“Listening to God: The Mystery of Silence and Prayers” James 4:8 Matthew 6: 5-15

Sometimes I worry we don’t talk about the mystery of God enough. We talk about it around communion when we proclaim the mystery of faith -that Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. We talk about it around baptism - as God’s presence passes over the water and we welcome the ones being baptized into the family of God.

But there is so much more to the mystery of God.

In reality we struggle to put our human words and concepts behind who God is and what God means to us as those who are part of the Church. The truth is, as much as we may try, our human words are going to fall short of describing all of God because God is bigger than our humanness. 

Case in point - prayer.

In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, we find Jesus talking to the disciples about a lot of things - things that they would have known from their lives like prayer and fasting and giving alms for the poor. But Jesus, like much of his teaching in the Gospel of Matthew, takes what people think they know about God and the Kingdom, and turns it all on his head. In effect, Jesus is re-teaching his disciples how to pray. 

Jesus is saying its not about how eloquently you pray, what words you use, or how loud you are. Instead, its about the relationship with God that is posted in prayer. 

Perhaps, we too, need to re-learn how to pray today. I think we understanding that it isn’t about the words or volume we use. I think we get that prayer is about being in relationship with a Holy and Loving God. But today, I think we need to relearn what prayer means if we seemingly don’t get the answers we would like as quick as we want. 

Have you ever had a time in your life when you felt like you weren’t as close to God as you would like to be? I think part of the lie of our time that we have bought into around our faith is that it is all about mountain top experiences. Do you know what I mean? Those times when you just feel like you are on fire for Jesus and that you are deeply connected to the heart of God. 

I’ve had mountain top moments at camp and at the Creation Festival. At school and in church. It’s not where the mountain top experience happens that makes it meaningful, but the connection you feel like you have with God. Like you are on top of the world. 

But the reality is we don’t spend the totality of our lives on the mountain tops. We travel through the mundane and the every day. At times we find ourselves in the valleys. So when we think that God is only listening to us or responding to us when we are on the mountain tops, we will be sorely disappointed. 

Jesus is telling his disciples that they need to learn how to pray in the midst of the everydayness of life. About every day things. That God’s will be done in things great and small. That we have what we need each day. That we are forgiven. And yet, even in the everydayness, prayer is also intimate. Because we know God and because we are known by God. 

But what about in the dry seasons of our lives along our spiritual journey? What then? I remember years ago going through a time when I was coming off of the mountain top, and thought that every day should be like that with God. As a result, I found it really hard to pray in dry seasons, because I kept comparing everything to the mountain top. 

We don’t talk enough about the dry seasons. And what it means to keep on praying even when you don’t feel that same strong connection. Yet, that is one of the beautiful and mysterious things about prayer. 

Another mystery of prayer - have you ever came to God time and time again, but seemingly not got the answer you would like? Another lie we’ve bought into about prayer is that its like coming to God with a cosmic wishlist and as long as we are sincere in our requests and in a right place with God, then we will get whatever we ask for. 

But here’s the thing church - when Jesus taught his disciples to pray he told them to pray that God’s will be done. Not our will. God’s will. Yet sometimes we confuse the two. We think that we should get our way over God’s way. We also get deeply distressed when God doesn’t answer us within our time frame. Once again, though - we are praying for God’s will.

Another thing that we need to re-learn about prayer is that is requires that we listen. In fact, prayer requires us to ask the hard questions of when and where we fail to listen? Where are the places where we have a tight grip on what we desire and refuse to surrender to God? 

In order to learn to listen, there are going to be places where we simply sit in silence. Not filling it with our own words. But instead just sit with God. One of the ways that I know that I am truly comfortable with someone is that I’m willing to just sit with them. We don’t feel like we need to fill up every moment with speaking - but instead the silence is seen as a mark of familiarity. 

Should it not be that way in our prayer lives as well, church? That we are so close to the heart of God that’s okay if we sit in silence, waiting for God to speak? The problem is as we try to strip the mystery from our relationship with a Holy God, the result is using our human relationships to define the most important relationship. We think of the people in our lives who have weaponized silence and as a result, when God does not speak immendiatly, we see it as rejection, not familiarity. 

The truth of about silence is that it invites us to listen even more intently. Leaning lean. Think of the prophet Elijah. When the presence of God came to him it was not in the wind or in the fire, but in the stillness. 

Part of prayer that we often disregard is waiting in silence. It’s drawing close to God. It’s recognizing this gift of grace amongst the clutter in our lives.

This morning, we are simply going to make space to pray, church. Pray in a way that you find meaningful. Whether you on on top of the mountain or in the dry valley. Pray to the one who loves you. For perhaps that is the greatest mystery of all with prayer - that our God loves us enough to want to be with us through prayer. So church, let us pray….