Year A, Pentecost 7, Romans 8.12-25

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

“⁸I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.”

One of my deepest convictions is that within history there is an advancement, a progressive movement toward a greater good.

More than anything else, this is the reason I consider myself a “liberal”, though such labels are not always helpful.

Let’s just say that within our culture there is a divide.  That divide centers around the question “Do you believe that our best days are behind us, or ahead of us.”

There are some who look to the past and seek to preserve and reclaim that which they perceive to be great about it.

And others look to the future and the hope that we might advance as a people and a nation and become greater than we have ever been.

It is in this second sense that our founding Fathers wrote in the preamble to the Constitution:

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The whole premise upon which our nation was founded as the great experiment of democracy, was that indeed, we could create “a more perfect union.”

Notice that it does not say, that we can create a “Perfect Union”.  Nope, can’t do that.  But we can work toward a more perfect union.

And so over the years we have striven to achieve this lofty goal of creating a better future than the past.

There is a tension though.  As much as we hope for a better future we need to be realistic that there will always be evil and hardships and challenges along the way.

That’s why Jesus told the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds.  If you try to destroy evil, you will destroy the good as well.

In the face of this we hear words of hope from the Apostle Paul.

“⁸I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.”

There are two basic hopes that sustain us as Christians:

                The first is that tomorrow might be a better day.

                And the second is that after all is said and done there awaits for us in heaven a glory beyond all others.

We are to keep these two things before us.  That in the face of the “sufferings of this present time” tomorrow might be a better day, and that in the end all suffering will be gone and all creation will be redeemed.

The sufferings of this present time—

When Paul wrote those words he likely was referring to the persecution that the early church was experiencing, especially the Christians in Rome to whom this letter was written.  Paul would eventually be martyred in Rome.  And yet for all the hardship he experienced he clung to the hope of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Throughout the ages hope has abounded in the face of suffering.

One thing that bears mentioning is that historians have told us is that one of the most powerful witnesses that the early Christians gave was in the context of the pandemic, the plague, that attacked the Roman Empire. 

Why most people fled, the Christians stayed behind and cared for the sick and the suffering, standing firm in their hope that this present suffering might be overcome both in this world and the next.

We live in uncertain times once again.

And faced with the suffering that is taking place in our world we are torn between longing to go back in time to a better place and situation or to move forward beyond this ‘present suffering’ to an even ‘more perfect’ day.

Covid 19 struck close to home for us on Wednesday. 

Our daughter-in-law tested positive, and though she is currently symptom free, as is our son, we worry.

That  being the case it is no longer an abstract reality.

Our son was scheduled to visit this weekend.  Had our daughter-in-law not been tested at work, we might all have been infected.  We dodged the bullet this time.

Not only that, but on Thursday I learned that one of the members of Point of Grace that also worships in our building tested positive.  Precautions have been taken, and so far no one else has been infected, but it points to the vulnerability we all share.

Fears abound.

With respect to COVID 19 we don’t know how bad it will get or how long it will last.

And individually we face other issues.

I had some symptoms develop over the last few weeks that left me dealing with my fears.  One of the blessings and curses of living in this age is that when you have some medical symptom you can google it and get all sorts of information.  It’s a blessing because you quickly can determine if it merits a doctor’s visit.  It’s a curse because you learn about everything that might be wrong and you end up fearing the worst.

In my case, further tests revealed that it was nothing to worry about at this time.

Other issues abound.

Murder hornets are in Washington State.

Global warming continues.

Racial tensions are unabated.

Some have said that it appears “Mother Nature” is mad, and you don’t want to mess with “Mom”.

The sufferings of this present time.

And the hope for tomorrow.

Again I will say, that our response to such suffering is twofold.

1. We faithfully do what we can to create a better world for ourselves and others.
2. And we live in hope that evil will not be the final word on our lives.

We pray.

And we ask God’s guidance.

But most importantly we trust that he will deliver us.

Amen

Year C, Pentecost 7, Luke 11.1-13, Prayer Changes Life

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

In Romans the 8^th Chapter it is written:

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

“Tell us about your personal life of prayer.”

That is a question that I’ve was asked in my interview for the position in Sandpoint twenty years ago.

I actually rather resented the question.

The reason being, that if I have to tell a call committee in an interview about my “personal” life of prayer, and be judged on that basis, then it is no longer a “personal” life of prayer, but a “professional” practice.

It’s not that I don’t have a personal life of prayer.

I do.

But it is quite private.

Over the course of my life and ministry I am often called upon to offer prayers, many times at the most critical moments in their life.  There have also been those times that I would pray for a person who is dying, knowing that my words may very well be the last words that person hears in this world.

Whether I’m asked to pray before a congregational meal, or in a hospital room, there is a bit of a performance about it.  At least I can’t help but feel the necessity of doing a “good job” at it, after all, I’m a pastor and pastor’s ought to be able to pray well.

The truth is that sometimes the words flow easily, as naturally as a conversation with someone we love.  That of course is what prayer is.

At other times, though, finding the words is just difficult.

More times than not, this is where I find myself in my personal prayer life.

Professionally, I’m paid to find the right words.

Personally, I don’t always know how to pray as I ought.

But I’m very good at sighing.

“What did you say?” Karla will ask.

“Nothing.”  I reply. 

“You sigh and groan a lot.” She responds.  “A lot.”

And that, I believe, is truly the Spirit interceding for me, with those sighs too deep for words.

“Teach us how to pray.” The disciples asked.

And so Jesus taught them what has become known as the Lord’s Prayer, a prayer that has been on the lips of nearly every Christian since.

Teach us how to pray.

I’ve had another struggle with prayer over the years.

It’s the whole “the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike” thing.

Does prayer work?

I pray that people will be healed.

                Sometimes they are.

                Sometimes they are not.

The same can be said for people who never pray at all.

Some of them live, some of them die.

What difference does prayer make?

I don’t know the answer to that question.  What I do know is that Jesus did teach his disciples to pray, and so we do.

Prayer, in this regard, is a most basic act of obedience.

We pray because Jesus taught us to pray and told us to pray. 

Not only does he tell us to pray, he tells us to be persistent.  Almost as though he is saying that we can wear God down and get him to do what we want by just continuing to nag him time and time again.

And yet our experience is that often, even when we persist, our prayers are not answered as we like.

“God always answers prayer,” people say, “it just that sometimes the answer is ‘Yes’, sometimes it is ‘No’, and sometimes it is ‘Not yet.’”

But again, my cynical side struggles with such a response.  How is that any different than not praying at all.

So if we’re sick, and don’t pray, we will either get well, or not, or maybe it will take some more time.

You see those three possibilities cover all the bases. 

And so what difference does prayer make?

Sometimes, the reason that it’s hard to come up with a satisfactory answer is because we are asking the wrong question.

Often, when we ask if prayer works, what we are actually asking  is if I always get what I want when I pray.

The answer to that is quite simple.  “No.”

No, I don’t always get what I want when I pray.  Nobody does. 

But there is something that always happens when we pray.

When we pray, we develop a faithful relationship with our Lord and God.

Prayer is no more about asking God for one thing after another, than a conversation with our spouse is just about getting our own way.

We don’t just talk to our spouse when we want something.

We talk to them because we love them, and that’s what lovers do.

We talk to them because we care for them, and that’s what caring entails.

We talk to them because we enjoy it.

We talk to them because our day is not as good without it.

And sometimes, we simply sit in silence, yet know that they are still there at our side.

That’s the way it is with prayer.

We talk to God because we love him, and care, and enjoy it, and benefit from it.

And sometimes, we simply sit with God in silence, knowing that even then, he is still there.

“3If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Here I’m going to tell you what is most important.

If you were confirmation kids taking sermon notes, I say, “Write this down”.  It’s the main point.

Prayer is about the Holy Spirit, not about our getting what we want.

Prayer always involves the Spirit.

Without the Spirit we cannot even so much as say “Our Father.”

And so to pray is to experience in a first hand, concrete way the presence of God’s Spirit in your life.

Sometimes when people pray they talk about “praying in the Spirit”, and by that they mean praying in tongues or other such charismatic practices.

What I’m saying is that all prayer is ‘praying in the Spirit’ because whenever we pray the Spirit is there.

And whenever the Spirit is present in our lives, we are drawn into a relationship with the Father and the Son.

Finally, there is one thing that prayer ALWAYS does.

Prayer always changes us.

I may not be able to change you with my prayers.

I may not be able to change God with my prayers.

But always, I am changed.

As I pray, I will grow and mature in my faith and relationship with God.

It’s that simple.  It will happen.

Every time.

And one of the changes that will take place is that I will develop a sense of gratitude toward God, and an appreciation of all that God’ has done for me.

Amen.

Year B, Pentecost 7, 2 Cor 12.2-10, Thorns

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  Amen

“Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

In all of the scripture, there is probably nothing that has produced more idle speculation than these verses.

What was that “thorn in the flesh” that tormented the Apostle Paul?

The simplest and most straightforward suggestion is that Paul is referring to his impaired vision, a situation he wrote about elsewhere, or another unknown physical weakness.

Others have suggested that Paul’s thorn in the flesh refers to his enemies, or specifically, the enemies of the Gospel.  Throughout Paul’s career he was followed about by those he refers to as “Judaizers, Christians who maintained that God’s grace was not sufficient in and of itself, but that we also needed to follow the Law of Moses, and earn God’s grace through our obedience.  (By the way, that is an oxymoron—if you have to earn it, it isn’t grace.)

This understanding has some particular merit in that these people were in fact “messengers” and Paul would have understood their message as having come from Satan, not God. 

Still others have claimed Paul is talking about another part of his life – the fact he has no wife or family, unhappiness about his sexuality or frustration that Jewish people are not accepting Christ.  Perhaps, for example, it could be that his thorn in the flesh was the guilt he felt for having persecuted the Church prior to his conversion.

We simply do not know.

Paul doesn’t tell us.

What he does tell us about that ‘thorn’ is that he prayed multiple times that God might remove it, but instead was told “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

Perhaps the reason Paul does not tell us what HIS particular ‘thorn in the flesh’ is because it would have been a distraction.  It would have caused us to focus on Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ and not recognize our own.

Human weakness,

It’s not something we are proud of.

And most of the time we, like Paul, would prefer not to name our greatest weaknesses.  We don’t want to speak of those ‘messages from Satan’ that haunt us.

And who among us would not like to see them just go away.

I am one who has struggled with addiction.

I started smoking when I was 19, and haven’t yet been able to break the habit, though I’m trying now.

I became addicted to a prescription drug I was put on, Ativan, or Lorazapam.  This drug is so addictive that the current protocol for ceasing to take it is to wean someone off of it over the course of a year.  When I quit taking it, I simply went cold turkey, cutting the dose in half for a couple of weeks, and then stopping.

The problem is that Ativan works on the same receptors in the brain as alcohol, and so “cross addiction” is a real risk.

That’s when drinking became a problem for me.

When I stopped taking Ativan, I started drinking heavily in order to replace it, without realizing what I was doing.  I didn’t have a clue.

But that addiction, I’ve been freed from.  No more drinking, no more cravings of any sort, I’m free.

In this case, I prayed to God to remove that from me, and God did.

Paul’s experience with his own thorn in the flesh is that it was not removed through prayer, but that the answer was that it would remain, for God’s grace is sufficient and his power is made perfect in weakness.

The other night I had a very vivid dream. 

I won’t go into all the details, lest you be tempted to psychoanalyze me—good luck with that, by the way.

But what was present in the dream were numerous individuals from over the course of my life, individuals who had an impact of one sort or another on me, and the strongest most profound part of the dream is that I relieved those emotions, going back to childhood.

The most troubling of all of those individuals was the band director, whom I had adored, but who had behaved toward me in an abusive and inappropriate manner.

For me, I think that such scars of my childhood may be my ‘thorn in the flesh’.  And no matter how hard I pray, or how many years of therapy I receive, they remain. 

One of the more interesting emotional legacies of this experience in childhood is my beard.  When I first grew my beard, this band director, on the last day I saw him, expressed his disapproval and specifically was angry that I was “covering up my cute face”.  I have not shaved since.  Emotional scars.

Oh, I’ve dealt with them in some ways, I’ve come to recognize them for what they are, I’ve named them, and tried to resolve the powerful emotions around them.

But the scars remain.

So much so that at times I’d like to shout out to the world that “When you hurt a child, it’s their whole life that is at risk!  You cannot undo the harm that has been done.”

The shame, the guilt, the feelings of unworthiness last a lifetime.

Would that God would remove these thorns in our flesh from us.

And yet they have become a part of who we are, and there is no longer anyway that one can change that.

To put it differently, the day I die, my life will have been colored from the beginning to the end, by those experiences of childhood.  The trauma shaped my very identity.

Some of our deepest convictions come about because of these childhood experiences.

For example, over the last few weeks we’ve talked about the separation of children from their immigrant parents at our border. 

The depth of my concern for those children arises in no small part because of the pain I have myself experienced as a child.  It goes beyond reason and is filled with a passion that can only be the result of profound personal experience.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”

This is God’s response to Paul, and to each of us who have experienced that ‘thorn in the flesh’ that torments us.

“My grace is sufficient for you.”

Grace is the power of God to redeem and transform the lives of human beings, so often overcome by their weaknesses, and to make them pure and holy, untainted by human sin, and free from all shame.

Amid all the pain that remains from childhood, I think that grace is most evident when we learn again to love the child within us.

When I first recognized that abuse for what it was, I remember lamenting the fact that I was a good kid, and didn’t deserve it.

Grace was not far off in that moment.

Grace is God’s declaration that we are indeed, holy and precious in his sight, “good kids”, but here is where the difference lies, who need not do anything to deserve it.

Children are not loved because they have done something to deserve it.

Children are not loved because they are as yet, untainted by sin.

Children are loved solely because the God who created them is loving.

And it is to such as these that the Kingdom of God belongs.

Paul says that his ‘thorn in the flesh’ is a messenger of Satan.

It is Satan, and the ‘evil world’ we too often live in, that say we are not lovable.  We are not worthy.

Whatever our ‘thorn’ maybe, the message the world sends is too often one of shame or inadequacy.

Like Paul, we look around us and see others who seem to be spiritual giants, having had incredible experiences like being caught up into the third heaven, and we feel so small in comparison.

But in the face of all these negative messages, that come from Satan, I’m reminded of the words from the Spiritual, “There is a Balm in Gilead”, which declare:

If you cannot preach like Peter, if you cannot pray like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus and say, "He died for all."
There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole;
There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul.

Grace is the power of God to ‘heal the sin sick soul.’

What more can be said?

What more needs to be said?

Amen