Sermon on the Mount cont.

 

I believe there is a soundtrack that accompanies the Sermon on the Mount.  I believe that as Jesus was preaching his organist fired up the Hammond electric organ to start playing in the background. There is a melody when I read the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12, about God’s downward mobility that is the heart of Christmas ~ God born in a dingy, dusty stable and laid in a manger ~ not the posh palaces or holy temples.  I hear a harmony when last week we studied the emotions of frustration and fear that too often feeds and fuels our lives.  There is a song that stirs in my soul as I read the Sermon on the Mount as I realize that I am featherless bipeds who lets my reptile brains too often pick the radio station in my life.  Because as I read the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5, I find myself sing these words, “Not my brother, not my sister, but it's me, O Lord, Standin' in the need of prayer; Not my brother, not my sister, but it's me, O Lord, Standin' in the need of prayer. It's me, it's me, O Lord, Standin' in the need of prayer; It's me, it's me, O Lord, Standin' in the need of prayer.” 

 

And after chapter 5 with its lessons on blessedness (God-with-ness) in the least likely places and focus on anger and loving our enemies, Jesus turns to prayer.  That makes sense, because I realize that if it is only up to me to embrace and embody the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, I don’t think my chances are great.  Left to my own agendas and thoughts, I will wander off like the Prodigal Son and find myself in the pigsty of life.  Left to my own ways of I thinking I will be lured by the Superbowl commercials next Sunday promising me that if I just buy this brand of chips or a new iphone or switch to AT&T…all my problems would be solved.  One of my seminary professors liked to say, “You go and buy that brand of chips, finish the whole bag, look in the mirror and realize you are the same schmuck you were before you went to the store.”  Oh, I resemble that remark.

 

Prayer for me is one way that seeks God’s wholeness rather than being wrapped up only in my own plotting and planning.  Prayer for me is an opening that offers a way to experience the promise of God’s unconditional and unceasing love that can’t be purchased from any store.  Often, we describe prayer as a one-way conversation, a monologue, words we toss/throw like a hail mary toward God - hoping God, like a Genie in a Bottle, might grant one of our wishes.

 

What do you think of when you think of prayer?  How might prayer be an experience and encounter with God?  Maybe prayer is not a formula to follow but a relationship to explore.  Maybe prayer is less about following directions and more a direction to orient your soul.  For today, ponder your understandings of prayer.  Who taught you to pray?  What have you picked up at church concerning prayer?  By the way that is an important question because too often I think the church teaches and preaches that prayer is for you to fold your hands and bow your heads and quietly listen while the pastor offers a coda to the sermon.  It is my prayer this week that we would dare to dive into this topic – and that we will do more than talk about prayer, we might pray in ways that our souls feel their worth, our hearts are strangely warmed, and we realize that God’s presence is right here in the less-than-perfectness of life. 

God, You are a circle whose circumference stretches further than the horizon and whose center is everywhere and wherever we are.  May this be more than words on a screen we read, but an experience we live this week.  Amen.