Pastor says, “Everything is okay to pray.” Not only that, but Pastor says it is the Holy Spirit that leads us to prayer. There are threads coming together here. First, we just came off Pentecost Sunday, the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Next, this concludes our look to the book of the Acts of the Apostles, which has been our focus in May. Our focus is through the lens of the Holy Spirit’s integration into the early church. Thirdly, the implication is that the integration of the Holy Spirit into the early church was not a “one-off”, but ongoing, that the Holy Spirit’s work has, is, and will work in the church till Jesus comes back. The final thread is understanding what the Holy Spirit is for us in our God.
The Holy Spirit is Jesus with us. So Jesus promised in John 14, the Holy Spirit is our Advocate, our Counselor. At His ascension, Jesus commanded the disciples to go hang in Jerusalem to await something Wonderful (Spoiler: the Holy Spirit).
SIDEBAR-You know how at Christmas, we have the list of titles for Jesus from Isaiah, “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Couple of those cross over between Jesus and God the Father. "Wonderful Counselor" crosses over between Jesus and God the Holy Spirit.
So, what I am claiming as Pastor is that we can pray ANYTHING to Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit/Jesus. Now, when anyone, including-maybe especially-a Pastor makes a sweeping statement about the faith, there are words from John's first letter to lean into, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out."
How do we ‘test the spirits to see whether they are from God’? What does the Bible say? Like, what does the Bible have to say about prayer? Or, more to the point, how are prayers prayed in the Bible? They are all over the place, but there is one book in which they are concentrated. Concentrated and, from what we best understand, meant to be prayed with music. I speak of the Book of Psalms.
The Book of Psalms is a Kingly book and a kingly book. Upper case “K” stands for God. Lower case “k” stands for king David. He is credited with writing 73 of the 150 psalms gathered in this book of prayer and music.
So our preaching in June will be from the book of Psalms. The working ‘title’ for the month is “Feelings of Summer”. This will be our lens for the book of Psalms. When wondering what is okay to pray, what emotions are okay? To answer that, we will ask from what emotional points of view are these psalms, these prayers, being expressed? To further focus, we will use "the" Psalm writer, on King David.
Anger, vengeance, joy, grief, despair, these are just some the feelings from which David wrote. For the Sunday’s in June, we will draw out Psalms that are express these feelings. What did David pray? How do his prayers speak to us? How do they illumine how to speak to God?
This will only begin to address the implications of Pastor's universal comment about prayer. The focus is on one man's intimate relationship with the Almighty. We will look to his voice as an example of what is okay to pray.
Peace, Pastor Peter
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