A Prayer Primer

Text: Psalm 1

Theme: “A Prayer Primer”
The 7th Sunday of Easter
May 20, 2012
First Presbyterian Church
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau



IN THE NAME OF JESUS


1 Blessed is the one


who does not walk in step with the wicked


or stand in the way that sinners take


or sit in the company of mockers,


2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD,


and who meditates on his law day and night.


3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,


which yields its fruit in season


and whose leaf does not wither—


whatever they do prospers.


4 Not so the wicked!


They are like chaff


that the wind blows away.


5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,


nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.


6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,


but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

This morning I wish to extend hearty congratulations to our high school graduates here at First Presbyterian Church. At this time of transition in their lives, our hopes and prayers go with Haley Hackler, Skylar Padia, and Cristina Renteria. All three of these young women have brought a great deal of joy to our congregation through the years. We’ve been impressed with their faith, their vitality, and their energy. And we thank their families for letting us be part of their extended family here. God bless them, one and all!

This past Thursday, with little if any fanfare and hardly any notice at all, many Christians and Christian churches marked the fortieth day of the Easter season. What’s the big deal about the fortieth day? Well, it is also known as Ascension Day. Forty days after Christ Jesus rose bodily from the dead, the Bible tells us that our Messiah ascended into heaven. There’s a bit of Ascension Day every Sunday in church when we confess, with the Apostles’ Creed, He “ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty. From thence, He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” We find ourselves – pinpoint ourselves! -- right in the middle of that time, ladies and gentlemen, between the ascension and the return in glory.

Graduation from high school is certainly a time of transition, and those first days following the ascension surely had to be a time of transition for the disciples of Jesus. His physical, visible presence – which they had experienced for round about three years -- was now withdrawn from them. But thankfully, they weren’t left to twiddle their thumbs and speculate, over coffee on the veranda of the local Starbucks, as to what would happen next. Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high. The promised gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was only days away. We are told that they were continually in the temple praising God. In short, they worshipped – as individuals and as a church about to be born.

One important element of worship is covered in all of the readings for today. I speak of prayer. Based on these readings alone, prayer must be a pretty important subject. And it is. Prayer, simply put, is talking to God with your words and thoughts. Such prayer can go on in the context of the church with other people around. Prayer can happen in small groups or families. Prayer can be individual and private. Examples of such are all over the Bible. Saint Paul goes so far as to say, “Pray unceasingly.”

Thus, prayer is a pretty serious matter. When it is regularly avoided or disregarded, we play fast and loose with – if not break altogether – one of the great commands of God: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” The name of the Lord is to be called upon. And what is prayer if not calling on the name of the Lord?

Nowadays, people – myself included – are a little bit skittish about the matter of prayer. In all honesty, we’re inconsistent with prayer and the practice thereof. We convince ourselves that we’re not that good at it, so we slip into not bothering to do it – unless, of course, we’re at church where it’s “appropriate.” A second reason we’re skittish about calling upon the name of our Lord in prayer is what my German forebears called our sitz im leben – that is, our place in life. Our place in life is where everything worth having, we’ve convinced ourselves, is to be had instantly. Throw in that sense of entitlement that is bogging our society down, and you get the idea. Last week, it was reported that when Facebook went public on the stock market, seven billionaires would be created instantly.

Instantly. That’s the way we want what we want. I’m talking about instant information, instant answers, instant acknowledgement, instant gratification, instant five star customer service where God is the heavenly waiter ready to cater to our every need, whim, and fancy. We want what we want, and we want it yesterday. I realized it again in myself when I got up on my high horse about slow internet speed at the office. This is a very impatient world and a restless culture we live in. Is it any wonder people are increasingly worn out? Prayer, for lack of a better phrase, seems to a lot of people like a colossal waste of time. We’re either runnin’ and gunnin’ or crashed out, and prayer? Well, we’ll get to that when we get the time.

If this weren’t enough, you also have to consider the misinformation and disinformation and downright shabby thinking that gathers around the subject. There are all these pithy little phrases out and about. Take, as an example, this one: “Prayer changes things.” Really? I’ve implored the Lord many times over to change a certain situation – and more than one! – in my life. Guess what, nothing happened. Nothing changed – in the way or manner I wanted it to. In some cases, the situation got worse.

Here’s another one: “When all else fails, try a prayer.” Those words were actually on a plaque given to me back in 1975 when I was confirmed. It’s a nice sentiment, but it is horrible theology. It suggests that prayer is some sort of last resort. In other words, “We’ve tried everything else, so I guess all we can do now is pray.” You’ve heard, I’m sure, the phrase “There are no atheists in foxholes.” All this really suggests is that when the chips are down and we face the very real risks of life, people who otherwise are not very religious all of a sudden get very religious. There’s some truth in this, I admit. Collectively, our nation did a lot more praying than usual when you consider the events of Pearl Harbor, the assassination of JFK, and the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Speaking of 9/11, I’m sure you’ve heard of “911” prayers. In my estimation, all this description does is teach people that prayer is something only to engaged in when there’s an emergency. Now follow the logic: God is only good insofar as He helps us out of the jam we’re in or the emergency we’re experiencing. When everything is peachy-keen and hunky dory, however, we can go about our business without praying and living, essentially, as if God didn’t exist.

So we’re back to square one when it comes to prayer. If I were to give a prayer primer, I would be a fool not to mention that wonderful moment when the disciples of Jesus got it right. They come up to Jesus with a request. They say: “Lord, teach us to pray.” They don’t want their questions answered -- questions such as “Should we pray?” and “How should we pray?” Instead, it’s “teach us” to pray. And our Lord doesn’t tell them to check their email inbox for a tip of the week. He doesn’t outline five sure-fire ways to a “transformative” prayer life or some gobbledygook like that. Instead, He says: “When you pray, pray like this.” Then He speaks forth what subsequent centuries have called The Lord’s Prayer -- which is also known as the “Our Father.”

Did you know that this prayer, the prayer that towers above them all, gets banged up and abused periodically. I’ll give you an example. A number of years ago, my father visited a Lutheran congregation in California. It was a growing congregation that seemed to be bursting with energy. He liked the sermons and the music. The people were friendly; the coffee was good. You got donuts AND fresh fruit! You get the idea. But he noticed something. They rarely, if ever, prayed the Lord’s Prayer. Pop grew up in a church where the Lord’s Prayer was prayed every Sunday, so he was curious as to its absence. He got up the gumption to ask the minister about this. The minister told him that they don’t use it so often because, if they did, it would become rote and be less “meaningful”. Pop was shocked. When did the significance of The Lord’s Prayer start to depend on the meaning we attach to it? Do you see what I’m saying?

Start with the Lord’s Prayer and stick with it, I say. Commit it to memory. Meditate on its petitions. Over time, I think you’ll see that that prayer has all the bases covered.

Speaking of meditating, that (meditation) really comes at point number one while prayer comes at point number two. In some families of yesteryear, if you were a child sitting at the dinner table with your parents and invited guests, you did not speak unless you were first spoken to. This illustrates prayer at its best. Prayer is a response to what God has first said to us in His Word. Sometimes it happens to even the best “prayer warriors”, as they say. They talk to God, talk to God, and talk to God some more. Sometimes I have to wonder if God isn’t sitting up there going, “Uh, I have something to say.”

All of this leads to today’s Psalm, the first psalm, Psalm 1. “Blessed” (or happy) is the person, it says, who does not “walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers.” Folks, we do a lot of walking, standing, and sitting in the course of any given day. Some folks walk, sit, or stand in the company of some not so good people. “Well, Pastor, “someone says, “we can’t avoid that; we’re around all sorts of people every day.” You’re right, but the real key to blessedness and happiness is not who you’re sitting, standing, or walking among. Instead, it’s what you take your delight in.

“Blessed” (or happy) is the person, says the psalm, whose “delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” The word translated as “law” here is “Torah”. And “Torah”, for the people of the God at the time, encompassed the entire Bible.

All kinds of people sit, stand, and walk in the course of the day. The truly happy person, if I read it correctly, is the one who delights in the law of the Lord. And if you’re delighted, you’re not content to sit, stand, or walk. You’re ready to run to the source of that delight – and the source of that delight is the Word of God. You’re going to get to it; you’re going to get into it; you’re going to chew on it like a honeysuckle vine.

Folks, I spent nearly ten years hardly ever darkening the door of a church. In retrospect, those were the most difficult days of my life. I almost died. We heard this past week of the death of RFK Jr.’s wife by suicide. My friends, I was that close. I was suffering from depression and dependency. I was angry at everyone (God included) and trusted no one. It was awful.

I hold in my hands four books. They’re actually a set of devotional books. Volume three got chewed up by one of our dogs years ago. I do a show and tell with them this morning to illustrate another point from the Bible: God will not snuff out a dimly lit lamp. And folks, my lamp was running on fumes. If it weren’t for these little devotional volumes (which, for some reason unknown to me, I read with regularity before bedtime), I don’t know if I’d be here today. These books, which included God’s Word for each day, helped me keep on hanging on, and I didn’t even know it at the time.

Whatever kept me reading them is grace. And now, on most days (I didn’t say all days, for I’m still a work in progress), I delight in spending time meditating on the Word of God. And do you know what flows out of that? Prayer does. The best days I have is not when I begin by checking in to headquarters (aka praying to God) with my list of joys and concerns. The best days are when headquarters checks in with me, and the day begins with meditation on the Word of God. Then, with God first having God’s say, I can swing into my joys and concerns. Have you noticed how the Prayers of the People, in the liturgy, come after the hearing and proclaiming of the Word of God? There’s a reason for that.

I’m thrilled to be a baptized, confessing Christian today. I have a God who is known chiefly for His love and mercy. I have a God who, in Jesus, is my brother. He died for my sins and your sins and for my neglect and your neglect of meditating on the Word of God and prayer. We have a God who, in our times of transition, makes every moment a time of transition.

All of us can begin again right now – not like a seed planted in the sand of an arid desert wasteland. Instead, we begin in that delightful place of meditation and prayer. We’re like trees planted by streams of water – soaking up and drinking in the nourishment and sunlight of the Spirit. We yield our fruit in due season. Our leaves do not wither. Everything we do prospers. And all God’s people said AMEN.