Practically Praying: Introduction
Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Rev D. Graham Leitch
5 January 2003

When a number of people were asked to write down a prayer or comment about prayer, at the end of one year, here’s what some wrote:

‘God, thank you that the past year has been such a wonderful experience with you...we’ve shared so much! Every day we have talked together. In my problems you’ve helped me and shown me the way through! You’ve shared the highs and lows of my life. And what I didn’t think I could face alone I was able to see through with you!”

“Yes, I suppose prayer’s important - but if I’m honest I don’t do it much!”

“Oh, I admit that there are times when everything’s still confused and cluttered up in my mind. But if I just close my eyes and takes myself out of the world for an instant, you come through loud and clear....”

“Pray!! Why bother, God has it all programmed doesn’t he?”

“Father, I know I can’t speak your Word as forcefully and effectively as some, but I KNOW you’re working through me - and I’m aware of it...I wish everyone could know the peace that I have in my life....”

“I’ve tried praying but it feels silly - kind of talking to nobody - a sort of madness”

“This past two years God has become my closest and most dependable friend!”

“I’ve tried praying but I never get any answers. I either don’t know how or I can’t be living right.”

In a week’s time - next Sunday morning - to start the New year, we are going to be visiting the subject of PRAYER in a series of services to which I’ve given the title PRACTICALLY PRAYING.

IDEAS ABOUT PRAYER
The idea of prayer, as the comments I’ve shared with you illustrate, is viewed very differently by people - it depends on your point of view. For some, prayer’s an absolute necessity for living in an unchristian world, and a delight. Prayer’s a powerful and positive thing - as vital to true living as breathing!

But others confess confusion, boredom and frustration. Some refuse to pray because they don’t “see” how it can make any difference. Others try, but it makes them feel stupid - that the whole thing’s just some massive ecclesiastical “con” or that they’re fooling themselves.

For yet more, the problem of unanswered prayer is a stumbling block. It might be the general issue of how poverty, for example, still exists when Christians everywhere have been praying so long and hard for it to end. But it’s just as often more particular - it’s the painful problem of unanswered prayer for the healing of someone close and dear who’s very ill or who’s died:
“If prayer works, why didn’t God hear me - why isn’t my husband, brother, son or grandchild still alive?” The loss of a loved one for whom we have faithfully, desperately, prayed sometimes puts people off prayer - and off God! - for life.

PRACTICALLY PRAYING - A NEW SERIES
In the series PRACTICALLY PRAYING we’ll be looking at the question of “unanswered prayer” specifically later on. But, starting next week, we’ll look, in turn, at a number of different subjects:

1. WHAT IS PRAYER?
We’ll be starting with the question “What IS prayer?” Although all of us can give our answer, in effect many different answers are given by Christians to this question: To one it’s “what I do in church on Sundays..”; to another it’s spiritual warfare, to another “asking God for things”; to yet another its “instant communication with God - anywhere, anytime” - for many defiving prayer is like grasping the wind.

We’ll be looking next Sunday at what PRAYER - in its essence, at its heart - is and is meant to be.

2. WHY PRAY?
The next Sunday we’ll be asking “Why pray?” - why bother? What difference will it make - what good will it do? What do people mean when they say that prayer isn’t “the least you can do” for someone but “the most you can do” - and are they right?

In a world in which competing demands multiply and time is ever more precious and scarce - why bother with prayer!!

Next, we’ll spend a couple of weeks looking at the nuts and bolts of fitting prayer into busy lives - when should we pray and where should we pray - and most of all, HOW? Because for most it’s the HOW? question that stumps us. Even if we don’t feel much desire, most of us would like to be better “pray-ers” than we are; we know that if we could somehow just “crack it” we’d be better off - it would do US a lot of good! And we have a hunch it would help others as well.

So for two weeks we’ll be looking at the “nuts and bolts” of how to establish, maintain and develop prayer as a a part of everyday life.

3. UNANSWERED PRAYER...PRAYER WITH OTHERS....PRAYER AND EVERYDAY LIFE
Then after that, we’ll look, as I’ve said, at “when heaven is silent” - the problem of unanswered prayer. If prayer is SO powerful and every promise God gives is true, and so many Christians are praying, why does God withhold so many blessings and why is the world not yet a better place?

And then we’re going to end by looking at whether PRAYING WITH OTHERS, praying together, can help us - and, finally, in a service called “Living Prayer” we’re going to look at prayer and everyday life....

I’ve called it PRACTICALLY PRAYING for two reasons:

PRACTICALLY PRAYING....
In the first place, it’s my impression that when it comes to prayer there are many people who are standing on the edge of the pool staring at the water and wanting to jump in and swim, but they’re not sure if they can. - they’re practically praying, just one step from the water - on the edge of discovering a real relationship with the Living God and developing it!!

In the second place, I’ve called the series PRACTICALLY PRAYING because I want this to be a “HOW TO...” series. One that , if you commit to it and take what’s on offer, will add something new to your life and give it a whole new “plus”!!

Otherwise, what use is what I say!

APPROACHING GOD
By way of introduction to the series - which starts next Sunday - I want us to think about our attitudes. and approach to God. In what spirit should I come to God? What attitude should I have if God is to approve of me and bless me? How can I best and most profitably draw near?

If PRACTICALLY PRAYING is to be a “How to...” series, then the question “How can I come to God?” seems a useful one to consider at its beginning.

If I visit a town and want to find a particular shop or tourist attraction, I can approach someone local and ask them. And it’ll usually be a matter of something like - “Go down to the foot of the brae, turn first left then second right - go round the roundabout and down to the foot of the hill and it’s on your left...”

But it’s not so simple when it comes to getting to God, because he’s not physical and no number of lefts and rights or “down the braes” will get you to Him! Yet there is, in each of us, an instinct that cries out for Him. I was going to say that this is supernatural but it isn’t, it’s natural, because it’s Him that we are made for and no-one’s entirely fulfilled or complete without Him.

All of us have a God-shaped gap in our lives and until we find Him our lives are filled with search and escape in just about equal measure - searching for we don’t know what, and running from the emptiness that waits to be filled!

But where to begin - and HOW TO come? That’s where many of us find we must start. And there’s
no better guide to help us than the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector told by Jesus:

THE PHARISEE AND THE TAX-COLLECTOR
10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: `God, I thank you that I am not like
other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but
beat his breast and said, `God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

Notice, in v.9, that Jesus painted this memorable as a warning to some who, as Luke puts it, “were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else...”

There’s a type of person, the Bible says, who digs pits and build walls on the road they need to use to come to God. Surprisingly, Jesus’ teaching tells us - that type of person is often religious. There is, he says, a kind of religion that obstructs the way to God.

1. THE PHARISEES
It’s the kind of religion that was most often found amongst the religious group known as Pharisees in Jesus’ day. Often, in his preaching Jesus, called them “blind”

There were full of their own self-importance and goodness. Jesus pictured them as debtors too bankrupt to pay what they owed to God; as guests fighting for the best seats at parties - anxious to be noticed, consumed with a concern for “image.” Self-doubt was no part of the Pharisees make-up - they were cocksure when it came to God - he could, he would, he MUST approve of them!! They thought of themselves as the “creme de la creme”of God’s people.

They thought they knew everything about how to approach God, but really they knew nothing about how to approach Him - and this is what Jesus’s story is designed to demonstrate:

The Pharisee in Jesus’ story enters the temple first. He strides in like a “somebody”. He struts to the front, to his accustomed place, taking care no doubt to be noticed - and he begins to pray, taking care, no doubt, to be heard:

`God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even
like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

It isn’t that he’s eager for God’s approval. He ASSUMES God’s approval - He almost speaks as though God’s in his debt rather than the other way round!! He boasts of his own exceptional merit, he parades his worthiness before God for all to see and brags of it.

It’s “I”, “I”, “I” - we’ve all met people like that!! “Hello, it’s nice to see you!” But soon they show that they have little interest in you and your concerns - conversation soon settles predictably around what they;ve been doing - what they think, need, want and feel. It’s “I”, “I”, “I”, all the time!! And half an hour latere - when they’ve finished, you wonder wheteher YOU really exist a person - because you don’t seem to matter!!

The Pharisee didn’t come to PRAY at all ( to give God attention) but to blow his own trumpet; to tell God how good he is, to brag and pat himself on the back!!

2. THE TAX COLLECTOR
The second man Jesus pictures entering the temple is a “tax-collector” Most tax-collectors in Jesus’s day were Jews, whom many regarded as betraying their nation by working for the despised Roman Occupying forces - they were generally despised and many of them were cheats and scoundrels. God, the Pharisees w ere sure, would have no time for people like them!!

While the Pharisee has entered the temple so as to be seen - with an ostentatious flurry and as much fuss as possible, the tax-collector entered so as to be unseen. He had no interest in the praise of others but sought, instead, some quieter hidden place......his approach was no matter of appearance but a matter of the heart.....though in his spirit He was drawn to this place and to its God, in his heart he knew he was unfit to come.

And so he stood, instead, “at a distance” and, refusing to look up to heaven for shame, he wept. “But it doesn’t say he wept!” you protest - It doesn’t say he wept, no! But I’m sure he did, Wept for sorrow when he came and for the joy of God’s forgiving acceptance of him when he left!! Wept and wept again!!

“God” he began, too, as the Pharisee had - but it was the first, last and only resemblance to the Pharisee’s prayer!! Because, in the depths of his shame and self-loathing, the tax-collector beat upon his chest crying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner”

“This was the man” Jesus told the listening crowd, “whose approach to God worked. This was the man who found acceptance and welcome - healing and hope - forgiveness and life!”

Because there’s an instinct in us which cries out for God, and this is true of us all - even, much to their embarrassment, of those who most energetically deny Him! Because there’s an instinct in us which cries out for God, there comes a time (it may be now for you!) when many people get serious about trying to find Him.

“Go down to the foot of the brae, turn first left then second right - go round the roundabout and down to the foot of the hill and it’s on your left...” doesn’t work.

But Jesus gives us a simple route map and guide in his story. As I was reflecting upon it and asking God to show me how best to explain its message, I sensed him telling me to focus on three things:

their position, their performance and their plea

As I end, let me say a word about each:

1) THEIR POSITION
There is their position. To understand this you need to remember that the temple was a series of courtyards, with the innermost being “the holiest place” symbolising God’s presence. In Jesus’ story the Pharisee was proud and confident and marched right up to the front! But the tax-collector “stood at a distance.”

It turns out, in Jesus’ story, that the one who appears to go up closest to God is, in reality, farthest from God, while the one who stands back and shrinks in shame, feeling unworthy yet daring to seek Him, is closest to God.

Again the one who brought everything and boasted of his own goodness and religious achievements received nothing - he went away as full of himself as ever, but as empty of blessing as it’s possible to be! But the one who brought nothing, because he had nothing but his own weakness failures and sin to bring, received everything..

There is only one way to come to God and find an open way; one away to approach him and discover acceptance - and that with humble sorrow and contrite hearts:

“Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross, I cling,
Naked come to Thee for dress, Helpless, look to thee for grace,
Foul, I to the Fountain fly, wash me Saviour, or I die.”

2) THEIR PERFORMANCE
Second there is their performance. The Pharisee’s whole life was one of performance - an act, a show. And his coming to God was no different - it was pure theatre - everything to do with being seen and noticed and approved - everything to do with “image” but little to do with personal experience of a living God - nothing to do with reality!

The Pharisee’s religion was devout and sincere, in its way - but is was superficial, artificial, formal - and, if you like, the done thing. It was how Pharisees behaved. It was what Pharisees did!!

Too many people live with religion on this level, complacently dissatisfied but still going through the motions (doing what’s done!) without thinking, realising, seeing how much more God wants their religion, their faith, their relationship with him to be!!

If the series PRACTICALLY PRAYING can help you to escape a complacently dissatisfied life and find, perhaps for the first time, a relationship with God that’s real; a faith that connects - that’s alive because it has the pulse of God in it - the it’ll serve His cause and YOUR life equally well.

The Pharisee’s whole life was one of performance and show. The tax collectors behaviour was dramatic too - as he beat upon his chest and cried out to God. But it was the overflow of a sincere heart and an expression of the depths of his sincerity...no mere act of public display.

The Pharisee behaviour deliberately conceals his heart - the tax collector’s behaviour spontaneously reveals his. If the contrast between the performance of the Pharisee and the performance of the tax collector teaches us anything, it surely teaches us that the way to come to God (the only way to come to God and to find acceptance) is to come AS WE ARE - and that whoever comes honestly, and is ready to come humbly won’t be turned away.....

3. THEIR PLEA
But as we leave Jesus’s story - not I trust, unmoved by its simplicity and power - notice one more thing. I’ve commented on their POSITION and their PERFORMANCE . Before closing your Bible notice their PLEA.

There is something here that matters and it’s hidden in Jesus’s opening words and the tax-collectors prayer.

“Two men” Jesus says “went up to the temple to pray.....”

Now why did choose choose the temple as the setting for this little drama? “Well it was the obvious place!” you say. Perhaps. But didn't Jesus speak about people praying in the market place and on the street corners? And had He not said - ‘When you pray go into your room and close the door...”

Whether it was the obvious setting for his story or not, it wasn’t the only possible one... but to the question “Why the temple?” - “two men went up to the temple to pray” - there is an answer -

Of course we know why the Pharisee went; to the temple - to parade his self-righteousness on a religious stage - to be seen by others. But the secret of the tax-collectors visit is this - that it was there, in the temple, that the daily sacrifices for sin were offered and atonement for sin made - it was there in the atoning sacrifice, in the blood of the Lamb, that the sacrifice was made and divine mercy to be found.....

The PLEA of the pharisee was no plea - it was a bargain - a boast! And God tuned him away unaccepted.

The PLEA of the tax-collector was accepted when he found, at the mercy-seat, the forgiveness that today God makes available at the Cross to all who will humbly turn to Him, making this their prayer:

“God..be merciful.. to me....a sinner!”