words.  Our translation misses the beauty and poetry of the original Greek. God is called the Searcher of the Heart, I really like that name for God, and one thing God searches for, finds, and understands is the Spirit’s prayer beyond prayer.  This is often called the Prayer of the Heart, rather than the mind I suppose, and describes a wonderful vision of our Creator being continually in communion with the spirit that dwells in our hearts.


So why should we bother to pray at all then? The wish list type of prayer seems not to make sense and if Paul is right, God knows what we want anyway without us asking!


Well, prayer must be important if all of God is involved in it: the Spirit within us saying what we cannot say, Christ Jesus at God’s right hand interceding for us, and God the Creator working for good with those who love God.


And if we did not pray we would be missing out on the conversation that prayer is also supposed to be. That’s one reason why any prayer needs to include some time of silence, some time for us to listen for what God is saying, often in a very still, small voice. That’s why the more or less wordless forms of contemplative prayer, when we focus on a text, on a picture, on a statue or icon, or just on our breathing, can often be better suited to this conversation than spoken or structured prayers. As the poet Madeline L’Engle writes: “I, who live by words, am wordless when I turn me to the Word to pray.”[1]


Prayer is also about transformation. Being gradually conformed to the image of God’s Son is what God has in store for us and prayer, especially the deep prayer of the heart in which we share in Christ’s suffering and sorrow for the state of the world, is one way in which that happens. But prayers with words do this too. During our mutual, collective prayer in this service, the prayers of the people, we will list people and places and communities we pray for. This is not a wish or shopping list but a sign of our care and concern, as well as a way of focusing all our thoughts, and hopes, and desires on a common aim. It can change the situation we are praying for. And it will changes those who are doing the praying.


As our savior taught us, we are bold to pray …. Is how I will introduce what we call the Lord’s Prayer right before Communion. So praying, and praying with words is also a command of our Lord, even if he also tells us not to “heap up empty phrases” (Matthew 6:7) and like Paul, Jesus reminds us that our “Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (6:8) In prayer we should always seek to know God’s will, thy will be done is one of the petitions in the Lord’s prayer. And one reason Solomon’s prayer was answered was because he was asking God for that gift, the ability to discern God’s will: what is right.


Praying for God’s will does not just mean that we have to know what God would like to happen in any particular circumstance. That would be tough. For one thing, thanks to the Spirit we do not have to be worried that we always know that will perfectly. The Spirit helps us in our weakness, Paul writes. For another it simply means that what we pray for, whether for ourselves or for others, has to be consistent with God’s will for us and the world as revealed in Jesus Christ. Anything that furthers the kingdom, anything that is an expression of our love of God and our love of and care for the neighbor, anything that respects God’s image in the other is according to God’s will – and this sort of prayer is again part of our transformation.


As a means of communication, communion, and transformation prayer is always effective, but not just: prayers are answered: “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love God,” to use a more accurate translation of Romans 8:28. However, the fruit of our prayer can catch us by surprise. What God chooses to give us, and when, is up to God. When we ask for something, say for strength to cope with a difficult situation, may not be the moment when we really need it. It is always God’s choice to take our prayer and use it in whatever ways God in God’s love for us desires. When my Father was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease, or ALS as it is also called, of course I prayed for him to be cured and to survive. That prayer was not answered. The prayers that both he and our family would have the strength to cope with the illness, that he would not suffer unnecessarily, and that we would make the best possible use of the time we had left together were answered. As was a prayer none of us had articulated, that our family be strengthened and our relationships healed. Why can we be so sure that God will answer our prayers for our good? We heard the answer earlier in the reading from Romans: “He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?” (8:32)

Amen






[1] From the poem “Word” by Madeline L’Engle found in Praying Our Days by Frank T. Griswold

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Patience




A Sermon preached on July 20, the sixth Sunday after Pentecost, at St. Augustine’s Church, Wiesbaden 

Isaiah 44:6-8, Romans 8:12-25, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, Psalm 86:11-17



One of the things we were taught in preaching classes at seminary is that it is the preacher’s job to find and proclaim the Good News in the lesson or lessons of the day. Sometimes this can prove to be more difficult than others! Where is the good news in the parable of the “Wheat and the Tares” as the weeds are called in more traditional translations? Unless you are really sure that you are the wheat and not the weed there does not seem to be much good news in this text about judgment, about people being thrown into “the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt. 13:42), which is one of Matthew’s favorite phrases by the way. Just what sort of kingdom of heaven is that? 

Well for one thing I think judgment can be good news. There is evil in the world and there are evildoers and I for one do hope and pray that God will put the world to rights and that he will judge. But remember this is a parable not an exact description of the last days, and we are neither wheat nor tares. We are human beings, made in the image of God. And thankfully God is the judge, or to be more exact the Son of Man, Jesus, God’s Son. As far as I remember Jesus was remarkably forgiving to all the “weeds” he encountered: tax collectors, beggars, lepers, prostitutes, foreigners …. And somewhat less forgiving with the pompous and self-righteous elite. The delayed judgment of the parable, the willingness to wait until the end of the age is a sign of God’s compassion and mercy. Unlike plants, which do not change their nature, humans do and can. We have free will, we can change, and we are not pre-destined to be good or bad. And it is God’s intention that we have that opportunity to change for the good, and not just once.

Anyway, I don’t believe that judgment as such is the main point of the parable. It is about delayed judgment: about patient waiting and about tolerance. The servants are impatient and intolerant. They want a squeaky clean field, without any untidy weeds and they are willing to be radical in cleansing the field to achieve this aim. The master on the other hand is patient. Don’t tear out the weeds he says, “for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until harvest.” (Mt. 13:29-30) Over the centuries there has been a constant debate about whether the Church is only for the pure, the holy or for all people – including those who sin, fail, and doubt. When Christians were first persecuted, and some renounced their faith to save their lives, there was huge discussion about whether they could be let back into the church again. So to use a famous quote, is the church “a hospital for sinners or a museum for saints?”[1]

Well looking around the room I would hope it’s more the hospital! In fact the church is always a mixed body of saints and sinners, and those roles change over time. None of us are always saints, nor are we always sinners. Tares are not any old weed. They are very difficult to distinguish from wheat, at least until fully grown and mature. That’s why no one can usurp divine judgment, or judge prematurely. We don’t know what people really are, nor do we know their true potential, only God does.  In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul has a similar message: “So pass no premature judgment; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what darkness hides and disclose our inward motives.” (1 Cor 4:5)

Waiting patiently is difficult and tough. It’s not what our society teaches: buy now, pay later is the message. Buynow.com is even the name of a website! Don’t delay, don’t wait – there may not be another chance. This is not new. The Jews of Jesus’ day were also waiting impatiently for the coming of the Messiah who, so they believed, would overthrow the Romans and liberate Israel, who would make it clean and pure again. Jesus’ parable, the first of a series of parables about the kingdom of heaven, speaks against both this impatience and intolerance.

Looking at Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome it seems that the early Christians were impatient too. On the one hand they had much to look forward to, what Paul calls the “glory about to be revealed to us.” And on the other hand the present times were less than pleasant, full of suffering as Paul also mentions. In a wonderful image Paul tells them that not only are they waiting for redemption, but all of creation is too. “Creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God.” (Ro. 8:19) In Paul’s view humans had been put in charge of creation as good stewards once already, but messed it up. You’ll find the story in the first 2 chapters of the Book of Genesis. But as renewed and redeemed humans living according to the Spirit, and not the flesh, we will be able to fulfill the role as stewards that God has always planned for us. That is what creation is looking forward to so much. 

We humans too groan inwardly in eager and impatient anticipation. Having received the first fruits of the Spirit, we just can’t wait for the rest of the harvest. But we must. We still have work to do. God’s gift of the Spirit is given to us not only for our own transformation, but also to work through us to bring about the transformation of the world. “Groaning and waiting, eager but patient,”[2] is how the author Tom Wright describes the characteristic Christian stance.

Patience, along with love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control is listed as one of the Fruits of the Spirit in Paul’s letter to the Galatians (5:22-23). Patience is often also described as a virtue, but one that is supported and sustained by the three supreme Christian virtues of faith, hope and love.

We need faith to be patient. Faith is the knowledge of and the trust in the one who has promised us redemption and renewal, God. We have seen God act in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Jesus revealed God’s nature in his own and through his teaching. God works in us through the Holy Spirit. Being able to trust in God allows us to be patient.

We hope for what we do not see, Paul writes. What does it mean to be glorified? (Rom. 8:25) How will the righteous shine like the sun in the Father’s kingdom? (Mt. 13:43) We don’t know exactly, but the images that both Paul and Jesus use, indicate that is something to look forward to. Perhaps we will shine like the sun because we finally realize our potential as God’s image and reflect that glory. One promise, one that we can work on now, is that as God’s adopted children and heirs, we will be able to share in the Christ’s saving rule. So hope is the expression of what we are patiently waiting for.

Patience is also about waiting for others and about forgiving other people’s failings, just as we hope that they will forgive ours. This is where the virtue of love comes into play. Love allows us to accept the other as he or she is. Love allows us to forgive. Love allows us wait patiently while the other person catches up.

Patience is of course a virtue we are being asked to practice a lot right now here at St. Augustine’s, as we both wait for, and work towards, a final decision about this church’s future. And by this church I mean both the people that make up the church and the building we use for our worship, ministry, and mission. “How much longer will we have to wait?” was one of the questions asked last week at the vestry forum after church. That was also one of the questions we could not answer. But that should not stop us using this time of patient waiting beneficially: working on our own growth and transformation, on helping those entrusted to our care and love, and on continuing to build up this community with the help of God’s Spirit that offers love and enables reconciliation. Then we will be better able to use the resources God gives us, and while we may not yet shine like the sun in the Father’s kingdom, we will still glow a little as we reflect God’s love and glory into a world that needs them so much.
Amen


[1] Abigail van Buren
[2] Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone. Romans Part 1, 152