Pray Like Jesus: Praying in Color

Every so often, I find myself on a Monday morning wandering through the sanctuary, looking for papers I left on the pulpit, and as I walk through the sanctuary, almost without fail, bulletins on chairs caught my eye. Thinking I am straightening up, I go pick up the bulletin and find it has notes, doodles, and sometime a quote. Only occasionally a grocery list or to do list. Most commonly, I find that I have stumbled onto holy ground. Payer requests and additions to the prayer list. That the doodler, the note-taker knows something integral to faith, we can pray in so many ways. We pray in words and in pictures.

This Lent, our invitation has been to pray like Jesus. We looking through the Gospel of Matthew to where Jesus was teaching us to pray. Sometimes in direct response to a question of how to pray and sometimes teaching by example. Last week, I invited each of you to pick up a slip of paper with scripture and pray over it all week. I heard from some of you that you were blessed by the particular scripture you picked up. Others prayed the scripture throughout the week. How many used that practice last week? Great! I left out the scriptures here on the table for others who might desire to choose again for this week or did not get a chance to do so.

This week, we turn to another way of praying. Praying in color! Before I get into the how, I want to suggest the why. Let’s see if any of this fits you:
Do you make a list of people and then wonder what should I pray for them?
Do you find it hard to keep focused and clear on prayer long enough to get beyond greeting God?
Do you find that your prayers feel more like a wish list than a relationship?
Do you feel like you pray the prayers that you have been taught, but never offer your own voice to God?
Do you find yourself doodling around the edges of the bulletin or when you are in a meeting?

If you find yourself answering yes or nodding along, you might benefit from praying in color. To be fair, the rest of us benefit as well! Author of this concept is Sybil MacBeth, who is not a great artist, but rather a mathematics instructor by day and doodler by all time.(1) She wanted to be able to take seriously her commitment to prayer, even when sitting still and remembering all the requests she had heard was not her thing. She leaned into her gifts and began to doodle. All it takes is color and paper. (And you will see, color is sometime negotiable).
When we are praying, it is often our minds that need to stilled, not our feet or our hands. When we give our minds something to do, our focus changes. This is the same concept that our prayer beads class uses. Macbeth shares that after praying for each person, she recalls the light blue that surrounded one friend and prays for them throughout the day. And the purple heart around another. The visual aspect of this way of praying popped in her head throughout the day and called her to remember those she prayed for throughout the day.

Take seriously when someone says, Pray for me. They are not just saying, I would to sit down and tell you all about my challenges. They are deeply inviting you to bring them before God. They are taking a risk and inviting you into their lives in even some small way.
MacBeth also used this method to pray through her concerns about our nation. We used this prayer outline during our praying for our nation services around the time of our election.

The cover of our bulletin today reflects praying in color (black and white) with the names of Jesus. There are times of adoration and praise in our prayer. Take the bulletin home and use the cover art as the basis for prayers of adoration. Consider coloring it in as you pray!

You might be thinking, this sounds like play and indeed it does. Playful prayer that brings joy and delight as well as play into pray. In making the prayer images, you also call yourself back to those you lifted up throughout the day.
Now, I want to invite you to find the insert in the bulletin. You see and cross and boxes. I encourage you to use this to pray the remaining days of Lent. Today, find one box and make colored pencils or markers to add one name or prayer. Pray as you color that square. Tomorrow, come back to the box from yesterday and add one for today. Continue each day until Easter. You can add a request or a prayer focus each and every day throughout the season of Lent.

Just a little bit different is the sheet, I gave our children, inviting them to color and to pray.
I have also found praying in color helpful for me as I am praying a scripture. This was the first way that I learned this practice. I was at a continuing education event on a cruise ship (imagine that!) when the speaker introduced this concept and invited us to play with drawing scripture verses, so that we could pray them. This concept is comfortable for verses we love and give new possibilities for those that confound us.

The cursing of the fig tree we heard earlier in the service from Matthew’s gospel is a great example. On its face, the parable seems odd and almost as though Jesus is being unreasonable with the fig tree. Scholars would point us to a few details that give context. The tree was not bearing fruit in season. Some fig trees are known to take more than more season to bear full fruit. Jesus also in the larger discourse has just insinuated that some must be cut down for growth. Could Jesus be using the fig tree to illustrate that reality?
On the strength of our message today, I point you to the last verse of the passage: If you believe you will receive everything you ask for in prayer. This is not intended to act as a dispenser for God’s good pleasure or even for candy! Instead, how are you seeking God’s understanding and blessing in the midst of puzzlement and confusion? Does this passage and strangeness about the fig tree stump you? Where are you praying that God might grant you wisdom?

Our passage from Romans invites a similar method, without the confounded imagery. We are invited to pray for one voice and one mind in Christ. We are invited to know and pray for unity, not uniformity. That each of us may know Jesus, not necessarily that each of us will come to the same church, walk the same walk, or even pray the same prayer. God’s creation was intentionally made of diversity. Accepting and loving one another is a by-product of praying for each other. We come to grow fond of those we pray for. This is why Jesus challenges us to pray for our enemies, that we might imagine the day that they are no longer our enemies.
With many possibilities for how to pray in color and how to use the prayer sheet in your bulletin, I want to add one more. As you think about what would you draw, I want you think about this question: Where is a place where you wish you knew God was? Let me first say God is always present. God is always near and knowable.

AND YET…
We do not always see or know God amid our challenges and trials, our tribulations, and our worries. For me, in a week, where I walked with 5 different family groups, regarding 6 deaths in the course of 48 hours, many related to issues of addiction, mental health, lack of access to health care, and poverty, I found myself praying often for God in the midst of addiction, loss, and mental health diagnoses. Not because I do not believe God is present, but because I want to feel and know how God is present and hear what God is up to next, redeeming the pain and bringing beauty out of brokenness.

When we think of things that are black and white, we think of basic and explainable. We think of adequate and we’ll get by. Praying in color is about fully offering who you are to God. My prayer for you this Lent is you find your prayer voice. You find the ways that you can speak with God most fully and listen carefully as God speaks to you. May you pray in color, red, blue, yellow or chartreuse, seeking God’s call and God’s presence above all.

This is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.

(1)Praying in Color by Sybil MacBeth is at the heart of this way of praying.

New Testament Lesson: Romans 15:5-7
May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 21:18-22
In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” Jesus answered them, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.”

Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, March 12~ Saturday, March 18

Sunday: “May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus.” Romans 15:5 . Harmony hints that we might not all sing the same notes, but we will love together in peace. Pray for harmony in our world.

Monday: “So that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 15:6. Where is God calling you to come together with those who may not sing the same notes, but can join together in glorifying God?

Tuesday: “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” Romans 15:7. Welcome is more than acknowledgement. When you welcome a baby or pet to your home, you make sure they have all they need. Where are welcoming others?

Wednesday: “In the morning, when Jesus returned to the city, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once.” Matthew 21: 18-19. Jesus is full of power, power of God. Ask Jesus to show you how you might call on the power of God.

Thursday: “When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither at once?’” Matthew 21: 20. When you are amazed, who do you turn to? Turn to Jesus and offer praise in your amazement.

Friday: “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, “Be lifted up and thrown into the sea”, it will be done.” Matthew 21: 21. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Where is God calling you to faith?

Saturday: “Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.’” Matthew 21: 22. Are you praying boldly? Today, pray with faith.