The family business: prayer and glowing in the dark
Notes
Transcript
I made a rookie mistake this week. At my small group on Monday night I made the bold assertion that I would be preaching on prayer and proclamation as a spiritual discipline - praying, and sharing the good news. And at that point it was true - months ago when Rebecca and I planned this teaching series I had such a clear vision about what I was going to say today. I even had a great quote from one of my favourite writers, Frank Laubach, to serve as the backbone of it all:
“I must talk about God, or I cannot keep Him in my mind. I must give Him away in order to have Him. That is the law of the spirit world. What one gives one has, what one keeps to oneself one loses.”
So much wisdom in that short quote.
But then after small group, later that night, after that lovely earthquake we had, I felt a whisper from the Spirit that it might be best to readjust my course. (I’m not suggesting by the way that the earthquake was God’s way of trying to get my attention…. I’m not completely egotistic!). So here goes, sermon mark two, and in many ways I’m preaching what I need to hear - but I hope it will resonate with you too.
First - a question for you. When you think of God, whether it be Father, Son, or Holy Spirit, what comes to mind? (get responses)
Awesome. OK, next question - what’s the opening line of the Lord’s prayer?
Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name
Pete Greig writes
It’s easy to skim through the opening line of the Lord’s Prayer as if it’s just some kind of pleasantry - a heavenly handshake, a ding-dong at the door, before we get on to the real business of asking.
I realised something about myself recently which has shaken me to the core a bit - I’ve leaned almost too heavily into God being father - protector, friend, gentle, friend of sinners, arms wide open - that I’ve neglected to balance this with the sovereignty of God. In my head I know that Jesus is King, that he is ruler over all things, that the God who loves me so dearly is the same God that created all things - from the delicate dew drops on the daffodils outside church, to the very laws of physics that make our very existence possible. That’s mind blowing.
And that’s what we can so easily miss in that first line of the Lord’s prayer. Our father in heaven. Yes. Intimate relationship, loving, kind, strong. HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME. Hallowed - it’s an ancient English word, and there’s no real modern day equivalent, so hallowed will just have to do. Hallowed means to be kept holy, or set apart. But it also means that God’s name, and therefore God himself, is to be the most uniquely valued one in the whole world.
Now, we took a mini break from our sermon series last week - but we’re in the middle of a series about spiritual disciplines, or a rule of life - things that can help us to set structures around us that help us draw closer to Jesus. Even though last week wasn’t technically part of the sermon series, it actually fitted beautifully - her question ‘why are you here?’ points to the spiritual discipline of turning up week after week to join together in corporate worship.
So, enter our spiritual practice of the day. The game with minutes.
I shared a quote from Frank Laubach just before, from his short book ‘Letters by a modern mystic’ (not his title!) - Laubach was a missionary in a remote part of the Philippines, and this book contains excerpts from his prayer diary written in what was, according to his son, one of the most discouraging times of his life. He was in a country where he couldn’t yet speak the language of those around him, who were of a different faith to him, and who were largely indifferent to his presence. Yet night after night Laubach prayed, and was taught a deep humility by God that both shaped his life and those around him.
In his times of prayer, he became aware of how little he thought about God throughout the rest of the day, so he committed himself to trying to be aware of God at least one second of every minute of his waking day, in addition to his regular times of prayer. His prayer diary is a record of how he struggled and failed with it - but as he got more practiced at it the more the more he was transformed. He writes on the 3rd of June 1930:
The most important discovery of my whole life is that one can take a little rough cabin and transform it into a palace just by flooding it with thoughts of God.
But this also spread to the way he viewed those around him - twelve days later he wrote:
Now I know that every person we ever meet is God’s opportunity, if only, if only we were not so much of the time shut off from God.
If only we were not so much of the time shut off from God. Well, isn’t that the truth? We can trust that God is always present to us - so often though we can feel empty, or distant from God - but this is a symptom of OUR disconnection from God, not a lack of his presence with us.
There’s a cartoon that I love that describes God’s presence with someone he’s talking to, even though it’s a bit heretical (forgive me). It riffs off the image of footsteps in the sand.
My child, I never left you. Those places with one set of footprints? It was then that I carried you. (so far, so good)
That long groove over there is when I dragged you for a while.
One time I hid you in that little sandhole while I got a hotdog.
Ha, love it. It’s not really relevant, but I sensed we needed some light relief. Because I can hear you thinking - wait, Rebecca preached on ruthlessly eliminating hurry and busyness from our lives? Now you’re asking us to think about God every minute of every day?
Stop. Take a deep breath in.
And out.
Because this rule of life, or this practice, isn’t about adding things in to your life. It’s simply turning our compass back to north. Back to the God who created us, who loves us and everything and everyone he made, and rules supreme over all things. Back to Jesus who calls us to come, follow him - to be present with him in every moment, to learn from him, and to do what he did.
So. How does one begin?
Slowly.
22 years after the excerpts I’ve been quoting from Laubach’s diary, he wrote a short booklet called ‘the game with minutes’ - I’ve printed a few copies which are down the back if you’d like to take one. Just note that it was written in the 50s, so have grace with the language in it - it’s worth the read all the same.
The key to the game with minutes is to start slowly and tentatively. Don’t set yourself a resolution to think about God every minute of every waking moment. It’s a new skill, like riding a bike, or playing the recorder - it takes practice, and you’ll be terrible at it to begin with. So practice - choose an hour and invite God into all you do. If you’re walking down the street then imagine the way God sees them. If you’re at work, then imagine that you’re reading and writing your emails with God over your shoulder. If you’re an electrical engineer, or an artist, or you’re in the garden, or doing anything creative - imagine God the creator of all things smiling as you experience your own creativity and creation.
Maybe you need a prompt to help you on your way? Have an empty chair at the table, imagining Jesus is there with you (he does love a good meal with friends after all!), or have a cross or bible somewhere you’ll see it regularly, or an image of Jesus, or a prayer bead bracelet - something to prompt you and remind you of God’s presence with you, and his desire for you to be present with him.
At the end of your hour, give yourself a score card out of 60 - one point for each minute you remembered to be present to God. It’s a game after all! Try again the next day, and see if you can outdo yourself.
I can promise you that it will be hard. It will feel stilted. You will forget. But don’t give up. Again, to quote Laubach:
All who have tried that kind of abiding for a month know the power of it - it is like being born again from centre to circumference. It absolutely changes every person who does it. And it will change the world that does it.
Does anyone feel up to giving this a go during the week? Let us know how you found it next Sunday!
If this doesn’t resonate with you, then why not try adding a different regular rhythm of prayer into your life? Even if it’s just setting a reminder in your phone for midday every day to say the Lord’s prayer. Let yourself be interrupted by God (Jesus was great at being interrupted!)
Or follow in the footsteps of Jesus and say the shema three times a day, and give thanks before meals? (OK, I know that there is nothing in the gospels that says Jesus did this, but all Jews at Jesus’ time would have prayed these fixed prayers - and if Jesus HADN’T done them it is highly likely it would have been mentioned in scripture!).
The shema is such a powerful prayer that centres us back on the divine sovereignty of God. It’s not a prayer that you need to change - in the Jewish tradition it’s treated like a strict liturgy. I’m trying to set this as a new habit for myself - saying to myself the first two lines of the Shema, from Deuteronomy, morning and night.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You must love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength.
So, this is your challenge, your homework for the week - give one of these prayer disciplines a go for at least every day this week - and feedback next week during the service to let us know how you got on - if it worked for you, or if you found something else to draw you closer to God in prayer. Let’s learn and celebrate together.
Because this practice of abiding in God is so crucial. Because we are like glow in the dark stars - it’s only exposure to the light that lets us shine in the darkest places. Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell writes:
Exposure to the light will give us the spiritual energy to make the whole of life prayerful … I believe the Christian faith will begin to have an impact in the life of our nation when Christian people become luminous in their faith. We need to become a church that glows in the dark.
I love that. Let’s be people - and a church - that glows in the dark.
The game with minutes transformed Laubach’s life and made him glow in the dark- being more present to God made him more present to the needs of those around him. I’m going to let him have the last few words:
All I have said is mere words, until one sets out helping God right wrongs, helping God help the helpless, loving and talking it over with God. Then there comes a great sense of the close-up, warm, intimate heart of reality. God simply creeps in and you know He is here in your heart. He has become your friend by working along with you.
So if anyone were to ask me how to find God I should say at once, hunt out the deepest need you can find and forget all about your own comfort while you meet that need. Talk to God about it, and - He will be there. You will know it.
Amen.