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Messages from Rev. Loren Richmond Jr., M.Div, MBA. at various churches
When was the last time you prayed for a miracle? An honest to God miracle? Miraculous intervention? Divine intervention. When was the last time?
I'm reminded of a friend of mine, Dennis Sanders, who's a friend and a pastor. And he tells a story of when he was working as a hospice chaplain. When he was working as a hospice chaplain, he remembers one day going into the room of a family of a man who was dying of brain cancer. This man was tragically near the end of his life and from all appearances, in rough shape. And the wife of this man, obviously upset at his poor condition, asked my friend Dennis to pray for a miracle. What Dennis recollects from that experience in that moment was, dare I say, the silliness of her, to ask for a miracle. In his mind, the man's condition was so dire, he was in such poor straits, in such bad condition, that why would this spouse ask for a miracle?
He remembers being caught off guard because so often in his work as a chaplain, he would pray. So often in his work as a hospice chaplain, he would pray for people to have comfort in their last moments, to have peace, to have a smooth transition, for family to accept this change, what have you. But praying and asking for a miracle? Well, uh, that just felt bizarre. Felt out of sorts. It felt. Words don't say.
The thing is, in our modern society, in our modern context, in our modern culture, we are essentially trained not to ask for miracles, not to pray for miracles, not to expect miraculous intervention or the supernatural. Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor calls this the secular age. Theologian Andrew Root has written extensively about how this secular age impacts even Christians and churches. In that we see the world, we see what is around us through what is called an imminent frame.
Essentially, this means that we see the world as flat, not as. Like a flat earth. Like, you know, we know those flat earthers who don't think the world is a globe, right? Not like that, but flat. As if there's no supernatural, there's no special, there's no nothing beyond the five senses. What we can see and taste and touch and hear, it's just what we can right in front of us. That's all there is, that's all that life is. And in this imminent frame, as it's called, in this secular age, we don't expect any kind of divine intervention or impact from God. So then change, any kind of change in our world becomes dependent on our human efforts. Church then simply becomes about community and camaraderie and community organizing. All good things, nothing wrong with these things. And then prayer prayer becomes simply about well wishes and positive thinking, helping us to feel better, helping the person. We've told them that we're going to pray for them, feel better, but having no real impact beyond those positive feelings and well wishes and therapeutic, perhaps nature.
I'm reminded of perhaps the best, worst example of this is whenever we see yet another mass shooting tragedy happen, what do we. Well, I'm not sure how much time you all spend on social media, but what never really happens if you see it on social media is some politician or some leader will send out a message saying, thoughts and prayers. We're asking thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families. Again, uh, nothing wrong with that.
But nevertheless, what happens is prayers are linked with thoughts, as if prayers are simply positive thinking, well wishes. And they have. Prayers have no impact beyond a positive thought or a well wish or thinking of. And we've equated essentially, when we say thoughts and prayers to simply just another thought of our own. So certainly, in some cases, it's therapeutic. We think oh “I'm thinking of you.” But we don't expect prayer to have any impact because it's just similar to a thought. So at best, it's a positive thought for someone. And at worst, again, it's an excuse. It's an escape. It's a distraction from action that we believe really needs to happen in our world. Action that is dependent on us and us alone. So why then would we pray? Why then would we take the time to pray when action, when change, is solely dependent on us and our efforts? Why would we go to church when we can community organize, when we can find community and connection and camaraderie outside of the church? Why would we pray when it's just a distraction from what we need to do in this world? An excuse. It is an escape, a distraction. The thing is, though, that Jesus said that prayer is essential.
We see it in the text that Mark. Excuse me, Mark. You're Arlin. The text is Mark that Arlin read for us this morning in Mark. And it is quite an odd text to our modern ears, shall we say, a young boy convulsed by a spirit. The text says, interestingly enough, not in this Bible, but in, uh, my study Bible at home, when I was preparing for this message, the footnote said that the young man had epilepsy, perhaps, or some kind of mental ailment. We are so trained to understand our world as flat, as imminent, as there being no supernatural, that even when we, through our modernized, read a story from the past in the scriptures, we think there must be a rational, logical explanation for this. Couldn't be anything supernatural going on here. So again, the story goes that the disciples try to heal a young boy. They're unable to do so. And Jesus, he is impatient. You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? Bring him to me. I'll take care of this. What parent have we not had to do this before? Right? I'll fix it.
So they bring the boy to him, and the spirit sees him. The spirit in the boy sees him, begins throwing the boy and convulsing the boy on the ground, rolling about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus wonders, how long has this been going on? And the father says, since childhood. And the father, desperate. We can understand this father's desperation since childhood, since he was a young boy. We can understand this father's desperation. Please, if you are able. And Jesus is somewhat offended, I suppose, he says, if you are able. He says, with God, all things are possible for the one who believes. And this is my favorite section of the scripture, the father says, I believe. Help. Help. My unbelief. Quite literally, the word is, I have faith, but help me where my faith lacks. I have faith, but help me where my faith lacks. It's important.
When Jesus saw that the crowd came running to there, he rebuked the unclean spirit. The spirit eventually leaves. And then, in a separate moment, after all had calmed down and gone back to normal, I suppose the disciples come to Jesus and say, Jesus, why couldn't we heal this boy on our own? And Jesus says to the, uh, disciples, this kind can come out only through prayer. Only through prayer.
There are some things in our world, I believe there are some things in our world, in our life, that we cannot accomplish or defeat on our own. Whether it be an addiction within ourselves, whether it be a family conflict, whether it be societal injustice. There are things in our lives that we, through our own efforts, through our own organizing, through our own passion and purpose, even as hard as we try, we cannot, through our own efforts, accomplish them on our own, that we need to depend on God and seek and pray for a miracle.
And I'll say this as I'm, uh, reminded again of that story I shared with my friend Dennis, who was with the man dying of cancer. When we pray for a miracle, the miracle may not be what we want it to be. I'm reminded of my own experience as a chaplain in times where I would visit a family, and the family member, the loved one of the patient dying, would say, I cannot imagine. I cannot imagine going on without this person. I cannot imagine existing without this person I love. Sometimes the miracle is not going to be what we want it to be.
And then again, I say this. There are going to be times for all of us when we will lack the faith. Thanks be to God of Jesus’ words here, or, excuse me, the testimony of this father to Jesus. Lord, I believe. Lord, I have faith. Help my unbelief. Help me where I lack the faith. Notice this. Jesus isn't saying you have to have the right amount of faith. Jesus is not dependent on this father to have the perfect amount of faith. Jesus works with a little bit of faith and heals the son.
So let us pray for a miracle. Let us seek in prayer understanding that our prayers are powerful, whether that be for ourselves, whether that be for family situation, whether that be for a societal ill that we of, uh, ourselves cannot change. Because I believe that prayer matters, that prayer can have an impact, that God still can and does the miraculous, even if it may not look like what we want.
Because the alternative is. The alternative is looking at, uh, again, looking at the world as if it is flat and unspectacular and solely dependent on ourselves and our efforts alone. I'm reminded of this show my wife and I have been watching called nobody wants this. It's a modern day romantic comedy show. I think it's on Netflix. And the two characters are Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. Kristen Bell, as I believe the term in the show they use, is a shikska. I could be butchering that. Essentially a gentile, blonde temptress woman. A bit of a caricature, for sure. And the young man is a jewish rabbi. So you can imagine the pressure of this, the cultural pressure of this jewish rabbi falling in love with this gentile, blonde woman. And as much as the show is really a good, well written show, very clever. The dialogue is sharp. The two lead characters have great chemistry. It gets a very well written, well done story.
But for me, I just have something, uh, that I don't like about the show. And I think, again, I could be wrong. I am not a jewish person. But for me, what bothers me about the show is that they seem to reduce Judaism to just a way to make yourself feel better. It's about empowerment and authenticity and feel-goodness. In fact, in the last episode we watched, when the woman asks the man why he wanted to become a jewish rabbi, he says to her, well, when I was a kid, the rules and the routines and the rhythms made me feel good. They made me feel safe.
Now, again, I'm not jewish, so I could be completely wrong in this. But I believe that religion, any religion like Judaism and Christianity, where we seek to know the living God, is about more than just empowerment and personal good feelings. Because again, when religion, when Christianity is simply about feeling good and empowering oneself, when it stops feeling good, when it stops empowering us, we no longer have use for it, but more so, it has no power to impact our lives beyond our own human efforts.
There are some things, like I said, there are some things in life that will not be able to be overcome by us. And at the end of the day, when we find ourselves at the end of our rope, at the end of our energy, the end of our efforts to bring change to ourselves, to bring transformation to a family situation, to see injustice overcome in our world, I believe that we need, uh, places like church where we can come and experience the sacred, when we can come and meet God, when we cannot see God anywhere else. We need prayer because we know through our own human efforts we are at a loss. And we need God to change hearts and minds that we cannot change ourselves, whether they be in our own hearts and minds, the hearts and minds of a family member, of the hearts and minds, a society.
Friends, I believe that prayer matters, that prayer has power, that prayer makes a difference in our lives, in the lives of those we love. I encourage you. Prayer makes a difference. There will be things in our lives that we cannot, through our own human efforts alone, conquer. Let us, through prayer with God, seek to bring about the good in our world through prayer, with God guiding us, asking and expecting God's miraculous intervention. Let us pray.
Holy God, we thank you that we can come to you in prayer. God, in this life there are times where we can be like this young father, the father of this young man. Lord, we believe that we have been so discouraged, so defeated, so let down, that we have lost our faith or our faith has lessened or belittled. And we thank you, God, that you answer our prayers, though in ways we may not always want or expect, but you reward our faith even as little as it is. So God, help us to come to you in faith through prayer, trusting that you can make a difference in our lives. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.