PRAY

When I was a little boy and my mother went shopping, my little brother and I had to go along. We didn’t much like it as I recall, except for the times we got to stop at the Soda Fountain and get ice cream or a coke. I still have memories of walking along Main Street with my mother and gazing at the store windows. Do you remember window shopping? Window shopping used to be a big deal. Merchants would encourage the pastime by spending large amounts of time and money to make their windows appealing to potential customers. I particularly remember the windows at the Boston Store in Fort Smith where I grew up. The Boston Store was the most prestigious store in town. Their windows were always the most impressive. I remember their moving mannequins and dazzling displays – all designed to attract your eye toward the merchandise they wanted to promote. Many department stores employed people with the sole responsibility of decorating the window and changing it regularly.

The nice thing about window shopping was that you could linger and look as long as you wanted to without being bothered by a sales person. It wasn’t until you entered the store that you heard the words, “May I help you?” It was from my mother that I learned that oft repeated phrase, “No, just looking.”

Window shopping isn’t as easy as it used to be. Many stores are now designed so you have to come inside to really look around. And on the inside there is always a salesperson asking the question, “May I help you?” Actually, I believe that is a paradoxical phenomenon of the twenty-first century. There always seems to be a clerk around when you’re just looking, but when you want to make a purchase or ask a question, there never seems to be an employee in sight. Have you noticed that? How does that happen?

I remember the last time Debbie and I went car shopping. We weren’t sure what type of automobile we wanted so we decided to go looking. One evening we went for a drive and checked out several of the local dealerships. It was kind of nice. There was no one to ask, “May I help you?” so we could just linger and look. Of course, there is a drawback to window shopping. Looking in from the outside was all we could do. We couldn’t look under the hood. We couldn’t sit behind the wheel. And we certainly couldn’t take one for a test drive.

After our first venture at window shopping, we came home and got on the computer. That’s one of the ways you can window shop in the twenty-first century. There is an unbelievable amount of information on the internet. So we went online to find out about the cars that interested us. You can look and read and learn all about features and performance and price. You can even take a virtual tour and imagine sitting in the driver’s seat, but it still isn’t like climbing behind the wheel. If you want to experience the feel of a new car, if you want to see something more than a picture, if you want the touch and the sounds and the smell of a new car, you need to get involved with a dealership. It wasn’t until we got involved with a dealer that we experienced the joy of driving a new car. It wasn’t until we made a commitment that we could take one home.

The world is full of window shoppers. You can spot them when you go shopping. They’re the ones with no packages. You see them walking around, looking, touching, talking with sales people. They seem content to merely look, perhaps to try something on, but not to make a purchase.

Some believers, some Christians, never get past the spiritual just-looking phase. Some believers come to church in order to window shop, but they never buy into the Christian life. They may cautiously examine the product. They may even do some “trying-on”, but they stop short of making a commitment. As a result, they never discover the depth of joy or the breadth of peace that comes from living in Christ.

A few minutes ago we read a passage from Ephesians, chapter 3. Many scholars believe the Apostle Paul wrote this letter while he was a prisoner in Rome, shortly before his execution. In this letter of encouragement and instruction Paul tells us what it means to be the church. Paul wants us, the followers of Christ, to learn how to worship and pray. He calls us to think, to learn, to become wise, and to act. To be a Christian demands far more than window shopping. Just looking is not part of the Christian’s vocabulary.

As we read the first half of Ephesians, the first three chapters, we find Paul repeatedly shifting back and forth between teaching and praying. At one moment he is trying to instruct the faithful, in the next paragraph he is praying for them – and for us. That’s what happens in the passage we read today. He has been teaching in a spirit of prayer and he concludes his prayer with a four-fold request. Paul prays:

§ That you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through God’s Spirit. That’s a prayer for strength. Paul prays:

§ That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. That’s a prayer for presence, the presence of Christ living in us. Paul prays:

§ That you may have the power to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. That’s a prayer for understanding. Finally, Paul prays:

§ That you may be filled with all the fullness of God. That’s a prayer for joy!

This isn’t the language of “just- looking”. These words imply doing. Paul isn’t talking about observation, he is advocating participation. Life from God comes as a gift, but it is not magic. It is a life of engagement with God’s Spirit. Life in the Spirit is relational … and relationships require time and investment.

Paul prays for power and strength for his readers. And Paul trusts God to provide that power. In fact, Paul contends that God is already at work seeking to do just that. So if that is true, if the Spirit is supposed to empower us, and if God longs to fill us with all His fullness and if God is actively working to accomplish that in us, then why aren’t we experiencing that power? Why don’t we feel God’s fullness? I can only think of two possible answers:

Either Paul is wrong and God is not willing or able to fill us with power, or we are doing something to abort the process. Could it be that instead of buying in to the Christian life, we have been guilty of “just looking”? The Spirit of Christ cannot work in us without our invitation. The Spirit of God cannot work in us without our participation. We have to be open to the power of the Spirit. We have to be willing to accept and live into the changes that God’s presence may bring.

Have you ever spent the night at the home of someone else? I’m not talking about going to visit someone in your family. I’m talking about staying overnight in the home of a friend or perhaps even a stranger. I can remember a few times when I have been invited to spend the night in a strange new place. Someone opened their home to me and invited me to stay the night. I’ve noticed on those occasions that a kind of ritual always takes place. You arrive and your host greets you warmly and asks if they can help with your bags. Then they show you to your room. They may point out the closet and invite you to hang your clothes there. You can usually see how they have kind of crammed their things toward the ends of the clothes rod to make a space for your hanging things. Then they point out the bathroom and show you where to find the linens. Sometimes they have already laid out clean towels and wash cloths for you. They may even take you to the kitchen and show you where to find the dishes and silverware. They open the refrigerator and invite you to help yourself to a soft drink or a snack. Then they always say: “I want you to make yourself at home.”

That’s what they always say: “Just make yourself at home.” But they don’t really mean it.

Can you imagine what would happen if you were to say, “Well, actually I can’t stand the wall paper in my room. I think I will peel it off and paint the room blue.” Or what if you went back to your bedroom and started rearranging the furniture or ripping up the carpet? Oh, they all say, “Make yourself at home,” but they don’t really mean “Make yourself at home.” What they really mean is behave as if you are a responsible guest. After all you are a guest and that is the way you are expected to act.

But when we invite Jesus into our lives, he does not come in as a guest. Jesus wants to be the host. In order for us to be strengthened in our inner being with power through his Spirit, we must submit to his Lordship. In order for Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith, in order for us to be rooted and grounded in his love, we must surrender our authority to him. In order for us to have the power to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth, for us to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, we must turn the house – that is our lives – over to him. And in every instance he is going to make some changes.

In his book, Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis used that very analogy to describe God’s transforming activity in our lives. He invited his readers to imagine themselves as a living house. Listen to his words:

God comes in to rebuild [our] house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what [God] is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but he is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it himself.

Jesus wants to take up residence in your heart – in your life. That cannot happen until we move from “just looking” to commitment. Only then will we begin to experience the power for living that Paul is talking about. Only then can we be filled with all the fullness of God. Only then can we pray with Paul the great doxology in verses 20 and 21:

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.

AMEN