Pray Shamelessly Without Ceasing

Sermon for July 24, 2016

Proper 12C – RCL

Hosea 1:2-10
Psalm 85
Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)
Luke 11:1-13

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." He said to them, "When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial."

And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, `Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.' And he answers from within, `Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.' I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

"So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, 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!"

It is too easy these days to lapse into a dark world view with all the news that we have been hearing.  From the shooting several weeks ago in the Pulse nightclub, to individual deaths at the hands of law enforcement that seem to be unjust – all based on cell phone videos -  to the targeting of police officers and the latest attack in Munich. 

With our current instant news cycle and social media we can become overwhelmed with information.  What used to take at least a few hours to make it to our lives now happens nearly instantly.  Instead of having some time to find answers we are bombarded with raw news.  It is so easy to become negative.  It is so easy to cease praying.

And into this world we have a gospel reading teaching us how to pray and telling us that the God we worship will give us all things.  Does it leave you wondering if it is all true?  Surely our prayers to end violence should have been answered by now if God was paying attention.  Surely I would have the 1965 Rolls Royce Phantom V by now too.  But that is not what prayer is about.  I don’t care what the prosperity gospel preachers might tell us.  Prayer is not about asking for the fancy car and a lot of money. 

How do we see prayer?  Is prayer coming into a church building or going to your special place in your home?  Is prayer about opening the prayer book and reading the beautiful poetry that is found in it?  We can usually safely answer that these are prayers.  But sometimes it can also be just showing up.  And sometimes the prayer is without words.  Sometimes prayer can even take the form of an expletive!  And frankly sometimes prayer is hard.

When we hear about people being injured or killed it is pretty easy for most of us to prayer for the victims.  We can pray for the repose of the souls of the martyrs of Orlando.  We can pray for the Repose of the soul of the police killed in Baton Rough.  It is easy to pray for all the victims. 

Unfortunately it is also far too easy to turn the perpetrators into monsters.  We need to remember that we are also called to pray for those we see as our enemy.  We are to pray also for those who have been seduced by violence.  I have said it before sometimes the only prayer I have for someone who has done something evil is “Dear God – only you have the power to reach into the grave and heal the heart of these persons.” 

Sometimes all we can do in the face of darkness is to show up.  We show up and go through the motions.  We can be so numbed by all of the darkness around us.  When we are overwhelmed by all of the darkness we can find comfort in showing up.  We can find comfort in knowing that certain prayers can become woven into our very fabric.

When I did my clinical pastoral education as a hospice chaplain I visited people who most might say were already gone.  Alzheimer’s disease, advanced dementia or the results of a severe stroke had in many ways already robbed the person of their lives.  Their loved ones are already grieving.  And into that setting I was sent to offer spiritual support.  To offer prayer to people the caregivers said did not understand.  So I sat in silence.  I listened to what sounded like gibberish.  And I prayed. 

One of my patients had been in a church choir so I sang many of my prayers right from our hymnal.  And they reached into the spot of her where there was still light.  It unlocked – if only briefly – the voice of a woman who had gone mute.  For another patient it was the Lords Prayer and the Hail Mary that opened that door.  And in those moments – in the moments of, silence,  gibberish, and the blessed moments of lucidity I saw the Holy Spirit at work.  I saw prayer at work.

In Paul’s letter to Timothy there is an instruction to pray without ceasing.  That doesn’t mean that one has to join a religious community or become a hermit.  Praying without ceasing means living our lives as prayer.  It means that we bind up the wounds of those who are hurt.  It means that we listen to the person who can only see the darkness and attempt to light a small candle so they can glimpse the light.

 Another preacher I follow [David Lose] said: “At times prayer is words we say alone in moments of thanksgiving or desperation. At times prayer is words we share with others, gathered in the sanctuary or around a hospital bed. And at other times prayer is action and work as we try to live into and even bring about those things we’ve prayed for. All of this can be praying shameless, praying, that is, confident that the God who came in Jesus understands our hurts and disappointments because that God took them on. Because God in Jesus not only endured the life we lived, but died the death that awaits us, and was raised again to show that even death does not have the last word and that all things are possible for God. And so we pray with confidence, trusting that if we know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will God give us as we embrace God’s Holy Spirit and live, as well as speak, our prayers.”[1]

[pause]

Which brings me to the parable.  The parable today is a bit on the crazy side.  First what kind of friend would knock on the door at midnight to borrow a couple of loaves of bread.  Lets be real.  I don’t think they would remain friends very long.  If it was an emergency we would be right there with Jesus.  Of course we would respond right?  That is what friends do.  But to lend bread because this so called friend has another unexpected visitor.  Couldn’t they wait until morning to break bread together? 

God promises that the response to our prayers is going to be crazy.  God is willing to go to extremes to remind us that the world is not ruled by darkness.  That no matter how many politicians and pundits paint a picture of darkness and despair there is a light.  A light that is willing to reach into the depths to prove that love will ultimately win.  Because that love was willing to walk among us.  That love was willing to die for us and to show us the path to eternal life.

The parable also reminds us that our God wants us to open the doors to our friends.  Wants us to provide the bread that is needed.  We are to model the radical generosity of a God that loves us so much that he gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit.

See the Gospel lesson doesn’t say that God will give you a Rolls Royce or a million dollars.  It says “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"  The answer to prayer is the gift of the Holy Spirit.  That is about  as radical a promise as they come.

If we are open to accepting God’s gift of the Holy Spirit onto our lives our lives will become one of action.  The Holy Spirit will open our eyes to the hurt around us and drive us to help eradicate that hurt.  Our lives will be lived in prayer.  Both prayer that is passive and also prayer that is active.  Prayer that feeds the hungry.  Prayer that listens to the stranger.  Prayer that clothes the naked.  Prayer that actively helps usher in the gift of God’s reign.  A reign where we no longer give evil for evil or evil for good.  A reign where we can recognize the gift of the Holy Spirit in each other.

So Pray shamelessly without ceasing.  Open yourself to receive God’s gift.   And be ready.  Because The gift of the Holy Spirit will drive us out of our comfort zones.  It will drive us to give bread, forgive, and to work to bring God’s dream to fruition here. That is our charge as Christians.  To pray shamelessly with our whole being being confident that we are children of the living God.

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[1] http://www.davidlose.net/2016/07/pentecost-10-c-shameless-prayer/

What part of Love Your Neighbor Do We Not Understand!

Sermon for July 13 Proper 10C RCL

Amos 7:7-17
Psalm 82
Colossians 1:1-14
Luke 10:25-37

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, `Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Today we heard the perhaps all too familiar story of the Good Samaritan.  A story that has made its way into our very culture. There are “good Samaritan laws” that provide a relief from liability for stepping in and taking care of something wrong – like a mine cleanup- or helping someone.  And in many ways it is awful to think that we have to make laws about it being ok to do the right thing.  Perhaps this story is all too familiar.  But I have to admit it is one of my favorites and is a big part of my theology.

The summary of the Great commandment is to love God and love neighbor.  A commandment that – on its face – sounds so easy.  But in practice has never been easy.  And Jesus describes the hardness of it in this parable.  It was not too much earlier in the Gospel narrative that Jesus was denied entry into a Samaritan village and his disciples wanted to smite the village!  And now the Samaritan is the hero in the story. But there is more here than just healing.

It is about the radical invitation that Jesus issues about the presence of God’s reign of peace and love.  It is about recognizing in our enemy a child of God.  It is about crossing the street and binding up the wounds of people who are not like us and people who we don’t understand.

In our news in these past weeks there have been too many examples of people not getting that Jesus commands us to Love – not Hate.  There are too many people dead because of racial hatred.  There have been too many people killed because they don’t fit the model of who the killer thinks is their neighbor. And I don’t know what to do about it.  The hatred and vile that is being espoused by many in our world is enough to drive me crazy. It makes me want to check out… but that is not the answer.  We need to show the world a different way.

And social media and the news is full of pundits and regular people wondering about whose lives matter.  Why it is important to say that Black Lives Matter.  Even – and perhaps especially when a deranged black man – takes out his anger by killing white policemen.  And I am still having a very difficult time with the police response and decision to eventually blow the man up with a robot and a bomb.  I keep thinking there had to be a better way.

And then amidst all of the explosion on social media about whose lives matter Sister Diana Doncaster posted a poem.  A poem that spoke to me about all of this craziness.  A poem that speaks about the dream of God.

Last night I had the strangest dream
I’d ever dreamed to date.
I dreamed the world had all agreed
to put an end to hate.
And then I woke and heard the news
of guns and murdered ones;
of bombs and hatred multiplied
of countless lives undone.

I listened then to those who claim
that they’re the ones so wise
that they should be the powerful;
then all would be just fine.

Again I fell upon my knees
and groaned and wept and prayed
that God would teach us how to love
and live life unafraid.

I prayed for grace to live each day
as sign of life and peace.
May God’s Light in our darkness shine
so hate and violence cease.

Our call as Christians is to stop categorizing people.  It is to remember that Jesus told us that we are to Love God with our entire being and that we are to Love our neighbor.  We are to love all of our neighbors – even those who might not want our love.  Even those who we are afraid of.  Even those who don’t want us to love them.

We are to call out the institutional racism that makes black people targets in too many places.  The racism that makes people cross the street because a person with dark skin simply “looks scary”.  We are to call out the racism that caused the priest and the Levite to pass by the man beaten by robbers because of his nationality.

We are to call out the sexism that treats women as second class citizens and blames them for rape.  We are to call out the death and beatings of people because of their sexuality. 

It is important to say that Black Lives Matter because it recognizes and calls out the racism in our society. This does not demean the need to mourn for the white officers who were ambushed during a peaceful protest march. It is imperative that we mourn for these brave police officers and their families. We can and should give thanks to those men and women of all races and creeds who put their lives on the line every day so that we can be safe. 

We need to pray for all of the people killed because of who they are.  And we are called to do the harder thing of praying for those who caused the deaths.  A prayer that does not readily jump to my lips.

We need to remember that out society has created classes of people – God did not create the classes.  And that while all lives do matter those who are oppressed need to be called out as needing our attention.  Racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, homophobia and xenophobia are all sins of first not properly recognizing our neighbors and then creating structures to maintain discrimination and fanning the flames of hatred.

It is important for me to stand up here and acknowledge my own institutional privilege.  It is important for me to recognize that it would be far too easy for me to be the priest in the story.  And it is important for me – as a priest – to remember that God calls me and each and everyone of us to help bring in God’s Dream. The strangest dream of all.  A dream – like the one in the poem where hatred ceases.  Where we finally recognize that genetically we are all much more alike than different. Scientists tell us that something like 99 percent of our DNA is the same!

The grace inherent in the good Samaritan is that he came close to the injured man.  That is God’s dream.  That we would somehow recognize the closeness of God’s love for all of God’s creation.  That we would first see our neighbor before we see our enemy and would come close. 

There is a wonderful blessing that starts out “The peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts, minds and souls in the knowledge and love of his Son Jesus Christ.”  That is my prayer for you today.  That in this world that all too often seems out of control that the closeness of God’s peace will be with you.  That the dream of God’s love will be your dream.  And that we will have the courage to cross the road and bring that dream to our neighbor.

Amen.