God's invitation to a Two Way Relationship
Slide 1: Do you know where your God is?
Do you know God from personal experience?
Maybe you were blessed and had a prayer answered letting you see God at work.
Do you know God from a circumstance in your life that just cried out for somebody, anybody to do something. Maybe you saw things change and couldn't explain how it happened.
Do you know God not by what you've seen but by faith that helps you to keep on calling out even when you aren't certain beyond hope that God is really there.
Slide 2:God invites us into a 2 way relationship.
God is calling to us, inviting us into a honest two way relationship. Our relationship with God has some real challenges. We easily miss God's calls. He reaches out for us in scripture and in the Word of God that is manifest when we serve out of love in the name of Jesus Christ. But many times we shut ourselves off from his Word. So God uses the circumstances of this world to get our attention. We look away from injustice and God is still calling for our attention. God reaches out for us in revelation and sometimes when we've shut our ears to his word he uses consequences to get our attention.
Slide 3
Paul in his farewell letter to Timothy wrote from a Roman prison. He sat in chains and told Timothy, a young man who was growing into a strong man of faith to, “...continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it.” Paul was reminding Timothy that he wasn't alone. The faith growing in Timothy was shared with his mother and grandmother, and Paul and the rest of the church.
Slide 4
Paul wrote on to Timothy, “...from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” 2 Timohty 3:14-15. NIV God comes to us in many ways. He searches for us wanting not only to connect with us in prayer but to reveal his very heart of love and compassion to each one of us through the Living Word of God. This is a two way relationship, prayer and revelation, a deep connection between God and each of his people.
Slide 5 How do you pray.
Prayer is part of walking with Jesus. Its our link to God and God receives all kinds prayer: formal and corporate prayer like we share with him hear today. And everyday and conversational like, “God watch over her or God help me, I'm struggling. Prayer is our part of communication with God as Father. But its not a one way street. God sometimes starts the conversations and other times replies when we start talking. That's revelation. Prayer to God exists as part of our relationship. Prayer is literally your faith in action. Prayer means that you believe in the God revealed to you and for you in the Word. Prayer means that you believe in that God enough to speak into the darkness knowing through hope, and not certainty, that you will be heard.
Okay, you say prayer keeps you connected to God just as we stay connected when we listen to the Living Word revealed in Jesus. But what if you're desperate. Our reading from Luke today isn't just Jesus generally talking about prayer and our relationship to God when things are okay. The woman Jesus was talking about in the Gospel story was crying out to a judge in desperation.
Slide 6:
Jesus invites us, in this story, to look closely at our relationship with as people dealing with God. Jesus explains the terms of this relationship with very human faces. One face is the face of worry and fear. The other face is of a judge who doesn't care. The face of desperation belongs to a widow who is desperate for justice. We don't know exactly what she needs or wants; that's left to our imagination. Maybe she had been robbed by an unscrupulous banker who made a loan he knew she could never repay and now she risked losing everything. Maybe she'd be swindled. Just let your imagination run but we know that whatever the situation she was crying out for justice. The other face in Jesus story is the face of a judge who seems not to care at all.
There was no way in the story for the widow around this situation. She had to deal with this one judge who didn't care about her, or anybody else. And she had to get that judge move on her case. And he didn't care. But she pesters and pesters until he finally moves on her case. She may have followed him showing up in court everyday. She may have embarrassed him demanding that her case be heard telling people he was a fraud. She may have stood outside his house silently pleading. Jesus tells us to pray like this, day and night, for justice. The issue at hand for the widow is justice. Jesus is inviting us to pray, like this, about what matters.
Slide 7
Parenting two 4 year old girls has given me a little insight into God's communication with us (revelation) and our communication with God (prayer). About a week ago we were having a problem with our dog swiping food from our girls' hands. The puppy would jump up and swipe gram crackers out of their hand right as they sat on the couch about to take a bite. So I put up a sign on the refrigerator, a revelation if you will, of Dad's plan for his daughters. “No eating in the living room.” Our girls are 4 and I know they can read the word no, but everything else is a bit of mystery. They told mom when she came home.
Our daughters have a wonderful ability to ask us for all kinds of things and on occasion they have the ability to do more than just ask, sometimes they even say thanks, with out prompting. As a dad I expect to hear, "Daddy, I'm thirsty. Can I have some water please?" and its always wonderful to hear, "Thanks dad." in response. I can imagine that God the Father hears many of these prayers from us. I'm learning that there aren't always easy answers to their requests. Sometimes the why or the how questions my daughters ask are way out of my league. Sometimes they pester and push hoping to just get what they want, and sometimes they pester to get something they really need.
Slide 8
God hears many kinds of prayers.
Prayers of adoration like in the words of great hymns like Beautiful Savior or Shout to the Lord. Prayers of Confession naming our sins, our pride, or sloth, our lust, failings, anger, and all the other ugly things that we've done and all of the good things that we've left undone before God. God hears prayers of thanksgiving for all that we have and all that he has done. And lets not forget that prayers of supplication come to from each of us asking God to grant us or someone else something.
God hears all kinds of prayers. Some are neatly bookended with words of praise and thanksgiving. Others are pleas, sometimes the pleas that really matter, come in tears and screams that aren't neat and tidy with flowery bookends. Some prayers come from deep in the soul and call to heaven for a reply. A mother with a sick child might wake up in the night and debate with God. A man worried about his business might cry out to God not certain of what is next hoping to see God act. Jesus said that the widow called for justice until it finally came. Jesus calls on us to pray without ceasing when it matters trusting that we will be heard.
Slide 9
God reaches for us again and again. He reaches finding a means that will help him to be heard. And we reach for him trusting that we will be heard.
Martin Luther King said these words in a sermon delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, on 3 March 1968.
It will be dark sometimes, and it will be dismal and trying, and tribulations will come. But if you have faith in the God that I’m talking about this morning, it doesn’t matter. (Yes) For you can stand up amid the storms. And I say it to you out of experience this morning, yes, I’ve seen the lightning flash. (Yes, sir) I’ve heard the thunder roll. (Yes) I’ve felt sin-breakers dashing, trying to conquer my soul. But I heard the voice of Jesus, saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, (Yes, sir) never to leave me alone. (Thank you, Jesus) No, never alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me. Never to leave me alone. (Glory to God)
God invites you into this two way relationship. He invites you to know his true heart of mercy and love revealed in Jesus who we meet in the Gospels. He invites you to pray without ceases when it matters trusting that you will be heard.
AMEN
