at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

There is a story about the great Protestant Reformer Martin Luther as he sat at his table eating dinner. On the floor at his feet was his ever-present dog. As Luther ate, the dog watched every move he made, hoping for a morsel. Luther later said, “Ah, if I could only pray the way that dog looks at meat. All his thoughts are on that morsel. He thinks, wishes, and hopes about nothing else. But my heart fails because it cannot hold to prayer without wandering.”

Many of us can probably identify with Luther and take comfort in the fact that this theological giant had difficulty praying.

Today, the Protestant Church observes Reformation Sunday, and celebrates how in 1571, Luther -- an Augustinian monk -- marched up to the church doors in Wittenberg, Germany, and posted ninety-five theses, or ideas about how he thought the church should be reformed. Back then, there was no “Catholic” Church and “Protestant” Church; it was all one church, and Luther thought it could be a better church.

His theses included the ideas that every Christian has a personal relationship with God that does not need to be mediated by a priest, and that every person has the right to read and interpret the scriptures themselves rather than through a priest, and that every Christian is a minister with a calling from God – what we refer to as the “priesthood of all believers.”

These were radical and revolutionary ideas that Luther advocated, and as you might expect, they were not well received by the Church. He was excommunicated, ordered to renounce his teachings, and brought to trial. And yet, he changed the course of Western Civilization by initiating the Protestant Reformation.

Luther wrote many things that have withstood the ages; one of my favorite’s is this sage observation: “There are three conversions necessary in the Christian life: the conversion of the heart, [the conversion of] the mind, and [the conversion of] the purse.” How appropriate as we kick off our stewardship campaign!

Luther also wrote extensively about prayer, which he considered vitally important in his life, even though he found it difficult to do. Along with his difficulty praying, Luther endured bouts of despair and doubt when it came to his faith. When his 13 year old daughter Magdalena died in his arms, he was so overwhelmed with grief that his faith failed. At another time, he suffered for weeks from dizziness, fainting, and depression and felt completely abandoned by Christ. However, he writes that “Through the prayers of the saints, God began to have mercy on me and pulled my soul from the inferno below.” Luther felt saved by the prayers of others. And in grateful response, he wrote a hymn, based on Psalm 46; we sang it this morning – “A Mighty Fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing. Our present help amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.”

I know that many of us, like Luther, have doubts about our ability to pray. When the things we pray for don’t happen, we might think “I guess I don’t measure up.” “I guess I didn’t pray in the right way or with the right words.” “I guess I don’t count with God.” Or we might offer explanations for God, like: “Maybe God is angry with me… or punishing me… or trying to teach me something.”

Perhaps rather than having doubts about ourselves, we have doubts about God, or about prayer itself. When our prayers seem to go unanswered, we want to know why. Why won’t God, who is capable of anything, do away with suffering at our request? Why can’t God step in and fix a marriage, cure an illness, solve our financial woes, straighten out a wayward child, when we plead for it? We send up emergency prayers like traffic flares and when God doesn’t respond in the ways we ask, we begin to have questions. Does God really hear us? Does God care? Why doesn’t God do something? Is there a God at all?

And our frustration only mounts when we read Jesus’ words in this morning’s Gospel passage. “Ask and it will be given to you; knock and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks, receives; and everyone who searches, finds; and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” This passage seems to be saying, just ask and you can get whatever you want.

Yet nowhere in the text does Jesus say, “If you don’t get a return call when you pray, it means I don’t have time for you.” We forget that when our prayers are not answered according to our explicit requests, God may have another answer.

In his book The Lord Is My Shepherd, Rabbi Harold Kushner, writes, “In our society, we have tended to confuse God with Santa Claus and to believe that prayer means making an inventory of everything we would like to have but don’t have and persuading God that we deserve it.”

Kushner then describes the song “Unanswered Prayers” by country star Garth Brooks. “It tells the story of a man in his mid-forties who sees a woman at a community event who looks vaguely familiar but he can’t quite place her. Then he realizes that this is the girl he had a crush on in seventh grade. Every night as a seventh grader, he would go to bed praying to God to make her love him as he loved her, and not understanding why God would not grant the heartfelt prayer of a devout thirteen-year-old boy. Now, thirty years later, seeing who he has grown up to be, seeing who she has grown up to be, he comes to understand that “some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”

Kushner, who also wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People, goes on to say, “Prayer is not going to God with your shopping list. Save that for Santa Claus. Prayer 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.”

As I mentioned earlier, the “priesthood of all believers” was a central teaching of Martin Luther who declared that, “we are all priests as long as we are Christians.” We certainly believe that and live that out here in this church, where it says right at the top of Notes & Notices, “Ministers: All Members.” One of my most important responsibilities as Pastor is to empower the laity –all of you – to play an active role in this church’s ministries, and as I mentioned during announcement, two new lay-led ministries begin next Sunday, November 1.

Starting next week, Joan Roan will lead a Sunday night book study on Kushner’s book The Lord Is My Shepherd. As you may have sensed from the excerpt I read, this is a very special book, and the group will no doubt be a very special experience. Please see Joan at Coffee Fellowship for more information.

And on Sunday mornings beginning next week, Dana Barnes will lead a prayer group from 9:15 to 9:45 before worship. Every Sunday, she will lead the group in 30 minutes of prayer, not only for personal concerns but also for those on our caring list, our community, and our world. Once a month, the group will experience prayer in a new way – maybe music or guided meditation, whatever the Holy Spirit leads the group to experience. If you have any questions, or have any special prayer requests, please see Dana at Coffee Hour.

These ministries lift up prayer and spiritual relationships, two of the six marks of discipleship we have been focusing on this past year. We hope that you will continue on your path of discipleship by engaging in these and other spiritual practices, because they will help you to grow closer to God through Christ. They will help you to know God better, to understand God’s ways, and to trust God, who is our refuge, our strength, a mighty fortress, whose presence abides even when we have our doubts.

Jesus says “Search for me and I will be found. Ask me for help, and I will show you the way. Knock on the closed doors of frustration, heartache, loss, temptation, and I will open them. For when you ask for love, I will answer.”

It is in our asking that we invite God into our lives. It is in our knocking that we say, “Yes, Lord, I believe.” It is in our seeking that we affirm, “Lord, I know you are there for me.” Jesus knocks on the doors of our hearts. May we open wide, and let him in. Amen.

¹Adapted from Karen Burton Mains, Preface, Sing Joyfully, Tabernacle Publishing Company, December 1989..