March 3, 2019
We human beings are, in the
classic sense, homo sapiens. We are
beings who know. In fact, we are homo
sapiens sapiens – beings who know that we know.
We are able to step back from our minds and see our thinking from some
distance. We are aware that we
think.
We are sapient, intelligent
creatures capable of using our minds in many and various ways. But we not only have a mind. We have an opposable thumb and so we are
fabricators. We are tool-making and
tool-using creatures. We are homo faber.
In this way, also, we are not
like animals. We do not live in direct
contact with our environment. When go
into the parish hall after the service for a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Breakfast,
we will not get down on all fours and eat our pancakes off the floor. We will sit at tables, in chairs. We will use knife, fork and spoon to
eat. Not only that, when we plant our
gardens this spring, we will use hoe, shovel and rake to plant our
gardens. Yes, there are times of
sticking our hands directly into the dirt, but we get more done and produce
more food if we use tools.
We are not like the
animals. And we are not like the
angels. We do not live in direct contact
with God. We use the Scriptures to learn
God’s teaching. We use the Sacraments to
receive God’s life. And, unlike angels,
we use prayer to stay in touch with God.
Prayer is an essential tool
for us, but it is unlike any other tool we use.
Prayer is not the means by which we bring God up to speed and keep God
on task. It’s not the way we send God
memos to remind God of the to-do list and its deadlines. Prayers are not primarily tools by which we
get things done. They are not about
doing and getting as other tools are.
That’s because prayer is our tool for getting to God, but it is also
God’s tool for getting to us. Prayer is
about our relationship to God and what God wants to make of us.
Prayer is a tool that has
words, but it also has silence. It
involves speaking, but it also involves listening. And it is in listening that we are
transformed evermore into the likeness of Jesus.
The gospels depict Jesus as a
man of prayer. Jesus often goes off by
himself to pray, we are told in Matthew, Mark and Luke. In the gospel of Luke, however, prayer in the
life of Jesus takes on special significance.
Whenever something important happens, or is about to happen, Jesus is
praying.
When Jesus is baptized by
John in the Jordan, for instance, the Holy Spirit comes down on him, “while he
is praying.” Before Jesus calls the
twelve apostles, Luke says that he went up to the mountain and spent the night
in prayer. And, of course, Jesus prays
in the Garden of Gethsemane, while Peter, James and John are asleep.
What Jesus is doing mostly in
these times of prayer, I believe, is listening.
At his baptism, he hears the words, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with
you I am well pleased.” Before he
appoints the Twelve, he is listening for God’s guidance in who should be the
primary witnesses to his resurrection.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus certainly speaks, “Father, if it is
possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” But, given the way things turned out, Jesus
must also be listening.
So, when Jesus takes Peter,
John and James up the mountain, it is not because of the excellent view. It is for prayer. And while they are at prayer, Jesus’
appearance is transformed by a blazing light.
Then two men appear with him, Moses and Elijah, and the three of them
begin talking his departure, his exodus.
The disciples don’t seem to
hear what they are talking about because Peter blurts out something about
setting up tents – although he doesn’t know what he is saying. Then a cloud descends on the mountain. They can see nothing. A divine voice declares: This is my Son;
listen to him. The cloud lifts and the
disciples see that only Jesus remains.
It has always been hard for
me to make out what the transfiguration is about, but Luke’s account
helps. For following this event, they
descend the mountain. Jesus performs an
exorcism the disciples are unable to perform.
What I find most striking, however, in Luke’s account, comes next. As everyone is standing around oohing and
aahing at the greatness of God, Jesus says, “Let these words sink into your
ears: The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of sinners.”
Now Jesus has said this kind
of thing before. Just prior to going up
the mountain, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah of God. Then Jesus tells the disciples – after he has
been at prayer, of course – what this means – “the Son of Man must undergo
great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and
be killed, and on the third day be raised.” (9:22)
What Jesus says here, after
coming down off the mountain, is more pointed and more emphatic – Let these
words sink into your ears. It seems like
a peculiar phrase, but that is pretty much a literal translation of the
Greek. And this is the only occasion
where the gospels record Jesus has having said it. Jesus wants to make sure that the disciples
pay special attention and to ponder what he is going to say.
What makes these words even
more emphatic is that the disciples have just heard God say – This is my Son –
Listen to him! Listen to what he has to
say! I am going to be betrayed into the
hands of sinners. Just when the
disciples think Jesus is right up there with Moses and Elijah, Jesus says he is
going to die. Just when everyone else is
amazed at his power, Jesus says he is giving up power. In fact, Jesus is going to become completely
vulnerable to the power of sin, even the sin of the disciples.
How does Jesus do it? I believe it is by prayer. In prayer, he becomes and remains open to God
and to God’s will.
The most common misconception
of prayer is that it is simply a way to make our needs known to God. Put more crudely, it is a way of sharing our
to-do list with God, or sending God a memo with the tagline, “Please have this
on my desk by the end of the day.”
It is a misconception to
which I am also vulnerable. In my work
as a pastor, I often meet with people in some crisis. I pray for their ease and their comfort,
their healing and their recovery. And I
am also asked by others to pray in a similar way for them or for someone they
care about.
God want us to pray about our
needs. But if we think that this is the
only reason for prayer, we fall prey to doubt.
For, when things don’t happen in the way we have laid out for God, we
wonder if prayer works or if it does any good or if God is even listening to
our prayer.
Martin Luther understood
this. That is why he said that we are to
pray because God has commanded us to pray.
In his explanation to the second commandment in the Small Catechism,
“You shall not make wrongful use of the name of God,” Luther says that we are
to use God’s name, “in every time of need to call on, pray to, praise, and give
thanks to God.”
What’s more, in his
explanation to the Lord’s Prayer, Luther says that we pray for God’s name to be
hallowed, for God’s kingdom to come, and for God’s will to be done, not because
we can make that happen. Rather, he says
we are to pray that those things may be done in us.
So, prayer is not so much
about our effect on God; it is about God’s effect on us. Prayer is a way of opening to the work of God
now and asking that God involve us in that work. It is a way of removing ourselves from the
center of our lives and expressing the heartfelt desire that God be at the
center of our lives.
We are homo sapiens, but we
are also homo faber. We are thinking
creatures and we are tool users. We use
tools because we can get more done in less time.
But prayer – real prayer –
takes time. This is a challenge, because when we are in trouble, help can’t
come fast enough. When someone we love
is sick or injured, healing can’t happen too soon. Or, maybe we have just had a mountain top
experience and witnessed the brilliance of God, but then our path leads down a
dark road, when unimaginable things happen, when all our dreams are dashed,
when we completely lose control of our lives.
Then we need to realize that
prayer takes more time because it is one of God’s tool to use on us. We need to realize that, as dark as it gets,
darkness is not the end. We need to
carry on, to continue praying, and to continue listening.
As we come down off the
mountain and begin our Lenten journey, we need to let these words of
transfiguration sink into our ears:
“The Son of Man must undergo
great suffering, be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, and be
killed…
“And on the third day be
raised.”
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