“I believe. Help my unbelief.” I love that phrase from the father in that story. I think that is such an incredibly important piece of scripture, because it’s such an incredibly vulnerable thing for the father to say. He knows he is supposed to believe. He knows he is supposed to live it out. And he knows that, or at least assumes that, if he doesn’t believe that his son won’t be healed, and he desperately wants that for his son. Needs it for his son. You can hear his desperation even two thousand years later, “if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us,” he implores Jesus. And Jesus, sort of incredulously replies, “‘If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.’ Immediately, the father cries out, immediately, such a key word there, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ I believe, help my unbelief. Have you been there? I certainly have. I don’t know that I have necessarily voiced it out loud, at least not about the important things, but I’ve been there. I believe, help my unbelief.
What I’ve always wondered in hearing this story, though, is what had the disciples who the father originally brought his son to been doing? How were they trying to help him? Whatever it was that they were doing, it obviously didn’t work, which makes Jesus statement about having to put up with this faithless generation even more striking. Were their efforts unhelpful because they didn’t believe, or because they were faithless? Or was it something more? And of course when they later ask Jesus why they couldn’t heal the boy, Jesus says “This kind can come out only through prayer.” So at least, presumably they had not been engaged in prayer, but was that really the overall difference? If they had simply prayed would they have brought a cure? Or was it something more? Something deeper? Something more faithful? I believe. Help my unbelief.
So today we continue traveling the prayer paths of Jesus to see when Jesus prayed, where he prayed and what he prayed and how that impacts our own prayer lives. Last week we looked at the fact that Jesus was continually withdrawing from what he was doing in order to go off by himself, or sometimes with the disciples, in order to pray by himself. He did this in order to recharge his batteries spiritually and physically, but he also did it to deal with his emotions and when he needed to make crucial decisions and to prepare himself for what lay ahead. Every indication is that this time of prayer was incredibly important to Jesus and that his ministry didn’t feed his prayer life, but that his prayer life fed and led his ministry. And so the first step of following the prayer paths of Jesus was to make sure that we too were taking time to be by ourselves in order to be in prayer, whether it was as simple as going into the closet to pray, as Jesus says, or taking a spiritual retreat, but to spend time alone in prayer, talking and listening to God. This could be seen as personal prayer. But, the reality is we can’t be doing that all of the time, because we have lives to live and things to do, just as Jesus did. Immediately before today’s passage from Mark, Jesus had been on the mountaintop for the transfiguration, and after that happens, Peter, as impetuous as ever, suggests they build dwellings there for everyone to stay in. But Jesus kindly replies that mountaintop experiences are great, and they are part of going to a quiet place to connect with God, but we don’t live on the mountain tops. We live in the valleys, or perhaps we should say here that we live on the mesas, where the ordinary life happens. And prayer here is just as crucial, but it is very different.
And so I have titled this sermon “In real life,” which is not to say that praying in quiet or on retreat is not real, it’s not the fake life, but that it is separate. It is going away to be intentional about what we are doing and focusing specifically on prayer or whatever we are emphasizing in that time. But when we return, we get sucked right back into the everyday demands of life, and what happens to us then? I think that might have been what the disciples were struggling with in this story. Again, pure speculation here, but they were just trying to do what the father was asking, and more importantly acting as if they either had the ability to do it by themselves, or thinking that they had to do it all by themselves. Or perhaps they were even thinking that they could impress Jesus in healing the boy while he was away. But whatever it was they thought they were doing, or were doing, it does appear that they were doing it without prayer. And in trying to do it without prayer, they were also trying to do it without God, and that simply didn’t work.
We just watched the movie about Mr. Rogers starring Tom Hanks on Friday. It was really good, although not what I had been expecting. As many of you know, Fred Rogers was also an ordained Presbyterian minister, and the movie very briefly highlights his prayer life. But one of the stories that is told about Mr. Rogers is that while he would routinely ask people if he could pray with them, and would keep their names on his prayer list long afterwards, that he didn’t pray for himself. Instead, he would ask others to pray for him and he would in turn pray for others. I don’t know if that is necessarily the best thing, as we’ll see Jesus praying for himself, but we could sort of say that our quiet prayers could be the times we pray for ourselves, even if we are praying for others because that connects us with God, but that our real life prayers are the prayers we have for others. They are the ones we lift up to try and overcome daily struggles and daily activities, and this is where our prayers can be so incredibly important and powerful, and it can take several different forms.
The first is simply to be in prayer for others. Pray for others throughout your day in all situations. And these don’t have to be long prayers, or spoken out loud and others don’t even have to know that you are doing it. I know that there is a term for these types of prayers, but I couldn’t remember it, and couldn’t find it, but the best I came up with is a burst prayer, and maybe that is what they are called. But these are short prayers directed at people. Simple things like Lord be with them. Or May your blessings fall on them. Or make your presence known. Or something else that fits the situation that you see going on. Whenever I hear sirens I like to say a quick prayer asking for God to be with those who are responding and those being responded to, and to keep them safe. Just short interjections to God, which not only connects us to the situation, but it’s a reminder to turn those things over to God and ask for God’s help.
Which is the second type of daily prayer, and that’s to pray for the things that seem impossible. There is a saying, that’s been attributed to St. Augustine or perhaps St. Ignatius and even to John Wesley, that says “work as if everything is dependent upon you, but pray as if everything is dependent upon God.” And so, again, it seems that the disciples had not engaged in prayer in their healing process, possibly, or probably, because they thought they could do it themselves. That they had the power by themselves. But it is the power of prayer that can help us overcome our biggest problems, most especially those that we think are impossible. I believe, help my unbelief.
The One Board just finished up laying out our values as a church, which you’ll be hearing more about soon, but one of those is that we are a people of prayer. That we are going to bathe everything we do in prayer; we start in prayer, we end in prayer and we should probably pray a couple of times in the middle. Not necessarily because it means that every problem will be solved, but because we know that when we give it up in prayer that it is a reminder that we are not doing this thing alone. If going to a quiet place is our personal prayer, then our prayers in real life, everyday life, are our corporate prayers. To remind us that we are not doing things by ourselves, but that with Christ all things are possible, even the impossible, and also to let others know that they are not in this alone either. That there are people praying for them, and we are praying for others so that our lives are manifestations of our prayers. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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