In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
“Listening is not simply hearing. Listening is being attentive. Listening is the desire to understand, to value, to respect and to recognize.”
I read that quote the other day and decided to share it this morning because today is the
Fifth Sunday of Lent. Today is called the “Sunday of the Judge,” and the focus of today’s Bible lesson is on prayer. Prayer is not simply hearing. Prayer is about being attentive and trying to understand. Prayer is about hearing and being heard. It is valuing and being valued. It is respecting and being respected. Prayer is about recognizing and being recognized.
In the Bible reading we just heard, Jesus shares two powerful stories about prayer. There are many aspects of prayer worthy of mentioning, He says, but there are two aspects that are especially important to a Christian heart.
In the first story, He stresses that prayer must be persistent and that we must not “give up” if our prayers seem to go unanswered day after day. We must continually pray the prayers of our heart because God’s “timetable” may not be the same as our timetable, but do not give up, He says. Tell God what is in your heart and He will answer.
The second story is of equal importance. After encouraging His disciples to be “persistent” in prayer, Jesus taught them how to pray. He told them the story of two men who went up into the temple to pray. One man was a Pharisee—a highly respected man of religious rank, very devout in his religious practice. The other was a Tax Collector—a man who was an outcast, viewed as a traitor to his own people and a friend to no one.
Jesus compares these two men and as He does, you begin to sense that He was comparing a saint with a wrongdoer. It is within this comparison that He gives His main message. See, the Pharisee was part of the religious elite. He knew the scriptures and teachings of the temple far better than the average person. Because of this knowledge, the Pharisees often saw themselves as superior to other people—better than everybody else. They came across with a sense of arrogance. Jesus said that the prayers of the Pharisees often reflected that arrogance.
The story says that this Pharisee stood up in the middle of the temple so he was seen by everyone and he loudly prayed these words: “God, I thank You that I am not like other men. I am not like the robbers, not like the evildoers, not the adulterers, nor even like that tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give a tenth of all I earn to the temple.” He prayed these words with a clear attitude that he was better than everybody else was. The arrogance of his prayers left no room for humility.
The story continues and starts talking about the Tax Collector. It says that the Tax Collector stood in the distant corner of the temple away from everyone else. He was in prayer and in such deep prayer that he only looked down as he prayed, but he beat upon his chest as he prayed this simple prayer: “Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner.” It is the same prayer we say during our Wednesday evening Lenten Services, as well as during the Confession Reading before receiving Holy Communion.
This was a simple prayer coming from a simple man. This Tax Collector didn’t know scripture at all. He only knew what he heard the Pharisees share with the people during the services of the temple, but there was one thing he knew more than the Pharisees. He knew what it meant to have a humble heart in front of God.
So, Jesus teaches that it was the simple Tax Collector and not the educated Pharisee who found favor with God. He ends saying: “He who humbles himself in this world will be exalted” in the Kingdom of Heaven.
So, on this Fifth Sunday of Lent, we are encouraged to spend a little extra time in prayer, remembering that prayer is not simply hearing. Prayer is about being attentive and trying to understand. Prayer is about hearing and being heard. It is valuing and being valued. It is respecting and being respected. Prayer is about recognizing our God and rejoicing that He recognizes us.
Praying isn’t so much the words we use, but the heart with which the words are offered and that means all the difference to God. “Lord, have mercy upon me, when I do wrong.” It is a prayer like this coming from the heart that opens the way for God’s forgiveness in anyone’s life
Something for us to think about during the remaining days of Lent. “Lord, have mercy upon me when I do wrong.” We are all encouraged to pray this prayer…every day.
Amen.