Exodus 15:1-18; Luke 1:46-55
June 4, 2023
- Exploring Prayer of Praise
For most of this year so far I have been relying on the common lectionary for my texts to use in preaching. There are many preachers who do this because it takes at least some of the guesswork out of what to use in the Bible as your primary texts. I can only do it so long, however, before I have to break out and do something of my own figuring, so I am embarking on a couple of series for the summer. We begin today an exploration of types of prayer, and next month we will be considering the lines of the most famous prayer – the Lord’s Prayer.
Last week, we specifically sought the Holy Spirit’s presence in our midst. It was Pentecost, after all, and at the heart of how I experience the Spirit of God is through the gift of prayer. Growing up in a pretty straightlaced Presbyterian family, I learned a very uniform way of prayer. I never really entertained that prayer was actively and worshipfully different in other traditions, even in other churches in the same denomination. Maybe you know Presbyterians who speak in tongues – I do. Maybe someone here holds that spiritual gift close to their heart. Once I began to experience acts of faith and worship in different traditions, different places, and with different people, my eyes were opened, like Paul’s after the road to Damascus. I’ll never forget the first time I was sitting in chapel in my first worship service at the hospital in India where I served as a chaplain for a month back in 1999. This was in my second year of seminary – I was 27. For the first time in my whole life, I heard sisters and brothers of the faith praying directly to Jesus. I’m not talking about a written prayer, but in the moment, loving and praying to our Savior. My prayer was all directed to God by name. Then, the cracks of my spiritual dam burst, and I understood prayer on a whole other level than I ever did before. And yes, I was in seminary, studying and practicing to be a Minister of Word and Sacrament and still learning to appreciate prayer. No one is an expert in prayer. We all have room to grow in this love language of God. I don’t care if you are 2 or 102, there is no way you can know it all in the world of prayer. But, certainly there are people who are more practiced and comfortable in prayer time, people who seem to be gifted by the Spirit in prayer. We all do it differently. There is no “one size fits all,” but there are certain threads that tend to be true across all prayer that I want to find in the weeks ahead. We begin with praise.
Why on earth are any of us here? There are literally 234, 786 other things that we could be doing right now, but here we are doing this one shared activity that so many other people see no value in sharing. First, I have to personally thank you because whether you are giving your time in person or online, you are not here because of me or any preacher, no matter what our own egos might want us to believe. Goodness’ sake, I know you are much more interested in the glory of the invisible God than in anything our little brains or our little hands may concoct. We are here first and foremost for the praise and worship of God our Creator and Redeemer. We are here to rejoice in the presence and grace of Jesus Christ, Jesus our Messiah. We are here to be embraced by the goodness and faithfulness of God’s own Spirit of Holiness and Power. And we are not the first people who figured this out.
I love the two passages that we are using today to illustrate what prayer of praise to God might sound like. We have two leaders of faith, Moses (the deliverer of God’s people from Egypt) and Mary (mother of Jesus). They have both just had significant experiences of the divine presence. Moses just walked through the Sea of Reeds that we erroneously call the Red Sea, and Mary was just visited by the angel Gabriel and told she was to bear the Son of God, the Messiah. Now, both of these passages are considered songs, and Mary’s words have even been transformed into song which you have heard if you have ever heard the Magnificat. There is no difference between song of praise and prayer of praise if you want to get down to it. Of course, a prayer of praise does not have to be vocalized, but spoken or silent or sung, prayer is prayer. You are expressing your heart for God’s greatness and faithfulness. You are worshipping the wonder and majesty of the God who spins the heavens and yet is still aware of every tiniest particle. You are giving regard to the same God who made each and every one of us in God’s very own image, who calls us all by name, who loves us in spite of all of our failings and limitations. The very humanity that God has given us with all of its frailty is the very same humanity that God assumed in Jesus. That same God in Christ committed his life into our hands, even to death, just to show us the power of love. What’s NOT to praise about that?!?!?!
And yet, even though there is so much goodness and greatness to recognize in the face of God that we can see all around us if we have eyes and hearts to see, we are far too often ignorant of the glory that is right in front of us. It is so easy to forget or to get distracted or to be overwhelmed or to be any of the other 10,000 things that can pull our hearts away from God’s grace. Even in the Bible, we do not have many of these kinds of prayers recorded. Thankfully, the Book of Psalms is full of not only this kind of prayer but every kind. Our Call to Worship today (Psalm 150) is a famous psalm of praise, but prayer and psalm run the entire gamut of emotion. Humans are complex and confused and uncertain and all over the place, so it should not surprise us that our prayer can be just like us.
The real question is not how you can fit some cookie cutter kind of person who prays. I am not interested in telling you the three steps to prayer or how you need to copy so-and-so. The question is when was the last time you gave your heart to Jesus in prayer. I think people genuinely are not sure how to pray and think there must be some kind of formula like the Lord’s Prayer that they have to check this box and that box and have to say things in certain ways for it to be legitimate and acceptable. I completely understand why people might be nervous about praying in front of other people. I understand it, even if I think anyone should be able to do it. What I do not understand is how people feel they struggle to pray. And since it seems daunting, they don’t even bother.
Friends, all we are doing is giving God expressed love in wonder. We are honestly naming whatever it is that moves us and calls our hearts and minds. We are just opening ourselves to the greatness of the one who made us and all of this world in goodness. God is great, all the time. All the time, God is great. Even when we are not, especially when we are not, God is still great. This is glory to God. Pray with me…
Most Holy, Wonderful, and Gracious God, you have given us this day to praise you and to rejoice in your goodness. We would not have life without your breath, a world without your creation, any goodness without your grace. You have provided every thread of beauty in the glory that enfolds us in your grace. Thank you for the good that brings us here today. You have remembered us even when we forget ourselves. You shine through our human attempts at beholding your radiance. Through our song, our service, our fellowship, and our giving you show us how special we are to you. Nothing in all creation can separate us from your love for us in Christ Jesus. You are truly great and greatly to be praised. Raise our hearts to you. Lift our spirits in yours. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.
What’s one thing that truly amazes you about God? What is one thing that just makes you reel in wonder? What is one thing that stands out to you as too incredible but is true? THAT’S your prayer! That’s your praise! You are there. Just tell God how awesome our God truly is. Congratulations! You are all naturals. Prayer is our life, our breath, and our heart. Thank you for praying with me today to the glory of God. Amen.