Prayer Beads

We Protestants don't use "prayer beads" (what many people call the rosary that is used in the Roman Catholic faith tradition). But those "beads" can help us with our prayers! Psalm 119 offers an example of another kind of "prayer beads," one that may be helpful to you.

If I asked you to name your favorite book of the Bible, I doubt if you would say “Psalms.” The gospel of John, and Isaiah, and even Esther are far more popular than the book of Psalms. But I’ll bet that every one of you knows a part of at least one psalm. I’ll bet that you know the 23^rd Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Lots of people know the beginning of Psalm 121: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” And when I was in Sunday school, I had to memorize Psalm 100: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands! Serve the Lord with gladness, and come into God’s presence with singing!” The book of Psalms may not be on the Top 10 list of popular Bible books, but some of the psalms are very well known! Even people who don’t go to church on a regular basis know them!

I think that the reason we know verses from so many psalms is because they speak for us. It doesn’t matter what we have to say; somewhere there is a psalm that says it, and says it with eloquence. If you’re discouraged or afraid or just happy to be alive, there is a psalm for you. In fact, the book of psalms is really a book of prayers. Oh, there are a few psalms that were probably used by the priests in Temple worship, and there are some others that talk about how great the King is; but the vast majority of the psalms are prayers: prayers of joy, prayers of lament, prayers of distress, even prayers of complaint. And they’re pretty good prayers, too, because they’re authentic! They say exactly what’s on the mind of whoever it was who wrote them. Some of the psalms ask, “Where are you, God?” Have you ever felt that way? The psalmist did, and he wrote a psalm asking just that. “How long will it be until you fix things, God?” There are a couple of psalms that ask that, too; and in language that is remarkably blunt. And while I don’t think that any of the psalms use the exact words, “Wow, God! You are awesome!”, the thought is certainly there more than once! All of our joys and concerns from A-Z are in the psalms; and if you look hard enough, you’ll probably find a psalm that echoes what you are feeling on any given day.

But here’s the question that’s on my mind right now. Do we pray about as many things as the psalms do – and with as much honesty? Some people don’t want to pray about everything that they are dealing with; because they think that if they do, God will be offended. But the psalms are sacred scripture; and if the prayers of the psalms cover all kinds of human experiences and emotions, why should we be afraid to pray about anything to God? Psalm 119 is a model of how to do just that. This psalm is an acrostic, a poetic masterpiece. Each group of verses begin with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The first group of verses all begin with aleph (the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet), the next group of verses all begin with beth (the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet), the third group of verses all begin with gimmel, and so on through the entire alphabet. It is as though the psalmist is saying that our prayers should run the gamut from aleph to tov (or, in our case, from A to Z).

What if took the wisdom of Psalm 119 to heart? What if we prayed about every single thing that was on our mind? Maybe we could even pattern our prayers after Psalm 119. Oh, I’m not suggesting that we pray using all 26 letters of our alphabet. That would take some time! But maybe we could use the first 5 letters of our own alphabet to remind us that everything is fair game for prayer. Those letters could be like prayer beads to help keep us focused on what we should be saying to God: our own kind of Protestant rosary. A, B, C, D, E. What could we do by using those letters as prayer beads?

Let’s start with A. A is for “Adore.” It’s always good to begin prayer by adoring God, by admitting that we aren’t God and that God is so much bigger than we are; and marveling at the fact that God wants a relationship with us! Adore. That’s a good place to start.

Next is B. B is for “Be honest with God.” How are you feeling today? What would you say to your best friend if you were meeting him or her for lunch? Is it a good day? A bad day? Are you on top of the world or discouraged? Are you mad as the dickens at somebody (and are you feeling guilty because you’re angry)? Talk it over with God, because God is always ready to listen to you.

On to C. C is for “Clap.” That’s a reminder to give God some appreciation! We applaud when we appreciate something; so let’s clap for God! Are there some things in your life that you appreciate? Thank God for them! Whenever you pray, try to identify five things for which you are grateful. It might be your home, your family, your friends, a fulfilling job, or just that you finally had time to relax. Saying “thank you” moves you out of yourself and gets you ready for the next letter, which is…

D! D is for “Distressed.” This is where we pray for other people. We carry a heavy load when people we care about are suffering; so we pray for them. We pray for ourselves, too, because we all have concerns that distress us. We can give our heavy load of distress to God, knowing that God can do things that we can’t begin to do.

Finally, we’ve arrived at E. E is for “Eavesdrop.” E reminds us to listen for what God is saying to us. What do you do when you eavesdrop? When you’re at a table at Bob Evans and the woman at the next table has just dropped a bit of gossip that you want to hear, you stop talking and become very quiet… you focus on what she is saying… and you listen as hard as you can. That’s what we have to do when we listen for God. God doesn’t blare instructions into our ears with an amplifier. God uses a still, small voice that can be very hard to hear sometimes; so we need to listen to God as hard as we do when we’re eavesdropping on somebody at the next table.

Adore God, be honest with God, clap with joy, share your distresses, and eavesdrop. Now, A, B, C, D, and E can be arranged any way you like! Prayers don’t always follow along in a neat pattern. But when you find it difficult to pray, those five letters might be the help that you need to get started. My prayers don’t always come easily; so I’m betting that yours don’t, either. Prayer is the foundation of our lives as Christians! Prayer puts us in contact with the God who created us and who loves us. Prayer reminds us of what Jesus wants us to do, and fills us with the Spirit to help us follow him faithfully. A, B, C, D, E. I invite you to take those prayer beads home with you and use them every day to draw closer to God!

Home

For the last four weeks, I have been on an extended vacation, first to Norway and Scotland with a close friend of mine, and then to the New Jersey shore with my whole family. I was fortunate to have many wonderful experiences, but coming home was wonderful, too. And that's the topic of my sermon today: home.

I have just had a wonderful vacation! I am fortunate to be able to travel to places that I have so far only heard about; and to do it in comfort, as well. Traveling always offers me new experiences and expands my thinking; and it gives me time to step back from my responsibilities at home and at church for just a little while, to take my focus off the many details that I usually have to attend to, and to be reminded of the bigger picture. But it’s always great to come home! Regardless of how relaxing or fulfilling a vacation is, returning to my own home after being away gives me great joy! There is my own living room with my own chair – one that fits me! – and the end table where my coffee cup sits each morning as I ease into the day. There is my own kitchen with my own refrigerator holding the food that I want when I want it. And there is my own bed with a mattress that offers me a good night’s sleep and my own pillow that conforms perfectly to my tired head. Oh, yes; as Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, “There’s no place like home!”

I hope that you recognized that kind of homecoming as I read you the first half of the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-24) just a few minutes ago. After running off to spend his dad’s money; after running into people who encouraged him to spend that money in all the wrong ways; after running out of money and being reduced to scrounging in a dumpster for scraps of food; the son in Jesus’ parable finally decided that it was time to run back home. Now, he didn’t expect the welcome that he received. In fact, he didn’t expect a welcome at all! He was hoping for nothing more than a bed with the servants and a decent meal every day while he lived with the scorn of his father and the hatred of his older brother. He didn’t expect to get new clothes, new shoes, a soft bed with clean sheets, and a party with all his favorite foods! But that’s what he got; because home was where his father was; and his father loved him!

That’s what home is, you know – at least, in the very best case, it is. Home is where you are loved. The furniture may not be the newest, and the mattress may sag in the middle, and the fridge may lack a few of your favorite foods; but when you are home, you are loved. Problems don’t disappear, of course, even at home. We still have bills to pay, and chores to do, and people who are difficult to deal with. (Sometimes those people are even in your own family.) The thing is, though, that when you are home, you can cope with all of it, because home is where you are loved.

But some people don’t have homes; and that troubles me deeply. Every time that I return to my comfortable, loving home, I am troubled by the fact that many people don’t have a home to return to! I am troubled by the fact that some people live in cardboard boxes under an interstate overpass. Many of them have mental challenges. Some of them are veterans who are dealing with PTSD. They all deserve homes. I am troubled by the fact that some people have been evicted from their homes because a member of the family was laid off and their paychecks stopped; so the family is forced to live in a car that is secretly parked on a quiet, suburban street. They deserve homes, too. And I am terribly troubled by the fact that on our southern border, refugees have gathered in hope of finding a home in a country where they are safe from drug lords or political persecution. I know that the question of immigration into our country is complicated and that we don’t have all the answers, and I know that good people have different opinions of what should be done about those refugees; but it is too much to ask that we help them to find homes somewhere? Everyone, no matter who they are or where they are from, deserves a home!

I know that these situations trouble you, too, because I saw your response when tornadoes tore through our part of Ohio just about six weeks ago. Those tornadoes ripped off roofs, hurled trees through walls, and tore whole buildings to shreds; and many, many people lost their homes. We all joined to help those homeless folks get their lives back together; and our churches were a big part of that. We helped them because we know that our God wants everyone to have a home where they can live safely! God, after all, gives us a home like that. Oh, it’s not a home built with bricks and mortar. It’s a home in God’s presence where we are protected by God’s sheltering arms. Someday, of course, we will be welcomed into our heavenly home where we will live safely forever; but we don’t have to wait until we die to experience that love and security. God offers it to us right now! God reaches out arms to us that shelter us like a mother, that protect us like a father, that cherish us like a grandparent, that embrace us like a friend. God’s presence is our home; and everyone deserves the security that God offers us!

That parable of the prodigal son that Jesus told: that wasn’t just about a stupid kid who is forgiven by the father that he so disrespected. That parable is about the kind of love that God has for us, and about the home that God offers us throughout our whole lives! Oh, we sometimes leave it and wander away; but God is always ready to welcome us home no matter how far away we have traveled or how long we have been gone. Some of you may know the old song of homecoming:

“Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home!”

I invite you this morning to be grateful for your own home; to look with compassion on all those who have no home; and to give thanks to God that through Jesus Christ, we have a home in God’s presence that is eternally loving and secure.