November 18, 2007 Message

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28; Matthew 17:14-23

Last Sunday, we touched on the first of our three questions concerning prayer, ‘Why are we to pray?’ It was concluded, “We pray because we desperately need to – even though we are not always ready to.” We pray also because this is how God wants us to live, as modeled by our Lord, Jesus.

Jesus was a man of prayer. The gospels tell us that He prayed often and very definitely before the major events in His life. Before beginning his public ministry, Jesus went into the desert to fast and pray for 40 days. And before going to the cross, he prayed intensely in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The apostle Paul was a man of prayer as well. In his letters, he continually focused on his need, and that of others, for prayer. “Pray all the time," he told the Thessalonians, “thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you, who belong to Christ Jesus, to live.
Followers of Christ, then, are to be people of prayer – or simply put, people who pray. But it is important that we know what prayer involves. Just what was the nature of the prayer Jesus and the apostles were talking about?

That becomes then our question for today, ‘How are we to pray?”

Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, Archbishop of Chicago from 1982-1996, and recipient of the Albert Einstein Peace Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his leadership in raising our nation's awareness of the difficult issues behind the nuclear arms race and the economic problems faced by our nation's poor, wrote this concerning prayer: “In no way should prayer insulate us from the real world. In no way should it become a crutch preventing us from facing up realistically to life.” His thought was that prayer should help to bring us into an intimate, loving union with God. It is not a tool for bringing about God’s action in one’s life – to make things better - but rather a means to better relationship with God. Prayer is about relationship.

And that type of relationship can happen when we realize these four things.

God is the same God. God is still a loving, powerful, merciful, generous, and faithful God = always was, always will be. And in the sameness of our lives, which is as much of a grind today as it has always been, or at times when the world crumbles around us – as it can do at any time - we need such a God.

Be open to what the Spirit is doing. There are times we don’t feel like praying. And yet we are always to give thanks to God in all circumstances. Paul's direction to the Thessalonians insists that every moment of life lived with the Holy Spirit is a moment filled with promise and possibility. Paul says, Be joyful! Be prayerful! Be thankful! – always, no matter what the circumstances. Understand though, they’re not things we have to do. Rather they are attitudes that describe our life because of the work of the Holy Spirit.

All circumstances are used for good. We are to depend entirely on the power of God's spirit at work in our life. God is committed to making us holy, and will not fail. God's love and presence will be made known in all situations. Paul tells us that there can be joy, love, life and laughter in every situation, at all times.

Every moment is open to God. There are so many demands on our time, so many things going on. Life can be so busy that we consider any time spent ‘not doing anything’ as time hopelessly lost. We might even think we have to pray at certain times, saying just the right words. Paul wasn’t saying the faithful needed to continually be engaged in literal prayer. What he was saying was that just as the gift of the Holy Spirit makes joy theirs at all times, they also have God's ear at all times. A Christian may turn to God at any moment of the day, under any circumstances, and be in communication with God. However, this is not a one-sided sort of thing. God is to have our ear at all times as well.

So that means we must always LISTEN. And to listen – for God to be heard - we may need to be quiet.

J. Walter Cross, in "Noises in the Night," tells of an artist who had just finished a major work and invited a famous critic to a private viewing. On the appointed day, the critic was met at the door of the studio and ushered into a darkened room where he was asked to wait. A half-hour had passed before the artist came. He apologized and explained the reason for the delay. "I was afraid that coming in directly from the bright sunlight, it might be impossible for you to see the subtle inter-workings between the colors." Sometimes the light can be too bright for us to see the true shades of life.

And sometimes the sound of our own voices or those of others is just too loud for us to hear the voice of God. It is then we need to find a silent place or be open to the moments of silence that arises during the week. Each may be a precious opportunity to listen to what God has to say.

This week sometime, try this - when driving down the highway alone, turn off the radio and 'hear' for a change God's scenery going by or when relaxing in front of the TV, turn the TV off, close your eyes and for the first time 'watch' the silence. Take advantage of all the opportunities everyday to listen to what God has to say, to offer up prayers, to be thankful for all you have. In all the silent places you find yourself in this week, open yourself to the life-altering power of possibility available through the Holy Spirit.

When you spend every waking moment attending only to the business of the day, you often ignore your spiritual needs. By putting off prayer until Sunday morning, confining thankfulness to a quick grace before meals you miss out on God in your life everyday.

Today’s text says there can be joy, love, and laughter in every situation, at all times. It speaks of a completeness and unity possible only through God's presence. The "peace" God gives is, in the Hebrew sense of "shalom," is a physical, spiritual and communal well-being. Paul prays that the Thessalonians can go beyond the holiness they enjoy as members of Christ's body and experience this “peace” or harmonious unity of "spirit and soul and body" - or sanctification – that would allow them to stand "blameless" before God, when Christ returns.

This same “holiness” or “peace” can be ours as well. That is good news, indeed!