Praying Hands

 

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

 

“Yours are the Hands of Christ.”  This has been our Lenten theme for the past 5 weeks.  You have been hearing that your hands do the work of Christ’s hands in this world.  Pastor Carol told you that yours are the holy hands of Christ, and so your hands bring Christ’s love to this world.  Pastor Jim said that yours are the healing hands of Christ, and so your hands seek to mend the hurts and the ills of this world.  Pastor Gary told you that yours are the feeding hands of Christ, and so your hands strive for justice and for the equitable distribution of resources in this world. 

 

Tonight, I’m here to tell you that yours are the praying hands of Christ in this world, and as the praying hands of Christ, your hands directly experience God’s relationship with this world. 

 

There are many different ways your praying hands experience this relationship God has with our world.

 

Praying Hands can look like this (hold hands in classic prayer mode).  They are calm hands.  They are meditative hands.  They are hands that are held in an expression of reverence and piety toward the God that they are praying to.  These hands experience a quiet awe and joy in the presence of their God.

 

Praying hands can also look like this (Hands raised up, evangelic-like)!  They are excited hands!  They are emotional hands.  They are hands that are reaching up to the heavens experiencing the spiritual joy and rapture that one feels when one is absolutely positive that God is in the near vicinity, right here, and right now.  (Oftentimes, these are not Lutheran hands, but we are quietly excited because ssshhhh…. we know that God is here somewhere). 

 

Praying hands can also look like this (hold hands out as if to receive).  They are requesting hands.  They are asking God for something.  They are held out in the hopes that they will receive something from God for themselves, or for somebody else; perhaps a healing, perhaps money, perhaps food, perhaps stronger relationships with those that they love.  They are hands that experience need, and that desperately want that need to be filled.

 

Praying hands can also look like this.  They are frustrated hands.  They are angry hands.  They are hands that are accusing God of failure.  The failure of God to protect from sickness or disease.  The failure of God to create a world in which all people have homes, and food, and clean water.  The failure of  God to keep marriages in tact and to keep parents and children talking to each other.  They are hands experiencing anger and frustration at a God who allows misfortune to exist.

 

Praying hands come in many shapes and sizes, and they are formed in many different ways, depending on what they are praying for, but the one thing they all have in common is that they are all experiencing God doing something in their lives, whether they agree with what He is doing or not.  In other words, regardless of whether they are praising, pleading, or wrestling with God, praying hands are always hands that are connected to their God in relationship.

 

So what does this mean for us that we are connected to God in prayer?  Does this mean that we will get everything we ask for in prayer?  Probably not.  Even Christianity’s most faithful prayers did not and have not received everything they ask for in prayer (I can think of Jesus and Paul as two great examples).  I always love watching the NCAA basketball playoffs because they offer an excellent lesson on prayer.  In the final seconds of each game you can see five or six members of each opposing team praying to God to give their team the win.  Eventually, God must say no one team and yes to the other (I just wish God were more of a Gophers fan).  As a kid, I thought that pastors received everything they asked for in prayer.  I am slowly discovering however, that that is not actually in the contract.  Being connected to God in prayer does not mean we will always get everything we ask for.    

 

Does being connected to God in prayer mean that we will always be comforted in prayer?    At times this seems true.  At times we go to God in prayer, and like Jesus after his transfiguration, we come out of prayer with such powerful feelings of God’s love and presence in our lives that our faces could be shining and our clothes could be dazzlingly white, just like Christ’s.  That comfortability though oftentimes does not last, because on the heels of every spiritual high, there seems to be a spiritual low, when we might utter uncomfortable words that sound like Christ’s last prayer on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”  Being connected to God in prayer is not an assurance of comfortability.    

 

So what does it mean that we are connected to God in prayer if that connection is not always comfortable and if that connection does not always give us what our petitions request?  It means that like Christ’s hands, our hands will always be filled when we come to God in prayer.  They may not always be filled with the things we ask for, but they will always be filled with God. 

 

And perhaps that is why prayer is so necessary for us.  Prayer is the relational hand that we have that reaches out to God.  Sometimes that hand is taking something from God’s hand.  Sometimes that hand is hugging God.  Sometimes that hand is pulling at God’s robe trying to get God’s attention.  Sometimes that hand might even be striking God in anger.  Whatever our praying hands are doing they are always touching our God.  

 

And for that reason, I invite you to look at prayer, not as a means to an end, but as an end in itself.  In invite you to look at prayer as  a time in which you are where God is and God is where you are, and whether or not you are getting along, you are together.  It is our hands reaching out in relationship to God acknowledging and receiving God’s promise that God is actually right here, right now, in our lives, even if we are not happy with what God is doing.  In our prayers, sometimes we will get what we ask for, sometimes we won’t, but everytime we pray we receive the only gift that God promises to give and keep on giving:  We receive God’s own self; we receive God’s presence in our lives.

 

So, as many of our pastors have done already, I will now ask you to take a look at your hands.  Use those hands.  Pray with those hands.  Pray in joy, pray in gratitude, pray in anger, pray in frustration, pray in doubt.  Always pray.  Pray prayers of petition when you need something from God, pray prayers of thanksgiving when God gives you what you needed, pray prayers of frustration and confusion during those times that God says no.  Always pray.  Because whether or not God gives us what we want, God promises to always give us what we need:  God’s own self, for us, here and now.   And this is our faith.  We pray to God with the absolute trust that at the most God will always gives us Himself, and at the very least God will always gives us Himself.  Prayer is being aware of God’s presence in our lives.  It is being aware that God is with us.  Enjoy your prayers.    

 

Let us pray:

 

A Prayer by St. Francis:

 

Our prayerful hands take in God like roots take in water, and so we fold them together in prayer, and God’s self is drawn to us.