In December, the Rev. Howard-John Wesley, senior pastor of the historic Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, a historically black church which worships 4500 in every week, announced to his congregation that he was stepping away from his ministry for a season because he feels far from God, tired in his soul and needed to recuperate mentally and physically. He will return to his church and the pulpit on Easter Sunday, but is taking the time in between to try and rest and recuperate and reconnect with God. He said that early in his ministry he was asked by an older woman in the congregation why he worked seven days a week, something endemic to clergy, and he replied “The devil doesn’t take a day off.” To which she said, ‘Why is the devil your role model?’ Jesus models that we need to rest.” But, he didn’t listen to her advice, and he said that now he is tired in his soul “and a nap aint gonna’ fix it.”
Today we begin a new worship series entitled Traveling the Prayer Paths of Jesus, based on a book of the same name by John Indermark, in which we will look at the way that Jesus prayed in order to learn about ways, or things we should be doing in our own prayer lives. Now I guess I should start by saying that if we want to look at the nature of prayer, or what we should say, that when Jesus is asked about prayer, he gives us what we know of as the Lord’s Prayer, but that’s a different message for a different time. Because while what we say can be important, much of what we see about Jesus’ prayer life is where he is praying and why. And even the Lord’s Prayer itself comes from a specific place, as Jesus has gone off to pray and then when he is done, the disciples ask him to teach them about praying. It is that reality that we want to focus on today, because Jesus often goes off to be by himself, or sometimes with a small group of others, in order to pray.
