We know from all of the biographies of Jesus that he spent a great deal of time during the last three years of his earthly life in prayer. We however do not know the content of his prayers and I have often wondered what he prayed about. What were his concerns? What was his focus? If these times alone were so important, what was in his heart? What thoughts filled his mind? What words were shaped by his lips?
Prayer as James Montgomery has said: "is the soul's sincere desire, unuttered or expressed, the motion of a hidden fire that trembles in the breast. Prayer is the Christians' vital breath, the Christians' native air…"And for Jesus, he breathed this air often, regularly, constantly, in the morning and in the evening and so I search and long for the content of his prayers, we look together to know his heart so that it might be our heart. The records of the content of Jesus' prayers are scant at best. Primarily they center around the closing days of his journey.
There was the time near the end, recorded by John 17 when Jesus prayed the so called "High Priestly Prayer for unity". Here Jesus prays for the disciples. "Keep them from the evil one …may they be one even as we are one."
Then there was the time in Gethsemane when he struggled on the last night of his life praying: "Not my will be done, but thine."
And on the cross he prayed quoting from the prayer of the Psalmist in the 22nd Psalm: "My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me? …In thee our fathers trusted, they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. To thee they cried, and were saved; in thee they trusted and were not disappointed."
But the greatest revelation of the content of our Lord's prayers is found in what we refer to as "The Lord's Prayer". It is only located in Luke 11:2 which would indicate that the Physician might have gathered together his words or compiled many rumors about the content of his prayers into one form.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name, for thine in the kingdom, the power and the glory forever.
There are a series of petitions here:
I must say that this last petition as it is worded has always troubled me as I have always been troubled by the story of Job as it is told that God would let the devil test Job's faith by sending tragedy into his life. I must confess that there is little room in my understanding of a creator who creates us to crush. He guides us, comforts us, redeems us, and saves us. To be sure, we make foolish mistakes, we intentionally sin, all of which leads to our confusion, and sometimes to our destruction. Perhaps the better translation of "Lead us not into temptation is "Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil."
It was interesting to note that Morris Marks, President of West Florida University, while speaking this past week about the importance of moral integrity for this coming generation, spoke of his concern on the campus of the dominance of cheating, dishonesty, alcohol and other drugs, and the problems with run away sexuality. "Save us from the time of trial." Each generation must pray. Well the goings on the campuses of our community merely reflects the activity of our offices, our homes, our athletic fields and our city streets.
It would behoove us to not judge others but to pray and repent and resolve to live differently in the days ahead in this new age of 2000.
Dear God, heavenly father, we praise and honor you. You are our creator and redeemer and as Holy Spirit even as we gather in his holy place this day you brood over us as a loving parent longs for the best for her child. You know all the yesterdays and all the tomorrows. Oh divine creator. Forgive our sins. Save us from temptations. Give us that which is healthy and right and good and will enable your kingdom to come right here on earth as it is in heaven. May the kingdom come, first in our heart right now, this very second. You are our God now and forever! Amen.
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A man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Notice what Jesus did. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him.
Politicians are noted for reaching out and touching. L. B. Johnson used to talk about the importance of getting out where the people are and "pressing the flesh" as he called it. We used to have a politician who ran for a Circuit Court Judgeship and he would always go into a room and work from left to right and go all around the room and shake hands with every person and say something very personal to each one of them. His personal words, however, were often generic like the horoscope in the paper. Generalized words that would fit for most anybody like, "How's the family?" "You look like you are feeling good" "You've got that look of confidence" "Everything going your way now?" One day he started "pressing the flesh," shaking hands and he asked this fellow "How's your mamma?" And he answered "She died last month, Judge." "I'm sorry to hear about that, God bless you." And he went on around the room visiting with every person there , but he forget where he started and he soon came back to the same fellow, shook his hand and asked "How's your mama?" And the poor fellow responded "She's still dead, Judge, still dead."
Well Jesus touched people not for political reasons but for pity sake. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. Do you know how remarkable this simple act was? Perhaps it would help if I remind you that in those days, no one touched people with leprosy. For one thing, the Hebrew law in Leviticus 13 and 14 required that no one touch a leper. They were ritually unclean. Secondly, leprosy is a loathsome disease in which the skin putrefies on the body. Who wants to touch someone in such a condition? Today, thank God, such diseases as small pox, polio and leprosy have all but been eradicated except in some remote places of the world. I'll bet most of you have never seen anyone with leprosy.
So this man, with leprosy in our story, may have gone for many years without the simplest human contact. Think about that, years without a touch. Every one of us needs physical, human touching. Without a hug a day, I start getting depressed. Studies show that babies who are not touched may die. Experts tell us that infants need to be held a lot. They have a basic need for physical warmth. Most authorities believe that you cannot spoil an infant. Now when they get to be 13 or 14, you can be spoiled rotten.
Marcel Gerber was sent by a United Nations committee to study the effects of protein deficiency on Ugandan children. She found, to her surprise, that Uganda's infants were developmentally the most advanced in the world. It was only after two years of age that the children began to be seriously damaged by such things as tribal taboos and food shortages. Ugandan infants were almost constantly held by their mothers and mother surrogates. They went everywhere with their mothers. The physical contact with the mother and the constant movement seemed to be the factors that propelled these infants to maturity beyond Western standards.
Many young parents today understand this principle and make it a practice to massage their infants. That's a wise practice. We all have a need to be touched. Studies have shown that touching has physiological benefits--even for adults. At the neo natal intensive care unit at Sacred Heart Hospital there is a "Kangaroo care" Room where parents will strip down and allow the infant to lay skin on skin on their parents' chest. One researcher made numerous studies on the effects of the practice many Christians recognize called "laying on of hands." She discovered that when one person lays hands on another, the hemoglobin levels in the bloodstream's of both people go up, which means that body tissues receive more oxygen, producing more energy and even regenerative power.
I believe our greeting time has a profound effect on any person who is greeted with a hand shake or a touch on the shoulder. The power of being touched in a respectful, caring, non invasive way. Now there is a way of touching that is invasive and a person that is older should never touch a younger person in their private areas. A person in a more powerful position should never touch inappropriately a person in a subordinate position. If and when this inappropriate kind of touching happens you should ask someone you trust for help. This kind of behavior is embarrassing and it is abusive and it is wrong.
Now back to this scripture when Jesus as an adult touches another adult. Jesus could have healed this man with leprosy simply by speaking as he often did, but he reached out and touched him. He may have known that this was exactly what this man needed. The clearest message to us from this scripture is that God Gives Us Individually What We Really Need. Our Need's Shape God's Actions.
This man needed to be touched. Jesus dealt with other people in other ways. Remember the blind man upon whose eyes Jesus applied the moist clay. Others received what they needed by the spoken word. To a paralyzed man, Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven." Some theologians suggest that this man's paralysis may have resulted from a sinful lifestyle. Maybe he needed to have those sins forgiven before he could be fully restored to wholeness. To another he said: "Take up your bed and walk." Some have suggested he just needed to be told to get out of the bed. Get a job. Get a life. Get up. Jesus said.
Grace is communicated to different people in different ways on the basis of their need. This happens each week in our worship services. Some of you are especially moved by the music. Others simply by the beauty and the reverence of this room. Some of you are moved by a reassuring handshake or hug-the greeting of a friend. Some of you are deeply moved by the times of prayer. For others of you, it is the sacrament, the Lord's Supper. Touching the bread and the cup speak more eloquently to your heart than anything that anyone could ever say. And for one or two of you, perhaps it could even be the sermon that you need. Christ ministers to each of us in our own way, on the basis of our needs.
The man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" These are powerful words, "I am willing."
The good news here is Christ is willing and will respond to your needs. Christ is willing to heal our every hurt. Christ is willing to take away every sin. Christ is willing to grant us new life. Christ is willing to bind up the broken hearted. Christ is willing to open up a new door.
If only today we ask and if only we will be obedient to his word, he will touch us.
Perhaps you watch and enjoy as I often do the Sunday evening television show "Touched by an Angel". It is a powerful show on prime time affirming time and time again God's love for people and how God will heal human hurt when we are open to him and accept his will and acknowledge him as our Lord. In a day when prayer as a part of the official curriculum of a school is not allowed in public schools, it is refreshing that on public television, we can see this well done, and obvious, and unapologetically spiritual God centered program.
We would all like to believe that God sends his spiritual angels to help us at the point of our greatest need. I do believe that. I have seen it happen. I have experienced it happen. I have see earth angels appear. That is what this scripture is about. Of course what we need is Not some ethereal appearance which glows when she speaks of spiritual things and reveals her angelic nature, but what we need is an earth angel. God touching us . Healing us. Directing us.
Christ is willing to do for us everything we truly need. Notice that I did not say, everything we want. Go back to principle 1. God works according to our individual Needs. What we want, may not, in the long run of things, be what we really need. God is willing to give us everything we need.
I have come to believe that Our Greatest Need Is The Ability to Trust God In All Things. Tina Johnson's life was falling apart. Tina, a recovering alcoholic, moved to Georgia after the California earthquake of 1994. She got a job as a waitress and enrolled in school. But she had never confronted the stress of the earthquake, of moving, of leaving loved ones. One night, she felt ready to give up. She prayed for help, but didn't feel any better. That night, she decided that after work she would go out drinking. When she got to work, she noticed that every single customer in the restaurant was wearing a button that read, "I am a friend of Bill W." Bill W. is the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and this slogan helps AA members discreetly recognize one another. To her surprise, there was a huge Alcoholics Anonymous convention in town that weekend. All the customers at her restaurant that night were attending it. After Tina revealed her own struggle with addiction, a group of customers offered to stay with her all night and protect her from drinking. She had prayed for help, and God sent her a whole convention of people who understood her problem.
Christ can help you and will, if you will open your eyes. Christ can cleanse us and make us whole. Medical science was completely unable to treat leprosy when Jesus healed this man. There was no known treatment or medicine that could possibly restore his body, make him "clean" again, revive feeling in deadened limbs. Only Christ's power could do that. In the same way, many of us have lost faith in God's power and purpose in our lives. We, too, are spiritually dead, we have no feeling of purpose in life, yet Christ can cleanse and restore us, giving us not just life, but abundant life. Notice that when the man with leprosy first came to Jesus he fell on his face in front of Jesus, an act of reverence that was only afforded to a king. He was acknowledging Jesus' kingship over life. That is the greatest need many of us have. We think other needs are more pressing--but they will fall in place if we acknowledge this, our greatest need. Our greatest need is the ability to trust God in all things. Our greatest need is to make Christ King of our lives.
There is about our lives a blending of joy and sadness, light and darkness, hope and despair.
One doesn't love deeply and lose through death the ones you love without laughing loudly and suffering deeply when the time of laughter is over and they are gone. Having come face to face with the death of family and friends, I have had in more recent years had to deal with a pervasive sense of sadness, which borders on depression. The only thing that keeps this pervasive sense of sadness from moving downward in a spiral of depression is: regular prayer and worship, reinforcement of the creeds, a confident belief that God works together in all things with us to accomplish His will and physical exercise, proper diet and adequate rest.
This past Sunday I read the last of the Charlie Brown "Peanuts" cartoons by Charles Schultz. After church I then learned of Schultz's death, the creator of Lucy and Snoopy and Linus and Marcie, Peppermint Patty, and Charlie Brown, had died in the night. He had previously announced his retirement due to colon cancer. But somehow I had the illusion that Charles Schultz would go on, though Charlie Brown would not. Strange, now, Charles Schultz is dead and with his death, is the death of Charlie Brown. For years I used "Peanuts" illustrations to help explain spiritual truths as Schultz was one of the best with his drawings and observations, but then I eased off feeling I used both his stories and my Marengo County stories a bit to much. But with his death, it seems appropriate to look back to express my appreciation of his genius. Charles Schultz coined the phrase on the lips of his character Lucy: "Good Grief, Charlie Brown!" Often I have thought about his choice of the term "Good Grief".
The Apostle Paul writing to the Thessalonians said: "I do not wish that you grieve as others do who have no hope." Implicit here is the awareness that some manage grief well while others don't manage it very well at all. Grief is a part of our lives. "Good Grief, Charlie Brown".
Grief can be good for a number of reasons:
(1) Through grief, we see the importance of life! Seen in contrast of negative, the positive side of life always shines against the backdrop of death. You develop this overwhelming sense of the appreciation of success against the back drop of failure, light against darkness, beauty against ugly, wholeness against broken, because there is always this contrast in our lives. Grief is the recognition of the contrasts of life, the painful awareness of the fine line between life and death. Death will claim us all and all that we love. There will come an end to days of brightness and joy. More soon than later, for most of us, but that's the way it is. Grief is that inward pervasive sense that things don't go on forever, and you are not too smart if you don't acknowledge this. "Good grief, Charlie Brown, don't you know this?"
Grief is our acknowledgement that life, as we know it, doesn't go on forever so we learn to plunge ourselves into the life we have. Once Charles Schultz was asked that if he was talking to a classroom full of children, what would he tell them? And he answered "I would tell them how important it is to get involved now in the things they like to do. Drifting around on the fringes won't help them grow." Never forget as we grieve and acknowledge the contrasts of life that Jesus said: "I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly." Our faith is the proclamation of life and joy, but without death you would not cherish life, without darkness there would be no appreciation of light, without sadness there would be no acknowledgement of joy, without depression, no capacity for exaltation.
We can deal with death and the persuasive sense of sadness because of our faith that life prevails. "We do not grieve like people who have no hope. We believe that Jesus rose from the dead and that it will be the same for those who die in Jesus."
Our faith has always lifted up this life-affirming perspective! Isaiah once wrote that God said: "Behold I am doing a new thing…I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert." (Isaiah 43)
And Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "For God's son was not yes and no, but in him it is always Yes! For all the promises of God find their yes in him." (II Corinthians 1:19-20) No we do not grieve as though we are a people with no hope. We are never without hope because of Jesus Christ.
(2) Our grief can make us aware that there are those who share our life with us. It can give us a new appreciation of others. Friends are God's "earth angels" who will help us if we are open. When in the Old Testament Elijah went to the mountain of God thinking that he was the only one who was loyal to God. The first thing that the angel of God who came to him said was "arise and eat." Earth angels don't usually say anything remarkable. They don't usually come with glorious visions, but usually they say things like: "get up and eat"
One day when Charlie Brown was depressed, he went to Lucy's 5 cent psychiatric booth with his problem confessing that he just felt that "I don't think life has passed me by. I feel that it has run over me. I don't have one single friend, not one single person in the whole world who likes me." And this query was good for 4 weeks of cartoons in which friends were defined as "Someone who would stick up for you when you weren't around, One who didn't laugh at you when you spilled your milk, ripped your pants, ….
One day Linus says to Charlie Brown: "I kind of admire you because you always seem so calm. Are you always so calm all the time? And Charlie Brown says, "Well let me put it this way. I am the only calm person I know who is a nervous wreck." Finally Lucy convinces him that he has many friends. "No man is an island unto himself, every person is a part of the continent a piece of the main, quoting from John Donne. But after she convinces him of this truth and collects her 5 cents, he is so happy and just to happy for her to handle so, she finally brings him down a notch or two with the statement: "Oh Charlie Brown, really now name one single friend you really have." I think that Lucy's name was a play on "Lucy-fer".
(3) We grieve like all and pass through the various stages of grief's hard labor of denial, anger, deal-making, and finally acceptance, but Paul encourages us saying: "Do not grieve as others who have no hope." Once Lucy is in one of her moods and she is mumbling to herself "Rats, phooey, everything is hopeless. Nobody cares, as Charlie Brown asks What in the world is the matter with you? And she answers "I'm just having my regular post Christmas let-down."
Linus is watching T. V. and Lucy changes the channel observing that "No one is watching the TV and she can choose whatever she wants to watch. What gives you the right to change the channel? I'm a person. And she observing her fingers observes: "When these blend together they become a lethal weapon. And Linus asks, "Why can't you guys get organized like that."
Summary: Charles Schultz has passed into death but his cartoon reflection Charlie Brown remains with us to enjoy. Pavel Florensky, was a Russian Philosopher and priest, at the early part of this past century and has long sense passed as has Charles Schultz and Charlie Brown. Florensky wrote these words when this church was 10 years old:
"The past has not passed away, but is eternally preserved somewhere or other and continues to be real and really influential….Everybody and everything is so closely interwoven that separation is only approximate, with continuous transition taking place from one part of the whole to another part." (From the book Triumph of the Spirit in Russia (London; Darton, Longman and Todd; page 190, l997.)
"The past has not passed away" Maybe that is what Paul meant when he wrote, "Do not grieve as those who have no hope. Jesus rose from the dead and it will be the same for those who die in Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep."
Theme: We represent Jesus Christ and the entire Christian movement of all ages to the people we encounter each and every day. Our calling as the People of God is a great privilege and an awesome responsibility as we represent all that God stands for.
Introduction: I am often given the opportunity to write a letter of recommendation for an individual. Maybe they are applying for a new job, for admittance into college or a scholarship or some award they are seeking or some approval for the law or medical or accounting profession or some other certification body. Part of many requirements for such a certification is for letters of recommendation. Sometimes I know an individual very well and at other times only casually, but you write such letters of recommendation out of your self-knowledge and street rumor (what you have heard about the person).
We are writing our own letters of recommendation each and everyday, for someone, somewhere is reading our personal letter.
Because many are slow to return letters of recommendation, many organizations use the telephone for this feedback in the evaluation process or what you might call an oral interview.
Let a person apply for a top-secret job in the government or in the area of law enforcement and you receive a visit from a stranger in a dark suit who explains that he has been employed by the government to interview persons who might know a given individual and he has a few confidential questions to ask about him or her.
These interviews or these letters of recommendation are consistently looking for three things and I share this with you so that you can live in such a way that you might receive high marks in these areas of concern when the day of evaluation comes. Sooner or later and usually more sooner than later, the day of evaluation or judgment always comes.
First, people want to know character traits: Is this a person of integrity? Are they mean or kind? Are they persons of high need or low maintenance. Are they honest? (I spoke at an AA convention and the fellow just ahead of me observed: "Do you know how you tell if an alcoholic is lying? And the answer was "If his lips are moving.") People want to know if a person is honest.
Also they want to know, are they dependable, consistent or on again off again. Are they self-giving or selfish. Do they push and shove trying to get in line first or do they step back like a lady or gentleman. What are their manners like? Do they use a napkin or do they use their coat sleeves at the table? Who is this person? What kind of values do they have? Do they share the values of your organization? Ah, now that is an interesting question. Our values in this organization, our family values, involve being faithful, loyal, service oriented, generous, peaceful, helpful, loving? So the first desire of these letters of recommendation deal with character traits.
Secondly, people and institutions want to know does this person cooperate with others? Are they team players? Do they listen and follow direction from their supervisors? Are they self motivated? Are they leaders and do they show initiative? Do they support a team decision. How does this person behave in relationship to others? Thirdly, do they demonstrate competency in any given area of expertise? If they are a student, are they a good student or mediocre or average or below average or superior? If they are a computer expert then are they known for their success? If they are a teacher, are they a good teacher? Are they creative or less than self-motivated?
Requests for letters of recommendation which come to me usually have to do with the first two areas of concern-having to deal with character and behavior. Who is this person? And how do they behave in relationship to others?
Letters of Recommendation are, as you can easily imagine, are very important. In the age in which the Apostle Paul lived and traveled throughout the mid-east and Greece as a missionary, about the middle of the 1st Century, a letter of introduction or recommendation was very important. Consequently, many travelers would often carry with them letters of recommendation and introduction.
This is often done today. When Ishmael Damaso and his family came to America he brought with him a letter of recommendation from his pastor in the Philippines. It was and is today a way of setting a person's mind at ease concerning an individual whom you might not know.
Knowing the importance of this way of introduction, Paul, who was having trouble in his missionary trips because when Jesus gets in a persons heart and in a culture, often times brings radical change, and both new loyalties and new values bring conflicts with the old way of doing things.
In Corinth, a very religious community, there was not only the problem of Greek Mythology, but even among the converts to Christianity, some thought they were better than others. Jews who were converted and already circumcised, felt that they had an edge on the Gentiles. And anyone who had received the gift of glosialavia or the ecstasy of speaking in spiritual tongues, thought they were really better than those who did not. That's why in First Corinthians Paul wrote: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a nosey gong, a clang symbol, signifying nothing." At another place he wrote concerning spiritual gifts: "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."
And so Paul wrote in today's scripture to the church in Corinth where a lot of people were asking, "Who is the Saul of Tarsus? What is he about? What kind of bill of goods is he selling? And who is this Jesus whom he says was raised from the dead? And so Paul writes to the leaders of this young Church, "You yourselves are living letters of recommendation, on my behalf."
This was great insight for the Apostle for it was true then and is true even today. You are living letters of recommendation for all that we stand for. You could very well this week, be the only opportunity that a person whom you will meet, will have to encounter a real live Christian believer. You might be the only disciple of Jesus Christ that will play on your team, attend a meeting in another city, talk on the phone with a person who is really struggling, be eating in a restaurant where you bow in prayer and are seen by a person wondering whether or not life is worth living.
It is true that I am my neighbor's Bible:
I am my neighbor's Bible,
He reads me when we meet;
Today he reads me in my home,
Tomorrow in the street.
He may a relative or friend,
Or slight acquaintance be;
He may not even know my name,
Yet he is reading me.
And pray, who is this neighbor
Who reads me day by day
To learn if I am living right,
And walking as I pray?
Oh, he is with me always,
To criticize or blame;
So worldly wise in his own eyes,
And "Sinner" is his name.
Dear Christian friends and brothers, If we could only know
How faithfully the world records
Just what we do and say;
Oh we would write our record plain,
And come in time to see
Our worldly neighbor won to Christ,
While reading you and me.
Recognizing this great privilege and awesome responsibility let me suggest the following:
1. Let us live in such a way that we will be a fine, living letter of recommendation. If there is any question in your mind concerning how we might be measured, then let me suggest the following: We live like Jesus of Nazareth would live. We often in a given day might ask what would Jesus Do? Because we are like Jesus, we have certain identified values, because we are like Jesus, therefore we will behave toward others in certain ways. We will be kind and generous, faithful and loving. We will be peacemakers and instruments of peace. Beauty, they say, is only skin deep, but often you can tell a lot about a person's relationship with God by their appearance. You can tell by looking at some people that they have had many disappointments. Others look hard. Some are downright mean. We communicate where we are spiritually simply by our enthusiasm for life.
There are many that speak of our modern age as a post Christian era, meaning the age of Christianity is over and past. I prefer to think of our age as a pre-Christian era. Perhaps the world has only seen poor or partial examples of Christian disciples. It becomes our privilege in this new era to be the best letter of recommendation ever produced.
In the Viet Nam War, many of our young men went into the towns of South Viet Nam and some met and married young Vietnamese women. Some produced children out of wed lock as is the basis of the story in Miss Saigon. A friend recalls a sober and stern lecture given by a company commander just before a weekend leave. He reminded the young men that they were walking into a totally different culture, that their customs and habits may not be welcome in Japan. Their behavior would be closely scrutinized by the Vietnamese citizens. It would be imperative to maintain good behavior because, as the commander said, "They know nothing of your homeland except what they see in you." And so do the people of this generation. They know nothing of Christ, but what they see of us.
2. Let us never embarrass the church or our family as we live our living letters of recommendation. I knew a fellow once who was on the edge of a church family. That is he was a member but seldom came and didn't give any evidence of financial or prayer support. And he was later arrested and jailed for filing false Social Security numbers for tax rebates. He embarrassed his family and the church in his small community. Don't do things that will embarrass God. You represent us if you are a member of the church. You are our letter of recommendation or condemnation by the world.
3. Let us live in such a way that God will be proud of his creation of our unique lives and that in unique ways we will reflect the very essence of the nature of the Creator.