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September 27, 2009
“Prayer Connections”
Matthew 6: 5-13/James 5: 13-20
Sunday, September 27, 2009
It is wonderful to be the Pastor of a church where prayer is given a high priority. In our weekly order of Worship, prayer is given a place of honor, just before the last hymn. Before we pray we have a time to present items we need to pray about, not only needs, but also causes of Thanksgiving.
We also have a midweek prayer service where sometimes 10 percent of our members gather to spend 20 minutes in prayer at 7:00 in the morning. And we have people who keep our needs in their prayers and pray for all of us daily, especially when they hear that we might have special needs.
Each weekday our Administrative Assistant sends a daily prayer out to all of those on our e-mail list to assist us in our prayers.
So why would the pastor of Faith church feel the need to preach a sermon about prayer? Because prayer is one of the most important duties of all Christians. Why would I say such a thing? Because of the references to prayer in our Holy Scriptures.
In the Old Testament there are directions for prayers. In the New Testament there are several references to prayer, including the information that the Apostles, when they were in Jerusalem often went up to the temple for the prayers which were offered three times daily.
In the Gospels we also have the many references to the prayer life of Jesus. Prayer was a regular part of his life, especially as He faced his times of trials. We know from the Gospels that Jesus often went off alone to pray to His Father. I have often argued that if Jesus, the divine son of God needed to pray to stay in close fellowship with His Father, how much more do we, who are far from being divine need to pray?
But before I go any further, I want to correct what I think is a common misunderstanding about prayer. While it is important that we communicate with God in prayer, it is not necessary that we communicate everything to God in our prayers. God does not need us to tell him in our prayers how things are going down here on earth. He does not need our prayers to be informed about all that he needs to do.
In the passage Glenn read from Matthew, Jesus in telling the apostles not to throw multiple meaningless phrases at God in their prayers to impress God with the length of their prayers gave as a reason the following phrase “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Prayer is not for us to keep God fully informed of our needs, it is a forum for us to communicate with God. It is a channel through which we can relate to God as his children who need his loving care. Prayer is a conduit through which we can talk to our Father in heaven.
When we talk to people on the phone or in person our conversations are not always really about telling and hearing the latest events in our lives. It is a way of letting the other person know that we care about them and about what happens to them. That is what prayer is all about, and that is what Jesus wanted us to understand primarily about prayer. That is why the example he gave us in the Lord’s Prayer begins with the Words, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”. Our prayers are messages addressed to Almighty God whose name is most Hallowed or Holy, but they are addressed to him as Father by his children. We are in the Holy family of God. We are to remember who our father is, but we are privileged to speak to him as his children.
While I was in college living away from home my father was pastor of a church in New Jersey. I would often return home for weekends and summers. The manse where we lived was next to the church and we usually parked our cars in the church parking lot instead of the street. One night I had some friends in my car and we were in conversation when we arrived home so we stayed in the car to finish our conversation before we went in the house. After a few minutes the police arrived. The police asked what we were doing in the parking lot. I said that we were just sitting in my car talking before we went inside. He asked “Inside where” I said “inside the house”. He said “inside what house?” Getting a little bit upset I pointed to the manse and said “That house”. The policeman asked why I was going into that house and I said “because I live there”. The police-man said “You live in Pastor Horner’s house?” and I said, “yes, I am his son.” The officer then knew that It was OK for me to be in the parking lot because of who my father was. Sometimes in life it makes a big difference who your father is. Jesus wanted us to remember that God is our father and prayer is a channel through which we can touch base with our Dad, the Almighty God.
This past week the phone rang at 1:45 in the morning. It was my father. He often goes to bed at 8:00 and by midnight is tired of lying flat in bed, so he asks the nursing home staff to get him up and dressed and put him in his lounge chair where he sleeps comfortably for the rest of the night. Sometimes.
Sometimes he wakes up and because he is up and dressed, he thinks others are too. When he called me at 1:45 this past week he asked “Are you up?” I said “I am now”. For the next few minutes we talked in the middle of the night about ordinary things. My Sister Connie was going to visit him the next day and we talked about that and a few other normal things. All in all it was a delightful conversation with my dad.
It is that kind of conversation that God wants us to have with him in our prayers. And yes, sometimes God seems to want to have those conversations in the middle of the night. When He calls by waking you up for no reason, pray to him until He allows you to go back to sleep.
But now I want to turn your attention to the passage I read from James because I want you to see some connections he makes to Jesus’ instruction about prayer and to some other areas of the Christian life.
In verse 13 James wrote “Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.” Here we have two categories of people who should pray.
Those who are suffering need to pray, not so God will be made aware of their suffering, but so the suffering person will be made aware that God cares about their suffering and be reminded that their Father can end their suffering.
Those who are cheerful should also pray, although in our text it says that they should sing songs of praise. For the Jews and the early Christians there was not much difference between songs and prayers. If you look at many of the songs that are in the book of Psalms, you will notice that many of them are prayers. Our prayers should always contain our praise of God for answered prayers and our thanksgiving for all that makes us cheerful.
In verse 14 we see two more categories of those who should pray. “Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord.”
Those who are sick should pray for healing. And they should ask others to pray for them. Here the Church Elders are specifically mentioned. The elders where to pray over them and to anoint them with oil. Scholars disagree as to the purpose of the anointing. Some think it has to do with the use of oils as medicine. If so, we have a reference here to people not only praying for the sick, but also encouraging them to take their medicine. Are you thankful to God for your doctors and the medicines they prescribe for you? Do you see them as gifts from God for your healing and good health? You should.
In verse 15 and 16 there is another connection made. “The prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another so that you may be healed”.
I hope you noticed that in this passage and in the Lord’s Prayer, forgiveness of sins and of sinners is one of the topics they have in common. We are to pray for forgiveness for sick people and all people. We are to confess our sins to God in prayer and to other Christians so they can pray for our forgiveness. We should also pray for others to become aware of their sins so they can repent. And we are especially to pray that God will forgive our own sins.
Then there is a reminder of how powerful our prayers can be. We are told that Elijah by his fervent prayers stopped it from raining in Palestine for 3 1/2 years. We are told that “the prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.” When you need help, pray and ask other Christians to pray for you.
And in verses 19 & 20 I think there is another category of people who need to be mentioned in our prayers. Those who have wandered from the truth. Those we thought had believed and those who never have. Pray for them. Pray that they will be forgiven and that they will believe in Jesus. Whatever you do to help an unbeliever or wanderer, whether it be prayers that they receive faith and salvation, or a word or deed that reminds them of the love of God, or perhaps a subtle and kind reminder that they are not pleasing God, Anything that helps a lost one come to Jesus is a wonderful thing the helps God cover the multitude of their sins.
So my friends, in all things pray. Pray when you suffer, pray when you are happy, pray for God’s forgiveness for yourself and for others, pray for healing for yourself and others, and above all, pray to your Father in Heaven, knowing that He loves you and that He can answer your prayers in mighty ways.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 02:08 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2009
“The Up-side Down, In-side Out World of the Christian”
Mark 9: 30-37 & James 3: 13 -4:10
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Some of our non-biblical writers, most of them writing in the fantasy or Science Fictions genres, have written about worlds or universes that are in some ways much different from what we know. In these imaginary alternate worlds, up can be down, in can be out, animals can talk, and minutes can last for decades.
But the authors of the Bible are not to be outdone in telling us of an alternate existence. In their writings it is called the Kingdom of God. It is a kingdom that includes some of those living in this world, some who are no longer living in this world, and some who have not yet been born into this world. So it transcends the categories of past, present, and future.
And, while some of those who are alive in this world are a part of the kingdom of God, the nature and standards of the kingdom of God are in many ways opposite to the standards of this world. That makes it difficult for those folks who are in both this world and the kingdom of God. The reason I am telling you this is that you are probably one of those people. If you can hear my voice, you are most likely alive, and if you are in this room, there is a pretty good chance that you are a Christian, one who belongs to Jesus and His Kingdom.
This morning we have before us two passages from the New Testament that describe for us some of the precepts or rules of the kingdom of God that are counter to the modus operandi of the nations and cultures of this world.
In our first passage, the one from the Gospel of Mark, we hear some strange, counter-cultural words from Jesus, the King of the kingdom of God. His words were so opposite of what was normal in his world that even his close followers and friends did not understand what he said. He said “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”
The problem they had with what he said was that they understood the first part. They understood who he meant by “the Son of Man.” That was a term that Jesus used to refer to himself. He had borrowed it from one of the OT prophets who described a vision in which he saw “one like a son of man” who was clearly the king of God’s kingdom. The Jews had a name for this coming son of man, it was Messiah, or anointed one, or as we say “Christ”.
When Jesus called himself the son of man in this context he was saying that he was the promised king God chose to rule His kingdom. Then he talked about his being killed and rising from the dead. The idea that the Messiah would be killed was inconceivable to the Apostles, so they did not understand.
But this basic doctrine of Christianity is one of the things that makes the kingdom of God so opposite to the nations and cultures of this world. The Kings and nations of this world exercise their power while they are alive. Death ends their power. That is why we have assassinations and attempted assassinations.
But the kingdom of God operates on a different principle. In the kingdom of God our king and his followers do not demonstrate their power by taking the lives of others or overcoming attempts of others to take their lives, we demonstrate our power by raising from the dead. We belong to a kingdom that will never end.
Then Jesus had a run-in with his Apostles over leadership styles. They were arguing with each other about who was the greatest. It was clearly their understanding that some of them would have authority over others of them. Jesus said “Whoever wants to be first must be the last of all and servant of all.”
What he was saying was that the power structure in the Kingdom of God, and the church as the earth-bound part of that kingdom is upside down. The leaders serve the least, they don’t force them the serve the leaders. God invented the concept of the Leader-Servant.
Then to illustrate this concept, Jesus took a child and said “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me”
Now in the first century, children were not very highly regarded. Jesus’ directions about children were very counter-cultural in his time. It is interesting to note that the places in the world where Christianity has had the most influence has the highest views about Children’s rights and offer protection for children, with the possible exception of unborn children.
Then James in his letter sets forth more values of the Kingdom and we see more that are contrary to the values and principles of the nations and cultures of this world. He wrote about two kinds of wisdom, one that is of this world and one that comes down from above, from the kingdom.
The Wisdom of this world includes envy and selfish ambition. In fact, our economic and political systems seem to be built on envy and selfish ambition.
Contrary-wise the wisdom of the Kingdom is “Pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy.” By and large, the wisdom of this world has mostly to do with getting, while the wisdom of the kingdom has to do with giving and serving. Maybe that is a good test for us to see which type of wisdom we are following. Is what we consider to be wisdom going to lead us to getting or to giving?
In the 4th chapter of his epistle James describes what happens when we live by the wisdom of the world and when we try to mix the two types of Wisdom. He writes “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something but do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts.
The desires for the things of this world cause us to get involved in plottings and schemes that will bear bad fruit, even if we are happy when we get what we want.
And sometimes we even enlist the power of God to help us as we attempt to live by the wisdom of the world. As he wrote in vs 2&3. “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.”
James recommends very highly that we not try to mix the two types of wisdom. He refers to those who attempt to live in both worlds or kingdoms as Adulteresses. This usage is based on the relationships that Israel in the OT and the Church in the NT is supposed to have with God. We are the brides of God or Christ. When we live totally in the world or half in the world, living according to its standards, customs and supposed wisdom, we are cheating on God.
In order to reconcile ourselves with God we need to humble ourselves before him and ask for his grace to live according to the standards of the kingdom. We are to turn our laughter at the joys of this world into mourning. We are not to find joy in the destruction of the enemies of our nations, We are not to rejoice in the acquisition of things or the pleasures of this life. We are to rejoice when we find ourselves living according to God’s standards by living to please Him and living to help and serve the people God loves.
The last 3 verses of our passage read “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament, and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
As long as we live in this world, we Christians are called to live by the standards of the other world, the coming kingdom of God. That means that according to the standards of this world our standards and our lives should be upside down and inside out. We should humble ourselves before the lowest and most demeaned people so that we can help them and lift them up. We should consider ourselves the servants of all.
And our sins, those things that the people of the world hide and keep inside, we are to dig out of their hiding places and confess them to God and sometimes to each other. In this and other ways we are to humble ourselves before God.
The kingdom of God on earth is an upside down and inside out kingdom. Be glad you are a part of it and try to live by its principles.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 06:47 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2009
“Leaven-ly Confusion and a Second Touch”
Mark 8: 14-26 (Exodus 12: 14-20)
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
What an interesting Scripture passage we have before us this morning! This passage has the outdoors touch of a conversation between Jesus and his apostles in an open boat on the sea of Galilee. There is a bit of comic relief here regarding the Apostle’s misunderstanding of the words of Jesus.
Then there is the drama of the healing of a blind man with what seems to be a glitch in it. Actually, it could be argued that we have two passages before us today, the one about the conversation in the boat and the one about the healing of the blind man. But as I go on I think I will be able to help you see why I think it is one passage.
But first I want to tell you what I’ve been up to this week. On Monday, Labor Day, I drove a rental car to my father’s house in West Virginia. On Tuesday morning my brother and I picked up a rental truck. On Tuesday and Wednesday, My brother, My West Virginian Cousin, and I loaded the truck with the things my father is giving me from his house. On Thursday I drove the Rental truck hone and Doug and Steve Varys and Adam Beasley helped me unload the truck into my house. The purpose of this trip was of course to bring home all of the things Diane and I wanted from my father’s house.
So imagine my chagrin when Diane asked me where the apothecary jars where and I realized that I had left them on the counter in the kitchen of my father’s house. She then asked where the miniature chest of drawers containing the silverware was. I told her it was under the counter in the kitchen of Dad’s house not too far from the Apothecary Jars. From then on, every question Diane asked me about various items made me remember my shortcomings as a mover of household goods. She later told me that she stopped asking where things were because she thought she was making me feel bad.
With that experience in mind, I am able to understand the embarrassment of the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. At some time during their voyage they realized that they had forgotten to bring enough bread. With this realization, every comment that could be construed as having to do with food was taken as a reminder of their oversight. Perhaps one of the apostles was the one who was supposed to make sure they had enough food for the journey. Every comment that had to do with food would be seen as being directed to that one.
So when Jesus said “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod” they thought Jesus was talking about their not having brought enough food. And by the way, Jesus said “Leaven” not “Yeast” as is recorded in our NRSV translation. Both leaven and yeast serve the same purpose, they cause bread and cake dough to rise so the end product is light and airy.
Yeast is a fungus that ferments the sugars in flour and other baking ingredients. Yeast is a type of Leavening agent, but it is not the type the Jews usually used in baking. They used what we sometimes refer to as starter dough. They kept a bit of dough from previous batches of bread and used it to leaven the new bread dough.
This kind of Leaven had an interesting history in Israel. When the Jews were preparing to leave Egypt just before the plague of the death of the firstborn Egyptians, they prepared a big meal to be eaten before they left. This meal included unleavened bread, a flat bread or cracker, which is today called Matzoth, because they did not have time to allow the bread to rise.
The Passover meal was to be repeated every year to celebrate the Lord bringing them out of Egypt. Unleavened bread became an important part of the annual Passover Feasts. Over time, the Leaven became to the Jews a symbol or synonym for corruption. So when Jesus warned the Apostles about the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod, he was warning then about the corruptions that the Pharisees and King Herod had fallen into. In Luke’s version of this event Jesus identifies the leaven as hypocrisy, which is pretending to be something that one is not.
The hypocrisy that the Pharisees and the Herod’s had in common was their pretending to be servant-leaders of the people. The Pharisees pretended to be concerned about leading all Jews closer to God and showing them the way to obey God’s commands. But in doing so, they became revered by the people and became politically powerful. At the time of Jesus, the Pharisees were mostly really concerned about getting more power and keeping what they had.
The Herods also liked to cast themselves as servant kings of the Jews. They built many great public buildings throughout Israel, including a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. But what the Herods were really all about was power. They committed murders to gain and keep power. They even murdered members of their own families.
This warning of Jesus about the hypocrisy of hiding the desire for power was well placed considering the later history of the Christian Church. Throughout Church History we have found church leaders seeking and misusing ecclesiastical and secular power.
Such abuses were part of the reasons for the protestant reformation. I wish I could tell you that the protestants did not seek and misuse power since the reformation but I cannot.
The Apostles were so concerned with the fact that they had not brought enough food that they could not understand Jesus’ warning. In their state of mind. Leaven = bread and Bread = food. They had not brought food. Jesus was criticizing them for their lack of preparations
They were so concerned about their failings and their stomachs that they could not hear the warning Jesus was giving them. Jesus rebuked them. He told them that although they had eyes and ears they were blind and deaf. He also told them that they had no memories. And He asked them how many baskets full of pieces of bread were left over when He miraculously fed 5,000 and then again 4,000 people.
In this rebuke I think Jesus was making two points; 1) Why were they worried about food when the proven multiplier of bread was with them? And 2) They did not understand the meaning of the miracles of the feedings of the 5,000 and the 4,000 any better than the Pharisees. Those miracles were to demonstrate that Jesus was the bread of life, the source of life, the one who gives and maintains life in all people and creatures. They had with them in the boat the bread of life God sent from heaven and they were worried about not having enough food.
I do not think it is too difficult to see how this rebuke might apply to Christians in our time. We might be easily distracted by our income shortages or our decreasing bank accounts or other concerns when we have the bread of life with us.
When they arrived on the other side of the lake, Jesus healed a blind man. But there is something unusual about this miracle. The man was not completely healed all at once. Some have suggested that Jesus failed somewhat on the first attempt or the blind man did not have sufficient faith in Jesus the first time. I think not.
I think Jesus did this healing in two parts to shake us out of our complacency and to give some hope to the Apostles who had not been able to receive an important teaching from Jesus.
The two-step healing of this man was a comfort to the apostles. They had failed to hear Jesus, but they would have the opportunity to hear him on this subject again. Just because you miss some aspect of the faith doesn’t mean you have to stay that way. Jesus offers a second touch, a second chance to receive all he has to offer.
The former blind man did not have to go through life seeing men as if they were trees walking. Jesus offered him a second chance to become fully sighted.
Many of us have not received all that Jesus has to offer us. We love the eternal life we have. But Jesus also offers us a more complete victory over sin than most of us have experienced and he also offers us a closer relationship with himself and his people than most of us enjoy. Don’t be complacent with what you have received from God. Ask for more. He gives second touches, and third touches and more. He wants you to have the fullness of all He has to offer you.
And maybe there is one other reminder in this passage. Jesus does not want us to see people as if they were trees or inanimate objects or anything less than glorious human beings created in God’s image. If you love things and use people, you have things reversed and you are not pleasing God.
Pastor David Horner
Faith Presbyterian Church
West Lafayette, IN 47906
Posted by faithpres at 05:05 PM | Comments (0)