© 2025 Evan D. Garner
Audio of this sermon will be available soon. Video can be seen here.
“How long will you judge unjustly, and show favor to the wicked? Save the weak and the orphan; defend the humble and needy.”
With those words, the psalmist gives voice to the world’s desperate plea for justice and deliverance. This is our cry—the cry of all human beings whose hearts are even the least bit susceptible to the plight of the weak and the poor. Psalm 82 is a prayer for the sort of justice that only God can give—the setting-right of the world that we recognize as the unique domain of the God of our ancestors. When we say this prayer, we call upon the name of that God, and, in so doing, we become channels through which the Almighty One brings God’s justice to the earth by making that justice manifest in our lives.
Today, I am preaching the second of three sermons in a row about prayer. If you missed last week, don’t worry. You can read or listen to it online or pick up a copy on the table by the front door of the church. Last week, we focused on the when of prayer. When do we pray? What moment in time does our prayer occupy? The answer I offered is that prayer always happens in that threshold time between our gratitude for what God has done and our hopeful anticipation of what God will do. Because our prayers are always grounded in the gratitude of generational hindsight, we are able to invoke with confidence God’s name and God’s promise of salvation as we step through that threshold and into what lies ahead. Prayer is how we bring God with us—or, more accurately, how we remain tethered to God—as we move forward. And that means that every day must start with prayer.
Last week, I challenged you to begin each morning with prayer and, in so doing, place everything that the day will bring in subjection to the presence and authority of God. How did it go? Did you make it? Did you start every day with prayer? If not, that’s okay. It took me years of trying to get into the habit of saying my prayers first thing, and it’s a way of life I still need to return to from time to time. Don’t give up. Every day is new.
This week, I want to talk about the what of prayer—the words we say or, in some cases, don’t say. And I want to start by asking a question that has bothered me ever since I was a child: if Jesus promises to hear and answer every prayer that we ask in his name, how do we know that we’re praying for the right thing? If good, faithful, Christian soldiers on both sides of the battlefield are praying for victory—a victory which necessarily comes at the cost of their enemies’ lives—whose prayer gets answered?
I don’t think prayer works like that. Prayer isn’t wish-fulfillment. Prayer is the language of intimacy with God. It is our love language which we speak to our beloved not only with our lips but with our hearts and minds and souls and lives. It is how we communicate with the one to whom we belong. Prayer is our response to the union with God that God makes possible in each one of us—the union which we, as Christians, recognize and pursue through Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word. Prayer, in the end, isn’t actually what we say to God but what God says in us and through us in the person of Jesus Christ.
How can we, mere mortals, ever ascend to the exalted throne of God and dare to speak to the Almighty One? Because Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, who has taken upon himself our fragile human nature and in whose glorious divinity we now stand, brings us there—redeemed by his death, covered in his mercy, and protected by his love. We stand boldly in the presence of God within Jesus Christ, who there intercedes on our behalf. Prayer, therefore, is Christ speaking in us and us speaking in him. And that means that the words we use in prayer must, by God’s grace, be nothing less than the words that Christ himself will use. Prayer is where our words become God’s Word as God’s Word becomes our words. And that means that, if we’re looking for the right words to say, there’s no better place to start than the psalms.
The psalms are the prayer book of all of God’s people. As holy scripture, they are the Word of God—the same capital-W Word that, in Christ, became flesh. Those who pray the psalms are, in effect, speaking God’s Word back to God in prayer. In a mystical way that defies our understanding, because Jesus Christ, the Son of David, was within the body of his ancestor when King David wrote the psalms, even David, we believe, the one whose heart belonged to God, prayed within the same Word in which we pray as members of the Body of Christ. That means that, when we lift up our voice in the words of the psalms, we pray in Christ by praying in God’s Word.
Look again at the words of Psalm 82, and hear how they give voice to the will of God by proclaiming the Word of God. “God arises in the council of heaven and gives judgment in the midst of the gods.” This psalm is a courtroom drama, which we enact every time we pray it. This prayer gives voice to God’s great summons to the powers—the gods—of this world, which are inferior to and subject to the Almighty.
“How long will you judge unjustly,” our God declares, interrogating all who claim authority in this world. “How long will you show favor to the wicked?” With these words, God’s Word proclaims God’s judgment upon those powers, and, by saying these words, we join in the affirmation of God’s justice. “Rescue the weak and the poor,” God says to the powers of this world. “Deliver them from the power of the wicked,” we say in unison with God because we know that this is God’s will.
No matter how powerful the forces that rule this world appear to be, this psalm reminds us that they are powerless before God. Their mortality and frailty are exposed in the divine courtroom. Their folly is on display. “You shall die like mortals,” we pray, giving voice to an everlasting truth. “You shall fall like any leader,” we pray, standing in solidarity with those whom they would oppress. We pray this prayer until God’s judgement upon the powers of this world is complete: “Arise, O God, and rule the earth, for you shall take all nations as your own.”
Whenever we pray the psalms, we know that we are speaking God’s Word to God—that Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, is praying within us and that we are praying within him. These are his words, and he has given them to us to be our words. But, of course, these are not the only words or prayers of Jesus. When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, he taught them the prayer that we say every time we gather in worship: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” All the prayers that we offer in Christ, including the psalms, are found in the words and in the form that Jesus taught us.
So why not simply pray the Lord’s Prayer over and over and leave all the other prayers behind? For the same reason that we say “Black lives matter” instead of “all lives matter” even though we believe that all lives matter. Why? Because God allows us to pray for the particular and urgent needs of the world and of our hearts by naming before God the people and situations who need God’s justice, mercy, love, and salvation. But, when we lift up to God those particular needs, we do so by remembering that we stand within Jesus Christ who intercedes for them on our behalf. The goal of our intercessory prayers, therefore, is to bring those we love into the union we share with Christ.
Sometimes we seek that union by reading and meditating on other passages of holy scripture besides the psalms. Although they may not be prayers in and of themselves, the Word of God is present in all the words of the Bible, and, through spiritual practices like Lectio Divina, we can listen to a passage of scripture and then sit quietly with God’s Word and listen for what the divine is speaking back to us. In that way, even silence itself can be prayer. Although it takes practice and sometimes requires a coach or a mentor, centering prayer or meditative silence is how we seek union with Christ in wordless prayer. I also believe that the Holy Spirit gives some individuals the gift of tongues—the ability to pray God’s Word in the power of the Spirit with utterances beyond human comprehension.
If some of that sounds scary, good! It is scary! It is terrifying to stand in the presence of God and dare to speak, whether with words or with silence or with what St. Paul calls a groaning too deep for words. But we dare to speak because God has invited us to dwell within God’s Son, the Incarnate Word, who intercedes in us and through us and for us.
This week, I want you to try something new. I want you to continue to pray first thing every day, but this week I want you to make the psalms a part of your prayers. At the top of the Epistle insert, you will see a link to prayer.forwardmovement.org/pray. That link will take you to the Daily Office. If you want to say the whole thing, go for it. Morning and Evening Prayer are the principal services of daily prayer in our tradition. But that might be too much. Near the beginning of the office, you will find the psalms appointed for the day. If you just read through those psalms and ask God to make them the prayers of your heart, you will make God’s Word the focus of your prayer. Do that and say the Lord’s Prayer each morning, and your prayers will begin to deepen your connection with God, which, after all, is the goal of prayer. Next week, we will finish the series by asking why we pray, and I hope you’ll come back.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.