Sermon for Rogation Sunday, May 9, 2010
“ Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. ”
“Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same.”
READY, FIRE , AIM! This sequence is like many of our reactions to the conflicts and evils that beset us. We discover there's a problem, Houston , and off we go to solve it, tools in hand, and die with our boots on. Then we turn our frustrated hearts to heaven and ask what in the world He was thinking? Why didn't you make things to turn out differently? Thou, Thee, I mean… Ready, fire , aim! Anyhow, that's how I am, too often.
We think in a false dichotomy: that there can be a man or woman of prayer, and then there is a man or woman of action. In our stereotypical movie-minded worldview, do we envision John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn telling the fair lady, “Miss, I can't do anything about the man who stole that shipment of nitroglycerin. I've got to pray!” About the only reference to God we see John Wayne making is , “Now what in God's Name do I have to press “1” to speak English for?” Bigger than life, John Wayne, man of action, in our minds has no time for prayer, to stop and consult his God. And yet, a lifelong Protestant, Wayne became a Roman Catholic near the end of his days. And the man prayed. He did pray.
One of the most unrealistic portrayals in recent years on the big screen was that of Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert, the astronauts who manned the Apollo 13 mission. Having called in a serious problem with this tiny space vehicle bound for a moon landing, the trio ends up over 200,000 miles from earth, fighting to save their lives by slinging around the moon to get enough return velocity to come home. In full view of the glories of space, the magnificence of the giant blue planet beneath them, and in the most hopeless of situations, with time enough to do absolutely nothing but wait, these three movie astronauts never pray. Not once. I find that to be science fiction past my ability to suspend disbelief. The men of the Apollo program were remarkably faithful to God, and a little known fact is that on the first moon landing less than a year earlier, Buzz Aldrin brought and received the blessed sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood. The first mass on the moon. A man of prayer in outer space. Now that's realistic.
We so tend to separate prayer from action that we see them as two mutually opposed options when facing a crisis. Shall I pray or shall I act? When I was in the industrial painting field, there were men we called bull workers. It was good to have a few of them around, for if you told them to get something done, no matter how hard or how arduous the task, they bulldozed right through it and never questioned if it was the right way or the easiest way. They were men of pure action, and very little thought. But you didn't want one of them to be your foreman. It seems that for some people there is never enough time to do it right, but always time to do it over. For a leader, you want someone who thinks through the objective and finds the best, most efficient way to get it done right the first time.
That's like all of life. And frankly, we don't have all the answers nor can we tell the best way to tackle a problem every time. Most of the time we don't even know what our problem is, or that there is a problem at all. Like the young lady who last week ended her life in a tragic collision on 99 north of here, we pass a car, blind to the fact that a gasoline tanker is bearing down on us, and that there's another car ahead of the one we're passing who won't let us back in. She didn't know she had a problem until in a panic she swerved into the path of death.
Life may seem to you a series of long periods of boredom punctuated by such moments of sheer panic. And you feel helpless, faced with both. Yet God is the answer to boredom, as He is to panic. Can you think that the Creator of uncounted galaxies, the Savior of the world, the giver of life could ever be boring? Yet we sometimes conclude that, don't we? Be honest . Praying seems like going to sleep with your eyes open, snoring in tongues. We're all just a bit like teenagers who, when told to pray, roll their eyes and make faces like, Oh man, what a drag! I admit it. I've felt that way often. I like to do things, not just wonder and calmly spell my problem out to a God who knows it all anyway. Let's go! Come on, this is a waste of time!
And then you're faced with a puzzle that defies your skill-set entirely. Your adult child goes AWOL, or the economy goes in the tank, or a good friend kills himself, or your bills are too high to pay or to even look at. I know such crises, and so do you. How do you act now? Your life is Apollo 13. Your options are exactly nothing. Oh, get out and turn off the valve that's leaking your oxygen into space. I do that myself, frequently. But 200,000 miles from earth and just waiting , waiting for what?
God is in space just as He is in this church. He is in your bedroom, car, office and classroom. You don't have all the answers. You don't even know the questions. I sometimes open my mouth in prayer and have no idea where the God of the universe is going to take me. And then He does. Want to know how it's done? I'm speaking like a professional here, but I'm as amateur as any of you.
When you become Christ's, at your entry into His kingdom when you give Him your life, your soul and body, as a living sacrifice: He gives you His Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, to live inside you. That's God Himself inside your mind, your heart, your words, your thoughts. He may appear to be silent a lot, but in fact if you'd be more quiet you might hear Him. Prayer can be creating that silence where His still small voice may be heard. Then you apprehend an issue for prayer. A national crisis, a person in serious physical danger or disease, a child failing school. Make yourself available to pray, and alone or in the presence of others your prayer begins to take shape as you open your mouth. A citation of God's good nature leads to a truth you read in Scripture, and on to a breakthrough realization of what the problem really means and how God intends to address it. And your prayer goes up. And things happen.
Often prayer is convicting. We pray in our inactive concern for the plight of a friend or loved one, and God makes plain to us that there is something we ought to do. Call that person. Take them something. Give of yourself. Be available. Tell them you love them . Or fix a flat tire, drive them to Sacramento, repair the leaking roof or broken sprinkler. Prayer and action are not mutually opposed. Prayer is action, and action in faith is prayer with shoes on.
Jesus condemned hypocrisy. Self-important holy men called on the Name of God often, but lived lives that belied that relationship. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'” Matt 7:21-23 Jesus' brother James wrote, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” James 2:14-18
Prayer without action may, in some cases, be all the action one needs to take, but action without prayer is mere shadow boxing. How can you know what to do when your God hasn't even given you the assignment, bull worker ?
Many years ago I had a parishioner with narcolepsy. That meant she was seriously depressed and exhibited mental problems. She left a message on my phone about being suicidal. I called. No answer. She left another message that she'd taken pills and was in the hospital. I called. No answer. I went to the hospital and found she'd been released. I called information because my cell phone, old technology , didn't know her phone number. No listing. I turned my face to heaven and asked, “God, what am I supposed to do here?” In an almost audible voice, He answered me. “Hansen, I'm glad you finally checked in with Me. This woman is not your assignment. Don't worry about what she thinks. She's way beyond your ability to help her. You're on the bench. Thank you for finally asking me.” Much relieved, and embarrassed as a priest not to have asked God what my role was, I went about my business.
Rogation days are days of prayer. We ask . Our own concerns expressed, perhaps some of God's concerns will be voiced to our spiritual ears as well. We ask. Rogation means asking . What do you wish to ask God for? Don't think, “Oh, that's selfish.” Be selfish. Or be other -ish, if you wish. But ask. What's on your plate that you don't know what to do about it? Ask and find out if that is not really your concern. Ask and learn what you need to do about it. Ask and hear that God is already on the job and will soon miraculously act of His own accord. Ask and find out there is nothing to do, but in time find out it wasn't all that important. Ask and find out it's the wrong question in the first place. But ask.
The disconnect between prayer and action we experience so often is a bad habit and a denial of an awesome truth. God answers prayers. God often waits to act until we pray. God gives assignments to act for those faithful to Him, not merely acting on their own. God empowers His servants and frustrates the progress of those who are self-willed. The disconnect between prayer and action may cause us to hear God's truth and direction, only to go out and do completely the opposite to His will. Mankind has been doing that since the Garden. Or it may be hearing His will and simply doing nothing. Prayer and action are married , and both prayer and action may participate in the answers we need. But so often the least we can do is the most we can do . Take our crises and heartbreaks and insoluble problems to God in prayer and leave them in His capable Hands. Ask . Ask, and ye shall receive. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you.
Houston, we have a problem. But hold the channel open. Right now the three of us up here need to pray…
PFH+