Praying Your Life and Living Your Prayer!

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

Joan wrote to me after I had spend 3 weeks in her church: ‚ÄúIn 1999 my life changed.  All the pieces of my life, like a puzzle, got dumped out on the table.  Some pieces fell out facing upwards and could easily be picked up and placed in their meaningful position.  Others faced down and were difficult to figure out.  I threw away a few pieces that didn‚Äôt belong and I crafted some new ones.  As I began work on the puzzle, I realized that it had no defining external edges -- you know, the pieces with a straight side? It is a work in progress. God told me that dumping out the pieces is good--and that I am later on to be an agent working with other peoples puzzles.‚Äù

I wonder how many of us have had our lives dumped out on the table with some pieces up and some down and others thrown away! Who, here today, has not been occupied with the putting the pieces back together after some disastrous dumping out on the table of circumstance?

I certainly have to admit that I have been through the dumping and sorting more than one time in my life. Sometimes the sorting seems to be gigantic – huge, life rending sorting. Sometimes it is more subtle but persistent, like a toothache that begins with the faintest feeling and persists until it’s all that you can think about. I’ll tell you one of those persistent puzzles for me – it’s about the closet and the street. How do you get what happens in the closet into the street; and how to you bring the happenings of the street into the closet?

Of course, I’m using closet and street metaphorically! Here it is! When I meet God in the closet of prayer and meditation, how do I take that profound sense of the Divine Presence into the street? When I’m on the street, living my life in the world, how do I consistently bring the happenings of the street into the closet? If this is a sorting issue for you, I’d like you to think with me about “praying your life and living your prayer.”

I think that Paul gives us a table on which to sort our pieces of the puzzel. He is writing to the Romans about living faithful lives – living their prayer in the streets and at home. The Roman Christians had heard the message of Grace – God loves you and forgives you freely, not because of your good works. Justified by faith! They responded, “If God is forgiving us freely, why don’t we sin more and get deeper and richer forgiveness. If forgiving is what God desires, we can supply a huge opportunity for God to forgive us.

Paul responded: “You’ve got it wrong. You are beginning at the wrong place. Begin with your baptism. Don’t you know that when you were baptized into Christ, your were baptized in his death. And just as Christ rose from death through the power of God, you are to live a new life, a life inspired and expressive of Christ.”

When Christ was condemned, you were there in him. When Christ was tried and found guilty, you were there in him. When Christ was nailed to the cross, you were there in him. And, when Christ died, you were there in him. And, when you were baptized, you were baptized to make you conscious that you have already died with Christ so your old life of self-centeredness is gone.

And, when Christ was laid in the tomb, you were there in him. And when the stone was rolled over the opening, you were there in him. And when the power of God came into Christ and raised him from the dead, you were there in him. You have been raised to a new life.

Paul gave clear testimony to this in his own life: “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:19-20) This is what it means to be a Christian to be baptized into Christ, to put on Christ, to become Christ to the neighbor – for each of individually and us as a community of faith..

One Sunday Nan and I were worshiping at Marble Church in NYC and I heard Arthur Caliandro tell the story of a young woman who had been reared and educated by a congregation after both her parents were tragically killed. After graduating from college she went to her minister on Friday and asked, "May I address the congregation on Sunday morning?"

Reluctantly, he said, "You may."

With some trepidation on Sunday morning, the minister called on her.

She stood and said, "Thank you! Thank You! For all that you have done for me in Christ's name through the years. You are him, here!" Both in the closet and in the street!

This is what I have been saying to you this morning, “You are Him here.” You, this community of St. John’s Presbyterian Church – you are him here. The issue is how do we take this sacred calling, this new identity, and this power of transformation into the world?

Getting the faith of the closet on the street and the challenges of the street in the closet are real challenges – at least, they are for me. Much of my life I have been puzzled about how to embody what I believed in the work-a-day world, what happens on Sunday morning when I’m preaching that gets lived out on Monday.

Perhaps for some of us the notion of “Praying Your Life” is a new thought and one that requires some guidance. Just how to you pray your life? I believe that bringing our whole life into the presence of God is an act of praying and I want to suggest to you three ways that you might do it.

First, find yourself in this place of worship every Sunday morning. Come not out of habit nor because you will feel guilty if you do not; and, don’t come to be seen of others. Come here Sunday by Sunday to meet God. That is what worship is about – it is praising God for God’s goodness and listening to God for direction in our lives.

Begin you worship with silence and a brief prayer: “I am here today, O God, to meet you. Speak to me through the music I hear, the text that is read, and the sermon that is preached. Let me hear you today.”

Not everything that happens in worship will be for you that day, but there will be a word for you, if you are listening. Listen to that word and take it with you into this next week and enflesh it in the home, in the street, and at your place of work.

Second, each day this week go into your closet – you know the one that Jesus spoke of – “enter into your closet and when you have shut the door, pray to your father. Remember that shutting the door is just as important as going into the closet. In the closet recall the word that was spoken to you on Sunday, then forethink your day. Visualize the places you will go, the people you will meet, and the tasks that you will undertake, and imagine how you can enflesh that word in your life. Even if you cannot see the day totally, making the effort will keep you alert to God’s direction to you.

Third, reflecting on your day is an act of prayer. At the end of the day before you retire, find a quiet place that you can enter your closet, shut the door and review your day. Think back over the things that have happened in your life during the day. If you think about it, you can see the different segments of your day – getting out of bed, preparing for the day, travel, phone conversations, acts of mercy and important decisions. Simply make a list of these and then go over them slowly and thoughtfully. Wonder: “Where was God in this call or this visit or this duty?” Even if you do not get an immediate answer, think about it; bring each part of this day into review before God and you will be praying your life.

What does praying your life and living your prayer really mean? I think it will help you live with awareness in each moment. You will come from the closet with an awareness that you have been in the presence of God and that you are leaving the closet in the presence of God and that everywhere you go this day you will be in the presence of God and the things that happen to you will in someway be expressions of God! When we begin to attend this divine presence we will be amazed at how full of God our daily life really is!

Live your prayer! You have died with Christ. You have been raised with him. You have put him on like a garment! You are a ChristBearer! Did you hear the ancient story of the seeker for God who went to a wise man and asked him how to meet Christ? The old Hermit told him to sleep by the river and to help people across – he did. One night he heard the voice of a child and arose, placed him on his shoulders and waded the river. When they got to the other side of the river his passenger confessed to the man that he had indeed born the Christ. Thus, the image of ChristBearer or Christopher.

That is what you and I are about – Bearing Christ in the world. Think about your life this week. Have there been moments when you might have been a ChristBearer? Reivew your week!

Maybe when an old couple backs down the driveway and you pick up the paper she cannot reach, you were a Christopher.

Or, perhaps you gave a $1 to a person on the street who bought a bit of bread (or even a bottle of wine), you were a Christopher.

When You walk into the hospital room of a friend and listen, maybe even your silent presence is a bearer of Christ.

Or when you listen to a friend’s good fortune and celebrate it with him. Is that Jesus way?

I began the sermon today talking about a puzzle and I want to end with another. A couple of days ago I had breakfast with David who is a research Medical Doctor with CDC who participated I a project to wipe out. Elephantiasis. He and I have been friends for over 5 years and we have had dozens of lunches and breakfasts together. At this particular breakfast I asked him to tell me about his retirement from CDC and his new job at the Fetzer.

He began by telling me that the CDC made a broad announcment of his retiring both to people presently working there and those who had gone on to other jobs. After the announcement went out, he began to have calls from persons that he had heard from in years. They were recounting the experiences they had shared and man of them mentioned some spiritual dimension of their lives that they had never discussed with Davia. On spoke to him about a wife who had cancer and how that had led to prayer; another told him about his prostate cancer; still another mentioned his attendance of a meditation group. — and there were others!

As we sat at breakfast that morning, I asked David, “Why do you think that these people spoke to you about spiritual matters now and not before?” He responded, “Maybe my leaving gave them special motivation; or, perhaps it is because I am going to Fetzer who is involved in a campaign for forgiveness. (The web site for Fetzer flashes theses words: “Change everything with love and forgiveness.”

I then asked him the question at the heart of the puzzle: “David, how might you have evoked these conversations while you were still at CDC?”

And that is my question to you and me this morning: How might we live, speak, or act in a manner that people might want to talk with us about things that matter?

(The common name for the disease is elephantiasis (pronounced slightly differently from "elephantitis").  Elephantiasis is the advanced, deformed swelling of the leg with thickening and folding of the skin (which looks like the leg of an elephant).  The more technical name is lymphatic filariasis ("fil-uh-rye'-uh-sis").   I'm honored that you would use this in your sermon on Sunday.  Wish I were going to be there to hear it!