Going off script with God July 28, 2019 Proper 12

I remember, soon after I was ordained, my mother asking me to offer grace before a family dinner. I was in town because a very close family friend was seriously ill and none of us thought he would live through the night. So I commenced to offer a  standard food blessing, with a petition for Richard tacked onto the end. My mother, being a fairly rigid person, said "Amen," as soon as I ended the familiar "grace" portion of the prayer... She was used to a specific formula for saying grace and darn it how dare I mess with it! My mom was astounded that I would " go off script" while praying.

The disciples ask Jesus: teach us how to pray. John the Baptist did for his followers, do it for us, give us the formula, write us a script.

Everyone wants the inside track on the right way, the fool proof correct way to pray.

As if there is a wrong way to pray.

This is Jesus' point at the end of today's Gospel--- knock---Whatever you do knock! That is, PRAY, people. Whatever, however, wherever, whenever....God wants to engage us in a conversation. God wants to hear from us. God needs to hear from us!

And this is what personal prayer is: a conversation with God. Whenever we speak to God, God listens.

God may not respond as we expect ( or wish or sometimes demand ) but God does listen and God does communicate back to us through the work of the Holy Spirit.

But what the disciples were asking, and what many people ask me is, just what’s the magic formula...the exact right way to pray?

I understand the question. People assume that God is like us. Like my mother--That God has a very distinct and proscribed way of doing things. That God is of the "my way or the highway" club.

God isn't.

However, because the disciples are an earnest bunch, Jesus offers them a formula for prayer. An outline of what a prayer could --NOT SHOULD-- look and sound like. The Lord's Prayer. Now it's  important to realize that although the prayer is known the world over- it's one of  the first prayers children learn, it's one most all of us have memorized -- it is not the be all and end all of prayers. It's simply an example, a prototype for a general kind of all encompassing prayer. It isn't magic, it's just handy.

We needn't pray as the Lord's Prayer is structured, nor must we pray like others pray. We must pray as we feel compelled to pray.

The only absolute is that we do, indeed, pray!

However that looks and however that sounds.

Author and Christian seeker Anne Lamott says that all prayer falls into three categories:

Thanks

Help

Wow.

THANKS

 thanks for giving me life

Thanks for giving me love.

Thanks for healing my hurts , my illness, my loss, my sadness

Thanks for getting me through that sticky wicket.

THANKS. Thanks thanks

HELP

Help me I'm lost

Help me I'm scared

Help me I'm hurt

Help me I'm over whelmed

Help me

Help them

Help us

WOW

wow what An amazing sunset

Wow what an incredible baby

Wow that's some kind of Love

Wow this is some kind of life

Wow. You amaze me God--you totally and completely amaze me.

WOW WOW WOW.

I tend to agree with Anne. This is all God needs.

The basics.

Thanks….Help…..Wow

Have you ever been in a period of profound pain and loss and fear? Have you ever had people intentionally and consistently pray for you during that time? Have you felt their prayers? 

I have. Through my own journey with cancer, through my spouse’s cancer fight and death. 

And I’m here to tell you, it works. I’ve been sustained by and through the prayers of so many people… As a woman of faith I've certainly done my share of praying and  intellectually I’ve known that research shows the effectiveness of prayer. But it wasn’t until I was the recipient of extensive, intensive, pointed prayer that I understood---deep in my bones, my heart and my soul---the power of prayer. 

After two year’s of Pete’s illness and death in 2017, followed several months later by my mom’s own decline and death... through a complete change of staff responsibilities that accompany a change in Bishops, through a major move.... people ask me all the time——how are you still standing? Perhaps I am strong, perhaps I am resilient, perhaps I am stubborn and perhaps all those characteristics have helped. 

But I know the primary reason, prayer. My own, sure. But the real power comes from the prayers of others. The intercessory prayer of people across this diocese, that’s what has and does sustain me.

I was, and remain incredibly humbled by my prayer warriors and have seen again and again and again that same intentional intercessory prayer work absolute wonders for others. Prayer works. The prayer of others offers the recipient a spiritual undergirding that buoys them up enough to endure whatever it is they are enduring. Prayer brings peace to the hearts and souls of those who are prayed for. Your prayers, my prayers, our prayers are powerful. Your prayers, my prayers, our prayers have a clear and definite effect in this world. And it is our responsibility, our duty, but above all else 

{i hope}our honor to offer prayers for others. Always.  

So, my charge to you is to pray.

Take the church directory and every single day, pray a page of that directory. The next day, the next page. Rinse and repeat!

Pray for those you know and for those you don’t.

Create a prayer chain, join the prayer chain and pray, as best you can. 

Go off script, blaze your own path and in your own words and through your own heart find a way to tell God thanks, to ask God for Help and to offer God Wow. 

Amen.