It’s A Go!!!
Psalm 85; Col. 2:6-19; Luke 11:1-13
Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
Let’s pray:
“Yahweh, You were favorable to the land (past tense)
Restore us again, God of our Salvation (present tense)
That Your Glory will dwell in our land (future tense)
The land and the people & then:
Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet:
Justice and peace will kiss each other.
Oh that we live in a day like this future, where justice and peace embrace. Dear Jesus, we beg You. Amen
May the words of my mouth…
Here are your instructions for walking your faith today:
Be rooted; built up; established; scaffolded in mercy, justice and a covenant of grace; abounding in thanksgiving.
Let’s start there: Abounding: very plentiful, abundant.
Last week we sat with our worries; today, let’s sit with our gratitude.
(Pause) (written notes?)
First and foremost, be grateful for your baptism.
You were buried with Christ…
Dunked or sprinkled, the symbol of death to life is profound.
You were raised with Christ through faith by the power of God.
Your sins were nailed to the tree; erasing the record. No IOU, no credit debt, no mortgage, no demand for faithful living. Simply this: It is all done, covered, you are free. It’s A Go!!!
And then, the powers and principalities were stripped!
Jesus rose from the dead. They thought they had won through murder. Ha!!!
A stunning claim!
We claim this God is personal - we claim, what holds the world together is the reconciliation and peace of Jesus Christ. We call Him King. He takes up residence in our lives. But His kingship was not achieved through His violence, rather through His suffering; it was done to Christ! He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, He descended into Sheol. On the third day He rose from the dead. It’s A Go!!!
His peacemaking is accomplished through the absorption of this violence, and all the violence of the world. Therefore, we have given allegiance to God’s unique, singular, supreme agent. This One has a rightful and unparalleled claim on our lives. What are we supposed to do? We are to act as if all these outrageous claims are true. And abound in gratitude, be plentiful in our thanksgiving. We are risen. We have risen from the dead and now we are alive forever. So, we are to live as risen people.
We are called to ‘receive’ the Lord as He moves toward us. Note this difference: in most philosophical insight, we are supposed to do the moving ourselves toward God by various practices or beliefs. But in Jesus, it’s the opposite. God comes to us! As a baby. And makes a bodacious claim: You see Christ? You see God! It’s A Go!
This reception might be better classed ‘walk’ or ‘way of life’. It is really in the dailyness, the rather mundane, errand-running, work life, family life, neighborhood stuff, church community, just this: How are you living your life today, Sunday, July 24? Did you wake up saying Glory to God?
Its in this milieu that we hear Jesus teach us to pray:
Our Father. Abba: an intimate title and relation. For God so loved the world, He sent Himself in Jesus, that we, now called children of the most High, can have direct address to the Divine. Another outrageous claim! Our faith is full of them.
What I love is Jesus teaches prayer this way:
Ask, seek, knock. This is what his story of a friend who needs help in the middle of the night with unexpected guests: Ask, seek, knock. And don’t give up! Be persistent, demanding even. Wake up the slumbering God! Seriously: look at the Psalm writers. My goodness, they put everything out there and never let God off the hook!
Even when our prayer is simply, “Help!” It is a prayer. As Cynthia Jarvis, long time Presbyterian Pastor says, quote: “The communication that is prayer, that longing too deep for words, is human anguish, fear, or longing or gratitude ENTERING language” Unquote. It is our human feelings, thoughts and ideas, expressed in words to God, that makes them our prayer.
Suppose you have a friend. Well you do, this is what Jesus suggests. Prayer is the conversation of friendship, acknowledgement, reciprocity, all the while recognizing He is the Savior and we are saved.
And you know Ann Lamont’s prayers: Help me, help me, help me! Thank you, thank you, thank you! She says them over and over.
It’s a rather demanding prayer Jesus teaches: give us, forgive us, lead us, deliver us! AND DO IT NOW!
I do believe the challenge of prayer is this: answers don’t come quickly, or at all. Or in any way we can see them. We either doubt ourselves - I just don’t have enough faith, or we doubt God - He doesn’t really care. He is the unmovable being. What we know, when we stand back, is God gives us what we need and is beneficial, not just what our craven wants demand. It is true, the silence of God is deafening and hard to bear. No doubt about it. We ache with the limitation of not knowing what will happen next. It can be devastating and infuriating.
This is why we have communal prayer every week. By myself my faith will falter and die. I know this. Yours will too. You can’t make it on your own. There is no such thing as a self made Christian. You need this community to sustain your prayers, when your voice is silenced. And we need you to pray for us, when we can’t take another step.
Prayer also broadens our viewpoint, expands the horizon, opens up possibilities we never imagined. ‘Thy kingdom come’ - what in the world would this be like? To have God’s kindom, righteousness, justice, peace and mercy at the forefront of our daily lives? Imagine. This is another bold claim our faith makes. God is redeeming a better world even while we speak. In the chaos and mess, remember our worry list last week? It is very hard to see and understand. It is where we cling to long term hope.
A favorite singer, Lauren Daigle sings: I will stand my ground where hope is found…
Our sightline has to expand into eternity, not just tomorrow. Where is our hope rooted? In the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Established, built up, strong. It is in these moments I turn to one of my all time favorite verses: I believe, help me in my unbelief. Mark 9:24.
We believe, help us in our unbelief. It’s a genuine prayer, don’t you think? One that can rest on our lips every day, if need be. And there is no shame in praying it! For all of life is wrapped up in the goodness of God - our sorrows, brokenness, shame, guilt, sin, anger, doubt, everything - is all wrapped up. Its a go!!!
Lauren Daigle - I Will Stand my Ground