Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church - New Paltz

In the morning, while it was still dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. - Mark 1:35

The alarm goes off, you hit snooze. The alarm goes off, you hit snooze. The alarm goes off, you hit snooze and finally roll out of bed. The daily grind has begun. If you’re working and have kids, you’re getting breakfast on the table, getting lunches made, getting kids dressed, not to mention getting yourself dressed without leaving a shirt un-tucked or walking out the door without combing your hair. I have done both of those, though thankfully I have less hair year by year that I may forget to comb! If you are retired, you still have lists. My dad tells me he is busier since he retired than when he was working. If you’re in school you may be up late and then up early again to finish reading or working on projects for class. Or maybe you are working and in school.

In the morning, while it was still dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

Wherever Jesus goes, his fame grows as he teaches, preaches, heals, and casts out demons. Every day his list gets longer as do the lines of people seeking help.

Yet here in the midst of Jesus’ earthly ministry hitting high gear the text tells us Christ got up early and went and prayed. Not the snooze button, not more coffee, not playing angry birds or other video games to relax, not television or a movie: when Jesus needed to get stronger he went deeper, he went off alone and prayed. We learn here that the more challenging life becomes, the deeper into our faith life we need to go.

Now personally I love a good TV show here and there. My current favorite is Parks and Recreation and any nature show or PBS documentary I can get my hands on. Countless people will gather later today to watch the Superbowl, partly for the game and partly for the company, food, and joy of being with their friends and family. Humans need places to laugh and cast off our cares. Martin Luther suggested that in response to fear and doubt we ought to gather with friends, laugh more, and believe more deeply in Christ.

And we need prayer, too. We need, like Jesus, to go off on our own and learn to sit and listen. For it is in listening that we come to discern God’s will and guidance for our lives. It is in prayer and listening to the still small quiet voice of God that we find strength, true strength. We cannot pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps in this life or for the walk of faith. Sometimes it may seem like we can, but inevitably there will come times, days, and situations that are beyond our strength, beyond our ability to cope, beyond our ability to control and fashion the outcome. Our list just seems to get longer and the days shorter. And as our lists get longer doubt and fear has a way of surfacing, trying to convince us we can’t do it, that everything is going to fall apart and that we will fail.

And of course we will. We will fail if we try to do things on our own, try to live life according to our own plans, our own strength. This road does end in doubt and fear and failure in the long run. So rather than following the tug of our doubts, fears, and regret we can go deeper in prayer and deeper into time for listening. We can go deeper into the Source, this Christ who loves and holds us ever in compassion and mercy. We can go deeper into Christ who invites us to follow him, Christ who gives us the ability to follow him.

In Christ we can gain the true strength needed for the journey. In Christ and through disciplines of prayer we can gain the clarity to discern that which we need to do from that which we thought we needed to do. This Christ is the true bread from heaven come down as absolution for our sins, as the authoritative GPS that does not take us on unneeded side roads, but rather steers the true course even as we seek to wander in one or another direction.

What a relief to realize we do not have to drive this car called life! We can leave God in charge and learn to ride along where we are led, trusting in God’s authority, Christ’s mercy to support us. Yet we need with God’s help to develop habits of life that make it possible to hear God more of the time, to trust God more often, to allow our lives to be moved by God’s rhythms instead of our own striving. Replace our lists of must dos with lists of what God-has-already-done.

In "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp, the author recounts a challenge someone gave her to keep a record of 1,000 gifts/blessings from God. Here is a reflection of hers written from the perspective of God talking to her about her life circumstances as she sought to make it through some “black cloud days”:

"All fear is but the notion that God's love ends. Did you think I end, that My bread warehouses are limited, that I will not be enough? But I am infinite, child. What can end in Me? Can life end in Me? Can happiness? Or peace? Or anything you need? Doesn't your Father always give you what you need? I am the Bread of Life and My bread for you will never end. Fear thinks God is finite and fear believes that there is not going to be enough and hasn't counting one thousand gifts, endlessly counting gifts, exposed the lie at the heart of all fear? In Me, blessings never end because My love for you never ends. If My goodness toward you ends, I will cease to exist, child. As long as there is a God in heaven, there is grace on earth and I am the spilling God of the uncontainable, forever-overflowing-love-grace."

So we need to develop lives of prayer. Lives that include sitting or walking in the woods and contemplating a Scripture passage. Lives that include singing hymns loudly in worship, receiving the bread and wine, body and blood of our Lord. Lives that include practices reminding us that God’s love does not end. The more we deepen our practices of faith, the more the doors and windows to the Source of all faith become open to us on a daily basis.

If we feel we cannot go on, cannot walk farther, cannot do more, perhaps we need to do less. And pray more.

Hear again the words of Isaiah: “He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will fall exhausted. (As the father of a 5 and 3 ½ year old I take issue with Isaiah on this point) but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Some people who practice regular prayer and meditation claim they need less sleep and less caffeinated beverages. They report a quieter mind - oh wouldn’t that be nice? They report greater inner peace no matter what the circumstances of the day. Scientific research tracking the brain activity of people who pray has shown that different portions of the brain are functioning in these individuals. Prayer is literally changing the patterns of their thought and seemingly their lives. We know as Christians that God is seeking to change, to redeem our lives through Christ. Prayer is one of the means by which God seeks to bring about this change.

Up front it can seem like deepening our prayer lives is impossible. Getting up earlier, doing less in order to pray and listen more? Come on, haven’t you seen our lives, God? Yet here we have it, the invitation is on the table: come and receive more abundantly of life. Not transient life with highs that quickly turn to lows, but life that once received cannot be taken away. Life founded on the Rock of salvation, not the sand of our own bootstrap strivings. Life created for us by God and ensured for us in Christ. Life bound up in the One who has bound up all wounds, carries all burdens, and promises all peace.

In the morning, while it was still dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.