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PRAYER John if, Buchanan
Psalm 27 February 13, 1972
Romans 8:24-30

‘le are conditioned by our own experience. Our past, our own history, determines to a
very great degree, what we feel and think and believe in the present. So the word “prayer”
conjures up three images in my mind that I would share with you because one ~ or all of
them - may be common to you as well.

First, the bed-time ritual of a little boy. "tov I lay me dovn to sleep. I pray the
Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."
Fortunately, I never gave serious theological thought to that prayer as I was praying it.
In fact, my brother and I could say it so fast that it sounded like the old Lucky Strike
auctioneer on the radio. We were encouraged to add a few lines of own own, but these too
became highly ritualized, "God bless ‘iommy, Daddy" - and the uncles fighting in the war:
and even when two of them didn't come home my ritualized prayers still included their
names. In any case, that's the first image, and I vould guess that you have one to match
it.

Second, as an adolescent I used to be a Presbyterian in the morning and a Baptist
in the evening. And one of the evening experiences that remains quite clear in my ming
is an occassional prayer meeting in someone's honc. A groun of youngsters were gathered
to pray - for an nour, and it was always my misfortune to be seated in a position that
left me near the end of the line. This meant that for forty five minutes I sat in
sheer panic, organizing my thoughts, structuring my phrases so that my inexperience would
not be too conspiciuous, only to discover that every tine I had something ready, someone
up the line would use it, and I would have to begin from scratch. I concluded rather
quickly that this kind of thing wasn't worth what it cost me and I stopped going. But
the memory is vivid and it comes inmediately to the surface everytime I find myself in a
Similar situation today.

The third image is the Pastoral Prayer in the worship of my own church. That was
my personal waterloo. Ilo matter how hard I tried I could not concentrate. I don't
know how Tong the minister prayed, but it seemed like an eternity and shortly after the
first series of Elizabethan adjectives my mind inevitably focused on other more immediate

matters. ‘iy powers of concentration were not helped by my father, who would sigh a lot

nfs
wen the prayer got too long, or worse yet, get hts ratlroad watch out of hts pocket an:

begin to inspect - and sometimes even wind it.

In any case, prayer for me was an ordeal to be endured stoically - and sometimes
a ritual to be performed for the sake of othor people. It never occured to me that my
praying or not praying made any difference to anyone at all. I can remember reading
"Guns Along the ilohavk" as a boy and finding the preacher's Sunday prayers very amusinc.
Recently I discovered that passage again: The Rev. fir. Rosencrantz provided nis congrega-
tion with a weekly news bulletin and gossip column - all in the name of prayer.

To wit: "0 Alinignty God, we are thinking right now of vary viarte Hollaher. She is
just fifteen yoars old, but she is aoing with one of the soldiers at Fort Jayton. He is a
‘iassachusetts man, OG Goc, and it has come to my attention that he is married in the town
of Hingham. I have nad her mother and Father talk to her, I have talked to her myself,
but she won't pay any attention. We ask thy heln, Sod Almighty, in bringing her back to
the path of virture, from which w. belive she has strayed pretty far.

0 Almighty God, you have brought us an eary spring: keep off the frost until the
fruit is set. 0 Lord, the English Codlin, ‘licholas Horakimer grafted onto his Indian
Apple tree has bloomed this ycar. ‘lay it bear fruit. It is a wonderful exanple of Thy
WayS, and worth our going to sce, and ‘licholas Herkimer will show it to anybody"

At least that's personal and concerned with the inmodiacies of life. But it is not
tie kind of praying we do or fi.ar. In fact, it seens that apart fron ritualize: public
prayer such as banquet invocations, and our prayers in worship, the practice of prayer is

becoming a lost art. Ina recent article in Christian Century the author contends that the

practice of prayer is withering away in our time: that even conventional Christians
don't seem to be praying anymoro. And that the rcason is that we are losing the concept of
a God who is both personal and almighty. Both ideas have lost currency - that God knows
us individually and that Go:! is free to operate when and how he pleases. And the trouble
#s that without those ideas there isn't a very compelling reason to pray. The author
puts it this way: "Unless it is indeed the heart's conversation with a living, personal
God, prayer is only wishful thinking" (C.C. 12/22/71), (P. 1493).

For several weeks now we have been thinking about the Biblical doctrines of Sod and

an. And it all comes to a kind of head in the issuc of the relationship between the two.

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Ani so on tnis Sunday before Lent - when we will turn our attention to the meaning of

Jesus Christ - I would like to explore with you the matter of prayer. “nat is it? What
nappens? It will not be a 'how to do it" sermon - but rather sone probing into the
theological anu emotional underpining.

Prayer is, I believe, stated in the simplest terms possible, our personal responce
“0 God. The words “personal” and “response” are important. Prayer happens ith others
to bo sure - but it is anly thru nrayer to a degrec that it is mine; that it is the
expression of my heart, my mind, my emotions and feclinas. Prayer begins in the mind -
but it is thru prayer only to the degree that it is a response to God: to something he
has done or said, or some way I perceive he is imitiating something in my life or in the
world at largc:. Prayer is an act, but it is moro thin act. It is an attitude, a nosture
a wholc life style. Praycr has been called "practicing tie presence of God" which, of
course, implies far more than a one-shot grace at "weal time.

ilatcolm Boyd, an Episcoral pricst who wrote a remarkable book of prayers under the

titie ‘Are You Running With jie, Jesus?", tells in the introduction who his ovn concept of

praycr has changed: “Prayer, for me, used to stand as sonethine separate fron other parts
of life. But I have come to Icara that real praycr is not so much talking to God as just
snaring is presence... Prayor could no loncer be offere? to God un there but to Sod
here; prayer had to bc natural and real, not phony or contrived; it vas not about other
things, but thes: things, however unnatural, jarring, or even socially outcast they
mignt bee.

“God, I discovered, vas not an upper-middie-class snob in a private clublike ‘holy
of holies’ or was he an impersonal IBi machine computina petty sins in some celestial
office building above the clouds. It cate home to me that God was loving in a terribly
unsentimental and profound vay"

Prayer, then is response to God in life. Life is the grist of prayer; life is tie
input, the stimulus. ind I sense that our first problem is that we have, in fact, removed
prayer from life: that we have isolated it from life - geographically and also soman-
tically. We have assumed that there are places for prayer, in church for example, or

before meals, or at bedtime: and while it is always necessary, I think, to do this

-A.
spacial designation, tho counter effoct is tiat prayer ats confined to those spaces

and times.

but it is not just a maticr of geogravhy. Ne isolatc prayar from life emotions] ly
and semantically. A Lutheran paster, Edmund Steinle, said it very well:"..... ve nave conc
t¢ look on prayer as a kiad of private church service. It has bacone bland and proper ana
lifless. So wo are coming into the presence of the Almiality? So, like going to church
On Suicay mornings, wo dress up our minds, control our foolings ar? enotions, and try to
cot into a proper attitude..."

Think of tiat in terms of vocabulary alone. Oc of tho most coriwon probleas with
prayer is that we assum. that there is a given stylc and certain words which alone are
appropriate. And if we aren't comfortable usice Shakesperian Enalish we feel inadequate
about our ability to pray. Of course, son. of that comes from a sincere desire te be
respectful aid reverent. \n older minister told mc once that he could wt and would
address the Almighty wita ti. porsonal pronoun you. And if that indicates a personal
expression of reverence, finc. Sut it is ridiculous to assume that God listens only
to prayers which inclucs “tnees" and"thous". Reverence is never nhony. Reverence cannot
oe creatcd senantically.

Prayer, then, ust be ours, personilly: it must bo our deep response to Sod's love
and grace - or sometimes God's judgement or silence. It must nappen in and about life.

I tring ther. are three conditions for prayer: tarec ways to describe the climate
in whic) prayer can nappen. First, Yoncer The abilit: to pray is born in us whenve
are open to tie wonder and mystery of life: wien ve let our awareness of the world flov
freely anu sense tha newness of birds and flowers and children. The ability to pray is
born is us wienwe learn to experience deligat in the uniqueness of another human boing:
men we learn to be thrilled by tne incredible fact that another person loves us and wants
us. Prayor begins with our onenness to wonder and mystery.

And it proceeds when tx Tcarn te take seriously our own decnest feelinas. Prayer is
more emotional than intellectual, even though ve Presbyterians are not. Th. deeper our
feelings run the closer we arc to authentic prayer. hon tragedy strikes, and from out

of our deptis is wrenched the plea “C God" - we have prayed - authentically and rightly

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id Most appropriately. Tho clinate for prayer is cstablisti d whente get beneatn the

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surface of lifc, whcn wo lcarn to fool deapty:wiien i barn not to ienore or repress those
ost intinate and profoun! jovs and sorrovs of the ‘eart.

Tix. tairu condition far prayer is honesty. And this, I belicve is the most difficult
of all. For one of the things our ritualized praying hrs taught us is that we can't
be honest in prayer. we must conform to the established pattern, the prescribed words,
ideas anu even feelines. “'c vould not think, for instance, of exnressing angor ia
prayer, or immatience wit: God, or irritation. ‘lc con't ordinarily think of prayer as the
venicle for expressing our own religious doubts. ‘nd yot, those things happen recularly
in the Biblical cxamples of prayer. Listen to Job: “I weuld speak to the “Imiehty, and I
desir. to argue ny cas: with Soc. Or Jereniah “Lord, thou hast deceived me - cursed
be tne day on waich I vas born...cursed be the man ‘tho brought tae news to my father.
“Sead tue Psalms for an exaanle of honest prayer. Again. ialcoln Boyd," I can no longer
conceive of lying to hin in proper 1d Englis’ or any othor stype of speech I feel free
to be completely mysclf with him. In a given situation were I know he is with me, I
speak out of that deep trust and love whic? can spring only from a healthy and authentic
frcecon'

Yoncer, Jepth of Feolirs ami Honesty. Those three define th. nerimeters of prayer.
Suc in al] of this we have been skirting tre issue = the real, troublesome question that
veticrs everyman 4.0 allots dinself to think about nrayer."Secs it work?" does it
matter? Docs anything aanpen which woulc not have hanpenec if we had not prayed?" I
do not presume te be able te answer that sufficiently in a fou brief minutes, because I
neve tac feeline that it just may b. the most important question we ever ask. I rwuld,
noviever, lay before you tv: ideas and a confession, becausc wnen all is said and done
our position on prayer is always confessional rather then doctrinal.

Tie first iuea is that Go! is: that nc axists - not in a heavenly closét but in
life: that he is, in fact, /Imighty: that is to say, absolutely and utterly froe: and that
the Bible is correct when it affirms tht he is personal: that he knows you and me - our
needs, our strengtis, our ticaknesses: tint he loves us and wants for us in a way that can

only be compared with our fathcrs' love and wanting for us.

-6-
Tite second idea is thie life fs open ant nob close’. that things are not dsterinc?

~

for us ahecd of tim. tict od and we-toncther-onen or close the doors of life: that there
is always hope in thie futur . and tat %o! comes to us in ani! tarauan Eh: conron things
of life.

Given those tuu jdcas i: 4 dius toe woke very goo! sense to be in conversation and
dialoguc tritn God.

Lonfessionally, T belicve without hesitation that it docs matter wieth. or or net we
pray, Lot me hasten to add, however, that there is nothine so dishoncst and inauthentic
tran praying for someting we arc wt personally committed te. Peaee for instance. It
makes no sense “whatever, te ne at Tcast, to pray for Peace unless vo arc doing something
about it: or for our nuacry ncichbers or for racict justice or for reconciliation in the
wordd. Praying aust hb: honcst - and ionesty is proseribe? ov tr degree to wien our
words are reflicted in our beiavior.

Somctaings nappen always ‘en we pray. To sray for enother nerson, I beliove, is to
pccom. sensitive te his needs, is hurts, his rersonhoot in a very soccial way. To Pray
for anotxr person is te cxtcud my life into his in 2 way words cannot accomplish.

Tint alvavs hannens.

To pray honestly is bs in toweh with ourselyes ia nce and intipate an? nealtay way.
we know ourselves differovity uacn : pray, Tivt always hannens to.

T believe taat Sel loves 211 mens an! To cannot brine myself te believe that tod

isn

treats once man differcntly & cause JT have prayed for that man. and conversely, that nad

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1

withholds his love because To hinyws not prayed for th sar.
Ana so tac intellectual quandry, You can’t prove that anythiac happens as a result
of your Praycrs. nor can vu prave the reverse.
And at tais point vc move from doctrine to confession: from ideas to faith. He
trust that somchow, mysteriously, miraculously, So. does work taroucn our prayers.
St. Paul told tac Ronans “He do not know how to pray" and thon - "The Spirit himself

intercedes for us wits: sighs too deep for words. " An if I can make any sense out of
tnat it is that Sod wants us to pray - that his spirit is with us as we pray, taact he

Netps us to pray and prays ith us - and that you and I are called to look that mystery

~Je
anu toen bring to our God our interesssions for oth.rs our scultions for ourselves -

in deep faith and trust.
Prayer is crildisi - asc childlike: it is for tnose wie kuow that the Go! «io is

Alivignty and Personal is, tu our Lord's ova words. our father. AGES

Fatucr. ein us to pray: throudh dcosus Christ our Lora, ADIEF