A lesson in prayer from The Godfather

The movie, The Godfather, opens with a funeral director making a plea for help to the Godfather, Don Corleone.  It seems this man's daughter has been raped and at the wedding of Don Corleone's daughter this man is appealing to the Don for "justice" for his daughter.  Clearly he wants the man or men who did this to be killed and the Don rightly points out that this man is asking for more than justice, his daughter is still alive.  Odd to be getting ethical lessons from a mafia boss but he is right, the man seeks not justice but vengeance.

What got my attention when I watched a portion of the movie for probably the tenth time, was the Don's response to the request: " We've known each other many years, but this is the first time you came to me for counsel,for help. I can't remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only child. But let's be frank here: you never wanted my friendship. And uh, you were afraid to be in my debt."

How often God could say that to me.  For many years I considered myself a Christian because I believed that Jesus had died for my sins but my prayer life looked like this, when I had some trouble in my life I went to the God-Father and asked Him to deal with the trouble for me.  He wanted relationship and I wanted protection and one who would come against my enemies, those who had wronged me.  I still don't invite Him for coffee as often as I should and I don't think of Him as friend often enough.

He has already something greater us than we could have imagined, forgiving our sins, making us not only friends but His children.  We can know that truth, however, and still not be His friends and children because we are afraid to be in His debt.  We take for granted that He can do things for us so we keep Him close enough to ensure availability but no closer.  That attitude is described in the letter to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3, it is being lukewarm and God doesn't like lukewarm or tepid.  We are made for real relationship with Him, friendship.  Why do we settle for acquaintanceship? 


 

Transformation

What I am slowly realizing is that my thinking needs to change at a very basic level.  In that last post about re-racking weights I began with the idea of creating or transforming a culture and ended with the realization that what most needed to be transformed was me.  My attitude towards people was in dire need of change, it was far worse than the behavioral modification I wanted to impose on those who didn't re-rack their weights.

Jesus had a lot to say to the Pharisees about their attitudes towards people.  He called them white-washed sepulchres, fine looking on the outside but filled with dead men's bones.  He said that murder was more than the physical act of killing people, it involves hating them and speaking evil of them. 

It took about three years for Him to get my attention that the real problem was in me not in others.  I don't need a strategy for dealing with the problem of getting people to re-rack their weights, I need a strategy for dealing with the nasty mess that is in me. 

Paul told the Roman church, " Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."  Conforming to the world begins at the level of the mind.  I have to learn to think differently about everything if I am to have the mind of Christ.  


The Beatitudes (Matthew 5.1-12) set up Jesus' statement,  “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet."  The teachings in those first twelve verses tell us what salt is and the virtues He extols there are not worldly virtues at all, they are completely counter-cultural.  They do, however, take reality seriously.  They tell us that we aren't to accept the way things are, we are to mourn that fact, to be as heart broken over that reality as God is and to pursue the way things ought to be.  


It all begins, however, with pursuing the way things ought to be in my own life.  Until I am ready to see the way things are in my life the way God sees them and to mourn over that, I am not ready to pursue change.  Sometimes it takes a long time for me to see the real need for change because I am a Pharisee.

Pet Peeves and the Glory of God

At the gym I go to there are signs everywhere telling people they need to re-rack their weights. All that means is that if you're using equipment that requires free weights, the big round ones, and you have loaded those onto the bar or the machine, you are expected to remove them to their proper places after you're done with them.  No one does it though or if they do they just put them wherever it is most convenient for them.  It drives me crazy.  It used to make me mad but it happens so much that now I just expect it. 


Between sets of my workout, while I am cooling down from the strain I have exerted I re-rack weights where I know no one is working out.  Even the things that are re-racked I re-rack to make sure they're right, all the same weight hanging on the same peg, not some mixed-up groupings.  I re-arrange the dumbbell rack to put things in their proper order. 

For a couple of years I griped about it, to anyone who would listen and to myself, partially in the hopes that there would be like a movement of people who would care and we would change the culture through our mutual disgust for the people who didn't re-rack their weights but it didn't happen. 

I had really strong feelings about people who didn't re-rack their weights.  I wouldn't talk to those people but I would talk about them.  They were lesser people who shouldn't be allowed to work out on equipment that required weights, they should be allowed only to use machines that have stacks of weights where you use the little pins to set the amount you want to lift.  There is no responsibility in using those but there is a responsibility that attaches to using the equipment I use.

The funny thing is, I am a really messy guy.  My wife gave up years ago trying to get me not to be such a mess.  She has worked it out that if I will put things away everywhere else in the house she will allow me to have a really messy desk so we have an arrangement.  So I don't have any OCD, everything needs to be organized kind of thing in my life.  There is no other aspect of my life that is organized or where I feel the need to organize things but at the gym it is an obsession for me. 


Lately I just decided it was just life and I would just re-rack things without thinking about it or talking about it to anyone.  It didn't seem to matter anyway to many people so it wasn't like I was attracting like-minded people to my cause and it was probably true that I was driving people away by talking about it.  Now I just make it part of my workout to do it and I really don't give it any real thought.

Today it occurred to me that I could do it with a purpose, I could do it because I want to be obedient to Jesus' command to love my neighbor like myself. 

My real motivation from the start wasn't because I think everybody ought to play by the rules, I am definitely not that kind of a guy.  Early on when I started working out I saw women struggling to take 45-lb plates of weight off machines they wanted to use because some inconsiderate jerk didn't take the time to remove them and I always volunteered to do it for the women.  I always wondered if they thought I was probably the inconsiderate jerk and just felt guilty because I saw them struggling so I made sure they knew it pissed me off someone had done that.  So my purpose was to help the women and to talk about the inconsiderate jerks with someone who would surely, given their inconvenience, share my indignation.

Today it occurred to me that I had gotten over the anger thing and that I really was just re-racking weights.  I began to wonder if it was possible to re-purpose my effort and decided that I want to do it to love my neighbor, I want it to be right for them, to make their time in the gym more simple and enjoyable, less frustrating.  I know it sounds trite but I think it will change my attitude and I can do it with a smile on my face because it gets me thinking about all those people who are now my neighbor.

Now I have to work on how I feel about my fellow Christians who don't re-rack their weights because they obviously don't love their neighbor as much as I do.  Sin never ends does it.

Character is Everything

Nehemiah is cup-bearer to the king. He was master of the table, in charge of all the beverages in particular that were served the royal party. He had to be a trustworthy person and was sometimes required to be an official taster in order to either prove his loyalty or to be the "canary in the coal mine" to ensure that all was on the up-and-up. He was a person who had to be trusted by the king to have his best interests at heart. In some ways he was like a secret service agent, always setting the king's safety as his highest priority instead of his own. As a foreigner there must have been something special that allowed the king to choose Nehemiah for this important position. His job would bring him into close contact with the king, the royal family, and those who were entertained by the king. He would necessarily be a man who was able to move about in such society.

Nehemiah prayed and then he waited for the right time to bring up the subject of his native land to the king. It is hard to tell if he intended to do so on the day in question in Nehemiah 2 or whether his thoughts were simply preoccupied with his concerns for Jerusalem and his face betrayed him, but the king noticed his sadness. It was not a good thing to be sad in front of the king, he was God's representative on earth and, after all, how could anyone be sad in the presence of the king? Nehemiah, however, was primarily concerned with Jerusalem and his face showed it. He was right to be afraid and his response was quick and right, "Long live the king!" Once his loyalty is established he can be honest for a minute about his concerns.

In the midst of his conversation there are eight important words, "So I prayed to the God of heaven." He wasn't alone in this conversation, God was there also. He was in over his head, he hadn't prepared for this but God threw it into his lap and he dove in head first but he brought God with him. He took the risk of using his position of trust to ask the king for a favor. Because he had served well and loyally, the king hears him out and his first question tells us much about their relationship, "How long will you be gone, and when will you return?"How sweet those words must have been to Nehemiah!

Nehemiah had proven himself to the king to be trustworthy and loyal. He had never been sad in the king's presence and he had never asked anything for himself. The first thing we must do in positions of worldly responsibility is the same, we must prove ourselves to be trustworthy and true. As Christians we should distinguish ourselves with respect to morality, ethics and virtue in the eyes of the world, we are to be above the reproach of the world. We must be the kind of people others know to be different and we must do so out of an ethic of service that reveals a higher call on our lives so that if we ever need to ask, the world knows what kind of people we are, even if they don't particularly care about our agenda, they will invest in us.

The Realism and Honesty of the Leader

Nehemiah's prayer is based in reality and honesty. If we don't begin there we will always find failure. Nehemiah knows that God's judgment on his people and their exile from Jerusalem were a result of sin and he and his family have participated in the sin and apostasy. We can't lay claim to innocence, we can only ask for forgiveness and we always do so based on God's merciful character. Mercy isn't a new concept in the New Testament, it has always been God's self-disclosure. If God were not merciful there would be no mankind at all.

Nehemiah recognizes the character of God's people and the character of God and then presumes to come before Him and ask for mercy based on his own repentance on behalf of the nation. Is that a plausible thing? The leader has to be the one to take this initiative on behalf of the people. Nehemiah literally knows nothing of the intentions of those who have returned. He doesn't know whether they simply want to rebuild the city or if they have come back with penitent hearts but he knows his own heart and his desire is to lead these people to rebuild from the desire to restore the honor of the Lord.

His prayer is based also on God's promise to restore them if they repent and on that basis Nehemiah is prepared to move forward with the plan. Finally, he asks the Lord to give him favor with this man, the king. His plan is not based in worldly things but rather in God's plan yet in order to move ahead he will need the cooperation and permission of the king. Now we are told of Nehemiah's position in life, I was cupbearer to the king.

Next we will look at that position and how God so often has put His people in position to accomplish His plan and purpose.

Missionary work and identification

What is Nehemiah's reaction to the news from the exiles? "As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven." Nehemiah was a man who was willing to weep over the city and the people of God. He loved the city and the nation. The first thing we must look for in our leaders, particularly church planters, is a passion like Nehemiah's, a passion willing to weep and mourn over the condition of the city and the people we are called to serve.

Nehemiah identified with the people in Jerusalem, he didn't see himself as their savior and he didn't respond by just praying for them. He also didn't romanticize the situation and plead with God for justice to be done based on the innocence of the nation. His prayer to God is based in two things that all our prayers need to have in common, God's faithfulness and our sinfulness. He doesn't ask why, he knows why. His prayer is based in reality.

Nehemiah's plea to God to hear his prayer is based in God's self-disclosure to Moses in Exodus 34 and grounded in the belief that God cares about His people and the promise we see in 2 Chronicles 7 that when the people, called by His Name, return and repent He will hear from heaven and restore them. Nehemiah follows that pattern of confessing the sins of the people but he doesn't confess "their" sins, he confesses "Even I and my father’s house have sinned." He is not standing above the people, he stands with them.

When we think about missions and, in particular, church planting, do we see ourselves as Nehemiah, one of them, or do we see ourselves as the one who brings the Good News as an expert or a righteous one imparting wisdom and knowledge to pagans? We do well to recall Nehemiah's attitude towards himself as a missionary as it is Jesus' way as well. Jesus identified with us sinners by taking the baptism that is for the repentance of sins even though he was without sin. Nehemiah and Jesus have this in common, their ministries began with identification with the sins of the people they were preparing to serve.

Nehemiah and the Mission

One of my treasured companions on the journey of pastoring a church is Nehemiah. He was an extraordinary man with vision, passion, perseverance and courage. His example is one for all of us, perhaps particularly church planters, to know and to follow.

His great achievement in life was overseeing the rebuilding of the walls of the city of Jerusalem after its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Nehemiah lived about one hundred years after this and likely had never been to Jerusalem himself. He was, however, Jewish and for that reason loved her very stones. It is the city of God, chosen by Yahweh as the place where His glory would dwell, the place where the mercy seat was where the people could come and make sacrifice and receive pardon and restoration to covenant with the Lord and with one another. No sacrifice could be made or accepted outside of Jerusalem.

The introduction to the book of Nehemiah, chapter 1, begins in an odd way. He tells us that he was in Susa which was a Persian city (now Iran) and his brother came with some men from Jerusalem. Nehemiah questioned them as to the Jews of the exile and the state of the city itself.

All we know at this point is that he is in Susa and yet he is concerned with the welfare of his fellow Jews and the city of God. We don't know his personal situation in Susa or anything else about him. We know, however, that he cares about God's people and God's city. The welfare of the people and the city that is God's dwelling place are central to him and their condition reflects on the God of the city and the people. If the people are poor and the city is ruined, the God of both is equally abashed. We know that Nehemiah cares about both because He cares about God.

That has to be the first priority for church planters, do you care for God and for people. In the new covenant in the blood of Jesus, our sphere of care isn't defined by geography or by nationality. Jesus opened the way for all people to become covenant people without respect to race,nationality, or ethnic origin. He gave us the right to become children of God, adopted into His family in new birth. Jesus also said a time was coming when worship wouldn't be defined by or confined to the temple in Jerusalem. There is no need for the sacrifices of the temple, His sacrifice on the cross would be sufficient for the sins of the entire world if we would believe in Him. Geography was no longer a barrier to worship and the entire world now was a place where God's glory could be found in His people.

Church planters and all pastors have to begin with a passion for the glory of God and for people, we have to have the Spirit and the heart of Jesus, we have to be concerned about the same things Nehemiah was concerned with and they must be the first concerns of our lives.