Youth Sunday Sermon by Megan Cook
Sermon delivered by Megan Cook
Maple Heights United Methodist Church
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Imagine that you wanted to talk to the president. First of all, you’d have to call during office hours, probably go through secretaries, be put on hold, and unless you had something momentous to say, never get past the front desk. For any hope of an audience with the president, you would probably have to be the leader of a world superpower. The higher up you get in any hierarchy, the harder it is to be heard. But there is one big exception. A really big exception: God. There’s no higher power than God, and yet He listens to every person in the world. It’s pretty likely that you’ll need Him on a national holiday or at one in the morning, and He’ll still be there to listen. You may not be a prime minister or a dictator, but God will give your concerns just as much weight as theirs. God is infinitely more awesome than any leader, yet infinitely closer than a best friend.
I’m sure you’ve seen keychains and bumper stickers that proclaim, “Prayer changes things.” But it does something much more impressive than that. Prayer changes people. One of my teachers told us a story about training to become a nun. There was an older nun in the convent, Sister Roberta, that she couldn’t stand, the ruler-whapping type that was just plain mean. She prayed over and over again for God to make that nun a little bit nicer. But one day her prayer changed. She asked earnestly for love. When she walked out of the chapel, she was filled with love for Sister Roberta, and her time at the convent wasn’t so frustrating anymore. She said that it was an indescribable change that couldn’t have come from anyone but God.
These are the prayers that God honors: when we ask for wisdom, for faith, and for love, for a change in our own hearts. The Lord’s Prayer is one you’ve probably heard hundreds of times. But when the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, he didn’t say, “I’ll give you this prayer to memorize. All you have to do is repeat it every time someone tells you to pray.” The prayer he teaches isn’t one size fits all. It is meant to guide us and to transform us, because sometimes we just have no idea how to pray. It shows us how the prayers we offer should reflect the faith we have, and the faith we long for.
Our prayers should worship God, showing that we realize how amazing it is that he listens to each of us. That’s the “hallowed be thy name.” In prayer we express our trust in God: we believe that His Kingdom will come, and we trust that His Will is better than our own. We give God our requests, asking for our daily bread: not just food, but all that we need. We confess that we are poor in spirit and that we have done wrong, missing the mark of what God hopes for us, and we ask for forgiveness. Finally, we ask for protection, acknowledging that we need His power to avoid temptation and evil. These kinds of prayers are meant to change the people who most need changing: us.
When you’re worried about something, who do you turn to first? I think we all know that worrying does us no good at all, and it makes us feel so helpless. We want to do something, but there’s nothing to do. Yet there is one action we can take, and it is the only thing that can actually help: pray. Sometimes we turn to God after we’ve done everything else we can think of. But God can be so much more that our last resort. He can be our refuge, if we will fly to him.
Everyone needs a refuge, a place safe from fear and pain and all the worries that gnaw at us. When our hands are full (and it seems like they always are) we have a place to empty them. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he will give you rest. He will carry you and sustain you. Psalm 118 assures us, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.”
The reading from the Old Testament today recalls the time when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness. God had provided manna for them to eat, but many of the people started to complain, wanting the foods they used to have: meat, fish, fruit, and vegetables. Moses complains to the Lord. His is far from a perfect prayer – just like ours. He cries out that it’s all too much, and he can’t handle it anymore, just like we do. Moses basically says to God, “If you’re going to be this cruel, kill me now!” And yet the Lord gives Moses a council of men, sending his Spirit to them. He promises to Moses, “They can help you bear the responsibility for these people, and you will not have to bear it alone.” Just like us.
The power of our prayers has nothing to do with the power of us or of our words, and everything to do with the power of God. God honors the faith it takes to say a prayer, even if that faith is faltering and filled with doubt. From today’s Gospel reading: “Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him.” It’s the asking that changes us.
And what a refuge God is. When you ask for a friend’s advice, they usually have your best interest in mind. But that doesn’t mean that their advice will always help. Yet with God, the answers to our prayers will be in our best interest, whether we know what that is or not. Romans 8:28 tells one of the most amazing things about having God as our refuge: “All things work together for good for them that love the Lord.” We are often foolish, but God’s plans are foolproof. This wonderful promise is clear in the book of Jeremiah, “I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.”
Sometimes when we most need a refuge, it seems impossible to pray. But in Romans we hear, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.” God understands us so completely that we don’t need to explain ourselves. The words don’t matter when our hearts are fully known. When you’re lost and overwhelmed, turn to God. When you’re so happy that you can’t find words, turn to God. And especially when you feel helpless, so worried about someone that you feel paralyzed, put it all in God’s hands. Trust that he knows what is best. His love is beyond our understanding, and so he always wants to do what is best for us. But besides love, he has wisdom to know exactly what that is, and the power to bring that to fruition. He will be your last resort if you need, but He would love to be your closest confidant, the one you turn to first.
In Philippians, we are encouraged, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Fly to the only refuge that can give you peace. The highest power that can be reached at any moment, even in silence. The one that listens when you are angry, afraid, or in pain, and who knows you better than you know yourself. Whether you doubt or have unshakeable faith, call out to God, your unconquerable and compassionate refuge.
I would like to finish with a prayer written by a Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, that expresses both our struggles and our longing to trust God.
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Amen.
