FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA
Sermon by Dr. George Bryant
Wirth
October 13, 2002
Scripture: Matthew 6:1-15; Luke 11:1-13
The
title for today’s sermon was inspired by a member of this congregation in the
spring of 2001. He and I and another
friend were playing a round of golf on a drizzly Thursday morning, and as is
often the case, they were kidding me about trying a little “divine
intervention” for better weather. I
responded like most every other preacher I know with the old timeworn phrase
about “being in sales, not in management.”
But I did mention with a smile that if the sun suddenly appeared and all
of our putts began to drop in, then they would know that Presbyterian prayers
get straight through.
As we came to the third tee, my friend – the church member – looked at me and said, “Do you know what I call those prayers on the golf course?” I said, “Tell me.” Now he was smiling and replied, “God’s junk mail. Golfers prayers are God’s junk mail, like all those letters that come in that we don’t read and the e-mails we delete. I think God has a lot more to take care of in this world than fixing the weather and helping us hit a better shot with a 7 iron.”
I
looked back at him and said, “Charles, that one will preach!” and that’s how
this sermon was born.
I.
In
the sixth chapter of the gospel of Matthew, toward the middle of the Sermon on
the Mount, Jesus said, When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that
they may be seen by others…And in praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the
Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows
that you need before you ask Him. Pray
then like this:
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
(Matthew
6:5, 7-13)
That
same prayer, almost word for word, is also recorded in Luke 11, where Jesus
concludes saying, Ask and it will be given you, seek and you will find,
knock and the door will be opened to you (Luke 11:2-4, 9).
As
Christians, we have committed the Lord’s prayer to memory, and we believe that
going to God through prayer does open a door into His presence, as we ask,
seek, knock and discover that the Lord is there waiting for us, listening to
us, speaking through us and coming alongside us in our time of need.
But
sometimes we forget what Jesus said about the way that we pray: Do not heap
up empty phrases to God as others do, for they think that they will be heard
for their many words. Those empty
phrases, my friends, are God’s Junk Mail. And when we approach Him like a celestial vending machine or a
spiritual valet, asking for better weather on the golf course, instant access
to an open parking space or for a winning ticket in the Georgia Lottery – when
we pray like that, I doubt we’re going to have much contact with the Almighty.
For
our children, of course, it’s different.
Their world is far less complicated than ours, and child psychologists
remind us that “instant gratification” is part of their growing up
process. A New Yorker cartoon pictures
a pajama-clad little girl on her way upstairs to bed. Her parents are sitting in the living room as she calls down to
them, “I’m going to sleep now, and I’ll be saying my prayers. Does anybody want anything”?
Well,
that’s how it is for little children.
But as we grow up into adulthood, the way that we pray ought to reflect
a deeper level of thought and meditation.
Shakespeare was right when he wrote:
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain
below;
Words without thoughts, ne’er to heaven go.”
So
the first thing I want to suggest to all of us today is that we think more
carefully about how we pray, remembering that Jesus said, Do not heap up
empty phrases to God. My friend on
the golf course called that “God’s Junk Mail.” And the truth is, if we really want to develop a closer
relationship with the Lord, then we need to take the time and make the effort
to open our hearts and minds to Him in prayer.
II.
Moreover,
Jesus said, When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to
your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward
you (Matthew 6:6). In other words,
find a place and take the time every day to pray.
Martin
Luther, who spent three hours each day in prayer, called those hours his
“sublimest joy.” I have visited John
Wesley’s house in London, where there is a small room with a wooden chair and
an open Bible on a desk by the window.
It was there, day by day, month by month, year after year in the 18th
century, that John Wesley sat in solitude to commune with the Lord. And out of those prayers came a Christian
revival movement called Methodism, which now numbers more than 30 million
members throughout the world.
But
you don’t have to be a leader of the Reformation or the founder of a
Denomination to embrace the power of prayer.
Every one of us can have access to that power if we want it, by making a
decision to be still before the Lord.
Brother Lawrence once described it as “practicing the presence of
God.” So I ask you this morning: have
you set aside a time and a place where you pray every day?
There
was a time in my own life when I had not done that. I had places to go and people to meet and things to do for the Kingdom
of God. But I wasn’t paying attention
to the daily disciplines of Bible study and prayer. It’s a common problem for clergy men and women, much like medical
doctors who don’t take care of their own health.
And
suddenly, as a former pastor of this church once described it, I didn’t just
run out of gas, I ran out of oil. The
spiritual well in my soul went dry and I realized at that moment I needed
help. My family and friends circled the
wagons around me as I began to see a pastoral counselor every week. And during that year of depression, I got
down on my knees each day to pray, to study the scriptures and to listen for
the one voice I needed most to hear.
A
colleague in the ministry, one of my closest friends, gave me a devotional book
entitled “A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants,” and it became my
lifeline to the Lord. As the well began
to fill up once more, I promised Him that I would spend time every morning in
prayer and meditation so that my soul would never run down to empty again.
All
these years later, we now give that same book to every elder who is ordained in
this church, acknowledging that nothing can happen through us if it isn’t first
happening to us. And I commend this
“Guide to Prayer” to all of you today – there are copies in our bookstore – for
I have come to believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that what Jesus said is
true: When you pray, go into your room and shut the door, and pray to your
Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
My
friends: find a place and take the time to pray every day.
III.
And
as you and I decide to do that, we will discover that the passageway into God’s
presence and a closer relationship with His Son, our Savior Jesus, will open up
to us. Ask, seek, and knock, He
said, and the door will be opened to you.
But
that won’t happen unless and until we take the time and make the effort to do
it.
Phillips
Brooks of Boston, Massachusetts, probably the finest preacher of his generation
during the 19th century, once wrote that “God’s mercy seat is no
mere stall set by the …roadside, where every careless passer-by may put an easy
hand out to snatch any glittering blessing that catches his eye. It stands in the holiest of holies. We can come to it only…by the altars of
purification. To enter into it, we must
enter into God.” (From “The Meaning of
Prayer” by Harry Emerson Fosdick, Association Press, New York, NY, 1949, page
153)
Sad
to say, some of us think that we can pray “on the run,” tossing a few words in
God’s direction as we rush here and hurry there. Small wonder, then, that nothing happens. It’s like a marriage or a friendship to
which we don’t pay attention – sooner or later, the embers start to flicker and
the fire goes out.
Listen:
if we want our faith to grow, if we desire to draw closer to the Lord, we need
to make the effort to pray consistently and persistently, more than we ever
have before.
Harry
Emerson Fosdick put it this way: “Some things God cannot give to us until we
have prepared…our spirits by persistent prayer. Such praying cleans the house, cleanses the windows, hangs the
curtains, sets the table, opens the door, until God says, “Lo, the house is
ready. Now may the guest come in.” (From “A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and
Other Servants,” page 240)
And
not only is that true for ourselves – it is also the case when we say to
others, “I’m praying for you.”
Christian people: when we say that, we need to make the effort to follow
through on our promise.
The
Presbyterian author Kathleen Norris writes about that promise in her book
“Amazing Grace”: “I became a prayer
partner with a prostitute this year.
She had asked for prayers through a halfway house sponsored by my
brother’s church, because she wants to leave what is euphemistically called
‘the life,’ but lacks the means to do so.
She may be stymied by an addiction to drugs, or lack of self-confidence
and fear of the unknown…I don’t know, and I don’t need to know. But I have promised to pray for her – her
name is Maria – and you might pray for her too.” (From “Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith” by Kathleen Norris,
Riverhead Books, New York, 1998, page 351)
Now,
does that sound like a “junk mail” prayer to you? I don’t think so. In
fact, I believe that the time has come for us to let go of the games we play
with God, and to listen again to what Jesus told us to do: When you pray, do
not heap up empty phrases to God…Instead, go into your room and shut the door
and pray to your Father who is in secret…and He will reward you.
Which
means that when we pray, we need to take the time and make the effort to put
ourselves and those for whom we pray in a place where God can get through to
us. And then, having done our best, we
can leave the rest in His hands.
Do
you believe that today? If you do, or
if you want to, then ask, seek, knock, and the door into God’s holy presence
will be opened to you. That’s what
Jesus promised us, and the promise is true!
In
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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