Luke 11:1-13
Proper 12 / Year C
We had a wonderful time a week ago
meeting each night with seven of our young people who wanted to explore the
Christian faith and the way the Episcopal Church lives into. I am looking forward to a week from today
when we will repeat this experience with a whole new group of our teenagers.
At one session last week, during a
discussion on prayer, one of our young people asked this question: “Is it OK
for me to pray for a million dollars?”
It is a legitimate question that left Suzanne Baur (who taught the class)
and me stammering for an answer. It
dovetails well with today’s reading from Luke recording that Jesus’ followers
asked him to teach them how to pray.
Prayer is so very necessary, but not necessarily self-apparent with
regard to how to do it.
Most of us here are drawn to the
Episcopal Church’s worship because our public prayers have stood the test of
time. While we personally may struggle
to find the words to pray and are not always sure what we should ask for and
what we shouldn’t, we find the Book of
Common Prayer points us in the right direction.
While our printed prayers have a way of
shaping our minds and hearts so that we begin to understand what to ask for
from God and how to ask for it, we still long to learn ways to pray which
emerge from the depths of our being to articulate what we are experiencing and
what we need.
Allow me to share with you three simple
patterns for prayer offered by three different people.
The first comes from Jodi Rudoren, a
newspaper editor who wrote about prayer in a piece which first appeared in the New York Times. After her father passed away, Jodi set out to
pray the Kaddish, a ritual used for eleven months during a period of
mourning. While she found it meaningful,
she felt like she was doing a chore rather than engaging in prayer. Her rabbi encouraged her to take what he
called “soul walks” which focused prayer around three simple words: Wow! Please. Thank
you.
Wow – What stirs wonder in you today? A sunset?
A delicate piece of music? A bird
in flight?
Please – What do you need right now? Patience?
Strength? Guidance?
Thank
You – What are you grateful
for? A meal? A kind word?
A good laugh?
So, one pattern of prayer involves
paying attention to beauty and grandeur – Wow! It includes naming what you need – Please.
And it remembers what you already have – Thank you. Jodi found this
practice moved prayer from a thing which she did in her head to something which
poured forth from her heart.
Anne Lamott, an author known for writing
about her addiction prior to her conversion to Christianity, has her own three
words essential to all prayers: Help.
Thanks. Wow. Stronger than Please, Help, she says,
is the hardest prayer because you have to surrender and admit defeat. Thanks
is a prayer of relief when help is on the way.
Wow is a prayer of praise for
when you are speechless for all God has done for you.
Simon Camilleri describes himself as
being a Presbyterian husband and father from Australia who is, among other
things, a graphic designer, a funeral parlor employee, a Biblical Storyteller,
a singer, a writer of comic poetry, a magician, and a juggler who invents board
games. He also blogs at a site called
“Simon Says.” Given all of this, if he
has anything to say about prayer, we might want to listen. Well, he does. In addition to Wow, Thank you, and Please, Simon adds Sorry.
So, if you are looking to expand or to
simplify your approach to your prayer life, these suggestions may be of some
help: Wow, Sorry, Please/Help, and Thank you. Thank you for
being here this morning. Please join me
next Sunday. Wow, I can’t wait until we
are all together again.
Keith+
