Do you ever dream about being FAMOUS? And do you ever IMAGINE what it must be LIKE to be famous? Well, comedian Bill Murray says THIS about being FAMOUS: Nothing can prepare you for being famous. It's completely different from the way anybody's parents RAISE them. You THINK it will be a life of leisure -- and there ARE moments of riding in LIMOS and having somebody carry your bag -- but it's ALSO a 24-hour-a-day JOB. To people who want to be RICH and famous, I'd say, "Get rich FIRST, and see if THAT doesn't cover it."

Well, John the Baptist, in our Scripture Lesson was a FAMOUS guy. He was a VERY famous PREACHER in his day. He was like Billy Graham is today, or the Pope. But, he didn't seem to MIND all the attention that came with the job. He was preaching in the WILDERNESS -- the equivalent of a huge REVIVAL meeting. And people were coming to HEAR him from EVERYWHERE. And, he was telling them to REPENT, to turn their lives around and get RIGHT with God. And THEY were responding by the THOUSANDS. The PROBLEM was NOT that he was FAMOUS. The PROBLEM was that he was TOO famous! I mean: people were saying, Wow! This John MUST be the MESSIAH! But, John KNEW that he was NOT the Messiah. John KNEW that HIS job was to get people PREPARED for the Messiah. And SO, to let people BELIEVE that HE was the Messiah would be WRONG. It's like a PREACHER who lets his congregation equate him or her with GOD. NO preacher can AFFORD to let people make THAT kind of mistake. That's a DEATH-WISH in ministry.

And SO, John TELLS them: NO! NO! You have it WRONG! I am NOT the Messiah, not even CLOSE! Let me tell you the DIFFERENCE. The One who is COMING after ME is SO great that I am not worthy even to tie his SHOES. I just baptize you with water. But HE is going to baptize you with the Holy SPIRIT, and with FIRE! In other words, John says: You ain't seen NOTHIN' yet! The One who is coming AFTER me is not only GREATER, but He's altogether DIFFERENT. I am like a FLASHLIGHT, while HE is like the 4th of July! I am like the one who hands out DONUTS at a DISASTER, while HE is like the one who rushes into burning buildings and pulls people to safety! I am just POINTING the way, while HE IS the WAY!

And THEN, shortly AFTER that story, we have LUKE'S account of the BAPTISM of Jesus. And Luke is SO concerned to subordinate John to Jesus that he doesn't even tell us that John BAPTIZED Jesus. He ONLY says that Jesus WAS baptized. And THEN, he tells us that HEAVEN opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in BODILY form like a DOVE -- and a VOICE from heaven said: You are my SON, the Beloved; with YOU, I am well-pleased! BUT, NOTE that, in LUKE'S gospel, the Spirit and the voice do NOT come DURING Jesus' BAPTISM! They come AFTER the baptism, while Jesus is PRAYING. You know PRAYER was SO important to Jesus! LOOK through the gospels sometime, and SEE how OFTEN Jesus PRAYS. However, while the gospel writers often picture Him at prayer, only OCCASIONALLY do they ever tell us WHAT His prayers were ABOUT. We know, for example, that He prayed for His disciples in Luke 22 and John 17. And we know that just before His DEATH, He prayed that, IF God were WILLING, that this CUP might PASS from Him. In other words, He prayed that He might ESCAPE death, but ONLY if God were WILLING. And He CONCLUDED that prayer with the words: Not MY will, but YOUR will be done. We ALSO know that He prayed for His ENEMIES, those who had put Him on the cross: Father, FORGIVE them, for they know NOT what they do. And AS He died, He prayed: Father, into YOUR hands I commend my Spirit.

Yes, we know WHAT Jesus prayed for in SOME of His prayers, but very FEW. And ONE prayer that we DON'T know is WHAT He prayed after His baptism. Now, we MIGHT think of Jesus' BAPTISM as His ORDINATION. And so, MAYBE He was praying to be EQUAL to the great TASK that lay AHEAD of Him. OR, maybe He was praying for VISION so that He might lead His people CORRECTLY, OR for STRENGTH to face the TEMPTATIONS that He would have to face, OR for DISCIPLES who would be FAITHFUL, OR for SUCCESS in His ROLE as our SAVIOR. But WHATEVER the CONTENT of His prayer, it was DURING this time of prayer that the heavens OPENED, and the SPIRIT descended UPON Him, and a VOICE from heaven said: YOU are my SON, the Beloved; with YOU, I am well-pleased. In OTHER words, it was WHILE Jesus was at PRAYER that He RECEIVED God's BLESSING!

Now, THAT'S a VERY important point! You know: sometimes WE fail to appreciate the POWER of prayer. Sometimes, when we're FACED with a difficult problem, we say, Well, ALL we can do is PRAY, as if all of our HOPE has NOW been EXHAUSTED, and ALL that we have LEFT is this PITIFUL little thing called PRAYER. Well friends, it would be BETTER if we could say, Hey, we have a PROBLEM. Let's PRAY about it -- KNOWING that, in PRAYER, we CONNECT ourselves with God and God's POWER; and THEREFORE, we connect ourselves with POSSIBILITIES beyond our imaginings. You know: I believe that, EVERY day, God answers prayers in ASTOUNDING ways! EVERY day, God BLESSES people who have taken the TIME to pray. Now, that DOESN'T mean that God answers every prayer by giving us what we ASK for. After all, God's NOT some cosmic SANTA CLAUS. BUT, it DOES mean that prayer has GREAT power! It's NOT some pitiful little LAST resort. When I was writing this SERMON, I had spent DAYS on it and was getting absolutely NOWHERE. And slowly but surely, I was becoming totally STRESSED OUT over it. And I had prayed about it before, but I had never really PRAYED about it. I had never really PUT my WHOLE heart and SOUL into it! And then, at about 4 o'clock one morning, I really PRAYED about it. I lifted the Scripture Lesson up before God, and ASKED for God to GUIDE my thinking, and to BLESS my work. And do you know that, a few hours LATER, this sermon was DONE! And I KNEW that I had received a BLESSING, just as Jesus had when He PRAYED after His BAPTISM. And I TOO had CONNECTED with God during my time at PRAYER. And it was JUST beautiful! And how HUMBLE and GRATEFUL it makes me FEEL…. Friends, when we really CONNECT with God through prayer, AMAZING things DO happen! I can't TELL you how OFTEN I witness that around here. It DOESN'T mean we get what we ASK for, but AMAZING things happen.

BUT, you MIGHT ask: WHY would JESUS have to CONNECT with God? Wasn't He GOD in the FLESH, after all? Hadn't He COME from heaven? Wasn't He ALWAYS connected with God? Well, I believe that Jesus WAS always connected, in some sense, with God. BUT, His PRAYER life SHOWS us that HE considered prayer to be something MORE than just handing a wish-list to God. When He prayed, HE wasn't like a college student calling home for more MONEY. No! HE was more like a SON coming home for a VISIT with his parents, coming home to sit down and TALK to them, coming home to DEEPEN their relationship, and thereby gain the STRENGH to help him stay on the RIGHT path. I mean: haven't YOU experienced a relationship like THAT at some point in your life? It might have been with a PARENT, or with a SPOUSE, or with a trusted FRIEND, but it was with someone WITH whom you could really TALK and come away strengthened, and come away with a TRUER sense of DIRECTION for your life. And you didn't have to WORRY about that person leading you ASTRAY, or having some HIDDEN agenda. You just KNEW that they were reliable and trustworthy. Now, it isn't easy to FIND such a person, but WHEN we DO, they are as precious to us as a rare GEM, and actually, even MORE precious, because a precious GEM cannot guide us through a tough decision like a trustworthy friend can.

Well, I believe that Jesus had THAT kind of relationship with GOD, with the One He called, ABBA, which simply means DADDY. And that relationship HELPED Him to KEEP doing the RIGHT thing. You know: we talk a LOT about the SINLESS Jesus, as if sinlessness were EASY for Him. But I don't think that it WAS. If sinlessness were EASY for Him, HE would NOT have been TEMPTED in the same ways that WE are, because OUR temptations are NOT easy. But He WAS, in fact, tempted as WE are. And his ABILITY to stay TRUE and STRONG depended, in LARGE part, I think, on His DEEP and continuing PRAYER life, on His ongoing CONNECTION with God.

Well friends, if PRAYER was THAT important to JESUS, and IF prayer was the SOURCE of His incredible STRENGTH and DIRECTION, doesn't it make SENSE that WE, too, need PRAYER in order to give US strength and direction? And IF it was during PRAYER that Jesus received the BLESSING, that Jesus heard God's VOICE saying, YOU are my SON, the beloved; with YOU I am well pleased, wouldn't it seem WISE for US to spend more TIME in prayer -- and NOT just TALKING to God, but more importantly, LISTENING for VOICE of God, that WE, too, might HEAR God's BLESSING? DOESN'T that make SENSE?

A few years ago, I clipped an article out of a magazine called Christian Century (Bothering God, March 24-31, 1999, page 356). It was by a fellow student of mine at Yale Divinity School. Her name is Barbara Brown Taylor. She's an Episcopal priest and a very PROLIFIC author. AND, she is widely acknowledged to be one of today's GREATEST preachers. Well, IN this article, Barbara talked about her 7 year-old granddaughter, Madeline. It seems that, EVEN at the tender age of 7, Madeline had experienced some REAL tragedy. She had experienced the death of a FRIEND. She had experienced her parents' divorce. She had had some VERY tough times for a KID. And things came to a head on Madeline's BIRTHDAY, when it was time for her to BLOW out the CANDLES. Her grandfather told her to make a WISH, and she BALKED. She said she had already WISHED for her friend to LIVE, and her friend DIED. And she had already WISHED for her parents to get back together, and NOW, they never WOULD. So, WHY bother WISHING? she asked. Well, NOBODY had an ANSWER for her at that precise moment, and I can just IMAGINE how QUIET it must have gotten around that birthday cake. But it DID set Barbara, her grandmother, to THINKING. The subject, of course, had been WISHES rather than PRAYERS, but the TWO of them AREN'T very far apart, at least in the mind of a CHILD. SO, Barbara began thinking about HOW she might encourage Madeline to PRAY, even though she could not always expect her prayers to be answered in the way that she wanted them answered. And after a GREAT deal of THOUGHT, Barbara wrote this ARTICLE. And I find it helpful. She says: What I want Madeline to KNOW is that the BEST thing about PRAYER is the relationship itself. Whether or not she GETS what she ASKS for, I want her to keep ASKING. I want her to PESTER God in the SAME way that she pesters her MOTHER, thinking of 12 different ways to plead her case. I want her to long for GOD in the SAME way that she longs for her FATHER, holding FAST to him, EVEN when his chair is EMPTY.

And Barbara CONCLUDES the article like THIS: One day, when Madeline asks me outright whether PRAYER really WORKS, I am going to say, "Oh, sweetie, of COURSE it does. It keeps OUR hearts chasing after GOD'S heart. It's HOW we BOTHER God. AND it's how GOD bothers US. NOTHING works any BETTER than THAT.

Friends, AFTER Jesus was baptized, WHILE He was PRAYING, HEAVEN opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a DOVE. And a VOICE from heaven said: You are my SON, the Beloved; with YOU I am well pleased. And thus, Jesus was BLESSED to begin His ministry. Well friends, Jesus here is a MODEL for US, because ALL of us need to DEEPEN our PRAYER lives. ALL of us need to make a STRONGER connection, a more VIBRANT relationship, with God, and PRAYER is the WAY. Besides, PRAYER is one of God's PRIMARY vehicles for BLESSING us. And SO, MAY we ALL be, or become, people of PRAYER, so that we might ALSO become people of BLESSING. Amen.