Text Genesis 18:20-32; Psalm 138; Colossians 2:6-15 (16-19); Luke 11:1-13

Theme Living in the Hospitality of Prayer

Subject Jesus teaches how to pray

Occasion Lectionary 17 – July 29, 2007 – Zion – Iowa City

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our living Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ

Become a “praying church”

That’s one of the items in Zion’s 2005 Master Strategic Plan Report

And I’m seeing evidence:

· Today’s worship includes “open space”

Free-time during worship for prayer and reflection

· Call Mark Bauman to join a prayer circle

· We keep the Prayer Vigil for peace in the Mid East on the 17^th each month

· John will lead us in prayer today as others have and will continue to do

· Meetings open and close with prayer

· Staff pray together frequently during the week

· Prayer is part of the counseling and spiritual direction ministries

Seems Zion is a praying church and more so all the time

Being a praying church is living in the hospitality of prayer

Not so long ago, at a new member orientation the leader asked,

“Tell us how you pray?”

Each shared around the circle as had become the custom

· Some said they held hands with family members and prayed at evening meals

· Others told of standing at the kitchen sink and praying for the kids

· One told of each night reading scripture and then kneeling beside her bed, hands folded, eyes closed, head bowed and whispering her prayers

· Many described multi-tasking their prayers:

While driving

While doing laundry

While waiting for the bus

Then Jack said simply, “I don’t pray.”

His Lutheran-since-birth wife flinched with embarrassment

An awkward silence interrupted the conversation

The leader moved quickly to her presentation on prayer

But I liked Jack’s honesty

This guy could get past the “right answers” and tell the truth at church

Jack and I talked again about this, and then again

Based on what he heard from others as being prayer,

He didn’t pray

He didn’t fold his hand and close his eyes

He didn’t look heavenward

He didn’t speak aloud or thoughtfully to God

Jack wondered, “Can I be a member of this church and not pray?”

Some might wonder if non-praying people can be considered Christian

A disciple said to Jesus,

"Lord, teach us to pray" (11:1b)

Jesus had been praying;

The disciples knew it

“Hey Jesus, teach us what you do when you pray.”

That’s when Jesus invited the disciples and all of us to live in the hospitality of prayer

He taught the disciples what we’ve come to call The Lord’s Prayer

Luke’s version is shorter than Matthew’s

Inspired by God, Matthew reports Jesus taught prayer within the Sermon on the Mount

Jesus is teaching people who want to get it right (have a recipe)

… whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; ... "When you are praying, …Do not be like (the Gentiles), for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. "Pray then in this way (Matthew 6:6-9)

God inspired Luke instead to teach people new to the faith and new to prayer

Not a recipe but an invitation to live in the hospitality of prayer

Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial." (Lk 11:2b-4)

That’s it – not so much a recipe but a way of relating to God

This way is called a berakah

begin with acknowledging or praising God’s greatness and goodness

a sense of thanksgiving, joy and admiration

a humbling of one’s self

then naming our motive

daily bread, forgiveness, rescue

simply asking God’s goodness and mercy to continue

Not a formula but a way of living

Classes at seminary in my day always began with prayer

I remember a concise prayer offered one morning by Dr. Priebe

“Lord, you know our needs; meet our needs. Amen”

We were living in the hospitality of prayer

Confident in God’s presence

A way of life at seminary school

A reminder that everyday is best lived in the hospitality of prayer

But it had always been this way

Mom or Dad would tuck us into bed and we would pray,

Now I lay me down to sleep …

For some of you too – yes?

And we began the day much the same, though privately:

Standing in the shower and remembering

I am baptized; I belong to you Jesus: living in the hospitality of prayer

After all, people had promised at our baptisms to teach us

“the 10 commandments, the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer”

Raise us up in the faith

Invite us to live in the hospitality of prayer

Mike Foss describes in his book Power Surge

his surprise that people did not know how to pray

Not only a hearer of a sermon series on prayer

But also pastors admitting,

“I don’t know how to pray”

Friends in Christ,

there is no recipe for prayer

For millennia prayer has been defined as “communicating with God”

Yes, yes it is that but all of that

Not just talking but listening too

Bernard of Clairvaux brought an end to spoken public prayers in the Benedictine monasteries about 1000 year ago

He taught that there was so much noise, no one could hear God

Rabbi’s still teach that the communication during prayer is not only voice and thought but also sight and action

We see the majesty of God’s presence in creation

God see’s our actions

Jesus Christ has established our relationship with God

Prayer is the continuing conversation with God

This relationship is that of a loving father with an eager child

And lest we would not understand,

Jesus tells a story: a simile

Like a neighbor hosting unexpected guests late at night

“Hey neighbor, you got any bread?

“Nope, the kids are in bed and I am too”

But still the neighbor does get up and share

This is Eastern hospitality

We see it repeatedly in scripture:

Guests, even unexpected, are most important

So it is with God when we pray

No request is too late, too extravagant, or excessive

Ask, seek, knock – give God access to your life

Enjoy life in the hospitality of prayer

In the summer of 1962 I sat under a tree at Camp EWALU

The tree is still there and the memory is vivid

Pastor Biedermann invited us 8^th graders to go off and “meditate”

We each guessed that we should go to a lonely place and think God-thoughts

I took the Grotto Trail above the creek and sat alone in a circle of stone After an hour he called us back with the ringing of the bell

Gradually we all arrived back at the tree

Pastor Biederman asked, “What did God say to you?”

A kid from St. Paul’s Lutheran in Waverly, Val Gies (once intern here), asked, “Are you asking me what my ears heard or are you speaking theologically?”

The wise young pastor didn’t speak but let us each share what had happened to us

We had experienced a holy way

our first experience of consciously living in the hospitality of prayer

The instruction Jesus offered the disciples with the illustration of persistence and confidence is simple enough for starters

Prayer is a relationship with God

Come to the Lord and let the Lord host you with gracious, caring hospitality

It’s captivating – you’ll seek this hospitality often

Amazingly God will use you to be the answer for those concerns you name in your prayers

Others will live in the hospitality of prayer when they are with you

Zion: a praying church;

a congregation living the continuing conversation with God