Teach Us to Pray

       Garrison Keillor tells us the story in Leaving Home: "In the Sanctified Brethren Church, a tiny fundamentalist bunch we were in, there was a spirit among certain elders that defied peacemaking. They were given to disputing small points of doctrine that to them seemed the very fulcrum of the faith. We were cursed with a surplus of scholars and a deficit of peacemakers, and so we tended to be divisive and split into factions. One dispute when I was a boy had to do with the question of hospitality toward those in error, whether kindness shown to one who holds false doctrine implicates you in his wrongdoing.

       "Uncle Al had family and friends on both sides of the so-called “cup of cold water debate,” and it broke his heart. The dispute was really between two men, brother William Miller and brother James Johnson, who had dragged others into it, and so, one fine August day, Uncle Al tried to make peace between those two marbleheads and prevent a great deal of unhappiness for the rest of us. He arranged for them to meet at his and Aunt Flo's one Sunday, a few Millerites and a few Johnsonians, not to discuss the hospitality-to-error doctrine but simply to enjoy

a dinner of Aunt Flo's famous fried chicken.

       "It took weeks to arrange. Uncle Al worked through an intermediary, Brother Fields, who had never shown hospitality to anyone, whether in error or not, and was therefore neutral on the question. Finally they arrived in two cars, both Fords, the Brethren being united on the General Motors question. Out climbed, slowly, some gaunt, flinty eyed thin-lipped men in floppy suits and their plump obedient wives, and they came into the house and sat in awesome silence around the living room until the call to dinner, and they trooped in around the long dining-room table, extended with two leaves so they wouldn't have to sit close, and the Millerites and the Johnsonians bowed their heads in prayer.

       Prayer was a delicate matter. Brethren were known to use prayer before dinner as a platform, and so Al, the peacemaker, concerned lest one brother take prayer and beat the other brother over the head with it, said, 'let us bow our heads in silent prayer and give thanks for the meal,' and they bowed their heads and closed their eyes and--a long time passed; the old clock ticked on the bureau; a cat walked in and meowed and left; a child snickered and was stilled; cars went by; there were dry sniffs and throat clearings; and soon it was clear that neither side wanted to stop before the other; they were seeing who could pray the longest.

       "Brother Miller peeked through his fingers at Brother Johnson, who was earnestly engaged in silent communion with the Lord, who agreed with him on so many things. His forehead almost touched the plate. So Brother Miller dove back into prayer and the other Brethren stayed under too, sneaking glances around the table to see if anyone else noticed how long it was. Minutes drifted by. Heads stayed bowed, nobody would come up. To stop praying might imply a weakness of faith. "Al said 'amen' to offer a way out of the deadlock, and said it again, amen." Brother Miller looked up and saw Johnson still bowed, so he went back down just as Johnson put his periscope up and saw Brother Miller submerged, so down he went. It was becoming the longest table grace in history. It ground on and on and on."

       You'll be relieved to know they aren’t still there praying. The impasse was finally broken by the delicious smell of Aunt Flo's famous fried chicken. But Keillor, in the artful way of the great story teller, reminds us that prayer can be used in a lot of ways--not least of all as a competition.  It can be used as a weapon.  It can be used by parents as a way to lecture their kids. 

       Prayer can also be a sermon. This is especially true in larger, churches where the pastor who isn't preaching wants to get in his licks. "Oh Lord, who tells us in 1 Chronicles 26:18--" those prayers, complete with three points and a poem, can last forever. Mark Twain characterized one prayer he hard as being “the finest ever offered to a congregation in Boston." His point was that all the eloquence was directed at the congregation — but not to God.

       Prayer can even be used for announcements that were omitted earlier in the service. "Lord, help the women to remember the luncheon Thursday afternoon at Grace Skinner's and, gracious God, help those with last names beginning A-H to bring a green salad. And, Lord, help some of the men to come Saturday to fix the plumbing in the church kitchen--especially those who know what they're doing.  Lord, remind people to come to the church picnic this afternoon and smite anyone who doesn’t come – especially since the Lakers don’t play until 5.”

        There are a lot of ways to misuse prayer. But the problem of prayer is not new in our century. There were a lot of bad prayer models even in the first century. So Jesus' disciples ask Him according to Luke 11: "Lord, teach us to pray."

       Why do they ask this?  They already pray.  Pious Jews prayed at least three times a day.  But Jesus has something different – something very personal and deeply real.  Jesus has something they don't have and they haven’t seen anywhere else. The disciples know they don’t have it and they want it      

       In Matthew's account, before teaching the prayer, Jesus says: "Do not pray like the Gentiles, for they think they will be heard for their many words." We don't have to impress God with the richness of our language, overwhelm God with the quantity of our words, or give God an intelligence briefing on things He might not be aware of unless we provide the details.

       Jesus teaches that our prayer should be brief, intense, personal, frequent and confident. Our prayer should deal with the very basics of your life and mine -- with reality. This is what Jesus shows us in the Lord’s Prayer.

       Prayer isn’t magic.  Prayer isn’t a matter of how we hold our hands -- like God has a prayer style checklist that we need to fulfill before He will hear us like a judge on Dancing With the Stars -- 10!.  And prayer isn’t based on our emotional state -- that if we don’t get an emotional warm fuzzy feeling when we’re done that the prayers have bounced off the ceiling and didn’t go through.  Prayer is effective for one simple reason.  God is our Father.  And as our Father He wants to hear us. 

        Jesus is recorded as teaching the Lord's Prayer twice-- in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. Each time He uses a slight difference of words to introduce the prayer and instruct us on its place in our lives. In Luke, Jesus gives the prayer as a model for our own prayers. He says: "pray in this way." In Matthew, Jesus gives the prayer for us to use as our prayer. He says: "when you pray, say." That’s what the Greek means.

       This command is why we pray the Lord's Prayer every Sunday. Jesus tells us to pray the prayer. That makes it a good thing to do.

       But there is a danger that I suspect most everyone here has succumbed to at one time or another. The danger is that the prayer will become so familiar with use that we no longer interact with what we are saying. We repeat the words but don't engage our brains. We move our lips but our minds are remembering to rotate the tires on the car. 

       So on communion Sundays we are going to look at the Lord's Prayer -- phrase by phrase. We are going to ask Jesus to again teach us to pray. We need to hear and interact with our words and consciously make them our own.      

       Some years ago I played a pretty mean trick on a pastor friend of mind.  Every pastor gets calls from time to time from people asking for financial assistance.  Some times these are genuine and we a delighted to help if we can.  But there are also people who go from town to town working the churches – telling a sad story to get money.  You can often recognize them because the story is one they learn in a “working the churches” seminar that must be taught somewhere.  The story is that they are passing through town on their way to a new job in either Bakersfield, Texas or Oregon.  The car broke down and they used all their money to fix the transmission.  Now they don’t have any milk for the baby. 

       These calls always seem to come on Saturday night when the pastor is getting ready for Sunday.  So I called my friend one Saturday night and started in, “Is this the pastor?  Uh, we’re on our way to Oregon for a new job.  The car broke down and we had to get the transmission fixed.”

       Jim of course, had been there before.  He didn’t even let me get out the part about the baby.

He started to tell me about the resources available through the local police department.  But what was funny is that he was on total autopilot.  I said, “Hey Jim, it’s Dave!”  But he didn’t hear me. He kept talking.  I had to interrupt him three times before he was able to realize that he wasn’t in the conversation he’d had a few too many times. 

       In the same way, praying the Lord’s Prayer can become a ritual --- even though it’s a conversation we really do want to have.  That doesn't mean that we should stop praying the prayer. But it does mean that we need to step back and take a look at what we are actually saying. We need to refocus.  We’re going to do that.

       The need to step back is true of the Lord's Prayer. It is also true of the Lord's Supper. 

       Just as it’s possible to say the Lord’s Prayer without engaging ourselves, it’s possible to be here this morning on autopilot.  Yes, here we are again.  Look at the trays. It must be the first Sunday of the month. 

       God forgive us if we just go through the motions.  We need to engage.  We need to go through the emotions.

       We need to go through the emotions of knowing that Jesus really is here.  Think about what that means.  We need to go through the emotions of knowing that we have failed Him and each other and really do need forgiveness.  We need to go through the emotions of hard self-confrontation and the emotions of asking God’s pardon.  We need to go through the emotions of knowing that Jesus went through the emotions for us as He sweated drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane.   We need to go through the liberating emotions of knowing that we truly are forgiven and made whole through the cross.  We need to go through the emotions of knowing that we are deeply loved by God Himself – so much that He gave His only Son.

        So as we prepare ourselves to come to the table, let us first sit in silence.  Let us take a few moments to simply turn off any autopilot we may be on and really engage.  Then we will be ready to come.