Sermon: Prayer as Pledge

Acts 10:1-36, 44-48

This semester, as consider who we’ve been, where we’re going, and who we’re called to be now, we’re going to take a couple of months to focus on spiritual practices. What are our spiritual practices – as a community? As individuals? And what do they mean for us? How do our actions of worship and service identify this community? How do spiritual practices shape us? How can we enter into new disciplines this semester that might take us in directions we’ve never dreamed or give us insights we would have never imagined?

Well tonight, we’re going to consider what it means to be a praying community. What do you pray for? Who do you pray for? How do you pray? When? These are all simple questions, but they’re good ones. And here’s another one: What is prayer anyway? What are we doing when we pray?

On one hand, that seems like a question that should be easy to answer. I mean, if we were all going to make a big mega list of spiritual practices, certainly prayer would make it onto the list. That’s a just given, right? It’s just a part of Christian life?

Well, yeah. But maybe it’s not such an easy question. What are we doing when we pray? Maybe that’s a good question to ponder for a while. And maybe it could be answered in a lot of ways.

When you were a kid, what were your prayers like? I imagine they took a lot of forms. But did you ever find your prayers shifting a bit around Christmas time? Mine did. I used to pray that certain things might emerge under the Christmas tree covered in green and red wrapping paper.

I must have seemed so desperate praying for the newest form of technological wonder – that brand new, state of the art invention, the visual wonder that would solidify my development of hand-eye coordination – that glorious 1989 Nintendo. I loved everything about it. “God, if you can clinch this deal for me, I promise – oh, I promise! – I’ll be very good. I’ll help my Mom clean up after dinner. And if you throw in that Duck Hunt gun, I’ll even eat my vegetables. My vegetables! Aren’t you impressed with me, God? I’ll do that for you. I really will. It’s a deal I’m sure you wouldn’t want to refuse. I’ll do all that for you, if you just do this one thing for me.”

I’m sure we’ve all found ourselves in that situation. You can plug in other toys – other bells and whistles. I’m sure we’ve all been there. When we’ve prayed like this, we’ve been bargaining. Bargaining? Is that ultimately what we do when we pray?

Or maybe prayer is something different altogether. Maybe we pray to get answers to our requests. Do some of you remember the scene about prayer from Bruce Almighty? In the movie, God has given Bruce, a local newscaster, a host of divine powers and challenged him to use them wisely. Bruce thinks he can handle the challenge, but sometimes, he’s absolutely clueless. Bruce’s inbox begins to be filled with e-mail after e-mail after e-mail. They all contain prayer requests. Bruce soon recognizes that he can’t possibly answer them all. Every time he tries, his inbox just gets flooded with new ones. So what does he do? He comes up with a catch all answer: “Yes!” Everything is “yes.” He says “yes” in response to every request. Of course, this leads to disaster on a global scale. Not every request needs to be “yes,” and sometimes a “yes” to one request means a “no” to someone else’s. It’s not so easy.

But do we sometimes pray this way? Maybe sometimes we unfortunately view God as a cosmic, Magic 8-Ball. Remember those? (That’s probably another toy I used to pray for). You ask a question, shake the ball, and get your answer. Will I get an A on my chem test? Shake it up, and see. Answer: Outlook not so good. Well, is that how we think of God sometimes? Is that what we do when we pray – asking God to check “yes” or “no” to our desires?

Well, that may be a trite way to pray, though we’ve certainly fallen into it many times, I’m sure. But what about more serious forms of prayer? What happens when we’re desperate?

When I was a kid, I was absolutely enamored with a popular televangelist that made an appearance on my tv pretty regularly when I was growing up. He and his co-hosts would often sit in a circle toward the end of the show, and they would pray in an interesting way. They would claim to receive a “word of knowledge” about certain individuals who were watching their program. They would say things like, “There’s a man out there who can’t hear out of his left ear. Well, God is just opening that ear right now! Just claim it in faith! You’re going to feel a burning sensation in the name of Jesus!”

Just claim it in faith. I say I was enamored because people would frequently write into this show and say, “When you said God was healing my ear, that was me!” And this happened with more serious ailments: heart conditions, cancer, paralysis. I began to believe the message the televangelist was conveying. If you just have enough faith, you can have what you want! You can have what you need! If you only have enough faith! It’s up to you. Just claim it for yourself!

But you know, prayer doesn’t always work that way. And if we accept this, are we willing to also accept the implication it shouts loud and clear? If you have a heart condition, cancer, paralysis, or something else, it’s your fault. Clearly, if you had enough faith, you’d be healed of what’s ailing you. Are we willing to accept that? Is this what we’re doing when we pray?

Bargaining prayers. Check “yes” or “no” prayers. Anything-you-want-if-you-have-enough-faith prayers. Is this what prayer is all about?

Well, maybe there’s no catch all answer that can sum up what prayer is about. But if we consider our scripture passage from tonight, we can gain a few insights that might inform how we can enter into prayer as spiritual discipline for this community.

The 10th chapter of Acts: What a weird story! I mean, a sheet of animals coming down on top of someone’s roof? That’s odd. When I was little, I had a Bible Story book that contained a picture of this vision. I thought it was so strange. It is kind of strange.

Cornelius, a God-fearing Gentile, has a prayer with a vision, and Peter, a Jewish disciple turned apostle, has a prayer with a vision. And they have an encounter that neither of them will ever forget. And for that matter, the church won’t forget. Here we are listening to it tonight.

Jews and Gentiles – They just didn’t mix. It was forbidden for them to eat together or even visit with each other. And how is it that in two prayers, two forbidden people are brought together – and in a way that would continue to bring Jews and Gentiles under one church? Pretty astounding, isn’t it?

Here is something I’ve found to be true: When you pray for someone or for a group of someones, it’s pretty hard to pretend you’re not connected to them. Have you found this to be true too? I can’t pray for the homeless in our neighborhood and then act like they have nothing to do with me. I can’t. Now, I can shirk the implications of my prayer. I can choose to walk right by the people I find on the street without noticing them. But if I do that, I’ll be sinning against the connection I know I have with them. And if I pray more and more, it’s going to get harder and harder to walk on by never noticing that connection.

And what happens when we pray more specifically – not just for homeless people in general or people in poverty in general or people in any situation in general? (We do need to pray these types of prayers, of course). But what happens when we pray for someone we know personally – or someone we don’t personally know but have noticed? It seems that often, we end up having an encounter. It seems that we’re often called to an encounter.

I think we’ve probably all had this type of experience. When we start praying for an individual, don’t we often feel called toward that individual? Maybe that’s one way the Spirit of God works in prayer. Maybe God is constantly giving us little nudges when we pray. “Do this.” “Ask this question.” “Listen to this.” When we pray for someone, we’re ultimately pledging ourselves toward that person. So beware of what you pray for!

But seriously, beware of what you pray for. What kind of amazing things – uncomfortable things -- happen when we pray as a pledge? Like those men who traveled with Peter, we might be astounded and that the Spirit of God would be poured out on people we could have never imagined! Here’s a question to ask: Who would that be for you? Who would that be for us? Sure, we know that the Spirit of God might be found in anyone. Well, hypothetically.

We tend to believe this hypothetically, don’t we? But in actuality? Could it be that a person with a totally different theology might have something to say to you? You could pray for the opportunity to change them with your theology, but could it be possible that they have a claim on you too? What if they’re praying for the same thing – to change you? Do you think it’s possible that God might be forming an encounter for you both?

Could it be that a person with a totally different view on politics might have something to say to you? Someone from a different race? Someone from a different economic bracket? Someone with a disability? Someone with a different outlook on life?

And maybe God is calling you toward them as well. And how is God calling us – Austin Agape – collectively? Who do we need? Who needs us? I have a feeling that it doesn’t work just one way or the other. I have a feeling that when we pray, we are pledging ourselves toward an encounter.

I wonder if intercessory prayer works this way. When two people pray for one another, whether they’re aware of it or not, they pledge to be in relationship. And it seems that God speaks to us by nudging us toward others and nudging others toward us. Well, what would happen this semester if we acted on the inklings and hunches we get when we pray? Would it lead to new ways of seeing the world? New ways of doing mission? New ways of providing and receiving hospitality?

So what if we took up a collective challenge tonight? What if we all pledged to pray for two people in this group every day this week? We can tell them we’re praying for them or we can keep it to ourselves. And what if we committed to ourselves that we will act on the nudges we receive? Maybe we’ll feel called to write a nice note, visit someone, or ask a question we’ve never asked before. I wonder what will happen.

And what if we also pledged to pray for someone we could never imagine learning from? Who are the Gentiles that are forbidden from our church or our personal ideology? What if we commit to act on the nudges we receive?

Let’s try it and tell each other what happens. Let’s see where it goes. Maybe strange and meaningful encounters are just around the corner. May our semester be full of them. Amen.

- Renée Roederer, Campus Minister