Easter 5
John 16:23-33
May 22, 2022
“Father”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let me tell you a story. A story about God and you and how often you talk to Him. One day you and I are going to die and go to heaven to be with Jesus. Because we believe in Him and He’s risen from the dead and He’s promised us that He will take us to be with Him in our Father’s house.
…Easter 6 Rogate
John 16:23-33
May 17, 2020
“Prayer – What Is It?”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
I tried to find out where the expression, “I smell a rat”, came from. There doesn’t seem to be any consensus on the origin of that phrase. It means to sense that something suspicious is going on here. Something not quite right. “I smell a rat.” I thought it came from when a rat or mouse died and started to stink but you weren’t sure where it was. Sorry to be so graphic. But our house and all the barns growing up had mice because we were surrounded by fields and cows. And you learned that smell of a dead mouse. And sometimes you couldn’t find it but you knew it was there. You smelled a rat. Something not right.
I’m very afraid that people are smelling a rat with us Christians when it comes to prayer. See we say and we act like we’re doing it all the time. It’s one of our favorite things to text to someone or to post on Facebook. One of our favorite answers when someone has problems, “Just pray about it.” All the politicians love to say it whenever any tragedy happens, “Our prayers go out to the victims.” We have all these phrases, “My prayers are with you. I’m praying for you. You’re in my prayers.” Yet many people smell a rat in there. They can see through the rest of our words and actions if we’re not truly praying as often as we say and act like we are.
Easter 6
John 16:23-33
May 26, 2019
“Knocking on the Door”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
There are three big reasons why Christians such as you and me don’t pray like we should. There are more than three reasons why people don’t pray. But in my experience these are three of the biggest. One is that we don’t have the time for it. Another is that we don’t know what to say. Those two are very common. They’re also very easy to deal with. I’ll save them for the end and deal with them with no problem.
But the third reason we don’t pray will take a little more time. And it will take a little more thought from you. Because it’s not as obvious as the other two. A reason that you and I often don’t pray is simply because we don’t know how we’ll be received. We don’t know how God will take our prayer. When you knock on God’s door, will He open the door smiling and happy to see you? Or will He open the door with a loaded shotgun?
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Easter 6 Rogate
John 16:23-33
May 6, 2018
“Ask, and You Will Receive”
Easter 6 Rogate
John 16:23-33
May 21, 2017
“The Conqueror”
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
The name of this Sunday is Rogate, which means “ask” / “pray”. It comes from the Gospel reading. Jesus tells His disciples to pray. To ask for whatever in His name. We’ll talk about prayer in a bit. But then after His words about prayer He says, “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” The word “overcome” there is often translated elsewhere in the Bible as “conquer”. Jesus has conquered the world. Overcome it. …