When I was a child I spent many weekends at my best friend Ronnie’s house. As he lived across town, it was too far for a kid to walk on his own. I needed a ride to get there. As my parents worked on Saturday, I would often have to wait for Ronnie and someone from his house to come and get me. Ronnie would arrange that on his end. We’d be on the phone and her would say “Pops says he can come get you. We’ll be there in a few.” The assumption was a few minutes. I would stand at the living room window watching and waiting. An hour would pass, an hour and a half. I’d call again wondering where they were. “He says we’ll leave in ten minutes.” Another hour or so would pass while I stood staring out the window, watching and waiting. I’d call again. “We’re on our way.” Another hour or so goes by. I’m not exaggerating. I spent many Saturday morning and afternoon staring out that window waiting. I’d call again. “Are you coming.” “Let me go check what’s up.” I’d hear them bicker a bit in the background. He’d come back to the phone. “Leaving now.” A half hour later, he would show up with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend to get me. Watching and waiting. I wonder if I would have ever made it to his house if I had not kept calling. I have no idea. I don’t know what was going on Ronnie’s end of things. Was his dad forgetful or had something more important going on. I don’t know.
Looking at our reading, this watching and waiting and persistent praying seems to be what faithfulness is and it almost seems like hope. Jesus asked his disciples that rhetorical question, “When the Son of Man comes will he find faithfulness on the earth?” That question comes at the end of a parable in which he was teaching them about their need to pray persistantly so that they do not lose hope in God and fall away. Jesus knew that being his faithful disciple in this world that crucifies its hope was going to get tough for them. It was going to be quite difficult to live faithfully, according to hope by showing unconditional and forgiving love and steadfast commitment to Christian fellowship. He likened this task to the hopeless impossibility of a falsely accused widow seeking vindication for her tarnished honour by going to a crooked judge who just likes to see people put to shame. You ask and you wait. You ask and you wait. You ask and you wait. You ask and you wait. You keep at it until you’ve gotten on the judge’s (God’s) nerves enough that he grants your request. That getting on God’s nerves part is probably Jesus showing a sense of humour, but we get the point. We can relate to that widow. So often when we pray, we do so wondering what it's going to take to get some action out of God, but then in time, God does act.
Praying continually, persistantly is necessary to having faith and being faithful. Jesus says that if we don’t pray continually we are likely to fall into what we translate rather weakly here as discouragement or a loss of heart. I’m going to get your Greek lesson out of the way early this morning. The word Jesus uses there for loosing heart quite literally means “in evil doing.” The word is enkakeo (Those who like playing with Spanish homonyms think en caca.) There are two senses in the way the word gets used. It can be either “to treat badly or evilly” or “to wrongly cease doing something” meaning to quit on people or to leave fellowship. So, without this habit of continual prayer Jesus’ disciples would be in danger of falling into the evil of a discouraged heart that leads them away from Christian fellowship or even to turn on that fellowship and treat it badly. There is an integral link between prayer and staying in the body of Christ.
There is a correlation between Jesus’ disciples learning to pray continuously and the continuance of Christian community on earth. Without this discipline of prayer, the habit of continual prayer among the disciples of Jesus, the church, Christian fellowship, perishes. It is in prayer that the personal faith, hope, and love that are the seeds of Christian community take root and sprout. In prayer by the working of the Holy Spirit God changes us, transforms us to be in the nature of his children, like Jesus his Son. As children trust their parents for everything, so prayer makes us look to our Father in heaven and trust him for everything.
So, what is continual prayer? Well, what goes on in our heads anyway? All of us worry. Worry is a matter of instinct. We just do it. When we’re not worrying, we usually just let our minds go on in their own little worlds of imaginary conversations around emotions we can’t quite name. Sometimes we get ideas. A few of us can actually sit and think and sort things out. Mostly, we just let our minds get preoccupied with whatever and we exhibit very little in the way of reigning in our thought world.
The discipline of continual prayer leads us to get control of our thought world with prayer rather than giving free rent to worry or mindless rambling. It is unlike the Buddhist way which is to try to empty the mind of any thoughts at all. It is also unlike the practise of mindfulness where we just be aware of our surroundings and take inventory of our inner worlds and try to self-sooth or positive self-talk the hurtful stuff away. Prayer leads us to place our lives into the hands of the God who made us, who knows what’s best for us, and who will lead us to healing and restoration. Here’s some examples of continual prayer.
First, there is finding a specific prayer to pray over and over in those times when we’re just letting our minds graze the green pastures of nattering thoughts. I like the Lord’s Prayer for this. “Our Father, who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” and so on. I pray that prayer and think about what it means quite a lot especially “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” It reminds me to want what God wants for me, for the people I care about, and for the world. If I wake up in the middle of the night, I wait and listen if anyone in particular comes to mind for whom I should pray. Then after that, I just keep saying the Lord’s Prayer over and over in my head until I fall asleep. When I’m out for a walk or cooking dinner or working in the yard, I try to pray the Lord’s Prayer continually. In fact, if I were laid up in the hospital or lying on my deathbed, praying the Lord’s Prayer continually would likely be what you would find me and my mind up to.
A more mission-oriented way of doing continual prayer would be to pray for everyone you see as you go about your day. When we’re out and about, we can take notice of the people around us and pray inwardly, “Lord, bless them.” If we see a young family walking a baby carriage up the street, if you’ve had kids, you know what they’re going through. Pray for them. There’s also actually talking to our neighbours and finding out what’s going on in their lives so that we can keep it in mind and pray about it. If they are worried about something, bear that worry with them in prayer. If they are okay with it, pray with them.
We can make our homes prayer centers. Anybody that comes into our homes does not leave without us having first prayed for them. This is especially so for our children and grandchildren. If you start a ministry like that, be prepared for in time people will start coming to you.
Prayer is our simplest form of participation in working along with God in making things here on earth as they are in heaven. When people in churches take up this habit, this ministry of continual prayer, churches change because God begins to change the people in them to want what he wants, to see as he sees, to listen as he listens, to be as he is, and to do as he does.
So, if Jesus were to return today and come to us would he find faith? Would he find each of us praying? God is not an unjust judge. Our God deals in resurrection, in healing, in restoration and will act accordingly to answer our prayers. Know this, if there is something in your life that is really hurting you, instead of worrying, pray it continually to God. Eventually, you will get a sense that God is with you in the struggle and that he is working on it. Watching and waiting and keeping on calling back through what seems God’s delaying is what faith, faithfulness is. Continual praying, watching, and waiting. Continual praying, watching, and waiting. Continual praying, watching, and waiting. That’s living faithfully. There’s a peace there like no other. Life doesn’t come free of suffering. If you’re happy all the time you’re likely on something. But, there’s this peace in Jesus that is found in prayer. Amen.
