July 19, 2020
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Pause Awhile
Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Pause Awhile
Psalm 46
Luke 11:1-13
TEXT: "Lord teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1).
A young man was taking his first flying lesson. After showing him some of the basics, the instructor said to the student, "Now, I'm going to show you how to go in for a landing." Whereupon, the instructor suddenly blacked out. The student immediately called the tower, and while he was receiving instructions on how to land the craft, the engine went dead. Whereupon, a voice from the control tower said: "Repeat after me ... 'Our Father, who art in heaven ...'"
Prominent in the life of Jesus is the fact that He always acknowledged His dependence on the Father. For example, in today's Gospel episode, one of the disciples says to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray." He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father hallowed be your name, Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread’”
(Lk. 11:2-3).
Give us this day our daily bread! With this petition we acknowledge our total dependence on God for all of life's necessities. We don't create them. We are not their source. God is the Source of all of our physical and spiritual necessities.
"Everyone one who searches finds," Jesus says to the disciples in today's Gospel Reading (Lk. 11:10). Each of us is engaged in his or her individual search for the good life -- for the enriched life, for the fulfilled life. Reach down, therefore, to the very depths of your being and there you will find your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There you will discover that you have not searched in vain.
Having just taught the disciples the "Our Father," Jesus says to them, "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you" (Lk. 11:9). There is no escaping the reality that there are times in our lives when unwelcome events close in on us to the extent that we feel trapped. We search for a way out, but in our minds the door is securely locked. We try to manipulate our way out. We try to "outsmart the system" so to speak. But the more we continue to rely on our own resources, the more discouraged we become. And we are ready to admit failure. And maybe it is at that point that we cry out, "Our Father ... Your Kingdom come. Your Will be done." And we remember Jesus' words: "Ask and you will receive." And something clicks in our minds. As we lean into the Lord, to our utter amazement, we discover that the door to His Love and Mercy is open. We discover that it has never been locked. We discover that we have been tricked by our prideful, arrogant reliance on our own self-sufficiency,
In his letter to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul exhorts the people of Colossae to "Put on love," and reminds all to "be persevering in your prayers" (Col. 3:14, 4:2).
Now we are called to put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And Paul is reminding us now that in order to be that kind of warm Christian Community, we must continue steadfastly in prayer.
The warmth and the vitality and the Love of God are communicated to us when we continue steadfastly in prayer. Most of us have heard this all our lives, but how tragic it is when many of us seem to regard it as a meaningless cliché. "Continue steadfastly in prayer," not just on Sunday, not just in Church or in times of crisis, but regularly and often.
In order to illustrate our human situation, one French Philosopher said that we are like broken watches. On the outside we look reasonably normal, and on the inside, most of the pieces are intact. But the main spring is broken. Consequently, we are unable to fulfill the function for which we have been created.
If you shake a broken watch hard enough you may get a few ticks out of it, and it may even keep the correct time for a short while, but it just isn't fulfilling the purpose for which it was made.
You and I can be like broken watches. On the outside we may look fairly normal. On the inside, most of the pieces may be intact but the main spring might well be broken. Shake us up enough and you may get a few ticks now and then. But, perhaps missing is the throbbing, sustaining, vital communication of life at the center of our being, which enables us to continuously fulfill the function for which we were created.
"Continue steadfastly in prayer." That is our mainspring! It was the Apostle Paul's life and ministry. It was the key to his strength, enabling him to go out into the Mediterranean world and set it on fire for Christ. It also was the key to the life and ministry of Jesus Himself. Jesus -- the Son of God believed it necessary to be in prayer, to be in vital communication with the Father -- regularly and often.
A woman found herself seated next to a long-winded and boring dinner companion ...
Each time she tried to say something she could manage only a slight sound before the long-winded man broke in and continued to make a one-sided conversation.
Finally, the woman's husband seated across the table leaned over and whispered to her, "What is that strange sound you've been making?" She replied, "It's a word trying to get in edgewise."
For many of us, prayer is a one-sided conversation in which we do all the talking, thereby preventing God from getting a word in edgewise. When you pray, stop and listen to the Voice of God. It may come as a strange sound at first, but if you let God do the talking, you just may hear God say, "Put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony."
We eat, we work, we shop, we run around, and we tire. We get physically weary. We get emotionally weary. We get spiritually weary. And we wonder why our life seems to be going full speed ahead nowhere -- aimlessly, pointlessly, recklessly.
I got up early one morning,
and rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish,
I didn't have time to pray.
Troubles just tumbled about me,
and heavier came each task;
Why doesn't God help me? I wondered,
He answered, "You didn't ask."
I wanted to see joy and beauty,
but the day toiled on grey and bleak;
I called on the Lord for the reason,
He said, "You didn't seek."
and rushed right into the day;
I had so much to accomplish,
I didn't have time to pray.
Troubles just tumbled about me,
and heavier came each task;
Why doesn't God help me? I wondered,
He answered, "You didn't ask."
I wanted to see joy and beauty,
but the day toiled on grey and bleak;
I called on the Lord for the reason,
He said, "You didn't seek."
The anonymous poet then wrote a little epilogue:
I woke up early one morning,
and paused before entering the day;
I had so much to accomplish,
that I had to take time to pray.
and paused before entering the day;
I had so much to accomplish,
that I had to take time to pray.
"I had to take time to pray." The spiritual pause that refreshes is absolutely necessary for our life-enrichment. There is no way to maintain spiritual good health without prayer.
"Be still, and know that I am God! We might translate, “Pause awhile," says the Lord in the 46th Psalm. "Pause awhile and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10).
"Be still, and know that I am God! We might translate, “Pause awhile," says the Lord in the 46th Psalm. "Pause awhile and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10).