Grace and Peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in
the truth, for His word is truth. Amen
Sixth Sunday of
Easter (2010)
Pray Without Ceasing
John 16:23-33 (ESV)
In that
day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of
the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
[24] Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will
receive, that your joy may be full.
[25]
"I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming
when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you
plainly about the Father. [26] In that
day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father
on your behalf; [27] for the Father
himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from
God. [28] I came from the Father and
have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the
Father."
[29] His disciples said, "Ah, now you are
speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! [30] Now we know that you know all things and
do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from
God." [31] Jesus answered them,
"Do you now believe? [32] Behold,
the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his
own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with
me. [33] I have said these things to
you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But
take heart; I have overcome the world."
Besides being the sixth Sunday of Easter and mother’s
day, this Sunday is also known as Rogate Sunday. Rogate comes from the Latin
verb rogare and it means to ask. In the fifth century the church
introduced a ritual of prayer for the three days preceding the celebration of
the Ascension, which we celebrate this coming Thursday. During this ritual the
faithful observed Rogation Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with fasting and
prayer. Eventually, the Sunday preceding the Ascension was named, Rogate Sunday
to focus the faithful on the upcoming ritual and it then became a special
prayer Sunday emphasizing the week’s ritual of prayer and fasting. I also find
it most fitting that in the week before Rogate Sunday our nation sets aside one
day as the National Day of Prayer.
We learned in Luther’s Small Catechism that prayer is
speaking to God in word and thought, and when we pray, we should, “ask for
everything that tends to the glory of God and to our own and our neighbor’s
welfare, both spiritual and bodily blessings. We should also praise and thank
God for who He is and what He has done.” However, prayer should not be used
simply as a last resort; when everything else has failed, now let us turn to
God. Nor should we pray only when we’re in trouble or need. Moreover, we should
not rely on prayer as only a sort of spiritual distress signal, a path of last
resort, after we have exhausted all our skills and human resources. Such a
prayer attitude doesn’t do justice to the sacred exercise of prayer nor does it
accord the honor to which God deserves.
On the contrary, prayer should be the very heart of
the Christian life. That is what the Apostle Paul means by his command, “pray
without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17 ESV). Prayer is just as vital to our
spiritual life as breathing is to our physical life.
To be a Christian does not mean to pray occasionally,
but to pray continually. A man cannot live by taking a breath only once in a
while or a person cannot read by a light that constantly flickers off and
on. Nor can a ship sail with only an
occasional puff of wind. So also a Christian cannot maintain his spiritual life
and health by praying only once in a while. On the contrary, he must pray
persistently. It is appropriate, therefore, that on this Rogate Sunday that we
ask the Holy Spirit to aide us in our consideration of the Christian life of
faith to always be, Praying without
Ceasing.
Strange as it seems, we are prone to be casual or
indifferent about the practice of prayer. When our lives are sailing on a
smooth ocean of contentment, we feel confident and blessed and we feel there is
no pressing need for divine aid or guidance. When we do take the time to
address our Lord in prayer, the temptation is always strong to tout our own
merits before God rather than to rely solely on the name of Jesus. Our Lord
Jesus told His disciples, “Until now you have asked nothing in my
name” (v. 24). Obviously, the disciples prayed in their own name and natural
man, also, asks in his own name rather than in the name of Jesus.
However, when the clouds of adversity begin to lower
and the lighting of God’s anger strikes fear into our hearts, then there is
only one-recourse: the strong and saving name of Jesus. It is only our
bountiful Savior who has given us His precious promise, “Ask, and you will receive, that
your joy may be full” (v. 24).
Our greatest needs, of course, are spiritual — the
forgiveness of our sins, peace with our heavenly Father, comfort in the hour of
sorrow, and the power to overcome sin and lead a holier and better life. Then
there are always our temporal needs with which we are often beset. These
problems and trials confront us and we often stagger under their weight.
Problems of health, money, employment, worry over absent loved ones, of the
future ― there is scarcely one of us who has not been faced by one or
more of these distressing problems.
Knowing we will face tribulation, God wants us to
depend on Him. He wants us say to Him: “O Lord, You must help me! You are the
only One to whom I can go. You are almighty. You can do all things, and so You
can help me, if You only will. You are faithful and have promised to help those
who call on You and who trust in You. You are Love itself, and You will surely
prove that love by helping me now. You cannot and will not fail me.”
That is the intimate, personal, persistent way in
which God wants us to pray to Him — in the name and through the merits of His
Son — and that is why He sometimes waits a while before granting our petitions.
Only by keeping on praying do we appreciate His goodness in hearing our prayer;
if we received everything we asked for right away, things would come too
easily, and we soon would fail to appreciate our blessings, expecting our every
request to be answered immediately; for do we not have the full assurance that
our prayers in Jesus’ name will be heard? Our Savior declared: “whatever
you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you” (v. 23). That
is the promise of the eternal, faithful God — and no promise of His can ever fail.
However, I often hear that God waits too long before
answering our prayers. That He even appears to be unwilling to help us. When we
are sorely oppressed by some grievous need, or set our hearts upon some
cherished hope or ambition, we carry our petitions fervently before God’s
throne of prayer, but there is no answer. Failing to see an answer to our
pleas, we grow impatient, even desperate; we pray and pray, and yet, God does
not seem to hear us, and we ask, “Why is that?” “Why doesn’t God answer my prayers?
I have prayed for things which I have never received.” This, indeed, may be the
case because God will not give us anything that might prove harmful to us, and
He, not us, must be the Judge of that. For those things which seem most
desirable and beneficial to us may prove the most hurtful to us in the end. If
your child asks you for a sharp knife to play with, would you give it to him?
If he would beg you to let him drink a battle marked “Poison,” would you
consent? Children do not realize how injurious those things would be, but that
is no reason to let them have their own way. Yet, we, unthinkingly and
heedless, often pray for things just as harmful to our soul as these things
would be to the body. However, there is no warrant for believing that God has
obligated Himself to give us everything we may think we need. God is no blind,
indulgent Father, who gives His children everything they ask for, even if it
hurts them. He could not do this and still be God the Father.
However, it could be that God wants to teach us the
lesson of prayer — of persistent prayer. He wants to teach us to keep on
praying.
We may ask for riches, or for health, or for
lightening our burdens, or for the removal of our cares and worries, but often,
too often, we fail to realize that securing these blessings might lead our
footsteps away from His loving care. God sends us certain crosses and then
delays in removing them because that’s the way we are drawn closer to Him and
kept on the path of righteousness. Through such trials, the Lord strengthens
our soul and enhances our spiritual life.
The Great Apostle Paul did not get all he asked for.
God kindly but firmly turned down his petitions to remove the thorn in his
flesh keeping him from becoming haughty and secure. Even our Lord, Jesus did
not receive all for which He prayed. On the night before His crucifixion and
death He pleaded with His heavenly Father, “if you are willing, remove this cup from
me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42 ESV). If
the cup of suffering and death had passed from Jesus, our redemption would
never have been accomplished. Can you see the Father’s love for you in
rejecting our Lord’s petition? Moreover, this same all-pervading love often
moves Him to refuse our prayers whenever we ask for things that would prove
foolish or spiritually hurtful to us. Oftentimes, God’s rejection of our
cherished hopes and our favorite dreams proves to be a blessing in disguise. In
fact, it always does. Like Joseph, we must say in the “God meant it for good.”
This is the wonderful assurance of our Christian
prayer life; everything that we ask of God in faith and in the name of Jesus, we
shall receive — or possibly something better.
There is one class of petitions that we know from the
outset will be in conformity with His will and, therefore, they will be
immediately answered, namely; our prayers for spiritual blessings. Whenever we
ask for the forgiveness of our sins, for peace of soul and conscience, for
power to lead a Christian life, for spiritual strength and courage to meet
life’s battles, and for consolation in the hour of death, these things shall be
ours for the asking. They are an outpouring of the Father’s love for us.
Therefore, we acknowledge with the apostles, “Now
we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this
is why we believe that you came from God” (v. 30). Relying on our
Lord’s divinity and oneness with God, we are bold to keep Praying without Ceasing, knowing that in asking in His name, we
shall receive, and receiving, our joy shall be full. Amen.
May the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.