The Otherness Of Prayer

There are lots of things we can learn from the early Church.  Dealing with persecution ... placing our "stuff" in the right perspective ... and the ultimate focus of prayer.  These are a few of the many lessons.  In our series of sermons on Still Day One After Pentecost, I want to grab on to one of those lessons about prayer.

I have heard lots of prayers in my life of ministry.  Some have been beautiful.  Many have been needs-oriented.  But the Acts Church teaches us something worth learning about the "otherness" of prayer.  Here goes!

In Acts 4:24 the prayer begins ... "Sovereign Lord, You made the heavens and the earth and everything in them" PRAISE OF GOD ... "You spoke through Your Holy Spirit through our father David" GOD'S INVOLVEMENT IN/THROUGH TIME ... "Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against His anointed one" GOD'S HISTORIC UNDERSTANDING AND PERSPECTIVE ,,, "Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed" GOD'S CURRENT UNDERSTANDING/PERSPECTIVE ... "They did what Your power and will had decided beforehand should happen" GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY.  Let's stop here.  Did you notice whom this prayer is about up to this point?  God!

Now the meat of the prayer for God's Church and God's people.  "Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable Your servants to speak Your Word with boldness" EQUIP US TO WITNESS BOLDLY ... "Stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders," LET US EXTRAVAGANTLY OFFER YOUR LOVE/HEALING ... "Through the name of Your Holy servant, Jesus" LET US OFFER CHRIST.

Do you see it?  It is not about us at all!  It is about Jesus, the work and plan of God in the world and the prayerful worship of a God worthy of our worship!  Here is part of a very Wesleyan prayer that tracks alongside the Acts 4 Church ... "I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thy wilt.  Rank me with whom thou wilt.  Put me to doing.  Put me to suffering.  Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for the or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty.  Let me have all things, let me have nothing.  I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.  And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art mine and I am thine ... so be it!  And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in Heaven! Amen!

Jesus prayed, "not my will but thine."  For us, not about us.  Wesley was right!  Acts was right!  Jesus was right! AMEN

Interpolation

Interpolation is a term used generally in math.  It means the insertion of something of a different nature into something else.  In math it is a way of estimation.  In life it should remind us of something that happened on Pentecost ... God's insertion of the Holy Spirit into the church (people like you and me).

I prefer to think of this in the context of wind and waves (Mark 4:35-41).  Jesus is teaching by the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus says, "Let us go over to the other side."  So they get into a boat, and other boats are with them, and they proceed across the "lake."  The Scripture says a furious squall comes up, and waves are breaking over the side of the boat.  Jesus is taking a nap on a cushion.  The disciples are distressed ... "Teacher, don't you acre if we drown?"  Jesus gets up, rebukes the wind, and the lake becomes calm.  The disciples ask a pointed question ... "Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?"

There are beings of different natures in the boat.  There is Jesus, fully God and fully human ... a unique being unlike any other.  There are disciples and followers of Jesus who are people like you and me.  Jesus is supernatural (above nature).  The followers are as bewildered as I would be if a storm arises.  What does this teach us about Jesus and ourselves?

First, the miracle of calming the storm wasn't done as a show for the disciples or as a exhibition of Jesus' power.  Jesus performed miracles that mirrored the saving grace of God while pointing to the glory of the Father in Heaven.  They are for us to see, but not about us.  

Second, as we learn about Jesus and grow into Christlikeness, we grow (become sanctified) in how we deal with life's wind and waves.  The disciples are puzzled by Jesus' calm demeanor inside a terrible storm.  They even accuse Him of not caring, because he sleeps through the storm.  But as we grow, we become more able to 1) trust God in the storm, 2) be patient in the storm, 3) believe that God somehow has a long-term plan that trumps the storm.  Jesus is for us, but about greater/higher things.

Finally, we should see this story as a preview of life in an unpredictable world.  Jesus didn't prevent the storm, even for Himself and his closest followers.  Jesus knows a lot of learning, and possibly even healing, happens in the storm.  In her song, Skellig, Lorena McKennitt writes about a monk travelling from Ireland to Rome to save the writings of the saints.  The trip was long and arduous, and one line recounts the lessons of a hard journey ... "the waves would wash my tears, the wind my memory."  

In the good times, God provides.  In the struggles and storms, God provides.  In the boat, tossed about by the wind and the waves, God teaches.  And God brings His Spirit, His lessons and His beautiful (and very different) perspective into our chaos and says, "peace ... be still."  Because it is exactly what we need, God brings something of a different nature (His Spirit) into something else (us) and it changes us.  We are a new creation!  Randy

Refreshed

Last Saturday we had a tree-planting party at the Youth Activities Center (I'm trying that name on for size).  About 5 of us gathered in this oppressive heat, dug some holes, and now we have about 26 or so trees planted as a border.  It didn't take long, but when we finished we were all hot and sweaty.  So we sat under the awning and had bottled water and biscuits ... the breakfast of champions.  That water wasn't so cold, but it was certainly refreshing.

In Acts 3, Peter speaks to a people who are depleted, diminished and discouraged.  They are occupied by the Romans and their self-governance has been depleted ... they are discouraged.  The Scriptures call the time they are in "famine."  "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord God, when I will send a famine upon the land.  Not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord (Amos 8:11)."  For 400 years, no prophets and no sign of spiritual rain.  Then, Jesus comes, preaching, teaching and healing ... living water and the "word made flesh."  They killed him.  But God is beautifully persistent and doggedly determined.  On day one after Pentecost, Peter (again) preaches the message of salvation to the guilty.  "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord (Acts 3:19)."

Two commands and three results can happen from Peter's message.  First, repent ... turn around ... change direction.  A golf teacher I watch on TV says, "If you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting."  There is a simple depth to this command, and we would be well-advised to follow Peter's wisdom.  If you want to be refreshed, change direction!

Second, turn to God.  The gathered crowd had turned to false leaders, a dead legalistic system and their own understanding.  Peter's message, "run to the one you crucified" doesn't make much sense to those who are doubling-down on the status quo, but to those who are starving and dying of thirst, it is life!  Turn to God ... it is the only solution!

What happens when we repent and turn to God?  Our sins can be wiped out ... the burden of guilt can be lifted!  Refreshing times from the Lord can happen!

I think we all want to be refreshed.  But I wonder if we do what the writer of "Still Day One" suggested ... we get stuck reflecting on "What would Jesus do?"  It is not a bad question ... it just stops short of what I think we are called to do.  What would happen if we asked, "What is Jesus doing?"  And what if we responded by joining in with Jesus to bring the "kingdom on earth as it is in heaven."  Church-light (really not Church at all) is coming for our weekly feeding.  Church-deep (what Jesus is doing) is being in the game of kingdom-bringing.

I think God is (right now) in the business of famine-breaking.  Do you ask yourself, "What is Jesus doing?"  Maybe little girls ringing bells on Sunday morning?  Maybe new people, excited to jump in and invest in kingdom-building?  Maybe trees at the Youth Activities Center?  Maybe a little girl showing me the beautiful craft she made during children's church?  Maybe our little ones singing "This little light of mine!?"  What is Jesus doing?

Peter preached the message of salvation to a huge crowd that had seen a miraculous healing.  Peter told them Jesus wanted to refresh them.  Some believed.  Some just stood there, enjoying the show.  The religious leaders dragged Peter and John before the authorities, and chastised them.  All had a choice.  You, too, have a choice.  Will you leave this blog refreshed and empowered, just amused, or angry at the message that messes with your status-quo?  Do you REALLY want to know what Jesus is doing?  Randy

Shlne All Your Light

In our sermon series, Still Day One After Pentecost, I was reading the story about the man begging at the "gate called Beautiful."  The identity of the gate is a historical mystery, because the location could be several places.  I am buying that this is the Shushan Gate, the gate where the Jewish "scapegoat" was sent into the wilderness, carrying the sins of the people (an annual ritual of the Day of Atonement in Jewish practice).  What could be more beautiful than seeing your sins walk out into the wilderness to their rightful place with Azazel, the fallen angel.  Although, I can think of one thing far more beautiful ... having the Son of God cast your sins as far as the east is from the west.

This little story comes as a post-Pentecost event, and Peter and John are living out "still day one" after Pentecost.  They are filled with God's Spirit and arrive at the temple, at this gate where both gentiles and women might gather.  Worship was common at temple entrances, but on this day, about three in the afternoon, they are "fixin" to have Church!  A beggar, lame from birth, asks Peter and John for a handout.  Peter responds, "I don't have any silver or gold for you, but I'll give you what I have.  In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, get up and walk (Acts 3:6)!"  The Scripture says, when Peter helped him up his feet and ankles were healed and strengthened, and he jumped up!  Yep, that's Church all right!  Jesus' name proclaimed, people healed, people joyful because of what God has done.

In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus calls us light that is not to be hidden ... it is to be shone before others with good deeds, and it is to glorify our father in heaven.  In day one after Pentecost, Jesus calls us to be "the light of the world."  But, in the grind of daily life, I wonder if we forget the power and light of the gospel and become content with just lighting our own way through the darkness.  And here, at least in my estimation, is where we miss the point.

1) Maybe we just want to make it through the day.  Events, weariness, kids, work, the problems of the world, remind us that the world is dark.  But Isaiah said, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light."  Do you live in the darkness, or do you live in the light?  It is a choice.

2) Maybe we have decided that the little bit of light we have is only enough to supply our needs.  But Matthew 5:14-16 reminds us that we are only given the light to "shine before others."  The light only does its job when we let it out.  That, is also a choice.

3) Maybe we think that our little light is so weak, so insufficient and so dim, it can't be of help to anyone.  And this thought caused me to remember a song. In 1999 Amt Grant wrote a lyric about this.  The tag line in the song is, shine all your light in the sun.  The song reminds us that we don't operate out of a dim little light that is only for us and is powerless in a dark world.  We are, what Paul calls (1 Thessalonians 5:5) "children of the light ... we do not belong to the darkness." 

In day one after Pentecost, we do not operate under our power, and we do not operate in a vacuum.  We do what the song says ... we shine ALL our light in the sun.  We are like Peter and John who have nothing that can do much, except through the power of Jesus the Nazarene.  We are the light of the world, but we are agents of Jesus, THE Light of the world ... the light that overcomes the darkness ... the light that heals beggars that are lame from birth.  So, as Amy Grant writes so well ... do all you can, clap with one hand, and shine all your light in the sun!  Randy