Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Henry Brown prayed for a way to escape.

He was a slave in Richmond, Virginia, and desperately wanted to be free.

He finally felt his prayer was answered when he was inspired by a unique idea.

He had the plantation carpenter construct a box the same size of the largest boxes that were shipped in that day.

He then poked three holes in this three foot by two foot crate, and then he got inside.

The box was taken to the express office, and from there it was taken by a baggage car to a steam boat, and finally transferred to a wagon which brought him to Philadelphia and to freedom.

There was many a time when he longed to cry out for help, but he was resolved to be free, or to die trying.

When the people he was mailed to opened the crate, he stood up and fainted.

It was a hard price to pay, but he made his escape.

Escape is a word and experience we are all familiar with, but in the 1950's a new word developed that we are not very familiar with: The word is inscape.

It is opposite of escape, in some ways, in that it refers, not to getting out of something, but of getting into something.

It is not a fleeing away, but a fleeing within.

On the other hand, it is very much like escape, in that its goal is also freedom.

Henry Brown used escape as the means of getting his freedom.

But many could mail themselves to anywhere in the world, and still not be free, because their slavery is of a different kind.

They are like the Pharisees; enslaved to external values.

1.

What do people think of me?

2. How is my external image?

3. How can I make the outside appear right?

4. How can I win the approval of men?

Their self-esteem and worth were tied directly to their popularity with men.

They were slaves to the crowd, and this influenced every thing they did.

They developed a fish-bowl religious life, for what good was it to be religious if people did not see.

The external was everything.

Whatever veneer made it look good was all that mattered.

We probably would have liked the Pharisees, for they fit the Western culture, and are far more appealing to us than most Eastern holy men and mystics.

The poet describes the contrast of the East and West in their religious method.

In Eastern lands the holiest gents

Are those who live at least expense,

They rarely speak; they seek release

From active life in prayer and peace.

But in the Western hemisphere

A saint must catch the public ear,

And rush about, and shout and bustle

Combining holiness and hustle.

We are in a culture where the external outweighs the internal in our religious value system.

We cannot help that, but we can prevent becoming slaves to it.

That is what Jesus is teaching His disciples to do in relation to the Pharisaical external system.

How do you escape the domination of the external?

Jesus says the answer is inscape.

You don't run away from it, or mail yourself off to a monastery, or a society of mystics, but you strive for a balance by developing your inner world.

If success is pleasing God, and God is not pleased with all kinds of external forms and activities, where the heart is far from him, than it follows that the only road to spiritual success is the road to inner space.

We are caught up in our focus on outer space, and that is awesome and wondrous, and leads to worship, because the more we know of the magnitude of God's creation, the more we marvel at His majesty.

This is good, and it is to be pursued, but if it is the only road we travel, God is seen as a Sovereign King, but we miss the intimacy of knowing God as heavenly Father.

This vital aspect of the God-man relationship calls for the conquering of inner space.

Jesus says we must get away from the crowd, and get alone with God.

Alfred North Whitehead said, "Religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness....Thus religion is solitariness, and if you are never solitary, you are never religious."

In the light of what Jesus is teaching, this is true, if we add one word-if you are never solitary, you are never successfully religious.

The Pharisees were religious, but not successfully.

There religion pleased men but not God, and so it was not successful.

Giving, praying, fasting, can all be religious activities, but only when they please God are they successful activities, and since Jesus says they cannot please God if they are only external, and not matters of the inner life, then it follows, no one can be a success at anything without inscape, or getting away to within.

Let's apply this the specific need to be successful in prayer.

There are several characteristics that Jesus emphasizes that are crucial to successful prayer, but we want to focus on the one He most stresses, and that is-

I. SUCCESSFUL PRAYER IS SECRET PRAYER.

Prayer is not primarily a social activity.

It is a private matter between an individual and God.

Prayer is to the spiritual life what sex is to the marriage life.

It is the secret, private, and intimate aspect of the relationship.

It is not for public display.

The Pharisees were using it for public display in both sacred and secular settings.

They prayed in the synagogues, and on the street corners.

Prayer was to them a publicity stunt that attracted the attention of men.

This led to their being praised for their piety.

They were symbols in their day very much like the modern day sex-symbol.

Sex is displayed in a public way, not to enhance the marriage, and internal relationship of mates, but to attract the attention of the crowd, and get praise and popularity.

Prayer and sex have much in common, for both are avenues of intimacy that can be exploited, and become external tools for mass appeal.

The world uses sex to get attention, and to manipulate people into buying most everything under the sun.

Religious exploiters use prayer to do the same thing.

The prayer gimmicks that have been used to manipulate Christians could fill a box car.

As the world is titillated into thinking they will get an erotic thrill, so Christians often have the same motivation, and they are enticed into thinking they can get a special spiritual thrill, and supernatural answer to prayer, if we send out request to brother so and so, who will read it by the Jordan River, or nail it to a cross in some prayer tower.

All of these pro-Pharisee prayer promotions would never get off the ground unless there was something in human nature that loved external power.

The fact is, the Pharisees were not as bad as we often portray them.

They were just like everybody else, including us.

That is why they play such a major role in New Testament teaching.

When Jesus attacks their values, we need to see that as an attack, not on a few weirdo's of ancient history, but an attack on the natural tendency of human nature, including His own disciples, and us.

In verse 8 Jesus says we are not to be like them.

Why bother to warn his sensible and godly followers not to be like them, unless this was the road they would tend to travel unless they were given other guidance?

Lets face it, to this day we tend to be external rather than internal oriented, and what Jesus is teaching us here is just as relevant as the day he spoke it.

Successful prayer must be first and foremost secret prayer.

It is a matter of private communication between the believer and God.

Jesus is anti-external because externals tend to lead to idolatry.

The woman at the well tried to get Jesus into the controversy of whether it was best to worship on the Mount in Samaria, the sacred place of the North, or the temple in Jerusalem, the sacred place of the South.

What she failed to realize was, that in so many controversies the choices are limited to two, when often there is a third and better way.

Jesus did not choose either of these two external places.

He said, "God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth."

In other words, the external place of worship was not the real issue.

What really matters in successful worship is the inner spirit of the worshiper.

If the spirit is right, and it is pleasing to God, one worships more successfully in a cabin than in a Cathedral.

From the perspective of Jesus, the Christian is to be much like the turtle who carries his sanctuary with him, and he can inscape anytime he chooses, and withdraw from the external world to the world within.

The Christian needs to take seriously some of the Biblical imagery, and recognize that the kingdom of God is not out there in the world, but, as Jesus said, it is within.

We are temples of the Holy Spirit.

That means we don't have to go anywhere to pray, for we have our own temple with us all the time.

How often Christian get into such strange controversies.

Some struggle with the issue, should the church be left open for prayer?

Some said no, for thieves and vandals could come in and do damage.

Others said, but it is only right that people be allowed to approach God when they feel a real need.

All of this is based on the world of externals which misses the whole point of Jesus.

He is conveying the truth that the secret, solitary, sanctuary of the soul is always open, and God is ever present there.

I am afraid few Christians even consider the teachings of Christ in our national controversy over prayer in public schools.