Sermon for North Hill
October 2, 2010
Months ago I had dinner with a friend from long ago and far away. We had a fun time catching up on our kids, our spouses, our work. But I left worried. Toni (not her real name, of course) had experienced some scary financial reverses. In the months since our visit, I thought about it occasionally, but what could I could do?
Then a couple of weeks ago her name came to my mind during my morning prayer time. I prayed for her, specifically for her finances.
A week later I sent her an email, saying I had prayed for her and asking how things were going. She replied she had just been offered a dream job. In addition a fantastic business opportunity had just opened up for her. When I checked the dates, it looked like her job offer came the day after I prayed.
And I said to myself, “I should pray for my friends more often.”
Then, there's my friend Jack (not his real name, of course). He faces daunting challenges at work and at home and with his health. His name comes to me in prayer very often. I don't know why. Over the last couple of years, I have prayed for Jack more than for any other individual. When we communicate—and it's nearly always by email. I hardly ever reach him by phone.--he thanks me for my concern. Thanks me for my praying. But the craziness at work never lets up. The challenges at home get no easier. His health is not improved, as far as I can tell.
(I stopped after writing the above paragraph and prayed for him again.)
So let's talk about intercessory prayer.
Jesus did not teach specifically about intercessory prayer. But, of course, he had a lot to say about prayer in general. And his teachings certainly apply to praying for other people.
So let's look at what Jesus said in Matthew 6, in his famous “Sermon on the Mount.”
Jesus cautioned against two common errors in thinking about prayer.
First, prayer is not for show. We don't pray so that other people can see us pray. Prayer is not to be used like a flag. 'See, I'm a Christian. I pray.'
“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to pray in public places to be seen by men.” Matthew 6:5.
One application of this principle is this: Don't try to impress on God how important getting your desired answer is because of the impact it will have on others. I've seen people put prayer requests on line, with the idea that if thousands of people are praying for some particular outcome, then if God grants their prayer, it will be a great witness to God's power.
As far as I can tell, God does not respond to that kind of pressure. When Jesus healed people, he asked them to keep quiet about it. God doesn't need publicity.
A second error Jesus warned against: Getting more petitions filed with heaven will affect God's decision. Not! Jesus put it this way: “When you pray, do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them.” Matthew 6:7
Circulating a prayer request on line and getting thousands of people to join in our petition may comfort our hearts and give us encouragement. It will not influence God's action. Prayer is not a political campaign. God doesn't do polls or focus groups before making his decision.
Repeatedly, Jesus summarized the heart of his teaching on prayer with assurance that God knows what we need before we ask and our needs matter to him. So, ask. Jesus invites you to ask. Ask in confidence that God is aware of the situation and is interested in you and the person you are praying for.
Jesus then offered a model prayer.
Our Father in heaven
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For yours in the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
This prayer highlights a couple of different purposes and effects of prayer.
When we pray “Our Father,” regularly we are training ourselves to trust in God's benevolence and capability. “Father” in Jesus' teachings is always a rich, warm term. By giving us this model, Jesus is teaching us to remodel our vision of God. God is good. God cares about you and the person you are praying for. God is strong. He is able to deal with whatever difficulty you bring to him.
When we pray “Our Father,” we are affirming that the person we are praying for is also part of God's family. God loves that person as much as you do.
(If “father” as a metaphor does not evoke in your mind images of competence, compassion, wisdom and security, then use other metaphors that help you relate to God in the way Jesus meant to teach when he used the word, “Father.” Other biblical metaphors for God include shepherd, mother hen, king, nursing mother, mother eagle, doctor, friend, lover, husband. Metaphors in our culture might include guard dog, fireman, mama bear, lifeguard, coach.)
Praying in the light of Jesus' words, “Our Father” shapes our hearts. It increases my compassion. It raises my awareness of beauty and goodness in the world because I see people through the eyes of a parent. Especially, if I'm praying for someone who annoys me, this kind of praying will change my vision. Instead of seeing the person only as an annoyance, I will also see them as the beloved of God.
If I pray in this way often enough, I will come to see even people I strongly disagree with, people who are truly evil, with affection and compassion instead of with disgust and hatred. My view of the world will be the opposite of all the talk show hosts who specialize in making other people look like idiots, perverts and criminals. Instead I will see people as the treasures of God.
Then our actions actions will be motivated by love instead of hate.
When we pray over and over 'Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,' we begin to see people and situations more and more through the eyes of God. We still see human brokenness, but we see broken people as children of God rather than as children of the devil. We dream of their restoration rather than their elimination.
Jesus invites us to pray, 'Give us today our daily bread,' teaching us that it is appropriate to pray about down-to-earth, nitty gritty stuff. And not just for ourselves.
God, my friend needs money, needs a new job, needs help with their health. We pray about these things because our hearts cry out for help. And we pray because Jesus invited us to.
Note, when we pray like this we are unabashedly asking for God to intervene in our lives. We want God to take action on our behalf. To help us. To bless us. To send good things our way. We are not thinking about changes that need to be made in our lives. We are thinking about changes we hope God will make in the way the world works.
Let's be clear: Jesus invites us to make these requests.
We ask God to do something, to take action, to change on our behalf. To help us with things like paying bills, finding healing for our pain and illness and dealing with the outrageous temptations and provocations of life.
To come back to my two stories.
When I spend time in prayer every morning, I am conditioning myself to see the world as a good place. Instead of overflowing with rage at politicians, Muslims, the French, the crazy people who cut me off on my way to work, the boss, I am suffused with gratitude for the good things in my life. I don't live in south Sudan or Somalia or Darfur. I have friends. I can see beauty. I can hear music. I can taste curried zucchini.
I feel compassion for Toni and Jack. And all the members and friends of North Hill. And the people of Windworks and Gig Harbor Adventist Fellowship. I cultivate appreciation for the holy zeal that motivates clergy whose specific opinions I disagree with.
I do not know what effect my prayer for Jack is having on his world. Would his world be worse than it is if I were not praying? I don't know. I do know that when his name comes to mind during my prayer time, he becomes important to me. My heart is drawn to him and his family.
Truth be told, I don't really know that my prayer had any impact on the life of my friend Toni. I'm sure the people who offered her the job were working on filling the position long before the Thursday morning when I prayed. But the coming of good things into her life at the time I was praying increases my gratitude to God for his compassion.
So, what to do?
Pray. Do it. Take a few minutes every morning. Or if you're a night person, do it at night. Make some time, not necessarily a lot of time, for deliberate, focused prayer for your children, your co-workers, your friends, your spouse. When you're driving and someone cuts you off, pray for that person. Pray for the stress in their life that makes them drive that way. Pray for the immediate crisis they are facing that day that made me have to drive aggressively.
Who knows, it may lead to a change in the world for yourself and for others. Good things. Money. Health. Happier relationships. Less stress at work.
We do know that it will lead to change in you. If you will make time daily to devote some time to prayer as Jesus taught it, you will become more compassionate, less angry, less worried, more confident.
Paul wrote this about prayer: Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thess. 5:16ff.
If you want to be less angry, more hopeful. Pray for people.
If you know people who could use some divine help. Pray for them.
Do it in the morning. Or at night. While you're driving, while you're waiting for the bus or the train.
Just do it. It will lead to joy.
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12 comments:
Thank you for the wonderful prayers you have said for me and for my family. I have never gotten a job except that people have been praying for me. Yes - I do believe that our prayers make the world better.
Does intercessory prayer give God permission to work in others' lives who have not asked or even wanted to ask God for help in their lives?
Barbara,
It seems to me there are 2 distinct issues in your question.
1. Does intercessory prayer work by creating a permission (a legal basis for intervention according to some rules that govern God's engagement with the world)? We can ask the question in a more general way: How or why can my prayer for someone else affect their life?
2. Does intercessory prayer "work" differently if the "targets" of our prayers are open to God and his help?
My answers:
1. I've heard some very illustrious Adventist preachers and theologians speak of prayer in this way. At this stage in my life, I pray, but I'm content to leave to others the explanations of just how prayer affects change (or not).
2. I can't think of any Bible story off hand that illustrates praying for someone who is opposed to God and then tells what happened as a result of that prayer.
Jesus prayed for his crucifiers, but we don't know the effect of his prayer in their lives. Jesus taught us to pray for those who mistreat us, but he didn't tell us what our prayers would do to these tormentors. (He did indicate that prayer would bring US WHO PRAY into deep congruence with the character of God.) Matthew 5:43-48.
In this post are questions and comments submitted during church. I'll respond to each in a separate post.
A. If someone prays for me, do I have to have a measure of faith for it to be effective?
B. Is it beneficial to kneel when we pray? Does God hear our prayer more when we kneel?
C. Many prayers are answered. Many more are not. It seems like to Bod, the outcome is not as important as the process. Why else would he heal some and not heal others, for example?
D. How do you fast?
E. An old man heard a boy pray, "Dear God, please make Philadelphia the capital of Pennsylvania. The man asked why that prayer? The boy said, "that's the answer I put on my geography test."
F. Why do we pray in the name of Jesus Christ? Is it necessary? What about in the name of or to the Holy Spirit?
G. If it's God's will, why do we need to pray?
A. If someone prays for me, do I have to have a measure of faith for it to be effective?
McL: "A measure of faith" is not always necessary for God to act. My favorite example of this is Jesus' raising the dead son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7). Obviously, in this situation, neither the boy (who was dead), the mother (who was grieving) or the crowd (who were carrying the body to the cemetery to bury) had any faith that the boy was going to be resurrected. Jesus just interrupted the funeral and resurrected him!
So God CAN act in the absence of faith on the part of the person who is receiving God's beneficence.
However, the Bible talks repeatedly about the value of faith. So if we wish to optimize our openness to God's involvement in our lives, then obviously cultivating faith is a smart move.
B. Is it beneficial to kneel when we pray? Does God hear our prayer more when we kneel?
The Bible does not prescribe a specific posture for prayer. It describes people praying standing with their hands held to heaven, kneeling, prostrate on their faces.
Our bodies express our hearts, so the "best posture" will vary with the nature of the prayer. If we are exalting God in adoration and praise. Standing and raising our hands will help us prayer with our entire being.
If we are crushed with disappointment or remorse or regret. We may find that lying prostrate (on our faces) is the "best" posture for praying--best in the sense of having our bodies say the same thing our hearts and words are saying.
If we are coming to God in regular prayer, kneeling can help express our reverence and respect. It is a posture that expresses both submission and confidence.
For extended conversational prayer, where we are dialoguing with God, sitting may be the best posture.
Again, I suggest the bottom line is: experiment and find out what works best for you. There is no single, clear command in Scripture about one "best posture" for praying.
C. Many prayers are answered. Many more are not. It seems like to Bod, the outcome is not as important as the process. Why else would he heal some and not heal others, for example?
McL: First, I apologize for the typo. "Bod" should read "God."
I like the direction this comment points us. Praying is engagement with God. That engagement is far more important than any particular response to a request that I make of God. Many long-time Christians report that as they mature, they do less and less asking for specific benefits. For them prayer increasingly is about taking time to be aware of God instead of beseeching God.
D. How do you fast?
McL: Fasting means to forgo some routine pleasure. Most commonly, it refers to abstaining from food.
When we go without food, naturally we get hungry. When we are fasting, we then allow the hunger in our gut to remind us constantly through the day of our hunger for God. We respond to the hunger in our gut by praying, by continually throughout the day turning our minds toward God and voicing the desire that prompted the fast. Commonly, people will fast when they are seeking guidance from God in a particular area of life. Sometimes people fast when they are seeking victory or some habitual sin. Other times people might fast when they are undertaking a specific mission of intercession--praying for a son or daughter, or someone else who needs special help.
The best book on this topic I've ever read is the chapter on fasting in Richard Foster's book, titled "Prayer." In fact, i regard this as the best book on prayer I've ever read.
E. An old man heard a boy pray, "Dear God, please make Philadelphia the capital of Pennsylvania. The man asked why that prayer? The boy said, "that's the answer I put on my geography test."
McL: It's a childish prayer. And it makes a point. Sometimes, we just want God to arrange the universe for our convenience, something God is not obligated to do!
Since the most frequent metaphor for God in the Bible is "father," that suggests that God is not put off by our childishness. Still, let's not boast about our childishness and immaturity. Being silly in spiritual life may be tolerated by God (fortunately), but God calls us higher.
Prayer is not a substitute for thinking, study, a job, planning, medicine, saving, exercising, showing up at work on time. God does invite us to connect with him in prayer as we are doing all these things and when these things fail through no fault of our own or because we've screwed up.
F. Why do we pray in the name of Jesus Christ? Is it necessary? What about in the name of or to the Holy Spirit?
McL: In chapters 14-16 in the Gospel of John, Jesus repeatedly refers to praying and asking "in my name." So Christians have developed the tradition of ending prayers by saying "in Jesus name. Amen."
It's not a bad tradition. It is important to recognize that there are many other places in the NT where the subject of prayer is addressed, including the teachings of Jesus in Matthew, Mark and Luke. This formula "in Jesus name" is not taught in these other passages. In the "Lord's Prayer" where Jesus explicitly gave his disciples a model prayer, "in Jesus' name" does not appear.
So the formula is not required by the Bible for effective praying. The underlying truth of "in Jesus name" is that effective prayer is linked with aligning ourselves with the teaching and example of Jesus. When we line up with Jesus we are lining up with the priorities of the kingdom of heaven. So we can expect our prayers to be associated with the way things really work.
Praying to the Holy Spirit cannot be forbidden. If the Holy Spirit is divine, then it is not idolatrous to pray to the Spirit. However, this is clearly a departure from the practice and emphasis in the NT.
Just use a search engine of some kind to check how much specific counsel there is in the NT directing believers to pray to the Spirit or in the name of the Spirit.
G. If it's God's will, why do we need to pray?
McL: This is the hardest question of all. I did not do it justice in church. (And probably won't here, either.)
The first answer is, "I don't know." If something is God's will, do I really think that he can't get it done without my prayer? Even if prayer is required, if I fail to pray, God could just tell someone else to pray.
A somewhat smart Alec response is the one I gave in church: If you really believe everything is done according to God's will, that would mean you have reached such a mature and tranquil spiritual state, you don't need to pray. We pray out of our discontent. Things are not right. We want God to DO SOMETHING. The reason we pray is because we don't really think the world is running according to God's plan. So we pray, asking God to fix things, to do his job better. To get with it!
Another response from masters of praying is that our praying is, in fact, part of what needs to happen for things to go according to God's plan. This view argues that people are not mere bit actors in the drama. What we do matters. Our actions, our attitudes, our prayers actually shape the course of human history. They affect--okay, let me state it bluntly--they shape, at least in part, what God does.
In this view, God's will is seen at two levels. God's overarching will, his dream for earth, is harmony, peace, beauty, love, goodness, compassion, generosity, etc. However, he does not directly tinker with the cause and effect pattern of the world. Rather, he acts through various agencies, the most important of which are people. When we pray, we are somehow participating in bringing about the actualization of God's will. In this view God is utterly omnipotent or omniscient because he does not (cannot?) act directly to bring about everything he desires. And he does not (cannot?) know absolutely all outcomes because we affect those outcomes and he does not predetermine our actions.
Oops. In the previous post I left out one of the "not's." The sentence should read, "In this view God is NOT utterly omnipotent or omniscient because he does not (cannot?) act directly to bring about everything he desires.
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