Teach Me To Pray

Reverend Ann Beaty
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

November 11, 2007

Text: Luke 11:1-10

A couple of years ago I was present at the United Methodist Men’s breakfast for their early morning program here at the church. One of the longtime members was asked to pray. He offered a beautiful, heart-felt prayer before the meal began. After the prayer and while we were standing in line waiting to eat, he mentioned to several of us standing with him how even at his age, and after all his years as a leader in the church, he still felt inadequate when asked to pray.

I’ve been around enough to know he isn’t alone. Many of us feel inadequate when it comes to finding the “right” words or the “right” ways to pray publically. And I think it isn’t always just an issue of praying with other people. I know that for me, there are times when I feel stagnant or inadequate in my personal prayer life.

I was fortnate to grow up in a home with parents who believed in the importance of prayer and made sure that regular prayer times were part of my early childhood.

“God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for this food. By his hands we all are fed. Give us Lord our daily bread. Amen.”

Those words are etched in my memory bank. And each night at bedtime I said a prayer of thanks to God for my family and for the events of the day. I never questioned doing it and I’m sure I never really thought about what I was saying. At that point in my life, it really didn’t matter. What mattered was that prayer was becoming a part of my daily living. Through my parents early love and example, they were teaching me to pray.

I also learned a different form of prayer from my grandmother. Our extended family often gathered at her home for holiday’s and summer vacations and I remember her long spontaneous prayers at the table when we all came together for a meal. Since I was used to short, learned prayers at home, I was always so amazed that she knew what to say! She couldn’t ever get through a prayer without crying because she was so grateful to have her family gathered around her, but she wasn’t embarrassed by her tears. I know now that her tears were as much of an offering to God as her words. Through my grandmother’s love and example, she was teaching me to pray.

Over the years my prayer life has grown and changed a lot, and I trust it will continue to expand and deepen the rest of my life. In our prayer life we talk to God and we listen to God, but prayer is also communication at a deeper level. It is communication of such a fine quality that it is true communion with God.

It’s like the communion I experienced some years ago when my 10 month old nephew crawled up on my lap and we just sat together. We experienced one another on a much deeper level than mere words could convey. The communication came simply in the being together. The communication was real and tangible, and yet hard to define and describe.

The Scripture passage read from Luke’s gospel is rich with images that can teach us something about our prayer life. One of the first things I notice is that we are told “right off the bat” that Jesus was praying in a certain place. Being in a certain place implies intentionality. Sometimes intentionality means an actual place of prayer, such as the sanctuary, or coming to the chapel, by the bedside at night or in the morning, sitting in a garden or park, or maybe createing a place at home for prayer.

But, I don’t think intentionality is always about a physical place. Sometimes intentionality is about creating an internal attitude of prayer – an internal attitude of prayer we can take with us in all of our living. We aren’t told in any of the gospels much about Jesus’ own prayer life, but it seems to me that most of the stories about him point to Jesus being present to others with an internal attitude of prayer. This enabled him to meet God and to respond to others needs as he was present for each person or situation.

In this story we do see Jesus in prayer. The disciples are there when Jesus is finished praying, and they want him to teach them to pray. They see something in Jesus’ praying that they want in their own life and they are drawn to what he can teach them.

According to Luke, Jesus then teaches them the words that are familiar to us … the words of the Lord’s prayer.

But, Jesus does not end this passage about prayer with those teaching words. As was common with Jesus, he then teaches the disciples, and us, by telling a story … a story that on the outside doesn't seem to have anything to do with prayer, but I think speaks more to HOW we are to offer ourselves...our requests and our gratitude, and our intention, to God in prayer.

The parable appears at first to be about friendship and what it means to be hospitable. But, Jesus' further comments reveal that this parable is not finally about friendship, but rather it is about PERSISTENCE. It is not friendship which compels the friend to get up out of bed. He calls from inside that he does not wish to be bothered! But because we are told that the friend outside knocking on the door is persistent, the friend inside gets out of bed and goes to the door.

The word persistence tends to bring up a negative image for me. I immediately think about someone “nagging” me to do something…that kind of persistence where someone keeps at you about something without regard for your “no” answer or your boundaries – that continual relentless pushing me into something unpleasant.

But, I discovered in my reading that there is another possible translation of the Greek word used in this scripture, and maybe Jesus meant something else altogether.

Many scholars suggest that a more literal translation of the word is "shamelessness" and if we look at the word in that light I believe this reveals a deeper meaning. If we look closely there is no mention of the friend's repeated knocking or his persistent asking at his friend's door. The story simply says that he comes and asks. We tend to read repeated knocking into the parable because the of the word "persistent."

So, what compels the friend to act, could be then, not repeated asking, but the shamelessness of the very act of asking. It is possible that the friend arises from his bed because of the shameless boldness of his friend's petition, which trusts that even at the unconventional hour of midnight, he will be heard and answered. The man dares to hold his friend to who he is as a friend and what is inherently promised by the fact of their relationship.

It seems to me then that if we look at the scripture in this light, what Jesus is directing the disciples and us to do in our prayer life is a command to stand simply, boldly, AND without shame, before God in prayer. We are given the simple, bold instructions to ask, seek, and knock. Jesus' words encourage us to be bold enough to make our needs known and to place confidence in the assurance of God's answer. We must dare to ask God for what we need. We must dare to hold God to what has been promised…"that nothing can separate us from the love of God." (Romans 8) … that our brokenness and death is not the final answer, but that resurrection will come … that we are not alone on this journey called life.

Some of you knew Elliott Karnes. Elliott was a member of this congregation for some years and he died a couple of years ago. Elliott faced lots of challenges in his life due to some handicaps he lived with. Not long after Elliott joined this congregation, he told Jim Mayfield he wanted to be part of the prayer ministries. He became part of one of the prayer ministry teams and regularly received the prayer lists in the mail from the church office.

Everytime I would visit Elliott he would tell me how much he was praying for everybody and he always wanted to know if there was something he could pray for for me. Before our visit would end, He always asked me to pray for him and then he prayed for me. After Elliott died last week, his sister shared with me that when he would spend the weekends with her, she would hear him in the other room speaking to God his prayer requests…out loud…unashamedly speaking boldly to God. He was asking, knocking, and searching…with utter confidence that God would respond.

To come to God timidly in prayer is a sign that we do not trust God's sovereign holiness, the very thing we declare when we begin the Lord's Prayer. To say those words and to not trust God completely is as if to say that we do not trust God's ability to answer and we are not sure that God has the strength to deal with us as we are.

To come to God boldly, however, as Jesus is instructing the disciples here, is to proclaim our confidence that God will hear and God will answer. To come to God boldly through the words of the Lord's prayer and all our other prayers, is opening ourselves up to God for healing in our brokenness, and a new way of life in the world.

Elliott believed in the depths of his heart that God would respond to his prayers…so much that he wasn’t afraid to put his prayer requests out in the open before God. God does respond…maybe not always in the ways we want or understand, but God always offers us love and resources and people and wisdom and strength to get through what we must face in our lives.

A couple of years after I moved to Austin and had been working at the church, I became aware that my own prayer life was in need of some deepening. I was involved in my work in leading a lot of groups in prayer and study, but I wasn’t being intentional about my own time and space for personal prayer.

I signed up to participate in something called a “spiritual discernment group”. A clergywoman friend of mine had done some training in spiritual direction and was offering these small prayer group experiences for her colleagues. We would meet once a month in groups of 4 for a 2 hour time block. I hoped this opportunity would give me a structured group among colleagues to explore my prayer relationship with God in some new ways. And as much as I wanted that, I was apprehensive.

I grew up with loving parents who provided a base for prayer, but prayer was considered private and personal, and I was a little hesitant about placing my personal prayer requests out loud and especially in front of others. The 4 of us began and continued to meet regularly for about 7 years. In addition to being prayer and colleague support for each other we became good friends.

It felt a little risky at first, but the group was life-changing for me. Through the monthly discipline, I became more easily able to reflect on where I had been with God since we last met. I discovered the very great power in naming prayer requests out loud and having others pray on my behalf. I discovered support and friendship in new and deeper ways. I began to see that God was with me all of the time it was more a matter of me becoming aware of that and intentional about connecting in that relationship.

I think Jesus continues to teach me how to pray all the time—through the wisdom of others like Elliott, through my readings and thoughts, through my emotions, dreams, and imagination, and through the intentional ways I seek to grow in my prayer life with others, through worship, studies, and classes. There are so many ways to be with God in prayer – in the quiet of a few moments of silence, in the middle of a worship service, with a prayer group or friends, noticing the world outside when we drive down Mopac, or maybe even pausing between phone calls at work.

The last line of the parable in Luke's gospel (which wasn’t read as part of the scripture today) is so important to remember because this is the joy of the parable and the joy of our prayer relationship with God. "If you then who are sinful know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

God wants us to have every good gift available through the Holy Spirit! We don't always understand the answers to our prayers, nor is it always what we thought we wanted or needed, but God is truly good, and desires for us to have good gifts in life. Jesus came to lead and empower the disciples. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to lead and empower us. To receive that great gift we must be "persistent" be “shameless” in our prayer with God.

Let us pray…Gracious God….we are grateful for the many ways you sustain us with good gifts in all of life. Give us courage to be more bold in our prayers – to trust that we can indeed come before you with anything, and that you will provide the healing, the peace, and love we long for. In Jesus Christ, Amen.