September 18, 2011

9-18-11 Sunday, 6:30 am
When Audrey and I were dating we visited the church in Omaha where her family had attended. It so happened that a friend of mine was the son of the senior pastor. Spotting me in the congregation, he came down to where we were sitting and said “Bruce, we have a tradition here of asking someone from the congregation to pray. Would you be willing to pray during the service?" I was in my second year of seminary and I was comfortable praying in public, though I had not done so very often and I said that I would be happy to pray. After the opening singing Pastor Murdoch introduced me and asked me to pray. I stood up and began to form the words of a prayer asking God’s blessing upon the service, upon the preaching from the Word, and upon the congregation. The problem was that I got tongue tied, and my thoughts ran ahead of my spoken words and my prayer was somewhat of a mess of garbled phrases that did not really fit together. I finally said amen and sat down. The pastor went to the pulpit and began his sermon with these words: “tonight, I would like to teach about how to pray.” It was a very good message which followed my prayer, which was really an example of how not to pray. With each point I sank deeper into my chair, agonizing over my botched attempt to pray.

Matthew 6:5-8

My sermon this morning is titled “how to pray”. I will be teaching from this gospel account of Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, giving us instruction and example in how to pray. It is an awesome task to stand before a congregation and teach on prayer. Guide my words, my actions, and my openness to your Spirit most holy Lord.