01082022 – Jesus Prayed – Luke 3
I am asking that my AA and Al-Anon friends please forgive me, as well as those who have struggled with various stages or forms of dementia. These are NOT to be taken lightly.
I did think this was cute, however!
It was written for folks over 50. And, I’d venture to say- you probably know someone who is there…or getting close.
It’s called the “Senility Prayer:”
Grant me “the senility” to forget the people I never liked anyway, the “good fortune” to run into the ones “I do,” and the eyesight “to be able to tell the difference.”
Sometimes as we age, we can get a little “cranky.” It happens. Sorry!
So, I want to talk about prayer. And where this comes from, is of course, the Gospel of Luke.
Literally hours after our liturgical season of Christmas has ended – Jesus enters all grown up…and ready to boogie.
It is the celebration of the Baptism of Our Lord, otherwise known as being, the First Sunday after the Epiphany, which was Thursday of this last week.
What jumped out at me, was the five small words, “And while he was praying.”
For the record this is only to be found in Luke, it is a part of “the uniqueness” that makes his gospel different.
So, Jesus is being baptized, and during his baptism he is praying.
Luke wants us to know, he is a man of prayer. Are you? Are you a woman of prayer? Or not?
Prayer needs to be central, not peripheral.
Prayer is the “native language” of our faith. It is our native tongue, our vernacular. It is what we do.
But I get it. Not everybody prays. Not everybody knows how to pray…how to begin to pray. Or feels comfortable with prayer.
Prayer was never meant to be obligatory or burdensome. It is meant to be natural, just flowing. It is conversation with our God.
Tons of people struggle to maintain a healthy and vibrant prayer life. Ebb and flo are part and particle. Seasons of dryness and discouragement do happen.
God understands. And probably smiles. He understands!
And Luke is clear. Jesus prayed. And he prayed frequently. He prayed at all the major and pivotal times in his life. As a practicing Jew, he would have prayed daily…and especially on the Shabat’…the Sabbath day.
What about you? How’s your prayer life?
How YOU doin’?
Psalm 91 says, “He shall call upon me and I will answer him, I will deliver him and honor him.”
Isaiah 65 says, “And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.”
And in the Sermon on the Mount, from Matthews’ gospel, Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.”
The scripture says, “Pray at all times,” “Believe in God,” “ask God,” “Pray and don’t lose heart.”
I tell you, it is the vernacular the language of our faith. Pray. Pray for others.
A voyaging ship was wrecked during a storm at sea and only two of the men on it were able to swim to a small, desert like island.
The two survivors, not knowing what else to do,agree that they had no other recourse but to pray to God. However, to find out whose prayer was more powerful, they agreed to divide the territory between them and stay on opposite sides of the island.
The first thing the first man prayed for
was food. The next morning, the first man saw a fruit-bearing tree on his side of the land, and he was able to eat its fruit.
The other man’s parcel of land remained
barren.
After a week, the first man was lonely and he decided to pray for a wife. The next day, another ship was wrecked, and the only survivor was a woman who swam to his side of the land.
On the other side of the island,there was nothing.
Soon the first man prayed for a house,
clothes, more food. The next day, like
magic,all of these were given to him.
However,the second man still had nothing.
Finally, the first man prayed for a ship, so that his wife and he could leave the island. In the morning, he found a ship docked at his side of the island.
The first man boarded the ship with his wife and decided to leave the second man on the island. He considered the other man unworthy to receive God’s blessings,since none of his prayers had been answered.
As the ship was about to leave, the first man heard a voice from Heaven booming, “Why are you leaving your companion on the island?”
“My blessings are mine alone, since I was the one who prayed for them,” the first man answered. “His prayers were all unanswered, and so he does not deserve anything.”
“You are mistaken!” the voice rebuked him. “He had only one prayer, which I answered. If not for that, you would not have received any of my blessings.”
“Tell me,” the first man asked the voice,
“what did he pray for that I should owe him anything?” “He prayed that all your prayers be answered.”
For all we know, our blessings “are not the fruits of our prayers alone,” but “those of another” praying for us.
Pray, it is WHAT WE DO, we are people of prayer.
Amen.