Sermons from Shipp’s Bend & Centerville UMC “What to Pray When We Can’t” September 22, 2013 Romans 8:26-27 There’s a story about two old cronies who went hunting for moose in the forests surrounding Moose Lake in Northern Maine. As the pilot of a small chartered sea plane let them off on the shore of the lake, he reminded them: “Like I said, I’ll return to pick you up in three days, but remember, this is a small plane. There’s room for the two of you and one moose.” Three days later when the pilot returned, he was angry when he noticed the two hunters standing proudly with their rifles and between them ……not one…..but two moose…..and big ones at that! The pilot said, “Look, I told you…..the two of you and one moose.” The old-timers looked at each other and answered, “Funny……the pilot last year didn’t complain.” Well, not to be outdone, the pilot set aside his concerns……helped them pile both moose in the plane. The plane took forever to get off the lake. They barely cleared the trees on the other side and about a quarter mile farther on, clipped a tree and crashed……sending the pieces of its wings and moose antlers in all directions. Finally, one of the hunters came to…….saw his companion a short way off and hollered, “Where are we?” His buddy responded, “Oh, about a hundred yards farther than last year!” Spiritual progress can likewise be painfully slow, as we all know. There’s a song in our Faith We Sing hymnal entitled When We Are Called To Sing Your Praise. Listen to these words: When we are called to sing your praise with hearts so filled with pain, That we would rather sit and weep or stand up to complain. Remind us, God, you understand the burdens that we bear, You too, have walked the shadowed way and known our deep despair. When we are called to sing your praise and cannot find our voice, Because our losses leave us now no reason to rejoice. Remind us, God, that you accept our sad laments in prayer, You too, have walked the shadowed way and known our deep despair. When we are called to sing your praise and life ahead looks grim, Still give us faith and hope enough to break forth in a hymn. A thankful hymn, great God of Love, that you are everywhere, You walk the shadowed way with us and keep us in your care. Faith comes and it also goes. Our commitment to Christ grows stronger and we are ready to follow Him anywhere. But then, tragedy comes and commitment goes. Our spiritual awareness and prayer life come alive and we are graced by the power of the Spirit. But then…… A crisis breaks upon us and threatens our stability and sanity. Suddenly we feel alone and empty. We reach out to God and no one seems to be there. We try our best to pray and we find we can’t. And so, we feel an emptiness and a darkness. So, what do you do when you cannot pray? Do we simply give up when the words won’t come? How do we pray when there’s a lump in your throat and your soul feels so empty. The apostle Paul shares his discovery with the Christians in Rome: “Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness when we do not know how to pray as we ought……interceding for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the human heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” What a promise! To know that God’s Spirit broods over us when we cannot pray and responds with understanding and power until we can pray again. To know that we are being prayed for when we cannot pray ourselves…….that saves some personal agony, right? Let me give you two realities today about what to pray when we can’t that might be helpful. 1. When we cannot pray, we wait in silence and in the silence, we get in touch with our deeper feelings……sort them out….and we accept them for what they are and what they mean. In other words, sometimes we try to suppress our true feelings and conjure up what we think are Christian feelings in order to pray. That doesn’t work……..so prayer does not happen. Michael Allen tells how he found this out. “I remember in seminary when my best friend accused me of some dark and desperate betrayal. I did not understand what he meant, but I was angry. I was bitterly angry at my friend who had rejected me. I tried to pray but I could not, for all I could think and feel was somehow avenging my friend. I wanted to destroy him. I savored my anger and then it began to turn sour. In the waiting silence, the anger began to subside and something else began welling up inside of me. And the something else was hurt, my own desperate hurt that my friend had rejected me, that I had lost someone I loved so much. And I wept uncontrollably. Then it happened. I found I could pray again and asked the Lord to give me back my friend.” That’s what I mean. When we cannot pray, we wait in silence in order to find out what is really happening inside us. We listen for the truth of our souls. We look at what we do not understand about ourselves and face up to what we have refuses to acknowledge about ourselves. God knows already and He waits for us to learn and accept it in order that prayer can once again link us to Him. He waits for us to discover how we actually feel…… What we really want…… What we yearn for…… What we’re afraid to confess…… What we need to do…… Where we need to let go….. What we need to risk……. The Psalmist said it like this: “Thou desirest truth in the inward being, therefore, teach me wisdom in my secret heart.” The Common English Bible says it this way: “You want truth in the most hidden places; you teach me wisdom in the most secret space.” Or as Jesus put it: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” When we cannot pray, we can wait in silence. We listen to our hiding heart and sound out our deepest thoughts. In that encounter, the Holy Spirit moves and prayer links us to God. 2. When we cannot pray, we can live in trust. When the impulse to pray is gone and the words do not come and God seems so remote, we live “As If” until our faith and awareness returns. Despite the desperation, the doubts and the depression, we remember other days when our spirit soared and we walked with Jesus. Then we affirm that with TRUST. John Wesley had deep periods of doubt and uncertainty. Listen to his words: My friends affirm I am mad, because I said I was not a Christian a year ago. I affirm I am not a Christian now……..for a Christian is one who has……love, peace, joy. But these I have not…..though I have given, and do give, all my goods to feed the poor, I am not a Christian. Though I have endured hardship, though I have in all things denied myself and taken up my cross, I am not a Christian. My works are nothing….I have not the fruits of the Spirit of Christ. Though I have constantly used all the means of grace for twenty years, I am not a Christian.” Do you know when he wrote those words? Eight months after Aldersgate! Wesley would seek out an old friend, Peter Bohler. He told him that he was giving up the ministry. He felt that he was losing his soul. Bohler’s response was quick and wise: “Go back John, and preach faith until you find it.” We live “As If” until our faith returns. At least, that’s the way it has been for me in my spiritual journey. We hold on to the promise of Romans 8:26-27………and while I might not understand and believe, Jesus understands and believes in me and the Holy Spirit was praying the prayer I could not pray myself. Morris West shared this: “I groped for Him and could not find Him. I prayed to Him but I heard no answer. Then one day He was there. I never understood until then the meaning of the Gift of Faith.” The Gift of Faith…… When our faith ebbs and we cannot pray, keep on trusting and believing that the Spirit guides us through the crisis……..believe that faith will return. There’s a story from the Olympics several years ago. A young American athlete was on his way to a gold medal in track and field. He was a sophomore at the University of Washington when he broke the world’s record in the pole vault. The Olympic qualifying trials were just a few months away. One month after he broke the world record, he sustained a severe spinal injury that left him paralyzed. The trauma of the accident and the paralysis…….the dashing of all Olympic hopes……the prospect of never walking again sent Brian Sternberg into a spiritual crisis………..a deep, dark time of despair. Some months later, in a magazine interview, he said: “I want to know that my life is being fully used to the glory of God. I do not want my faith in God to be just the result of my wanting to get well. I do not want to believe in God’s power for the wrong reason. If my reason is wrong, the belief will do no good. One big obstacle I guess is that I want to have faith for its own sake. Having great faith is a necessary step toward one of two things: being healed is one of them; peace of soul if healing does not come is the other. Either one will suffice.” Brian Sternberg won a gold medal in the “Olympics of the Spirit.” He learned what we all need to learn. When our faith ebbs and a crisis or tragedy brings our spirits crashing down and we cannot pray……. 1. We wait in silence and listen, sorting things out…..finding out who we are and whose we are. 2. We also TRUST…….knowing that when we do not understand, we are understood and loved by God in Jesus Christ…… …….and the moment comes when faith returns as it did for Brian Sternberg and as it did with John Wesley and so many others……we can face whatever we must and make the most of it through the power of Him who struggles with us and is always beside us. Amen.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 04:45:44 +0000
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