Text: Matthew 14:13 & 23, Mark 1:35-37, Luke 5:15-16 (also see Matthew 6:5 fl)

Today I want to talk about some prayer realities.

One of the reasons prayer is not easy for us is because we are so busy. It appears that the only way many of us know how to live is to fill our schedules until they are overflowing. We even introduce our youngest children to the hectic pace of living we think is normal. We run them from school to soccer to piano lessons to scout meetings to karate or dance classes. All the while we are running from this meeting to that, taking care of this deal and planning that program, responding to family needs, cultivating business relationships and networks, taking Disciple Bible Study and attending our child's recital or game. From the youngest to the oldest, we know what it is to have many claims on our time and energy.

So did Jesus. Jesus knew what it was to live in the midst of all kinds of expectations and claims on his time. This is why he continually worked to find time, to make time, when he could experience solitude and be open with God and open to God—in other words, time for prayer. Perhaps one of the clearest expressions of this is in the passage from Mark that we read. There were so many claims on Jesus' time he realized he had to get up before sunrise in order to have some solitude when he could pray.

One of the realities about prayer is that it does not simply happen. If we wait to begin our prayer life until the time is right and we are not so busy, we will never begin. Waiting until there are fewer claims on our energies before we get serious about praying is to wait until we are a helpless invalid or until we are dead. Jesus did not postpone his praying until things quieted down in his life.

If we are to pray, we are going to have to find time, make room in our schedules to pray. If we only pray in the left over time, we will seldom, if ever, do more than fling prayers out the window as we drive down the street. Jesus had to be intentional about making time and taking time to pray.

But—assuming we make time to pray—what is prayer? The Bible does not tell us what prayer is; it describes people who are praying. The most Jesus had to say about prayer can be found in chapter 6 of the Gospel of Matthew. In that passage Jesus told us not be show-offs. Prayer is not a contest between persons to discover who can do it best.

Jesus also told us not get wordy. After all, God already knows what is in our heart and minds better than we do. It is not our eloquence or word choice that impresses God. Prayer is not a matter of saying the right words. True prayer is as simple and as profound as the sample Jesus gave us when he taught us the Lord's Prayer. It is simple, clear and to the point. But it is not the words that make it prayer; it is the honesty, humility, openness and obedience that the words of the Lord's Prayer point toward that are the characteristics of praying. Prayer is not a matter of reciting special words. Prayer is being honest with God. Prayer is being open with God and open to God. There is no game-playing in prayer.

Prayer is being profoundly honest in our relationship with God. Jesus was certainly honest with God. On the night before he was crucified he earnestly prayed: "Let this cup pass from me." Prayer is being honest with God. In Mark, as Jesus was dying, he demonstrated painful honesty in his relationship with God when his prayer was the haunting question that can be found in Psalm 22: "My God, why have you forsaken me?"

When we pray, we are to be profoundly honest with God; this means we do not play games or pretend with God. If I really want a little red wagon, I pretend it does not matter by saying, "Thy will be done." If I want it, the honest thing to do is ask for it. And if I want a Mack truck to run over my enemies and then back up over them, I am being a hypocrite of the first order if I pretend to pray saying, "God forgive them." It is only as I am honest with God that I have the possibility of being open to God dealing with my wants, healing my hurt and healing my hate.

When I am less than open with God, when I am playing religious games, what I am really doing is trying to hide my true self from God. Those games do not fool God; they only isolate me from God. I am like a little child hiding in a closet pretending to be someone else. God knows who I am, where I am and why I am there. God has both the patience and the love simply to wait until I am willing to come out of that closet and be open and honest.

Prayer is rooted in honesty. It is our being open with God. We have to be open with God in order for us to be open to God.

I think this is a major part of what Jesus was saying when, after giving us the Lord's Prayer, he told us that if we forgive others God will forgive us, and that forgiveness cannot be ours as long as we refuse to be forgiving. In this warning, I think Jesus was telling us to be honest and not try to play games with God. We are not really being honest with God when on the one hand we are saying we want forgiveness for not living as God intends, while on the other hand we refuse to live as God intends. In asking for forgiveness we are saying we want to live in harmony with God, but in refusing to forgive others we are refusing to live in harmony with God because we are refusing to love others as God in Christ has loved us.

We are like a garden hose with a kink in it. We say we want God's living water to flow through us, but then we stop the flow, and when we will not allow God's grace to flow through us, we stop it from flowing into us. The problem is not that God has turned off the faucet of grace. The problem is that the kinks in our living have shut off the flow.

God can best deal with our wants, our hurts and our hates when we are honest and open with God about those wants, hurts and hates. It is only in our being open with God that we are able to be open to God's grace dealing with our wants, healing our hurts and healing our hates.

The passage that was read from Matthew can teach us something more about prayer. Those verses come from the longer passage in which Jesus learned about John the Baptist being executed by King Herod. Jesus' first response was to try to find a place where he could take his grief and be alone with God in prayer. However, the people would not let him. Focused on their own needs and insensitive to what Jesus was going through, they followed him, making claims on him. Jesus dealt with them as best he could. He taught them; he healed them; he even fed them before sending them home. But then, when they were gone, he went up on the mountain alone to pray.

Part of what this story says to me is that there are times when I know I need some quiet time, some time to be alone and open with God and open to God, but the needs of others press in on me. When that happened to Jesus, he did not reject the people and their needs just so he could go off and be alone with God. He did not disconnect loving God from loving neighbor. Jesus dealt with what life set before him. He did what he was able to do.

However, (and this is the point I need to remember), when he had finished doing all he could do that day, he did not simply quit, sigh and comment about how bad a day it had been. At the close of the day, he took the time to be alone with God, to say whatever he needed to say, but more than that, simply and profoundly to be aware of God—to be aware of God who was always with him, and to try to hear what God had to say.

When we pray, how do we hear what God has to say? I do not know all the answer to this question. But this much I know. I am convinced that one of the primary ways God speaks to us is through all we have been taught about the Gospel. In worship, Sunday school, classes, conversations, readings, hymns—through all the ways we learn about God and the Gospel seeds are planted in our souls. My experience makes me believe it is in the quiet times when we try listen to God that these seeds grow and bear fruit in our lives. One of the primary ways God speaks to us is through the wisdom that has been planted in us. But we cannot receive that gift if we never stop long enough to look and listen. This is why we must find time to be quiet and listen. It is only as we listen that we are able to hear what God is trying to tell us through all the wisdom that has been planted in our souls in our yesterdays.

If all our praying is telling and begging we will miss the best part, and our lives will be the poorer. Prayer only begins in our talking to God; prayer reaches its high point when we listen. This is why prayers hurled at God as we speed through our crowded schedules cannot lead us to spiritual maturity. It takes time and quiet to hear the still, small voice of God.

Lord, teach us to pray. Enable us to make room in our hectic schedules for praying. Empower us to be open with you and open to what you would say to us. Amen.

God, when we pause to contemplate that you are the Creator of this universe that is so huge we cannot comprehend its distances and the Creator of all that is so tiny that it is beyond our imagining, we are speechless. When we try to contemplate the extent and depth of your knowledge, any pride we had in our knowledge and ability to know evaporates. When we try to imagine your power in exploding the universe into being and your ability to design and bring into being solar systems, pansies, puppies and people, we whose minds are so small and trivial that we are impressed by celebrities are overwhelmed. When we are truly aware of the God-ness of who you are and when we are aware that you know us and that you hold each of us accountable for the gift of life you have given us, our awe comes closer to fearful reverence.

We thank you for the gift of participating in life as a human being and in the process showing us both who you created us to be and at the same time revealing the essence of who you are. Thank you for showing us in Jesus that you love us like the most ideal parent, that you are for us and not against us, and that you intend for us to relate to you the same way loving, obedient children relate to an ideal parent.

God, forgive us for failing to live up to your expectations. And thank you for the forgiveness that sets us free to try again. Help us fulfill the purpose you see in our lives. Help us to live as Jesus was teaching us to live when he taught us to pray: "Our Father …"