Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Luke 6:12-13:
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles.[1]
“Jesus Man of Prayer”
Well this week’s sermon has the least provocative title of any in our series Who Was Jesus. We had “Jesus the Troublemaker” then “Jesus the Party Goer” then “Jesus the Rule Breaker” now, “Jesus, Man of Prayer.” Some of you may be thinking, “well, duh.” It could be part of my series on incredibly obvious traits of God with other titles like “God is Pretty Big” and “The Holy Spirit, Not a Great Football Player.”
But there is also a little oddness to the idea of “Jesus, Man of Prayer.” I mean, we believe that Jesus is God, Emmanuel, God with us. We believe in the Holy Trinity, that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. So Jesus praying is in some way God talking to himself. A human being with the mind of God certainly shouldn’t need to pray as much as we do right?
Before we look at today’s scripture, let me catch you up. Last week, we read Luke 6:1-11 and heard about Jesus and the disciples breaking some religious rules and getting the religious folks of the day pretty mad. Here is what happened next.
12Now during those days
That is some stiff language. We might say something like, “about that same time” or “just about then.”
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
Not to disagree with the translators of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, but it actually says he spent the whole night in prayer to God. Not a huge distinction but we are trying to see who Jesus was and Jesus was a man who would spend a whole night praying to God. That would be in comparison to many of us who are lucky to find five minutes a day.
Jesus prayed a lot. I am again astounding you with my wisdom. Jesus talked about praying a lot too but let’s start with him actually praying and let’s limit ourselves to Luke’s gospel.
It all starts in chapter 3:
21Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
Jesus’ first praying experience in Luke’s gospel goes pretty well. Just so you know, that sort of thing doesn’t regularly happen to me when I am praying, although, the problem may be that I am not expecting something like that to happen.
Luke 5:
15But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. 16But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.
Jesus is needing to get away to pray. This isn’t a one time thing, notice “he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.” I know the biggest obstacle in my prayer life and the one I hear about most from others is, “I am just so busy.” This passage always reminds me, I am not quite as busy as Jesus and nothing I am doing in my busyness is nearly as important as what Jesus was doing.
16But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.
Another obstacle I tend to bring up is that I just can’t find a quiet place. I brought this up to a spiritual director once who spent ten minutes listing off all the possibilities. “Can’t you sit in your car? Can’t you close your office door? Can’t you go to a coffee shop and pretend you are reading? Can’t you go for a walk? Can’t you go to the park?” Ok. Ok. Ok. So that is just an excuse.
Our text for today is from Luke 6:
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
The whole night. Well it is clear that Jesus didn’t have kids or a job or a cell phone.
In Luke 9, he starts taking some friends along:
18Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say that I am?
Men praying near other men. I guess Jesus didn’t worry about that macho thing.
Later in Luke 9 three of his friends got to go:
28Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.
Again with the praying with other men. The fact that he takes these times out to pray tells us a lot about who Jesus was. Except, wouldn’t a transcript be nice? What was Jesus praying about? What was he saying or not saying in those times of prayer?
I don’t doubt that people pray. According the Pew Research Center, “eight-in-ten Americans (81%) say that prayer is an important part of their daily lives.”[2] I think the question may be the why and how we are praying.
In Luke 11, one of Jesus’ friends finally thinks to ask him about it:
1He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
Ok, here we go:
2He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial."
Great, part of what we call The Lord’s Prayer. Now we know how to pray. But back to today’s text:
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
Just a little math. If you say it slow, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial." takes about 20 seconds to say. You could say it three times a minutes, 180 times an hour, figure “all night” is about 8 hours that is about 1440 times you could say that all night in prayer to God. Which raises the question, what else is going on?
I grew up in the age of the CB radio. My family would travel across the country every year from New York to Texas to spend some time with my mother’s family. My father’s car was equipped with a CB radio. On it we could hear and talk with other travelers, mostly truckers sharing weather and traffic info, finding out where the police were checking speed and just passing the time. The neat thing about a CB radio is that, unlike a telephone you can’t talk and listen at the same time. The microphone has a switch. You press it down to talk and when you do, it cuts off the speaker so that you can’t hear anyone else. Because of this, people using this form of communication developed a tool to make this work. When you are done talking on a CB, just before you let up on the switch you say, “Over.” That way the person on the other end knows that it is their turn to talk.
Think about this, on a CB radio, when the other person is talking, even if you start talking, they can’t hear you until they say over and let up on their switch. You can’t interrupt them, all you can do is listen.
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
I am assuming there was a lot of listening going on.
“Eight-in-ten Americans (81%) say that prayer is an important part of their daily lives.”[3] But sometimes I wonder, how many of us press down on the button to talk and when we are done just turn the radio off. How many of us are just spending our time in prayer talking and not listening.
Jim Wallis, founder and editor of Sojourners Magazine writes:
There are many misunderstandings about prayer. For many, prayer is talking to God, sometimes with a great list of requests and needs – sort of like children’s Christmas lists mailed to Santa Claus. But, at least for me, prayer is more often becoming a time of listening than talking. There is so much noise in our world and our lives (much of our own making); prayer becomes a quiet space enabling us to stop talking long enough to see what God might be trying to say to us.[4]
“Prayer as listening.” How often do we take time to listen to God? We go to God in prayer asking. Maybe we are asking for the most selfless things, maybe we are asking to be instruments of God’s grace, maybe we are asking for healing for others, maybe we are asking for guidance or peace, but when we are done asking and God is ready to respond, we shut off the radio.
Let’s look again at today’s scripture.
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:
Jesus was discerning. He was about to make an important decision about the future of his ministry and he wanted to make sure he listened for all the guidance God would give him.
When I say that Jesus was a man a prayer, I am not just saying that Jesus was a man who went through the actions and routines of prayer, but that Jesus lived a life of prayer. Author and professor Roberta Bondi speaks of prayer as:
“Prayer is a shared life with God”
Jesus, the man of prayer took the time to be in communication with God, to speak to God, to listen to God and to live his life a life of praise and thanksgiving and a life that was directed in ministry by the calling of God.
If we take time to listen to God and truly allow God’s response to our prayers to guide our lives, where will that lead us? That is what I am asking you to consider today. Many of you received, in the mail, a couple of weeks back one of these cards asking you to consider where you feel called to be in ministry in 2007. If you didn’t get one or you don’t have it, there are some in the pews. This is part of our stewardship of service emphasis. I will say again, the point of this emphasis is not to fill all the jobs in the church, but rather to help you discern where God is calling you to use the gifts you have been given in service to the church, to God, to the world, to the creation of God’s Kingdom on earth.
There are all sorts of ministries on these cards. Sometimes it is hard to see how they all fit together in the overall ministry of the church, but they do. You see, if we can all be discerning about how and where God is calling us in the world, the church can do amazing things. Some of these ministries are just a first step for many people who will learn and grow through them leading them to more and different ministries in the church and outside.
I want to explain how these cards work. If you are already involved in a ministry and feel called to continue, write all your information on the card and check re-commit. If you feel like God is calling you to something else on that card, even if you are just not sure what that looks like or if you are really ready for that ministry, check learn. You will be contacted and either invited to an information session or invited to have a one on one conversation with someone already engaged in that ministry. Once you know what that ministry is all about, you can decide whether or not you think you are called and equipped.
There is also a blank box on the cards. Maybe in listening to God, you have heard a calling beyond the scope of these cards. Write it in the box and commit to God that you are going to continue to learn and discern and listen about that calling.
I hope some of you have already been thinking about this over the last couple of weeks, but I want all of us this morning to listen. In our singing, in our time of confession, at the table, I want you to be listening. There is not going to be a formal end to the service today. As we receive communion you are welcome to bring a card to the rail and commit your intentions to God. If you are still listening and discerning you may do that at the rails and then back at your seat. You can leave this morning on your own whenever you are ready.
If you do not hear clearly today, I want to invite you to continue praying and listening over the coming weeks and consider turning in your card in the plate next week or returning it to the office or even calling or emailing me and telling me where you feel called. And I want to invite you to that sort of discernment every day, that we may all live our lives constantly seeking and listening for God’s call and claim on our lives.
[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] The Pew Research Center, “The 2004 Political Landscape, Evenly Divided and Increasingly Polarized”, 3 November 2003, accessed 7, February 2007; internet
[3] ibid
[4] Jim Wallis, “Revolutionary Prayer”, blogpost on Beliefnet and Sojourners present: God’s Politics a blog by Jim Wallis and Friend, 5 February 2007, accessed 10 February 2007; internet
