Learning From Jesus (& Tevye) About Prayer

Dr. James Mayfield
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

February 26, 2006

Text: Matthew 6:5-8

Prayer was an essential part of Jesus' life and ministry, and prayer is to be central in our living also. We are always standing in the need of prayer. Certainly the mess in the Middle East and the challenges facing our nation, our state, our city, our families call for us to seek God in prayer. Without prayer, we drift away from God, and our response to these problems tends to be so self-serving, that, more often than not, our efforts just make matters worse. Our prayers need to be conversations with God --conversations in which we not only express our concern and ask for help but also in which we listen, really listen, so that what we do in response to the problems we face is more likely to be what God wants done.

To live as God intends, we must pray, and in the passage we read Jesus said, prayer is not something we do for show or to gain admiration from others. Nor is prayer a matter of impressing God by saying certain words or saying a lot of words. Jesus told us, God already knows what we mean, what we need, what we want. Prayer is not a matter of us educating God.

As I see it, prayer has to do with our living in conversation with God -- a conversation in which our faith in God leads us to be totally open with God, to be completely honest with God in the midst of whatever we are going through. Prayer has to do with trusting God so completely we are open with God. To be open with God is simply and profoundly to be completely honest with God.

When we are consumed by a desire for a little red wagon, adding “if it be thy will” is not honest; it is merely adding religious jargon trying to sound nice. Prayer is being open with God, completely honest with God.

Being honest with God means that when we do not know what to pray, when we are so overwhelmed by life or so confused by circumstances we do not know what is best, much less what we want, we confess our confusion and ignorance. Paul tells us that in those situations God not only understands but that the Spirit of God intercedes for us.1. Prayer has to do with so trusting God, we are completely open with God.

Being open with God includes expressing our anger to God. If what I really want is for a Mack truck to run over someone, saying pious words about forgiveness is not only failing to say the truth, it is creating a wall of phoniness God must get over or go through in order to deal with me in my anger. Only as we are honest with God -- open with God -- are we open to what God has to say to us. We must be open with God so that we can be open to God. This takes us to the most profound level of prayer -- being open to God. Prayer is more than talking to God. Our deepest prayer is listening to God. The foundation for being open to God has to do with our being still and knowing that God is God. 2.Our deepest prayer happens when we are being still, which has less to do with physical inactivity than with inward calm. Our most profound prayer happens when in the calmness of our soul, we are aware of the God-ness of God. It has to do with listening, with discerning what God is saying to us. Our deepest prayer has do with our being open to God.

Jesus' life was an ongoing conversation with God. This is the goal of all followers of Jesus. Paul told us to pray constantly. 3. This is what I am talking about when I speak of our lives being an ongoing conversation with God.

For our daily living to be an ongoing conversation with God is for us to move through our days not unlike the character Tevye in the musical “Fiddler On The Roof.” His daily living was an ongoing conversation with God. In all he did and in all that happened to him, he struggled to understand God. His daily living was an ongoing expression of being open with God and trying to be open to God.

But for us to be able to live this kind of life, we need to draw aside from time to time for a more in depth conversation. Jesus' living was a conversation with God, but from time to time, Jesus drew aside to pray, and from time to time, we need to draw aside to pray, to consciously and intentionally focus on being open with God and being open to God. The more we do this, the more our daily living becomes an ongoing conversation with God.

I have discovered that the more I am engaged in setting aside specific times to focus on praying, to focus on being open with God and open to God, the more my daily living becomes an ongoing conversation with God. The more I neglect setting aside time to strive to be open with God and open to God, the more my daily living becomes merely a monologue addressed to God. I just talk to God without any significant attempt to listen, to discern what God is saying to me. Eventually my chattering dies out, and I live insensitive to the presence of God.

Although Jesus' life was an ongoing conversation with God, Jesus drew aside to pray. For example, Jesus' ministry was just getting started and it was time to select his disciples. Jesus went into the mountains to pray. 4. After Jesus had foretold his crucifixion and gone on to say that any who follow him must pick up their crosses daily, he took James and John and Peter to the top of a mountain to pray. 5. When Jesus learned King Herod had executed his cousin, John the Baptist, in his grief Jesus went off to be alone and to pray. 6. Just before Jesus was arrested, he went into the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed: “Father let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.” 7. From the cross, Jesus prayed: “Father forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.” 8  In his agony, he prayed a prayer from Psalms 22: “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” 9.  As he died Jesus prayed: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” 10.

Jesus' life was an ongoing conversation with God. And an important aspect of his living was drawing aside for intentional prayer. Living a life of prayer and drawing aside for prayer are two sides of the same coin. The more we set aside time to focus on praying, the more our daily living becomes an ongoing conversation with God -- an ongoing expression of our love of God, a love that is reflected in our being open with God and striving to be open to God.

Let us pray: Lord, teach us to pray so that our daily living is an ongoing conversation with you in which we are both open with you and open to you. Amen.

Pastoral prayer:

God, teach us to pray. Free us from all that tempts us to play religious games with ourselves and you. Rescue us from merely throwing requests and instructions your direction. Help us to focus on you. Enable us to admit to ourselves and confess to you what we really want, what we long for and what scares us. Protect us from pretending. Help us be clearly honest with ourselves and with you. Keep us from phony piety. Enable us to be still and to listen so we can discern what you are saying. Help us make time so that our prayer is more than hurriedly mumbled requests. God, help us remember that just as we must invest time to have a significant relationship with our spouse or child or parent or friend, we must also regularly invest quality time seeking to be in significant relationship with you. Motivate us to make the adjustments we need to make in our schedules so we will have time to share what we need to share with you and time to strive to discern what you have to say. And when we pause to pray the pray the prayer you taught us, enable us to do more than merely recite the words: “Our Father ...” Amen.

ministry celebration: Prayer Commitment

1. Romans 8:26

2. Psalm 46:10

3. I Thessalonians 5:17

4. Luke 6:12-13

5. Luke 9:28

6. Matthew 14:23, Mark 6:47

7. Matthew 26:57 fl., Mark 14:53 fl., :Luke 22:54 fl

.8. Luke 23:34

9. Mark 15:36 & Psalm 22:1

10. Luke 23:46