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/

Hate is not a Christian Value

Sermon for June 19, 2016

Proper 7C - RCL

1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a
Psalm 42 and 43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

Jesus and his disciples arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me" -- for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion"; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.

There is a lot of things about our gospel reading that just don’t make sense.  It is one of those stories that seem strange.  One of the questions that come up is “Why did Jesus go across the lake?” 

We missed the earlier part in the journey while Jesus was on the lake.  While on the lake a storm comes up and nearly sinks the boat – and the disciples – afraid for their lives wake up Jesus.  Yes Jesus was sleeping through a violent storm.  And when they wake him he calms the see – one translation says that Jesus “rebuked the wind and the raging waves”.  And this action left the disciples wondering “who is this Rabbi?” The very wind and waves respond to his commands. 

So why are they going across the lake from the Jewish side of the Sea of Galilee to the gentile side?  They are going from a place of relatively safety and ritual cleanliness to a place where they are more likely to encounter situations that would leave them un-clean and unable to go to temple.  You see the Gentiles would not be following Jewish purity laws and dietary laws.  It will take a lot more work to keep ritually clean. 

Perhaps Jesus wanted to go the Gentile side so that he could get some rest.  He has been healing people and casting out demons.  He has been drawing a crowd wherever he goes.   And – from his sleeping through a storm – we can guess he is tired.  So perhaps he went someplace to escape the Jewish crowds who have been flocking to this itinerate Rabbi.

When they get to the other side of the lake they are not greeted by a welcoming committee.  They are greeted by someone very unclean.  They are greeted by a possessed man who the townspeople have tried to chain up only for him to break his chains.  And he is naked and living in the place of the dead – in a cemetery.  For his family and the townspeople it is the right place for him to be.  For the man they knew is possessed by demons and may as well be dead.

Unfortunately in our own society families sometimes act as if a member was dead.  This happens still all to frequently with gay, lesbian, transgendered and queer youth.  They are thrown out onto the streets.  They are thrown into a situation with few skills and little to survive on.  They are frequently exploited and many end up on drugs or alcohol to escape.  They end up with many demons inhabiting them just as the man in the cemetery.

When Jesus and the disciples are accosted by this man the demons recognize Jesus and are afraid that they will be thrown out.  It is interesting that Jesus allows the demons to negotiate with him to not be cast into outer darkness but to instead enter the pigs that are nearby.  And Jesus agrees to let them go into the pigs – where upon his command they leave the young naked man and enter the pigs.  And the poor pigs cannot take the demons and throw themselves into the sea and drown.

And in the very next scene we find the young man sitting by Jesus – miraculously clothed and conversing.  The cured man wants to follow Jesus but instead Jesus gives back the man who was dead to his family– Jesus in a resurrection like act gives the dead back to the living.

I have been amazed at the reaction I get when I actually treat someone who is on the street – sometimes possessed with a legion of demons – with respect.  On Wednesday during the midweek service at St. Paul’s I offered communion to a man who respectfully was sitting in the service and participating by reading the responses.  When I approached him he said “I am not worthy to receive”.  And my response was that I was not to judge and that in God’s eyes all of his children are worthy.  After all he had recited the confession with us.  His eyes cleared and he took communion – in a way that told me that at one time he was a churched person.

I don’t know what put this man on the street.  I don’t know his particular demons.  I do know that he sought refuge – if only for an hour – in a church.  I do know that he knew the service well enough to participate.  I do know that God can do amazing and healing things with people that we think and treat as unclean.

Our Gospel story tells me that God will pursue us anywhere to offer God’s Love.  God’s love is not just found in the church.  God’s love can be found in surprising places. 

And sometime evil tries to pervert the places where God’s love finds us.

That is what happened last Sunday.  A man full of evil and possessed by demons entered into a place of friendship, fellowship and dare I say God’s love.  Last Sunday Omar Mateen entered into the gay nightclub Pulse on “Latino night” and opened fire killing 49 people and injuring many more before he himself was killed.  We do not know the demons that drove this man – in the name of God – to open fire.  I do know that it was not God that drove him to do this.  But is was evil. 

And the church is called to not only pray for the 49 people killed and for those wounded.  We are called to pray for the soul of the one that was infected with evil too.  We are called to pray for the shooter.

I know this in not easy.  I am not even sure exactly what I should say about the shooter.  Perhaps only say to God “Oh God - Only you know how to reach into the grave and heal the shooter from the evil that infected his heart.”  

That is the same prayer I have for the Baptist pastor who praised the shooting here in Sacramento.  I pray that god will enter into his hard heart and show him that God loves all of God’s creation and desires nothing more than to show that love.  Praising the slaughter of innocent people and calling for the execution of an entire class of people is not Christian. 

 It is evil.

God doesn’t call for the death penalty for people who love.  God sent Jesus to remind us and to show us how to live a life where we love our enemies.  God crosses the river and calms the storm to find us in the cemetery.  God goes all the way to hell to find us and to offer to cast out our demons.  God goes to the very places we call unclean to find love and bring back from the dead those who society treats as unclean and dead.

In a moment we are going to pray a litany for those who have been killed in violence.  We are going to light candles to remember that in God’s eyes their light has not been extinguished.  We are going to light candles as a reminder that in the darkness that can inhabit human souls there is a light shining that will – if we only let it – cast out the darkness.

We will remember the 49 people who where killed by name.  And we will be invited to remember all of those who have had their lives taken as a consequence of violence.  And yes e will remember the shooter Omar too. 

Our Gospel story gives me hope.  Hope that no matter where we go God is pursuing us.  God desires to throw out the demons that inhabit our souls.  God desires to give us life – an abundant eternal life. 

And even when I don’t know what to say or how to pray I know that God is there listening.  God is there to comfort and heal us.  And we are called as followers of this Jesus – the crazy Rabbi who was willing to cross the sea in a storm – only to be greeted by a man possessed by many demons.  A man whose reaction was not one of scorn but who healed him.   

We are called to offer that healing love to all whom we meet.  Even – and perhaps especially when we think that it will make us unclean!