Rev. George Miller
January 29, 2023
Matthew 6:1-8
A confession- prayer and I have a complex history. To this day I do not truly understand how it
works, how it’s done or why we do it.
Talking to God I get, but this concept of starting your day with prayer
or getting on your knees, bending your head- NOPE.
Praying in public used to be my discomfort zone.
Back in the 1990’s, while attending Grace Temple Deliverance Church, they’d
call me up to pray from time to time.
It was a black Pentecostal church.
I thought the only way to pray was the Black Pentecostal way.
One day, I tried to pray like Sister Celia. It was an embarrassment for all- it wasn’t authentic;
it wasn’t me.
Do you know where I finally faced my fear of public prayer?
Back Bay Mission, 2022. It was a class
in which we were required to lead vespers and offer prayer.
I’m more at ease with prayer now, but when someone at the Pantry asks “Pastor,
can you pray for me?” I freeze up; don’t
know what to say.
Do they want my words to work like a magic stick, solving all their
problems?
Then there’s this whole thing about public prayer from Jesus. Don’t be too wordy. Don’t put on a show. Don’t pray for attention.
Clearly, many of us pastors haven’t paid attention to this teaching.
Go to any County Commissioner Meeting, National Prayer event, you just KNOW
that whoever’s giving the invocation is going to give you their best, most perfect,
inspiring, loonnngggg prayer ever.
Yet that’s not what Jesus says to do.
It’s not that Jesus is against corporal prayer; he’s not against prayer
in religious settings.
Jesus prayed in public all the time.
Nearly everything he did was in public view and public earshot.
Perhaps what he is trying to say is like his statement about the Law-
What is the spirit, the intent of the prayer? WHY are you praying, who is the prayer for,
who is it about?
Do we pray because we want people to say “What a wonderful Christian you
are!”?
Or should prayer make folk think “What a loving, merciful God we serve!”
Do we pray because it makes us look holy OR do we pray because God is
holy?
D0 we pray so others can hear how good we sound OR do we pray so others
around us can hear just how good God is?
And what do we pray?
Years ago a scholar wrote that there are really only two kinds of prayers-
“Help help help” and “Thank you thank you thank you.”
Don’t you like that?
The days life gets rough, “Help help help” is all I can muster… and yet
still, those simple words seem so hard to say.
…Prayer and I have a complex history.
To this day I don’t truly understand how prayer works, how it’s done or
why we do it.
It’s been said that “help, help, help” and “thank you thank you thank you”
are almost all we need.
But before we end today’s message, there is another prayer.
On March 1, 2022, the gospel group Maverick City with Kirk Franklin went
to the Everglades Correctional Institution in Miami.
They put on a concert for 1,300 incarcerated people; the largest prison
event in American history.
One song they recorded with the inmates is called “Bless Me.”
Part of the lyrics go “Bless me, bless me, bless me God indeed…
“Bless me, bless, God,
Not just for me.
But so everyone around me
Can have everything they need.
“Let all the folks that’s with me, God, have everything they need.”
Isn’t that amazing?
Men, women, black, Asian, Hispanic, white, old, young, all asking God to
bless them and to bless everyone around them.
Jesus is probably fine with 1,300 women and men of every race and age
singing such a prayer together.
Prayer is complex.
Prayer is simple.
Prayer is beautiful.
Prayer is personal.
At the end of the day,
Help help help
Thank you thank you thank you
Bless me bless me.
Let all the folks that’s with me God,
Have everything they need.
Amen.
(excerpt of “Bless Me” is shown.)
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