Text — Luke 4:31-37

 This question “why do we pray” takes on different meanings depending on which word you emphasize.

 Why do we pray?  — that is, instead of not praying?  There was a time in my life when I would have said, “I don’t pray.”  Praying, I thought, was something that superstitious people did.  I was above praying.  The way I see it now, though, is that I was praying all along but didn’t know it, or didn’t admit it.  (I do think that there is such a thing as superstitious praying, however.)

 Here’s another spin on the question: Why do we pray — in the plural?   Why do we pray together?  Is prayer something we can ever do alone? 

 Why do we pray?  What is prayer?  Is this something we can even understand?  Are we supposed to understand it?  Maybe prayer is something that doesn’t come out of our understanding at all.  As time passes, I find myself wondering if we really understand anything — even my own words and thoughts. 

I’m playing with this question as a way of recommending that we keep our minds as open as possible when it comes to prayer.  Sometimes I think that prayer may be the most honest activity there is, because it’s the most humble activity, the least presumptuous activity — although I suppose there is a proud and presumptuous way to pray too.

 Notice that I didn’t describe prayer as a “human activity.”  I don’t think of prayer as a merely human activity.  I think of it as something God does with us.  Prayer is part of “incarnation” or God becoming flesh.  When we pray, God is part of the “we.”  

 Or think of the question this way:  Why do we pray?  “Why” has several meanings itself.  “Why” can mean:  What do we think we’re doing?  What is our conscious motivation?  What do we want to happen as a result of praying? 

 One of the many benefits of prayer is that it helps us pay attention to our “why” and sometimes it changes the “why.”  Sometimes what we start out praying is different from what we end up praying.  That’s one way prayers are answered.

 “Why” can also mean what’s driving our prayer that we might not be aware of.  This reminds me of Paul’s saying, “We don’t know how to pray, or what we should pray, but the Spirit intercedes and gives us utterance.”  Here again is the idea of God working through us in prayer.

 “Why” can also mean:  Where is our prayer leading us?  Where does it take us?  How are we changed by our own prayer?  How might others be changed, especially when we tell them we are praying for them? 

The point I’m trying to make with this exercise is that we’re not the only actors, or even the main actors, when we pray.  When we pray for people on our prayer list, they become actors in our prayer life, and we become actors in theirs, and all of this is within God’s larger activity.

 Prayer is letting ourselves get caught up in something bigger than we are.  We need something bigger than we are.  Prayer changes us by turning us toward God.  At the very least, prayer is a radical change in perspective — and I would say a radical improvement in perspective..

  I’ve had a lot of conversations about prayer over the years.  Many people who ask me about prayer are people who have trouble praying and they’re bothered by that.  My response is always something like this: “The fact that you’re bothered is a sign of activity in your prayer life.”

 Sometimes people ask me why I pray.  My first answer is, “Because I want to.” That’s all the justification I need.  I pray because I feel moved to do it.  Praying is what I do when I’m most honest about how it feels to be a fragile creature. 

 I also pray because it seems to work.  Prayer helps me face things I need to face.  It helps me let go of things I need to let go of.  It seems to help people heal.  The medical community is starting to believe in prayer.  Prayer doesn’t bring God into the process as much as it acknowledges and opens us to God already in the process, and that seems to help. 

 Elaine Bates died on this Sunday one year ago.  [For our visitors or those new to First Church, Elaine was very beloved and extremely active member of this church who died of lymphoma in her early fifties.  She is still very much a part of this church, in fact.]

 We received the news that Elaine had died less than an hour before the service began one year ago, and many of us were struck by how appropriate and Elaine-like the liturgy and hymns were that day.  So today, our service is almost an exact copy of last year’s. 

 We learned that Elaine had cancer in the summer of 1994, and we started praying for her.  I don’t remember anyone asking, “Why are we doing this?”  We prayed for her because we wanted to.  We prayed because prayer seems to work.  We didn’t imagine that our praying would keep Elaine alive forever.  We prayed to help her.  And it did help her.

 I have no doubt that Elaine, if she could stand here in the flesh today, would say to us, because she did say this many times, in various ways, “Your praying helped me stay alive.  Your praying, along with my knowing that you are praying, and my hearing you pray for me on Sunday morning, helped me live my life.”  I don’t think prayer needs any more justification than that.

 Our praying not only helped Elaine live her life, but it also, in the background, it helped us live our own lives.  It helped us face and prepare for the day when she would have to die, and in the background of that it helped us all prepare for the day when we’ll all have to die.

 Having said all this, we don’t know exactly why we pray.  We don’t know exactly the why of anything.  We don’t how prayer works.  We don’t know where praying will take us.  We don’t know what lies ahead for anyone.  In this sense, all prayers are prayers of confession.  All prayers are a way of standing together, with God, in the face of all uncertainty. 

 In a book I read recently, the author talked about the church as the “solidarity of the shaken.”  But by being in solidarity with each other, we’re not only shaken.  By praying together, by turning to God, by everything we do in worship, singing, sharing Christ’s body and blood, giving our thanks, our money, passing the peace — all of this is part of our prayer life.

 Prayer is powerful.  Prayer works.  Prayer is turning to God.  All of this heals us; it gives us faith; it helps us find joy.  It helps us live our lives.