A+ in Jesus’ School of Prayer
RUMC 5/31/15
#1 AbbaOne of Jesus’ disciples said, "Lord,
teach us to pray.” And He said to them, "Pray like this: “Our father who
art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us
our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; and lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.”[i]
·
Jesus prayed and he prayed often.
·
Jesus prayed aloud and Jesus prayed
quietly.
·
Jesus prayed for himself, for the
disciples, and for others
·
Jesus prayed alone and with others
·
Jesus prayed against evil and for God’s
will
·
Jesus prayed to heal, to cleanse, and to
understand.
·
Jesus prayed through his fears and his
trials
One of the most obvious characteristics
of Jesus’ ministry was prayer. One of the most basic and obvious mark of a
Christian Disciple is prayer. One day the disciples asked, “Lord Teach us to
pray.” And at that, Jesus opened up “JESUS’ SCHOOL OF PRAYER.”
So, welcome to “JESUS’ SCHOOL OF PRAYER.”
Together, we will be exploring the depths of Christian prayer. By the time we
take a week off for annual conference, and the mission trip, and vacation, it
will take a good deal of the summer. That’s OK, because the practice of prayer
is so fundamental to growing in our discipleship, that it will be worth whatever
time it takes. Besides, in prayer, as in so many other things, there are no
rewards for speed.
This is not going to be another survey
of the Lord’s prayer. I am not interested in picking apart the theology or the
history of the most famous prayer in the world. Smarter people than I, have
written those books already. What I want to do is look for the lessons in the
prayer. Look for practical, usable, advice that will help us to grow in our
prayer life as disciples of Jesus Christ. I often say that prayer is the greatest
power in the universe. Talking about prayer is not prayer. So in order to be
part of that power, we cannot just set prayer on the mantle and admire how
beautiful it is. We must get down on our knees, open our hearts to God, and
take the risk of unleashing that power in our lives and our world
I want this to be practical, and I want
it to be real. Therefore, if you have not already, I would appreciate it if all
of you would fill out the survey I distributed this morning and return it to me
or to an offering plate. Even though I know what themes I want to talk about, I
will use that survey to help me make this series as realistic and practical as
I can. And I’ll warn you… this is, after all, school... there will be homework each
week. But of course the final exam will be between you and God for the rest of
your lives.
So,
let’s get started with the first lesson.
When the Disciples asked Jesus, “Master
teach us to pray, Jesus started with, “Our father who art in heaven.” That
doesn’t seem very remarkable,
but let me tell you this is the one most fundamental lesson upon which all prayer
rests.
Let’s be honest. The popular picture of
prayer in the United States, and I don’t think the church is immune, is that
prayer is like a great big vending machine. We drop to our knees to toss a
couple of prayers in, select the answer we want; and with a poof, or with a
clatter and a clunk (like a pop machine) out pops whatever we asked for.
That is not how Jesus pictures prayer.
Jesus used a very special Aramaic word when
he said, “Our father” He used the word “ABBA.” Do you know what “ABBA” is? --other
than a Swedish rock band from a day gone by.-- <<< >>>that’s right usually we say ABBA
means “DADDY” or “PAPA.” In the middle of the 20th century (Yo-a-chim Yere-mias) argued that the word “Abba”
was fashioned after the first babblings of an infant, like “DADA.”
Most scholars agree that this was
probably a poor interpretation, and ABBA should be translated as a word of intimate
respect.[ii]
In other words something between Daddy and Sir. (Both intimate and respectful)
I stress that because prayer begins not with
the mere babbling of an infant, but the innocent trust of a child fully confident
that when the world is scary, she can always rely on ABBA. That she can crawl
up in his lap and feel his big arms wrapped around her to keep her safe. It
begins with the assumption that ABBA’s love is strong enough to chase away
every bully and bandage every skinned knee.
That is the kind of
intimate relationship God wants with his people.
The passage we read this morning says, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in
you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”[iii] To
abide is to live in, and is connected to the word abode, which is your home. Jesus is talking
about “Living in Jesus.” Making our house in him. Not beside him. Not near him.
Not within earshot of him. But in him.
In one of Jesus most beautiful prayers
in John 17, he prays,
“I
ask not only on behalf of these disciples, but also on behalf of those who will
believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you,
Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us… I in them
and you in me,.[iv]
That is abiding in God. That is intimacy
with God
James 4:8 promises, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”
Psalm 139 says “O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know
when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You
search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even
before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.”
It doesn’t get
any more intimate than that. God wants you to be just as intimately connected
to him.
This kind of intimacy is rare in our
culture. In our digital society we don’t use bank tellers because we can go to
an ATM. In our impersonal culture we don’t have to see a clerk to rent a video
from Redbox or Netflix. In our disconnected world we might not even know our
neighbor’s name. In a day and age when we are accustomed to pushing 1 for this
and 2 for that, real personal intimacy is a radical idea.
ABBA expresses a kind of intimacy that
we rarely experience. Maybe a few times in a lifetime of human relationships,
can we say that we are so close it is as though we are one. Hopefully husbands
and wives, perhaps brothers and sisters, and maybe that once in a lifetime
friend. Jesus invites us to abide in him...live in him… be so close to God in him
that anyone else looking at us would not be able to tell but what we are one.
“If
you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will
be done for you.”[v]
Prayer is first and
last- an intimate relationship with God. Believing that God is a personal being
is critical to prayer.
If you believe that God is no more
personal than an ATM, or a customer service system, than payer is useless. But if
you experience a personal God. If you believe that God is so personal that he knows our thoughts,
counts our hairs, and has a plan for us. Then we can personally connect with God’s power, and unleash it in our lives
and the world around us.
As C.S. Lewis put it, “God made us:
invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on (gasoline), and
it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine
to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or
the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why
it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way… God cannot give
us a happiness and peace apart from Himself.”[vi]
So what is prayer? Prayer is a relationship, wherein we
humbly communicate, worship, and seek God's (will), knowing that He hears us
because he loves us[vii]
Let me say that again
Prayer is a relationship
Let me say that again
Prayer is a relationship
Do I need to say it again… Prayer is a relationship
So. How do we get there? Here is the practical part.
When I came 7 years ago, did you know me? Not really. You
graciously welcomed me into your church, but we were really strangers; acquaintances
at best. This is the end of my 7th year here. We have been through
some things together; we have invested in each other’s lives, and know each
other pretty well. Why? because we have spent TIME together. I know some of you better than others because
we have spent MORE time together.
It has been reported that the average American spends 6 hours in
prayer[viii]… that sounds pretty
good… until you realize that is over the course of a year. That is less than a minute a day. That’s not
enough to develop an intimate relationship!
So how do we develop that intimate relationship with God that is
prayer? Spend TIME with God.
The more time you spend in prayer, the more intimately you will
be related to God; and the more intimately you become connected with God, the
more time you will want to spend in prayer.
A famous story about John Wesley says that he was feeling
particularly unworthy one Sunday when he was supposed to preach, Peter Böhler
counseled his friend “Preach faith till you have it, and then, because you have
it, you will preach faith.”
Let me say a similar thing about prayer. “Pray until you are intimately
connected to God ;and then because you are intimately connected, you will want
to pray.”
The first lessons in prayer then are really pretty simple.
Prayer is relationship. Relationships require an investment of
time.
So the homework is pretty simple too. Just do it. Give time to
prayer.
If you don’t know what
else to do
·
I suggest you start by reading in the Bible. That is after all
God’s Biography.
·
Then say, “Hello God,” and share whatever makes your heart
flutter today, then share whatever weighs your soul down.
·
Then listen. Spend some time in silence listening for God to speak.
·
Read your scripture again and oftentimes God will speak to you
through that.
I guarantee that will
take more than a minute and you are raising the national average.
And then tomorrow, do it again . And the next day, and the next.
Your homework for the SCHOOL OF PRAYER this two weeks while I am at annual conference is to spend more time in prayer each day than you used to. Spend more time getting intimate with God than you did this last week. Spend more time letting God become intimate with you than you did last week.
I can almost guarantee you… you will feel closer to God and feel
God’s closeness to you growing day by day. By day.
“Pray until you are intimately connected to God; and then
because you are intimately connected, you will want to pray.”
AMEN
[i]
Matthew 6:9-13 (RSV)
[ii] The NT itself gives quite a different reading of αββα.
Each of the three occurrences of αββα in the NT is followed by the
Greek translation ο πατερ, “the father.” This translation makes clear its
meaning to the writers; the form is a literal translation — “father” plus a
definite article — and like abba can also be a vocative. But it is not a
diminutive of “babytalk” form. There are Greek diminutives of father (e.g.,
παππας [pappas]), and the community chose not to use them.
–Mary
Rose D’Angelo. Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 111, No. 4 (Winter, 1992),
pp. 615-616
[iii]
John 15:7
[iv] John 17:20-24
[v] John 15:7
[vii] Adapted
from Robert Velarde is author
of Conversations with C.S. Lewis (InterVarsity Press), The Heart
of Narnia (NavPress), and primary author of The Power of Family
Prayer (National Day of Prayer Task Force). He studied philosophy of
religion and apologetics at Denver Seminary and is pursuing graduate studies in
philosophy at Southern Evangelical Seminary.
[viii]
http://jameshartlinereport.blogspot.com/2010/03/2009-statistics-for-average-american.html
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