August 23, 2026: back to school!
First assignment: what did I do on my vacation?
My wife and I got in a car and we drove for a zillion miles till we got to Syracuse, New York. It was all very beautiful, but it was really, really hot and we were tired when we got there.
We saw our son and his wife. We ate out and we went to used book stores and we bought way too many books. This is something we do every year – we buy way too many books. After a couple of days with our son and his wife, we got back in the car and we drove for 300 more miles to our place in Vermont.
Our place in Vermont is a small cottage that’s about 120 years old. It’s been in our family for most of that time. Some of the floor boards are 22″ wide – you don’t get boards like that at Home Depot! The living room has pine paneling half way up the wall, rubbed with linseed oil so the wood glows.
In the living room there’s a small trap door down into the basement, because the guy who built the cottage was an old bachelor who didn’t like cleaning, so when he swept the floor he just flipped open the trap door and swept it all down there.
Taking a shower at our cottage is a real adventure, because it didn’t have plumbing until long after it was built. They added a tiny bathroom onto the outside of the house, so you have to go outside onto the deck to get to the bathroom. The shower is way too short for tall people, so the shower is on a hose and you have to use the hose to reach different parts of yourself. It works, and in some parts of the world people would be so grateful to have a shower or running water at all. But if you’re living there for a month, it’s a challenge.
What did we do on our vacation? We read books, and we took walks, and we sat on the porch a lot, just watching the sun and listening to the wind.
At night we’d go out onto the deck, and watch the stars come out, one by one, till there were so many you couldn’t possibly count them. You can’t do that, living in the city. And that’s one reason why we need to go on vacation.
On a hot afternoon, we’d drive into town, 15 or 20 miles away, and get a milk shake, or a root beer float. A chocolate malted milkshake, on a hot summer day, makes you a believer in Heaven.
Did I go to church while I was on vacation? Yes, I did, twice. (That’s more than some people in our meeting did! I don’t mean you, because I know you all went to church every Sunday, but that’s a lot more than most people in America did last month.)
I went once to the Congregational church down in the village. It’s been there for 250 years, just like Springfield. They’re small, like us, and they struggle to keep going. They hope they can get a part-time minister again soon, but right now they all take turns, bringing a message each week.
The other Sunday I drove 40 miles to the nearest Quaker meeting. It’s unprogrammed, so they don’t sing hymns or have a sermon. Their meetinghouse is really beautiful. It’s on a bend in the river, with trees all around. With the windows open, you feel really close to nature.
A couple of years ago they almost lost their meetinghouse in a big flood. The flood hit the bend in the river, and gouged huge chunks out of the river bank. It didn’t quite reach the meetinghouse, but it tore out most of their driveway. So, when you go to Plainfield Friends, you park on the road, about 100 yards away, and you walk down this narrow path that’s all that’s left of their driveway, because the driveway won’t support the weight of a car any more.
Years ago, my wife and I had a friend there who was a sculptor, and they’ve got some of her sculptures in the worship room. I’ve got a couple of her sculptures here in my office.
It was quiet, and only two people spoke during the whole hour. There were only about 14 or 15 people there that morning. But they had 4 kids, so the kids were almost a third of the entire meeting. All the kids were barefoot, and two of them didn’t have shirts on. And that was OK. The kids stayed for the first 15 minutes of worship, then one of the adults took them outside to play and walk through the woods.
But my wife and I went to a lot of other places on our vacation, where it felt like church, even if it wasn’t a building.
We went to a park that’s filled with waterfalls. I don’t know what it is, but I’m a sucker for falling water. There’s dozens of them, and the water is so clear. At the bottom, there’s this one waterfall called the Basin, which is a pool carved out the glaciers. It’s like someone took a giant ice cream scoop, 30 feet across, and just took one huge scoop out of the solid granite. It’s been there for 25,000 years, they say. We go back there every year. I expect it’ll be there for a while longer. But it’s so beautiful, you can’t speak. It always feels religious, to go there and see what the hand of God can do.
We didn’t watch the news, because we don’t have a television, and there’s no internet. But for several days, the sky turned yellow, and we knew that there were huge forest fires out West, more than a thousand miles away.
Anyway, that’s what we did on our vacation. It was a long trip. We drove across seven states. We’re glad to be back. And thank you, to everyone here at Springfield, who took care of things while we were away!
Last week, Memorial Sunday, was a big deal. We had a lot of visitors. We had a big meal. And I gave kind of a formal talk, about Quakers and the American Revolution. Today is my first ordinary Sunday to be back, and I want to talk a little about prayer.
There are all kinds of prayers, for all kinds of times. The best prayers are the ones we make up and say ourselves. Because if you use a written-out prayer, well, sometimes that feels like it belongs to somebody else, and not me.
I always like short prayers rather than long ones. If I really need to pray, I can’t keep my thoughts together for very long. Long prayers on paper may be beautiful, but when you’ve got both hands on the wheel, you don’t have time for long ones.
There’s an insert in your bulletin today, with a bunch of short prayers in it. Some of them are only one line long. A lot of them you can say in a single breath. Read them when you have a minute. Use them if you like. And as I said, make up your own prayers, and use your own thoughts and words and feelings. That’s even better.
Jesus had some great things to say about prayer. And Jesus said some good ones. I want to read a few of them from the Sermon on the Mount this morning.
Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others so they’ll see you. If you do, you’ll have no reward from your Father in heaven.
So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what’s done in secret, will reward you.
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
This, then, is how you should pray:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Matthew 6:1-15
Keep it simple. That’s pretty much what I want to say today. Keep it simple, like Jesus said.
One of the books I bought while I was on vacation was at a library book sale. Fifty cents. They were throwing it out. It’s by one of my favorite Christian authors, a woman named Anne Lamott. I’ve got a few books of hers in my office.
Anne Lamott is a Christian, but she’s also – and she’d be the first person to say this – she’s kind of a hot mess. She went through a lot of alcohol when she was younger. She’s been sober for 25 years, and she says it’s still a struggle some days.
She was a single mom, and raising a son by herself wasn’t easy. She wrote a whole book about it. She’s got a wild bunch of friends. Some of them are millionaires. Some of them are street people. She writes about friends with Lou Gehrig’s disease, and cancer, and all kinds of problems. She writes about horrible frustrations, and unexpected grace.
She’s not a very organized person. She loses stuff all the time, and forgets appointments, and can’t find things. She cusses at times. And she’s open about tragedies. The world makes her cry fairly often.
But she prays a lot. For herself, and for other people. She says she often has very little faith, or none at all, but she prays anyway. And she’s amazed and rejoices when miracles happen.
The book I picked up this month is called Help, Thanks, Wow: Three Essential Prayers. She says these are the prayers she says most. And they’re the prayers that most people say.
Help is when you can’t fix it, and you don’t know what to do, and you don’t have the answers, and maybe nobody does, except God. And maybe you wonder if even God knows. But you’ve got at least a teeny, tiny bit of hope and faith, so that’s what you say: Help!
Sometimes that’s all you can say. Sometimes you pour out every crazy thought you have. But help is one of the most basic prayers there is.
Thanks is another basic prayer, and we don’t say it nearly enough. A lot of the prayers that Jesus prayed were thank you prayers.
Thank you for this food that I was about to eat, or that I started eating without thanking you for. Thank you for my daily bread.
Thank you for waking me up, for one more day. Thank you for blessing me, with family and friends. Thank you for the glory of this sunrise or sunset.
Thank you for just a few minutes of comfort. I’ve known many people, and I’ve been in the same place myself, where just twenty minutes, or even two minutes, of not being in pain, can be a gift.
Whoever helps a person in pain feel comfortable, is giving a gift of grace. You’re a minister!
A third basic prayer is simply, Wow! As you can tell, a lot of my prayers on vacation are wow moments. God catches us, and shows us something.
Sometimes it’s a moment of glory, that lasts for a split second, and you’ve just got to be there. Sometimes it’s something God has been doing for thousands and millions of years. It’s been there all along, and you just realized it.
You don’t have to be a person of strong faith or perfect faith in order to pray. You can be mixed up, or stressed out, or not real smart – and I feel like all three of those pretty often.
You can feel clueless, or hopeless, or useless, and still pray. You can feel foolish, or feel like the worst sinner or the most broken person around.
You can still pray help, or thanks, or wow. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
In today’s scripture, Jesus said, “Don’t be a show off. Don’t try to get other people to see you, when you pray.”
Anne Lamott says, “Prayer is private, even when we pray for others. It’s communication from the heart to that which surpasses understanding. Let’s say it’s communication from one’s heart to God. . .”
Jesus said, “You don’t have to keep repeating yourself. God heard you the first time! Your Father knows what you need, before you even ask him. . .”
Jesus said to pray, “Father, may your name always be holy. May your kingdom come, here on earth, today. Please give me the food I need today. And please forgive me, and help me to forgive whoever has hurt me. Please help me out when I’m tempted, and please keep me away from evil. Amen.”
That’s it.
Help. Thanks. Wow.