Unintentional Prayers

 October 31, 2022

In Numbers 12, Aaron and Miriam were complaining that their younger sibling Moses was in their opinion, getting all the glory. God was speaking to him instead of them. Moses was head honcho of the Israelites, a rather dubious honor. In the previous chapter, Moses was having it out with God, wanting to know what he had done that God was inflicting him with the responsibility of leading this wayward lot. Apparently, Aaron and Miriam only saw the glory; they weren’t privy to the burden.

The text doesn’t tell who they had taken their complaints to; perhaps they were just commiserating with each other, but there was a third party listening in. It says, “But the LORD heard it.” Ah, yes. Whenever we have conversations, even in our heads, there is another party listening in. I wonder if when it seems God isn’t hearing our prayers, the actuality is that he is hearing the prayers we utter in the form of griping and complaining, of criticizing and bad-mouthing. 

A day’s worth of complaint and criticism doesn’t stand much of a chance to offset five minutes of prayer. In fact, we are praying all the time. God is listening to our words, and I suspect he answers more prayers than we realize; it’s just not the prayers we identify as such. This is why the Bible warns us to be careful with our words. Jesus said we will give account for every idle word we utter. James cautions that the tongue is a raging fire, and the Proverbs admonish us to let our words be few and to put a knife to our throat rather than speak rashly. 

I wonder how our speech would change if we realized God is listening to every word we utter, and that those idle words are just as surely prayers as those we so piously intone in our devotions or in worship.

Get To Jesus

 October 30, 2022

For years, I’ve heard the admonition, “Don’t get ahead of Jesus!” It sounds like good advice; stay by his side, don’t wander away or get so anxious that you are trying to rush his ways. But this morning’s sermon gave me a different perspective. 

Pastor Brandon preached today on Zaccheus, whom the Bible describes as a “short” man. I suppose today, it’s politically incorrect to label someone as short. Maybe we say “vertically challenged,” but short is what the Bible says, so that’s what I’ll say. Here’s the story:

“Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.”

—Luke 19:1-6 

Brandon painted a beautiful picture of the scenario. Being of short stature himself, he imagined Zaccheus trying to elbow his way through the crowd, probably taking an elbow or two to the face. “I understand,” Brandon said. “It’s not because people are out to get you; it’s just that’s where your face is compared to them.” In Zaccheus’ case however, an elbow to the nose may have been intentional because he was a tax collector, not exactly the most loved person in town.

None of us like the tax man, but back then it was worse. Zaccheus was a collaborator with the hated Roman oppressors, and made his living by demanding more than the required tax as a personal surcharge. He got rich doing so, but didn’t make many friends. But he had heard about this man Jesus, and decided he needed to see if he was for real.

So he did exactly what we’re told not do do: he ran ahead of Jesus. He was willing to break our fastidious Christian rules because getting to Jesus the usual way wasn’t going to work for him. The point is simple: running ahead of Jesus isn’t appropriate when we’re trying to get our own way, but if the point is getting to Jesus and getting him to notice you, all bets are off and the rules go out the window. We need to get to Jesus any way we can, even if it means running ahead of him and the crowd, and climbing a tree. Don’t worry about the rules; just get to Jesus!

Nostalgia

 October 29, 2022

Nostalgia can be very dangerous. Usually, it’s seen as a useless, but harmless activity. After all, who hasn’t longed for the simpler days of their childhood, forgetting that by nature, childhood is generally simpler; little responsibility, everything provided, with no weighty decisions required. I remember Saturday mornings with Roy Rogers, Sky King, Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, along with a variety of old-school cartoons like Popeye, Woody Woodpecker, and others. Birthdays and Christmases were special times, and summer Saturdays would be spent outdoors with friends from morning till sundown. There were no school shootings, no drugs, no gender dysphoria, at least, none that we knew of.

It’s easy to long for those days, and nostalgia is big business. But longing for the easy times of the past can lure us into ignoring our present blessings. In Numbers 11, the children of Israel were tired of eating manna. They longed, as they said, for “the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.” —Numbers 11:5 In short, they yearned for the “good old days.”

But in doing so, they ignored their redemption and despised their freedom and God’s provision. Nostalgia caused them to forget the drudgery and oppression of their slavery, and blinded them to the goodness of God in their present circumstances. It does the same to us, too. As long as I am looking back to Egypt, I am not looking forward to the Promised Land. I am missing out on the glorious future God has in store for those willing to walk with him through the wilderness of this world.

St. Paul warns us about a backward-oriented view:

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

—Philippians 3:13-14

Be wary of nostalgia. It can keep you bound to a past that no longer exists, unable to reach forth to the future God has planned. Letting that happen is a sin. God is reaching out to us from his future, not from our past.

Uninformed Prayer

 October 28, 2022

My prayer list is growing. The older I get, the more people I know who ask for prayers for health, family, our nation, the salvation of loved ones, etc. Add that to those who haven’t asked for prayer, but definitely need it, the list gets longer and longer.

I used to think that every prayer needed to be uttered with long explanation (“Lord, so-and-so is going through a rough time right now. Her marriage is in trouble, she has recurring bouts of gout, and is battling depression…”). It’s almost as if we think God is ill-informed about things, or at least, we think that if we don’t go into detail, somehow the prayer is less heartfelt or sincere.

Certainly there are times when it is helpful to pray in detail, to know circumstances so prayers can be targeted somewhat pinpoint, but most of the things for which I pray don’t fall into this category, particularly if I am praying for friends in Cuba, Mongolia, or even in another state. I want to know the details of various prayer concerns, but the validity and effectiveness of my prayers aren’t dependent on my knowledge of the situation, but upon the power and mercy of God. My eloquence or lack of it have little bearing on the outcome. What does matter is the glory of God. St. Paul in his many recorded prayers often cites the glory of God as the ultimate goal of his prayers (see. Ephesians 3:14-21).

I cannot recall a single instance of a Biblical prayer for healing that goes into great detail about the nature of the illness, but there is much said about prayer as a part of God’s ultimate purposes in this life and the next.

For me, one of the most encouraging texts on prayer is found in Romans 1:9-10—“For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request if, by some means, now at last I may find a way in the will of God to come to you.” I like that little phrase, “I make mention of you.” It implies that Paul didn’t always go into detail, but simply presented them to the Lord with the request that he might visit them for the purposes of ministry. 

More and more, many of my prayers are taking on this pattern. I am seeking God himself more than what he can do, and I’m mentioning many people somewhat in passing, bringing them before the God who knows their circumstances far better than I, and whose love for them is purer and deeper than my own. I’ve forsaken the guilt that often came from not agonizing in detail, trying to imagine the ins and outs of their lives, and simply holding them before God. In doing so, I am enjoying the freedom of letting God be God, instead of me feeling I have to tell him what he needs to do. Prayer is becoming more a matter of listening than requesting. I think that’s the way it’s meant to be.

Proud Papa

 October 27, 2022

There are few privileges greater than seeing your children rise higher and go further than yourself. One of the joys of age is when your children and grandchildren can stand upon your shoulders and see vistas and horizons beyond those within your field of vision.

This afternoon I had the opportunity of talking with a young adult I’ve known since his college days. His son is nineteen, a music major in college himself, who accompanies students at concerts and recitals. He has had as mentors world renown musicians and has dreams of life filled with music. His father took him recently to New York City to see a Broadway show. When it was over, his son said, “THIS is what I want to do!” 

His father is justly proud. An accomplished musician himself, he told me he was asked once if his son was as good as he. “That ship sailed when he was eleven,” his father replied. We talked about fatherhood, about raising children, about discipline and challenges, about the work we put in early that now rewards us with children who make a contribution instead of a withdrawal on society. 

Twenty or more years ago, he wanted to move to New York to see if he could make it in the music world. His parents were telling him he needed to get a “real job.” I’ve never met his parents, but I know they did a good job because of the quality of the son they produced. But i disagreed with them in this matter. 

“If you don’t follow your dream, you’ll always wonder “What if…” “You have your entire life ahead of you to settle down with a “real job,”” I responded. He moved to the Big Apple for a few years, came back home, married, and raised a fine son. 

We all have dreams, stars towards which we stretch. We don’t always reach them, but are better for having tried. And any father worth his salt wants his child to go further, be greater than he was able to do. I know that’s what I wanted for my sons and my daughter. Each in their own way has done more than I have done, and accomplished things I would never have imagined. I am so very proud of each of them.

I don’t think this longing for our children is accidental, a fluke of nature. I believe it is a reflection of God himself, who sees in even the worst of us something worth saving. And when we begin to see it ourselves, when we begin to stand on his shoulders, we don’t see more than God sees, but we see more than we saw. And God is proud; I imagine he squares his shoulders, stands a bit taller himself, as with a smile that comes from his very heart, he says, “That’s my boy! And I’m so proud of him!”

Life Lenses

October 26, 2022

“Everything is political.” I can’t remember who said this, but in the end, it’s true. Especially as midterm elections draw near, we are aware that every decision we make has political overtones that will affect our lives for years to come. As former president Obama said, “Elections have consequences.” And another political operative intoned that “it’s not who votes that matters; it’s who counts the votes.” All the hubbub over our last presidential election and the integrity of the coming midterms may prove Josef Stalin to be strangely prescient in our present situation.

“Everything is educational.” I don’t remember anyone saying this, but we know it to be true. Who does the teaching is as important as what is being taught, as we are learning from all the raucous school board meetings in places like Loudoun, Virginia. We know that bigotry and hatred are taught by word and example at an early age, and that the involvement of parents in the educational process is of prime importance. 

“Everything is economic.” This is a big one, with inflation running between 8-9% and expendable income declining. Marx saw the world in economic terms and has plagued us with his conclusions for over a hundred years. It may be a successful political platform, but fails as the foundation of all that is truly meaningful in life.

“Everything is scientific.” Again, I don’t remember anyone uttering these exact words, but the media came pretty close during the pandemic, canceling anyone who questioned the “science” behind the vaccines, lockdowns, and masking. Of course, the essence of science is questioning the status quo, but when science becomes politicized, everything changes. Oops...I guess we’re back to my first statement.

“Everything is spiritual.” Again, not in so many words, but I’ve said this many times. Behind the politics, behind the educational or scientific system are what St. Paul called the “rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12). To see everything as spiritual is to look at life differently than our secular counterparts. 

My point is, none of these lenses are incorrect; they are lenses through which we see life, how we interpret what lies before us. It is the precedence we give one over the other that makes the difference. What claims ultimate loyalty in our lives? Is it politics? Education? Science? Sports? Economics? For me, it is my faith. I listen to, and learn from, the other lenses, but the lens that brings everything into proper focus is Jesus Christ and the Word of God. 

The Name

 October 25, 2022

The book of Numbers starts out as expected, with a census of the Israelite people as they were  wandering in the wilderness. While it might be interesting to serious Biblical scholars, I find it pretty dull. That all changed however, in the sixth chapter. Verses 22-27 give us one of the most ancient and revered blessings in the entire Bible:

““Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them: 

“The Lord bless you and keep you; 

The Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you; 

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, 

And give you peace.” ’ 

“So they shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them.””

—Numbers 6:23-27 

It’s this last sentence that captures my attention tonight. God puts his Name upon those blessed in this way. No wonder Israel has survived these more than three thousand years. God’s Name is mighty! All God is, is wrapped up in the Name, and he places it upon those so blessed.

In the New Testament, St. Paul carries this even further: “At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,”

—Philippians 2:10 

A telling example of this is found in John’s Gospel when Jesus is about to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

“Then Judas, having received a detachment of troops, and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, came there with lanterns, torches, and weapons. Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon Him, went forward and said to them, “Whom are you seeking?” They answered Him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am He.” And Judas, who betrayed Him, also stood with them. Now when He said to them, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.” —John 18:3-6 

In the original, where Jesus identifies himself as the One they seek, it doesn’t actually say, “I am he.” The pronoun is absent. What Jesus actually said was the Name of God, “I Am.” The soldiers involuntarily fell down before the Name.

With such power in the Name, why do we not bless one another more? Why do we fail to as Numbers says it, “put the Name upon them?” Instead, we tend in our human fallenness to curse, more than we bless. We complain, belittle, blame, and castigate. No wonder people are so powerless, bound by sin and negativity! If all I do is complain about circumstances I don’t like and people who rub me the wrong way, I am not giving God the avenue he chooses to bless them. The Powers arrayed against people whose lives are filled with violence, anger, vengeance, and complaint have no Name before which they must bow. So they wreak havoc, just because we fail to bless others, putting the Name above all names upon them.