The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY (Retired)
Most people seem to have trouble with prayer. A lot of people treat prayer as
if it were a slot machine: put in a prayer, get what you want. But anyone who is
serious about prayer knows that it is not that simple.
Much of the Old Testament oversimplifies the believer's duty to keep God's
Law. If you read the book of Deuteronomy, Moses' Summary of the Law, straight
through, you will get the impression that if a person lives according to God's
law, there will never be any problems for that person. It sounds as if God
rewards the obedient believer with plenty of land, wealthy, flocks and herds
that increase automatically, and lots of children to carry on the family name
and do the family's work. But, we all know that it is not that simple, either.
Today's readings give us some valuable advice on both prayer and godly
living. It would be good for us to pay some careful attention to these readings.
We begin with the reading from the book of Job, and as it happens, that is
the very end of that book. We know Job had suffered much: the loss of his
children, his wealth, his flocks and herds, his home, his servants, his health,
his wife. He was left sitting on an ash heap, scratching the sores of the
terrible disease he had gotten. And his friends all told him, These
horrible things have happened to you because you have sinned greatly.
But Job knew that was not true. He was a godly man, who lived according to God's
laws. He was generous to everyone who needed help. He was a kind and considerate
employer. He knew he had done nothing that should be punished like this. And so
he spent many days asking God to explain why these awful things were happening
to him, and saying that it just plain was not fair.
Finally, God answered Job and let Job make his complaint against God. And
God's answer to Job, which we read last week, amounted to, Don't try to
tell me how to be God. I am God and you are not. You are one of my children, one
of the people I have made...but you are not my boss.
Today's reading shows us what happened next. Job makes his confession:
I know that you are God, and I am not. I know that I don't understand why you
have permitted these things to happen to me....I have been talking about things
I don't know anything about. Forgive me, Lord, for thinking I know better than
you how to run the world. I don't. You are God, and I will listen to you and
obey you, no matter what.
And so God answered Job's prayers. Job was restored to health, got another
wife, had more children than before, and soon became many times richer than he
had been before. But now he respected God much more deeply. Now he knew that he
had to be aware of who and what God is. Now he knew that he had to always
remember that God is God and that God is far wiser and more powerful than any
human being, so we must approach God with humility, and not try to teach him how
to be God. We don't know better than God what God should be like, you see, or
what God should do. And, to be honest, a lot of our everyday prayers sound like
we are telling God what to do and how to do it, don't they?
So, Rule One for godly living and fruitful prayer is: Know who you are
and know who God is. Don't tell God how to be God. Don't order him around.
You can't, anyway.
The second rule for godly living and fruitful praying is found in today's
reading from the letter to the Hebrews: Pray in the name of Jesus.
That does NOT mean that you simply have to add Jesus' name to the end of
your prayer. You should do that, of course. But to pray in the name of Jesus
means not to ask God for anything that Jesus would not ask for. This means that
we need to think of our prayer as something we take to Jesus and ask,
Would you be willing to take this to the Father and support my asking him for
this? So, we need to be careful and serious about our praying. We need
to think: Is this need or wish important enough that we feel okay about
asking Jesus to sign off on it? Would Jesus himself ask God for this? So
maybe we reconsider that prayer. We don't really feel that good about asking
Jesus to support our desire to win the lottery or have our favorite team win the
World Series. On the other hand, we do feel it's important to pray for someone
to get well, or for peace in the world, and really mean it. Prayer
needs to be thoughtful and careful, not just a bunch of words to say to God with
little attention, because we know we should pray but don't really know how.
Our third rule for godly living and good prayer is found in today's Gospel
reading. Remember, the blind man, Bartholomew, called out to Jesus, by name. He
called Jesus by one of his most honored names, Son of David. So...we too
need to call on Jesus by name. Maybe we will use his Greek name,
Jesus. Maybe we will call him Savior, since he saved us by
his death on the cross. Maybe we will call him Emmanuel,
remembering that he is always with us. But we need to know who we are praying
to, and we need to call on Jesus by one of his names. In John's Gospel, Jesus
promised that if two or three of us call on him by name, he will be with us and
listen to that prayer. He has many names. Use the one you feel comfortable with,
but call on him by name.
And then, you remember, Jesus heard Bartholomew and called him over, and
asked, What do you want? And the blind man answered clearly, Lord, if only
I could see! Teacher, please let me see again. So the next rule is to
tell God clearly what we are praying for. This is where we have to
remember the lesson we learned from Job. Don't tell God how to be God. Don't
tell him why and how he should answer your prayer. Just tell him what you need,
what you need and want so badly, for a good reason...not a silly reason...and
leave it to God to figure out how to provide you with an answer.
And then Bartholomew was suddenly able to see.
Do you remember what he did next? (pause for responses). He did not
thank Jesus with words, although it is never wrong to say thank you.
He did something better, and this is the last rule we find in today's
readings. He immediately began to follow Jesus.
For him, that probably meant that he joined the group that followed Jesus and
the disciples around, and helped find food for them, helped find places for them
to camp or to sleep. But for us, our "thank you" to Jesus means helping those in
need, the homeless and the hungry, or those with other needs...did you bring
food for the poor today? Have you taken old but good clothes to the Salvation
Army? Could you give someone a ride to the hospital or doctor? Can you tutor a
child who has trouble with homework, or an adult who needs to learn to read?
Find a way to pass on God's love to others, just like the healed blind man
did...and like Job did. Follow Jesus, in fact, minute by minute and day by day,
in your own life. Amen.
