“Con-exting With God”

Scripture Lesson: Ephesians 3:14-21

Sermon Transcript for July 26, 2009

By Pastor Bob Coleman

            We’re going to focus on prayer today in a way which ties us with the ancient Word as well as modern technology.  There is an opportunity to pray using all of that.  I want to, in a sense, prepare for you in this—to know that today I’m not speaking to you as a professional pray-er.  That’s what Pastor’s are considered to be right?  Yesterday at a family reunion in Pendleton, Indiana, we all gathered together with my cousins and their kids, and their children and grandchildren.  It was a good, fun time.  But guess what happened when it came time to bless the food.  They turned, “Well Bob will you pray?”  You know, I’m the pastor.  So they assumed I know how to pray.  And, I didn’t disappoint them, I hope.

            But one of the pieces that become difficult with that is, we assume pastors know how to pray and we always kind of put it in their lap.  But truly, God calls each of us to pray, every one, in a moment, in a circumstance.  But do you need a well-constructed prayer?  Do you need something that’s polished and finalized?  Maybe by memory you can call out the Lord’s Prayer, but beyond that most people tend to stumble through when it comes to prayer. 

            I’m going to share with you from Ephesians where Paul writes to the Christians at the Church of Ephesus.  In the third chapter, starting with the 14th verse, he is offering a prayer to the Christians at Ephesus.  Now given, that this was written down.  It’s a well-formulated prayer; nicely written, polished you might say.  This is not what we are holding up as an example of the way that you should pray, but it does offer up the opportunity to see that essentially this little bit longer prayer is a series of phrases.  You can break it down in that way.  I encourage you to take it home and read that passage again and see how each phrase in a sense can be a prayer of its own.

           It’s not particularly a long prayer either as prayers can be.  I heard one that went on as long as a sermon.  That’s too long for anybody’s sake.  By the way, that’s same pastor is one who, if he pronounced the word “Mesopotamia”, it brought tears to your eyes.  You know, some people are just eloquent.  I want you to hear now and read with me as you see it projected on the screen, or bring it in your Bibles, which by the way I encourage you to buy one because by next week they are going to start showing up in the pews and they will be in this translation.  As we hear this prayer, as we have it read, let us listen to the spirit of the prayer behind it. 

           In the 14th verse of Ephesians 3: “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.  And to know that this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  Now to him who is able to do measurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is in work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever.  Amen.”  The word of God for the people of God.  Thanks be to God.

           Let us pray, “Simply Lord this morning, let us take prayers to you.  Let them be from our hearts, let them be simple, let them be clear that you give us the gift of prayer.  In Christ’s name, Amen.

           Now, brief communication is not a new thing.  Although if you’ve seen, and we’ll talk a little bit more about texting later, texting is a very shortened form of communication.  But short communication has been around for a long time.  Even as prayers go, this one that I just shared with you of Paul’s to the Christians at Ephesus was a relatively short prayer.  But there are things that are even shorter in communications.  The cell phones that you see up here, you can see because of the size of the screen you can only put so many words anyway.  So it is limited.  “You have 1 new message”, “You have a new message”, or briefly they can put that message on there.  But long before cell phones there were short forms of communication.  So the next slide that we have up here for you is one that shows you some examples.  How many of you know how to use a telegraph?  How many know Morse Code?  See, it’s a generation that’s gone beyond us.  What is it?  (taps out SOS).  That’s a universal piece.  A telegraph was a short, purposeful message.  You couldn’t put very many long words into it.  Or Semaphore is a similar kind of thing meant to give a brief message clearly.  Or smoke signals, for example.  And by the way, that is WWW, which is taking smoke language and putting it into the current World Wide Web.  But the one that most of you have probably used are postcards, right?  How many words can you put on a postcard?  I knew someone would raise their hand.  It depends on how large you write!  Just a few words, not very many.  They are purposefully designed, each of these four kind, to be able to do something that’s simple in communication, not complicated, straight-forward.

           Another collage that we have moves us into the technology for today and that’s where, well yes, there is the old-style phone as you can see.  But then the symbol for “You have mail” It’s kind of a now universal standard.  How many of you have ever used e-mail?  All right the next question to move us along with technology, the next one is a little keyboard down here, how many of you text message?  All right, fewer yet.  How many are in to tweeting?  Ah, not very many.  You know I wondered about that.  As the technology is being pushed by the media, there are not very many people, or just a few or a handful.  But “tweetering” or “to tweet” a message is to be concise to only 184 characters and that’s counting the spaces between the words.  So you have to be careful what you say.  Not long words, not long phrases, simple, straight-forward and quick.  And, of course, e-mails for the most part fall under that too.

           These are simple ways for us to know that we are in an advanced stage of technology, but it is no different that postcard, or smoke signals, or a telegraph that have been around for a long, long time.  Short, concise, straightforward communication.  That’s the heart of this kind of technology.  Now, does that bring us closer together as human beings?  Being able to “tweet” or e-mail throughout the world?  It can.  It can because, for example, I have a niece who lives in Australia.  I don’t have to call her on the phone.  I can go to her Facebook page that is if I understand how to use that thing.  Or I can e-mail her. That I am pretty well versed in.  It connects us around the world.  And you can be brief in your messages that you do. 

           But even when you’re connected technologically, it doesn’t mean that you’re close personally.  For example, the next image that we have up there shows two cell phones.  And those cell phones, if you can’t read the message, on the left it says, “Where are you?” and on the right it says “Right next to you”.  Two people walking along, I actually saw this, two young people texting, doing their thing, and I, just out of curiosity said, “Who are you texting?”  They said, “Each other”.  Walking right along beside each other. Now that’s a down side to the technology.  Why couldn’t they talk to each other face to face?  It’s because they’ve learned efficiently how to probably text faster maybe than they can talk.  Is it closer, more personable?  It depends on the people and what they are saying.  You can be very distant.  For example, I get a text or an email that someone says, “Well, I’m having a glass of orange juice.”  That doesn’t really help me to know much about their life.  But if they text to me something that is of a deeper nature, even though it’s short and concise. 

           You see, the Bible is intimidating to look at that whole, to say “Who’s ever read the whole thing?” and if you have, “Do you ever understood the whole?  But today, the technology makes it available.  And did you know that religious text, the Scripture itself, can be searched, hyperlinked, downloaded, spliced, copied, truncated, e-mailed, text messaged, recited with video accompaniment, changed on iPod or piped from watches into earplugs.  I don’t know how that’s done.  But they are available, the Bible is, in so many digital forms because of all of the devices that are available.

           It’s no different than the Gutenberg Bible.  Do you know what that is?  The first time the Bible was printed in full form in 1500’s. And that was the first time that they printed on page, before it had to be hand written.  Well we know that has just escalated so quickly into fast turnaround books today and now eBooks.  And so many other ways that seem to be going beyond where we are spiritually.

           What I want to offer to you is that the short forms of communication have been around for so long and can be used positively today.  The technology is not evil on its own.  It’s how we use it that makes all the difference.  Twittering, texting, cell phoning can be dangerous to your health if you do it while your driving.  But so can reading a paper—I’ve seen that done; eating a sandwich—I’ve done that. How about putting on your makeup?  Now, I’ve not done that.  But putting on a tie while I’m driving—yes, I’m guilty.  All of those have nothing to do with the technology.  It’s when you take your mind off the safety of driving.  So don’t complain about the technology; it’s how you use it that makes all of the difference. 

           Going back to 700 A.D., seventh century, a man names Augustine wrote volumes; lengthy, heavy books.  One of them was called A Confession.  And in that writing, he tells about his own conversion.  Now you can read all the detail—he goes in to great detail for that day and that time.  But the phrase that really summarizes fits with our style of communication for today.  He said his conversion was a point when one point literally and dramatically reorients one’s life and thoughts.  It means if we take our lives that we’ve been operating in this venue and by that conversion and the new understanding we see the world differently.  I had a conversation with a young lady over Coffee Hour where she’d been baptized but a new spiritual experience happened in her life and these were her words. She said, “I just see it differently now.”  We can see the world differently when the Spirit is right within us.  And so we can take these technologies and turn them in to something that is creative in the spiritual sense, particularly with prayer. 

           A gentleman named Frank Laubach, many of you may not have heard of him, but have you ever heard of the principle, “Each one teach one”?  It’s very simple.  If I sit down and I teach someone a Bible story, they’ve heard that Bible story and I say to them, “Now go teach someone else that Bible story”, that’s the simple foundation of it.  In 1930 Frank Laubach wrote down these words and listen how timely they are for today.  He says, “The submission to the will of God means collaboration with God in the moment to moment activity that make up our daily existence.”  That’s really the heart of e-mail and texting and twittering.  It sounds like that to me at least.  He had no idea what was on the future horizon.  Further on in the same writing, Frank Laubach says that this cooperation with God has achieved a continuous inner conversation with God.  That sounds like prayer and that sounds like being connected with God or in the phrase that I’ve chosen for today, being con-exting with God.  It’s okay to use the old forms--the postcards, telephone--or the new form--texting and even twittering--to connect with God, yes, and with other people.  The whole purpose behind it is how we use it.  The motive and the inspiration of how we use technology to keep in touch with each other in more than the surface.

           Fred Craddock was a preaching professor at Candler Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia where Pastor Andy received his Master of Divinity degree and also had several classes with Fred Craddock.  Wonderful preacher, excellent writer!  He wrote a book called, Overhearing the Gospel.  This is where you take the technology today and it becomes an irritation.  How many of you have walked along in the grocery store and watched someone else talking on the phone and hearing a conversation that you don’t care to hear, right?  They are talking about things that I don’t want to know.  In fact, I’ve heard some very personal conversations going on about personal matters that shouldn’t be publically shared.  At least from my perspective. 

           Whoops wait a minute.  I’ve got an unread message.  What do I do next?  “Dear Bob, hope your message goes well this A.M.  God bless you.”  Well, isn’t that nice.  It worked.  What did I just say?  Was that a prayer?  “Hope your message goes well for you today.”  Isn’t that a prayer using this technology?  Yeah, Jenothy planned it.  It is from Pastor Jenothy.  Where are you at Pastor Jenothy?  Well, she’s not in the room is she.  She’s back with the kids.  It just came.  We are connected.  Frank Laubach is right, day to day simple minute to minute activities of our lives are important when we put them in place in the context of spiritual connection.  Not just the mundane, routine little things. 

           Fred Craddock said that overhearing the gospel is a way to spread and witness to the gospel.  Have you ever sat in a booth in a restaurant where you were having a conversation with someone else and the people next to you are carrying on their conversation and you hear it?  Have you ever stopped and listened?  Now come on, you have haven’t you?  Yeah, it’s called eavesdropping.  Only if they are going to be talking loud enough for you to hear, you might as well listen right?   Well, it’s no different than the telephone.  But it’s an interesting piece, because Fred Craddock said as you hear someone else tell a story about their life to another person, as you listen in, as you overhear it, you can be overhearing the gospel.  Particularly when, remember what I said, maybe if you are walking along in the grocery store and you hear a message that’s a prayer.  Or instead of talking about some amazing thing about your personal life and others don’t care you might say, “You know Joe, I know you’re struggling with something.  Let’s have a prayer right now.  Joe, I offer you to God.  I know God can help you and I pray for you at this moment.”  Over the phone—have you ever done that?  Pray for someone while you are having a phone conversation?  Well, if you can do that you can do it with e-mail, you can do it with texting, you can do it with twittering, you can do it with any of those technologies.  Or you can write a postcard or go by and visit. 

           You see, it’s not a matter of what technology you use; it’s that you use it for God’s good and God’s purpose.  Fred Craddock said overhearing the gospel is one of the most important ways for us to witness in a day to day natural way.  Kathleen Norris who has written many journals and turned them into books, one called The Cloister Walk, another called Dakotas, talks about living on the plains of the Dakotas where the wind seems to blow constantly.  At first it was an irritation for her.  Then she learned to accept that wind as a blessing from God until it became like a prayer where God was speaking to her.  You can read it in her journals as she writes those experiences of standing on a windy, rolling plain in North Dakota.  And as that wind comes and caresses her face, she takes it not as an irritation but as a blessing and a touching of God’s message to her that God loves her.  And she returns that in a prayer of “Thank you, God”.  Simply put, not complicated, not detailed, but simply a way for you to connect with God in that way.

           Con-exting with God is an important aspect that gives us permission to be in touch with God wherever we are.  Let me show you some examples of taking a spiritual message and doing it texting. And, by the way, if you use the Internet and you Google the phrase, “text message alphabet”, you’ll get a whole list of these.  But we created some for ourselves.  The first screen that we’re going to show you has “CMHOG”.  Do you know what that stands for?  We just created it for today; it wasn’t on the list on the Internet.  Can you guess?  Change my heart, oh God.  The phrase out of a song, yes, but isn’t that a prayer on it’s own?  You are struggling with something in your heart, you could in a sense text God or share that as a word to someone who knows how to translate that on the other end.  A very personal message, “change my heart, oh God”. 

           Or the next one, much more easily understandable—BWMJ--Be with me Jesus.  Let’s say you are facing a difficult time, you don’t have to text this down but you can think it.  You can maybe write it as a note to carry in your pocket or your purse.  If something could be with you, Jesus is. Or the next one that we could put up for you, KMFT—Keep me from temptation.   Part of the Lord’s Prayer—keep me from temptation.  And you send that to a friend.  And in a sense you are asking them to keep you from temptation.  See how you start to think in that way?  The technology doesn’t become burdensome or a barrier.  It becomes something that is able to help you to connect with others and with God. 

           And two more examples: “Help me do the right thing.”  And isn’t that what we are always struggling to do in a certain circumstance.  Or, and I know English teachers will have trouble, but “Lord, teach me something more”.  Only drawback to texting is that it doesn’t teach our youth how to write complete sentences.  At our family reunion yesterday I have one cousin who is a teacher in high school and sitting next to him was his son, Greg, who is a sophomore in meteorology at Ball State.  As I’m talking to my cousin at my age his son is sitting there texting away.  And I just, curiosity, I said, “Are you texting”?  He grinned, “Yeah”.  He was listening to our conversation while he was texting.  That’s called multitasking.  I turned to Mike, my cousin, and I said, “Mike, do you text?”  And he said, “Oh, no, I don’t even have a cell phone.”  And I said, “Well, why not?”  And he said, “I don’t want people calling me.  I don’t want them interrupting my life.”  Or at least translated in that way.  “But,” he said, “I will not also accept as a teacher any paper that does not use complete sentences or that uses the shorthand for texting.”  And I have a sister who teachers college class level and she says, “I won’t accept that either.”  So the downside for technology for our youth who are here today and young people is you’ve got to be able to still communicate in writing in a complete way.  But the plus side where you can be very quick in your communication and using it in a way that I’ve described for you means that, yes, as the next one will show you on the screen, even if you are driving you can pray.  You’ve got to keep your eyes open while your driving, but you can, I’ve tested this out, you can focus on the safety of driving and pray.  Thank you God—very simple, straightforward.  You see something beautiful along the side of the road; you connect with God by offering that quick prayer.  Or maybe the next one where you think of someone, they come to your mind, and you say, “Jesus, I pray for Joe.”  Fill in the blank as to who you might pray for.  It does not have to be long.  It does not have to be well polished as Paul did in our prayer today.  But it does have to come from the heart.  It doesn’t matter the technology. 

           But I want to give you some permission right now to do something.  I want to give you permission, those who are here with your text messaging and your equipment; you have permission to text someone right now if it will be a prayer, if it will be a word of encouragement, if it will be a word of connecting with them on a deeper emotional base and spiritual base than just saying, “Hi, how are you.”  Do you have someone in mind?  Well, if you are not texting, and I am not going to allow the telephone, by the way, that’s the one thing—that just does disrupt us, doesn’t it.  But maybe you get home and you can email someone.  But if you would like to do it more personally and directly right now, use the yellow card or the blue card and write a message on it.  Yeah, we’re going to give you time to pray in just a moment.  I don’t care what mode of prayer you use, what media of technology.  You can use whatever you have available to you or fall back on the old and use your heart and your mind because this prayer can be a silent one where you sit as well as a written one on a card.  We’re going to listen to music as Roger will play.  And as he does that you may take a couple of moments to offer a prayer in the way it speaks from your heart to God for someone about someone, about your own life.  Technology doesn’t matter but the prayer does.  And then in a moment or so, Pasto Andy will lead us in our time of prayer.  At the end of the service, you may bring those cards to the middle. And I didn’t clue the ushers in, but Bill if you’d take an offering plate and just go back from the back and move forward and as we are doing our closing response, if you would like to offer your prayer on that card, send it to the middle and we will place it on the alter.  That will be during the response time.

           But whether you turn in a card or not is not the issue. Connect with God by texting, by twittering, by e-mailing, by praying above all.  Let’s take a moment just to pray.