Luke 11:1-13 Click here to read passage.
First, we pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to You, O God. Amen.
Prayer is both the hardest and simplest thing we do in our faith walks. Most of us know the cry of deep pain, the prayers that come after we utter “this can’t be happening!” and we realize that it is. These prayers often sound like “Why, God, why?” We also know the glory of prayer that springs, unbidden, from our very souls at the sight of the majesty of nature. These prayers usually sound like “My God, this is beautiful!” and we often don’t even realize that we are praying. Then there are the prayers that simply say “thank you!” when some miracle is received or a gift of grace is bestowed on us, most of the times without our even asking. This is all prayer, all valid, all wonderful, all life-giving and life-receiving forms of prayer.
Today, I want to take an in depth look at prayer, beginning with Jesus’ teaching on prayer and ending with what I will refer to as the 4 C’s of prayer: communication, communion, commitment, and celebration. If we look at prayer from those four perspectives, I believe that we will leave here with a better grasp on the role of prayer in our faith walk.
We know that Jesus had a habit of praying alone, particularly at significant times in His ministry. Luke is careful to record at least 7 times when Jesus is praying alone or in an isolated place. Last week, we looked at the temptations of Jesus which happened when Jesus was in the desert alone praying. The week before that, we experienced the transfiguration of Jesus which occurs when Jesus goes up the mountain to pray. We also know that the disciples had a hard time with praying, sometimes falling asleep, sometimes just not getting the point. In our scripture today, Jesus is praying in a “certain place”, we don’t know where. Then the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. What follows is well known to most of us, even when we reconfigure the language to expand our image of God. I will return to this prayer often as I look at the 4 C’s of prayer.
First, communication: Notice that Jesus tells us to “ask, and it will be given”. Prayer is the most effective form of communication we have with God. Nevertheless, we sometimes need reminding that any true conversation has two sides to the dialogue—speaking and listening. There’s an old joke from Flip Wilson, you remember him? So Flip Wilson says: “I’m gonna’ pray now, anybody want anything?” We laugh, but sometimes our prayers come pretty close to a shopping list for God to deliver. Marjorie Thompson, in Soul Feast, tells us that listening comes first, speaking second. Wow, that’s the part I’m not so good at. Thompson suggests that we can start to listen to God in scripture. She also calls us to listen to God in creation. Indeed, Psalm 19 says: “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims God’s handiwork…There is no speech, nor are there words;…yet their voice goes out through all the earth…” Thirdly, she notes that we often hear God’s voice through the voice of another or through the circumstances of our lives. When we trust, God opens some doors and closes others. Finally, she suggests that sometimes we just ‘know’ that God is speaking and the more we are attune to God’s Spirit in prayer and meditation—the more we will recognize God’s voice. Hallowed be Thy Name—and voice.
The second aspect of communication is speaking. Ah, something I’m good at and I imagine that most of you feel more comfortable there, too. Jesus’ prayer, the Lord’s prayer, is spoken aloud for daily bread, for forgiveness, for protection. The challenge here, according to Thompson, is learning not to censor what we are saying to God. How many of us were taught basically to be polite to God, to keep our anger, doubts, and fears to ourselves. As silly as it seems, almost like the 2-year-old who covers her own face and says, “you can’t see me”, we convince ourselves that God only knows what we reveal. Real, authentic conversation includes all of our hearts and thoughts. The more we willingly reveal of ourselves to God the more authentic our conversation becomes. We must not forget that intercessory prayer is a part of the speaking end of communication and we are called to lift others’ needs up before God. We give of our time and energy in intercessory prayer, and we have miracles to report as a result of it. God rewards both the people we pray for and ourselves when we bring the needs of others to our practice of prayer.
The second C of prayer is communion: no words at all needed here. Jesus, says, “search, and you will find…” We enter into a time of quiet, of peace. Brother Lawrence , a Carmelite brother, in the 1600’s is credited with the work, The Practice of the Presence of God. For those of us who are life’s busybodies, communion with God is hard. Brother Lawrence who spoke of the constant presence of God in our lives, reports: “My commonest attitude is this simple attentiveness, an habitual, loving turning of my eyes to God.” Brother Lawrence believed and taught that God is present in the tiniest of details of our lives and that we experience the presence of God in our daily walk in this world.
I return to Marjorie Thompson for a contemporary definition of communion or contemplative prayer in God’s presence: “Contemplative prayer has the quality of an inner Sabbath. In a world driven by the need to accomplish and acquire, God calls us to the radical trust of rest…Words fall away, and the most palpable reality is being present to the lover of our souls. When we let go of all effort to speak or even to listen, simply becoming quiet before God, the Spirit is free to work its healing mysteries in us.” And so, I am reminded, of the times in my life when it is enough to just sit in God’s presence and be made whole. For those of us who grieve, for those of us who struggle with life’s decisions; for those of us who yearn for more meaning in our lives, practicing the presence of God in our prayer life may bring us joy unspeakable.
The third C of prayer is commitment. It is in prayer that I make my commitment to God, to serve, to follow, and to be faithful. This kind of prayer sometimes has feet—when I am required to step up and do what God has called me to do which I have discerned in conversation and communion. We step up to the door and we knock, willing to step through the door God has called us to. Jesus says, knock and the door will be open. But, what about those times, when distractions are louder than intent and we find ourselves unable to focus on our heart’s desire to pray. Jesuit priest and theologian, Robert Faricy looks at our problem and acknowledges that it is his as well. He says, “I can be praying and find my mind on another matter,…on someone who has hurt me, on a problem coming up. This kind of distraction indicates what is not integrated into my personal relationship with Jesus Christ….I can put the matter into His hands, turning the distraction into a prayer.”
The final C of prayer is celebration. We see this in Matthew’s version of the prayer of Jesus: “For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever, Amen! To celebrate God’s glory with God closes Jesus’ ‘model’ prayer and leads us to that place where we worship God.
Lest you think that I am suggesting that all of this comes together seamlessly with little to no effort, let me clarify—I believe that the prayer life that we develop now is not only God’s will and desire for us, but will also serve us well as we face the inevitable hardship and trials of life. Therefore, it is worth the effort that we put into it today. And along the way, I take advantage of as many spiritual resources as I can find, In particular, I find that I take great comfort in the prayers of the authentic spiritual leaders of this world—the ones who make real their faith journeys, thus enabling me to learn from their path. Thomas Merton, 20th century Trappist monk who wrote over 70 books, penned this prayer during a particularly hard time in his life:
O Lord God, I have no idea where I am going, I do not see the road ahead of me, I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire to please You. And I know that if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust You always; though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to make my journey alone.
Like Jesus, we enter into prayer as a way to connect with God. We come as seekers, as those looking to deepen our walk with God. Thomas Merton said one more thing that speaks to me about prayer: “If you want a life of prayer, the way to get it is by praying…You start where you are and you deepen what you already have.”
Let us start where we are, deepen what we already have, and celebrate God’s presence in our lives. Amen and amen.
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