Ep.076: Only the Best Wine.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”. 

Today, we look at the second chapter in the Gospel of John.  Jesus and his disciples went to a wedding in Cana. Soon the wedding ran out of wine. I hope that doesn’t happen you attend weddings.

Jesus’ mother, thinking he might want to help, said to him, “They have no wine.” Jesus replied, “Not my problem.” But Mary persisted in hoping Jesus would get involved, so she said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 

After a while, Jesus decided it was his problem after all, so he said to the servants, “Fill those jugs with water.” Then he said, “Take some to the headwaiter.” The headwaiter tasted it and said to the bridegroom, “This isn’t average wine. This is the good stuff. Why didn’t you serve this first?” 

Let’s pray this story from the viewpoint of several actors. 

Lord, in this story you are a full participant in human culture, a welcome guest at a wedding. Help us  follow your example. Help us not to isolate ourselves in churchland with people who look like us and think like us and believe like us. Help us to participate fully and freely in our neighbourhood, our workplace, our community. Lord, how narrow we have grown, seeing the same people every week, having the same conversations about religion and politics and world events, hearing the same sermon at church. Jesus, help us to engage a wider circle, those from different economic classes, social strata, and countries. Teach us to care for outsiders — immigrants, widows, orphans, prisoners, and gays.

Lord, your mother was accustomed to domestic life with you in your Nazareth home. But in this story she learned a new way of relating to you. You brushed off her and the problem and she had to wait in uncertainty about what you might do. Like Mary, we have grown accustomed to our domestic life with you. You are the carpenter in our family, and we organize the household. But our intuition says you are not as domesticated as we think. Our churches don’t demonstrate your power to build community and make good wine. Jesus, teach us like Mary to see the problem, bring it to you, receive your response, and wait for your action. Help us not to strategize our solutions for the wine we know is missing–help us look to you, to find in you a miracle that supplies only the best wine–no matter when it comes our way. 

Lord, in this story the disciples saw your first sign and believed in you. O Jesus, this exposes the problem of believing. It was not a rational problem: where the disciples needed the right system of doctrine, it was not a philosophical problem: where they needed to discover and adopt the right world view. It was a spiritual problem to see you at work, to look beyond the wine to the winemaker. Help us to see the work you do. 

Jesus, who understood what happened? Did the servants understand when they drew water from the jugs? Did the headwaiter investigate the source of good wine? Did the bride and bridegroom understand the transformation? We are your disciples, we have caught a glimpse of water turned to wine, of the carpenter become winemaker. Jesus, help us drink your good wine, show us the source, teach us to believe in you. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

Ep.075: Psalm 29: Thunderstorm.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 29 is a thunderstorm bookended in gifts.  It starts with our gift to God, saying,
“Give to the Lord the glory due his name
  Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”  (v. 1). 

And it concludes: 
“The Lord gives strength to his people;
        The Lord blesses his people with peace” (v.11). 

Between our gift of praise to God, and God’s gift of peace to us, the psalm describes God’s power in a storm. It is much like that passage in Job where God speaks in a thunderstorm. Elihu said, 

“Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds,
        how he thunders from his pavilion?
    See how he scatters his lightning about him,
        Bathing the depths of the sea” (Job 36:29-30). 

One summer our family vacationed on the eastern edge of the Rockies. We stayed at a campsite in our thin nylon dome tent with matching blue nylon rain sheet. The made-in-China tent was supposed to sleep six, but the four of us filled it up. The gravel pad under the tent bent regular tent pegs, so we substituted 12-inch nails driven in with an axe. The tent floor had a small hole created by campfire embers from some forgotten expedition, but fortunately I had patched it with duct tape. 

One night after our evening walk to the running water and flush toilets at the “Trading Post”, the late summer twilight darkened quickly as black clouds hurried over the mountains. Large raindrops splattered on the dusty path so we crawled into our sleeping bags, zipped the nylon door, and waited. Heavy rain lashed our thin shelter and bursts of lightning flashed blue light through the walls. After each burst of light, a dark pause, then a rumble and an awesome crack of thunder. Water streamed down the flysheet and flowed in shallow rivers away from the tent. The duct tape on the floor held fast.

That’s probably the least protected I’ve ever been in a thunderstorm. It was beautiful and it was awesome, but in a  fearful and dangerous way. Like the voice of God.

Let’s pray the familiar verses of Psalm 29. 

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
    the God of glory thunders,
    the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
    the voice of the Lord is majestic.
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
    the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon leap like a calf,
    Sirion like a young wild ox.
The voice of the Lord strikes
    with flashes of lightning.
The voice of the Lord shakes the desert;
    the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord twists the oaks
    and strips the forests bare.
And in his temple all cry, ‘Glory!’ (vv. 3-9).

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.        

Ep.074: The Second Beginning.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”. 

Today, we look at the Gospel of John.

The Book of John starts at the same place as the Book of Genesis: back in the beginning. Genesis says, “In the  beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” John says, “In the beginning was the word. . . Through him all things were created.”

 In Genesis when God started speaking, his first words were: “Let there be light.”  In John when God sent his word into the world, it says, “In him was life and that life was the light of every human.”  Twice, God sent his light into the darkness..

And when God sends light into darkness, things happen!  At creation, the darkness of chaos surrendered to the light of God. In John’s Gospel we expect a similar result. When God sent Jesus as light of the world, human darkness should be swept away and human chaos should surrender to the light and life of God. 

But that did not happen. John says, “Christ the true light came into the world, but the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him.” God sent Jesus to light up the world, but the world just shrugged and continued in darkness. 

What went wrong? Did God’s word lose its power somewhere between Creation and Christ? When God sent Christ, was he too weak to turn on the light in a way that would get noticed? The new beginning in John’s gospel suddenly feels like a bad Hollywood sequel. The original movie was great. but the best thing about sequel was munching on popcorn. 

John explores this problem in his gospel. He tells stories about people who met Jesus, but they thought the new light was just a bad reflection, or they thought Jesus was just darkness in disguise. But John also tells stories about people who saw and responded to the new light.  

Let’s pray.

Our father, we rejoice in the light of each new day. It reminds of that first day when you said,  “Let there be light.” But we wonder why the light of Christ does not transform our lives. Why are there so many dark corners the light doesn’t find? Why do our character flaws and habits not change in all our years of being Christians? As John said, The light has come into our darkness, but the darkness does not understand it. “Christ came to his own and they did not receive him. But to those who did receive him, he gave the right to become children of God” (Jn 1:12). Yes Jesus, we receive you again. We receive your light. Light up our lives with your presence, expose our darkness and drive it away. May today be our day of new creation and new light.

Amen. 

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”. 

Ep.073: Psalm 28: Desperation and Deliverance.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Psalm 28 is a simple, classic psalm. It has nine verses. The first five are a cry for help. The last four give thanks for God’s help and deliverance. As usual in psalms of this type, the poet gives no clue about the event or experience that turned his desperate cry for help into grateful confidence.

Let’s pray some phrases from this psalm. 

To you, Lord, I call;
  you are my rock,
  do not turn a deaf ear to me.
For if you remain silent,
  I will be like those who go down to the pit (v. 1).

Lord, we have been in the pit and we do not want to go there again. A pit of depression, where our world is formless and dark. A pit of hopelessness, where life has no meaning. A pit of lethargy, where our efforts are futile. A pit of pain, where live in broken relationships. 

O Lord, when you are silent, we feel our feet slipping at the edge of the pit, we feel our heart hardening into fear, we feel our mind flirting with insanity. O Lord, be our rock, hear and answer us before we fall into darkness and chaos. 

As the poet says,
    Do not drag me away with the wicked,
   with those who do evil, 
who speak friendly words,
  that hide a heart of malice.
Repay them for what they have done,
  Give them what they deserve
Tear them down
    and never build them up again (vv. 3-4).

Lord, in the United States, the police handcuff perpetrators and march them past TV cameras on the way to court. O Lord, don’t make us do the perp-walk, don’t drag us away with the wicked, don’t send us in handcuffs to be judged. 

The wicked hide malicious hearts behind friendly words and smiles. Help us to see through their facade, help us identify the self-promoting televangelists, the dishonest telemarketers, the preachers greedy for their own glory. Help us resist those who try to control us with manipulation, fear, deceit. They have no regard for your work . Lord, we regard your work. You have taught us to wash our hands and cleanse our hearts and come to you in prayer and praise. Help us resist those who entice us back to our eating disorders and shopping obsessions and feelings of entitlement, greed and anger.

As the poet prayed,
    Praise be to the Lord, 
  for he has heard my cry for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and my shield,
  my heart trusts in him and he helps me.
My heart leaps for joy
  and I praise him in song (vv. 6-7).

O Lord, you have come to us as light dispersing our darkness. You have come as strength, enabling us to resist our fatal attractions. You have come as a shield, protecting from the evils that tempt us. You come as a rock of salvation, and our slipping feet at last stand firm. 

We sing to you songs of praise. You fill our hearts with joy and hope. We lift our hands, we shout your name, we trample the forces of evil. 

As the psalm says,
    The Lord is the strength of his people,
        a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.
    Save your people and bless their inheritance,
      Be their shepherd and carry them forever (vv. 8-9). 

Yes, Lord, be our strength. Rescue us, bless our inheritance, carry us in your heart, and be our shepherd forever.

Amen.

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.        

Ep.072: Old Testament Review

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”. 

Today we finish our survey of Old Testament prayers by remembering some of the stories we have looked at in the last six months. Perhaps at some future date, when we are older and wiser, we will look again at these stories with new eyes and new hearts. 

Meanwhile, in the first story we looked at Abraham’s wife got into, and then out of, King Abimelech’s harem, and Abraham prayed for the king. 

Later, when God was thinking about destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham negotiated God’s nuclear threshold down to 10 righteous people. But it wasn’t enough. God destroyed the cities.

When God was thinking about destroying the Israelites in the desert, after they worshipped a golden calf, Moses prayed that God would not destroy them. God had mercy on them.

When God was thinking about destroying Ninevah, Jonah didn’t negotiate for the city or pray for mercy — he ran away because he wanted God to use the nuclear option. But after Jonah took a somewhat fishy route to Ninevah and preached repentance, God had mercy on the city. Jonah responded with prayers of annoyance and disappointment. 

Abraham’s servant prayed that God would help him find the right wife for Isaac. God answered his prayer by sending Rebekah to draw water for the servant and the camels. 

When Jacob was afraid that Esau, whom he had cheated, was going to kill him, he wrestled all night with an angel. God gave Jacob a bad hip and a new name. 

When God was sending plagues on Egypt, Pharaoh asked Moses several times to pray that God would remove the plagues. The individual plagues went, but the pattern continued until the Israelite slaves began their trek to freedom. 

Moses got so annoyed leading the people through the desert that he prayed to God, “If this is how you treat me, do me a favor and kill me right now.” Jonah prayed a similar prayer, “I’m so angry I wish I were dead.” 

When Samson was a prisoner of the Philistines, he prayed for revenge, and God helped him collapse the Philistine temple, killing many Philistines and himself. 

Solomon prayed to dedicate God’s temple in Jerusalem. 

Elijah prayed to stop and start the rain. 

Job prayed chapters of strident demands that God explain the injustice of life. But his prayer moved to a place of quiet acceptance that God was God and did not answer to Job. 

Isaiah told the people that because of their sin, God was not listening to their prayers . 

Jeremiah prayed out his hurt and sadness that God was planning the destruction of Israel. 

Habakkuk prayed out his shock and disbelief that God would use unjust Babylon to punish unjust Israel. He also prayed his trust in God for the coming destruction. 

Daniel prayed out his pain and confusion that the end of the Babylonian exile would not be the end of trouble for God’s people. His prophetic dreams showed evil times and persecutions going far into the future. 

These Old Testament stories, and many others,  illustrate the depth and breadth and difficulty of prayer. 

Let’s pray. 

Our Father, we began this journey of prayer hoping for simple answers and straightforward solutions. We wanted our prayers to call down your power to solve our problems. But we have discovered that prayer doesn’t give us unrestricted access to your power. It only gives us access to you. Perhaps that is enough for us.

Amen. 

I’m Daniel on the channel “Pray with Me”.