(P)Review Bible Study: Luke 18:1-8 Livin' On A Prayer

    I have no idea whether or not the members of Bon Jovi have now, or ever did have, an active prayer life. Their song "Livin' on a Prayer" is actually just a simple song about a married couple going through tough times, but doing it in a devoted way together.  For all the schlock that the eighties churned out on the radio this one is really kind of sweet. But it really has absolutely nothing to do with prayer.  
    It is hardly surprising that they weren't singing about praying and not because they were hard partying, long haired, rock stars.  Nope, it has more to do with the fact that most folks their age were not praying.  Take a look at this from the Pew Report for a second outlining people's prayer habits over the last fifty years:

And no, even though the Pew Report shares a name with the popular church building seat, they are not a religious organization. They're simply a polling and fact collection company with a funny name.  

    When Bon Jovi was playing their song, of their fellow Boomers, only about 45% were actually "Livin' On A Prayer". The other 55% did not have a daily prayer life. Worse yet their Gen-X listeners probably were somewhere down in the lower forties or even upper thirties of the percent that were praying daily. Even today Gen-X (my generation) are barely hovering above the middle mark of fifty percent. Millennials, though overwhelmingly "spiritual"... whatever that means...are even less likely to pray, weighing in at a measly forty one percent.   So what is the source of all this not-livin-on-a-prayer? 

   Well, there certainly has been a huge surge in folks leaving the faith.  Let's go back to the Pew Report folks:

I think the bottom line: "Religion is very important in their lives" may be the most telling of the trend that we are seeing.  Each generation has slipped several percentage points down the path of non-belief.  

    My colleagues and I have struggled long and hard with how to address and deal with this frightening trend.  One question that has loomed largest and most baffling is the simple query: "why"?  Oh, I know folks point to the secularization of culture and the ever growing emphasis on empirical facts in society but there are some problems with this explanation.  

   First of all, most folks I know who swear that the reason they don't believe in God is that there is no factual data proving God's existence seem to be able to believe in tons of things that they have no factual evidence for.  They believe in everything from aliens to the benefits of dental floss. 

   

    What is that you say?  You believe in flossing too?

Did you know that when the associated press investigated flossing they found that when they looked at "the most rigorous research conducted over the past decade, focusing on 25 studies that generally compared the use of a toothbrush with the combination of toothbrushes and floss. The findings? The evidence for flossing is “weak, very unreliable,” of “very low” quality, and carries “a moderate to large potential for bias.”
“The majority of available studies fail to demonstrate that flossing is generally effective in plaque removal,” said one review conducted last year. Another 2015 review cites “inconsistent/weak evidence” for flossing and a “lack of efficacy."

Most dental scientists agree that there has been almost no firm scientific evidence ever collected that flossing is useful. Even the US Government admits that, even though federal law requires it, they never thought to check to see if any valid studies had ever been done to support the claim that daily flossing is effective for controlling tartar build up and gingivitis. Dentists have recommended it for so long that no one thought to question it.   When pressed, the American Dental Association took the stance that while it may not really help much, it can't hurt. 

   Am I saying not to floss?  No.  I still floss; maybe it doesn't really do anything, but maybe it does.  I'm not taking chances.  But this is the problem with the "I won't believe in God because there is no evidence!" argument.  People believe in things every day that have no evidence.  Our whole political system right now seems to be composed almost entirely of belief in un-provable things. 

    I think the failing has to do less with whether or not people are still willing to believe in the un-provable and far more to do with something else.  

    Jesus says to his disciples in the 18th chapter of Luke: 

Luke 18:1-8
Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, 'Grant me justice against my opponent.' For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, 'Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'" And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says.
And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Jesus encourages his disciples to "not lose heart" and points out this story about a widow who isn't about to let a lousy judge get between her and justice.  She eventually gets her way by nagging the judge to the point that he rules in her favor just to be rid of her. Then Jesus points out that if our prayer life was to an unjustly judging God we could still expect decent results if we were just (annoyingly) diligent.  But, our God is not only just, he is the very model of just.  So, Jesus points out that "will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?"  Yes, Jesus says He will hear the prayers of his people and God will answer them "quickly, and grant justice to them."  Our God is faithful and good and hears all his children's pleas.  But then Jesus asks, " I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

   You see the problem isn't if we pray or not.  The problem isn't if we can prove God's existence or not.  The problem is whether or not we can prove, through our lives, that we believe the prayers we pray matter. If we cannot prove, by virtue of our actions, that we believe our beliefs the world will not choose to come and share in the faith that we are granted by the grace of Jesus Christ. 

   The world is ready to come and share in belief with us, but if we don't believe enough in the faithfulness of God to pray and trust, then how will they ever see faith worth having in us?  We have a God in our lives that is ready and willing to hear and respond to us, why is it then that so few of us are ready to trust that relationship as something more than an affiliation that we can write down on a form when it asks us our religion?  

    God wants to hear from you.  More importantly God wants to answer you.  God wants to provide you with the very sustenance of life and lift you up to new strength and hope.  Livin' on a prayer is all the more we really need to do to really do some good livin'. 

God says to all of us...