July 30, 2006 - "Great Expectations"

Sorry this one is a little late to be posted...we moved back to Columbus, OH a couple days after this one was written, so I didn't have any internet access to post it until now. Happy reading!

Title: “Great Expectations”
Text: John 6:1-21; Ephesians 3:14-21
Day: The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 12)
Date: July 30, 2006

[Bring a cardboard box out with the word “PRAYER” written on it for the congregation to see.] Boxes. I see them everywhere now. They’re in my office. They’re cluttering our apartment. They even haunt my dreams at this point. Eryn and I have been living in rooms full of boxes for several weeks now as we prepare to move back to Columbus, Ohio.
But this box is special. Today, this box represents my prayers. And if this box represents my prayers, it means that anything can be put into it. Anything that I pray for can be packed into my box. I can put my deepest desires in the box. I can put my most superficial desires into the box. I can put those things for which I am thankful into the box. I can put those things of which I am most ashamed in the box. I can even put you into the box, and I can put myself into the box.
Anything can go into my box of prayer because prayer is free, open, available, unbounded. Prayer is basically our conversation with God. We can express anything – even our deepest, darkest secrets – to God our Father, who will listen to our prayers and attend to them.
So, after I pack my box full of my prayers, I’m ready to send it off to God. But wait a minute…some of my prayers are good: prayers for God to be with my family and friends; prayers for all the baptized to be reminded of the great promises we have received in our baptism. But some of my prayers are maybe a little too unrealistic: can I really pray for God to suddenly bring about hearts of reconciliation and peace to the warring nations in the Middle East? Can I really pray for the renewed healing of a person who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness? Can I really pray for God to mend a relationship that has been recently ripped apart? I mean, it seems it would take a miracle for God to grant me these prayers, so why should I even include them?
And as soon as those thoughts begin to cloud my mind, I begin to put some restrictions on my prayers. I begin to think that maybe I should just say “safe” prayers – prayers that seem more likely to happen than these. [Take out a thick rope and wrap around the box.] These thoughts are like thick ropes wrapped around my box, ropes that attempt to restrict God from answering my so-called miracle prayers.
I’m not the only one who has had these thoughts. We only have to listen to the readings for today to understand that this restricted belief in what God can and cannot do has been around for a long, long time.
Our Gospel reading this morning is a familiar story of Jesus feeding a multitude. Jesus, seeing this large crowd of people following him, begins by testing his disciples and asks (rather sarcastically, I imagine): “Where are we going to buy bread for these people to eat?”
Phillip is the first to answer. He looks around and sees the crowd, a multitude of people gathered around Jesus for the opportunity to hear him speak one more time, or maybe to heal just one more person. But when he sees the size of the crowd, he cannot see how anyone could possibly get enough bread to feed all of them. In a sense, he thought that Jesus’ request, or prayer, that these people should be fed was a little too outrageous. He began wrapping that thick restriction rope around that box. [Wrap another thick rope around the box.]
Then Andrew, one of the other disciples chimed in. Andrew seems a little more optimistic at first. He looks around at the crowd, and – lo and behold! – he spots a boy; and it looks like he has some food with him! So Andrew excitedly exclaims, “Look! There’s a boy who has…” but then he notices the small amount of food that the boy was carrying. “There’s a boy who has five barley loaves and two fish.” Disheartened and thinking that Jesus’ prayer for food was too much to ask, he continues: “But what are they among so many people?” Another rope goes on the box. [Wrap a third thick rope around the box.]
Did you see what happened there? They doubted. It didn’t seem possible to feed all of these people, so why even attempt to pray for it?
I can relate to Phil and Andy, can’t you? There are times, I admit, when I just don’t know what to pray: either because I just can’t form the words to make my request known, or because my prayer just seems to impossible to fulfill that I wonder if I should pray for it at all. Now I know, I know: “All things are possible with God.” That’s a popular quote from Scripture used when doubts like these arise. But it is one thing to say that, and another thing completely to believe it.
But let’s backtrack for a second: how did that story end? It ends with Jesus taking the meager amount of food, giving thanks for it, and distributing it to the crowd; and somehow, some way, it fed five thousand people! Those ropes that had kept his prayer bound [take ropes off the box in one fluid motion] and restricted were cast away [throw the ropes aside], and nothing – NOTHING – could hold back the miracle God had in store that day.
This story tells me that maybe I shouldn’t worry about what I pray for. It’s okay to pray for things that seem – well – outrageous and maybe even impossible. It’s okay to pray for things that might not be “safe” and assured. It’s okay because prayer is supposed to be honest. Prayer is honest communication between us and God. Prayer is that space where we can come to God with all of our faults and all of our weaknesses, all of our thanksgivings and all of our desires, all of our joys and all of our concerns.
So we can and should pray for things like peace to reign in the Middle East. We can and should pray for things like the healing of someone who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. We can and should pray for things like the mending of a broken relationship. We can and should pray for these things because these are our true, honest, and heartfelt concerns that we want to lift – unrestricted – before God. These are the things that we really want to put in our box of prayers, so why shouldn’t we?
A great example of this type of honest prayer is seen in our reading from Ephesians this morning. The entire reading, in fact, is a prayer. It is a prayer filled with Paul’s deepest desires and wishes and dreams for the community to whom he was writing. Let me read it again so that you can hear the way that Paul boldly lifts his honest prayer to God.
“14 On account of this I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that, according to the riches of his glory, he might grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, 17 [and that] Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, [and that] you may be thoroughly grounded and established in love, 18 in order that you might be fully able to grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, 19 [and that] you would know the love of Christ which exceeds all knowledge, in order that you may be filled with all the knowledge of God.
“20 Now to the one who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that which we request or understand according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be all glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” [My translation]
You don’t hear Paul wrapping any restrictions around his prayer box, do you? Paul is bold in his prayer, telling God exactly what it is that he desires most. Paul entrusts this prayer to God, fully expecting that God will attend to it in his own time and in his own way.
That is what I want my prayers to be like. I want my prayers to be honest, open, free, courageous, and heartfelt.
So, what is in my prayer box today? They are my prayers for you. In this box are the things that I pray for this congregation as Eryn and I leave. Over the past year, we’ve come to know you, live with you, worship with you, and participate in ministry with you. We’ve been given the blessing to be a part of a wonderful community of people who have a deep abiding faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and I have great expectations for the future of this congregation. So as we leave, I leave you with a few of my deepest desires and wishes and dreams for you that I want to lift up – unrestricted – before God:
[Pulling items out of the box, one by one, as I talk about them and setting them on top of the piano for the congregation to see.] First of all, a box of Band-Aids. You kids might remember what these Band-Aids are supposed to remind us from our children’s sermon last week. They remind us of how God heals us through forgiveness. And that is my first prayer for you: that you would always keep FORGIVENESS as CENTRAL to your faith, and that you would always remember that God’s forgiveness is more powerful than your Sin.
Next, a picture frame. This one is empty because I didn’t have a picture of the entire congregation that I could put in here, but if I did that’s exactly what I would do. Because that’s what picture frames are for, right? You’re supposed to put pictures of your family in them. And that’s exactly what you all have been for Eryn and I this past year: you’ve been our family away from family. And I know that the symbol of a “family” is really important in this congregation. And this is my second prayer for you: that you would continue to build on this fantastic image for the Church, for you are all a family – brothers and sisters in Christ. And it is also my prayer that you would continue to uphold and support the idea of the family in a society where families are becoming more and more disconnected.
A hammer. Maybe it’s rather obvious given the state of our building at the moment, but this hammer represents the new building. It is my prayer that this building will not only provide you with better space and facilities, but that it will be used to support the ongoing mission of your congregation to reach out to others. And I pray that I can someday see the finished product!
A Mapsco book. A book filled with roads, big and small. A book filled with places to go and things to see. This book represents my prayer for you that you will do your best to discern where God is calling you, and that you will not leave this job up solely to the Council or other elected leaders. I pray that you – as a congregation and as an individual members – I pray that, as you look to the neighborhood and larger community around you, that you would follow the whisperings of the Holy Spirit and use your voices and resources to serve those in need.
Finally, a cell phone. A symbol of our society, which seems to always need things now and is constantly on the move. This cell phone represents my prayer that you would take a few moments each day to call upon God. That you would stop everything for a few minutes and offer your honest, open, unrestricted, and heartfelt prayers to God. That you would call upon God in thanks and praise for the wonderful things God has done in your life or in the lives of others, and that you would call upon God to share all of your faults and all of your weaknesses, all of your thanksgivings and all of your desires, all of your joys and all of your concerns.
These are some of my prayers for you and for this congregation’s future. I know that God has great things in store for you, and I can’t wait to hear how God will bring them about. Now, to our God who loves us more than we can imagine, who provides for our every need, and who listens to our every desire, to him be all glory and honor, now and forever.
Amen.