Open

Gethsemane today.

Start with prayer:

• Something you know about God – Praise Him!
• Take a minute to talk to God about something you wish you hadn’t done. (Not out loud.)
• Thank God for something He’s done.
• Is there anything you want God to do?

Matthew 26:36-42

Then Jesus went with the disciples to a place called Gethsemane. He said to them, “Stay here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons with him. He was beginning to feel deep anguish. Then he said to them, “My anguish is so great that I feel as if I’m dying. Wait here, and stay awake with me.” After walking a little farther, he quickly bowed with his face to the ground and prayed, “Father, if it’s possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. But let your will be done rather than mine.”

When he went back to the disciples, he found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you stay awake with me for one hour? 41Stay awake, and pray that you won’t be tempted. You want to do what’s right, but you’re weak.” Then he went away a second time and prayed, “Father, if this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, let your will be done.”

Psalm 13 (a psalm by David.)

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I make decisions alone with sorrow in my heart day after day?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

Look at me! Answer me, O Lord my God!
Light up my eyes, or else I will die and my enemy will say, “I have overpowered him.”
My opponents will rejoice because I have been shaken.

But I trust your mercy.
My heart finds joy in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord because he has been good to me.

Watch the Nooma called Open. (019)




(This is a trailer. Of course you can find the whole thing on you tube, but you might consider supporting the ministry by buying it.)

1. What did you notice?



2. Why is it important to be honest – even brutally honest – with God about how we feel? How was David or Jesus honest?



3. Why should we pray? What will we get out of it?



Before Jesus went to the garden, he prayed for his followers – including us!

John 17:9-26

“I pray for them. I’m not praying for the world but for those you gave me, because they are yours. Everything I have is yours, and everything you have is mine. I have been given glory by the people you have given me. I won’t be in the world much longer, but they are in the world, and I’m coming back to you. Holy Father, keep them safe by the power of your name, the name that you gave me, so that their unity may be like ours. While I was with them, I kept them safe by the power of your name, the name that you gave me. I watched over them, and none of them, except one person, became lost. So Scripture came true.

“But now, Father, I’m coming back to you. I say these things while I’m still in the world so that they will have the same joy that I have. I have given them your message. But the world has hated them because they don’t belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world but to protect them from the evil one. They don’t belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

Use the truth to make them holy. Your words are truth. I have sent them into the world the same way you sent me into the world. I’m dedicating myself to this holy work I’m doing for them so that they, too, will use the truth to be holy.

“I’m not praying only for them. I’m also praying for those who will believe in me through their message. I pray that all of these people continue to have unity in the way that you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they may be united with us so that the world will believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me. I did this so that they are united in the same way we are. I am in them, and you are in me. So they are completely united. In this way the world knows that you have sent me and that you have loved them in the same way you have loved me.

“Father, I want those you have given to me to be with me, to be where I am. I want them to see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the world was made. Righteous Father, the world didn’t know you. Yet, I knew you, and these disciples have known that you sent me. I have made your name known to them, and I will make it known so that the love you have for me will be in them and I will be in them.”

4. How can you know that Jesus was praying this for you as well as praying it for his disciples then?



5. What are three of the several things Jesus prayed for us? Pick one: why would he want that for us?



6. What part of this prayer matters the most to you? Why does it matter to know that Jesus wants that for you



7. Write down one thing that you got out of today’s lesson.



Photo credits: from Flickr, lyng883; from servicioskoinonia.org via markdaniels.blogspot.com

Hope and Prayer

No youth study this week but we do have a Men's study.  It's an overview of what we've been doing for the youth, with the questions tuned for this group of Wise Guys.  It's a bit long (3 pager), so if we're out of time at (12), I'll skip to (18).  While we're on prayer, Bev Van Kampen passed along the Operation World prayer movement that helps in praying for the countries around the world.  My family started tonight with Afghanistan.

Manliest prayer image I could find.
Romanian soldiers praying in Afghanistan.

During Lent there are three traditional disciplines, all of which are worth considering throughout the year: prayer, almsgiving and fasting. But certainly prayer is something we are called to constantly. So then during Lent, maybe it’s really an opportunity to reexamine what we’re doing.

0) What is the purpose of prayer to you?

One model of prayer that has been helpful for many people is the ACTS prayer format. The idea is to pray scripturally, following the modes of prayer that we see people using in the Bible.

Adoration – We adore God for who he is. (No asking for anything.) “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross.” Hebrews 12:2
Example: Praise the names of God. 1 Chronicles 29:11 and 2 Corinthians 12:9

Confession – We see our sin as God sees it. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
Example: Confess hiding our sins. Psalm 32:3-5, Psalm 51:6a, Psalm 139:23-24 and James 5:16

Thanksgiving – We focus on what God has done. “Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.” Psalm 111:2
Example: Thank you for providing a way. Isaiah 30:21, Isaiah 42:16 and Proverbs 15:19

Supplication – We call on God for guidance and help, and intercede for others. “And I will do whatever you ask in my name.” John 14:13a
Example: Please help our friend to know Jesus voice and follow him. John 10:4-5, John 18:37 and Revelation 3:20

I think an alliterating friend I have might have said - Adore, Admit, Acknowledge and Ask.

1) Which of these is especially fruitful for you? Are any more difficult or more likely to be omitted?


Of course, this is an area where Jesus taught directly. The Our Father was what Jesus told the apostles when they asked him to teach them how to pray. We find this in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6.

We often pray a version close to the first widespread English translation, King James, followed by the more modern God’s Word translation.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespass, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Our Father in heaven, let your name be kept holy.
Let your kingdom come.
Let your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.
Give us our daily bread today.
Forgive us as we forgive others.
Don’t allow us to be tempted.
Instead, rescue us from the evil one.

2) Is there anything that we might be missing by praying the older version?

3) Jews are not allowed to even speak the name of God, that we say as Yahweh. How would they have reacted to being told to call him “Our Father?” Some writers think that the word Jesus used is more like Daddy.


4) I usually remember to pray “forgive me,” but I don’t usually tack on “as I forgive other people.” And in case we didn’t catch that difference, right afterward Jesus says: “If you forgive the failures of others, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failures.” Why did Jesus put that in his prayer instructions?


5) Is there anything else in this prayer about which you wonder?


6) Do you see any of the ACTS principles in the Our Father?


7) One of the problems with knowing a prayer by memory is that it’s easy to pray it too fast and without thinking. Do you have any tips for praying the Our Father instead of reciting it?


I think Jesus wasn’t telling us to pray with these exact words, but remembering these ideas. The most important Jews at the time tended to pray making a big fuss, and acting all holy. With lots of very precise gestures and bows and rituals. Jesus was freeing his disciples from all of that. Telling them it’s simple, and that prayer is talking to a loving parent who wants to do good things for you.

In the gospel of Luke, after he shares Jesus teaching the Our Father, he shares the story of a persistent and annoying friend. Read Luke 11:5-11

8) In the second paragraph, Jesus explains the parable, which he doesn’t always do. How does he get that point out of the bread story?


9) What does the “Even though you’re evil…” part mean? Is Jesus calling us evil? What is his point?


Later in the gospel of Luke, Jesus again is teaching about prayer. Read Luke 18:1-8

10) This time Luke gives the reason for the parable up front. How does this story fit “pray all the time and never give up?”


11) Why does Jesus make the judge, who’s in God’s place in the story, a dishonest judge?


12) The last sentence has gotten a LOT of attention. What do you think it means and why is it in this story?



Nadia Bolz-Weber (the Sarcastic Lutheran) has written: (abridged from http://bit.ly/eHgBul):

The best way to suck the life out of a parable is by attempting to neatly allegorize it or worse try to figure out the so-called moral of the story. Parables aren't about morals they are about truth - hidden, unyielding, disruptive truth. The kind of truth that simply can't be contained.

13) Why would telling the point of a parable “ruin” it?


It's tempting to look straight on and see the story of the persistent widow as a self-help technique by which we can get all the cash and prizes we want out of God's divine vending machine if we just kind of bug God to death through ceaseless prayer, when it comes down to it, we know better. … Do we only think God answers by giving us what we ask for?

14) What does it mean for God to answer a prayer?


Yet Luke tells us that this parable is about our need to pray constantly and not lose hope. So maybe an alternate reading of this parable is that it's yes, about persistence and prayer and hope but maybe it's about the persistence of God. … Maybe prayer isn't the way in which we manipulate God but is simply the posture in which we finally become worn down by God's persistence. God's persistence in loving us …God's persistence in forgiving and being known and being faithful and always, always, always bringing life out of death.

15) I connect this with the weird idea that by praying we are changing God’s mind. If praying changes me, it makes more sense. But then why do we pray?


In Luke and throughout scripture we are told to pray constantly, pray without ceasing, so that we do not lose heart. And how do you pray without ceasing? Only by having others pray for you, with you. … So to pray without ceasing is not an individual sport if anything it's a relay race. It’s what we do for each other, and it’s what we do for the world. And these prayers are like these gossamer threads connecting us to God and God’s people. When we pray on another's behalf we become connected to that person through God, and we become connected to God through that person. And in these connections God gets stuff done. Not necessarily the stuff we think God should do, but the work that God is always about, which is redeeming us and all of creation. These gossamer threads of prayer, woven through the space and time of our lives, are like the network through which God sends God's own love for the world.

16) What is she trying to get at here?


It hurts sometimes. But the more you see suffering and injustice around you, the more you pray and the more you pray the more connected you are to that suffering, and the more connected you are to that suffering the more connected you are to the crucified and risen Christ. For these silken threads of prayer which connect us to God and to one another and even to our enemies are how God is stitching our broken humanity back together. So church, pray without ceasing and do not lose heart. For God has some stuff to do.

17) The way humans are we can’t go from no prayer to prayer without ceasing. We have to build up and train for it. So to start, when are some times in your day you could or do pray?


18) If you were teaching a new Christian about prayer, or a Christian that has little prayer experience, what would you emphasize?

Photo credit:  AfghanistanMatters and spiritz from Flickr.

Persistent Persistent Persistent

Successful prayer?

In the gospel of Luke, after he shares Jesus teaching the Our Father, he shares the story of a persistent and annoying friend.

Luke 11:5-11 Jesus said to his disciples, “Suppose one of you has a friend. Suppose you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, let me borrow three loaves of bread. A friend of mine on a trip has dropped in on me, and I don’t have anything to serve him.’ Your friend might answer you from inside his house, ‘Don’t bother me! The door is already locked, and my children are in bed. I can’t get up to give you anything.’ I can guarantee that although he doesn’t want to get up to give you anything, he will get up and give you whatever you need because he is your friend and because you were so bold.

“So I tell you to ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks will receive. The one who searches will find, and for the person who knocks, the door will be opened.

“If your child asks you, his father, for a fish, would you give him a snake instead? Or if your child asks you for an egg, would you give him a scorpion? Even though you’re evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children. So how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

1) Have you had the experience of doing something for a friend that you didn’t want to do? Why did you?


2) In the second paragraph, Jesus explains the parable, which he doesn’t always do. How does he get this out of the bread story?


3) What does the “Even though you’re evil…” part mean? Is Jesus calling us evil?


Later in the gospel of Luke, Jesus again is teaching about prayer.

Luke 18:1-8 Jesus used this illustration with his disciples to show them that they need to pray all the time and never give up. He said, “In a city there was a judge who didn’t fear God or respect people. In that city there was also a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice.’

“For a while the judge refused to do anything. But then he thought, ‘This widow really annoys me. Although I don’t fear God or respect people, I’ll have to give her justice. Otherwise, she’ll keep coming to me until she wears me out.’ ”

The Lord added, “Pay attention to what the dishonest judge thought. Won’t God give his chosen people justice when they cry out to him for help day and night? Is he slow to help them? I can guarantee that he will give them justice quickly. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

4) This time Luke gives the reason for the parable up front. How does this story fit “pray all the time and never give up?”


5) Why does Jesus make the judge, who’s in God’s place in the story, a dishonest judge?


6) The last sentence has gotten a LOT of attention. What do you think it means and why is it in this story?



Nadia Bolz-Weber (the Sarcastic Lutheran) has written about the Persistent Widow:
(This is extensive quoting; basically it's an abridged form of her post.)

The best way to suck the life out of a parable is by attempting to neatly allegorize it or worse try to figure out the so-called moral of the story. Parables aren't about morals they are about truth - hidden, unyielding, disruptive truth. The kind of truth that simply can't be contained.
7) Why would telling the point of a parable “ruin” it?


It's tempting to look straight on and see the story of the persistent widow as a self-help technique by which we can get all the cash and prizes we want out of God's divine vending machine if we just kind of bug God to death through ceaseless prayer, when it comes down to it, we know better. … Do we only think God answers by giving us what we ask for?
8) What does it mean for God to answer a prayer?


Yet Luke tells us that this parable is about our need to pray constantly and not lose hope. So maybe an alternate reading of this parable is that it's yes, about persistence and prayer and hope but maybe it's about the persistence of God. … Maybe prayer isn't the way in which we manipulate God but is simply the posture in which we finally become worn down by God's persistence. God's persistence in loving us …God's persistence in forgiving and being known and being faithful and always, always, always bringing life out of death.
9) I connect this with the weird idea that by praying we are changing God’s mind. If praying changes me, it makes more sense. But then why do we pray?


In Luke and throughout scripture we are told to pray constantly, pray without ceasing, so that we do not lose heart. And how do you pray without ceasing? Only by having others pray for you, with you. … So to pray without ceasing is not an individual sport if anything it's a relay race. It’s what we do for each other, and it’s what we do for the world. And these prayers are like these gossamer threads connecting us to God and God’s people. When we pray on another's behalf we become connected to that person through God, and we become connected to God through that person. And in these connections God gets stuff done. Not necessarily the stuff we think God should do, but the work that God is always about, which is redeeming us and all of creation. These gossamer threads of prayer, woven through the space and time of our lives, are like the network through which God sends God's own love for the world.
10) What is she trying to get at here?


It hurts sometimes. But the more you see suffering and injustice around you, the more you pray and the more you pray the more connected you are to that suffering, and the more connected you are to that suffering the more connected you are to the crucified and risen Christ. For these silken threads of prayer which connect us to God and to one another and even to our enemies are how God is stitching our broken humanity back together. So church, pray without ceasing and do not lose heart. For God has some stuff to do.
11) The way humans are we can’t go from no prayer to prayer without ceasing. We have to build up and train for it. So to start, when are some times in your day you could pray?


Photo credits: From Flickr - rikkis refuge, dr.jd

Prayer - what Jesus taught

Whose Father now?

The prayer we call the Our Father was what Jesus told the apostles when they asked him to teach them how to pray. We find this in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6.

We often pray a version close to the first widespread English translation: (King James)

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespass, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

1) Circle the words or ways of saying something that might be confusing to people 400 years later.

A more modern translation: (God’s Word)

Our Father in heaven,
let your name be kept holy.
Let your kingdom come.
Let your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.
Give us our daily bread today.
Forgive us as we forgive others.
Don’t allow us to be tempted.
Instead, rescue us from the evil one.

Our Father in Chinese

2) Who is the biggest most important person you can think of? Would you run up to them and call them by a nickname?



3) Jews are not allowed to even speak the name of God, that we say as Yahweh. How would they have reacted to being told to call him “Our Father?” Some writers think that the word Jesus used is more like Daddy.



4) After calling God a nickname, we then say, ‘let your name be kept holy.’ What does that mean? Why would we tell God that?




5) Many people have argued for ages about ‘let your kingdom come.’ What does it mean to you? What else might it mean?


6) When Jesus was born, what do you think ‘our daily bread’ meant? How would you put it today?


7) I usually remember to pray “forgive me,” but I don’t usually tack on “as I forgive other people.” And in case we didn’t catch that difference, right afterward Jesus says: “If you forgive the failures of others, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failures.” Why did Jesus put that in his prayer instructions?


8) What does it mean to be tempted? Why should we pray not to be tempted?


9) Notice how this translation changes “but deliver us from evil” which to us sounds like a negative to “instead” which is what it used to mean. Instead of what?


10) Last week we talked about praying ACTS:

A-adoration
C-confession
T-thanksgiving
S-supplication

Do you see any of those in the Our Father?

11) One of the problems with knowing a prayer by memory is that it’s easy to pray it too fast and without thinking. Let’s try praying the Our Father super slowly.


12) “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him,” Jesus said. If that’s true, what are we praying for?


13) Jesus wasn’t telling us to pray with these exact words, but remembering these ideas. The most important Jews at the time tended to pray making a big fuss, and acting all holy. With lots of very precise gestures and bows and rituals. Jesus was freeing his disciples from all of that. Telling them it’s simple, and that prayer is talking to a loving parent who wants to do good things for you. Let’s write our own Our Father.


14) So what’s one thing you take away from this week’s study?

Postscript:  Here's the Our Father our group wrote.

Dear Daddy who art in heaven.
May your name be kept holy.
May your powers, choices and desires thrive forever on earth like heaven.
We ask you for our needs each day.
Forgive us our sins the same way we forgive others.
Save us from sin and the chances to sin.
Save us from the Enemy, and grant us peace.

Next week: persistence

Photo credit: wikimedia commons, andycohn @ Flickr

Prayer - Out of the Box

Last week the youth group went to the parish faith formation hour that was about family prayer.  The formation is focusing on prayer this lent, and I thought that would be a good focus for us, too.  This week we're looking at the ACTS prayer format.  The idea is to pray scripturally, following the modes of prayer that we see people using in the Bible.

Adoration - We adore God for who he is.  (No asking for anything.) "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross." Hebrews 12:2
Example: Praise the names of God.  1 Chronicles 29:11 and 2 Corinthians 12:9

Confession - We see our sin as God sees it. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
Example: Confess hiding our sins.  Psalm 32:3-5, Psalm 51:6a, Psalm 139:23-24 and James 5:16

Thanksgiving - We focus on what God has done. "Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them." Psalm 111:2
Example: Thank you for providing a way. Isaiah 30:21, Isaiah 42:16 and Proverbs 15:19

Supplication - We call on God for guidance and help, and intercede for others. "And I will do whatever you ask in my name." John 14:13a
Example:  Please help our friend to know Jesus voice and follow him.  John 10:4-5, John 18:37 and Revelation 3:20

I think an alliterating friend I have might have said - Adore, Admit, Acknowledge and Ask.

We have an amazing thing to support it.  A family friend, Marion Grothaus, worked her heart out putting together a collection of scripture to support those four ways to address God, and called it Prayer Out of the Box.  They made a small number and saw fantastic results with them in prayer groups and prison ministry, but never found a publisher. We use them in family, and my wife often prays with friends using them.

Each category has a number of cards with different bits of scripture.  We'll have the kids pick cards for adoration, thanksgiving, and supplication, and I'll pick for confession, with that optional for them.

Further Reading: a blogpost on the ACTS model from The Practical Disciple.

Photocredit: The Sharpteam @ Flickr.  The prayer heart was Marion's logo for the box.