Gloria Dei Lutheran Church | Urbandale, Iowa

Breaking Down Barriers: Prayers

Sunday, May 20, 2007
Pastor Kendall Meyer

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Heavenly Father and from our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus, our Christ.

It’s been a year and ten months that I’ve been here with you at Gloria Dei. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? But I remember that first day, the day of excitement and things were so new and so different and yet I was nervous on my first day but nothing like another day.

Three years and ten months ago, I received my first vicarage call. My vicarage was that hands-on training, that internship for seminarians and I was going to Marengo, Illinois, Zion Lutheran Church, and Lynn and I had no idea where that place was. We were going to a new town. We were going to be meeting new people we didn’t know and we just didn’t know what to expect. And yes, we certainly were nervous but it was nothing like another day.

Twelve years, 4 months and 12 days ago, Lynn and I were married. And it was a great day. It was a great opportunity for us to stand up before our friends and family and before God and to profess our love for each other and to begin a life together. And I finally had to grow up. And yes, sure, I was nervous but it wasn’t anything like that other day.

That other day, November 19, 1999. It was seven years and six months ago yesterday. It was my first year at seminary. I was taking my first class at seminary and I was ready to take a test. I had spent ten weeks on the subject. I had prepared for the exam. I had even taken three practice tests in the same room that I was going to take the real exam. I studied with my friends and I studied by myself and the night before I stayed up all night going through flash card after flash card and I was nervous, so much so that my hands were wet and sweaty and cold and clammy all at the same time. I could hear my heart beating in my ears and my breathing was starting to get really hard as the instructor was passing out the exam. And that was seven years, six months, and nine hours ago yesterday. You see, this wasn’t any kind of an exam. This was the New Testament Greek Qualifier Exam and I needed to pass this exam if I wanted to continue on in my seminary journey. And I needed a 65% or better to pass that exam. So as the instructor was passing out that test, I began to pray.

Have you ever done that before? Have you ever been in that kind of a situation on your journey through life where you needed to pass the test? Now I’m not talking about just a classroom exam. No, I’m talking about maybe your job performance so you can get that promotion you want. Or maybe it could be a turning point with one of your kids, whatever decision is made now will affect that child for the rest of his or her life. Or maybe it could be that you’re waiting to hear the test results your doctor has recommended you take. Whatever it might be, do you begin it with prayer?

You see, that was the predicament the servant in our first reading for this morning was in. He needed to pass a test. So let’s set it up. Abraham chooses the chief servant, his oldest servant of all of his servants to go find a woman, to find a wife for his son, Isaac. The servant promises Abraham that he will not go to the Canaanites or those foreign women to find a woman. No, he will travel all the way back to Mesopotamia, back to the town of Nabor, Abraham’s home country, a journey of over 400 miles and that is the test to find a wife for Abraham’s son.

And so the servant arrives in Nabor and sits at a spring at a well in the middle of the city. Now I have to believe he, too, was nervous in a strange place, not knowing where to start or what to do or how to go about doing it. And the only thing he does know, though, is he wants to be the best servant possible to his master. He wants to be successful and so he begins with a prayer.

Now, my friends, I believe one of the most difficult barriers for us to break down is the way in which we pray. It’s not whether we pray or whether we don’t pray, though that’s important, but more how we go about praying. Because the barrier I believe we need to break down is this one: When you pray to God, are you giving instruction? Or are you reporting for duty? Now, my friends, this is crucial and I need to repeat it again. When you pray to God, do you give what? I want to hear you. Instruction. Or are you reporting for duty?

I believe we can learn three things from our servant’s prayer. These three things can show the best way to break down this barrier and the first one is to ask this question: Who is your master? The servant starts out his prayer this way, “Oh, Lord God of my master, Abraham, if you will, please grant success to the journey on which I have come.” You see, the servant knows that he wants to do the best job possible, that he wants to be the best servant possible for his master but he also knows who is his true master. Abraham gives him a clue before Abraham sends him off on the journey. Abraham tells the servant, “The Lord, the God of heaven who brought me out of my father’s household in my native land who spoke to me and promised me an oath saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ He will send His angel before you so you can get a wife for my son there.”

You see, on our journey through life, we get confused as to who our true master is, don’t we? Because, you see, we have so many responsibilities and voices that are coming from all directions. They’re all trying to get our focus and our time that it’s easy for us to forget who our true master is. Is the master in your life money? Is it your children? Believe it or not, is it your spouse? Is it your dreams? Or maybe it’s your unhappiness. You see, for me at that time in my life, it was that New Testament Greek Qualifier Exam and, oh, I prayed alright when that instructor gave out the exam. But what was my prayer? It was, “God, I have worked hard preparing for this test but you need to help me do well.” You see, right away I put up the barrier because what did I do? When I was praying to God, I was giving what? Instruction instead of doing what? Reporting for duty.

And that leads to our second point and that is to ask the question how can we best serve the big picture? The servant begins by reporting for duty. He says, “Please grant success to the journey on which I have come.” And he has God’s big picture in mind. He knows God has sent him on this journey and he has asked for overall success and it is only then that he starts to ask God about the particulars, about how to fill in the details of that big picture. So he prays to God, “God, I’m standing here by the well, by this spring and I ask that the maiden that comes to this spring that I decide to ask, ‘Will you give me a drink?’ that she will not only give me a drink but she will also say she will water my camels, too. May that particular maiden be the one who you would like to have as the wife of my master’s son.”

The question for us is what is the big picture for us? Is it to ensure we have enough money for retirement? Is it to ensure our children grow up to be caring and responsible and successful adults? You see, if we know who our master is, then we also need to know what is the big picture. But we read it in John 6, Jesus gives us the clue. Jesus tells us, “For my Father’s will,” in other words, for my Father’s big picture, “is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day.” That is the big picture.

So again, if you flip to the next screen to the next question, how can we best serve the big picture? Because that is the journey God has placed each and every one of us. And sure, we do have many responsibilities and we have many voices that are coming from all directions and they’re all trying to get our focus and our time and we all have situations in which we need to pray. We ask the question, “How can I best serve the big picture? Is what I’m praying for helping me to stay focused on my master’s big picture, the journey on which He has placed me?” Are we praying for that promotion you want? Well, how does that help you in the big picture? Praying that you want your children to learn to be caring and responsible, how will that help in the big picture, especially for the kids? What about the test results? What if what you pray for doesn’t turn out the way you want it to? Sitting in the lounge of the Dean of Students’ office waiting for the results of my Qualifier, things didn’t turn out the way I had prayed. You see, I got a 61% on that Qualifier. I missed passing it by 4 points and all I could think about was, “How am I going to continue on this road? How am I going to continue on my seminary journey?” And I was devastated. But I knew one thing. I knew God was calling me to be a pastor. I could feel the nudge. I could feel the call, the desire He had given me. And I knew in God’s big picture, that’s where He wanted me to be, to be a pastor. And so I took the class a second time and I passed it with flying colors but it was not before I learned to keep the big picture in mind. God wanted to equip me, not by getting the best score possible on the test but rather to learn what to do in the face of failure.

Again, how can we best serve the big picture? And that leads me to my final point. When prayers are answered, keep in mind our master’s big picture that we remember to praise God. Even when the answers may not be what we are looking for, we have the big picture in mind. The servant says it best at the end of his prayer, “The Lord, the God of my master, Abraham, who has led me on the right road.” Every answer God gives us is always with His big picture in mind, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.

And so now here I am with you, a year and ten months out into another journey, the journey of ministry. And I have no doubt this is where God has placed my family and me. And so while we are on this journey through life, while we are all going through this life, I encourage you to do what the servant did, to do what the apostle Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to pray continually, remembering God is not telling us to do nothing but prayer as we go through our life journey but instead to do nothing without prayer. And so we will together, remembering who our master is, asking the question, “How can we best serve the big picture?” and praising God for keeping us on the right road, the road to eternal life. When we break down our barriers, we break them down when we ask ourselves, “When I’m praying to God, am I giving what? Instruction. Or am I doing what? Reporting for duty.” Amen.