"It Never Hurts To Ask"


Sermon Delivered By Reverend Richard E. Stetler – July 28, 2013

Centenary United Methodist Church

Colossians 2:16-19; Luke 11:1-13

 

    This morning I want to talk about our conversations with God.   There is a sense of awkwardness for a number of people when they talk to God, particularly if they are asked to do so publicly.  When we use the words like “pray” or “praying,” they tend to create images of church, grace before meals, something pastors do during a worship experience.  

    Why is talking to God any more unique or special than talking to our friends, family members or newcomers?  What baggage do we attach to discussing life issues with God that creates a sense of uneasiness in a number of people?

    When I had my youth groups during the early days of my ministry, I tried to help the teenagers experience their emotions in a number of settings rather than sitting around and talking about spirit-enhancing topics. 

    During one such meeting I chose two of the more confident teenagers and had them sit at a table in the middle of the group.  Then I gave them the assignment.  I told Brad and Audrey to pretend that this was their first date and that the two had gone to dinner at a nice restaurant before going to the theater. There was no security blanket provided by a group of friends that often distract couples from interacting with each other.

    Brad and Audrey did very well even though they were not dating, because they had known each other for years.  It was the rest of the group that hemorrhaged emotionally.  Several of them begged me, “Don’t you ever do that to me.  I would freak out.” Yes, there is awkwardness, shyness or reticence.  All sorts of needs came to the surface of their personalities, e.g., “When I talk, I don’t want to sound stupid!   I am nervous and self-conscious; I don’t know what to say.  I am struggling with being myself when I have so little confidence.  Dating is painful!”    

    We enjoy seeing the results of surveys that gather information about where the society is with respect to certain topics.  We commonly hear that 80 percent of people believe in God.  Most of us would agree that there is a BIG difference between believing in God and having a relationship with God.  People often do not experience the dynamic of being in a relationship.

    There are a number of Christians that suggest that God has spoken, and that all the words we need to govern our lives are in the Bible.  As I gained more experience at living, I learned that Christians do not receive the same message from reading the Bible.  Nor do they have the same understanding of God’s nature. 

    Since there were so many variations on the interpretation of God’s Word, I wondered why God would even use words to communicate.  Then I thought, “Maybe God does not use words.”  As all of us have realized by now, words can mean different things to different people.  And there are billions of people on earth that have never heard of the Bible and even more people who have never read a word of it. We also know that many people find in the Bible exactly what they want to find, depending on whether they are reading from the spirit of love or fear.  

    For example, in addition to The Lord’s Prayer in our lesson today, we find other words that suggest that all we need to do is ask God and we will receive.  For example:

Would any of you give your children a snake when they asked for a fish?  Would you give them a scorpion when they ask you for an egg?  As misguided and ignorant as most of you are, you know how to give good things to your children.  Think how much more kind, generous and loving God will be toward those who ask. (Luke 11:11)

On the surface, it looks as though believers are being told that God is as generous as an Automatic Teller Machine (ATM). 

    God loves everyone on the earth equally.  This is why God equipped each of us with accessible skills to manage our lives during times of plenty and scarcity, during happy and sad moments and during our successes and failures.  There is never a need to plunge into an emotional spiral when our world is not the way we want it.  Spiritual maturity means that as we make adjustments and accept life’s changes, we become stronger.  (Romans 5:3)

    We tend to seek God’s help when our physical lives are being challenged.  In our lesson today, Jesus provided his listeners with an entirely different framework for understanding our conversations with God. Since God is not a material being, God tends to give responses to our requests that are not material in nature. In the last verse of our lesson today Jesus said, “How much more will God in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”

    Seeing our wants and needs through the eyes of spirit helps us to look for God to communicate to us in a language we may be unaccustomed to experiencing.  Without this understanding, we may sense nothing coming from God but just another unanswered prayer.

    For example, one of my seminary professors was experiencing a very challenging chapter in his life.  To clear his mind, he went for a long walk to talk things over with God.  He was dealing with one of those issues where a decision had to be made.  He was standing at a crossroad.  Either choice would represent a significant departure from the current direction of his life. 

    His walk took him by a university stadium and to his surprise the lock on the gate was not latched.  He entered and walked around the cinder track a couple of times and then he climbed up midway and sat in the bleachers.  As he sat there he could not control his tears. He bowed his head in his hands and stayed in that posture for a considerable time.

    He was not asking God to make the decision for him, but he needed assurance that God was listening.  He was asking for some sign that God was there for him during that moment.  Clearly, his trust in God was wavering.   He raised his head and saw his answer. What he saw caused him to leap to his feet, raise his hands and exclaim, “Thank You God!” as tears continued to stream down his face.  

    The image he saw was the result of the full moon coming out from behind the clouds.  The moon’s rays were shinning through one of the poles and cross members of the stadium’s lighting system, casting the shadow of a gigantic cross on the field.  God communicated volumes without saying a word.   To experience God’s presence, however, he had to be searching with his eyes of spirit that for years had been grounded in the symbols of his faith.         

    When Jesus was in the Garden sweating drops of blood, the answer he was seeking never came.  He wanted the cup to pass from him.   When he looked up and saw the line of torches winding serpentine up the path, he instinctively knew where life was taking him. 

    Contrary to the tyranny provided by some of our learned beliefs, God’s will is the same for all of us.  If God used words to communicate to us personally, God might say:

I want you to be happy, fulfilled and eager to make contributions to your community.  I did not create you with countless possibilities and opportunities only to secretly desire that you choose what you think I want you to do with your life.  This is why I have given you free will. 

 

Marry the person you want to marry.  See how you do in your relationship.  As for the job, it does not matter what job you take.  What matters is the spirit that you bring to your responsibilities.  

 

You seek my will but it is not for me to remove your habits.  If you want to get rid of them, make other choices and stay with them.   

 

It is not for me to grant you patience. Patience is a learned value that comes from choosing that state-of-mind rather than irritability and frustration. 

 

It is not for me to grant you happiness.  I have provided you with that potential.  Your happiness is a response to life that only you can make. 

 

I want you to understand that I am always with you during your adventure in physical form.  Often you feel separated from me.  That is a natural state of your limitation.  That feeling, however, is only your response. Such a response from me is impossible.

    The reality is that God granted us life and what we do with it is totally up to us.  People might ask, “What good is prayer?”  That would be like saying, “Why should I communicate with my children?  Why should I talk to my neighbors and friends?”  Prayers are fine that plead with phrases like, “I want, I need, I deserve, or I want to do your will.”   However, what is far more satisfying during our daily conversations with God is our relationship and not the gratification of some perceived need or desire of the moment.

    For example, when I retired from St. Matthew’s, I told my district superintendent that I was not interested in taking another church anywhere in the conference.  I put many of my books in the church’s library and discarded personal material that had been useful throughout my ministry.  We had lined up six months of traveling.  In fact, I had a fantasy of eventually becoming one of those seniors that greets shoppers as they enter Wal-Mart.

    There was a problem.  We lived one mile from the church.  One of the requirements for United Methodist pastors is to sever all ties with the members of the church from which they are transitioning.  Former pastors must respectfully give the new pastor the unencumbered space to build rapport with his or her new congregation.  

    I talked to God a lot about this issue.  We enjoy our home, our community and we did not want to move. We also knew the pressure from people that would come and the pain of turning down requests to perform marriages, baptisms and funerals for people we have known for years.  I asked God for nothing during my conversations, but it was comforting for me to share my thoughts and feelings.

    One evening another district superintendent called me and asked if I would be interested in coming to Centenary in Bermuda.  “Goodness,” I thought, “another country, one that is 840 miles away from St. Matthew’s, an island in the Atlantic where no one could make requests of us and where no one knows us.”  I tell people that it took me ten seconds of deep soul searching to say, “Yes.”   

    During my life, I have not asked God for very much.  Every unexpected turn produced its own unique adventure, every loss was mine to negotiate and every mistake was a learning curve to enhance my experience that life can be trusted.  

    Of all the appointments to new churches that I was offered in my career, Centenary is the only one to which I said, “Yes.”  I said “no” to every offer because I do not negotiate change very well.  This was true for my last church where I served for over 14 years.

    My district superintendent did not take “no” for an answer.  In fact, after he took me to breakfast, we drove to the high school parking lot that stands beside the church.   As we parted ways he said, “Oh, by the way, St. Matthew’s sold its parsonage.  When you come here in July, you will have to buy a house.”  Lois and I never owned a house.  I grew pale as I drove back to our parsonage on Capitol Hill.  As happened throughout my life, most of the significant things that have happened were beyond my control.

    What I have treasured so far in life is the journey.  Very little has happened that I could have predicted or anticipated. God and my spirit guides have been with me every step of the way.  I know this unequivocally because I have talked to them every day.

    I have learned never to judge anything until I found where it was leading.  I hope that all of you have this same experience.  Even though, I resisted many of the changes in my life, it has been a remarkable adventure so far.  Everyone can have a similar experience by trusting God for the outcome of all things. (John 3:8)