Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text is the Epistle lesson from 1 Timothy 2.
Let me begin by saying if you are scratching your head at these readings, wondering what they really mean, you’re in good company. These are difficult to understand! Amos has these words about buying and selling grain on the Sabbath that seems to commend dishonest marketing. The Gospel reading has a parable where it seems Jesus commends a thief for indirectly stealing from his master. Then the second half of the Epistle lesson seems to be putting women “in their place,” so to speak. If these readings leave you a little uncomfortable, may I invite you to join us for Bible study after church. We’re going to work through these lessons together, so we can have a conversation, give and take, about what these difficult readings mean.
Prayer is a gift of God, both given to and commanded of His people, for the good and well-being of all people.
All people, without boundary, without exclusion. That’s certainly counter-cultural, isn’t it? Consider the culture around us. Conventional wisdom says it’s us versus them – politically, socially, economically, whatever other adverb you want to attach to it. We’re so used to having the proverbial line in the sand, and having to take a stand on one side or the other. We cherry pick who our neighbor is based on these things. Because that’s what’s all around us, what we see Monday thru Friday, what we hear all around us, the danger, the temptation is that, then, carries over into our lives as people of God. Our Old Adam and Old Eve also take sides and chose whom we will pray for and about.
There’s a difference, praying “for”
verses “about” someone. To pray for someone is to put yourself in their shoes,
to see yourself in their place in life, their sitz im Leben, and to pray with
regard to them and their need. Praying for someone is an act of compassion,
mercy and grace towards them, asking God’s blessing on that person. In other
words, the direction of praying for someone is away from you and towards him or
her. Praying about someone is the opposite. It’s standing on a soapbox, placing
judgement and criticism with a litany of complaints. Rather than imploring
God’s grace and mercy, it’s grumbling and moaning about everything that’s wrong
about that person. Praying about someone is really praying towards ourselves,
as if we were co-equal with God, issuing the declaration to Him of what’s wrong
over there and what’s good and right here in and with us.
Instead of hoisting our list of
grievances about people up the Festivus pole, Paul urges that we pray for all
people, carrying them to the cross of Christ. It’s easy to pray for some
people. It’s easy to pray for those who love us, the people who think and act
like us, our family members, our friends, our church family, our classmates,
our coworkers with whom we eat lunch and socialize on the weekend. But, that
little, three-letter word, “all,” all people, is not so exclusive. “All” means
just that, and is inclusive of those with whom we disagree, those whom we may
socially, politically, economically, and adverbially dislike, even those who
may desire our destruction and harm. Pray for them, Paul says – not only for
things like health, peace, a good job, a joyful home. Pray for their very
salvation. For Christians, pray that they remain strong and steadfast in the
faith of Jesus as Savior. For those who do not yet believe, that they repent of
their sins against God and man, that they come to faith in Jesus as Lord and
Savior, that they serve others with the love and compassion of Jesus.
A remarkable thing happens when
you pray for people – especially those with whom you struggle and those who
desire to hurt or harm you. As you begin praying for that person, the Old Adam
and Old Eve gives way to the Baptized child of God as God’s Spirit fills them
with the mercy and compassion of Christ, who Himself prayed for those who hurt
and persecuted Him. The feelings of dislike, anger, resentment, and fear are
replaced with Christlike peace, harmony, and true desire for the wellbeing of
that person. Be on guard: the Old Adam will try to bob to the surface,
realizing he is losing ground, wanting to restore those old feelings. This is
the life of repentance, even while continuing to pray for those very people
again and again. You start to see them less as enemies and more as people for
whom Christ died, for whom Christ rose, whom Christ wishes to see restored and
welcomed to the Kingdom. You see them as
people, whom you pray will join with you in the resurrection of all flesh,
standing at the foot of the Lamb in His Kingdom that has no end. You see them
as people whose totality of sins are forgiven by Christ, and if He forgives all
of their sins, if His love is great enough to love and rescue them, then you,
too, see them as people to be loved and cared for. Thus, you pray for people.
Paul specifically names kings and
those in positions of power. In our culture, we would say pray for our
president, elected officials, and those in positions of authority, from your
HOA, to your church, to your grandkids’ soccer coach. Easy to do when it’s your
guy, your gal, your party in office. Harder to do when you disagree with the
official and when they do things with which you vehemently disagree. Years ago,
the Sunday after the presidential election, we prayed for the president-elect
by name. From the back of the sanctuary, I heard a literal, guttural groan. We
continued to pray for that president and I continued to hear complaints about
how I could pray for “that man.” When the
political worms turned, so did the grumbles in the pews – other people
grumbled, then, we prayed for “that man.” When Paul wrote this, the emperor of
the Roman Empire was the infamous Nero who sent countless Christians to their
death because they refused to apostatize and deny Jesus. Pray for him, Paul
says, pray for Nero’s repentance, that he turns from his scurrilous, murderous,
vengeful ways, that he denies his claim to be divine, that he comes to the
knowledge of the truth of Jesus as the Son of God, that Nero becomes an
instrument of compassion and mercy, that the Gospel be given free course, that
the Empire may be a place of peace and harmony for citizens, and that Nero,
too, might join with us in celebration in the resurrection of all flesh. Picture
that! It gives a very different idea of what we heard with the parables of the
lost last Sunday: not a lost sheep or a lost coin that caused celebration, but
the celebration of formerly lost and heathen kings and leaders who were led to
repentance and faith in part because of our prayers! Lord, have mercy on those
who govern us!
Even while we look to the
celebration of our own Easter when Christ returns, we also pray for peaceful
and quiet lives now, this side of heaven. That’s interesting, too. Think of all
the things we pray for: healthy bodies, good jobs, for the right spouse for our
sons and daughters, for the safety of our students, for food to eat and homes
to live in. Paul is expanding our prayers beyond the ordinary to include
peaceful and quiet lives. Peace in the horizontal, earthly realm, is a
reflection – albeit an imperfect one - of the vertical, heavenly peace we already
have through Christ’s death and resurrection. We pray for peaceful and
peace-filled lives for the safety of all people, for our physical, mental, and
spiritual wellbeing. We yearn for the day that anger, discord, and violence is
gone, replaced by harmonious relationships with God being glorified in all
things. Pray for quiet lives. Don’t think so much about volume, loud vs quiet, but
along the lines of calm and tranquil as opposed to disturbed and chaotic. How
well we know the latter: family calendars that demonstrate the stress we feel
in our minds and in our bodies. Too, the prayer for quietude isn’t just for
women to pray; it’s for all of God’s people, men and women, to pray for peace
and quietude for all people, men and women, as a blessing of humility,
attentiveness, and faithfulness this side of heaven.
Like I said, Prayer is a gift of
God, both given to and commanded of His people, for the good and well-being of
all people. We model that at St. Paul’s, making prayer an integral part of our
day, praying in various times and places. This includes after lunch when we
pray together, as a school. Last week, schools across the state were instructed
to hold a moment of silence to reflect on Charlie Kirk and his death. We
exercised our Christian freedom and decided that instead of a moment of
silence, we would pray, and not just for Mr. Kirk but for all people. So, Tuesday,
as we prepared for that post-lunch, corporate prayer, we first talked about
people who are hurting in lots of different ways.
Perhaps you heard about this; I
think there was some misunderstanding about what and why we did this. It’s easy
to think about those closest to us or those in the spotlight. Tuesday, we
deliberately expanded that circle. It wasn’t about red or blue, donkey or
elephant, left or right. We talked about students and teachers who are sick,
our school families and neighbors around the school who are struggling with
life, those of us who have family members in the military and potentially in
harm’s way. Then, we prayed out loud for these people who are hurting and
struggling and needing our prayers, pausing for a moment to let kids and staff
silently pray for people whom they knew. In our basement cafeteria, offered
simply and without fanfare, spoken aloud or in the quietude of our hearts,
those prayers for all people were carried to our Heavenly Father through Christ
our Lord.
More than anything else, our
greatest take-away from last week might be this: that St. Paul’s continue to
practice praying for all people, regardless of who they are or what the need,
so that, when asked about it, students, teachers, and families can simply say,
“That’s what we do as God’s people. We pray.”
No comments:
Post a Comment