“Remember” - an Easter sermon on Luke 24:1-12

Luke 24:1-12
"Remember"
Preached Sunday, April 20, 2025


What helps you remember? Is there a scent, a song, a phrase - that when you encounter it - you are transported back to a memory?

There are certain hymns that transport me back to the balcony of Canfield United Methodist Church, and I can hear my mother’s voice, and my grandmother’s voice, singing alongside me. There are other hymns that remind me of sitting by my grandmother’s bed, singing hymns to her, in the final days of her life.

There are certain smells that remind me of summer camp. The fresh earthy smell after a rain in the summer with the humidity thick in the air. The sensation of waking up and being cozy under the covers but the crisp cool morning air hitting my face and lungs - that transports me back to those cool summer mornings, waking up in a cabin.

When I am not with my girls, it’s amazing how many things remind me of them. Everything that they would find wonder or delight in - a song to dance to, a funny shaped cloud, a delicious cupcake - these things make me think of them - and I smile.

These are good memories for me. When I encounter the triggers, I am grateful when they happen, I am reminded of all the love and good memories I have.

And… We know that not all things that trigger our memories are good and they are not all good memories. That’s why we put “trigger warnings” on things. A very common example is for war veterans who have PTSD, the sound of fireworks can often trigger them, transporting them to intense and fearful memories. A careless comment can transport someone back to a time they were ridiculed, derided, bullied. Making a left turn at a busy intersection can make someone’s heart race, reminding them of the time they got into an accident.

Whether they are good or bad, our memories from our past shape who we are in the present, and what we imagine the future will be like. We are all just a compilation of all we’ve experienced. The memories we carry with us - they shape us and influence us in so many intricate ways. That’s also why losing memories, and dementia, can be a particular painful experience.

The very act of remembering, recollection, has power.

Here in the church we often say, “Remember your baptism.” And when we say that we are not talking about remembering the specific event, how old you were, the church you were at, who the minister was - in the Methodist church many of us can’t actually recall these things beyond what we were told as we may have been baptized as infants. And yet we say - Remember. We say “remember your baptism” to mean - remember that you are claimed and beloved as a child of God.

Many altar tables have the inscription, “Do this in remembrance of me.” As United Methodists, we believe that Holy Communion, the Lord’s Supper, is more than just a Memorial Meal. We are called to “do this in remembrance” - recounting the events of Jesus’s life. And it goes beyond that, we remember all that Jesus was and is, and know the Holy Spirit meets us, encounters us, is with us in this meal. And because we remember that promise that Spirit is with us in the meal, we act. We give ourselves over to God, in praise and thanksgiving, coming forward for the meal, yes - and hopefully, letting it change how we live our lives. We also remember forward. We remember - not just what was - but what will be! When we proclaim the liturgy we say, “until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet” - by remembering backward, we also remember forward. We remember that Christ promised us that we would share this meal with him at a heavenly banquet table.

Remembering is not just about our past - but also our present and our future.

This morning’s Gospel lesson illustrates the power of recollectance. Every Gospel has a slightly different recollection of the events surrounding that first Easter morning - of the resurrection of Jesus. One thing that strikes me from Luke’s telling is that no one present at the tomb that morning sees the resurrected Jesus. They will later - but not at the tomb that morning. I want to say that again because it’s really important - Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, did not make an appearance in our Gospel reading this morning.

The women came to the tomb, their hands full of oils and spices to anoint the body and the tomb…was empty! And they were perplexed. Confused. Scratching their heads - I’d venture to guess even distraught. And then, that’s when two men in dazzling clothes stood before them and said:

“‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’ Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.”

The angels - for that’s what we understand the two men in dazzling clothes to be - the angels triggered their memories of all that Jesus had said. Can you imagine what was going through the women’s heads as they heard the men and looked at the empty tomb? They were transported. Transported to all the times that Jesus talked about his death and resurrection. All the times that Jesus had said he would suffer and die…and all the times he said that wouldn’t be the end. They struggled to understand those moments when Jesus was alive. And then, I imagine as they hung on the cross, all those memories shattered, lost in the outpouring of grief. But now…the empty tomb and the word “Remember…” triggers their memories and their understanding. All the pieces are clicking into place - light bulb moment. They remember - and without ever seeing the resurrected body of Jesus - they believe.

Lutheran Pastor Micah Krey talks about the importance of recollection for our faith. He says this:

“The command to ‘remember’ weaves throughout the biblical witness. It binds together the salvation story:
Remember the promise of God at Creation that this world is ‘good,’ and God loves it dearly…
…Remember the promise to Moses and the Israelites as they were freed from captivity to be the people of God.
Remember the promise to the Israelites that there would be a land filled with milk and honey for all people to thrive.
Remember the promise to God’s people that a Savior would come to be with us and save us.
Remember the Savior coming into this world as a little child, just like us, to show the world how we might live with God.
Remember how Jesus, our savior, fed, healed, and transformed the lives of thousands through his teaching and preaching.
Remember how he included everyone at his table with no restrictions or qualifications.
Remember how he broke the bread and shared it. Remember how he shared the cup and promised the forgiveness of all our sin.
Remember the cross. For God so loved the world that [God] gave [God’s] only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
‘Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.’
Remember that Jesus breathed his spirit into us, so that we know that we are never alone.”

And so on this Easter morning I want to say to you: Do you remember?

We weren’t there that first Easter. We have never seen the physically resurrected Jesus. And yet, we can remember the resurrection. Recall Jesus’s words. Remember that he conquered the grave. That he rose again on the 3rd day. That he broke the chains of death.

Remember - and don’t just remember as if this is an event that happened in the past that has no effect on us. Remember - and let it change the present - and the future. Live into the present with all the hope, courage, and Love of one who is claimed by the God of Love who broke the powers of sin and death.

We live in a world that can be very dark. Jesus who was betrayed, tortured, scorned, despised, killed…he knew how dark and harsh the world could be. He knew the absolute worst of what humanity was capable of - the violence that drives us, the desire to scapegoat, to turn a blind eye to injustice, to run from pain. Jesus knew it all. And, by confronting the worst of humanity on the Cross, by being swallowed up by Death…and then by rising again, choosing us again, breaking free from death, the grave could not hold him - Jesus is telling us, showing us, empowering us - to live joyful, loving, abundant expansive lives! I know so many of us, including myself, can get beaten down by this world. We can despair. We can become apathetic. We can wonder if there is any goodness left… It is then that we need to REMEMBER.

In remembering Christ’s death and resurrection, we can claim the power of the resurrection for ourselves! That we are not bound by the evil in this world, we are not beholden to humanity’s worse inclinations, we are not claimed by and for death. Their power has been broken.
In remembering Christ’s death and resurrection we can proclaim that life is truly filled with just that, the vibrancy of life - life, abundant, expansive life - because Jesus was raised from the dead. Death was defeated.
We remember it all - and it changes who we are.
We remember the Resurrection and in doing so we remember that we serve a God who is Love and Life itself.

And that changes everything.

This morning do you hear the words said to those women at the tomb, those words now said to you: "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember…”

Today we remember. And we proclaim:

Christ is Risen
He is Risen, Indeed!

Remember! Amen.

Reflections on the Cross, a Good Friday Sermon

Good Friday Sermon
Preached Friday, April 18, 2025

Friends, I have a confession for you. This is my first ever Good Friday sermon. I have been preaching and filling pulpits for 12 years, but I have never preached specifically on the cross, this event that we call The Atonement.

This boils down to me not being entirely comfortable with the idea called Penal Substitutionary Atonement - a theology of what happens through the death of Jesus. Penal Substitutionary Atonement posits that God needed a blood sacrifice in order for the wrath of God to be sated, in order for things to be made right in the world, and so God spilled Jesus’s blood in lieu of ours. This is probably the most common understanding of the cross found in pulpits and hymns. And indeed, I think it obfuscates the greater meaning and love behind the cross. Christian pastor and theologian Brian Zahnd puts it like this, “Are we to imagine that John 3:16 actually means God so hated the world that he killed his only begotten Son? No, imposing the primitive notion of a sacrificial appeasement upon the cross is… ‘the paganizing of atonement theology.’”

I know that even gently pushing back against penal substitutionary atonement is hard for so many as this idea can be deeply ingrained in us. If you’re not ready to move beyond it yet, that’s okay. And - we can also add to our understanding of the cross and how God speaks to us through it.

That’s one end of the spectrum of our understanding of what happened on the cross. The other end of the spectrum says that Jesus’s death was inconsequential - that it was just something that happened to him, because it’s what our cruel and harsh world does to people who preach Love, who start “good trouble…” And Jesus would have and could have saved us all without death on a cross… This also falls immensely short of us understanding the power and impact of the cross and Jesus’s loving actions for us.

You see - God was incarnated in Jesus, God-Enfleshed, Emmanuel, God-With-Us - we often hear those words at Christmas time when we marvel at the miracle of baby Jesus. This miracle is brought to completion though and at the Cross. God became human. Part of the human experience is pain, violence, grief, suffering, betrayal, death. God in Jesus experienced the full gamut of humanity. If God came to us in flesh but avoided the pain and suffering of the flesh, then that would not be solidarity with humanity, and would not capture the co-suffering and abiding presence with the oppressed and afflicted in our world.

To be clear, I don’t believe that his death on the cross was inconsequential at all. In fact, it’s extremely consequential and it means more than any of us - any theologian, any preacher, any person - has ever grasped or put into words.

There are many other “theologies” of the cross out there. With theologian’s names attached to them and Latin names. I still tend to find a home in the “Christus Victor” camp which talks about how Christ was victorious over Death through the cross and the resurrection. In breaking the bonds of Death on him, the bonds of Death have been broken over all of us - ultimately, as Death could not keep Christ - Death cannot keep us.

And yet… Our tendency, as humans, is to want to be able to explain what happened through the cross in one or two sentences. We want a concise and neat answer to use when we explain our Christian faith to others. These concise explanations do have a time and place - the issue lies when we don’t delve deeper. When we limit ourselves to one ONE idea of what happens in the Cross. The Cross is the culmination, the tipping point, of all of history, of all of Creation…why would we be able to summarize what happened there in an easy explanation?

Our God cannot be contained with one metaphor, one name, one explanation. The cross is the same. The cross is the great divide in all of time - before the cross - after the cross. Before - a world ruled by sin and Death. After - a world of hope, of resurrection, of Life.

Zahnd describes the meaning behind the cross like this, and I am going to read each thing that he talks about the cross representing slowly, letting how much the Cross contains to sink in for a moment:

“It’s the pinnacle of divine self-disclosure,
the eternal moment of forgiveness,
divine solidarity with human suffering,
the enduring model of discipleship,
the supreme demonstration of divine love,
the beauty that saves the world,
the re-founding of the world around an axis of love,
the overthrow of the satan,
the shaming of the principalities and powers,
the unmasking of mob violence,
the condemnation of state violence,
the exposé of political power,
the abolition of war,
the sacrifice to end sacrificing,
the great divide of humankind,
the healing center of the cosmos,
the death by which death is conquered,
the Lamb upon the throne,
the tree of life recovered and revealed….

And with this brief list of interpretations, I’ve come nowhere near exhausting the meaning of the cross, for indeed the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is an inexhaustible revelation of who God is.”

I realized…that by not preaching on Good Friday, I was actually limiting my understanding of the cross. When I preach, I delve into the text, I pray about it, I meditate on it, I read books on it, I ask God to speak to me. I was limiting myself. I said, “Well, the cross isn’t that…” But I wasn’t answering what the cross was.

The Cross is more.
The Cross is everything.
The Cross is God’s Love showing us that there is no where that God’s Love will not take God, there is nothing God will not do for us, that God will even die - to save us, to save the world, to show us how much we are loved, to free us from Death for Life and Love.

There is no ONE explanation of what happens in the Cross - and so today I am not going to give you one.
What I am going to do is encourage you to listen to this story - whether this is the first time you have heard these events unfold or whether you’ve heard them a hundred times or more - listen with new ears, a new mind, a new heart. Listen for an aspect of the cross that you have not heard before. Listen for a movement of God’s Love that will strike you anew. Listen. Listen and hear more - more than you’ve ever heard before. Let yourself be moved by all this story contains. Let us be outraged by the violence. Let us be convicted for us still walking the ways of sin and death. Let us weep at the grief. Let us open ourselves up to how God has spoken, is speaking, and will continue to speak through the Cross.

And now…let us hear the story of how God so loved the world, that God sent God’s only begotten son to save us….

"How Can One Day Contain So Much?" a Palms/Passion Sunday Sermon

Luke 19:28-40

“How Can One Day Contain So Much?”
Preached Sunday, April 13, 2025 

How can one day contain so much?

We have already paraded around the sanctuary with palms, echoing that subversive and powerful parade into Jerusalem, Jesus on the back of a donkey, palms and coats strewn out on the road, shouts of Hosanna! Save us!

We have heard from our monthly mission - an invitation to serve, to meet the needs right in front of us in our community. Certainly an apt action for Holy Week.

We’ve heard our children sing and we’ve even caught a glimpse of Easter as they sang “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” Which is getting just a little ahead of ourselves but still appropriate as every Sunday is a mini-celebration of the Resurrection.

And in just a moment, our choir will turn our attention to the Passion of Christ, those events that happened in the last 48 hours of his life - events that we will revisit later this week on Thursday and Friday.

When you leave church this morning you might think, “How could one day - one service, one morning - contain so much?”

And in this service we are really covering the events of a whole week of Jesus’s life…and yet even then! When you hear of all that happened in that final week, you may think, how can one week contain so much? With a disclaimer that some of the Gospels have these events taking place at different times, here’s a brief outline of some of what happened in Jesus’s final week before his crucifixion:

On Monday, Jesus drove the money changers from the temple.

On Tuesday, Jesus cursed a fig tree, verbally spared with religious leaders, and taught his disciples many things - including the Parables of the Great Supper, the Good and Wicked Servants, the Ten Virgins, the Two Sons, The Owner of the Vineyard, The Wedding Banquet, and the Ten Talents. In Matthew this is where we also get the Greatest Commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart - and love your neighbor as yourself.

On Wednesday, the woman anointed Jesus’s feet with precious oil.

On Thursday, Jesus shared a meal with his disciples, gave us the Sacrament of Holy Communion, washed his disciples feet, and commanded us to love one another. He went to the Garden, wept and prayed, was betrayed and arrested.

On Friday, Jesus was tortured and put to death on a cross, the death penalty reserved by the Roman Empire for the worst political offenders…We’ll hear more of that today.

On Saturday, the world held its breath as Jesus’s body laid in a tomb.

On Sunday, well…Death was defeated. Christ rose again.

Today we may ask - how can one Sunday service hold so much? This week we may ask, how can one week hold so much? And these are appropriate questions. The events of today’s service, the events of this week, the event that is the very life, death, and resurrection of Jesus - we could spend a whole lifetime exploring these events - this person - God revealed in Jesus - and what his incarnation and every word he said, and every action he took - including the cross and the empty tomb…we could spend our whole lives delving into the meaning…and we are called to do that. And it still wouldn’t be enough to fully comprehend. Comprehend the mystery. Comprehend the beauty. Comprehend Divine Love.

And so today, as we turn from Palm to Passion. And as we move through the events of this week. And as we approach the Joy of Easter. I invite you to marvel at the mystery, beauty, and Love of these events - of the person of Jesus. How can one person…contain SO much? God came to us in Jesus to offer us more than we could ever comprehend. Let us wonder at God in Jesus in praise and thanksgiving. Let us be moved by the events of this week. Let us weep and pray and rejoice and sing and everything in between.

May it be so. Amen.

"The Purpose of Prayer" a sermon on 1 Samuel 3:1-10 & Luke 22:39-46

1 Samuel 3:1-10
Luke 22:39-46
“The Purpose of Prayer”
Preached April 6, 2025

Whenever I teach Confirmation, we talk about what prayer is…and what prayer isn’t. Prayer is one of the basics, the foundation of our Christian faith, but whether we are young children giving the generic “Pray” answer during the Children’s Moment, teenagers exploring their faith in confirmation, or adults well into their years of faith…all of us could benefit from returning to the “basics” of prayer.

First today, we are going to talk about what prayer - and God - isn’t.

God is not a vending machine. And prayer is not the perfect dollar we enter with the code to get the outcome we want. Put that smooth dollar bill in, enter the code, get the formula for prayer “right” and God grants our wishes.

In that same vein, God is not a genie. Rub the lamp just right and viola! Three wishes granted.

We probably treat God and prayer this way more often than we want to admit. Subconsciously we may think, how do we get our prayer to “work”? How do we get God to grant us what we ask for? This may have to do with the rampant heresy of the prosperity Gospel in our culture. That falsely tells us that if we live the right way, do the right things, pray the right way - then God will reward us with health, wealth, prosperity. And if our prayers were not answered…perhaps we need to point the finger back at ourselves, tweak the way we live, change our prayer formula… But this isn’t how God desires us to interact in prayer. There is not a magic prayer to get the outcome we desire.

There are a lot of formulas for prayer out there. And there are a lot of people who will jump at the chance to tell you the “right” way to pray. If formulas such as “ACTS - Adoration, Confession Thanksgiving, Supplication” or formulas of written out prayers or litanies or anything like that help you pray - awesome. And I always say there is no ONE right way to pray - whatever helps you talk to God, whatever helps you have a MUTUAL relationship with God - that is the right way for you to pray.

For Vending Machines and Genies - those are transactional interactions. Not a loving, mutual relationship. For that’s what God - and prayer is - a means to be in Relationship with the God who is Divine Relationship. God, our three-in-one God who is in perfect relationship with God’s self, desires a loving relationship with us, with you, with me, as individual people - isn’t that amazing? God wants to talk to you. God wants you to talk to God. God wants mutuality, for you to be open before and to God’s self and for God to make God’s self known to you.

Prayer is the vehicle through which we do that. Prayer can be a formula. Prayer can be extemporaneous. Prayer can be breathing. Prayer can be looking at the world through the heart’s eyes. Prayer can be so many things - prayer is intentionally connecting with God.

So with this understanding of prayer, let us turn to two ATTITUDES of prayer that I believe can be very helpful in living lives that are steeped in prayer and pleasing to God. And they come directly from our prayers prayed in our two Scriptures this morning.

The first from 1 Samuel:

“Then the Lord called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ and he said, ‘Here I am!’...And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’”

Here I Am, Lord. I am listening.

God wants to talk to us. God wants to call us to serve and love God and one another. In order for God to talk to us…we have to be listening. We have to offer up, “Here I am, Lord!” Often so many of our prayers are oriented toward asking God to grant our prayers. There is a big mindshift change in order to pray, “Here I am, Speak to me, Use me.” How often do we pray to serve? Instead of asking Christ to take care of everyone, how often do we pray for opportunities to feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted, help those in need? I would venture to guess that our “ “may I receive” prayers out number our “may I serve” prayers. Because it’s harder. It’s harder to step up and out in prayer. To not just be benefactors of God’s generosity, but stewards of God’s generosity - helping share it with others, being the answered prayer of God to others. When we say “Here I am, Lord! I have heard your call.” We are saying to God - use me to answer other’s prayers. And if we really think about that…isn’t it amazing? Isn’t it a divine and impactful opportunity? You could be the answer to someone else’s prayer. Let God know in prayer your willingness to be used for this divine and holy purpose. “Here I am, Lord.”

Our second attitude of prayer comes from the lips of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane:

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will but yours be done.”

Not my will but yours be done.

This prayer is about relinquishing control. Realizing that we are not God. Even Jesus, in a very human moment, bent his will to his heavenly Father’s. Now, I have a confession for you. I often think that my will, and my way, is best. Surely those of us who have prayed for healing for a loved one think that that is OBVIOUSLY the best will. We might say, “not your will but mine” begrudgingly. In a “I guess if you want to do it your way, Lord. But have you considered my will? I think my way is really good. So let’s go with my way.”

I will admit that sometimes, I even think that my way is better than God’s way. I often think my way is more life-giving. Because I have put God and God’s will in a box - a box that it does not belong in. Sometimes I think I even fear God’s will. Because I fear when things don't go my way. I think, “What if God’s will is for me to suffer?” As if my God is not Life and Joy itself. I think, “What if God’s will is harder?” As if God did not say, “My burden is easy and my yoke is light.” I think, if we’re being really honest, we often fear God’s will. Because we are creatures who like to be in control. And we also have images of a wrathful and cruel God - that are just not true. God does not cause suffering. God is with us in suffering. God does not give us trials to test us. God walks with us through the flames. God does not cause the dark night of the soul - but God uses it to make God’s self known to us. When we recognize this, we can be more open, and less afraid of what God asks of us.

Now, what God asks us for may be hard. It may cause us to grow. It may cause us to step outside our comfort zone. It may ask us to sacrifice. It may ask us to give. And we view all those things as “negative” in our world. And when we accept God’s will, when we listen for what God has in store for us, when we say “Not my will God but yours. Here I am, use me!” We are also opening ourselves up to abundant life. Abundant joy. More relationships. More love. More community. Let’s stop diminishing what God has in store for us by living in fear of God’s will - let’s start saying, please God! Please God YOUR will. For your will is an abundant life for me! Life overflowing in Love. Life that goes beyond the life of this world. Life that is more - more than any will of any human in this world, including our own will.

There are two prayers I would like to lift up as examples of praying “Here I am, Lord” and “Not my will but yours.”

One comes from our Wesleyan tradition, The Covenant Prayer, often prayed on New Year’s Day. Today, I am going to skip the antiquated language and offer a modern paraphrase written by a United Methodist colleague that still gets to the heart of the prayer

“I am not my own self-made, self-reliant human being.
In truth, O God, I am Yours.
Make me into what You will.
Make me a neighbor with those whom You will.
Guide me on the easy path for You.
Guide me on the rocky road for You.
Whether I am to step up for You or step aside for You;
Whether I am to be lifted high for You or brought low for You;
Whether I become full or empty, with all things or with nothing;
I give all that I have and all that I am for You.
So be it.
And may I always remember that you, O God, and I belong to each other. Amen.”

In this prayer, we offer up our whole lives, in abundant seasons, in empty seasons, on the easy path, or the rocky path - we offer up our whole selves to God. And it ends with a recognition of the mutual relationship which God desires of us.

Another pray, that gets to the heart of the attitude of prayer I am urging us to cultivate is our Today, Tomorrow, Together Campaign prayer: “God, what do you want to do through me?”

When I first heard this prayer my reaction was something like, “Wow! We better be careful with that prayer! It could be dangerous!”

Again, why was that my gut reaction? Perhaps because I fear what God will ask of me. I fear being asked to widen the circle. I fear being asked to change my mind. I fear being asked to step out in love. I fear relinquishing control of my will to God’s. I want you to hear this not as an indictment of you if you’ve felt or thought similar things but as an opportunity to extend yourself grace - even the preacher is sometimes afraid to relinquish her will to God! And again, why? This reaction, this fear, isn’t in line with my view of an All Loving and All Merciful God. But the fear of God’s will is in line with a world that tells us that Me, Myself, and I come first. In a world that tells us to store up wealth in barns for tomorrow. In a world that tells us to dig in deep and never move from our positions. In a world that tells us that our own comfort is paramount over love of our neighbors…

So yes, praying “Here I am.”
Praying “Not my will be yours.”
Praying “God, what do you want to do through me?”

These are big, bold, dangerous prayers - not dangerous to us - but dangerous to the way of life that is not reflective of God’s vision for us and for the world.

During my theology interview for ordination in the United Methodist church, there was a minister interviewing me who disagreed with a sentence I wrote - a single sentence in 40 plus pages of paperwork - on the Biblical story of the binding of Isaac. I called it a text of terror and because of that he was worried that I didn’t have an understanding og obedience to God. In an hour long interview, we spent the majority of it on what obedience to God is and what it looks like.

And finally, in a moment of frustration I just told him - “I will be obedient to God - and God will never ask me or anyone else to kill a child!”

And that’s the whole point of that Bible story, in my opinion, it conveys that God is NOT a God who demands violence. God is a God who will always make a way for Life and Love and Mercy. That story reminds me that obedience to God is life-giving, not death-wielding.

If we view God as a God who demands more, more, more until we have nothing left. If we view God as a God who punishes us in order to teach. If we view God as a God who demands violence to be satisfied. If we view God as a God we think we have to “trick” - or use the right formula - in order for that God to grant our prayers…then yeah, I can see why we would be afraid to pray these big, bold, audacious prayers. And this is CERTAINLY not the God I believe in. BUT. I think the fear of this God, this God that is not my God, is there. This God is a God that is preached by many but it is not the God who was revealed to us in Jesus of Nazareth. That is a God of Love. Of mutual relationship. Or Grace and Mercy.

If we pray these big, audacious prayers…If we have the attitude of prayer of “Here I am” and “Not my will but yours”...What’s the “worse” that could happen?

The answer? That God will ask us, nudge us, lead us…to better love God and neighbor. And, again, this may be HARD (giving up ideas/beliefs/opinions that hurt others, being more generous (with prayers/presence/gifts/service/witness), helping more… so yes, God may ask something of us that may “hurt” but in the growing pains kind of way, becoming more holy and loving kind of way…

So in conclusion: Let’s be big, bold, and audacious in our prayers. Lets realize that the “fear” of prayer is not a fear that comes from who God is and what God will ask of us - but a fear of the disruption of our lives…but we live lives that need to be disrupted - in order to make room for more Love.

And so let us pray:
Here I am, Lord.
Not my will but yours.
God, what do you want to do through me?

Amen.