“The Work of Prayer”

Meditation on John 14

Pentecost 2013

***

    Philip said to him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 

     Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. ‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.  (Selected verses from John 14)

***

       At RCW’s Baccalaureate Wednesday night, one of the graduating seniors helping to lead the service asked me if she should ask people to join her in the Lord’s Prayer. Or should she just say the Lord’s Prayer by herself?

    She asked because two other students, possibly foreign exchange students, would do just that. They would go up to the podium and say the Lord’s Prayer by themselves, but they would be saying the prayer in their native languages—not in English.

    I answered, “By all means!  Ask everyone to join you in the Lord’s Prayer!”

    I assured her that if she said, “Our Father,” all the students, families, friends, faculty, and staff gathered for the service would join her in saying the prayer.

       I watched as the young lady climbed the steps to the stage, grabbed the microphone and said without hesitation, “Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer.” She paused a moment, and then she began, “Our Father who art in heaven…”

     As she said, “who art in heaven,” more than a hundred voices joined her, sounding like the low rumble of distant thunder.  We confidently said the prayer most of us had learned as children—some saying, “debts and debtors” and “forever”; others saying, “trespasses and those who trespass against us,” and “forever and ever.”

     Why do we say the Lord’s Prayer every time we gather for worship – on Sunday morning, at funerals and weddings, and for Baccalaureate? First, we say this prayer because it IS the Lord’s Prayer—the model Jesus offers his disciples in Matthew 6:9-13 to teach them to pray. And, secondly, because it is the only prayer that almost every Christian knows. And, thirdly, because prayer is the most important spiritual discipline a Christian can do.  It is the work of every follower of Christ to pray.  As the apostle Paul urges us in I Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing!”

     Prayer is the only way to a loving relationship with the Lord. It is the way to draw nearer to Him and to discern His Will and the personal application of His Word. 

     Prayer is the only way to wisdom and obedience.  It is the way to forgiveness for our sins, salvation through Him and reconciliation with God. “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved!” says Romans 10:13.

      Prayer is the way to glorify God and give him the sacrifice he desires, the sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise. Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.” Prayer is the way to prepare hearts and minds to receive the truth of the gospel—and fulfill Christ’s Great Commission in Matthew 28. It is the way to healing of body, mind, and soul. Think of the apostles in Acts—how before every healing, every move of the Spirit, they would pray in Christ’s name.

      Prayer is the way to peace. To experience God’s loving presence with us. It is the way to receive Christ’s joy and to spiritual nourishment, to be strengthened for all the challenges and trials we face.

     At Baccalaureate Wednesday night, after we prayed the Lord’s Prayer in English, the one thing I hoped for all the graduates was that they understood the importance of prayer for daily life. And that they would pray! Every Christian parent wants this for their children—that they would pray their whole lives through!

    But at the same time, we know from our experiences how difficult prayer can be.  How it is a struggle for us, at times, to pray. Even when we understand prayer’s importance and have learned Christ’s model prayer by heart.

***      

     Our gospel reading today reminds us what is needed to accomplish this good work of prayer— and any good work to which God has called us and ordained for us to do. The scripture tells us that we have the help we need through our Trinitarian God—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And we have Christ’s promise that we will do good works in His name—and even greater works than He!

     What is the missing element—the thing that we lack that causes us to struggle with prayer and find excuses not to pray, such as saying we are too busy? 

    Faith!  We lack faith! We are not too busy to pray when we believe that our prayer matters—to us, to God, and for the sake of others!

      But we don’t pray in an attempt to change God or manipulate the world around us. We pray so that we will be changed! When we pray, the Spirit is stirred to work in us, bringing us comfort, healing, enlightenment, strength, and power to walk in Christ’s loving ways.

    Friends, do we have faith that God is listening when we pray?  That He cares about our well-being and the well-being of our loved ones?  And that He wants His Spirit to work in us, for our benefit as well as the benefit of others?

    Do we have faith that when we pray, “Lord, use us to accomplish your will and bring about your righteous kingdom,” God will respond by using us to accomplish His will and bringing about His righteous kingdom?!

    Do we have the kind of faith that we want our children and grandchildren to have? The kind that will move them to serve the Lord and try to make a difference in this world.  To be part of the mending and healing of what is broken and hurting. 

     Open your hearts with me, now, friends.  Clear your minds of any distracting thoughts. Listen for the rush of wind. Listen with faith.

    The Spirit is waiting to do an amazing work in and through you.  The Spirit that is stirred by your faith is waiting for you to pray and really mean it when you say, “Come Holy Spirit.  Come.”  

Let us pray.

Almighty God, thank you for the gift of faith and for our hope in Jesus and salvation through Him.  We long for your Spirit to come now and fill and refresh us.  We want to be changed –to be more like your Son. We know we need your Spirit to do this work in us. Thank you for your promise of molding us into people that you can and will use for your holy purposes.  Stir in us a deeper faith.  Help us to be more faithful to you and godly examples for our young people.  Move us to turn to you in prayer more often.  Forgive us when we have made excuses for not praying or when we have only prayed for our own needs and desires and have ignored the needs of our neighbors.  May your Spirit teach us how to live righteously, surrendering ourselves and our lives to be your humble servants.  In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit we pray.  Amen.

“Beautiful Butterflies!”

If you'd like to read my sermon, the complete text is below.  If you'd like to hear my sermon, click on this link for the audio file:
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Meditation on John 17

May 12, 2103

***

     After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 

     And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.

     ”I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.

    And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me.

     I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

     Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

     “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

      Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17)

***

        Though it seems like a long time ago, just a couple of weeks ago, Jim and I were on vacation in Arizona.  The snow lay on the ground as we left—and more was in the forecast.  But it was in the upper 90s in Phoenix as our plane touched down.

       Our vacation was a time to rest and not do too many things. Most of all, we wanted to be outside because we had spent so much of the winter in the house. So in Phoenix we took many walks in the sunshine. And one day, we went to the Botanical Gardens, full of the plants of the Sonoran Desert. 

       We saw many succulents like aloe.  And cacti, such as the tall, tree-like Saguaro (pronounced “swarro”) in which gila woodpeckers, purple martins, house finches and gilded flickers burrow holes and make homes for their young. 

      The Botanical Gardens had a special butterfly exhibit, outdoors but completely enclosed with netting. We had to pay extra to go in—about $3.50 a piece.  Inside, we saw many flowers and shrubs that butterflies like.  And workers had put out tasty treats for butterflies, too, such as slices of orange.

     We encountered probably hundreds of butterflies. Big and small. Some with stripes; others with spots.  Some were mostly one color, such as the bright orange Julia.

     Classes of schoolchildren passed through while we visited.  And there was plenty of giggling because these butterflies are social creatures, not afraid of human beings.  In fact, you had to move very carefully to make sure you wouldn’t hurt them by accident. They would light on your shoulders or land on your head or stick to your back. One stuck to the seat of Jim’s pants and the kids all thought that was funny, too.

       Park workers stationed inside made sure that no one touched the butterflies or inadvertently carried them out on their clothing or backpacks, or in their hair.  If they saw a butterfly on you, they slowly swooshed the air with a feather duster and gently “dusted” the butterflies back where they belonged.

     As Jim and I left the exhibit, we heard someone complain about having to pay $3.50 to see butterflies!  I didn’t mind paying the fee because I knew it would go to maintaining the gardens, which really are worth seeing.

     But I guess I wasn’t that impressed with the butterflies, either. We have lots of pretty butterflies here in Minnesota in the summer.  Maybe even prettier than the ones we paid to see in Phoenix.

      And also, I couldn’t help imagining the butterfly as it was before it was a beautiful creature.  When it was a hungry caterpillar.  You know, when it eats all the leaves off your trees and shrubs till they die. Seeing the butterflies reminded me of how the gypsy moths have killed millions of oak trees in Pennsylvania and hundreds of other tree and shrub species.  They are such a problem that the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has resorted to spraying insecticide from airplanes onto large wooded areas throughout the state.

        While I was complaining about the bad caterpillars, Jim had a more gracious response.

       “You just have to forgive the gypsy moths,” he said.  “And move on.”

***

       You may have noticed that I usually wear a cross around my neck, but sometimes I wear a butterfly. The butterfly is my favorite Christian symbol, a reminder that we are not what we used to be.  All of us would still be ugly, selfish caterpillar-like creatures—hungrily devouring everything, seeking to make ourselves feel good, caring nothing about our neighbors—if it weren’t for Jesus, God’s sacrifice for our sakes.   In Jesus, all who believe are transformed into new creatures, no longer slaves to sin and the temptations of this fallen world.  We have the power to love and forgive.

      Doesn’t it amaze you to think about our Savior, Jesus, who was willing to die for ugly, sinful caterpillar-like creatures like us? And when He lived and walked among us as a human being, He continually interceded for us in prayer, like He does in today’s reading in John 17.

     Christ pours out his heart to the Heavenly Father throughout this entire chapter, seeking salvation and joy not just for His beloved disciples but for all who would hear the gospel through them and believe on His Word.  He prays for their sanctification and protection from the evil one. And He prays that wherever He will be, those the Father has given to Him may be with Him and see His glory. Jesus prays this prayer right before one of His disciples betrays Him, and our Lord is arrested and crucified.

       The theme throughout this prayer, the repeated request, is Christ’s desire that His followers—Spirit-transformed beautiful, butterfly-like creatures--would be one.  This is the whole point of Christ’s sacrifice—to reconcile us with God—make us one with Him—and reconcile us with each other—make us one in Him!

      On this Mother’s Day, I direct my message of encouragement especially to mothers, whose loving influence on their families, homes, communities, and churches is great. 

       Christ’s heart is for the unity of all believers in Him. So may our hearts as Christian mothers also be for the unity of all believers—in our families, homes, communities, and churches.  But the only way we can truly be one is if we graciously love and forgive one another as God has so graciously loved and forgiven us.  It does no good to rehash the sins and pain of the past. It does a world of good if we follow Christ’s example—and pray for unity and peace amongst Christians, so the world will know to whom we belong and for whom we now live!

     With the Spirit’s help, we can and will see each other not as the ugly, selfish, caterpillars we once were, but the beautiful butterflies that we are now in Him and ever will be.      

      

Let us pray.

Holy God, we thank you for your Son’s work on the cross for our sakes and for the salvation you offer to all who believe.  Forgive us when we stumble and fall and forget that we are not sinful caterpillars anymore, seeking after our own pleasures and disregarding the needs of our neighbors.  Open our eyes to the beauty of Your Kingdom and the promise of new life in You.  Help us to be confident in who we are and what you call us to do and be, transformed by the Spirit more and more each day into the image of our Savior.  Stir us to be one with each other as we are one in Him, enthusiastically sharing the Good News of Your salvation until we see our Lord face to face.  In Christ we pray.  Amen.

“The Joy of Our Salvation”

Meditation on Acts 16:9-15

May 5, 2103

If you'd like to hear Pastor Karen preaching this sermon, click on this audio link:

https://www.box.com/s/rpndt6ru2lvuepfpow7q

***

         During the night Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’  When Paul had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.

         We set sail from Troas and took a straight course to Samothrace, the following day to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city for some days. On the sabbath day we went outside the gate by the river, where we supposed there was a place of prayer; and we sat down and spoke to the women who had gathered there. A certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. When she and her household were baptized, she urged us, saying, ‘If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.’ And she prevailed upon us.

***

      Yesterday, as I was listening to an audio recording of one of my daily devotions on Facebook, I thought about who may have inspired me to write these little meditations that can be read or heard in 5 minutes or less.

     While there are many people who have inspired and encouraged me, yesterday I thought about Joni Eareckson Tada.  I used to listen to her radio program, Joni and Friends, when I was in college in Baltimore in the 1980s.  That was when I was just beginning to learn what it means to live for the Lord and seek to serve Him each day.

     Joni is not an ordained minister or a seminary graduate. She is a writer—the author of more than 40 inspirational books.  She is also a Christian singer, speaker, artist, and tireless advocate for people with disabilities.           

      What I liked about her radio program when I was a busy college student was that her messages are brief and to the point (5 minutes or less). They come straight from the heart. And they are always encouraging. Her messages emphasize the love of God for the individual and the value of every single person for His purposes. 

     She doesn’t use lofty theological language; she is down to earth. She speaks as if her listeners are all one person having coffee with her at her kitchen table. With her lovely, lilting voice, she addresses her radio audience as “friend.”  

    I always feel better after listening to one of Joni’s messages. I feel loved by God and important to His Kingdom work, despite my weaknesses.

    I feel Joni’s joy in her own salvation—and she helps me remember my own joy. And stirs me to want to share my joy with others.

***

    Lydia, in Acts 16, also received the gift of God’s joy when she heard about the Messiah and believed. Lydia is remembered for her faithfulness to the Lord and His followers. And she is known as the first documented convert to Christianity in Europe.

      Paul, Silas and Timothy met Lydia at a prayer gathering on a riverbank in Philippi, a city in Macedonia. She was a well-to-do merchant from Thyatira in Asia, a seller of purple goods. Thyatira lay in the territory of the ancient, Iron Age kingdom of Lydia in western Asia Minor. The people of that area were famous for their skill in the manufacture of purple dye extracted from the juice of the madder root. This was still used for dyeing carpets until the early 20^th century.

       As there is no mention of her husband, Lydia probably was a widow.  She was a “God-fearer,” a Gentile who worshiped the God of Israel. She and other women gathered on the riverbank to pray and worship God. Perhaps the Jewish population was too small to support a synagogue in the area. This would explain why Paul went down to the riverbank on the Sabbath instead of his usual preaching in a local synagogue.

       As Paul delivers the Word, the Spirit opens Lydia’s heart. She listens eagerly and then acknowledges Jesus as her Lord. Filled with all the joy of believing, she and her entire household are baptized in the river—not just her children, but all of the servants and other dependents, as well. Great is the influence of this independent woman of means who becomes an enthusiastic worker for the Lord.

      At the end of our passage, Lydia opens her home to Paul and the other evangelists. So great is her gratitude and joy that she won’t take “no” for an answer!

      

***

      Like Lydia, Joni Eareckson Tada had a dramatic conversion experience. And great has been her testimony and influence for the Kingdom of God.

     Joni, born in Baltimore in 1949, grew up loving sports and the outdoors—riding horses, hiking, playing tennis, and swimming.  But one day, on July 30, 1967, she misjudged the shallowness of the water as she dove into the Chesapeake Bay.  She suffered a fracture between the fourth and fifth cervical levels.  She was paralyzed from the shoulders down—a quadriplegic.

     For two years after the accident, Joni struggled with anger and depression. She felt she was a burden to her family. She wrestled with religious doubts and suicidal thoughts.

     But the Spirit opened Joni’s heart, like it opened Lydia’s. She finally found peace when she accepted God’s love and forgiveness and Christ as her Savior. She discovered the joy of her own salvation and with that joy, she found her hope and purpose for life—serving and loving Him all of her days.

     Though the accident had taken so much away, she still had her wonderful, creative mind, and beautiful face and voice. She couldn’t do many things, but as she sought to serve the Lord, the Spirit led her to do more than she ever thought she could.

      Her personal experience and compassion for others struggling with emotional and physical disabilities stirred her to write her biography, Joni, in 1976, that was made into a movie in 1979, with Joni playing herself.  She recorded several albums of Christian music. And she learned to paint with a brush between her teeth and began selling her artwork. 

      She founded Joni and Friends in her home in 1979 as she and her friends responded to the many questions and needs pouring in from families affected by disability. They had read Joni’s books or had seen the movie of her life.  Joni, her staff, and volunteers began to develop Christ-centered programs and services to help meet the spiritual and practical needs of disabled people and their families.  These include family retreats, the distribution of wheelchairs and Bibles worldwide to people affected by disability, and church training at local and national disability ministry conferences.

      More than 30 years after first sharing her story, Joni continues faithfully in her ministry of hope. She continues in spite of a diagnosis of breast cancer in 2010, and the emotional and physical trials that followed.

     “Breast cancer always happened to other women, not me,” says Joni. “Forty-five years of living in a wheelchair provided enough challenges, without thinking of cancer.” 

      Joni shares her fight against the disease in her 2-part documentary, “Cancer: Joni’s Journey,” to encourage others.

     It is impossible to estimate how many people have been touched by the ministry of this woman who believed her life wasn’t worth living after a tragic accident when she was 17 years old.  Those who hear Joni speak through about 1,000 broadcast outlets today hear her joy in her own salvation, a joy that has led her to eagerly share the Good News of Jesus Christ and to remind fellow Christians that we, too, still have that joy, in spite of the struggles in our lives.

       Like Joni, I pray that you will know that God loves you and is with you in your struggles, disappointments, sadness and pain.

      And, friend, I pray that, regardless of any physical limitations and all the things that you think you cannot do, you will understand that you ARE important to His Kingdom work.  

      May you be stirred to seek the Lord daily and be refreshed by His Spirit.

      May He renew in all of us the joy of our salvation so we, too, will be able to do for Him more than we ever thought we could.

Let us pray.

Holy Spirit, come and fill us to overflowing.  Cleanse us of all unrighteousness.  Take away the burden of guilt and sin.  Thank you for your unconditional love and grace, shown to us when you gave up your Son for our sakes.  Forgive us for when we have grumbled or complained and have forgotten our joy in You—forgotten how wonderful it is to be saved—to have new life in Christ.  Abundant life on earth and everlasting life with you in Your kingdom of heaven.  Draw us to you each day to say, “Restore unto us the joy of our salvation.” Stir us to joyfully proclaim your salvation to a broken and hurting world—and be faithful workers for your Kingdom all the rest of our days.  In Christ we pray.  Amen.