Sermon for May 24, 2020 Easter 7 A House of Prayer Lutheran Church
Acts 1:1-14; John 17:1-11 Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
I noticed the scripture readings today have something interesting in common. In the gospel of John, we hear about the night before Jesus is betrayed and he spends a lot of time praying for his disciples, especially that they will “be united, just as Jesus and his Father are united”. Then in the reading from Acts, right after Jesus ascends into heaven 40 days after his resurrection from the dead, it is the disciples who are doing the praying. In fact, Luke tells us, they were “constantly united in prayer”. The prayers Jesus made before his crucifixion, that his followers be “united”, were already being answered right after Jesus’ ascension into heaven. They were taking up the work of Jesus in their own lives, doing the very things he did and that he wanted them to keep doing. And this work began with prayer.
Over the past month or so, I’ve been meeting with our Confirmation Class using Zoom. It’s been a lot of fun to get together virtually with our middle school students and their adult mentors, and last week we finished our last official class in this year’s curriculum. Keeping in mind that confirmation class is not only about knowledge, but also about learning ways to put your faith into practice, I asked the mentors to talk about some of the ways they prayed. Things like “what do you find helpful to connect with God?” “Why and how do you do this as a busy person?” “When and where do you set aside time to talk or listen to God?” “What do you find valuable about prayer and devotional time?” “What do you find challenging?”
Maybe you are someone who is very devoted to prayer. Or maybe you are someone who doesn’t spend much time in prayer, or doesn’t know how to pray. And that’s okay, too. Because even the simple desire to want to pray is itself a kind of prayer. Jesus will always meet us where we are and as we are. So if you don’t know what to do, the first step is just to quiet your heart and mind and listen. God is present within the silence. If you are unaccustomed to it, I’ve got to be honest, it may be very difficult to sit in silence before God even for a few seconds. But just a few seconds is all the time God needs to work within you--and if you stick with it over time, God can teach you. Another way to look at prayer is that it is simply thinking of people or things in the presence of God--so you can try that, too. You can even just go outside and into nature and delight in the beauty of God’s creation--that, too, is prayer.
Before I continue with this sermon, I’d like for you to press the “pause button” for a couple minutes, and discuss or reflect on those questions about prayer that I asked in the paragraph above. And then maybe take two minutes--set the timer on your phone--and take two minutes to listen for God in silence. Come with no agenda, other than to allow the Holy Spirit into your heart and mind to give whatever God wants to give you.
[After the pause.] How did those two minutes go? For that matter, how have these past two months been for your prayer life? If you are someone who usually doesn’t pray that much, have you been praying more often? If you are someone who is used to praying a lot, has it been harder to pray? I’ll share with you a bit of my own experience. When safer-at-home began I thought, well, here’s an opportunity to spend more time in prayer. But what actually happened was a disruption of my routines. I know from the past that when my regular routines get disrupted, that usually throws off my prayer life, too. And that’s exactly what happened. Instead of having more time to accomplish lots of things, including more prayer, what happened was that doing everything took extra time and energy because of needing to constantly adapt and change. So there wasn’t much left in the tank. Maybe you’ve had a similar feeling?
It was only after I noticed myself feeling more stressed out and tired that I realized: “you know what would really help? Slowing down for a bit and spending some time in prayer.” And you know what? When I did that, I felt better. I felt more connected to God, and better able to engage with people, and accomplish the things I need to do--even as we had to keep learning new ways of connecting through technology, which we are continuing to do because we want to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as much as possible, especially among those who are most vulnerable to complications or even death because of it.
Another thing I’ve learned over the past couple months is that prayer is not only about carving out some time in my schedule. It’s also about opening my soul to “pray without ceasing” as Saint Paul advises us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Because when you open your soul to the presence of Christ in everything, then everything can become a prayer. The reason everything we do can become prayer is because the risen Christ has ascended into heaven. In Ephesians 1:23, Saint Paul has a wonderful way of describing what it means that Jesus ascended into heaven. Paul writes that “Christ fills all things everywhere with himself.” In other words, the presence of Christ is available to everyone, and everything, everywhere, at all times.
Christ is present when we gather in his name. Christ is present in the absence between us while we are apart. He is present in the joy of our celebrations. He is present in the sorrow of our loneliness and the sadness of our grief. He is present in the healing and helping and care we offer one another, and he is present in the sickness and sacrifices that we suffer. Because he is ascended into heaven, Christ fills all things, everywhere, with himself so that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ: “not hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword... Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”, as Saint Paul writes in Romans 8. Even though the risen Jesus is no longer with us as he was with his disciples in those first 40 days after Easter, he is in a sense even more present with us now because he has sent the promised Holy Spirit to be our constant companion.
The Holy Spirit was given to you when you were baptized. The Holy Spirit is activated within you when you pray, or even when you think you might pray. The Holy Spirit flows through you whenever you “love your neighbor as yourself” with the care and compassion of Christ. The true power and glory of God comes in the humble gesture of love for your neighbor; in your care for the vulnerable; in your concern for the weak. This is the power of God that unites us, and brings us life and hope. And here’s the thing--you find this power by looking to the ordinary, the humble, the people and things that are right around you.
We tend to want the big dramatic gesture--the Hollywood-style majesty of God--and if we don’t get it that can be disappointing. But the real question is “Where does God want us to look?” And God what wants us to do is open our souls in humility to the abiding presence of Christ in everyday life. Look to the ordinary, the humble, whatever and whoever is right around you. Let that become your prayer.
The night before he was betrayed, Jesus spent a lot of time praying. What did his disciples do--at least when they were paying attention and not drifting off to sleep? They just listened to him. Today, we are still like the disciples, and there is much to distract us. But Jesus is still praying for us. And Jesus is still sending his Holy Spirit so that we can listen for him, and keep on praying for one another, and “loving your neighbor as yourself”. Amen.