In April the
youngest member of our Vision Focus Team offered this line: “Come to our
church; we’ll form you into people like Christ” - a brave statement.
Someone has said
that the purpose of the church is “forming and developing disciples of Christ
for the sake of the transformation of the world.” (Courageous Space, Dan
Smith and Mary K. Huycke)
Our worship
series this Fall will engage some of the vital spiritual practices that help form
us into people like Christ for the sake of transforming the world.
What are some of
the life giving spiritual disciplines that members of Steinmann Mennonite Church have practiced over many decades, what fed the dynamic Anabaptist and other Reformation
movements in the 16th C. and Christians in the early centuries after
Christ, and the Jewish people before that?
We won't cover nearly
all of the many Christian spiritual practices in three months. But we begin
today with the spiritual practice of prayer.
The Bible records
all kinds of prayers. I’ve picked just one –the one we heard. What can we learn
from it?
1.A lively prayer life
is both structured and spontaneous.
In the previous
chapter, Peter and John, two of Jesus’ disciples, went to “the temple at the
hour of prayer, at three o'clock in the afternoon” (3:1). The first Christians
continued the Jewish habit of prayer at designated times during the day, just
as some of you set aside time morning and evening.,
Later now, when
Peter and John were released from interrogation for healing a man born lame, the
Christians prayed then too, on the spot. Their prayers were both planned and
impromptu.
Once a physiotherapist
gave me some exercises. But who has time for them, right? Besides I could do them
while I was doing something else, like driving – well, sort of. It helped, but
I found I didn't really flex those muscles as well as when that’s all I was focusing
on, and then something would distract me, like a red light, and I'd forget
altogether. I was more likely to exercise at other times if I had first
exercised in the morning.
Prayer is a
spiritual practice. It takes practice. We never outgrow the need to practice.
The very best sports teams actually practice the most. That's why they’re so good.
A grape vine or
tomato needs a structure to support it. We already have structures built into
our lives – times we get up, go to bed, leave for work or school, come home, eat,
open our date book or Blackberry. On these structures we can hang the practice
of prayer so it becomes part of our routine.
In July I was
stuck with walking the dog in the mornings- an annoying inconvenience. But then
I clued in to taking along my pocket Bible and praising God using a Psalm. (I
figure if ‘stoop and scoop” time worked for me, you can figure something out.)
At a prayer
retreat a young woman enjoyed extended periods of centering prayer, but got
frustrated trying it at home. She expressed her discouragement to a retreat
leader who asked, “What’s your life like at home right now?” “Oh” she said, “I
have three children under six, I work part-time, and my husband travels a lot.
Plus I volunteer at my church.” Wisely the leader responded, “Come here and
pray any time you want, but at home I think your prayer should simply be,
“Help” and “Thank you.” Let's be gentle on ourselves and adapt our practice of
prayer to the seasons of life. Maybe instead of being frustrated trying to pray
in spite of our children we can pray with them. Then we get to pray and they
learn to pray too.
Too many of us
guilt trip, ‘I should pray more.’ (Of course, it’s true) But listen less to
the self-accusation and more to your spiritual longing to be with God.
Try different
times modes of prayer.
Walk, dance,
kneel, raise your arms, sing, chant, pray out loud.
Try drawing, or
writing your prayers, maybe in poetry.
Develop a prayer
list.
Pray with others.
Whatever you do,
don’t get side tracked with the mechanics, the outward actions, because...
Prayer is about
relationship with God.
Relaxation
exercises, getting in touch with your inner feelings, discovering your
personality type are good exercises but they aren’t the essence of prayer.
Prayer is about connecting with the living God (Vennard, a praying
congregation, 42) Like any relationship it's not neat, it's a mystery, you
can’t control it, but through the ups and downs love grows.
Those who prayed upon
Peter and John’s release had already discovered that Jesus is the Messiah who
reconciles us with God and fills us with the Holy Spirit.
There was a time
when, sure, I prayed. I knew about prayer. But when I accepted Jesus as my Lord
(I gave my life over to him), then I discovered myself talking intimately with
God as my closest Friend. You can know some things about prayer, but let
Jesus bring you into a close relationship with God as loving Father and a whole
new level of prayer opens up that we didn’t know existed.
“Sovereign Lord”
they began to pray. They weren’t praying to just any idea of God but, “Sovereign
Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them”
(4:24).
- the living
God revealed in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.
Scripture
informs prayer.
Some people argue
that praying in our own words is the only authentic prayer. Certainly we shouldn't
just mindlessly recite lines.
But let’s not be
so individualistic when help actually helps. (See N.T. Wright, Simply
Christian, 164ff) Jesus, like all Jews of his time, grew up with a book of
prayers – the Psalms: words God gave to various people so that we can utter
them back to God. The written prayers of others can lift our prayers beyond,
“Bless me and my friends.”
And sometimes our
own words fail us, like during trauma or an illness. One man going into
serious open heart surgery prayed, ”Now I lay be down to sleep. I pray thee
Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray thee Lord, my soul
to take.” (Leader, Fall 2009, ed.) Already partly sedated, he couldn’t
think of his own words.
Here, in this
prayer, Christians acknowledged that David's Psalms were Holy Spirit inspired.
In their prayer they quoted part of one Psalm that names the foolishness of
secular human rulers who try to fight against God. It's not recorded here, but they
knew that Psalm 2 goes on to say, “He who sits in the heavens laughs.” God has
the last laugh, not the human rulers who gave David a hard time. By praying the
Scriptures they realized it’s a no brainer to align with God's purpose, rather
than those bent on trying to thwart it. They soon die anyways. The Psalm
reminded them that in their own time much feared rulers like Herod and Pontius
Pilate who gathered against Jesus, actually played right into God's plan that
Jesus would give his life for the sake of the world.
Scriptures give a
solid confidence on which to pray.
In prayer we
lay out our longings before God.
“And now, Lord,” [they
prayed] “look upon their threats...” (4:29a).
My mother took
her turn hosting a woman's Bible study and prayer meeting. From another room I
couldn't hear the words as they prayed, but I could hear the tones; they were
earnest. They laid it right out there before God.
Don’t be afraid
to ask hard questions. Jesus did. From the cross, “My God, why have you
forsaken me?”
One prayer
posture I occasionally use when really needing to give a matter to God is
literally going flat out. Down here I realize I don’t see the big picture like
God does. I feel a bit small, dependent on a much Higher Power
.
Sometimes we want
to do great things for God rather than expect great things from God.
(Ed White, note, p. 2b)
Now we get to the only request in this prayer: “grant to your servants
to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to
heal, and signs and wonders are performed though the name of your holy servant
Jesus.” (4:29-30)
If there is one
point we want to get across this morning, it's this:
Pray for
boldness not for protection.
How would you pray
if threatened with imprisonment or beating for speaking about Jesus?
“Lord, relieve us
of this persecution?” “Make them be nice to us.” “Protect us.”
It's amazing how some
Christians who refute Darwinism - survival of the species and all that -turn
around and pray like Darwinists – like, ‘Lord, it’s all up to my survival.’
Think of our
prayers: “Keep us safe on the highway.” “Get me well soon.” “Protect our
jobs.”
Safety is not a
particularly Christian value [It’s not unchristian either.] Yet it’s become a
characteristic of so much contemporary Christianity. “Protect our middle class
way of life and it’s obsession with wealth, health, beauty, comfort and
happiness.”
The first Christians
didn’t pray for any of that. Instead their greatest longing was, ‘Give us
boldness to speak so these dear people hassling us can also know Jesus And God
you do signs and wonders to get their attention and show that you live.
Jesus had been
very, very clear upon his leaving the earth, that it was now up to his
disciples to bear witness to him.(1:8) That was their purpose. It’s the key to
the whole book of Acts. Now in a tough spot, they were praying for help to
fulfill that mission.
I’m reading The
Fugitive – a novel about Menno Simons – it’s here in the library. I’m
struck by how the first Anabaptists wanted everyone to have the freedom of
knowing Jesus Christ, a life transformed by his Holy Spirit, becoming more like
Christ everyday life, in joyful, caring company of other disciples as opposed
to vainly hoping for salvation through the religious rituals of the church. Some
political leaders, even other Christians tried to get rid of them, beheading,
burning, drowning, imprisoning. A huge reward was offered for Menno’s capture. Some
of the Psalmists prayed for protection. Menno too prayed for protection, but it
was so he could travel from place to place to preach, baptize, and encourage
new believers and other leaders in faithfulness to Jesus.
Christians sing
“Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of
care.” That's OK, so long as that sweet hour of prayer is not an escape; but
sends us right back into that world of care with renewed vigour to respond to a
whole plethora of needs as ambassadors of Christ.
We sometimes pray
for God to intervene, like God should jump in and fix problems. And if God
doesn’t we say, “Prayer didn't work.”
Jews, Christians
and Muslims believe in an all powerful God. Good. But even the demons know
that. Do we also believe that this all powerful God, rather than fixing
everything and controlling us, empowers us to act on God's behalf (Vennard,
69) to heal in Jesus’ name and speak the message of Christ?
We've been shamed
into silence by sayings like, “Don't talk the talk, if you don't walk the
walk.” Since our lives aren’t perfect we feel we shouldn’t say anything..
Mennonites in particular have been known as “the quiet in the land.” And can be
almost smug about it: ‘We show our faith by our actions.’ But in one way we’ve
got that backwards. The first Christians let God do the acting – healing,
signs and wonders. They prayed for boldness to speak. Talking was their
part. As a result the Christian movement spread rapidly. 16th C.
Anabaptists risked their lives to speak, the movement spread.
With no words
there is no faith vocabulary, no way to talk about God. The stories of God are
forgotten if they are not told. I sometimes hear peoples say, “They know what
we believe, what we stand for.” I’m no longer so sure. Even our own children
and grandchildren won’t know if we hoped someone else would do the talking for
us. We quote the apostle James, “Faith without works is dead.” Right on. But
recent decades also seem to point out that “Faith without words dies out.”
(Butler Bass in Daniel, Tell It Like It Is, xi) Just as important as
walking the talk is talking the walk. For others to know Christ we need
boldness to speak.
God responds to
prayer
If you stand
between earth and heaven and call upon the power of God, be ready for earthquakes.
“When they had
prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they
were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.”
(Acts 4:31) So be it.
