The Sixth Sunday after Easter - Rogate - May 9, 2010

The Church Season of Easter,
Easter 6, Rogate, One Year Series
Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (May 9, 2010)

“PRAY”

Readings:  
        Psalm 107
        Numbers 21:4-9
        1 Timothy 2:1-6
        John 16:23-33

Sermon Form:    Deductive

+INI+

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen

The text for today’s message will be from the Epistle lesson as recorded in the 2nd chapter of St. Paul’s 1st letter to Timothy, especially the following verses:

1 Timothy 2:1-6 (NIV)

1 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen! 
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!  Amen.

St. Paul tells Timothy to pray.  Pray for everyone, for kings, rulers, everyone in authority that we, “may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”(v. 2)  Seems easy, just pray.  Jesus Himself said, “7Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”(Mt. 7:7-8) Just pray.  We know who to pray to, that would be Jesus, as St. Paul tells us, “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”(Rom 8:34) We know why to pray it “is good, and pleases God our Savior,”(v. 3)

But is that enough?  Is it enough that we know that God wants us to pray?  Is it enough that it pleases God when we pray?  Is it enough for us to know that Christ is the only one to whom we pray and He hears every prayer?  Is it enough that we interact with God in prayer?

Prayer is an exercise in patience.  You are praying to the God for whom a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day.  This could take a while.  One of the characteristics of faith is patient endurance, and persistence in face of difficulty, but being long-suffering is not one of our strong suits.

But the fact of the matter is that we lose patience with our prayer life.  Most times prayer life means that something has happened to us or to a friend that we don’t want to happen and now it’s time to start praying.  Then once we start to pray, we don’t get what we want, when we want it, and so we quit, or look for another “more productive” path.  Our prayers become shallow, sporadic, undisciplined, anemic.  It’s like going to the gym a couple of times, lifting a few weights, and then concluding, “This exercise stuff doesn’t work.  I don’t see a hint of muscle.”  Prayer is exercised over the long haul not the short term; it’s a marathon, not a 100 yard dash at top speed.  But living in this fast paced world dims our reflexes, because they’re conditioned by our instant everything world and our self-centered natures quickly run out of steam.  And so we ask, ‘What’s the point in prayer when nothing seems to happen?’

God doesn’t seem to answer my prayers, at least not on my demand.  It’s frustrating to pray and not get results.  Why can’t we seek and receive instant answers from God? Wouldn’t it be easier if God were more like a divine ATM machine?  Prayer in and instantly the answer I want comes out.  But no, it would be more accurate to say that God is grindingly slow in answering my prayers, almost to the point that I’ve forgotten what I was praying for by the time God gets around to dealing with it.  Old prayers are answered as though they were prayed yesterday, like an old treasury bond that one day comes to maturity and you’ve forgotten you own it.  “A day is like a thousand years; a thousand years like a day.”  We are sinners, we want what we want and we want it now.

Yet we pray, and we pray, and we still ask does it matter?  Well since it is Mother’s Day, let me tell you about a young woman who went to church in her earlier days.  In fact, she met her husband in a Bible class.  They got married and had several children.  Her husband went off to war and came home again.  They attended church very regularly for a while, but then something happened.  Maybe they were told that they sat in someone else’s pew, and that was the excuse they needed to stop attending, who knows.  Anyhow, as this story goes, the husband had been baptized as an infant, one of the children was baptized as a teenager, but the wife and the other children were not baptized. 

And that is a scary thought, one that is certainly worth praying about.  To pray to God our Savior, that those souls would not be lost or condemned.  Because that is exactly what would happen if they were to die before they had faith.  That is scary to think of dying without faith in Jesus Christ.  What if this mother and her children were to die?

So what happened?  Well, first I will tell you that the story is true.  Prayers were offered, prayers were heard, and God’s will was done as it always is.  And God’s will was done in His time.  The prayers were answered, not immediately, but certainly in due time.  Because woman who was a wife and the mother of that family was brought to faith.  In fact, she was brought to faith by the Holy Spirit and she was baptized when she was 82 years old.  And alongside that lady was her daughter, and her granddaughter too, three generations.  That is indeed prayers answered, for both here in time, and there in eternity that that family would be joined God’s forever family eternally. A few years later that wonderful lady who cared for her family passed away.  But she did not die for she had already died to Christ in her Baptismal waters and therefore she lives eternally in Christ’s arms.  And I know that that story is true, because that Lady was my mother, who I cherish and miss very much.  But, I am comforted that I will see my mother again, in eternal life.  

And God comforts you too.  For all those people that you miss who have died in the faith, they await you in eternal life.  For all that faces you, you who believe and are baptized, that same eternal life awaits you too.  And so in the knowledge of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and that He gave you the victory over sin, death, and the devil you are urged to pray.  And so prayer indeed comforts us so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives.

So we pray.  God always hears.  We want our answers now.  We pray for our family, our neighbors, and for everyone throughout the world that the Holy Spirit may work faith and bring more people into His Kingdom. Jesus prayed.  He prayed in the Garden that the cup of His death would be taken away from Him.  Jesus prayed that if God would find another way, yet He concluded His prayer, “not my will but yours be done.”  Jesus prayed for those who mocked Him.  “Father, forgiven them, they do not know what they are doing.”  He prayed to the Father when the Father seemed absent in His suffering.  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  He prayed in His dying breath in the darkness to the silent Father, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

We pray and our prayers are answered, maybe not in the timing that we would have had the accomplished.  We pray in faith, not as a requirement to get what we want.  But as a response to that which we have already been given.  We have only one person to pray to and that is Jesus Christ for, “there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”(v. 5)  Jesus hears your prayers.  Jesus answered all your prayers by giving you Himself.  Christ came into this world to die for you, so that you may live in Him.  And that is indeed an answer to all your prayers.  God’s will is done in Jesus Christ, and indeed His testimony was “given in its proper time.”(v.6)  What is the proper time?  You are given Christ in the waters of your baptism, and in the Holy Sacrament you are given Christ’s body and blood, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.  Your prayers are heard.  Christ’s testimony was given for you, your prayers are answered, for you have been given eternal life.  Amen.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen! 
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!  Amen.

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
+SDG+