Pentecost 20, Proper 24, 2004:

The parish priest had to undergo surgery and would be laid up for a while. The Senior Warden called on him in the hospital after his surgery and said, "Father, we don’t want you to worry about a thing while you are out of commission. Last night the Vestry voted 7 to 6 to pray for your complete recovery."

Perhaps not the same priest announced he had accepted a call to another parish. Going out the door after the service, a member said, "I’m sorry to hear you’re leaving us for a new place."

"Don’t worry," the priest said. "I’ll pray that my successor will be a better man than I."

"That’s what worries me," the parishioner said. "Your predecessor told us the same thing!"

Sometimes it is hard to pray and not lose heart, no matter the subject or object of the prayer. And yet, that is exactly what Jesus said his disciples ought to do. Pray and not lose heart. The skeptic might ask why pray at all? The scoffer might say prayer doesn’t work and only the weak rely on it. So, why should we pray?

There must be thousands of reasons that people have given through the years for being faithful in praying. Modern disciples have added their own reasons for being people of prayer. Perhaps the better question is how ought we to pray? For what should we pray? What happens when we pray?

Some see pray like the schoolgirl whose mother overheard her saying her prays one night. She said, "And, dear God, could you make Boston the capitol of Vermont?" Her mother asked, "Why on earth would you pray for such a thing?"

"Because," the girl said, "that’s what I put on my States and Capitols quiz today."

Or like the young boy whose father had been overseas for fifteen months who prayed, "God, could you give Mom a baby brother so Daddy will be surprised when he gets home?"

Some things probably won’t happen just because we pray and some things we hope won’t happen in spite of the prayers of others.

The first thing about prayer is that practice is necessary. It has been said, more truthfully than we will ever know that the only scoffers at prayer are those who have never practice it patiently and persistently. Some try prayer in a hesitant, uncertain manner. Others pray only when some emergency occurs or some danger lurks. Prayer is abandoned as an unsuccessful experiment when the answer is not the desired one. For such folk prayer never was a daily habit and there was no naturalness in performance and no satisfaction in the results.

Jesus taught his disciples to speak to God as to a good father or mother. There is something tragically wrong if conversation within a family is a natural, daily affair. Unfortunately, in many families the communication that does take place is high-decibel, profane-laced, name-calling, and threat-laden. Yelling and screaming, while it may qualify as communicating at some level, rarely has as its object building self-esteem and making another person feel good about who they are. Positive family communication, like prayer, should be a constant practice, a regular nourishing habit.

According to the parable Jesus shared with his disciples persistence is required. The point is not that we may harangue God into giving us what we want or that our nagging might change God’s mind. No, the point is that consistent, insistent, and persistent praying helps us learn that prayer cannot be a once-in-a-while exercise. Prayer should be a dominant desire, a constant longing, and a fervent wish to know the object of our prayer better. God is always the object and prayer is simply our attempt to feel that reality in our lives. It is through diligent, continuing prayer that God is able to work in us before it appears that God is working for us. Praying always is not just the thing that helps us not lose heart, it also softens our hearts and helps make them fertile ground for God’s word and will.

Finally, in order for us to live power is needed. The only way we can get the help we need is to ask God for it. The Collect is correct when it says, "we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves." Prayer is the way we make that vital connection with a universal energy and a power beyond human ability to manufacture and beyond human ability to fully understand. We are allowed to pray for knowledge of God’s will for us and for the power to carry it out.

It is through prayer and meditation that the will of God for each of us is made clearer. God’s will leads to wholeness and the realization that God is God and all will be redeemed and restored. Not like "we desire or deserve in our sinfulness, but as we are known and loved through the merits and mediation of Christ Jesus." Striving to know God’s will helps us give up those behaviors that use and abuse others or the creation itself. Striving to know and accept God’s will helps us know and accept that we cannot claim anything as our own and not be willing to allow others to do the same.

We need to pray always and not lose heart. Why? Well, prayer changes things. Primarily, of course, prayer changes us. In the final analysis, that’s the best reason we need to pray always and not lose heart. Amen.