St. James Lutheran Church
St. James Lutheran Church
1380 North Waukegan Road (847)234-4859
Lake Forest, Illinois 60045
"My house shall be a house of prayer for all people"

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Sermon Archive - March 8, 2000
Ash Wednesday

Pastor Danielson

Matthew 6:1-6

(Bring as many remote control devices as you can and lay them like
surgical instruments on a cloth on a small table in front of the
congregation.)
 
Some years ago a very ill member of St. James was told by his doctor, in my
presence, that "there was nothing more that could be done for him medically
and that he had better start praying."  The doctor's choice of words was not
quite that blunt, but the message was clear!  For this oncologist, prayer was
a kind of last resort, "it can't hurt effort;" a final referral to the
"Divine Physician" when effective treatments had been exhausted. Prayer was a
desperate stab at the "religious remote control" with hope for instant,
miraculous results.
 
Is that what prayer is suppose to be for the Christian believer? ---remote
control of miraculous healing and other changes?  If not, what is? What is
prayer for the Christian believer?  According to this evening's lesson from
Matthew's Gospel, by definition, Christian prayer can be both public and
private. Beware, however, for public prayer, at its very best, can present
greater problems than private prayer at its worst.
 
Prayer is about "piety" and "devotion;"---it is about "honesty" and
"unselfishness."
 
Prayer should be relevant to life around us, by reflecting concern for the
larger community around us.
 
Our prayers may include "personal petitions" ---asking something for oneself
and "intercessions" ---specific requests, on behalf of others. 
 
Our prayers should begin and end with words of "praise" and "thanks-giving,"
directed toward God, and never neglect the need for "personal confession."
 
Finally, prayers, whether written or extemporaneous, can include readings
from sources that include Scripture but are not limited to Scripture. The
Psalms in particular lend themselves to devotional "prayer readings."
 
A major portion of the latest edition of The Lutheran Magazine was given over
to a detailed discussion of Prayer. I urge you to read or re-read the article
entitled, "10 Ways to Improve Your Prayer Life."
 
Is anyone curious as to why there are several remote control devices
displayed here before us this evening? Well, as I suggested at the outset,
prayer, at least in the minds of some, IS about CONTROL---more
accurately---prayer, for some, is about REMOTE-CONTROL!
 
Do you recall the last time you actually walked up to a television set to
turn it on?  Actually turned a TV knob or switch by hand?  Okay, maybe the
battery on your remote went dead the other day, and you had to switch to
manual control.  No doubt, that walk to the set was a hassle!
 
Here's a "wife's joke," if you haven't already heard it:
 
"How do you get a man to do sit-ups?"
"Put the remote control between his toes."
 
We're not relating to our appliances the way we used to.   These days we have
a remote control for everything: TVs, VCRs, CD players, camcorders, cable
boxes, stereos, satellite dishes, even gas fireplaces!  Tired of having to
walk across the room in order to change the music or lower the volume on your
new electronic-player-piano? No problem! I am told you can now operate your
player-grand-piano by remote device from up to 100 feet away ---including
going through walls!
 
Fact has become stranger than science fiction.  We have clearly come into an
era of remote control relationships with our electronic appliances. We like
to push a button from across a room and get instant results.  Remote control
devices are handy---no doubt about it; but prayer, if you had not already
guessed, is not about getting control.  Prayer is about giving-up control.
Perhaps most disturbing of all---prayer is not a way to get what we want,
when we want it.
 
You may or may not have heard that Microsoft Corporation announced today its
intent to purchase, copyright and upgrade God himself. The new product would
be named, "Microsoft God," and would be available to consumers sometime in
late 2002. "Too many people feel remote and separated from God in today's
world," said Dave McCavaugh, director of Microsoft's new Religions Division.
"Microsoft God will make God more accessible, and will add an easy, intuitive
user interface to him, making God not only easier to find, but easier to
communicate with."
 
Competitor Netscape Communications had no comment other than suggesting that
the FTC should examine this acquisition closely for monopolistic and
monotheistic tendencies.  ("Microsoft God," The Door, January-February 1998)
 
Technology allows us to gain greater and greater control, and we love it. But
this craziness for remote control and remote controllers raises a troubling
issue of whether we have come to expect remote control of our spirituality as
well.  Have we grown so accustomed to the idea of being in control of
everything that we are now convinced that we can program and control God? 
Sometimes it seems we have grown so accustomed.
 
To the contrary, Christian prayer, assuming it is Scriptural, takes the
believer into the realm of personal holiness, void of remote control of God
and without the expectation that every plea for "healing" will result in a
miracle.  Instead, Christian prayer strives to simply place the "pray-er" in
harmony with God, with his creation, and with his will for mankind.
 
When we, as Christian believers, pray, we don't expect to change the world,
we expect to change ourselves.  As a result, prayer becomes a transforming
experience: We change, and we leave in the hands of God how much else is
going to change---'round about us.
 
This can be a maddening message to hear when we've been punching the
religious remote for years and, especially, when we are in crisis.  We deeply
desire so much healing and wholeness, happiness and peace, strength and
success. We pray for these things, and we ask ourselves in our more
meditative moments:
 
"Is there anything wrong with these heartfelt  requests ... is there, really?"
 
Well, the answer is both "Yes" and "No!"  The truth is that we set ourselves
up for disappointment when we expect God to change the world according to our
vision of it.  And, while we are completely justified in expecting God to
work transforming changes in us, God may have a very different vision of
healing, wholeness, happiness, peace, strength and success than we do.
 
"Prayer, for me, writes Rabbi Harold Kushner, is talking in the presence of
God, not so much talking to God or with God, but talking in God's presence;
because, when you understand that you're talking in God's presence, you
become different. Even when you leave God's presence, you're different
because of that experience" (Harold Kushner, "What Good is Prayer?" Questions
of Faith (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1990).
 
When we talk in God's presence and open ourselves to growth, we become
different. We become people who trust God more fully, and love our neighbors
more intensely. We become "Christian believers" who want to get closer to the
poor, the needy and the outcast---our brothers and sisters most in need of
our intercessions.
 
When we pray, as God wants us to, we become creatures who are finally open to
God's divine love and purpose and able to see God's hand at work in all of
life.  This isn't remote control at all! It's the best possible way to have a
relationship with the One who controls all creation with his endless love and
grace.  Once again, prayer is not a device like a remote control to make
things happen. Instead, it's a tool to relinquish control to the awesome
purposes of God.
 
In short, when we pray, rightly, we stop trying to control life and remember
that we belong to "life."  Prayer is an opportunity to experience humility
and to recognize grace, to see ourselves as human and to see God as
omnipotent, omniscient and altogether good and gracious.
 
We wander in the wilderness when we expect God to change our medical
diagnosis, our career path, our material wellbeing, our teenager's behavior,
our church's membership, or our political leadership. We find the path of
promise, however, when we finally allow God to change us, through Jesus
Christ . . .when we drop the remote and say:

"Here I am, Lord.  Control me." AMEN!

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