In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is asked, “Rabbi, teach us how to pray.”
My guess would be than many of you were taught how to pray by your parents when you little kids.
Many of us when we were little kids were taught to kneel at the side our beds and to clasp our hands together before going to sleep at night.
And, we were taught to talk to old man up in the clouds who was watching over us and to ask him to help us.
And, maybe you were taught one of those rote prayers that children learn, the one that says: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake. I pray the Lord my soul to take.”
I always thought that was such a weird and scary thing to teach little children to say at night…to have them thinking about DEATH before they went to sleep!!
I know our parents had good intentions about wanting to instill prayer in us at such a young age, but, unfortunately, many of us never really grew out of that childish way of praying.
We’re still praying like little beggars…down on our knees…tightly clasping our hands as if we’re pleading, still, to an old man up in the clouds to fix something for us or to make something happen for us.
Sure, we’re no longer pleading for a new puppy or for an “A” on our Math test like we did when we were kids, but many of us are still using prayer to plead to God for things to happen for us, to fix things for us.
It seems that every time there is some tragedy or mass shooting in our country, politicians and leaders offer their “thoughts and prayers,” so much so that it’s become a cliché, and it’s become meaningless for people.
I mean after all of these “thoughts and prayers,” don’t you think God would have fixed things by now?
But, that’s now how prayer works.
The purpose of prayer isn’t to ask an old man with a long beard who lives up in the clouds to come down and fix the world for us…or to ask a Middle Eastern man with sandals who died over 2,000 years ago to come back to earth and to save us.
Prayer doesn’t work that way…but prayer does work, if you know how to work it.
The purpose of prayer isn’t to change things. The purpose of prayer is to change US.
Mother Teresa wrote that in her journals toward the end of her earthly life. She wrote: “I used to think that prayer changed things, but I was wrong. Prayer doesn’t change things. Prayer changes us, and we change things.”
That’s the purpose of prayer: to change us! Not to change God’s mind and heart, but to change our minds and hearts.
There’s no old man up in the clouds with a long gray beard. Most of you know that, so why are you still pleading to him, asking him to fix things for you?
God is not a person. God is love. God is the Presence of love that birthed everything into existence, the Creator of Life, the Power of the Universe.
So, when we pray, we are tapping into that Presence and Power. We are aligning ourselves with that Light and that Life.
That is how Jesus prayed…and that’s how he taught us to pray.
As we just heard: In today’s Gospel reaeding, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray.
Now, the disciples certainly knew prayers. Many of them were Jewish, so they grew up learning prayers in the temple and prayers at home.
But, what they’re asking Jesus here is to teach them is something different. They don’t want the traditional way of praying they grew up with. They want to pray the way Jesus prays.
They notice that almost every time Jesus prays, he goes off alone by himself out into the desert or up to a mountaintop away from people.
And, they notice that when Jesus comes back from prayer, he is transfixed. Full of light. Full with the power to heal. Full with the presence of Love, Peace and Joy.
And, if you noticed in the Gospel passage this morning, it says the disciples wanted Jesus to teach them to pray the way John taught his disciples.
As most of you know, John the Baptist was Jesus’ teacher, Jesus’ guru.
John the Baptist was not a traditional rabbi. He was a Wildman, “hippie”-type of guy, and he had a different way of praying. Different from the rabbis.
His prayer wasn’t abouy asking God to come down and magically fix things. His prayer wasn’t about BEGGING or beseeching God to make something happen.
The purpose of his way of praying was to ALIGN ourselves with the power and the presence of God which Jesus said is WITHIN US.
So, prayer is not COMMUNICATING with God. Prayer is COMMUNING with God.
Prayer is not communicating with God: No words are necessary.
Prayer is communing with God, and to COMMUNE means to “LIVE TOGETHER AS ONE.”
And, that’s the purpose of prayer: To be still and know that I am one with God. I am one with the One. One with All that is.
Now, I totally understand why we want to personify God. It is difficult for us to pray to a power or a force…so, we want to put a face on God.
And, luckily, we have Jesus, and Mary, and the saints to help us give God a face.
And, if it helps you to pray to these faces, and then please continue to do so.
But, do you want to know who else is the face of God? YOU ARE!
That’s why Jesus said: “YOU are the Light of the World.” “The Kingdom of God is within YOU”….meaning the Light and the Life, the Power and the Presence is within YOU.
One of the oldest languages in the world is Sanskrit and it is used in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, among other faith traditions.
The Sanskrit for “Prayer” is “Pal al” and Palal means “SEEING ONESELF AS WONDROUSLY MADE.”
And, that’s what the purpose of prayer is: “to see yourself as wondrously made,” and to discover the Power that dwells within you.
It’s the same Power that lived with Jesus. That’s why he said: “All of the things that I have done, you can do. These things and greater!”
Like Jesus, you have that power to transform things and to work miracles.
You may come to prayer with worries, fears, troubles and negative thinking, but, in the Silence, you transform your mind and heart.
Through the Power of Prayer, you transform worries into trust, fear into love, despair into hope, and lack into prosperity and abundance.
We just need to PLUG INTO that Power and Presence within us.
Charles Fillmore, the co-founder of the Unity School of Practical Christianity, described as unblocking the unbiblical cord that connects us with the Divine Mother, with the flow of life. He wrote that more than 100 years ago.
And that is what Jesus is teaching the disciples in today’s Gospel. He tells them to pray in SECRET, to go into their INNER CHAMBER, where they can ATTUNE themselves, ALIGN themselves, CONNECT themselves with God.
And, he teaches them what’s come to be known as “The Lord’s Prayer.” Now, most of us grew up learning this prayer, and it’s maybe become a rote, traditional, maybe even meaningless prayer for us.
But, for the disciples hearing it for the first time, it was powerful and transformative.
FMany of you know that the language Jesus spoke was ARAMAIC, and in recent years, linguistic scholars have translated the Lord’s Prayer back into the original Aramaic. And, meaning is quite different when you hear it in the language which Jesus spoke.
Jesus wasn’t saying “Our Father who art in Heaven.” He was saying, “Mother/Father, Birther of the Cosmos whose light in within us.”
He wasn’t saying “Hallowed be thy name.” He was saying, “Hollow out a space in me to make your light can grow.”
When he said, “Thy Kingdom Come on Earth as it is in Heaven,” he was saying, as he said before, that the kingdom of heaven is within us, and our purpose for being was to bring that forth – on earth, as in heaven.
So, what Jesus is really teaching the disciples – and what he is teaching us with the Lord’s Prayer – is how to ALIGN ourselves with the presence and the power of the Birther of the Cosmos which dwells within us.
And, when are in that SECRET DWELLING PLACE of the most HIGH, aligned with that presence and that power, Jesus says the DOOR will be OPENED for us.
I love that story Jesus gives in today’s Gospel about a man persistently knocking on a door hoping to be fed. Eventually, he is fed.
So, Jesus is letting us know that we will be fed in PRAYER, but it requires PERSISTENCE.
I hear from so many people who have tried to incorporate prayer and meditation into their lives that they just can’t do it.
But, PRAYER is like any DISCIPLINE.
You know the word “disciple” is part of the word “discipline,” right?
Prayer and meditation are disciplines. They require persistence and practice. That’s why it’s called a SPIRITUAL PRACTICE.
And, the more you practice it, the better you get at it.
So, I hope you will find time each and every day this week to commune with God in prayer.
In the Silence, may you begin to see yourself as wondrously made in the very image and likeness of God.
And, may you come to know that anything you ask for in prayer, you will receive.
For, as Jesus says in today’s Gospel, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened.