Foundry UMC DC: Sunday Sermons
Religion & Spirituality:Christianity
CONNEXION: PRIMARY CONNECTION
Let Us Pray…and Laugh
A sermon preached by Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli at Foundry UMC January 25, 2015.
Text: Luke 11:1-13
This past week the World Economic Forum met in Switzerland. Google chairman Eric Schmidt was one of the presenters and I’ve stumbled across several reactions to his comments. One Schmidt claim that “made heads spin” (and got my attention) is that “The Internet will disappear.” This is the chairman of GOOGLE, so he must have some insider, web-guru mojo that leads him to predict such a thing, right? As it turns out, it was just a hook. Schmidt’s point and prediction is actually that “the Internet will become so seamlessly integrated into our daily lives that it will simply fade into the background.” As things called “wearables” become more prevalent and, as one report described it “our homes become smarter and more connected, Schmidt sees a future where the Internet is all around us. ‘It will be part of your presence all the time,’ Schmidt said.”[i] Schmidt also said, “Almost all of the problems we debate can be solved literally with more broadband connectivity… broadband is how you address the governance issues, the information issues, the education issues, the personal security issues, the human rights issues, the women’s empowerment issues.”[ii] Do you hear a theme in these comments? An omnipresent force in our lives that holds the power to save us from our greatest human challenges…Schmidt appears to be the devotee of a broadband god. In some ways, I can see the appeal of this religion. After all, on Google you really can seek and find, all in the speed of a click. // I don’t doubt that technology is a tool that—when used ethically and responsibly—can have a positive impact on human flourishing. And folks that know a lot more than I do about the implications of technological advances (positive and negative) will have to be the ones to truly debate and weigh the claims made by the Eric Schmidts of the world. However, as we begin this four week series entitled “Primary Connection” in which we will explore our relationship and connection with God, it seems apropos to point out that the presence of God is not dependent upon broadband technology; prayer isn’t a “search engine” or an ATM machine through which you put in your request and information or money pops out; God’s grace—the liberating love of God that sets us free to truly live the life we’re made for—can’t be controlled or programmed, only received. Our primary connection—the connection that grounds us, imbues us with dignity, reminds us what it means to be truly human, and challenges us to grow in love and compassion—is God. We nurture this primary connection most intimately through prayer.
Over the years, I have taught a course on prayer—both at the local and district level—and I’ve consistently heard about how difficult it is for folks to pray. Why is a God who is so available so difficult to connect with? Making time in busy schedules, doubts and struggles with faith, and anger at God were often among the challenges folks named. Three other obstacles to connecting with God in prayer that I regularly heard about are highlighted by Dr. Roberta Bondi, a retired church historian who has written extensively on prayer: First, folks feel intimidated by the very idea of prayer and often worry that they are not “doing it right.” Second, people tend to think of prayer in terms of duty, that is, as something that they are required to do (and, while that may be motivation for some, it creates a real obstacle for many). Many of us perceive duty as drudgery—certainly not something that would be enjoyable or fun. And third, so many of us have images of God in our heads and hearts that are off-putting—that is, images of God as scary, judgmental, distant, even abusive.[iii]
In today’s Gospel text, Jesus provides a concrete response to each of the obstacles to prayer that Bondi mentions. Jesus addresses our anxiety about getting prayer “wrong” by acknowledging that it is helpful to have a template when we pray; and so he gives us some words to use. It is helpful to have a guide in our praying, especially when we struggle to find the words to express the deep longings of our hearts. The Psalms, devotional guides, the traditional prayers of the Church, forms of meditation and Lectio Divina, the Lord’s Prayer, all of these are gifts to help us, perhaps, feel a bit less intimidated—like it’s not all up to us to figure out how to pray or how to find the words. Jesus gives the disciples the words to use. When you pray, this is what to say. One can imagine the disciples solemnly nodding and thinking to themselves, “Here endeth the lesson…” After all, prayer is serious business.
But then Jesus goes on to tell the somewhat convoluted parable of the sleepy friend—at least it sounds convoluted in translation. My friend and colleague Patrick Willson describes the parable this way: “Suppose your friend comes unexpectedly to visit late at night. Your friend has been out on the road all day and half the night with nothing to eat, so what are you going to do? You’re going to put something on the table for your friend, aren’t you? Isn’t that what friends do for each other? …There’s a problem, however: you don’t have anything in the house to eat…The refrigerator is empty, the pantry is bare. What are you going to do? You go to another friend. What are friends for, anyway? You run next door. Next door is your typical first century Palestinian friend bedded down in his typical first century Palestinian home. It has one room. Mom, dad, all six children, half a dozen chickens, the dog and a goat all sleep in the same room. That the way it is if you live like most people lived. If you were wealthier, you had a spare bedroom for the goat. So you come pounding on the door asking for bread. What’s your friend going to do? He’s going to give you some bread, isn’t he? If he won’t give you bread just because you’re such good friends, he’ll give you bread just to get rid of you because if you keep pounding on the door you’ll wake up the dog and if that happens everyone is finished sleeping for the night. Sure, you’ll get what you ask for!”[iv]
This, my friends, is a funny story, an “earthy” story. And it is about friendship and the way that real life is lived together with friends. By sharing this story with us, Jesus accomplishes at least two things. He reminds us to lighten up a little bit for one, and he also teaches us that prayer is about friendship. In our relationships with our friends, there are times that we may act out of a sense of duty on their behalf—when they are in need, for example—but mostly we relate to our friends out of a sense of love and care and mutual support; we spend time with our friends because with true friends we can be ourselves, we can be real, we can share our struggles and our successes. True friends are honest with us; they don’t let us off the hook; they remind us of who we are and of who we can become; they help us when we are down and out, wanting us to ask for what we need. They are there for us. They laugh with us! What if prayer is like that?
If your image of God is fearful and judgmental, it can certainly be difficult to imagine developing a friendship with God. I mean, who wants to befriend someone who just makes you feel badly about yourself or who intentionally hurts you? Jesus goes on to teach us that God is not out to get us or trick us. We know how much we mess up our relationships and how we can do things that are harmful to others, but Jesus reminds us that, even still, when it comes to our children, we would never intentionally harm them. The comparison to a loving human parent helps us understand the nature of God—as a loving parent who wants us to be well, to grow, to have what we need. Perhaps, if we can risk letting go the fearful images of God and believing that this is so, friendship with God is possible after all.
When we take the teachings and example of Jesus on prayer into account, we learn that what it’s really about is developing a relationship with God, becoming close to God, in the same way you become close to your human friends. And if friendship with God is the goal, then it’s as much a matter of showing up as anything else. Just being there, being close, being real—all the time. You may find yourself saying to God, as you have said to a friend, “I don’t really know what I need or what to say, I just need to be with you.” What if prayer is like that?
We often turn to God only when we’re afraid, sad, or suffering. And, of course, as with any real friendship we can bring our grief, our questions, our doubts, our anger, our confusion, our confession, our guilt, trusting that we will still be held and loved. But today I believe that at least part of Jesus’ teaching is that God wants to hang out with us in our joy, our praise, our celebrations, our silliness, the mundane and the absurd parts of life, all of it. We get it wrong if we believe that our spiritual lives always have to be somber, dealing only with the challenges of life. Rev. Peter DeGroote shared with me that when I ask, “Will you pray with me?” He often hears it as, “Will you PLAY with me?” I love that. Come and play as we encounter God in scripture. Come and play as we develop friendship with God.
One of the places I turn when I need to be reminded of the day-in, day-out invitation to close friendship with God is (surprise, surprise) NOT the internet, but instead a fourteenth century Sufi mystic poet named Hafiz, who has an earthy style and insistence on the sacred presence showing up everywhere. One of the first poems I memorized from the collection of his writings entitled, The Gift, is this one:
God
And I have become
Like two giant fat people
Living in a
Tiny boat.
We
Keep
Bumping into each other and
L
a
u
g
h
i
n
g
.[v]
I can imagine Jesus quoting these words as well. My guess is that there was more laughter involved in Jesus’ life than we have often considered. And it certainly seems that he and God were so close that they couldn’t help but bump into one another. What if prayer is like that? Like two giant fat people living in a tiny boat, so close that they can’t help but bump into one another…Perhaps the question to ask today is this: What obstacle keeps you from being that close to God?
[i] “Why Eric Schmidt Believes the Internet will Disappear,” by Alyssa Newcomb, Jan 23, 2015, 9:14 AM ET, http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/google-chairman-eric-schmidt-believes-internet-disappear/story?id=28426913
[ii] “The Alchemist’s delusion,” http://www.roughtype.com/?p=5466
[iii] “Learning to Pray: An Interview with Roberta C. Bondi,” www.religion-online.org, This article appeared in The Christian Century march 20-27, 1996. ©The Christian Century Foundation.
[iv] Patrick J. Willson, “Laughing Through the Prayers: Luke 11:1-13,” found at www.textweek.org.
[v] Hafiz, “Two Giant Fat People,” in The Gift, trans. Daniel Ladinsky, New York, NY: Penguin Compass, 1999, p. 199.
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