Jesus the Rabbi called his apprentices to follow him, to be with him, and to live in close proximity with him day in and day out. As they did, they began to observe his practices of prayer, going away to be with the Father and then coming back to engage in the crowds and teaching and healing. They saw a connection between his prayer life and his daily life – and it was attractive. So even though these Jewish men would have known off by heart many of the Jewish prayers they were taught as boys growing up, they still made this odd request of Jesus. Teach us to pray. They already knew how to pray, so what were they asking? Maybe it was something more like – “teach us to pray in the way we see you praying”, because it is different to what we know or grew up being taught. I’m kind of with the disciples more and more – God teach me to pray, because I am not sure I have fully experienced all you meant prayer to be. Do you know “how to pray”? Do you feel you would like to learn from Jesus more about prayer, the kind of prayer he engaged with the Father?
Tyler Staton in his book “Praying like monks, living like fools” (Hodder and Stoughton 2022) says that prayer is first and foremost about “presence” than it is about anything else. Prayer, like with Jesus, is a free and deliberate choice to spend time with the Father – to prefer his company. The foundation of prayer does not start with outcomes or lists, because if it does we will end up disappointed with God. Prayer must start with presence. Our challenge is that we are born into, swim in, and are bombarded with messages that tell us life is about the “market place”; about transactions, about getting stuff or getting “experiences”. The economy and social status and how much we have or don’t have is what drives so much of our society. For me now, every phone call from someone I don’t know, every business I engage with, even interactions I have with other Christian leaders feels like some kind of transaction – they or I want something. There are very few spaces or relationships that are just about presence. No wonder my and our prayer life can feel like a market place; a transactional deal making extension of the economy. Just like if I work hard my life will improve, if I pray right or be a good Christian then God will “bless me”. But how often am I present to the Father, simply to just be with him?
The time Jesus got most upset and angry was when he cleared the temple and flipped tables and walked around with a whip in his hand driving the merchants out. They, like many of us, had turned his Fathers house of “prayer” into a transactional market place – an economy, far from presence with the Father. Jesus angry cry was “stop turning my Fathers house into a market!” Stop turning prayer into a transaction. The Father wants us just to come regularly and be with him, just like a dad wants his little child to hang on the couch with him for a bit each day. Our prayers need to start there, just enjoying God, sitting in his love. And when after some time we do want to ask him about some things, knowing he isn’t grading our prayers like some essay or deciding how to answer them based on how good they are or if we deserve them. Learning to just be with the Father takes time, and for some of us we carry deep wounds about prayer and deep disappointments from past experiences. But relational healing does not happen with silence and distance – so come to the Father. Prayer is more about being than receiving, more about thanking than asking, more about love than transaction. So as an apprentice to Jesus, may we like the first disciples ask – teach me to pray.
Grace and Peace - Garry