How Does God Answer Prayer?

(Mark 10.17-25)
A reflection by Dave Shull
Spirit of Peace United Church of Christ
Sammamish, Washington.
The 20^th Sunday in Ordinary Time: August 14, 2011

The ninth in a summer series on topics the congregation has asked to hear reflections about. This morning’s questions stem from last week’s reflection on the Bible story in which the Holy Spirit tells Peter, “God plays no favorites” (Acts 10.34-36). That reflection led two people in the congregation to ask:
If God plays no favorites, how does God answer prayer? Does God intervene at certain times (when two or more are gathered, when we pray especially hard, when we really believe, etc.)? Or is God just present with us, guiding us, comforting us, but not intervening in the world. How does God answer prayer?

We live in a society that’s all about outcomes. And having the power to make things happen. I put my 4 quarters in the vending machine, push the button, and I get my Reese’s peanut butter cups. I click my computer mouse, “complete order” lights up on the open window, and three days later, UPS delivers my book. I turn in my high school science project, and I get a grade. I leave a voice-mail message with a friend, and he calls me back. Or I get upset if he doesn’t. In our society, when we do our part, we expect a response. We expect an outcome. We expect some deliverable.

So it makes sense that’s how a lot of us think prayer works. We pray, “God, heal my dying sister.” “God, stop those kids from bullying my son.” “God, please have someone hire me.” “God, save this planet from all the ways we’re destroying it.” We feel like we’ve done our part. And so we say, “Now it’s your turn, God. Show up. Show us you can deliver.”

As I grew up, that’s what church and Sunday School taught me about prayer. God and Santa Claus became the same person. Sometimes I think I do that now. I ask God for something. God checks over the cosmic list of who’s naughty and who’s nice. God sees my name under the “awesomely nice” column. So God gives me what I pray for. Which means this Santa Claus God clearly plays favorites. Because when it comes to God answering their prayers, the poor folks in the “naughty” column end up empty-handed.
I think that’s what a lot of Christians have learned about how God answers prayer.
And I believe that’s a lie.

A professor of preaching and theology tells a story that shows why it’s a lie.

Years ago…a…friend of mine...did everything in his power to ease the suffering of his lover, who was dying….One afternoon near the end I listened to the rawness of his prayers – pleading with God to do something, to work a miracle that would save his partner’s life….[W]hen the time was right I asked him to tell me about those prayers.
“You want to know whether I really believe God will intervene like that?” I think he asked me. “You wonder if I am really that naïve?” Then he told me something…I had…forgotten…. [T]hanks to him I am not likely to forget again.
“Honestly,” he said, “I don’t think it through, not now. I tell God what I want. I’m not smart enough or strong enough to do anything else, and besides, there’s no time. So I tell God what I want and I trust God to sort it out.”
(Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World, HarperOne, 2009, pp. 181-2).

If prayer isn’t about outcomes … if God doesn’t play favorites by rewarding people who pray and ignoring people who don’t … then how does God answer prayer?

This week, I’ve had a marvelous “conversation partner” on this topic. Her name is Sister Wendy Beckett. Some of you know her from her art appreciation programs on public television. Sister Wendy always shows up in her nun’s habit and her very large glasses. She has those front teeth orthodontists the world over fantasize about introducing to a set of braces. Sister Wendy unveils the mysteries of art, often using highly erotic words one doesn’t expect to hear from a nun. But that’s what makes her so beautiful. She radiates inner peace. She’s totally herself.

In our “conversations” this week, Sister Wendy unveiled the mysteries of prayer for me. She did it by saying prayer isn’t a mystery at all. All her book does is ask me to unlearn everything I learned about prayer most of my life. Here’s what she says:

It may seem to us that [when we pray] we are asking God to give us something – goodweather, good health, good exam results – and, of course, that is our explicit intention. [But] God is not a puppeteer who will stretch out and change the weather, adjust the cells of our body, or jiggle with the examiner’s markings (and at a deeper level we know this)[. T]he essential nature of our plea is not that God will change the real world, but that [God] will strengthen us to bear the impact of it
(Sister Wendy Beckett, Sister Wendy on Prayer, Harmony Books, 2007, p. 59-60).

God doesn’t answer prayer by changing the real world. We can’t pray to God, “Destroy nuclear weapons” or “Reverse global warming.” Humans created these problems and it’s up to humans to correct them. It’s not God’s job to save us from ourselves. Of course the person whose partner was dying in the story I just told wanted God to heal his partner. He wanted that more than anything. And he also knew that he couldn’t count on God adjusting the cancer cells of his partner. So while he was praying for God to heal his partner, he was also asking God to fill him with the presence of the Holy Spirit. So he could begin to imagine how to keep living in a world where his partner was dead.

If true prayer isn’t asking God for what we want and expecting God to give it to us, how do we pray? Sister Wendy says this: “The essential act of prayer is to stand unprotected before God. What will God do? [God] will take possession of us. That [God] should do this is the whole purpose of life” (p. 38).

Reasonable Protestants like us don’t talk about “standing unprotected before God”. The reasonable God reasonable Protestants worship doesn’t do things like take possession of us. But maybe what Sister Wendy is telling us is that trying to make prayer reasonable is what’s kept us believing lies about prayer.

How do we pray? We stand unprotected before God. Which means we come before God empty-handed and open-handed. We come before God with only one desire: to hear God’s will and follow it. To do what God asks. Without a list of excuses about why what God wants me to do is too hard or too unrealistic.

It’s risky to stand unprotected before God. Because, then we give God room to take possession of us and fill us with Holy Spirit. When God fills us with Holy Spirit, God changes us. So we can respond to whatever the real world brings us. And bring God’s healing love to it. Sister Wendy says the whole purpose of life – the reason for living – is to let God take possession of us. So Spirit can fill us.. And change us. And share God’s healing love with this world.

Jesus has a conversation with a certain man that shows us what it looks like when we refuse to stand unprotected before God. And all we lose when that happens.

Listen for a word from God.
17As Jesus went out into the street, a man came running up, greeted him with great reverence, and asked, "Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?"
18-19Jesus said, "Why are you calling me good? No one is good, only God. You know the commandments: Don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, don't cheat, honor your father and mother."
20He said, "Teacher, I have—from my youth—kept them all!"
21Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him! He said, "There's one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me."
22The man's face clouded over. This was the last thing he expected to hear, and he walked off with a heavy heart. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go.
23-25Looking at his disciples, Jesus said, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who 'have it all' to enter God's kingdom?" The disciples couldn't believe what they were hearing, but Jesus kept on: "You can't imagine how difficult. I'd say it's easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for the rich to get into God's kingdom."

I think this guy really wants to know the answer to his question, “What must I do to get eternal life?" Like any question, it’s a statement. His prayer is, I want eternal life. And Jesus answers his prayer. But this man can’t receive it. Because he doesn’t stand unprotected before God. He’s protected in a big way. Jesus hears his prayer for eternal life. And he tries to answer it. With a deep love for this man, Jesus says, Let God possess you. For Jesus sees that this man’s wealth possesses him. That’s what he worships. His wealth gives him his security, his identity, his status, his power. So Jesus says, Let go, my friend. Eternal life is yours if you stop worshiping your wealth and what it can bring you. And start letting God possess you. Let the Spirit fill you with God’s love. Then you can truly follow me. Walking with me and my friends, bringing God’s love to this world, is the eternal life you seek.

But this man is possessed by his wealth. The story says he walk away holding on tight to a lot of things, and not about to let go. And we never hear from him again.

How does God answer prayer? God doesn’t change the real world. God fills us with Holy Spirit. And Spirit’s healing love changes us … so we can change the real world.

We pray for the healing of a loved one who is dying … and God answers that prayer by saying, Let me take possession of you. So I can fill you with my Spirit. And She can strengthen you to face the reality of what life will be like without this person. Perhaps that person will get better. Mysterious healing happen. But we can’t pray with the assumption God will heal our dying loved one.

We might pray, “God, reverse the effects of global warming and climate change.” But God doesn’t answer our prayer by saving us from ourselves. God doesn’t answer our prayer by saving us from our immoral standards of living or our epic levels of denial. God answers that prayer by saying, Let me take possession of you. Let me help you imagine a different way to live. And let me give you the will to do it. Let me bring alive in you a calling to become an ecologist, and let me give you the passion to do it. Let me show you how your choices are killing the poor of this world.

How does God answer prayer? The song the choir is going to sing for us offers a painful and powerful answer. I hear it as God’s invitation to come before God unprotected. And to let God take possession of us. So we can walk through this world filled with Holy Spirit. So we can walk through this world as bearers of God. And let that love change it.

God weeps at love withheld, at strength misused, at children’s innocence abused,
and till we change the way we love, God weeps.
God bleeds at anger’s fist, at trust betrayed, at women battered and afraid,
and till we change the way we win, God bleeds.
God cries at hungry mouths, at running sores, at creatures dying without cause,
and till we change the way we care, God cries.
God waits for stones to melt, for peace to seed, for hearts to hold each other’s need,
and till we understand the Christ, God waits.
(Words by Shirley Erena Murray, © 1996 Hope Publishing Co.)

This song speaks to the last question Steve and Cynthia raise: Does God intervene at certain times? Or is God just present with us, guiding us, comforting us, but not intervening in the world? The assumption seems to be that if God is present with us, guiding us, and comforting us, that God is not intervening in the world. But I believe that is exactly how God intervenes. As creatures of this culture of power and outcome, we think God intervening means God stopping the cancer or getting us the job or ending the war in Afghanistan.

But that’s not how God intervenes. God intervenes by taking possession of us. God intervenes by filling us with the Holy Spirit. We carry this Spirit into the world. As She weeps and bleeds and cries through us. We feel the Holy Spirit waiting for us Christians finally to understand Christ. And as we understand who Jesus is and what he wants us to do with our lives, we change the ways we love and win and care. Because the Holy Spirit is so restless in us … and She will not let us be at peace until we find different ways to love and win and care.

Amen.