| Calvary Episcopal Church, Rockdale |
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| THE 13TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 14 August, 2005 The Rev. Robert C. Granfeldt |
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A couple of weeks ago, I told you I was going to speak to you about prayer! I apologize
that it’s taken me so long actually to get to the topic, but as I tried to approach it, each
week, in preparing my sermons, I realized there was more groundwork to be laid, so I’ve
had to delay until now!
But I have been trying for some time, now, and especially in these last weeks, to
introduce to you what I know was a radical notion to you when I first said it – though I
hope it seems less odd, now. The notion that God is Not, as we were taught – and as, I’m
sure, we’ve all taught our children – not the Omnipotent and Omniscient Being we
thought.
On the other hand, I have also assured you that I have personally had experiences that
convince me that some, at least, of what people think of as “miracles,” actually do
happen – particularly in terms of what we call “healing.”
So…, I believe in healing; I believe in healing prayer; but I don’t believe healing is a
manifestation of God’s “reaching into” the world God has made, and violating the laws
of nature that God established in creation!
All of which raises the questions, if God cannot act in the world, then what does God
do? And if we can’t get God to do things in the world, then, what is prayer? What’s
prayer all about?
Well, there are many types of prayer, or course. Prayers that praise, prayers that seek to
intercede, prayers of confession. In the Old Testament, there are even non-verbal
prayers – things like sacrifices and dances. But I don’t intend to focus on “types” of
prayer. Because whatever the form or intention of our prayer, we need to understand
that Prayer has only one intention, one purpose, one object. Prayer is about us! Prayer is
about you and me; not God; at least, not directly!
Real prayer is not just a pro forma recitation of words learned as children or through
repetition – though prayer may be that! But the intention of all prayer is you and me
seeking to place ourselves in the mind of God; striving to align ourselves with God’s
will; trying to immerse ourselves in God’s intention for God’s people, for God’s world!
“Our Father, who art in Heaven,” we pray, “hallowed by thy Name. Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.”
“Thy will be done on earth!”
That ultimately, of course is what prayer is all about – God’s will being done on earth!
But God, as we’ve already found, can’t act in the world! Can’t “reach in,” as I’ve put it,
and miraculously direct things or change things! Instead, God relies on his people – on
us – as his agents!
You’ve heard it said that we are God’s hands in the world. That’s not just a pious
thought! It’s very, very true. But there’s more! We’re his hands, indeed! And we’re God’s
feet! We’re God’s voice! We’re God’s mind. And we’re God’s intention in the world!
God is not an old man in the sky who can “do anything”. Not a wizard or a magician, or a
wonderworker of any kind. God is God! – the creator and sustainer of the universe. And
God calls God’s people to do God’s will in the world, and to spread God’s will in the
world!
That’s done by us…, and that’s done by prayer. It’s done by quieting the body and the
mind; by letting go of our own will, our own needs and desires, and by opening our
selves – our minds and our souls – to God, to God’s will!
There are many, many approaches to prayer, but in the end, they all have that same goal.
The simplest form of prayer, probably, is the verbal prayers we all learned to say as
children. Most of us probably started with something like, “now I lay me down to sleep, I
pray the Lord my soul to keep.” That’s a prayer of petition, which is the most basic of all
prayers, the simplest, and the most common. But even in this little prayer, if we listen,
we can hear a desire to conform ourselves to God’s will – to be the kind of person – the
kind of child – whom God will welcome into his arms, if death should take us. It’s not my
favorite prayer – and I would never teach it to a child – but it does illustrate the point!
As we grow older, we learn other prayers and we adopt other intentions – more
sophisticated intentions. We go beyond the basics, to higher levels. We pray for help in
doing one thing or the other; for guidance in how we live our lives; for qualities that will
make our lives better – for patience, for understanding.
We learn to expand our concerns – we pray for other people, for their guidance, for
their well-being. Perhaps for their healing
And we grow beyond those concerns that are rooted in our own lives to larger concerns
and to abstracts – praying for things like prosperity, for peace, for justice.
And the Christian graduates, too, from the memorized prayers of our youth to the words
of our hearts, to our hopes and aspirations, to our desire for those around us and for
the world!
And as we grow in our prayer life, we realize, more and more, that our best prayers, our
most important prayers really are about us!
And, finally, we reach the point where we no longer pray, “Lord, bring peace to our
world,” but, rather, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”
Where we stop praying for God to spread his love abroad, but pray that God will teach
us to love – will help us to become lovers.
Where we stop praying for God to instill justice in the world, and begin praying the Lord
to teach us justice – and peace, and love – and teach us to live those things in our lives
and to work for them in the world.
And finally, we come to a place where we move beyond words. O, we never stop praying
in words, completely, but prayer should carry us – should be allowed to carry us – into a
deep and quiet place, moving us more and more into a wordless state. Call it meditation,
if you like, call it anything you want. But in it, we learn to be silent - and simply to BE! To
be in the presence of the Lord, growing close to God, growing close to the person God
calls us to be, letting God fill us with God’s presence.
And along the way, marvelous things May, indeed, happen – Miraculous things may
happen!
But the greatest miracle, in the end, is finding that, in our prayer, we are growing into
the person that we have been created and called to be: an instrument of the Lord, the
hands and feet and voice of God, bringing God’s presence into the world.
And in the end, That is prayer! Simply being present in God, that God may be present in
us; that being in us, he may become present in the world, incarnate in us, even as he is
incarnate in Jesus Christ!
So the purpose of prayer is nothing less than to become the incarnation of God!
In his Name. Amen.
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