True Prayer [Epiphany 3]

 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• 2 Kings 5:1-15

• Romans 12:16-21

• St. Matthew 8:1-13

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
 
Who speaks to you on this day from His Gospel, saying:
“…but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
 
When Jesus answers our prayers it is almost never how we want it. And I’m not talking about the “No’s” that God gives, the “secret answerings”, or even the “I never would have thought of that way” answers. I’m taking about the “we ask God for a pony and He gives broccoli”. I’m talking the “we ask for a life of adventure and He gives us a family”. True prayer silences sin and allows faith the victory.
 
I love Naaman, from the Old Testament reading, for this reason. Naaman was a great man in Syria. Naaman was a mighty man, but he was sick. Sick unto death with leprosy. The best he could hope for was a life of solitude after all he had done for his country. The “silver lining” was that he would wait for death while, literally, falling apart. 
 
You see, the Lord had delivered Israel into the hands of the Syrians, by Naaman’s hand. So while it seemed like a blessing to Naaman, the punishment for going against God’s people in such a manner was leprosy. Yet Naaman was not so lost that he was not willing to try going to the people he had just slaughtered and asking for help!
 
True humility, for sure. But almost not. His pride nearly gets the best of him, for when he goes to the prophet, Elisha we know him, he expects a show. He expects a song, a dance, and a whole lotta whoopin. In that touristy way we all have when visiting ancient sites, we expect the natives there to have something we don't’ have, simply because we imagine it should be so.
 
Elisha and the Lord have nothing to do with that nonsense. To the great and powerful Naaman, Jesus says, “Go and wash”. 
 
No no no, says Naaman you mean sit down while Elisha does his spirit dance around a campfire, right?
 
Go and wash.
 
Heheheh, again that joke. No, Elisha is going to wave his hands all nimbly-bimbly, slap the ground like one of his evolutionary forebears, and shout to get your attention. Then there’s going to be a great whoosh, and a shpeeeeew, and Ahhhhhhhh. And stuff. Yeah?
 
Listen. Its going to be ok. Continue to pray, but trust in the answer that Christ gives and the answer Christ gives is always Himself. In Naaman’s case, the answer to his prayer is baptism. Plain, regular water, dirty or clean, so long as its a mass of 2 hydrogens and 1 oxygen. 
 
But that is plain. Why can’t our prayers be answered spectacularly? 
Similar disappointment is had in our Epistle. “Overcome evil with good”? What kind of weapon is that? That is not how things are done here. You fight fire with fire. Maybe once in while someone is moved by a good deed or a noble sacrifice, but not often enough to make it reliable, especially if we want to survive the incident or have any good people left on earth.
 
What about the gospel reading? Go and show yourself to the priest? What’s he gonna do? Priests don’t have special powers from God. They are plain and ordinary, too. They are only there to declare, either clean or unclean. That’s it. Healing has to come from somewhere else. 
 
Of course that somewhere else is God. So up to this point, the priest would probably say something like, “Yes. This man has contracted such and such and is unclean. May God have mercy on your soul.” And if God healed him, he was blessed. If God didn’t heal him, some secret sin made God angry and he was cursed. Who knows the mind of the Lord anyway?
 
Repent. To be such a one as the centurion with faith not found in no one in Israel, you would have to let go of everything in life you think you have control over and let God do all of the work, with no meddling. 
 
In our centurion friend, you get to see the faith that trusts enough to go to a man, not a flashy dancing prophet to shout at God. See the faith that trusts enough to have things accomplished from afar, fearing that his own pride and vanity would spoil the miracle. See the faith that trusts enough to say, “Thy will be done”.
 
And there it is. Christian worship became corrupted as men were taught that
their works and prayers, their offerings and sacrifices atoned for their sins. Christ's work of
atonement, and faith in Him were lost to sight. This is still believed today as Christians are taught that they can make God come into their lives through prayer.
 
True prayer is lost and thought of as only a means to an end. It is the ceremony that counts. It is the act of sacrificing one’s time and trust that are more important than what is prayed for or even who is prayed to, as Naaman taught us.
 
The human heart always flees from God, "thinking that he neither wants nor cares for our prayers because we are sinners" (LC 3:10). Instead, "we read in the Scriptures that [God] is angry because those who were struck down for their sin did not return to him and through prayer set aside his wrath [for their sin] and seek grace. (LC 3:11)
 
If we take Jesus for an example, well, He is only half helpful, because He is also God and we’re not. However, the helpful part is His Gethsemane prayer. He prayed wanting things one way, the cup to pass from Him, but submitted Himself, in His humanity, to God’s answer: His crucifixion.
 
Of course, our prayer does not lead to our crucifixion, but because of Christ’s suffering and death our prayer leads to the heavenly gifts His suffering and death purchased, which happen to be the answer to all our prayers: His salvific Word and Sacrament.
 
Trust in your baptism. It may not be the silver bullet to all your problems you bring to God, but it is the sure and certain hope that God is for you and not against you, giving you hope in hopeless situations. Trust in His life-giving Word. You may not think all the answers are there, but the answer to all your prayers are “Yes” in Christ Jesus. Trust in the true medicine of His Body and Blood. It may seem that bread and wine are not up to the task, yet in them, all the power of heaven is stored.
 
These are the answers that our pride and vanity do not like. Jesus wins salvation for us on the cross and hands that salvation over through means. Normal, ordinary means. Just as Naaman had to bathe in the Jordan and the Centurion had to go to the man, Jesus, so too must we accept the answer to our prayers God has given, in His Church, and trust that He knows better than we.
 
Thus, in life and in Church, God has briefly placed before us all the distress which may ever come upon us, so that we might have no excuse whatever for not praying. But all depends upon this, that we learn also to say Amen, that is, that we do not doubt that our prayer is surely heard, and [what we pray] shall be done. For this is nothing else than the word of undoubting faith, which does not pray as a gamble, but knows that God does not lie to him, since He has promised to grant it. Therefore, where there is no such faith, there cannot be true prayer either. (LC 3:119-120)
 
It is actual, human need that drives prayer. True prayer is approaching God as a child approaches his father to make a request. It is not coming in front of an angry God and having to do penance. Your heavenly Father knows your every need and wants to know that you know that only He can do something about them. If you want to please God, ask Him for many things.
 
But where there is to be true prayer, there must be utter earnestness. We must feel our need, the distress that drives and impels us to cry out. Then prayer will come spontaneously, as it should, and no one will need to be taught how to prepare for it or how to create the proper devotion (LC 3:26)
 
For we will have been nurtured and catechized, by the Lord’s answer to our prayers, that is, the means He has given to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify us through His Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus was scorned and despised, so will His gifts, especially faith. For faith is no mere spiritual thing, it is physical as well.
 
Thus, in Christ, our prayers are both spiritual and physical. We pray and beg for the good that overcomes evil and we get it: in His work of the Gospel, Baptism, and His Supper.