"Hey Jude, Part 2: Praying In The Spirit"
The Holy Spirit gives us the words, the strength and the grace to do what we could not do on our own.
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, May 25, 2003
Text: Jude 17-25
I'm not one who enjoys delivering bad news. On the whole I like to give good news, for that is the heart of a minister's ministry. But there are times when we all, especially the clergy, must deliver bad or sad news. Some years ago I received a telephone call from a nursing home on the shores of Nova Scotia. They asked me if I would be willing to deliver some bad news to one of their residents. Realizing that this was a gentleman that I'd seen on a number of occasions, I agreed.
I walked into his room where he was sitting forlorn in the corner. I looked into his eyes and realized that they had turned gray and were not their usual bright blue. His skin had lost all colour and was sallow. His countenance was low. Realizing, then, that what I was going to tell him would in no way improve his condition, inside my heart and soul I said a prayer: “Lord, I have no strength to deliver this news. Help me.”
The news was that the nursing home regretted to inform him that he had run out of money and as a result the place where he had lived for 12 years would no longer be his home. All the relationships and friendships that he had developed over the years were now going to mean nothing. Within three days he would be placed in a taxi with all his earthly belongings and taken to another, unfamiliar, cold and unpleasant room, to spend the rest of his days. Now you see the reason for my prayer.
I delivered the news. He received it as a gentleman would - with graciousness. And I left the room.
Sometimes it is very hard to deliver bad news. Sometimes it is hard to find words to express how you feel about things. Sometimes it is hard to dig down to the depths of your vocabulary and find wisdom.
This past Monday night I tossed and turned in a similar way, thinking about Holly Jones' funeral. I wasn't thinking so much of her family and friends, but rather of the priest who was going to have to get up and speak. I thought about the priest all night long as I tossed and turned. I kept thinking: “What would I say tomorrow morning at Holly's service?” And then I prayed as I had done with that old man on the shores of Nova Scotia, but this time I prayed for the priest - that he would have the words to say in delivering difficult news.
My friends, in our passage this morning from Jude there is a clue, an insight, from this great writer as to precisely what we should do when we have to deliver difficult news or face sad times. For Jude, the problem as I mentioned last week was a terrible one: The early church was threatened. There were people who were being seditious, who, as he refers to them, were scoffers - people who doubted God but wanted to use the new-found church for their own purposes - no matter who they hurt and regardless of the message of the gospel.
In so doing, they were leading people astray by their words and actions. Jude was not sure how the faithful were to stand up to those who were mocking God and leading others astray. In a glorious statement of what it means to be Christian, he says to the faithful Christians: “Build yourself up and pray in the Spirit.” Or, another translation says: “Pray as the Spirit gives you utterance.”
In other words, when you don't have the words to say yourself, turn to the power and the grace of the Holy Spirit. It is the power of the Holy Spirit who initiates your prayers and works in and through you to express to God the depth of what it is you wish to say.
Now, I know when people hear about praying in the Spirit some get a little chilly and think of ecstatic utterances. They think of prayer that is not only ecstatic but gets carried away in its fervency. That happens from time to time. But Jude is not talking about ecstasy as much as he is talking about submission. The real prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit is submitting yourself to God's will and purpose.
I love the line from the great Clement of Alexandria, who said that “Prayer is keeping company with God.” In our meeting with God in the power of the Spirit, we are able to know what God's will and God's purpose is. God allows us to see and gives us the insight to be able to speak. That is why the prophets, throughout the whole of the Old Testament, had the power of the Spirit come upon them and were able to say, “Thus sayeth the Lord.” They spoke only by the power of the Spirit that was given them.
The power to speak wisdom, then, is not something that is a constituent of human nature, it is a gift from God in the form of the Holy Spirit.
So, really then, all prayer - all meaningful communion with God - must be spiritual. It must be in and through the power of the Holy Spirit. What difference does spiritual prayer make in the life of a believer? What difference - what transformation takes place - by this very gift that God gives us? The first thing it does is allow us to have insight into ourselves.
One of the great things about the power of the Holy Spirit: It really does illuminate within our own hearts and minds our own apprehension of the truth - what our own biases and motivations really are. The power of the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin. It regenerates us from within. It reminds us of what we should really be like. When we don't have words to say it is the Spirit who touches the depths of our being and enables us to speak.
A little girl was in her room praying one night. Her grandfather passed by the room and saw her beside the bed with her hands clasped together, repeating the alphabet. He went into her room and asked: “My dear, my dear, what are you doing? Why are you praying the alphabet?”
She said: “Well, it's like this, Granddad: If I give God all the letters, then He can put them into words and say what I'm not able to say myself.”
That is the power of real prayer. It is not us simply trying to explore the depths of our own being, or to get in touch with our inner selves, it is our openness to the very power of God who gives us utterance in the first place. Prayer and Christian living is from the inside out. Because it's from the inside out, there is no way that we can ever fool God as to what we're really like, if the power of the Spirit is in our lives.
One of the most beautiful prayers that I have ever read was written by a young Confederate soldier. It was given to me many years ago as a reminder of what Christian life is like and what praying - true praying - in the power of the Spirit really leads to. I would like you to close your eyes, bow your heads, and listen to this beautiful prayer:
I asked for strength that I might achieve.
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do great things.
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy,
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of spirituality.
I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing I asked for - but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among people, most richly blessed. Amen.
What a prayer. That is spiritual prayer. That is prayer that goes right to the very heart and core of our being. It is the prayer that on our own we do not utter. It is the prayer that God utters through us. That's what Jude wanted.
But Jude also knew that it was exactly the power of spiritual prayer that keeps our faith alive - that gives our faith vitality, power and dynamism.
I once heard someone who had written many years ago on this very text say that the difference between prayer in the Spirit and ordinary prayer is like this: Ordinary prayer is like putting prayer in a bottle and throwing it into the sea, not knowing if anyone will hear it, not knowing where it will go or if it will be returned. Prayer in the Spirit is like giving it to the Imperial Navy who will deliver it to the monarch and report back that it has arrived. That is the difference between a sort of dead faith, a faith that is perfunctory, a faith that has lost its passion, and a faith that is certain that at the other end there is One who knows and hears and inspires.
This is necessary because very often, even for the most orthodox, even for those who stay the closest that they can to doctrine and truth, the fact is without the power of the Holy Spirit we so often misread the signs of what God is doing and of God's presence.
This was brought home to me in a story (that I'm sure has no bearing in truth whatsoever) about a man who goes to a racetrack to make money by placing bets. When he get there he sees a priest with a stole around his shoulders. The priest approaches one of the horses and blesses it. The man wonders how this horse is going to do. To everyone's amazement this horse - at 12-1 - wins the race.
The man starts thinking: “Maybe there is something to these Christians after all.” He looks in the paddock again. The horses are walking around and the priest is there again, blessing another horse - this one with 30-1 odds. The man is amazed but not quite ready yet to trust Christians, until he watches the race and the horse wins! This man is absolutely and utterly amazed. He goes back to the paddock for a third time and sees the priest approaching another horse. This time he blesses the front of the horse and then goes around and blesses the back of him. He reaches into his pocket, retrieves something and wipes it across the horse's head.
The man thinks: “This must be a real dandy horse, it has 40-1 odds.” So he bets his life savings on this horse, only to have it drop dead on the first bend. The man is mortified! He goes to the priest and says: “For heaven's sake, Father, the first time you blessed a horse, it won. The second time you blessed a horse, it won. But the third time, it died. What happened?”
The priest said: “I was giving it the last rites.”
We can so often misread the signs that are all around us. We can misread the signs of what is true. We can even misread the signs of our religion. The power of the Holy Spirit helps us read the signs. The power of the Holy Spirit illuminates the truth of the Gospel. What we are called to do is build ourselves up in the power of that Spirit, and pray in the Spirit daily.
There is one last thing: The power of the Spirit also enables us to do extraordinary things. What made the faithful, during the time of Jude, different from the scoffers was the way they lived: on the basis of what they believed. What was different about those early Christians was not only their fidelity to the Gospel, but also the way they lived their lives, one with another. All of this was a result of the power of the Holy Spirit.
This was brought home to me in something that I read very recently. I had the privilege of being given a recently published book by its author, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela. She was a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. In this book, which is going to be released in South Africa tomorrow morning, there is an incredible account about a man called Eugene De Kock. In South Africa he was nicknamed “Prime Evil.” He headed up the assassination of political opponents to the apartheid regime. It was his job and responsibility to have murdered and assassinated thousands of people. When he came forward to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission there was the most awful fear. Everyone was scared to look into the eyes of Eugene De Kock, “Prime Evil.”
This book by Madikizela is an accounting of how the victims and the families of the victims of this man came face to face with him. She tells a touching story of a woman named Pearl Faku, the wife of a black police officer in the town of Motherwell, outside of Port Elizabeth. A number of black activists had been assassinated by some white police officers. But four black police officers had witnessed this crime and were ready and willing to tell the authorities what they had seen. But Officer Faku and the three others got into a car one day, and were never again seen alive. For Eugene De Kock, “Prime Evil,” had planted a remote control bomb and sent these officers on a rogue mission. When they arrived there the bomb was detonated and the police officers killed.
Years later at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Pearl Faku asked to see Eugene De Kock Along with two of the wives of the officers whose lives had been taken, she wanted to see “Prime Evil” eye to eye. When she sat across a table from him she had these words to say: [paraphrase]
“Today, Mr. De Kock I cry tears, but I do not cry tears for my husband, I cry tears for you. My tears are cried in the hope and the prayer that as of this day I forgive you and that together we may build a new nation on the foundation of that forgiveness.”
Pumla Gobolo-Madikizela said that never in the history of humanity has there been a greater example of the power of forgiveness than that. Asked why she did this, she said: “Forgiveness is a divine thing and only the Spirit gives me the power to do it.”
My friends, praying in the power of the Spirit changes everything, because by changing us, it changes those whom we meet. You are probably all wondering what happened to that old man when I left his room. I went to a local Baptist church where he was a member and under their pastoral care, and told them about his predicament. One of their Deacons decided to hold a prayer meeting and seek guidance about what they could do for this old man with the gray eyes and sallow skin.
After the prayer meeting they resolved to pay his bill for the next 12 months. He stayed in that room that he loved so much until he died, three months later. The power of the Spirit to transform and change - this is what Jude wanted Christians to know, what he wanted the world to know, because that is the spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.