The Old South Church in Boston

“Prayer Makes a Difference”

Sermon by Lael P. Murphy

Psalm 63: 1-4; Luke 11: 1-13

August 20, 2000

Back in the mid-nineties, two men set out to survey Americans on a number of compelling and very personal topics. Trying to get a true reading on “what people really believe about everything that really matters,” as they put it, James Patterson and Peter Kim sent out nearly ten thousand copies of a carefully constructed questionnaire to an as carefully considered cross-section of our nation’s regions. Asking men and women for their views on issues related to work, government, religion, sex, violence, the media, the many questions covered all the bases, providing, then, some interesting opportunities for cross-referencing.

The results, as you may imagine, were both predictable as well as startling. Laid out in a book titled, The Day America Told the Truth, Patterson’s and Kim’s compilation give voice to some fascinating trends that may well reflect some of the basic operating truths behind American life today. Take, for example, the chapters related to morality. Could you have imagined that 64% of the respondents would answer “yes” to the question, “I will lie when it suits me, so long as it doesn’t cause any damage”? Similarly, 74 % said they’d steal from those who wouldn’t really miss the lost goods. While 90% of those returning their surveys said they truly believe in God, Patterson and Kim found that only 23% saw the point of observing any kind of Sabbath and that only 13% took stock in all ten of The Commandments (40% admitted to believing in at least five of them). Digging deeper with their questions these researchers realized that belief in God doesn’t automatically translate into faithful action. While religious people tend to be more moral than their non-religious counterparts, while they are generally more satisfied with their lives (50% versus 36%), these men and women don’t necessarily turn to God when it’s time to make decisions. The authors of the study write: “In every single region of the country, when we asked how people make up their minds on issues of right and wrong, we found that they simply do not turn to God or religion to help them decide about the issues of the day. For most people, religion plays virtually no role in shaping their opinions.”

Considering the fact that we live in such a secular age, the “Post Christian Era” as it’s often called, I find this statement and the results of the survey troubling but, unfortunately, not tremendously surprising. Constantly contending with forces that shut out the spiritual dimension of our existence, it becomes too easy to close God out of our daily decisions. Faced with questions regarding our health, our finances, our career goals and more personal aspirations, it’s easy to turn to “the experts” of those given fields, ignoring, then, the possibility of bringing God, whom we might call the “Ultimate Expert,” into the equation. We may too often forget to ask– and then to listen for an answer to – questions like, “God, what do you think I should do, what I should decide? How does Christ lead me to live?”

Integrating our faith with our day-to-day lives. It’s the challenge of being Christian no matter what the day or age. Reaching out to God and letting the presence of Christ come into our hearts is the central teaching of our religion. While our faith calls us to faithful actions we remember that such behaviors are only the end result of our deeply personal and spiritual union with God. Rather than putting an ethical “to-do” list first in our minds we learn to place our relationship with Christ in the center of our hearts. Choosing not to lie or steal, then, or deciding to make room for Sabbath worship and other practices comes from our yearning for God. That’s what Jesus teaches us again and again: this religion is one that seeks to bring men and women to wholeness through the grace and mercy of God. It’s a tradition that’s wholly dependent on the practice and power of prayer.

Look at our Gospel reading, for example. Here in Luke we get a glimpse of what it means to live in the light of God’s mercy, grateful and trusting that God will provide. Laying out the example of the man and his friend Jesus illustrates the fact that as we seek eternal care and the power of the Holy Spirit our needs will be met. Using the image of parent and child he stresses the strength of this bond, teaching the disciples, then, how to pray, encouraging them reach out for sustenance and care. Through this story and the outlining of what we now call The Lord’s Prayer Luke is saying is saying in no uncertain terms: go to God in prayer. It makes a difference.

Henri de Tourville, the 19^th century priest and spiritual writer from France, understood the invitation to develop such a close bond with God. He wrote, “Remember that God loves your soul, not in some aloof, impersonal way, but passionately, with the adoring, cherishing love of a parent for a child.” Fostering this kind of relationship we realize that prayer allows us to continually reach out to God by giving thanks, offering praise, sharing our deepest troubles and concerns. Prayer is admitting to the ways we fall short of God’s teachings, in our relationship with Christ as well as with our neighbors and then prayer is asking for and then accepting God’s forgiveness. Prayer, in short, is the way we nurture our rapport with and trust in God. It’s the communication – silent as well as spoken – that makes our faith become a decisive ingredient in our lives. As described by a woman named Maud Petre, “Prayer is practical when it affects our outer conduct, but still more when it affects our inward activity.”

Prayer: it’s a foundational part of our spiritual lives. It’s the basis for all that we do as men and women who call themselves Christians. Do you appreciate its power? Do you know, in your own most uniquely personal way, that prayer makes a difference?

I’ve been giving prayer a lot of thought these past months as I not only teach and encourage others to pray but also as I try to strengthen my own relationship with God. Discussing the ways prayer helps to root me in spirit as well as in action, I’ve come to realize that there are three ways in which prayer has a dramatic impact on my life. I want to share them with you all now as just one example of how prayer can make a difference.

First I want to tell you that prayer gives me peace. Centering my attention on God and submitting myself to the presence of Christ, I frequently find what I can only describe as the power of God’s merciful peace. Being in prayer – for long or short periods of time (even two or three minutes!) – helps me to remember that by God I’m loved just the way I am and that helps me to let go: I let go of my worries for myself and for you and for all those in the world, and I simply sit in what seems to be the eternal love of God. Peace. In moments of prayer like these I know that no matter how painful life can be there still exists the unending grace of God, and from that experience my day is changed. God gives me a palpable experience of peace, illuminating P.T. Forsyth’s explanation that, “Prayer is for the religious life what original research is for science – by it we get direct contact with reality.” That’s my experience in prayer: God offers us the higher reality of eternal peace.

The second affect prayer has on my day-to-day life is that it gives me hope. Living in a time when everywhere you turn there’s news of a crisis or tragedy near or far away, it’s easy to be filled by despair. But by reaching out to God in prayer I find my life becomes infused with a sense of hope, hope for myself as well as hope for all the world. Through times of silent meditation and in moments of confessional and intercessory prayer God’s Spirit inspires me to understand that there’s a better, brighter way and that Christ wants to lead me – wants to lead us all -- to it. It reminds me that while we live surrounded by human pain and sorrow now there’s God’s eternal realm not far away. Prayer helps me touch that other realm, giving me hope, offering me joy and inspiration. Whether I’m dealing with the pain of my own or another’s human frailty and mortality, whether I’m feeling weak in the face of great challenge or stress, the peace and hope of God helps my insecurities to fade away.

It’s this kind of hope that leads me to understand the third way prayer makes a difference in my life. It’s purpose. Through prayer I find God gives me a sense of purpose, a plan of action, the conviction that I can live as Christ teaches by the grace and power of God. Filled with peace, renewed by hope I’m able to ignore the many forces in our world that say, “Give up. Give in. There’s nothing you can do that’ll make a difference.” For as I pray for the world, seeking God’s care and compassion for the hungry, the homeless, the hurt and forgotten I’m reminded that statements like those are lies. Sensing a clear call to action God offers me a vision of what it means to be Christian: it means being a servant like Christ, being a vessel of God’s healing and merciful touch. And so my prayers, for you in this congregation and for those outside these sanctuary walls remind me that I’m bound to you, that I’m a servant to you, by the love of Christ that lives among us this very day. Through my prayers God inspires me with the purpose of living in community with all creation.

Peace. Hope. Purpose. Those are the very basic ways prayer changes my life. Inspired and empowered by God I believe our prayers offer times of rich renewal and strength, guiding us, then, to live more fully in loving community. Taking our belief in God to the level of experience and trust, we can then bring our faith into all the decisions of our lives, so that like the words of the Psalm 63 we keep in mind that our souls thirst for God and can be quenched by nothing other than that holy love. And so my friends, my church family, I say once again this day: prayer makes a difference. Trust me on this if you don’t know it already. Trust Christ. Reach out for God through prayer. For God is with us, waiting patiently to reach back.

Let us now bow our heads in prayer together.

Most Holy and Awesome God, your presence astounds us. Your offer of love confounds us. While we fill our busy days with countless activities and plans we too often forget to make you a part of them. Help us, we pray. Forgive and renew us. For we need your presence, O God. We need your peace, your hope, your purpose. Help us seek you out as you so lovingly sought us through Christ, your Son, our Savior.

Amen.

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Psalm 63: 1-4

O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you;

My flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips

when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;

for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.

My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.

Luke 11: 1-13

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say:

Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins,

For we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

And do not bring us to the time of trial.

And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even through he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”