Service
for the Lord’s Day
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 24, 2003
Scriptures:
I Kings 8:1, 6, 10-11, 22-30-41-43
[8:22-30, 41-43]; Psalm 84; Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:55-69
The
Prayers of the People
We have a ritual during supper every night
at the Glover house in which every member of the family “shares” the highlights
of the day just past by telling about one “best” thing and one “worst” thing
that has happened to him or her that day.
Christina calls it “best and ‘murst’”—“best –n- ‘murst,’ Dada,
best –n- ‘murst.’” Sometimes “Dada”
has to dig deep to find a “best”; but Monday before last, just when I thought no
one at Southminster was listening any longer to the Sunday sermons, I received
an e-mail that made my day. I knew
the minute I opened it that I now had a “best” to share that night at
supper. Someone at Southminster had
indeed been listening and had even responded with a question for the
pastor!
I want to read that note to you now—though
I want to assure you that the NAMES have been CHANGED and DETAILS ALTERED to
protect the innocent.
Subject: Why Pray?
“I have a question that
has been bothering me for quite a while. I understand praying to confess
our sins, but I don't understand things such as praying for healing or a safe
trip for someone, etc. God already knows if this person is going to be
healed or if there's going to be a death, etc. We can't change his
mind - if we could then that would lower him to our level wouldn't it?
Wouldn't that mean that He was going to make a mistake and we talked him
out of it? I understand thanking Him for our blessings but I don't
understand when people say they were healed thanks to prayer. ‘God
answered our prayers!’ I know someone who claims that he can ‘pray a
miracle.’ Wouldn’t that be just what God has planned in the first place?
I know that we should confess our sins, but why pray for the things in
life that we can't control and cannot change even with our prayers – such as
death, illness, accidents, etc.?
***
Why pray? What are we to say to that
question? It is a great
question. It deserves our time, our
close attention, and a careful response--so I'll tell you what I told the person
who wrote the e-mail: "I’ll think about it some more and get back to you
later"…, at the end of the sermon.
***
Last Sunday,
we listened as King Solomon prayed for wisdom, with a prayer that reminded us of
our own Prayer for Illumination.
This week, as we end our series on the various prayers that we pray in
the public service of worship, we discover Solomon years later in the newly
constructed temple, and once again he is praying. Solomon knows, as his prayer indicates,
that God does not really live on earth, not even in the new and glorious
temple that Solomon has built for God in Jerusalem. As David himself learned, even the
highest heaven cannot contain God.
So we also should be clear that this church building is not God’s
dwelling place—and God is not nearer to us here than in other places. This place where we gather for worship
and to pray—this temple--is not magically holier than any other place. But just as Solomon prayed that God
would hear his own prayers, the prayers of Israel, and even the prayers of
foreigners in distant lands, when he and they prayed toward the temple in
Jerusalem—so we should make this place where we meet today for worship,
Southminster Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, a true “house of
prayer.” We should
expect that the prayers we pray here, where two or three are gathered in
the Lord’s name on the Lord’s Day, are truly effective. And, since we ourselves are “the temple
of God,” we should expect that the prayers we pray from the depths of our
heart—whether here within the church building or anywhere else—are also
effective.
Our New
Testament reading also emphasizes the importance of prayer—to the point of
commanding it. After describing the
enemy in some detail and after listing the whole armor of God with which we may
withstand the enemy—the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the
gospel sandals, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of
the Spirit—after listing all of these, Paul adds these last vital words to the
Ephesian Christians (18-19): “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions
with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the
saints. Pray also for me, that
whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make
known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as
I should.” [NIV]
There is
hardly a better description of what it is that we do every Sunday morning in the
Prayers of the People than this instruction to the Ephesian church. Having put on the whole armor of
God—having read and preached the Scriptures and having affirmed our faith—we
respond with our prayers of petition, both intercession and supplication. In and through these prayers we
gratefully acknowledge God’s presence in the world and in our daily lives—for as
odd as it may seem, our prayer requests are but the flip side of praise and
thanksgiving. Thus, with every
request we make in prayer to God, we are also responding in faith, giving honor
and worship to God.
For the first
half of these Prayers of the People, we intercede with God on behalf of
others. We pray for the needs of
the world, because God loves it.
God created the world and cares for it. God sent his Son, Jesus, to die for
it. “Our prayers should therefore
be as wide as God’s love and as specific as God’s tender compassion for the
least” of these. (BCW) In this half
of the prayer we also pray for the church universal—for Roman Catholics,
Episcopalians, and Independent Baptists—not just for the Southminster
congregation or for Presbyterian churches in Indianapolis or the Presbytery of
Whitewater Valley. We pray also for
those who are in authority around the world, not just for those who lead our
local, county, and state governments.
We pray for our President, George Bush, but we pray also for Tony Blair
and Silvio Berlesconi, for Gerhard Schroeder and for Kofi Anan. We pray for those everywhere in trouble,
or danger—especially now we pray for those in Iraq and Afghanistan and Israel
and Liberia. We pray for those in
distress or special need—those who are the victims of war and catastrophe—for
the 100 wounded and the families of 23 UN staffers killed—not just for those
whom we know or those who are close to home. And always, always we pray for the
children who are in harm’s way.
After we have
prayed for the needs of others, our thoughts may turn in the second half of our
Prayers of the People to our own needs.
We pray for our local congregation and its particular needs. We pray, for example, that God will
bless the Women’s Bible Study, that God will bless the Sunday School teachers
and the youth director. That God
will assure those who are struggling with their faith, that God will guide and
support those who are amid life’s difficult transitions and those who face
critical decisions, that God will comfort and heal the sick, the grieving, the
lonely, and the anxious.
Here we have
come full circle, of course, to the very important question with which we
began—that is, why pray for such things at all? Why do we ask for safe travel for our
friends and family when they are on the road? Or for healing when a friend or family
member is in the hospital? Why do
we seek God’s protection from accidents and from harm for ourselves and for
others? And why do we ask to be
delivered even from the inevitable, from death itself? The statements made in that e-mail I
received are certainly true: God
does already know what we need and God will and often does give us exactly what
we need even before we ask. Nor
should we think that we can extort something from God that God does not already
want to give—or that we can “change God’s mind” with our prayers, as if God were
about to “make a mistake” and we had “talked [God] out of it”—thus lowering
God to our level.
When “miracles” do occur, they are certainly not due to our special
ability to pray or our constant nagging.
We have not persuaded God to act contrary to God’s own desire, as if the
honor and the accomplishment for these miracles were somehow ours through our
prayers.
Any
answer to this question “Why pray for traveling mercies and for healing?” must
begin with the fact that God desires and even requires that we pray for
what we need. Our petitions for
health and safety are simultaneously acts of worship, honor, and praise to
God. God requires such
worship of us. Our every request
for safe travel and healing is at the same time recognition that God is the
source of our life—and that everything we desire as good in life comes to us
from God. God requires that
we acknowledge this dependence in our prayers.
But in addition to the praise and worship that our prayers bring to God, they also benefit us. First, when we pray for everything we need, we become accustomed to talking to God frequently. God becomes our home base. Because we often have needs—we will find ourselves often in God’s presence—seeking, loving, and serving God even more because we recognize God as the source of every good thing. Secondly, prayer serves as something of a positive feedback mechanism to train our wants and desires. If, for example, we want something that we are embarrassed to ask God for—what does that tell us about the appropriateness of our desires? But if we make it a habit always to pray for everything we want—then in time we will desire only those things that we are willing to discuss with God. Thirdly, praying for what we want and need insures that God will receive true gratitude and thanks when we do receive that for which we have prayed. Our prayers remind us that what we have already received comes from God. Our answered prayers create in us an amazement and wonder at God’s kindness—and absolute joy and delight at God’s gifts. Finally, in time and with much practice in praying for what we want and need, we will learn to trust God’s providence—to be thankful for the invitation God gives us to pray, and for the very real help that God sends our way when we do pray.
[The
enumerated section above and the summary below is a rough paraphrase of John
Calvin's reply to the very same question in the Institutes.]
It is a great
paradox of our relationship with God that both things are simultaneously
true: 1) it is true that God
neither sleeps nor slumbers, but is always watching carefully over all of us to
give us what we need before we even ask--and 2) it is also true that God
has established prayer as the means by which we must ask for those things that
we have not yet received—so that we may recognize God as the source of every
good and perfect gift and give God our thanks and praise.
Our answer would not be complete, however, if we stopped there. Our prayers, especially those we pray on behalf of others, make us more acutely aware of their needs. Our prayers confront us with an opportunity to act: to meet the needs of others with the love of Christ, to proclaim good news to the world, to support those who are amidst life’s transitions, to encourage those who are afraid, to befriend those who live alone, to shelter the homeless, to give generously to the poor, to visit the sick and the dying, and to work to bring about God’s purposes on the earth. In love, compassion, and energy, let us pray—always for everything--and let us also work for the coming Kingdom of God.
Amen.
© 2003 by Southminster Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis, IN. All rights reserved