When I was a child, I would regularly go over to my grandma’s house and spend the night with her. In the morning, when I would wake up and be getting ready for school, she would have been up long before me and would have an absolutely amazing breakfast ready for me and my sister.
What was even more amazing to me was that my grandmother would have already spent about an hour in prayer that morning, when she had first awakened.
I always admired the fact that my grandma spent an hour every morning in prayer. I know for a fact that the reason I didn’t get into a number of messes that I should have gotten into was because I had my grandma praying for me each day. My grandma’s hour of prayer every morning is what elevated her into the role of saint in my young mind, though since then, I have discovered that many children think of their grandparents as saints.
But, as I grew older I discovered how difficult it truly is to pray for an hour each morning. I just, honestly, don’t have that much to say. I talk to God for about five minutes and I’m repeating myself or rambling on. How did my grandma do it?
Well, I discovered that my grandma was Catholic, and therefore, she had pre-written prayers that she would pray. She would work her way through a rosary, then she would read from a book of prayers.
Does this mean that her prayers were not her own? Does it mean that the prayers don’t count because she did not write them? No, I know for a fact that her prayers very much did count, they made a difference in the world and they made a difference in her own life.
We in the Evangelical Church are often suspicious of written prayers. We are afraid that if we read prayers written by someone else, we won’t mean what we’re saying and we’ll fall into the trap of vain repetition. But Jesus prayed prayers that he had memorized from his childhood, and he taught his disciples a prayer that the church would take and pray regularly.
1. Context
I want to begin this morning by reminding you where this teaching comes in the gospel of Luke. You see, it is easier to see the importance of prayer when you look at the context that it comes in. It also helps that we have been looking at the scriptures before this one these last two weeks. Two weeks ago we looked at the parable that Jesus told about the Good Samaritan. In it, Jesus told us that we are called to be good neighbors, and the way to do this is to help those around us, the poor and the stranger, when they are in need. In the story we see someone who does this very thing, not because he planned to, but because the situation arose before him and he, on the spur of the moment, decided to do the right thing, though it might inconvenience or even hurt him. And we look at the story of the Good Samaritan, and we wonder how we can become people like him. I mean, sometimes we are able to do good deeds and sometimes our best sides show, but so often we are so caught up in our own little worlds that we let those opportunities disappear around us.
And so the gospel continues with Jesus visiting the house of a woman named Martha. Here is a woman trying to act out the Good Samaritan, inviting a stranger and his followers to stay with her, probably at the spur of the moment. And her sister is sitting at his feet while she takes care of all the preparations. And Jesus tells Martha that her sister has it right. He tells her that there is one thing that is important in the world, of utmost importance. And this one thing is sitting at the Master’s feet. And so, we realize that if we want to have the hearts of the Good Samaritan, if we want to learn to be good neighbors, we need to learn to sit at the Master’s feet. And then, in today’s scripture Jesus is teaching his disciples how to sit at the Master’s feet.
2. Sacred Rhythms
If we see prayer as sitting at the Master’s feet and not as listing off a bunch of things that we want from God, it changes how we’re going to pray, doesn’t it? Prayer becomes less about us and more about God. And yet, so often, our times of prayer are more about us and our needs or the needs of those around us. Spending an hour in prayer every morning talking about myself is not a productive thing. Spending an hour in prayer every morning thinking on God, now that is something holy.
Jesus prayed prayers that were written down and memorized. We know this because the Bible has a whole book devoted to these prayers, the Psalms. And Jesus knows and even quotes the Psalms. One of Jesus’ famous sayings from the cross, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” was the first line of Psalm 22. He wasn’t asking why God forsook him, he was praying a psalm he had known.
Actually, during Jesus’ time, the Jews were known to stop everything and pray three times a day, in the morning, around noon and in the evening. It seems clear that Jesus followed this practice. And we know the early church followed this practice as well. And yet, when you look at religions today who have regular prayer times, the only one that comes to mind for me is Islam. Why did we give regular prayer up to them? Why do we look down at those around us who pray with other people’s words.
In his book, Praying With the Church, Scot McKnight suggests that we need to reclaim communal prayer as Evangelicals. We need to realize that prayers that are memorized, praying the psalms for example, bring strength to us, they bring rhythm to our lives, they support us in our times of need. Maybe I don’t have the right words to say to really pray for a long time. But prayer isn’t about what I’m saying, it’s about sitting at the Master’s feet and learning from him.
I think we can learn from this. I think this is something that we need to accept as Christians. There is power in prayer. Jesus makes this clear. In today’s scripture he teaches his disciples the Lord’s prayer and then tells them that if you nag someone who doesn’t want to help you enough you will get them to help you, so if you lift your requests before God, he will surely help you. And we like to focus on what we can get out of prayer. But, Jesus didn’t just focus on what he got out of prayer. This is clear throughout his ministry because he put so much into prayer. He constantly went away from those around him and prayed. And he constantly prayed with those around him as well. He lived such a life of prayer that his disciples specifically asked him to teach them about prayer. He didn’t all of a sudden say, “hey, I’d better teach you how to pray,” no, they asked him for instruction. Prayer was important for him, and not just so he could get something out of it. It is what gave him the strength to do what he did. It is what helped him through his difficult times. It is what allowed him to work his way toward the cross.
III. Faded Memories
I want to end this morning by going back to a story about my grandmother. It is not a happy story, but I think it is a powerful one. Near the end of her life, my grandma had had a stroke and wasn’t much able to communicate. It was obviously frustrating to her that she would want to say something and couldn’t get the right words out. One time, when we visited her, we decided to pray together. I said a prayer for my grandma and then my dad suggested that we do the Lord’s Prayer. My grandma was able to say every word of it along with us. She had prayed this prayer daily for most of her life, and though she could not communicate very well, she was able to say this because it was so much a part of her.
Jesus taught a prayer to his disciples 2000 years ago and here it was bringing comfort to my grandmother at a time where very little would. It wasn’t that it had powerful words in it. It wasn’t that it was a prayer that Jesus had taught, though both of those things are true. What gave the prayer power for my grandma at the end of her life was that it was something that was so much a part of her, and the reason it was so much a part of her is that she lived with it her whole life. Through the Lord’s Prayer, my grandmother was able to sit at the Master’s feet and find the one thing that was important. Hopefully, through the Lord’s prayer, but also through spending time in God’s presence in other ways, we can also find out what is important. Amen.
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