Standing in the Need of Prayer....

When I was a kid, I loved to watch people play the piano, so I begged to take piano lessons. My grandma brought a piano. From then on I spent Saturday mornings going to piano lessons. I took lessons for six years. But, sadly playing the piano, just is not my gift. I can read the music, I can play the treble line, I can play the treble cleft line, I just can't play the whole thing at the same time. And if I have to move my hands, well, it just gets ugly quick! My gift is to be the listener. I can listen for hours.....

Even tho I will never, never, never play a piano in public....I do play in the privacy of my own world. I just sit down and play the song or two that I do know.....one of these is "Standing in the Need of Prayer". It is an old 'spiritual'. The version that I played is a simple strait forward  tune with strong words that spoke to me as a teen ager but speaks to me even more as a middle aged grandmother.

One of the great gifts that was freely given happened in Biloxi, Mississippi. We were there helping out after Hurricane Katrina. My job was to be the 'receptionist' in the free clinic at Bethel Lutheran Church that was providing medical care staffed by volunteer physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and counselors. I, of course was beating myself up because I could not provide counseling or medical treatment, or fix their houses, or take their hurt away....

So I served where I could, I was the receptionist. I was to pull files, refile the files that were done, greet the people, get them where they needed to be. As I became more comfortable in the role, I found my place and became more comfortable. I took it upon myself, to be a listener. It took no prompting, just is sitting down next to them and saying hello. I stood on holy ground as they talked about loosing family members, friends, and neighbors. No one talked about earthly passions, one woman just missed her neighborhood and knowing her neighbors. After the first day, I thought I had gotten into trouble, when the doctor asked who was staffing the waiting room....Whatever was happening he wanted it to continue because people were coming in to see him in happy moods.

One afternoon, I lost one of the people sitting in the waiting room....I went to find her. I found her playing the baby grand piano in the sanctuary of the church. There was no printed music. Just her, God, and the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard....the song? "Standing in the Need of Prayer"

Standing in the need of prayer.....how often to we find ourselves in that spot?!? Well, I am finding myself in that very spot, yet again.....I am feeling great but the cancer has come back. The details of what that means are unclear. We don't know how many treatments, or how my body will react, or if it will work. I was accepted into a research study/drug trial. I am in the section where I will take the new treatment and it is in a pill form with less side effects.

While this is not the news that I had hoped for, it is on the positive side of bad news.

We continue to live in hope. There is good news in all of this.....the doctors think that it is a slow moving cancer. It is in one place, it has not spread. They have been keeping an eye on all of this for a year an a half.....it responded to the chemo therapy the last time, so hoping that it works again. The treatments will begin the first week of November. That is the good news....

We all stand in the need of prayer....not just for when the news is difficult.  But also to celebrate life or to just talk with our creator.

Standing in the Need of Prayer, today and always!

Best Christmas Present Ever!

I Corinthians  3:1-9/10-23

One of the best Christmas presents I ever received was the year when I was 8. The gift was for my brother, sister, and I….. all three of us would have to share it. It was a record player and three records…..my record was the Disney recording of the Three little pigs narrated by Sterling Holloway….anyway the story went like this.

Once upon a time, there were three little pigs who left their mother to build homes of their own. The first little pig built his house of straw. The second little pig built his house of sticks. The third little pig built his house of brick. And the pigs would sing; “Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf. Tra, la, la, la la…..

Soon the Big Bad Wolf came to visit the three little pigs. When the little pig in the straw house would not let him in, the Big Bad Wolf huffed and he puffed until he blew that house in. When the little pig in the house of sticks would not let the wolf in, the Big Bad Wolf huffed and he puffed,,,,and then he huffed and he puffed until he blew the house in. When the Big Bad Wolf came to the pig in the house of brick, he huffed and he puffed, but he could not blow that house in. For his house was made of brick.

Old stories like this one endure from generation to generation because there is a kernel of truth in them that every generation can learn from. In our second reading from I Corinthians it says, “We are God's fellow workers, we are God's building."

Everybody has a house to build. Our houses hold our lives. Every moral is a beam; every window is a dream; every door is an opportunity; and every roof is protection from the storm. We all have a house that we have buil.

THE FOUNDATION IS CRITICAL

God, the master architect has given us the gift of Baptism as a foundation. Through baptism frail and weak humans are transformed with love, faith, hope, and grace. We use this as the foundation for our house of faith. As we live and grow, the foundation will built upon. We ought to choose with care how to build on it. Sometimes we do….sometimes we don’t. We are not perfect…

Jesus is a blueprint for life. the death of Jesus proved the redemptive possibilities of death. The resurrection of Jesus is the assurance that life wins. 

BUILDING MATERIALS MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The first little pig built his house of straw. It was cheap, quick, easy and it did not take much effort. It worked on the bright. sunny, perfect days….it worked for awhile.

Perhaps the first little pig substituted luck for grace. maybe he  had never heard, or maybe he learned about it in Sunday School and forgot. Possibly he no longer believed in the grace of God. So consequently he gravitated to luck and took a chance that he would never need the strong house of hope.

The second little pig built his house of sticks. Sticks are not a bad building material. A stick house could offer security. It would keep the pig dry when it rained. It could stand up to some wind. But the dry sticks can burn easily. The second pig saved so much time, talent and energy….that he could easily collect all kinds of stuff. The second pig had all the latest gadgets and gismos.

Comedian George Carlin once said, “The essence of life is trying to find a place to put all your stuff," the cars, the boats, the houses, the land, the stocks, and the bonds. Life is more than stuff, even good stuff.

The third little pig built his house of brick and precious stones, he used some other strong materials like iron, granite, and gold. The little pig insured that he had taken his time to find land that was solid. He had made an investment in the foundation and building materials. He had found a treasure to use as building materials.

When we build faith we do so with the treasures of practices and disciplines. Faith practices of prayer, worship, inviting others into the community, encouragement, giving, service, study, and forgiveness.

Even when there is a strong foundation, awesome faith practices, and strong building materials, we can not prevent the wolf from coming….

Paul's writes in I Corinthians 13 “There are three things that abide. They are faith, hope, and love." Perhaps these things are the plaster and the nails that hold everything together……(pause)

These are three things that we live into and need to be attended to with and by the grace of God…faith. Hope. And love.

You all know that Last year I was diagnosed with cancer, worst day of my life…... a week later I went to the initial consultation with the oncologists. I have to admit I was afraid. I was confused, I tried rationalizing and minimizing the whole thing…… the word cancer had rocked my world and shook my faith and not in a good way.

Swirling around my head were a lot of questions such as, why me? How do I deserve this?

The doctors reveled the results of the tests, asked if I had any questions, and then came the words that silenced the room and sent me to the place of defeat…..The words were: “you have a 50/50 chance. I immediately thought about the question from philosophy class….is the glass have full or half empty?

I searched through the words to find the good news, it was going to be hard to find hope among all of the uncertainties. The room continued to be silent as all of us grappled with the reality of the glass could be half empty.

Until Dr. Benvarnsen (incorrect spelling) from Iceland spoke up and said the words that I needed to hear, the words that you need to hear when confronted by “the wolves of life”….he said:

”People who tend to do well in these situations are people who have three things.

1. They have a positive outlook about people and life.

2. They have a strong support system and relationships with people who love them.

3. And three, they are people who live a life of faith."

Building a strong foundation and using strong building materials is not going to prevent the Wolf from coming….Living a life of faith using faith practices is not going to keep the bad stuff from happening.

What faith does/ is allow us to reveal our part in God’s story. It allows us to find hope, to find love. It allows us to be in a relationship of a caring community of believers. 

And let us not forget, that it helps us to remember that things did not end well for the wolf….In the end, no matter what happens, if it turns out well for us, or not. In the end, God Wins!

And that allows us to live in the sure confidence of a kingdom that is here, but is yet to come.