Peace Lutheran Church - Austin, Texas                       February 5, 2012              William J. Sappenfield

 Mark 1:29-39

²⁹As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. ³⁰Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. ³¹He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

³²That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. ³³And the whole city was gathered around the door. ³⁴And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

³⁵In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. ³⁶And Simon and his companions hunted for him. ³⁷When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” ³⁸He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” ³⁹And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

            Prayer is what you do when you know you are not in control of your life.  Notice how I put that:  It’s when you know you are not in control of your life.  We are never in control of our lives, but we seldom realize that; we like to think we’ve got a tight grip on the reigns.  So, sometimes people do not pray much and things go along well enough – until something happens.  A loved one is ill; a relationship is broken; business goes bankrupt, a job is lost – then people turn to prayer.  Because things are out of control.  They pray because there is not anything else they can do.

            In times of crisis we do turn to prayer.  God wants us to; we need God in those times.  But prayer is not reserved for crisis.  God does not come into our lives only when we need something fixed. Prayer is a relationship with God all the time, every day.   Prayer is living with God. 

            It is common to view prayer as the last thing we do when things have gotten out of control.  When we can no longer do anything about our lives and we are helpless, people often feel that it is time to pray.  But it might not occur to people to pray before.

            To put an end to that view of prayer, I would like to point to this morning's Gospel lesson.  "In the morning, while it was still very dark, he (Jesus) got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed."  Things were going his way.  Jesus was the son of God.  He had just spent an incredible time of performing miracles.  "…they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.  And the whole city was gathered around the door.  And he cured..."  Jesus was on top of things.  His ministry was getting started.  He had called apostles.  He was performing miracles.  People were crowding around him.  Why did Jesus need to pray?  There was no crisis.

            Prayer is living with God.  Jesus wanted to live with God.  We do not know what Jesus said in the prayers we read about this morning, but we do not know of anything terrible going on that he was asking to be fixed.

            Isn't it likely that Jesus was praying because that is the way to live with God?  Jesus was praying for his own sake.  He was communicating with God.  That is what prayer is.

            The fact that Jesus prayed tells us a lot about prayer, about our own prayers.  If it was right for Jesus, God incarnate, to pray, and it was right for him to pray even when everything was going right., I think we should pray, too.  In times of crisis we should go to God.  We should ask for divine intervention, to fix the crisis and to give us the strength to get through it.  But there are also times when we do not have a crisis.

            We want to live with God.  We pray for our own sake, because that is how we were created to live.  Prayer is a much greater, more joyful proposition than just a weapon to fight hard times – sort of a 911 approach to Christianity.  Prayer is a joy.  It is to be celebrated.  It is life with God.

            Archbishop Trench (1807-1886) is quoted as saying, "Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of his willingness."  God has good things in mind for us.  The purpose of prayer is not to argue with God about the way things are.  The purpose of prayer is to make ourselves partners with God in the way things can be, to live our lives with God.

            That is why our entire faith is based on the notion that God became a person, one of us.  God became Jesus to live with us.  God will live with all of us.  He will be with the happy and the celebrating as well as the broken, and the sick,  In prayer we can live with God in all things. 

            Jesus had things going very well and he got up early in the morning to pray.  Later Jesus was dying on the cross.  He prayed then, too.

            The disciples saw this attitude about prayer and they wanted to learn something about it so they made a request.  In the Bible, the disciples go to Jesus and ask him,  "Lord, teach us to pray." (Luke 11:1)  That is a request we could all repeat.  "Lord, teach us to pray."  The disciples had prayed all their lives and yet, something about the character and quantity of Jesus' praying caused them to see how little they knew about prayer.  They asked Jesus to teach them.  When we understand the work of prayer involves a learning process we have already made a big step toward improving our relationship with God.  "Teach us to pray."  Prayer is something that must be learned, and that means it is something that we can do better or worse.  That idea saves us from arrogantly dismissing prayer.  We might do that.  When we pray and it does not seem to make any difference – it  does not seem to make a difference in our lives nor in the world around us – we might dismiss the entire thing.  "It didn't work."

            When we know that prayer is a thing that is learned, then we know it may be that we are not praying right.  If we do not pray in a way that strengthens our relationship with God perhaps we should find out why.  Perhaps something within us needs changing.  Perhaps there are new principles of prayer to be learned.  Perhaps we need patience or persistence.

            But we can learn to pray.   We can learn to live with God and make his future our future.  We can learn his way of thinking.  It is a long business, learning to pray.  It is a lifetime work.  But it is not complicated.  It is as simple as knowing God has made you and  living as you were made to live.

            The first lesson in learning to pray: You are not too busy.

            This morning's Gospel lesson records that Jesus was besieged by the entire town. The whole population gathered outside his door with things for him to do.  By the time the passage ends, Jesus has been told that everyone is still searching for him.  Jesus responds, "Let's go to the next towns so we can do the same thing there."  That is busy.  And, being that busy, and being Jesus (so you would think he could slide on praying at least once) we might expect Jesus to take a break, get some sleep.  In the middle of all that, Jesus got up before sunrise to pray.  Not in spite of having so much to do, but because he had so much to do.  He could only do it with the hope and energy of living with God.  The first lesson of prayer:  You are not too busy.  The more you have to do, the more prayer will mean to you.

            Another thing to learn as we ask to be taught to pray: Prayer is listening.  God has wonderful things for our lives; we must listen to him.  Richard Foster wrote: "Listening to the Lord is the first thing, second thing, and third thing necessary for prayer."  God has things he wants you to know.  Listen to him.  What he tells you may be surprisingly simple.  God may tell you simple things like, “Take better care of your health.”  “Don't say bad things about other people.”   “Spend more time thinking.”  Those may sound like trivial things for God to concern himself with, but remember, prayer is living with God; living with God in every facet of our lives.  These so called trivial, simple things make up most of our lives.

            Prayer is listening.  If we will listen, God will speak to us.

            Another thing to learn about prayer: It is not just for those who can express themselves well.  God does not care what words you use in prayer.  You do not need to use words at all.   Can you picture Christ within you?  Can you picture the light of God shining on the work you do, on the conversations you have?  Can you open your hands and ask God to give you whatever thoughts, or strength, or courage he wants you to have?  Prayer is simple and natural.  In fact it is unnatural to try to live without it.  You were created for a life with God.  Do not try to live without him.

            God has given each of us a life.  Do not cut off your life from its source.  There is too much to do, too much life to be lived, too many good things to be shared for us to allow ourselves to wither away for lack of life.  Make yourself a part of life.

            Take time.  Listen to God.  Pray.