February 21, 2010

Psalm 91 and Luke 4:1-13

To pray, said theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “is to find one’s way to God in order to speak with God” (Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible).

That’s not easy. Be honest: how many of you have heard another Presbyterian say, “Don’t ask me to do it.  Not out loud.  Or in public. Isn’t that why you’re here, Reverend?”

Prayer scares us – or disappoints us, when we try it and it doesn’t “work.”  Or disturbs us, when we remember how it is misused to find a parking place at the mall before Christmas.

We’re not born praying, any more than we’re born walking and talking.  It’s not natural. Prayer takes time. And effort. It’s a learned behavior.

When I was new to ministry, a woman asked me quite vehemently why I wrote out my Sunday prayers. “Can’t you pray from the heart? Isn’t that’s how it’s supposed to be? How’d you get to be a minister, if you can’t speak to God from your heart?”

Aw, but she was zealous and young … and from Southern California.

Lots of folks would agree with her, that the heart should be able to speak directly to God. They think it’s enough just to pour out one’s heart. But not so. The Apostle Paul knew that prayer is hard – sometimes too hard for any of us. There are days when the Spirit has to take over and do it for us, crying out “with sighs too deep for words.”

There’s a lot the human heart can do (metaphorically speaking) – wishing, hoping, sighing, lamenting, rejoicing. But none of that should be confused with prayer. The heart can also be empty, but that doesn’t decrease the need for calling on God.

Prayer relies on the riches of God’s grace, not the poverty of our hearts.

In fact, sometimes – this is Bonhoeffer again – “it is necessary to pray contrary to our heart. Not what we want to pray … but what God wants us to pray.”

For that, we need a resource or guide – something from outside us. Like the Book of Psalms.

* *

Today’s choice isn’t so much a model for how to pray, but an answer to prayer.

When I looked at Psalm 91, I decided that it’s a reply to someone who is scared.

“God will deliver you,” declares an unknown voice, as if to comfort and encourage.

“God will cover you … You will not fear … No evil shall befall you …”

One of my books offered a different suggestion: Maybe the poem is addressed to the king.

Imagine a king, freshly ascended to the throne, newly aware of all that’s expected. Or faced with crisis … on the verge of sending troops to war, leading them personally into battle, the way kings used to do, or dealing with an economic downturn, trying to stave off foreclosures and job losses and mounting foreign debt. (Hey, it probably happened back then too.)

So picture the king crying out to God, and a reply coming in the form of this psalm:

“I will protect those who know my name … I will answer …

I will be with them … I will rescue and honor them …”

Then again, here’s a third possibility: Maybe it’s not an answer to prayer, but an invitation to try praying for the first time.  Prayer – initiated, not by the heart, but by this gracious and reassuring psalm.

* *

No matter who the audience was – commoner, king or first time caller on God – the primary reference is outside the person. Whatever is needed won’t be found in the heart, or the individual, but in God.

Nowadays, self-help is popular. There’s a large section in every bookstore. Columns in the newspaper. Popular shows on daytime TV telling you how to fix what’s wrong with you. The movement may have started a hundred years ago with scouting handbooks for boys and girls; but it’s gone way beyond that.

No longer is it about tying knots or putting up tents. Along came Emily Post, on etiquette and manners. Then Abby and Ann Landers, and eventually, Oprah. Dr. Spock on raising children. Instruction manuals on work skills and “Everything you ever wanted to know about [asterisk], but were afraid to ask.”

Now there are “Idiot’s Guides” to everything under the sun and lots of books “For Dummies.”

As if to remind us that those are never enough, and we’re doomed no matter what, the latest craze is a whole series of “Worst-Case Scenario” books. It’s self-help extreme –telling you what to do for a busted faucet, bad date, or when chased by a bobcat … in case of nuclear attack, or in a runaway hot air balloon, or stranded on an iceberg or caught in an elephant stampede – though if you can sit down and read a book when the elephants are coming you’re a better person than I am. 

Contrary to all that, Psalm 91 says you don’t have to rely on self-help. You don’t have to do it yourself.  God will be there for you to deliver you.

The psalm doesn’t specify bobcats or elephants; but it does say, “you will tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and the serpent you will trample under foot.” Same idea.

Like Psalm 91, the comic strip character, Ziggy, knows self help only gets you so far. He’s the most spiritual person in the funnies, I say (though he doesn’t wear pants!). He’s always going up a mountain, asking advice from a guru, and getting a mystical, quizzical answer.

Recently, instead of a mountain, he went to a bookstore. The clerk looked at him and said, “Self-Help section? You kidding? Find it yourself.”

* *

Of course, relying on God is no picnic either. After hearing that “no evil shall befall you [and] no scourge come near your tent,” English clergyman Leslie Weatherhead declared, “It’s just not true!” (quoted in Journal for Preachers, Lent, 2010, p. 4).

Anyone who ever prayed for a miracle for a dying loved one would agree. Anyone whose cancer returned after years of remission … or was betrayed in marriage … lost a job … had a child taunted on the playground … battled chronic illness … suffered depression … was worn down to the point of exhaustion … or lost their life savings to Enron or Bernie Madoff  – they all know: Having God as your refuge and dwelling place is no ironclad guarantee.

* *

But here’s the thing: Jesus knew (as those people know) about false and unhelpful claims foisted on God. When the devil tempted him, saying, “throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple,”

for God will command his angels concerning you, to protect you;

and on their hands they will bear you up

so that you will not dash your foot against a stone,”

– words pulled straight from Psalm 91 [the devil knows scripture as well as anyone!] – Jesus said, “Don’t put the Lord your God to the test.”

The invitation to prayer and the comforting promise to commoners and kings in the psalm is not that God provides a bulletproof vest against all harm. Rather, it is that those things won’t ever separate us from the love of God.

The Psalm does not guarantee that God will prevent all the slings and arrows of life, only that God will be with us when they come. It offers a caring and reliable Ally who won’t run at the first sign of trouble … a God who will stick with us all the way to death and hell if that’s what it takes to raise us back to life on the third day.

Psalm 91 is about a relationship that can be “trusted” rather than “tested.”

* *

That’s good for Lent It’s a good way to begin the season that takes us to the cross and empty tomb.

We aren’t told that the way will be easy or without hardship. But as we go, we are invited to call on God, and to find our way to God, trusting that God already is with us. The way through Lent and all of life is not relying on self-help schemes, but throwing ourselves on the mercy of God, our refuge and help, whose ways are best … for us all.

Through Jesus Christ. Amen.