Teach Us to Pray

One Sunday afternoon, in a locked section of a nursing home, a woman sat slumped in her wheelchair. Along with her husband two people had come from her parish with communion from that morning’s service. The woman moaned quietly when one of the visitors touched her arm. She made no other sound, not even to acknowledge her husband. The Eucharistic visitors laid out the communion linens and elements, read the Gospel lesson, and said the suggested prayers. Still no response. Then one of the visitors said, “And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say, ‘Our Father….’” The woman’s head came up as she began to whisper, “who art in heaven….” At the end of the Lord’s Prayer, the woman shared in the Lord’s gifts.

Prayer is powerful. Because we say the Lord’s Prayer so often, and because it links us with members of almost every other Christian community, the Lord’s Prayer has a virtually unique power to stay with us and sustain us. Although Jesus teaches his followers that form of prayer in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Scripture also has other things to teach us about prayer. This morning, as we stand on the threshold between our Lord’s Ascension and Pentecost, all three of our lessons teach us about the power of prayer.

Our lesson from the Book of Acts overlaps with the reading from Acts that some of us heard on Ascension Day. Our story begins with Jesus’ reminder to his disciples that they will soon experience personal transformation through the Holy Spirit. Then the disciples have an experience that convinces them that Jesus has been released from his visible, earthly existence and has returned to his life with God. Now they wonder what will happen next, and especially what Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit will mean. And so the disciples return to Jerusalem. They do the only thing they know how to do: they go back to that upper room. They join with their fellow disciples, both women and men, and they devote themselves to prayer. They take up that posture common to all Christians, really to believers of all faith communities, they wait in hope for the Lord’s promises to be fulfilled. As they wait, they pray together.

Just like the Jerusalem disciples before Pentecost, the members of the Christian community in Colossae also waited in hope for the fulfillment of the Lord’s promises. Theirs was a persecuted community, a tiny minority in a culture that considered them atheistic, subversive, and dangerous. The writer of the first letter in Peter’s name reminded these Christians that, if they were persecuted, they did not struggle alone, but that Jesus struggled with them in their trials. Consequently, whatever befell them, they were to pray together. In this way they could be assured of Jesus’ love for them: “Cast all your anxiety on him,” they were told, “because he cares for you.”

In our Gospel reading, we listen in on Jesus’ prayer at the very end of his last supper with his disciples. Jesus had instructed these chosen friends and given them a new commandment to love one another as he had loved them. Then, knowing that God’s time had finally come, Jesus turned toward his Father and began to pray. As the disciples overheard Jesus’ prayer, they learned a different model of prayer from the one the disciples were taught in Matthew and Luke. Anticipating his resurrection and ascension, Jesus first prayed for himself. “Glorify your Son,” he asks of the Father, “so that the Son may glorify you…. [G]lorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.” Jesus then prayed for his close friends. Again, anticipating his complete departure from the earthly, physical world that they inhabited, he prayed for their safety: “They are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me….” Finally, in the last part of the prayer, which we don’t hear here, Jesus prayed for the rest of the world, all those who would come to believe in him when his friends, filled with the Holy Spirit, carried the Good News to the ends of the earth. “I ask not only on behalf of these,” Jesus prayed, “but on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word….”

The message is clear: prayer, especially corporate, common, prayer is an integral part of life in God. Jesus prayed frequently throughout all four Gospels, Jesus taught us a model prayer, and, on his last night in his human body, Jesus prayed intently for us and for all future believers. While they waited for the promised Holy Spirit to explode on them, the disciples prayed continually together. As they endured the slights and persecutions of their fellow citizens, the Christians in Colossae leaned on their Lord and offered up to him all their cares and worries. Prayer is an integral part of life in God.

Prayer as a part of common life didn’t end with the beleaguered Christians of Colossae. Soon after Benedict of Nursia founded his holy communities amidst the chaos of sixth-century Italy, he wrote a Rule for them outlining how they were to live together. Benedict understood that his monks and nuns were not hermits. They were not cloistered, and they were not to spend their entire life on their knees. Rather, as they followed Benedict’s rule, they led a balanced life of prayer, both individual and corporate, work of about six hours a day, spiritual reading, especially study of Scripture, and fellowship around meals and recreation. Whatever they did, wherever they were, even when they were travelling, prayer formed the foundation of their lives, and prayer was woven inextricably into every aspect of their lives.

Benedict’s rule of a balanced life of prayer, study, work, and fellowship continues to be the standard for monastic communities today. Benedict’s rule also provides a model for our own life together. Leaving aside for the moment the values of study and fellowship, I want to focus here on the importance of regular prayer, both individual and corporate, for all of us – not just for those of us who wear clerical collars. You’ve probably noticed that when we worship, in our corporate prayers, either the ones we say together, or the ones that the presider prays on your behalf, there are generally four types of prayer: praise or adoration, in which we praise God for who God is or what God has done; thanksgiving, in which we thank God for all that God has done for us or given us; intercession, in which we pray for the needs of others; and confession, in which we admit to ourselves and to God the ways in which we have missed the mark. We can, and often do, use all four forms in our own personal prayer as well. In our personal prayer time we can also include some silence, in which we stop talking to God and just listen to God. Wherever we pray, and whichever forms of prayer we use, or even if we keep silent before God, prayer always has a two-fold goal. Just as Jesus did in his own earthly life, we pray to deepen our relationship with God, especially our trust in God’s love and care for us. Secondly, and perhaps more important, again following the model Jesus gave us, we pray for the life of the world, and especially that God’s reign may be brought nearer. Ultimately, the two goals converge: when we deepen our relationship with God, when we strengthen our confidence that God will fulfill God’s promises, then we see more clearly what our role is in making known to others God’s plan of salvation, the good news of God in Christ.

Jesus’, Peter’s, and Benedict’s instructions are clear: prayer is an integral part of our life as Jesus’ disciples. A balanced Christian life always includes time for prayer. No matter how busy your life is, give yourself the gift of prayer as part of your daily life. Here’s a starting place. Say grace at meals. If you’re by yourself, say it silently. Do you have two minutes in your day for prayer? Turn to page 103 in the Book of Common Prayer. Daily Noonday prayer is a wonderful way to put yourselves in God’s presence. It takes exactly two minutes to say – I guarantee it. How about five minutes at night? Turn to page 117. Compline takes five minutes. It’s a wonderful way to end the day with God. Intercede for others. Take the six suggestions for the Prayers of the People on page 383 of the prayer book. They’re perfect for organizing your personal prayer as well. Consider taking a retreat or quiet day, either one that I’ll be organizing or one available through other organizations. There’s no better way to immerse yourself in God’s love than to take an extended time with God apart from your ordinary life. And one more form of prayer. We are in a time of transition at St. Peter’s. Turn to page 817 of the prayer book. I challenge you to pray daily for St. Peter’s. You can use this prayer, or any other you want to say. God doesn’t care about the words, but God does care about whether the continued life of this parish is important to you. So pray for St. Peter’s! Just do it!

Prayer is powerful. And when our prayer is united with Jesus’ prayer for all creation, it is even more powerful yet. You yourselves, this parish, and the world need our prayers. And so may we continually pray, “Into your care, O God, we place ourselves and all our prayers, trusting your promise of new life in Jesus Christ, our risen Savior.”