I have a question for you today
How is your prayer life?
I ask this question because I am interested in you thinking about three things:
Are you praying regularly?
What and who are you praying for?
And how is prayer affecting the rest of your life?
Are you praying regularly?
What and who are you praying for?
And how is prayer affecting the rest of your life?
And the reason I am raising this is that prayer is one of the spiritual habits
Spiritual disciplines
That is important to our Christian life
That is important to our relationship with God and with other people
On most occasions when I pray to God
I am not just praying in relation to issues or things concerning myself,
But also others
If you look at our Gospel reading again
From Luke 18, verse 1
We hear Jesus clearly saying that I am about to tell you a story that demonstrates why it is essential,
why it is necessary,
why it is important
that you keep on praying no matter what and never give up
To better understand the story
It is helpful to jump back a few verses and see in what context Jesus told this story
In Luke 17 verse 20 we hear that there were a group of people
The Pharisees
Who were impatient, (you don’t know anyone like that do you?)
And they wanted to know when the kingdom of God would be coming
Now why do you think they asked this question?
Could it possibly have been that what they were experiencing something in their lives at that point in time
That did not feel like, did not look like, did not resemble what they believed God’s kingdom should be!!
Do you ever feel that way?
That there is a huge difference between how you are living now
With the problems and issues we hear about, encounter and face
To how life should be with God
Well I do and we should
Because Jesus has not returned, so our lives are a mixture of blessing from God and sin affected issues
What we experience as reality now
Is not how God intended life to be
It is not what God wants us to be experiencing
Now we often criticize the Pharisee’s but they got this right
They recognized that there was something wrong with life as they knew it
It was not Godly
And they knew that the Kingdom of God offered something far better, far more, far superior
to the current broken, tarnished reality of life they were experiencing
And they wanted to know when it was about to become reality
Do you ever wonder when God’s kingdom
When you will see a little bit more of heaven on earth?
Well Jesus in answer to the Pharisee’s question and to our question
Jesus responds first by saying
be ready and not to turn back
And then with the parable we heard today in Luke 18
Where Jesus encourages us to keep on praying
And there is a reason for this!!!
When we pray…
We are not bound to today’s reality
Yes we experience it
But when we pray our thoughts are on the future God has prepared for us
We are communicating, talking with God about our life and his dreams for us
Isn’t that a great opportunity, a wonderful privelege?
Being able to talk to God about your life, your concerns, your worries, your joys
and also His dreams for you
Now there is something that is helpful for us to remember
Communication works best when you are not the only one talking
But when we also listen
A good friend of mine is constantly telling people in sales training
Hey you have two ears and one mouth
Use them proportionally
And he says the same when it comes to prayer
And this part of the key of understanding this parable
Prayer is not just about us jabbering to God
About us talking to God and then concluding with Amen
And going on with life
And wondering when or why God hasn’t answered my prayer
Prayer is far more than this
Prayer involves talking to God
And then listening to how God responds
This may take time
This could involve allowing a set time for prayer each day
Talking for only 1/3 of that time, then reflecting on what you prayed and listening to God interjecting into those prayers
It may also involve testing and experimenting
It definitely involves opening up your bible
And it involves allowing God to question you, to respond to you through many different situations and people
Every week I find prayer with God as one of the most beneficial and helpful things I do
Sometimes my prayer times is quiet and very solitude
And sometimes I get frustrated with God,
And when I am by myself I express this frustration out loud and phsyically
“God why has this or that problem gone on for so long, help us fix it?”
ever been like that
One of the things I have discovered is that often when I have been praying for an issue for some time that God:
uses this time to help me see some other perspectives of this issue,
some other approach,
a different perspective about the things, issue or people I may not have considered if He had answered prayers immediately
And something else also often happens
He helps me see how I as one of his believers should be involved in being part of the answer to the prayers I have prayed
On Friday and Saturday I spent the day at the Leadership Summit
One of the presenters was a gentleman called Richard Curtis
Anyone know him?
Heard of the films Four weddings and a Funeral, or Notting Hill
What about the tv show Mr Bean
He wrote the scripts for them
However one of his other great interests and passions in life
Is using his gifts, contacts and talents to help people in need
He is one of the founders of Make Poverty History campaign, Live 8 concert
As part of the interview
He made a very profound statement that hit home
After praying about poverty for some time
He woke up one morning and realised that maybe when he prays about something
That he may be part of the answer to the prayer
That God may wants him to do something about what he is praying for
Now think about your prayers
What have you been praying for recently?
How are you allowing God to use you to help your prayers be answered?
Interestingly that just after the Pharisee’s pestered Jesus in Luke 17 verse 20,
In verse 21 Jesus makes an interesting reply,
A reply the Pharisee’s and many don’t get
His reply is the kingdom of God is within you!!
What does that mean for you and your prayer life?
When we pray God has the opportunity to reveal to us how life should be
And being persistent in prayer means rather than just being focused on what we perceive to be today’s reality
God begins introducing His dreams for us and the world, to us
This brings me to another point
If Jesus told this parable in relation to the Pharisees asking
When is God’s kingdom going to come?
Maybe we need to ask the following about our prayer life
How many of our prayers are in relation to God’s kingdom coming about?
How much of your praying is focused on the people you know being connected to God’s kingdom?
And how often do you ask God to change you so His kingdom is becomes more obvious in you, in this congregation, in the parish and in the community?
In his explanation to the Lord’s Prayer, Martin Luther picked up this very point….
He says something along the lines of God doesn’t need our prayers to make His kingdom come, we do because when we pray this line we are praying that God’s kingdom will come in us.
And this takes time
Anyone who has experienced a change by God…it takes time
Most of you know Abubakar….he was baptised in our parish some 2 years ago
I thought wonderful…look how God has used us
Do you realise that for over 12 years the Holy Spirit has been touching him through many different other Christians
And many of these Christians have been praying for him during this time
And so keep praying for people
And keep revealing God to them
Also in yourself…
Remember it takes time to change
Sometimes the Holy Spirit does it instantly
Other times God is patient with us….
and helps us through the process of change
There is one final point we should look at in relation to today’s Gospel reading
That is in the area of justice
Justice is an important issue
Justice also takes time
Search through the stories of justice and you often see how long justice can take
Nelson Mandella was 27 years in jail seeking justice not for himself but for all black people in South Africa
And eventually it came about because of the perseverance of himself and many others
And as Christians we seek justice not just for ourselves but for others
Justice on earth is something God uses us to bring about
As an insight or sample of his love and how much he cares
And if we are going to be involved in praying for and bringing about justice
We should understand a little of what God means by justice
Listen to Isaiah chapter 1 verse 17
17 learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed. a
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow
Listen to that again
and from Isaiah 30 verse 18
18 Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you;
he rises to show you compassion.
For the LORD is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!
Justice is not primarily about attacking the wrong doer,
but helping those who have been wronged
I have to admit I have a problem with many activists…
For some years I couldn’t work out why
Their causes are often good,
at times I agreed with them
But one day it hit me after reading scripture, in particular the passage from Isaiah chapter 1 verse 17 that the problem I have is their approach
Often they came across as being more focused on hurting the wrong doer than really addressing the problem or issue of helping those who have been wronged
In today’s Gospel reading the widow never gave up seeking justice from an unjust and uncaring judge for herself
But what Jesus wants us to know from this story is
That God is not like this unjust judge…
who had no intention of giving justice
God promises you justice
To fix the wrong that has happened in your life
Infact he has already dealt with the major wrong in your life
But we haven’t fully seen it
Yet we will
God promises that you will be welcomed into heaven
That he has prepared a place for you
That you will experience a place where nothing perishes, spoils or fades
And to make sure this has happened
Jesus has already paid the penalty for everything that would you prevent you from receiving this from God
So keep on praying
Keep praying for others, yourself and justice
No matter what is happening, because God always has something better prepared for you
and he will deliver
AMEN
