Easter 6 May 17, 2020 The Sunday of Prayer

Or they see how we only seem to bring in God’s name and prayer for certain causes that we think are important. They may not hear about us praying any other time until all of a sudden we’re praying that our team will win the Super Bowl or we’re praying that our guy would win the election or we’re praying that we’ll get that promotion with the bigger salary. They smell the rat there too. They see that we’re not really commending ourselves and everyone else into God’s hands but we’re just using God like a back-up cheerleader to pat ourselves on the back. Something stinks here. I smell a rat.

Now please don’t misunderstand. I’m not saying all of you do this. Many of you are very faithful in prayer and you mean it when you tell someone you’re praying for them. But overall there’s a serious danger among us Christians to throw prayer around like an empty slogan. To be all talk and no action. To treat prayer like a band-aid rather than the powerful medicine that it truly is. To treat prayer more like wishing someone well rather than what it is—knocking on the door of the Almighty God, the Great Physician, and pleading with Him to show His steadfast love. To treat prayer more like a shallow conversation you have once in a while with a distant friend rather than what is—a son or daughter who goes to Mom or Dad the minute they need anything or the minute something wonderful happens.

James says in the Epistle today that it’s easy for us to deceive ourselves and think that we’re great people of God even though all we’re doing is hearing the Word and not doing it. “Be ye doers of the word,” he says, “and not hearers only.” And he goes on to talk about “pure religion.” Again, I do strongly believe that people can smell a rat when Christians aren’t genuine about prayer. Just like we can smell a rat anytime someone isn’t being genuine with us. We’re not helping anyone if we talk and talk about prayer and yet don’t do it or actually believe in its power. We’re only leading them further away from Christ and from the true joy of prayer that He gives us.

So to help us to be more genuine in prayer, to be doers and not just hearers only, we need to take to heart what Jesus teaches us about prayer in the Gospel reading today. I know that all of you here today want to be genuine. You want to be better in prayer. And that’s what Jesus wants too. That’s what He’s teaching to His disciples and to us.

First of all, just think about one of Jesus’ favorite words that He uses for prayer. By my count, He uses it at least nine different times with His disciples. When he teaches them about prayer He uses this word: ASK.

“Ask, and it will be given you.” Mt 7:7

“Whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you.” Jn 16

“Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Jn 15

“And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” Mt 21

“If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done…” Mt 18

That’s actually the name of this Sunday. Rogate in Latin. It means ask. Now if we were to put it that way all the time instead of using the word pray, then you might realize how easy this really is. If I said, “You guys need to ask for more! You guys don’t ask enough! Make sure you Christians ask for what you need today.” Now that sounds easier, right? It is easy, in that sense.

Prayer is just asking. If you tell your friend, “I’m praying for you,” then you make sure you ask. You simply ask God, “Lord, be gracious to my friend and help them.” If you’re in one of those situations where you find yourself saying, “I don’t know what to do,” then you just ask. “Lord, have mercy. Show me what to do.” There’s someone in my wife’s family who is extremely good at this. Whenever we’re talking about something that we’re concerned about it, she will stop right there and say let’s pray about it and before you even know what going’s on, she goes right into a short prayer. And it’s no show. She is absolutely genuine about it. And all of us see it. It encourages us to do the same.

Now Jesus anticipates the problem and knows that the disciples and we aren’t going to understand. He knows that we’re still going to be afraid to ask God the Father for anything. We’re going to think we’re not important enough. Or that He’s angry with us for those things we’ve done. Or that He’s upset because we’re so bad at asking. So Jesus says, “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.”

You don’t have to be afraid at all to ask the Father for anything in Jesus’ name. Why? Because the Father loves you. He knows you don’t deserve to ask for anything. That’s why He sent His Son Jesus Christ for you. He knows how bad your sin is. That’s why He sent His Son Jesus for you. So, Jesus says, you simply ask in His name. Simply ask. Don’t make it any harder than that. Ask God to help you and to help others. Ask.

Another word Jesus uses is KNOCK. Now this one He doesn’t use as often but it also shows how simple prayer is. It’s just a matter of knocking on the door. God is there waiting for you anytime you need Him. Just knock on the door. And Jesus even tells a parable to drive this home about a friend who goes and knocks on the neighbor’s door at midnight. And even then the neighbor gets him some bread. This is the same with God. There’s no time that you can’t knock on the door. He is ready and willing to open the door and listen.

Now I’ve been emphasizing today how simple prayer is. It’s just asking or knocking. And, in that sense, it is simple. But in another sense, we could also say prayer is quite difficult. Remember that the disciples had to ask Jesus how to pray. They didn’t know. And He gave them the Lord’s Prayer. Yes, prayer is simple. But it’s also hard in the sense that our sinful nature fights against it, it takes time and effort to make it a habit, and we often don’t know what to say.

If you find it hard to stay on track with prayer, you’re not alone. You’re in good company. It takes some practice and work. In the bulletin this morning I gave some things I think are helpful. There is a basic form that every Christian should use for prayer. You start with the invocation, “In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” Then you say the Creed and Lord’s Prayer. Then read a bit of Scripture. Then pray. It doesn’t have to be in that exact order. But it will be close to that. That’s the basic form all Christians use. Some Christians, of course, may not say the Creed. Some may not say the Invocation. Sure. But the basic form is God’s Word and prayer.

Now within that basic form you have great freedom to do whatever fits you best. Some pray in bed and some at a desk. Some use a book like Portals of Prayer and some just use their Bible. Some write out a list of what they’re praying for and some keep the list in their head. Some pray for an hour and some for ten minutes. All of that will vary depending on you. But the basic form will stay the same.

Now I would close with two examples of Christians who were genuine in prayer. The first is St. Paul. All you have to do is read his letters and you can tell very quickly that he’s not just throwing out empty slogans about prayer. He is continually telling people that he is praying for them. And not only that he’s doing it, but he tells them exactly what he’s praying for them. Over and over he brings up prayer because we can tell it’s a large part of his life. If Paul wrote to someone that he was praying for them they knew without a doubt that he meant it.

The second is Martin Luther. The remarkable thing about Paul and Luther is that they were both extremely busy men. Yet they were also both fervent in prayer. It blows my mind how much time Luther was able to spend in prayer even with all his other responsibilities. But we also see in his letters to people, just like in Paul’s, that he was serious and genuine about it. He wasn’t just trying to make people feel good.

God grant that you and I would be genuine as well. That we would ask and knock every day. For this I pray, “Lord, help us.”

In Jesus’ name. Amen.