Does Prayer Really Work?, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski.

Does Prayer Really Work?, with Rev. Dr. Steven Koski. Series: Re-Shaped A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon.

Join us this Sunday as Rev. Dr. Steven Koski explores the mystery and power of prayer, highlighting Jesus’ prayer life and the Lord’s Prayer as a way of being and emphasizing prayer’s transformative impact, connecting with God, and others.

About the Series, Re-Shaped: Our brains were designed to be suspicious of change, and for good reason – homeostasis in good measure helps us thrive, protecting us from danger. But if we look closely at what the Creator set in motion, we find that change is actually the most constant part of life and necessary for animating our spirits as we find renewed purpose throughout life. Jesus advocated for changes that would keep us moving toward greater goodness!

Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.

At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.

We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don’t ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.

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Keywords:

prayer, rupert, pray, amy, jesus, god, love, church, opened, life, wheelchair, lutheran pastor, world, wrote, presbyterian, spacious, wanted, give, heart, disciples, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregon

Featuring:

Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, Guests

Transcript

Unknown: 0:20

Music.

Whitney Higdon: 0:41

Welcome to worship at First Presbyterian. We, at First Presbyterian, practice a spacious Christianity, which means no matter where you are in your faith journey, you belong, and there is space for you at the table, there is space for your doubts and questions. We believe doubts and questions are a gift that invite us into deeper conversations and a more authentic faith. We believe diversity is a strength. Every story is sacred and everybody matters. We do our best to live the spacious and radical love of Jesus so that all might have a chance to flourish in this world. We are so glad to connect with you in this way. We would also love to worship with you in person if you're ever in the neighborhood on Sunday mornings at 830 or 10am and never hesitate to reach out to us to learn more about us or how we might support You. I hope you enjoy this worship service. Welcome.

Steven: 5:56

I Have promise I have ah, what happens when we pray? This prayer really work. You know, for something so common and central to our faith, prayer is mysterious. There's a marvelous little book called open secrets by Lutheran pastor, Richard lisher about his first church in a small town in Illinois, and lisher describes how prayer can be can be really complicated. Amy friddens, an eighth grader in his confirmation class, was confined to a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy. Now, an evangelist and self proclaimed healer was coming to St Louis, and Amy wanted to go see her. Amy came to list her pastor, you know, to talk about it and see if her pastor thought that this was a good idea. Now, the evangelist healing services, you know, you probably have seen this, featured piles of discarded crutches, canes, braces, wheelchairs. So it was clear Amy was going praying for a cure. Now, lisher debated what to say. You know, should he express his serious doubts? Should he tell Amy he thinks this particular faith healer is a charlatan, but he thought, Now, really, who is he to make that judgment? Who is he to puncture Amy's childlike trust? Amy was praying for a miracle. I mean, who hasn't prayed prayers like that before, or who hasn't at least wondered about it? Yep, prayer is complicated. Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz Weber reflects on prayer this way. She wrote, I used to think prayer was like a quarter you put into God's vending machine, and God would release the gumball you wanted. Like prayer is handing God some kind of some kind of wish list. And if you're a good little boy or girl, then Santa, I mean, God will make sure you get the present. But she went on to say, but now in my life, you know, I mostly pray for my friends and family, and I pray for the pain and the violence in this world, and I pray to not be a jerk. And even though I'm not always sure. I'm really not always sure how prayer works. I know that when someone says they're praying for me, it matters. It makes a difference. So I've started to think she wrote. I've started to think that prayers are less how we might get what we want, and more how we can give ourselves to God and bring more of God into this world. When we pray for someone, we become connected to that person through God, and we become connected to God through that person. And she wrote, maybe these threads of prayer which connect us to God and to one another and even to our enemies, is how God is. Stitching the torn fabric of our broken humanity back together again. You know Jesus grounded his life in prayer. What's really fascinating is that, that if you read the gospels, almost every major move that Jesus makes is first preceded by a time of prayer. I mean, Jesus prayed before his baptism. He prayed before he called the disciples. Jesus prayed before and while, while reaching out with a healing touch, Jesus prayed before feeding a large and hungry crowd with a small, small piece of fish and some bread. Jesus was found praying in sweaty Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed with an utter sense of abandonment on the cross. In fact, the very last words of Jesus were a prayer surrendering his life into God's hands. But it wasn't just just the dramatic moments. We're told several times in the gospels that Jesus often gets up while it is still dark and goes away to a place alone to pray, day in and day out. Jesus opened his heart to God. Jesus made himself present to the Divine Love that was always present to him, and it gave him the strength, the wisdom, the boundless love that he needed. Now the disciples watched. They watched this daily discipline of prayer. And they were curious. They saw in Jesus the presence, power and peace of God flowing freely. And they noticed this rhythm of prayer, flowing into action, flowing into prayer, flowing into action. The disciples saw that it was prayer that opened the heart of Jesus to God's heart. So one day, they asked their teacher, Lord, teach us how to pray. Now I don't think the disciples were actually asking about the mechanics of prayer. I don't think they were asking about give us the ABCs of prayer, Jesus. I mean, they have been taught the rituals and mechanics of prayer from a very young age. You know, I think what they were saying to Jesus, show us your heart, we see you show us how we too might connect to God's heart. So what a prayer, what a prayer is being present to the Divine Love that is always present to us, what a prayer is losing ourselves in God's heart so that we might become a channel for God's love to flow in and through us. The disciples said, Lord, Lord teach us how to pray. And Jesus said, Pray this way. So what if the prayer that Jesus taught you know, the prayer that we've actually come to know as the Lord's prayer, the prayer we recite most every Sunday. What if that prayer that Jesus taught was never intended to be words that mean we memorized to recite on a Sunday morning? What if Jesus was actually teaching teaching this prayer as an orientation of the heart, as a way of being a channel of God's love to flow in the world. You know, I met Rupert in my previous church I served in Chicago. Now, Rupert. Was this extremely successful lawyer. When he retired, he could have chosen to travel the world and enjoy the fruits of his success. Instead, in his retirement, Rupert devoted his time mentoring and supporting kids and the toughest, most violent, most drug infested neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, Wilford volunteered at the YMCA at least three times a week. You know, he would just, he would just hang out where the kids play basketball, and just be available for conversation, no judgment, no strings attached. Understandably, his family and friends feared for his safety. They tried to convince him that, you know, Rupert, you're wasting your time. Those kids are just laughing behind your back. And Rupert would say, if my heart is available to those kids, it means God has one more option to love them that God wouldn't have if I wasn't available. Now, Rupert, he told me he didn't really know how to pray. Praying wasn't really, really his thing, but before he would go to the playground, he would always pray the only prayer that he knew, the Lord's Prayer, and he would pray that prayer as a way To center his heart in the heart of God. Now, Rupert was a steady presence at that playground, and eventually, trust was established. Conversations began to take place. Rupert ended up mentoring dozens of those kids. He helped them find jobs. He helped several of them actually graduate from high school. Rupert provided full scholarships for a handful of young men who were destined to life in a gang and likely death at a young age. Right before he died, I gathered with his family, Rupert had been in hospice care for a few weeks. He hadn't opened his eyes or communicated in probably over three days. His time of transition to more life was near. We gathered around Rupert. We were holding hands. I, thank God. I thank God for the sheer gift of Rupert's life, for the blessing his life was to so many other people's lives. I thank God for the love from which we can never be separated in life or death. And I then told his family how Rupert told me how he would pray, how he would pray the Lord's Prayer, before he went to that playground on the south side of Chicago. So I invited everyone to join me. We're holding hands as we prayed the prayer that Rupert prayed 1000 times we started our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And when we got to the part thy kingdom, come Thy will be done on earth, as in Heaven do him, to everyone's amazement, Rupert opened his eyes, opened his eyes wide, and he slightly raised his head, and you could see him mouthing every single word of that prayer with us when we finish praying. Rupert closed his eyes. He transitioned from this life to more life. A few minutes later, he Wow, that prayer, that prayer wasn't words he memorized to recite on a Sunday morning, that prayer lived in the very depth of Rupert's heart. Rupert lived that prayer. You know, it helped me understand those words from the Apostle Paul, where he said, Pray without ceasing. Honestly, I. I don't know how prayer works. I do know that I begin every single morning letting a candle, and I sit with a list of names of people in need of prayer, and many of you, many of you have been and are on that list, if I'm honest, I don't always know what words to say. I don't always know what to pray for. So I hold each person in my heart, and I imagine them. I imagine you being surrounded and being held by the healing light of Christ's love. I don't know if that makes a difference or not. I do know that it changes me. I do know that there have been more than a few times when I've been nudged by the Spirit to call or to visit someone, and it always seems to be just at the right time, as if I became part of the answer to The prayers I was offering. I don't know how prayer works. I do know there are over 100 people in this church who are part of our prayer team and lift up your prayers every single day faithfully. I do know that these prayers anchor us in God's love. I know I know that these prayers strengthen our community. I know that these prayers deepen our care for one another, and maybe that is one way God is stitching the torn fabric of our humanity back together again. Do you remember the story Pastor lischer told about Amy who wanted to go to the evangelist healing service. Well, Lis writes, the next time I saw Amy, she was still in her wheelchair, as cheerful as ever. You know, I had worried that going, going for the cure, praying for a miracle, would leave, would leave Amy, disillusioned and bitter, as if a child with cerebral palsy is brimming with illusion in the First place. But then you never go broke, risking everything on God, the act of trusting is itself a replenishing activity. Trusting makes for greater trust, not disillusionment. Amy taught me that, or should I say, I learned that from watching Amy smile. Amy prayed for a miracle. And to be honest, to be honest, I noticed a change. I noticed a change in Amy. She seemed more prepared to think about the future in a wheelchair and to just get on with it. Amy became more vocal about her condition and more assertive. She told us her dad shouldn't have to carry her up, carry her up the stairs of the church. She demanded the trustees build a ramp. She announced plans to become a counselor, and by the time she was in her first year of high school, she had already found a college with a program she wanted. Solicia wrote, I was the one who doubted. I was the one who lacked trust. Amy, she prayed, she trusted, she opened her heart to God. It may not have been the miracle she wanted or others expected, but it was a miracle. Nonetheless, and part of that miracle is how my life has been changed. The disciples noticed that when Jesus prayed, the presence, peace and power of God flowed in and through him, and they said, Jesus teach us how to pray. And Jesus did. And. I'm going to suggest we pray the prayer Jesus taught together, and as we pray these words, just imagine opening your heart for God's love to flow in and through you. Prayer. Prayer may not always change things the way you want or expect, but when we open our heart to God, we are changed, and maybe that's the miracle we all really need. So pray with me, Our Father, who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever, Amen May it be so. friends, as we go into this week, may our very lives be a prayer as we open our hearts to God's heart and live a life that reflects God's love into the world. Go in peace, my friends, and may your love bring peace to others. Amen.

Whitney Higdon: 28:59

Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope you enjoyed this worship service. If you would like to make a donation helping make these podcasts possible or support the many ways, first, Presbyterian seeks to serve our community, you can make a financial gift online@bendfp.org every week, we hear from someone thanking us for the gift of these broadcasts, and what a difference they make. Your support makes that possible. Our church is committed to reach beyond our walls, bringing hope where there is despair and love where it is needed the most. Your generous support helps us to be generous in love. Go to our website, bend fp.org, and click on the link give online. Your support is really appreciated and makes a difference in people's lives. Thanks again. I hope to see you next week. You.